Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau

Good morning. A little technical difficulty, but you got the back end of it with the little music.

We've been waking our way through the book of Genesis. We're going to continue

doing that in a series that we're calling From Abraham to Joseph. This is part four.

It's going to come from, get this, Genesis chapters 26, 27, and part of 28.

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

That's a lot. And it's got a fancy title of Isaac, Rebecca, Esau,

and Jacob. It's a family that we have.

Isaac is the son of Abraham. Both of them come from a line that we normally

call patriarchs, the patriarchs of God.

He is using these men to build the nation of Israel.

Often we think of these patriarchs as the pillars of faith, and rightfully so,

because often that is how they are described from the Bible.

By faith, Abraham was called and he obeyed.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. These are verses that we see in the

Bible of them being faithful men, but they are not perfect men.

There are times throughout the book of Genesis that they and their families

look like they belong more on a reality TV show than in the Bible,

and that's going to be the case for today.

So get on the edge of your seat. This is a dicey little family story going on.

We are going to find tons and tons of just debauchery stuff.

Favoritism, jealousy, manipulation, deception.

I'm talking like the cold-hearted, bold-faced lying kind of deception going on.

Stealing, blasphemy, poor parenting, marriage, selfishness, and sibling hatred.

Like the kind of hatred where you don't want to just hurt your brother, you want to kill him.

Like that is the story that's coming to us this morning as a matter of fact

i looked through this this chapter as i was looking through it and i said whoa

they break a lot of the ten commandments like if we put the ten commandments

up here you would see right here they break one three five,

almost six eight nine and ten just in these three chapters.

That's a lot going on. But get this. This is the family that God is going to

use to accomplish his plans.

Like that's the silver lining. That despite all the chaos, all the strife,

besides this family being flawed and fractured, God has a redemptive plan.

And the plan goes through this family, dysfunction and all.

So I want us to check this out. We're going to start by doing chapter 26 by itself.

Chapter 26 is not the primary focus for today. If I had to give just chapter

26 a title, I would call it Like Father, Like Son.

The chapter nearly mirrors the

exact same happenings of Isaac from Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

So we got Abraham having things happen in chapter 12. Isaac things are happening

in chapter 26, and they are so, so close.

I'm not going to read the entire chapter. I'm going to have us go through and

just look at the similarities of this chapter.

If you want to hear a sermon on chapter 26, just go to the church archive and

listen to Genesis chapter 12, and you will hear a sermon on Genesis 26.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Basically, all you need to do is change the name of Isaac and Abraham around, and you've got it.

Look at this chart that I've made for us here

of a father like father like son in both

of these chapters same exact things are happening

God promises land and offspring and blessings

both of these both of these guys are told this promise from God in these chapters

both of these guys then endure a famine like it's not just because you get this

great promise and offspring and blessing from God that you don't have any trouble

that's not true at all for their lives they have this famine and because of that famine,

they have to move to a new area.

If you remember, if you're around for the first part of Genesis,

you'll know that when they did move to the new area, both of them then lie about

their wife being their sister.

The text is very clear that both of them married beautiful women.

And instead of being a good protector, a good godly man watching out for their

wife, they end up being a little bit of a coward and go, hey,

babe, tell them you're my sister so they don't kill me.

They were fearful that they would take them for their own wife and out with

the guy. And so that happened in both of these chapters.

As a matter of fact, Abraham, he did this twice already.

And Isaac now just follows suit and he does the same thing in chapter 26.

Both of that, then that led to them being rebuked by a pagan leader.

In Abraham's case, the land, the Pharaoh had a bunch of plagues come upon him.

And he's like, he finds out why, because he took Abraham's wife.

It was a big mess. And then for Isaac, they find out Abimelech,

the leader, is looking out of his window, and he looks down and he sees Isaac

caressing Rebekah, his wife,

like, hey, that ain't the right way for a guy, brother, sister to act.

And he puts it all together, and it's a big mess going on. Both of these are

happening in the chapter.

At the same time, they're both acquiring great wealth, great possessions,

a lot of livestock, servants being added to them while they're in these lands right here.

