We're turning this morning for our instruction to the book of Genesis chapter 27. I'll read verse 33. A very telling verse in the life and experience of Isaac. Genesis chapter 27 verse 33. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly. and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it to me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. We read in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 20, By faith Isaac blessed both Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come. And yet the earlier verses in this chapter do not appear to suggest that Isaac was conducting himself by faith. But this verse represents a turning point in the backslidden state of Isaac. And he now realizes that God has kept his will and his purpose And his design to bless Esau instead of Jacob, which was against the revealed will of God, had been foiled. And in faith, he has to tell Esau, he, that is Jacob, shall be blessed. Well, there are many lessons for us in this chapter. But let me begin by giving you a little background. We should not misread the scene that is before us. Isaac is in his 130s. Jacob and Esau are by this juncture in their 70s. Of course in those days the aging process was slower. Isaac would live to be 180. And therefore, these men, Jacob and Esau, were not young men, not boys, but by now they were mature men in life. Esau is married, but evidently had not moved far from his father's place of dwelling. Isaac and Rebekah were grieved We read at the end of the previous chapter, by Esau's marriage. Look at verse 34. Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Bere, the Hittite, and Bathshemath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. How many of the Lord's people have to experience similar heartache. We cannot choose our children's husbands and wives, though sometimes we wish we could and we may seek to guide them. But like Isaac and Rebecca here, we know their heaviness. We sympathize with their size. We have felt the same. Esau knew how careful Abraham had been in seeking a wife for Isaac. But he was not prepared to follow the same prudent path. And recklessly he chooses idolatrous wives for himself. And doubtless that was the cause of this grief of mind. Nevertheless, despite their misgivings, it would seem that Isaac and Rebecca had made the best of the situation. They hadn't forced Esau away. He was still in the vicinity. Matthew Henry says, parents that are justly offended at their children yet must not be implacable towards them. That's good advice. We have to sometimes make the best of a bad situation. We make known our feelings, we express our reservations, but they are still our children and we must do our best to show them our care and wisdom and love. Well Isaac by this point is almost blind, verse 1 in chapter 27. And he's conscious of his increasing frailty. He begins to think that death is near. Actually, he would live for another 40 plus years. But he realizes that there are important things which, as an aging father, he ought to do. And one was to confer a blessing upon his sons, particularly upon his eldest son, here as he saw fit. There's a warning for us here as we get older. Are there things which, if we were to die, We would die with regret that there were certain things we had not done. Things we have not said to those that we love. Preparations that we ought to make. Are there things that we would regret we haven't done for the Lord? And in his kingdom, we feel cold and yet we have not put our hand as yet to the plough. Would we on a deathbed regret that we had squandered opportunities to serve the Lord with that love and zeal that we know He is worthy of? Well, what lessons are there here for us in this chapter then? There are seven lessons that I'd like to suggest to you. And the first is this, that God is sovereign and His will cannot be thwarted. If you go back to chapter 25, there Rebecca is told by the Lord concerning Jacob and Esau, the elder shall serve the younger. Jacob, though he was the younger of the twins, was heir to the covenant promise. And it was Jacob who was to have preeminence in that family contrary to tradition and custom. It would seem in this chapter that Isaac has different ideas. Chapter 25 tells us that Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison. And in chapter 27 we can see that Isaac is still partial towards Esau as opposed to Jacob. But God would not permit him to go against his own sovereign will. In fact, God would permit something bad to intervene in the life of this family in order to prevent Isaac from making that step. God sometimes, in his sovereignty, may use bad things to advance his good purposes. God is never the author of sin. Rebecca and Jacob must be accountable for their foolish deceit. Nevertheless, God permitted it, and God overruled it, to further his own sovereign will. And that may be the case in our lives too. Remember that Romans chapter 28, verse 28 says, all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the cold according to his purpose. Thomas Watson commenting on that verse says, the good things of life work together for the good of God's children. But then he adds, and so do the bad things. The bad things of life that seem to be so contrary to us. God often overrules and they are for the furtherance of his sovereign purposes. And as far as his children will be concerned, they will be for our good. And clearly here, ultimately, The overruling hand of God was for the good of this family, as we shall see. The second lesson I want to draw from this chapter is that we learn from Isaac that parental partiality can be dangerous. There are two key passages that loom large over the events of this chapter. The first is those covenant promise texts that were given to Abraham and Isaac. That special promise that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. The promise of a future savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a special promise. It was attached to a covenant. And God designed that it should be inherited by Jacob, not by Esau. Then there is this second passage, which I've already referred you to, in Genesis chapter 25, where God decreed prophetically to Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. These promises, revelations from God, if you like, were known by all the family But their attitude to those promises was very different. Esau, as we know, despised the first promise. He says here to Isaac later that Jacob took away my birthright, but that's not true. He gave it up. He wasn't interested in it. Hebrews 11, 12 tells us he despised that birthright. He wasn't interested in that future promise of a savior. He was only interested in earthly benefits. Esau defied the second part of that prophecy. He wanted to be supreme over Jacob. He wanted to be the head of the tribe, even though God had said, the elder shall serve the younger. Rebecca and Jacob took these revelations from God seriously. They believed them. They cherished them. They entertained the hope of salvation. through that covenant promise. And they expected God to fulfill his word. But what of Isaac? Isaac is a true believer, a child of God. There's no doubt about that. But at this time, he appears to be in a backslidden state. His faith was not determining his thinking and his conduct. And he's willing to go against the prophecy of God. There's a warning here to those of us who are older. We tend to think it's young people who become backslidden. But friends, in Scripture, often it was the older believers whose faith began to falter. And it was true here of Isaac. He had lost his way somewhat, and his thinking is certainly now flawed. He's despised that pre-birth revelation concerning Esau and Jacob. He's made Esau his favourite for all the wrong reasons. because he loved his venison. Notice here, he said, take your weapons, your quiver, your bow, go out to the field. This is what, in a sense, intrigued Isaac, captivated his admiration. He was a man who had these skills at field sports, and he liked the meat that was brought home. He was blinded not only now in his physical sight, but his eyes were closed to the reality of Esau's character, as well as the promise of God concerning Jacob. Esau really was a shocker of a man by this point in his life. He lived for sport. He despised and sold that birthright. He married strange women who did not share the faith of his father. And he will reveal in this chapter that he is far from the Lord. Isaac ought to have been deeply concerned and he ought never to have entertained the idea of conferring this blessing upon Esau rather than Jacob. He had allowed natural feelings to override the revelation of God's Word. That's a key point here in Isaac's life. Now he did not intend, perhaps he would like to have, but he did not intend Esau to have the covenant promise. We mustn't overlook that fact. When Isaac blesses Jacob here, thinking it was Esau, he gives him preeminence in the family tribe, but he doesn't mention the covenant promise. He dare not. Perhaps he would, but he comes short of that. Nevertheless, He does confer upon Esau a blessing, or so he thought, that was against the revealed will of God. Notice he says here, verse one, he called Esau his eldest son. But the elder shall serve the younger, according to chapter 25. And then in verse 10, Jacob says to Isaac, I am Esau, thy firstborn. They understood what their father's intention was. It was not according to the prophecy that had been revealed to Rebekah before these two twins were born. We must beware allowing earthly attractions, carnal principles, and loyalties to override the revealed will of God in our lives. Do we make key choices in life, our career choices, courtship choices, in guarding and guiding our children even, based upon earthly interests or upon what God's word teaches? Sometimes we see Christian parents and they are so besotted with their children's academic ability that they encourage them to immerse themselves wholly in the pursuit of a career. And they do not temper that with a reminder that they should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Go to the best university, they say, whereas they ought to be saying to their children, Go to a university where you know there will be a faithful church, a house of God, a fellowship of saints to which you can be joined. They allow earthly priorities to trump everything else. And like Isaac here, it proves to be disastrous. We must never train our children to think that it's best above all to become multimillionaires rather than walk humbly with their God. Well, we must move on. Isaac has put himself on a dangerous course and God will thwart his intentions and rebuke him. That's why he's going to tremble a little later, but we must move on. The third lesson that we must draw from this passage is that good intentions do not justify sinful actions. That's what we see here with Rebecca and Jacob. Doubtless they were rightly troubled. They know the kind of character Esau is. And the thought that Esau should assume the preeminence in the family, be responsible for its worship, even become, perhaps they feared, heir in Isaac's purposes to the promises of God. They thought, we must put our hand to this. We must stop this folly on the part of Isaac. He knows the prophecy. What is he doing, planning to make Esau preeminent? They were alarmed at the thought that someone of such a decadent life should be given such prominence in such a holy family. Their motives were sincere. Their motives were good and worthy because they knew that Isaac was going against the revelation of God. But in their search and concern to preserve God's purpose, they fell into sin. They deceived the old patriarch. The old writers point out that in four of his five senses, they deceived him. His smell, his sight was almost