Genesis 25–27 — An Appetite for Blessing

This sermon is from Genesis chapters 25 through 27 and is entitled An Appetite for Blessing.

Genesis 25 · chapter mention

It was delivered to Ekklesia Churches on Sunday, October 4, 2026.

The passage today starts a shift from the family of Abraham to the family of Isaac,

And we'll jump in midway through chapter 25, but to kind of catch you up on what's happened

up to this point, Abraham is married again after Sarah and has more children before he

dies at 175 years old.

Then his children gather to mourn his passing, and we see that this genealogy happens from

people like Ishmael.

And it shows that God really did keep his promise to give these children an inheritance

of earthly kingdoms.

But it also refocuses really quickly on Isaac.

Because remember, the purpose of Genesis is to tell us about God's redemption plan, this

blessing that he is bringing to all people.

The same way that you might look at a family tree and focus on the branches that lead to

you, that's how God focuses in Genesis, on this branch that will lead through Abraham,

to Isaac, to Jacob, and eventually all the way to Jesus.

So in the next few chapters, we really get to watch Isaac and his family work through

their own desires and appetites for various things.

They all have different ideas of what would satisfy them or make their lives blessed.

But sadly, none of them really grasp that God is their greatest blessing.

And their pursuit of their own desires results in what looks like an ancient Near Eastern

reality TV show over the next few chapters.

It would be really easy for us to get distracted, actually, by all of the human chaos in these

chapters, but we see clearly by the end that God is still sovereign and faithful and is

bringing about his plan and his kingdom.

So if you're looking for the one thing to take away from this passage today, it's this.

Seek first the kingdom of God and you will be blessed.

You can strive for your own desires and seek your own blessing.

And at the end of the day, if you're not seeking the glory of God, you will end up unsatisfied.

Because Jesus says, even if you gain the whole world, but you lose your soul, you've lost everything.

Human beings have all of these appetites for things like pleasure and power that have been corrupted by sin.

But for those who would believe the word of God and choose to seek the kingdom of God

and find it in Jesus, they will be satisfied in a way that nothing else could possibly come

close to.

It's those who will seek the blessing of knowing and serving Christ who have actually found

the greatest blessing.

So let's get this show on the road.

Let's read the introduction to this family of Isaac.

This is Genesis chapter 25, starting with verse 20, going through 26.

Genesis 25 · chapter mention

And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, of Paddan Aram,

the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.

And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren.

And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

The children struggled together within her, and she said,

If it is thus, why is this happening to me?

So she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said to her,

Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you shall be divided.

The one shall be stronger than the other.

The older shall serve the younger.

When her days to give birth were completed,

behold, there were twins in her womb.

The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak.

so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's

heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them.

Okay, so at this point, we have some things that God has made clear about what his plan of promise

will involve. He is again miraculously stepping in to open the womb of Rebekah this time,

proving that it is God who is fulfilling his promises.

Isaac's love for his wife is evident because he doesn't seek another wife to have a child like Abraham did.

He prays for Rebecca instead.

And she becomes pregnant with twins.

But these children struggled within her in the womb.

And the word struggle is really too weak for the Hebrew equivalent.

The word means to collide or crash together like two armies meeting in a battle.

And here God says something that we cannot afford to miss.

It's really key to the rest of this passage.

In a culture where the older would have received the larger inheritance and the leadership

of the family going forward, God says that it's his will that the older shall serve the

younger.

And that means that from the day they were born, Esau first and Jacob second, that Jacob

has been chosen by God as the one to receive the blessing. Yet even knowing this, when they grow up,

Isaac loves Esau more than Jacob. These seeds of parental preference have been planted here,

and it is exposed as a kind of selfish kind of love. In fact, Isaac loves Esau because he's more

of a man's man. He's a better hunter, and he cooks the kind of food that Isaac likes.

Jacob is a little quieter and softer, and he spends his time in the tents, probably with his mom,

and she loves him more. This will play out over the course of decades, even into the next

generation. And I'm sure this created an interesting dynamic between the boys. We get this glimpse of

how their own desires, though, have been shaped in this interaction between them over a bowl of stew.