And then ultimately we do see throughout these two chapters,

they are both worshiping God. They're building altars.

All of that is happening. The biggest thing probably to take out of both chapter

12 and chapter 26 is this, that both chapters, they have the central theme of God keeps his promises.

That is the underlining tone of what is happening in those chapters.

The bottom line is God will do what he says and what God says he will do.

That's chapter 26. And now I want us to go to this story that we find here in

chapters 27 and 28 with Isaac and his family.

Let me give you the background a little bit of it. We've been working through it in previous Sundays.

Despite having this tremendous promise and blessing from God,

Isaac family is anything but a bunch of happy campers when Genesis 27 and 28 comes around.

A lot has changed since Genesis 24 and 25.

Despite Isaac and Rebecca getting

married in an almost too good to be true story. Do you remember that?

Abraham's servant travels hundreds of miles away, and then he prays for the

right girl to come along, and he asks God that that girl would be a girl that,

God, I want this girl to come,

and I want her to be willing to offer to give me a drink and my camels a drink,

and he's marrying this as a sign to be, this will be the girl that's going to marry Isaac.

And no sooner than the man says, amen, boop, there is Rebecca standing there

offering him, sir, may I water your camels?

It's an amazing little story that's happened right there. It's a love story.

Truly, don't you think Hallmark Channel would just have a payday with this kind of a story going on?

And then in Genesis 25, Isaac and Rebekah, they're wanting a family.

But Rebekah is having difficult getting pregnant, which is also another similarity

that Isaac had with his father Abraham.

Both of their wives had a hard time getting pregnant. Isaac knows that prayer

works. That's how he landed his wife.

So Isaac prays for Rebekah.

God answers the prayer. You're going to have a baby. More than a baby,

you're going to have twins.

It's a rough pregnancy. Rebecca is feeling like a punching bag in her belly.

Far more activity than the normal kicking and moving around of a baby.

So much so that she has this extreme intense pain.

She's experiencing this all through the pregnancy. And so she says,

God, what in the world is going on in there?

And God replies with this in Genesis 25 and 23.

And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb. Two nations.

And these nations apparently don't like each other, even before they are born.

Literally, it is as if there is a war going on in there.

And so these two people will come from you. They will be separated.

One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.

Ah, God is up to something here. Before they are even born, Esau and Jacob are

going at it with each other, and it's not by accident.

God has a plan. The older Esau is going to serve the younger Jacob.

And then we fast forward several years.

Esau has a favorite.

Excuse me, Isaac has a favorite, and it's Esau.

His appearance, he's kind of red-colored skin and hairy everywhere, like fur coat hairy.

I think sometimes in the Bible, we don't get a lot of descriptions of people.

I think there are some times that we just get a little bit of a description,

and it kind of describes some of the personality traits.

He's an outdoor guy, but mentally, I'm thinking, like, okay,

I have seen some guys with some hairy chest and hairy backs in my time of my life.

Thankfully no ladies like that but like fur

coat is his description that that's

next level harry and because he was a skilled hunter he was a skilled nimrod

and because he made isaac his favorite meals esau was his favorite that's the

description we have but rebecca also has her favorite.

The other twin, Jacob, was her favorite.

Jacob seems to be, he seems to be a little bit more of a mama's boy.

Maybe you can relate to any of that.

He is described, again, being described here as a smooth-skinned guy.

Again, I think there is some imagery there to describe what his character is

like. He's a slippery kind of deceiving kind of guy.

And Jacob, he's not so much into hunting.

He's not out and about on these excursions. He just likes to hang out right

at the house. It's more of a homebody.

And Isaac and Rebecca for years now have been modeling poor parenting skills.

And what we're about to see is that this favoritism is about to fracture their

family like never before.

Last week, Mario explained how Esau despised his birthright and how he so easily

and flippantly he sold it to his younger brother Jacob.

It was perhaps the very first visible sign when he sold that birthright that

this pre-decided plan for the older to serve the younger was starting to unfold.

Now, if you remember the birthright, it was given to the firstborn.

When a father would die, the firstborn, he would assume the honor,

the responsibility, and the authority of the family, and he'd be given double

the inheritance as the other sons.