gone anyway. His taste, making him goat meat that tasted like venison. His touch, he felt the hair on Jacob's neck and hands. It was a most deceitful thing to do in a fourfold way to deceive this man of God. Further, they implicate God in their ruse. Rebecca says, the curse be upon me. Jacob says, God help me find that venison for you, Father. That's why I've come back so quick. There's nothing good that can be said about this trickery that they engage in, other than their intentions were sincere. Now, they should have reasoned with Isaac. Rebecca should have said, Husband, you know what God has revealed concerning our two sons. You ought not to do this. Perhaps she already had. But when Isaac stubbornly insisted he would bless Esau, they should have left it to the Lord. The Lord is sovereign. He can thwart by any means he chooses those who go against his revealed will. We should do all that we can to advance the purposes of God, but we should never resort to sin. This chapter does not say we'll never do anything for the Lord, but it does tell us never sin in order to promote the cause and the will of God. We cannot. We should not. We should not involve sinful means to promote the gospel. Many people do. They say, well, we've been told to evangelize. We've been told to make the gospel known. We'll use any means that we can. But if those means are against the will of God, then it's better we don't do them. We leave those things to the Lord himself. There may be times when we see someone going astray. It might be a member of our family. It might be a dear friend. But that does not justify wrong behavior on our part. We remonstrate with them. But if we've got grown-up children and we fear that they are going somewhere that we would rather they don't, we don't let the tyres down on their car secretly. We speak to them, we warn them, but then we have to leave the matter with the Lord. We cannot interfere in a sinful way in the lives of others that good may come. We must not force the issue. We rest in the Lord. And that's what Rebecca and Jacob ought to have done here. I think that is clear. Fourthly, we learn from this passage that God's will will ultimately be done. Rebecca and Jacob need not have interfered. God is well able to carry out his purposes. without us or anyone else resorting to sinful means. Nevertheless, this is an intriguing passage, isn't it? Because it shows us the sovereignty of God, even over evil, even over things that ought not to take place. God is never the author of sin, but he does permit it. And he may even harness sinful behavior to further his ends. Now, there's something very telling here. At the end of the chapter, Jacob has gained his father's blessing. And because Isaac was who he was, a patriarch of God, the declaration that he made carried an authentic authority Isaac knew that when he says to Esau, I've made him your Lord and he will be blessed. Jacob has the will of God with him, but he and Rebekah will suffer for the sin that they have committed. God may forgive that sin and clearly he did, but Rebekah and Jacob will suffer as a result of what they did. God didn't openly rebuke them. Their intentions were good, but what a mess they made of seeking to interfere with the will of God. Yes, God used it, and yet they had to suffer the earthly consequences. Rebecca sends Jacob away. She thinks for a few days at most. She would never see him again. She would die in those 20 years before he returns to be a Sheba. What a tragedy in that respect. Jacob was the honored heir of that special covenant promise. But because of his deceit, God would allow him to reap what he sowed. He would be deceived by Laban who changed his wages and swapped his daughters. He would be deceived by his own children concerning Joseph and his coat. What bitter fruits Jacob had to reap as a result of this deceit that he engaged in with his own father Isaac. Yes, God forgave him, and God will forgive us if we seek his pardoning love, but we may still have to reap the earthly consequences. God does not always, although he is merciful, he does not always permit his children never to suffer for the consequences of their own foolish ways. Let me give you an example when it comes to courtship. A young man or a young woman may unwisely marry against the revealed will of God. We are to marry in the Lord. We are to marry those with whom we have shared convictions. And if we step out of the will of God, perhaps prompted by earthly priorities and considerations, by physical and emotional attraction, and we ignore the will of God, then can we as Christians step outside The purposes of God? In one sense, no, we cannot. But if we ignore what God declares in his word, and we act disobediently, we will have to reap the fruit of that decision-making. All things work together for good to them that love God, don't they? Well, yes, they do. But sometimes he may permit us, if we are so willful, to make a foolish choice, a wrong decision. Do we end up with the wrong person? We're not according to God's eternal purposes. He permits it. But at the same time, it's the wrong person in the sense that it's against what God's Word teaches. Young men, young women, Never presume to marry an individual who does not love the Lord. If you love the Lord, then your partner in life should love the Lord. Do not marry someone or entertain the thought of marrying someone who does not share deep convictions concerning the truth, simply because they say that they are a Christian. Well, what sort of Christian are they? Do they love the Lord as you do? Do they love his word? Do they fear to offend him? Do they understand and share those convictions you have when it comes to the way of salvation, the way of worship, the way of life for a disciple? If we say, well, I don't want to go into all of those details, then God may permit you to make that step. He's very gracious. Sometimes he permits those