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Do you have a perfect family? Everyone gets along, there’s no conflict, no hidden sin, no masks to have to wear this morning? Well of course not! We are all sinners and that includes even as a collection of people called a family. We all realize that and know that we are all in the same boat. Yet there are some of us that think our family is especially dysfunctional, or to use Biblical language, extra sinful. We wonder how God is able to do anything with or through in our family. If that’s you this morning, you may be thinking, “Oh, if you only knew.” Thus far in Genesis, families in such a condition may be feeling even more inadequate. Yes, Noah and Abraham have had their stumbles, but it isn’t like there’s a horror show at every turn. Well, let’s meet Isaac’s family. Before we begin, we must keep something in mind. We are not here to look at this example and walk away like the Pharisees and say, “Whew, glad my family isn’t as messed up as Isaac’s!” Maybe you don’t have sons plotting to kill each other, but we all have the seeds of the sins that we are going to look at here. We are meant to walk away saying, “Now what areas in my family need repentance?” As we will see, God is going to work redemption even through the very sins we see here committed. Yet we will also see that to sin makes everything harder on oneself. It doesn’t have to be this way. Our two points are Fighting God beats yourself and God will use even sin to bring about His purposes. Fighting God Beats Yourself Let’s meet the family while keeping in mind the context of where we are. The most important fact to remember is what was said about the twins when they were born back in Genesis 25:23 “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.”” This is the clear message that Jacob is going to be the promised son to have the blessing. All the way back to Genesis 9:26, the blessed line of Shem is going to be the one served, so it should be clear to us what the next step should be. Our story starts in the last verse of the previous chapter that tells us that Esau hasn’t married very well. He has married not one, but two Hittites, the people of Canaan, and they (Feminine plural in the Hebrew) have made life bitter for his parents. This will be important to remember later. Ok, that is the necessary background information. From here, we are going to see an absolute disaster zone of sin. Usually when we look at this passage, we focus on all the lying that Jacob does here. We will look at that, too, but there are a bunch of somewhat more subtle sins at work here. Each of these sins promise to deliver to the sinner what they want, and what we will find is that it will backfire on them. Favoritism Never Brings Favor The first sin to see is the sin of favoritism, or to use the Biblical word for it, partiality. To be partial to someone means to have a bias against or for someone that makes you treat them in a way that the Bible wouldn’t want. We see this commanded in many places in Scripture but probably the most comprehensive is in Leviticus 19:15 ““You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” We saw back in Genesis 25:28 that Isaac loved Esau (because he liked the meat he brought in) and Rebekah liked Jacob. This partiality on both ends is going to drive the rest of this nightmare. Our story begins with a blind Isaac telling Esau that he wants to give the divine blessing to him, a covenantal disaster! The line of the woman is supposed to be separate from the line of the snake! Marriages are not supposed to be with the people of the land, and he has married two people of the Canaanites already! As one scholar notes, “These marriages indicate that Esau is not concerned about the promises of God made to his forefathers; rather, he shows disdain for the heritage of the covenant.” (Belcher, 178-179). He continues later: “Esau is the son who wants the blessing but is not willing to live a life that honors God so that he could be trusted with the blessing.” (Belcher, 182) But, you know, he’s a good hunter! What can we say? The boy knows his way around a deer steak. Isaac cares more about his son’s food than his faith. Sadly, you will actually notice that Jacob is never referred to as “my son” by Isaac. Favoritism is ugly. And it isn’t just Isaac that does it. Rebekah hears the plot and springs into action. She quickly hatches the plan to make sure “her son” is the one who gets the blessing. Some argue that she is doing this for honorable reasons, but as one scholar notes, “Some would say that she strove to realize the oracle that predicted the rise of the younger, but the narrative does not attribute this directly to her motivation. Rather, it simply observes that she favors Jacob, perhaps for the sake of the oracle, but the text suggests that it is more likely his temperament and vocation she values.” (Matthews, 417) She certainly isn’t going about this the right way. Favoritism is actually selfishness in disguise. You are partial to one child over another (or partial to anyone, for that matter) likely because of what they do for you. Favoritism actually puts you as the favorite, not them. If you are the center of your life, then everyone else, including your kids, is judged worthy or unworthy based on how they make you feel. My kids were watching Bluey the other day, and there is one episode where one kid, Bingo, is much more compliant, quiet, and organized than Bluey, the older sister. The girls pick this up and pretend to be each other, both pretending to be Bluey (the loud one) and later on both pretending to be Bingo (the compliant one). The parents let slip that they are more excited by the prospect of two Bingos, and this obviously hurts Bluey’s feelings deeply. The show resolves this by pointing out that even Bingo has her flaws, and ultimately, the parents want to have both