It's odd that Esau didn't care more about the birthright.

But for a bowl of soup, a bowl of stew and some bread, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.

And in doing so, he traded the long-term family spiritual and material inheritance

for an immediate but temporal gratification.

That sounds like one extremely overpriced bowl of soup for what Esau gave up.

So that's the review of what has happened, and now we are ready.

Genesis 26, the last two verses, verses 34 and 35, it says, When Esau was 40

years old, he took as his wives Judith, daughter of Barry, the Hittite,

and Basemath, daughter of Elon, the Hittite.

They made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

Esau marrying these Hittite women is another confirmation of Esau despising

his birthright, and it further removes him from the birthright picture.

And what happens here, verse 35 states it very clearly, they made life bitter for his parents.

It is not easy being a parent when other people or other things are competing

for your children's hearts in a negative way.

And Esau here, he is giving way.

He is allowing his life to be influenced, indoctrinated by pagan God worship

by marrying these women.

And it takes a significant toll on Isaac and Rebecca.

So just real quick, it really matters who you marry.

Like the first consideration, number one consideration, the number one box that

needs to be checked is, does this guy, does this girl love Jesus?

Does he, does she follow God and his word? That's got to be at the top of the list.

Chapter 27. The years rolled along. And here's what we read, verse 1.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see.

He called his older son Esau and said to him, my son, and he answered, here I am.

He said, look, I am old and do not know the day of my death.

Take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me.

Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me so that I can bless you before I die.

It seems Isaac is on his deathbed. But get this, if you do a little research,

the man's going to live for another 40 plus years.

Do you remember how Esau seemed a little over-exaggerated when he came in from

the field? I'm about to starve. Give me that cup of soup.

Remember that story right there? Maybe he learned some of this exaggeration

from his daddy because 40 years he's going to live.

He's basically asking for his last meal and then he's going to give his last will and testament.

And he wants to give this blessing to Esau before he dies.

Wait a minute. What is Isaac doing?

Doesn't he remember? Surely he knew what God's plan was.

Surely he knew what God told Rebekah, that the younger is going to be in charge

here, the older is going to serve Jacob.

It seems as if he has his own plan. It seems that Isaac's favoritism for Esau

has grown so strong that he is willing to say,

I've got a plan better than God's plan.

Bad idea. Verse five. Now, Rebecca was listening to what Isaac said to his son, to his son Esau.

So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in,

Rebecca said to her son, Jacob, listen, I heard your father talking with your

brother Esau. Just wait one second.

Are you catching the pronouns that she is using?

Isaac said to his son, and she said to her son.

This favoritism is so deeply rooted. It's as if they each have their own child,

and it's not their children together.

Now, I don't know. Perhaps she's eavesdropping and spying. Maybe she casually

overheard the conversation. We don't know.

But she goes on to tell Jacob that this is what Isaac said.

He said, verse 7, bring me the game and make a delicious meal for me to eat

so that I can bless you in the Lord's presence before I die.

Now obey every order I give you, my son.

Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into

a delicious meal for your father, the kind he loves.

Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.

Rebecca has her own plan, and she goes into this full scheming,

conniving mode for her favorite twin, Jacob.

She knows what God has promised. She knows what God wants, and she takes the

matters into her own hands and comes up with this elaborate but deceptive plan.

Verse 11, Jacob answered Rebekah, his mother, look, my brother Esau is a hairy

man, but I am a man with smooth skin.

Suppose my father touches me, then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and

bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.

His mother said to him, your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.

So he went and he got the goats. He brought them to his mother and his mother

made the delicious food his father loved.

Then Rebecca took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the

house, and he had her younger son Jacob wear them.

She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part on his neck.

Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made,

gave it to her son, Jacob. Wait, wait, wait.

Is this plan going to work? It sounds sketchy.

Wild game is going to taste like domesticated goats?

Like, really, how is that possible? I was thinking, maybe if it was chicken,

because everything tastes like chicken, maybe that would work.

But wild game, probably venison, deer meat is going to taste the same as a goat?

I don't know. And give Jacob credit. He was quick to point out,

Like, mom, my skin is smooth.