Let's read verses 29 through 34. Once, when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field,

and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted.

Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, Sell me your birthright now. Esau said,

I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, Swear to me now. So he swore to him

and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank

and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. So what exactly is this birthright

that Esau has despised or not cared a bit about.

If we're going to understand the trade, we have to understand that first.

So the birthright is the Hebrew word Bechorah,

which is talking about the double share of the inheritance

traditionally given to the oldest son.

But this also came with the responsibility

to be the leader of the family after the father's passing.

Esau here is more interested in a bowl of soup to satisfy his hunger than an extra share

of future inheritance.

He's trading a huge future gain for a small temporary one.

However you want to say it, the desire behind his choice is short-term earthly comfort,

not long-term stewardship and service.

And we can't leave Jacob out here either, because who refuses your brother food unless

he gives you his future title and inheritance. The answer, of course, is Jacob, the heel grasper,

someone who has lived in the shadow of his father's affection for his brother his whole life

and has learned the art of manipulation. Do you see the kinds of things that are growing from

these seeds of favoritism in this family? They've all started to desire a kind of blessing of their

own creation. Isaac is actively ignoring God's will and is raising his two sons based on his own

personal preference. He will be the master of his house and he will decide to bless the son that

pleases him the most. Rebecca responds to this by choosing a favorite of her own. If Isaac is going

to have a favorite, then so will I. Esau grows up as the favored son of his father, but that life of

ease, teaches him to believe that blessing is getting what he wants when he wants it.

Jacob grows up believing blessing is something that you have to go after yourself,

even if you have to manipulate others to get it. The point is this, that when this family

lost sight of seeking the blessing of God and started to seek their own blessings,

things started to fall apart. Paul says in Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8 that if we sow to our

Galatians 6:7

own flesh, we will reap corruption from it. The obvious takeaway here is a warning to parents

that we are called to be ambassadors of the Lord to our children. Favoritism has no place

in the Christian household. We are called to train up our children for the glory of God.

Proverbs 22 verse 6 says,

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go.

How differently this family story might have played out

if Isaac had raised Jacob,

teaching him to be the kind of leader who acts with honesty and integrity.

And if he had raised Esau to know what it means to be a servant leader

who lays down his life for others,

even to the point of sacrificing his own comfort.

If Isaac had considered his children's character more than their cooking, their experience might

have been different. But I think the bigger question here is, how are my desires shaping

how I love? Am I choosing to love people differently based on what they can do for me?

This is an area I'm really honestly asking the Lord to work in me with. This goes deep because

I don't want to love people based on my own preference for them because that's not loving

like Jesus. And I don't want to love them as a way of manipulating them to do what I want because

that's literally conditional love, not like the love of Jesus. Am I loving people like Jesus

because I want to bless the Lord or because I want to accumulate blessing for myself?

And if I'm going to love like Jesus, I'm going to need Jesus to change my desire to love,

right?

From an imperfect, selfish kind of love to a perfected, selfless love like that of Jesus.

And that process that we call sanctification is something that Jesus is working from the

beginning and through the middle and to the very end of my life.

Admittedly, this has been a rough beginning to the story of Isaac's family.

So let's see how they grow and change in the years to come.

This is chapter 26, verses 1 through 4.

Isaiah 26:1–4

Now there was a famine in the land besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham.

And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines.

And the Lord appeared to him and said,

Do not go down to Egypt.

Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you.

For to you and to your offspring I will give these lands,

and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven

and will give to your offspring all these lands,

and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

This is the same promise that God made to Abraham, this time with a warning not to go to Egypt,

as Abraham had done to deal with the famine.

God's promise is unchanging, and this is a reminder to Isaac that the Lord is his God,

not just the God of his father.

I will be with you.

I will bless you.

I'm going to bring this blessing for all people through you.