daughters as they are individually. Now, the show doesn’t have the Bible to point to on how to avoid this in parenting or other realms like politics where one’s own side is excused their bad behavior. We shouldn’t say, “You should be more like your brother” or “our side of politics should be more like the other side” No, we should be saying to everyone, “Be like Christ.” If God is at the center of your life, then you are going to be most concerned about how everyone relates to Him, not you. And if God is at the center of your life, you will know that any good that comes in their lives is credit to Him, not you! The kids who follow Christ cause you to be grateful to God, and the one who don’t (yet) follow Him cause you to be in prayer to God for them. It is scary to see where favoritism can take you, as we look at the next sin it lead to in this passage, lying. Deception is degrading. Rebekah “leaves nothing to chance or to providence when she prepares the player for his part.” (Matthews, 430). We’ve got the food to taste like Esau’s, the goat hair to feel like Esau’s, and the garments to smell like Esau. Imagine how silly Jacob looked in all that! But beyond that, every sense is accounted for to trick an old blind man. What degradation. Can you imagine if this had been done to you? But it goes on. Jacob lies through his teeth over and over to keep up the ruse, even blaspheming God’s name by bringing Him into it in verse 20. Even the kiss in verse 26 is that of Judas (Matthews, 431). And we didn’t pick Esau, because why? But the lies work (sort of), and the blessing is given to Jacob. Isaac trusted every sense he had except the common sense to follow God’s will. God always intended that the blessing would go to him, but this was not the approved way. God will work even through sin, so there is no thwarting His plan. But this path will lead to pain, as verses 31 through the end of the chapter detail. Everyone’s favoritism and lying affects everyone else. Rebekah’s favoritism of Jacob affects Isaac. When he realizes that he has been duped, the reaction is visceral. The Hebrew literally describes it this way: “Isaac trembled a great trembling exceedingly” (Matthews, 434). It affects Esau, as this mighty hunter is reduced to sobbing on the floor begging for scraps of blessing. Jacob’s life is now at risk such that he has to be sent away never to be seen by Rebekah again. And the whole thing started with Isaac’s favoritism of Esau. He tried to bless Esau against God’s wishes and ended up giving him what scholars call an “antiblessing.” Great job, everyone! This is what happens when we turn to sin. Jacob was rightly called but called in the wrong way. God’s purposes will never be foiled, and those that try to stray from the path will always feel the pain. God will use even sin to bring about His purposes. We’re left sitting back going, “What a mess! How is God supposed to work this out?” And at this point in the book of Genesis, it isn’t clear. We have a family all broken apart over favoritism, lies, rebellion, and even threats of murder! Our only hope for the continuation of the blessing is placed in the hands of the guy literally named “cheater.” But that’s not quite right, is it? Our hope isn’t in Jacob. It is in God. As we work our way through the rest of Genesis, and really on our way through the rest of the Bible, we will discover that God is going to continue to turn bad things into vehicles for His grace. From Jacob will come the 12 sons of Israel. One of those sons, Joseph, is going to save the world from starvation! This will only happen when an even bigger lie and worse deception will be pulled on Jacob. Jacob tricked Isaac with a goat and garment, and the same thing will happen to him because he played favorites with Joseph (Bible Talk Podcast). Ultimately, from this disaster zone of a family is going to come a Savior. You see, we are all Jacob. We are the cheaters, the liars, the favorite-havers. And, in one sense, as one podcast I listened to this week pointed out, Jesus is Esau (Bible Talk). How does this play out? Esau was rejected, sent away from the goodness of the land, in a word, cursed. Esau was sent away so that Jacob could have the blessing. Jesus was forsaken by His Father on the cross so that we might get the blessing. The key difference, of course, is that Jesus actually deserves the blessing of the favor of the Father, but He stood aside and now gives it to those who repent and put their trust in Him. So what is our takeaway today? One, God will accomplish His will, even through our sin. That doesn’t make Him a sinner, and we are completely responsible for our sin, and we should not do it. That’s what God says and this story demonstrates. Two, any sin, even the common ones that everyone does, can have devastating consequences. Resist the temptation of partiality and bias whether it is with your kids or total strangers. It is known by many names: racism, sexism, whatever else “-ism” that doesn’t see people in the light of God’s Word. Is there behavior that needs to be pointed out and corrected? Yes. Are sometimes those criticism found more in some groups rather than others? Also yes, but corrections are always to be made in light of God’s Word and the love of the person, not the dislike of them. Finally, never give up hope. Do you know that these brothers are going to experience a reconciliation of a kind? Don’t look at your broken family and conclude there’s no hope. There may be no hope of you fixing it, but there is never an end to what God can do with it. Works Cited K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, vol. 1B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 417. Richard P. Belcher Jr., Genesis: The Beginning of God’s Plan of Salvation, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2012), 178–179.
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