Esau, he's a hairy, wild animal kind of guy. And we're going to rig up and put

some fur on my hands and on my neck, and that's going to work.

That's going to pass the test.

Mom, Isaac might be, dad might be blind. He's not stupid.

Verse 18.

When he came to his father, he said, my son. And he answered, here I am.

Who are you, my son? Jacob replied to his father. I am Esau, your firstborn.

Lie. I have done as you have told me.

Lie. Please sit up and eat some of my game.

Lie. So that you may bless me.

But Isaac said to his son, how did you ever find it so quickly? my son?

Like, it sounds like he just walked right out the door, and there it was.

He replied, because the Lord God worked it out for me.

Oh, he just takes the trump card and puts God into the picture.

Not only is it a lie, this is straight up blasphemy, to take God's name in vain.

Now, I realize often we think of taking God's name as like a cussing thing,

and certainly it is. We see it all in our culture.

It's hard to watch anything, TV, movies, where God's name is being taken in vain.

But anytime, anytime God's name is misused or his reputation is misaligned,

that's taking God's name in vain.

This is blasphemy.

Jacob misuses God's name, misuses his character when he says, God worked it out for me.

So often, especially with the sin of lying, it goes from lying to lying to more

lying, and they just stack on top of each other.

This is coming so much like everyday life for us.

Verse 21, then Isaac said to Jacob, please come closer so I can touch you, my son.

Jacob was right. He's like, see, mom, I told you he was going to do this.

Are you really, my son? Esau or not.

So Isaac isn't sold on what he is hearing, and he's got bad eyes.

He can't see him to help him.

Verse 22, so Jacob comes closer to his father Isaac.

When he touched him, he said, the voice is the voice of Jacob,

but the hands are the hands of Esau.

He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau.

So he blessed him. Again, he asked, are you really my son Esau and he replied

I am lie but it works Jacob passes the touch test,

then he said serve me and let me eat some of my son's game so that I can bless

you Jacob brought it to him and he ate he brought him wine and he drank then

his father Isaac said to him,

please come closer and kiss me, my son.

So he came closer and kissed him.

When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said, ah,

the smell of my son is like the smell of the field that the Lord has blessed.

No way. First he lies and he passes the touch test and now he passes the smell test.

Verse 28 is the blessing. May God give to you from the dew of the sky and from

the richness of the land an abundance of grain and new wine.

May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you.

Be master over your brothers. May your mother's sons bow down to you.

Those who curse you will be cursed and those who bless you will be blessed.

First, Isaac believes that he has blessed his favorite son, Esau.

He probably thinks, I pulled one over. God, I outsmarted him. Verse 30.

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac.

His brother Esau arrived from the hunt. Uh-oh.

He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father.

Then he said to his father, let

my father get up and eat some of his son's game so that you may bless me.

But his father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am Esau, your firstborn son.

Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. who

is it then he said who hunted game and brought it to

me i ate it all before you came in and i

blessed him indeed he will be blessed isaac realizes that what he has blessed

cannot be unblessed it is official it is as god has said it would be from the

start that the older will serve the younger.

And so we have here all the covenant blessing that God has already given to

Abraham and now to Isaac.

And moving forward, it is going to Jacob and not Esau.

Verse 34, when Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with a loud and bitter

cry and said to his father, bless me too, my father.

But he replied, your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.

So he said, isn't he rightly named Jacob?

Jacob, his name means heel catcher. It means a surplanter.

It is one who gains an advantage through cleverness. If you're a Jacob out there, there's your name.

For he has cheated me twice now. He took my birthright and look,

now he has taken my blessing. Then he asked, have you saved a blessing for me?

So some wonder if this blessing is different than the birthright,

or perhaps it's packaged together and they're the same thing. I'm not sure.

Here Esau seems to make it sound like as if they're two different things,

but later in Hebrews, they seem like they are the same thing.

I'm not positive, but it does seem here what's happening is that a blessing

could be given regardless of the birthright.

That seems to be what Esau is wanting here.

But what is clear, it seems that the greater blessing is going to be given to

the one who holds the rights to the birthright.