Also important to know that Abimelech here is a title, like Pharaoh, for example.

which is given to the leader of these people who are now known as the Philistines.

So Isaac is dealing with the same people, but certainly a different leader,

because this is between 80 and 100 years after Abraham's dealing with them.

I'm going to do a lot of summarizing in this chapter, so definitely read chapter 26 this week.

But here's kind of what happens in the days ahead.

When Isaac and his family enter the land, Isaac takes one look at the Philistines

and another look at his wife and is terrified that they are going to kill him and take her.

And so he does exactly what his father did before him and starts telling people,

you guessed it, she's my sister.

The plan backfires when their king, their Abimelech,

happens to oversee some expression of intimacy between Isaac and Rebekah

that clues him in that this does not fit the narrative of being his sister.

He calls Isaac out, and then throughout their entire time wandering through the land, God

provides for Isaac.

The Philistine king tells his people to leave them alone.

And then Isaac's crop produce a bumper crop in the middle of a famine.

Even when the Philistines get jealous and start filling in the wells of Abraham with

dirt, which is essentially a declaration of war, Isaac keeps seeing God provide as they

avoid conflict.

And they dig new wells.

and they even stopped to worship God at one point for his provision. This is really the only story

we have from a long section in the middle of the life of Isaac. This condensed biography of wandering

and deceiving and learning was all present-day realities for Isaac at one point. Isaac could

have certainly looked back in his life and seen a combination of steps and missteps. Every

choice to lie to another Philistine about his wife and degrade his integrity. Every choice to

dig another well instead of seeking conflict with them and trust in God's provision.

We look at this now as history, but for Isaac, it was years of choices that were made in the present

day by day. That would have not only been shaped by the past, but also would have shaped him for

the future too. Here's the thing. We can look with hindsight at the seeds sown in the past,

and we can choose to let the past dictate how we grow in the present, or we can make choices in

the present to grow and be changed by the Lord. Isaac, it looks like, did a little of both.

For me, I can look back at the failures of my own parents and pass them on to my children,

or I can look to the grace of God in my life and I can choose differently.

I can look at my own failures in the past and use that as an excuse for who I am today,

or I can look to the grace of God in my life today and become a new creation in Christ.

We can be shaped by the past or changed by God's grace.

We're about to see that ultimately God is sovereign and is able to bring all things together to accomplish his purposes.

Our past mistakes can't deter him.

Our present unfaithfulness does not make him any less faithful.

But it does have an impact on our experience of the process.

There are consequences to the seeds that we planted in the past.

and there are consequences to the choices that we make in the present

to hold on to our own desires for the future.

At the end of chapter 26, we find out that Esau still has an appetite for instant gratification

and he chooses to take not one but two wives from the idol-worshiping Hittites in the area

and this causes grief for Isaac and Rebekah in the years to come.

In the beginning of chapter 27, we find out that Isaac still refuses the plan of God to choose

Jacob and instructs Esau to prepare to receive what he still thinks is his blessing to give.

So let's read what unfolds there. This is Genesis 27 verses 1 through 13.

Genesis 27:1–13

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see,

He called Esau his older son and said to him,

My son.

And he answered, Here I am.

He said, Behold, I am old.

I do not know the day of my death.

Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow,

and go out to the field and hunt game for me,

and prepare for me delicious food such as I love,

and bring it to me so that I may eat,

that my soul may bless you before I die.

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau.

So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,

Rebekah said to her son Jacob,

I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it

and bless you before the Lord before I die.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.

Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats

so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father such as he loves.

And you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.

But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother,

Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.

Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him

and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.

His mother said to him,

Let your curse be on me, my son.

Only obey my voice and go, bring them to me.