things to happen and brings that ill-chosen partner to love the Lord as the other member of that marriage. But sometimes he permits those foolish choices to lead to chastening experiences. And so we have to be warned by these things. Rebecca and Jacob, they made a mess of things here. And although the Lord never rebuked them, they were sincere. They had to suffer the earthly consequences. Fifthly, verse 33 shows us that ultimately Isaac's faith revived. When Isaac trembled here very exceedingly, it was not really the trembling of a man who was furious with Jacob or with Rebekah. There's no evidence that he rebuked them. And perhaps that is because it dawns upon him here that they have saved him from defying God. God who had revealed his will. Here is a solemn realization that God has overruled his folly. He had tried to go against God, and God has foiled him. That's why, look at what he says here, following on. He says at the end of verse 33, I have blessed him, yes, and he shall be blessed. Then verse 37, Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him. What shall I now do unto thee, my son? God has overruled. I spoke by his spirit. And Jacob is the rightful heir. I cannot change it. Hebrews 11 tells us that Isaac's faith now has kicked in, and he realizes that what he has done, he has done by God's overruling and sovereign will. And he humbles himself before it, and he acknowledges it, painful as it was, embarrassing, doubtless as it appeared. He must have felt a powerful rebuke here for his ill-advised intentions toward Esau. That's a warning to us, is it not? God may have to deal with us very sharply when we backslide. There may be some solemn event in life that he appoints to jolt us out of her backslidden state and reawaken our convictions and our faith in Him. Sixthly, Esau's ways here come back to bite him. Now many people feel very sorry for Esau. They see his tears. They see that he has been cruelly cheated by his younger brother Jacob. And they feel that Esau here deserves our sympathy. But friends, he does not. We ought not to have any sympathy for Esau in this situation. He despised his birthright. He essentially said, Jacob, you can have it. You can keep the gospel that it contains. It wasn't a rejection just of a simple birthright, it was a rejection of that cherished blessing of God. He'd caused heaviness to his parents by his marriages, knowing full well the status of that family. He knew the prophecy that had been conferred upon Jacob, but he sought to rebel against it here. He wanted the blessing. He didn't care that he knew full well that by hunting for that deer, by preparing that meat, by stooping before his father, he was encouraging his father to go against the revelation of God. It didn't bother him. But he weeps. Why does he weep? We read here, that he cried with a bitter cry, an exceeding bitter cry. Verse 34, what's he weeping for? Did he want that covenant promise after all? No. He wasn't interested. What he wanted and craved was earthly supremacy in the family. Number one spot. That's what he wanted. and it was withheld from him. And that's what he was seeking. Let me read to you from Hebrews chapter 12. I realize time is going on. We read there, Esau was a profane person who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Profane, it means he trampled holy things underfoot. Then the next verse says, you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Repentance there doesn't mean in his own heart. Repentance there means he wanted Isaac to change his mind and relent and give to him the blessing. that had been conferred deceitfully upon Jacob. And scripture tells us, although he sought it weeping, Isaac wouldn't change his mind. And why didn't Isaac change his mind? Because Isaac knows that God's will has been done. And Esau has now reaped the fruit of his own sowing. He rejected God. He rejected the covenant. He had no interest in that birthright. But he wanted the blessing. He wanted to have that pride of place. And God said, no. They're Jacob's. Not that Jacob deserved them any more than Esau didn't. Jacob was himself a deceiver. But Esau had rejected these things consciously, rebelliously. Now we must come lastly to one final warning. You see, how wary we should be never to harden ourselves against what God has revealed to us. When Esau rejected the birthright, he rejected the gospel of grace. He rejected any interest in the coming Christ that that covenant promise contained. And then later, when he wanted lesser blessing, God said no. But beware, lastly, harboring sinful thoughts. We see here how, as a result, we could say Understandably, Isaac hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. Notice it doesn't say Esau hated Jacob because he deceived Isaac. He hated Jacob because Jacob had the blessing. That's what he wanted. And he couldn't have it. But this hatred that he entertained Mulling over in his heart led to murderous thoughts and intentions. Clearly, those thoughts were eventually articulated probably to the household servants who tipped off Rebecca that this was Esau's murderous intention. But God's will could not be thwarted. Jacob would be heir to the promise. He could not be killed. he would be preserved from the intentions of Esau. But see how those intentions, the hatred, leads to murderous thoughts. Beware. What sort of thoughts do we have towards others? Do we have resentful thoughts? Do we harbor grudges? Do we entertain envy? Do we resent someone? We must beware lest those things do not become too hot to handle and they end up breaking out into cruelty, unkindness, bitter words or worse. There's so much to teach us here. May the Lord help us to appreciate that ultimately the will of God was done despite Esau Despite Isaac, despite Rebekah and Jacob, God's will was unaccomplished and none can thwart the purposes of God. Well may he bless these things to us. Our closing hymn