So verse 37, Isaac answered Esau, look, I have made him a master over you,

have given him all his relatives as his servants and has sustained him with grain and new wine.

What then can I do for you, my son?

And Esau said to his father, do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father.

And Esau wept loudly.

Then his father, Isaac, answered him, Look, your dwelling place will be away

from the richness of the land, away from the dew of the sky above.

You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother.

But when you rebel, you will break his yoke from your neck. That's the blessing.

The ground will be rocky and dry, hard to harvest.

Your people will fight, living and dying by the sword.

You will serve your younger brother and his people, but not forever.

There'll be a time where you can break free.

That looks like a completely different kind of blessing than Isaac gave to Jacob.

Can you predict Esau's response?

Verse 41, Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him.

And Esau determined in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are approaching.

Now, he didn't know it was going to be 40 years.

Then I will kill my brother Jacob. When the words for older son were reported

to Rebecca, she summoned her younger son, Jacob, and said to him, listen,

your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

So now, my son, listen to me. flee at

once to my brother Laban in Haran and stay

with him for a few days until your brother's anger subsides until your brother's

rage turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him and then I

will send for you and bring you back from there why should I lose you both in one day,

Again, looking forward, if you don't know, Jacob's few day travels away to her

brother's house lasts 20 plus years.

It is probably likely, strong speculation, that Rebekah never sees Jacob again.

Verse 46. So Rebekah said to Isaac, I'm sick of my life because of these Hittite women.

If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them, what good is my life?

Wives can be very good at getting their husbands to do things.

You ever notice that? Like I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing.

I'm just saying it's a thing. It could be bad. It could be good.

Especially they get them to do things when they spin an idea and they make it

sound like it's his idea.

Yeah. You know what I'm talking about?

I think so. Like it's an old trick. I think it's been around a long time.

Rebecca knows it. It's a classic move.

She doesn't tell Isaac what to do, but sort of does.

Her concern is truly partly, she doesn't want Jacob to marry a Hittite woman. That's true.

But mostly she doesn't want to get Jacob killed.

She's looking for an escape for Jacob to get out of town before Esau kills him.

So what's Isaac do? Chapter 28, verse one, Isaac summoned Jacob,

blessed him and commanded him, don't take a wife from the Canaanite women.

Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father.

Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you

become an assembly of peoples.

May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may

possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.

So Isaac sent Jacob to Pataam Aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel,

to the Armean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob, and Esau.

So he's out. He's out.

So we've got all this deception, all this manipulation going on.

Jacob has the birthright. He has the blessing.

His brother hates him, wants to kill him.

I have no idea what Isaac and Rebecca's married relationship looks like.

And there's more to come in the upcoming weeks on this family.

But what do we do with this then? Like, we're going to stop here.

What do I do with these chapters? Does what happened thousands of years ago to this family matter?

How is it that Isaac and his family are relevant to you and me?

Well, I've got four applications.

One from each of the characters through these chapters.

So here we go. Number one, from Isaac, a blind elderly father.

The smell of clothes, the feel of hairy skins, the sound of a voice from one

son, but the hands that feel like from another son.

Isaac is trusting his senses, but he falls for a lie.

And it is a vivid picture for us of how we too can be deceived by our own perceptions

and our own senses. Amen.

Isaac reminds us that as humans, we are limited in what we can see, hear, touch, and know.

And because of that, can be easily deceived.

I would recommend to you, if you do not have a verse memorized,

specifically Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, that you make that a goal of yours in the next couple weeks.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all of your heart.

It's a popular verse in the Bible, popular verse amongst Christians.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Do not rely on your own understandings.

Think about him in all of your ways, and he will guide you on the right paths.

Isaac, on his senses, tried to figure it out right, and he didn't. He was deceived.

We can think we got it all figured out. I see it, I feel it,

I know it, I've done it. we can be deceived.

Number two from Rebecca. Rebecca knew what God wanted.

She knew his plan, but she reminds us that it is possible to do the right thing the wrong way.

Get this, God does not need our sinful shortcuts. He doesn't.

She wanted to do the right thing, maybe with the wrong motives,

probably so, favoritism to Jacob, but went about it in all the wrong ways.