The rest of this story kind of plays out like you would expect it to. Isaac is still fixated on

Esau's cooking, but more importantly, he's still acting on his appetite for power to direct the

plan of God himself. He still thinks that it's his blessing to give. He's still dead set on

blessing his favored child in the way that gives him the most pleasure. This blessing is not the

same thing as the physical inheritance of the birthright. It's more spiritually important than

that. This is asking God to fulfill the promised blessing through this child, that his offspring

will be great and that the promised blessing to all nations will come through him. And Isaac wants

this for Esau, not Jacob. Rebekah still has an appetite for controlling things behind the scenes,

and she orchestrates this plan. And Jacob's only opposition to the plan isn't that it's wrong,

but he's afraid that he'll get caught. He wants this blessing in addition to the birthright,

and he will act deceptively to get it. The plan essentially goes off without hitch,

And Jacob lies to and tricks his father into blessing him.

So even through all of this human sin and disobedience and striving and dishonor, God

still uses it all to accomplish his plan to bring the blessing through the line of Jacob.

But what I want you to see is that while God's plan was not in any way derailed by these

people and their sinful appetites for power or pleasure or control, their experience of this

process was very different because of the way they pursued their sinful appetites.

Look at Isaac. For all his desire to be like God and make God bend the plan to his will,

he loses in the end and he has nothing of value to offer. Maybe that can serve as a warning to

those of us who want to bend the world to our will.

And we can choose instead to bend the knee to Jesus and pursue his kingdom

because our kingdoms will not last forever, but his will.

Look at Esau.

He has satisfied his immediate appetite for food and women.

And what does he get?

He gets a smaller future inheritance and two wives that make his family life miserable.

Even natural physical appetites that serve a good purpose can lead to destruction when

we let them become gods in our life.

Is there an area of your life where you are letting a desire for pleasure or comfort and

you submit to it instead of Jesus?

Look at Rebecca and Jacob.

They've both developed this desire for control and achieving their ends through manipulation

and trickery. But Rebecca breaks the trust of her husband and loses the son that she loved.

She will never see Jacob again from the point of this interaction forward. And Jacob, for all his

achievements through his trickery, he's forced to leave both his family and his inheritance behind,

and he ends up going to live in servitude for the next 20 years under an uncle who is just as

manipulative as he is. Now, Jacob's story is just beginning, and God will continue to discipline

and form Jacob in the years to come. But as we end here, with a breaking and scattering of this

family, where do we look for hope? Where's the hope for Isaac's family? The hope for Isaac's

family was found in the promise of God, in his Savior, who he was going to bring and whose name

is Jesus. We don't see many heroes in Genesis because it's not a book about heroes. It's a

book about sinful people who are in need of a Savior and a God who is going to provide that Savior.

So what do we do with this problem we're left with of appetites and desires for other things?

Well, first of all, you can turn all kinds of places to these other things that promise

to be a blessing but only ever leave you unsatisfied and empty.

And if you are tired of feeling tired and empty and unsatisfied in your life,

I would urge you to turn to Jesus who offers living water so that you will never thirst again.

Turn to the one who has promised to give us a kind of water that not only satisfies us,

but springs up like a well of life in us.

If you're a Christian who's struggling with temptation to seek the promise of blessing elsewhere,

turn to Jesus.

Jesus who endured temptation and had appetites just like us, but always desired the glory

of God more.

In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is tempted with each of these things that we saw in this passage

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

by Satan, food and power and influence.

And each time he quotes scripture to the devil, showing that his greatest desire is the glory

of God and he trusts wholeheartedly in the word of God.

So the answer is we look to Jesus, Jesus who was faithful and endured the cross for our

unfaithfulness so that we might not only receive forgiveness, but also be empowered by the Holy

Spirit. What an incredible gift it is to go through life, not enslaved by sinful desires,

but empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a life that is pleasing to God.

When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we start to undergo this transformation that Paul calls

from one degree of glory to another. Our appetites start to bow to our greater desire for more of

Jesus. We start to eat and drink not only for pleasure, but for the glory of God.

We stop building our own kingdom and we start taking our joy in being a part of the kingdom

that Christ is building. We stop living for our own glory and caring about our own influence and

submit ourselves wholeheartedly to the influence of the Holy Spirit in us. And this appetite for

blessing is finally satisfied because we have learned that the greatest blessing is found in

Christ.