It is possible that we do the same thing.

From Rebecca, we can get a warning to not go down the wrong path while trying to do the right thing.

Psalm 37, three. Trust in the Lord and do what is good.

Like that should be the mantra and the way that we live our lives.

Trust God, do good. Trust God, do good.

Rebecca was, I'm gonna trust me to bring about the good. Amen.

Number three, from Esau. Esau's life, it's lived in this like,

centered on me, centered on now, temporal cravings all over the place, impulsive decisions,

immediate comfort, give me the pleasure, taking no thought,

and neglecting the long-term spiritual blessings.

His life warns us against overvaluing revaluing the short-lived temporary moments

of life here today and gone tomorrow and neglecting the forever moments of eternal life,

which leads to a part B application, if you will, from Esau.

I did not mention this in Genesis 27. I just read through it,

but I want to mention it now.

It comes with a screaming alarm going off, a huge siren for us to recognize

the difference between remorse and repentance.

There's a big difference between the two.

When Esau realized that he had lost it all, he lost the birthright,

he lost the blessing, he cried loudly with bitter tears, he felt remorse,

he was devastated by the consequences of what he had lost,

but he did not show repentance for his disdain and his rejection of spiritual matters.

There was no change, no turning of his heart.

We know this from Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Let me read it to you, verses 16 and 17. And make sure that there isn't any

immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for one meal.

For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing,

he was rejected because he didn't find an opportunity for repentance.

Though he sought it with tears.

Esau's life warns us that when we fail,

and we're gonna, that our focus needs to be on restoring our relationship with

God rather than just regretting the thing that we lost.

Because true repentance seeks more than the thing lost.

The application, don't be like Esau, irreverent, disrespectful,

flippant about spiritual matters.

And then number four, from Jacob.

Jacob was a lying, deceiving, blaspheming person, yet God chose him.

This chapter teaches us that God's grace extends to those who don't deserve it.

And to say it plainly, like on the chart here, God's grace extends to you and you don't deserve it.

Because the truth of the matter is that you and me and all the people everywhere

are a whole lot like the Isaac, Rebekahs, Jacobs and Esau's of the world.

We are flawed and we are fractured.

And here's the best, greatest news of all.

Ephesians 2 declares that the flawed and fractured people are saved by grace through faith.

And this is not of yourselves. It is a gift.

Grace is a gift from God. Let's pray.

Father, I don't know why you gave just the details you give sometimes of these

accounts and stories and families that we're going through with Genesis.

There's just some details, not all the details.

Sometimes I wish I'd give me more.

And yet I was reminded throughout this week that you have given enough. Your truth is revealed.

So I thank you for this story. I thank you for helping us explain the importance

of the nation of Israel and your plan, your redemptive plan,

and how Jesus fits into it.

I would imagine as we go through this story, if we stop and think,

okay, where do I fit in here? How does it look?

Where in my life do I look like an Isaac doing my own plans and neglecting what

God's plan is for my life? Where am I like Rebecca and just,

sure, I want it good, but I'm doing it the wrong way. I'm deceptive in it,

lying about it, not trusting you, panicking. There's anxiety.

God forbid their lives look like an Esau, just living for the moment,

want the now, no cares for you and your word.

And then there's Jacob.

He lives a life of deceiving and not honoring his parents for sure.

I don't know, I think we can find ourselves a lot,

throughout this. And yet the greatest thing to find is your grace.

That in the midst of all this dysfunction, all the flawed and fractured family,

all the sinning that's going on all the selfishness all the deception all the

manipulation all the anger all the hatred,

you have a plan of redemption in store for mankind.

We're thankful that the story doesn't end here that it does move forward it's

going to move into Jesus coming.

We're thankful that he came to live a perfect life, to die on the cross for the sins,

of the Isaacs and the Rebekahs and the Esau's and the Jacob's and the us of this world.

And by grace, through faith, your redemption plan is at work. Thank you for that.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So let's just end with the same verse that I just ended earlier,

Ephesians chapter two, verse eight.

You are saved by grace through faith, and this is not of yourselves.

It is a gift from God. That's good news.