Genesis chapter 27, focusing on the first 29 verses that will also be our reading, the first 29 verses of Genesis chapter 27. And it's one of those chapters, and there's many of them in the Bible, where we see the sovereignty of God. We see God make a statement earlier on, and then it comes to fruition, though it seems as if man tries to thwart the plan of God and do something else, God's will happens, God's word happens, just as He says. And so indeed through the line of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob comes the birth of Jesus Christ. Genesis chapter 27, here God's holy word. 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, 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, Rebecca 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 commanded 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. So he went and took them and brought them to his mother. And his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved. Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her older son. which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son, and the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. And she put the delicious food and the bread which she prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went to his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I've done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He answered, because the Lord, your God, granted me success. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him and said, are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am. Then he said, bring it near to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. So he brought it near to him. And he ate, and brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, See, the smell of my son is the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word, the grass withers, the flower fails, the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray for God's blessing on his word. Our father, we do thank you and we praise you for your word. We know, Lord, that this is your word, that you have spoken this and you've spoken it long ago. Now speak to us, instruct us, teach us. What we are to know, Lord, build us up, for we do pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, after a couple of weeks of looking at Isaac, his sin like that of his father's, his treaty with Abimelech, Our focus is now turned to Jacob, and it's important for us to remember what has already happened in the life of Jacob. In chapter 25, we saw the birth of twins, Jacob and Esau. And you'll all remember that it was Esau who was born first, but he was born with Jacob grasping at the eel. And Jacob's name is a play on that word for heel, and it means to supplant or to trip up. But what we really need to remember is what God said to Rebecca in very clear terms in chapter 25, verse 23. Two nations are in your room and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. Brothers and sisters, this is the will of God. The older will serve the younger. This is the way it will be, not because one is inherently better than the other, but because God said so. This is the way it will be. And there is no man, there is no creature who will be able to thwart the plan and the purpose of God. And then later in that same chapter, we saw the word from God come to fruition or start to come to fruition. We saw that Esau despised his birthright. Esau came home from a long hunt, tired, exhausted, hungry, and he said that he was ready to die. Clearly an exaggeration. And he sold his birthright to Jacob for some of the red stuff, as he called it, lentil soup. Now, people often speak poorly of Jacob here, being a deceiver. But the Bible tells us it was Esau who despised his birthright. And there was no deception here or at that point there. It was straightforward. Soup for the birthright. And the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 that Esau was a profane man who sold his birthright for a mere morsel of food. No deception on Jacob's part. Well, this evening we'll now see that what God has said, the older will serve the younger, comes to fruition in the most surprising of ways. What we see first is Jacob, with all his might, trying to thwart the will of God. He plans to bless Esau. And we'll also see Rebecca try to deceive Isaac that the blessing might fall upon Jacob and Jacob, of course, in that deceit as well. But ultimately, what we'll see is the triumph of God's sovereignty. Despite the wickedness of each person involved here, God's word is not thwarted. By grace, God keeps his word spoken to Rebecca long ago, and it will not be undone because of her sin. It will not be undone because of Jacob's attempt to bless Esau instead. God's will will be done. Now this is a passage of scripture where no one comes out smelling, you might say, like roses. We see sin all around. But nonetheless, God's word is kept by God. And so the passage screams out the grace and the sovereignty of God. We'll be looking at four things this evening. First of all, Isaac's attempt to thwart the plan of God or God's will. Then we'll look at Rebecca's deception of Isaac. We'll look at Jacob's deception of his father. And finally, we'll see the triumph of God's sovereignty. Let's then look at Isaac's attempt to thwart the will of God. The first four verses, again, 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 let me ask you, does this sound familiar to you? Does it ring a bell of something else? Isaac is talking about his death. In other words, he fears he might die soon. At least he's hinting at that. And what does he want before he dies? Not the red stuff, necessarily, right? He wants food. He kind of sounds just like Esau, doesn't he? He reminds us of Esau who came home from a hunt and claimed that he was near death and he wanted some food. Now there are several problems here with Isaac's request. It wasn't a mere request just for food. You can make that request of your son, right? Hey, I'd love to eat some wild game. Mind going out and hunting? But it wasn't just that. Several problems. One, Isaac is not as ready to die as he's alluding to here. Surely he's old, his eyesight is gone. Thus he can't be hunting himself, you would think. But that doesn't mean that he's necessarily near death. In fact, according to scripture, Isaac dies at 180 years of age, according to Genesis chapter 35, verses 28 and 29. In other words, it may be like another 40-something years before Isaac dies. He's not near death. And so his claim here or his illusion here is greatly exaggerated, just like I told you Esau's was exaggerated. Second thing I want you to notice is that he calls his son Esau to him in private and speaks to him privately and later plans to pronounce the blessing on him privately. The problem with this is that the granting of this blessing was not normally a secret affair done in private between a father and a son. It could even be a public event, a cause for celebration. At the very least, you'd expect that Rebecca and Jacob would be there. It seems, therefore, that Isaac doesn't want Jacob nor Rebecca knowing what he's going to do. Perhaps fearful. that they're going to object to his plan to bless Esau and not Jacob. Third, furthermore, the normal practice of giving a double portion to the oldest son means that there'd be something left over for the other son or sons. Yet as Isaac blesses whom he thinks to be Esau, verses 27 and 29, there's really nothing left for Jacob. As you look at verses 38 to 40, when the real Esau gets blessed, there isn't really much left. They kind of gave it all away. He intended the entire portion to go to Esau and Jacob to be left with the leftovers, the scraps you might say. Fourth problem, why is Isaac doing this? It's because Esau is his favorite. Scripture has told us that already back in chapter 25. And why does he favor Esau? It's because Isaac loves to please his senses. He loved the wild game that Esau would bring, and that's what he desires now. Remember how chapter 26 closed. Esau had taken not just one wife, but two wives from the Hittites. They were enemies of Israel. Isaac was not to have a wife from the land that he dwelt in, but from his father's family. Esau didn't follow this. Esau had no concern for the covenant, for the things of the Lord, and yet at the same time, he was his father's favorite, all because he could hunt. You see, some could argue that in some sense, Isaac's God was his belly. A fifth problem here, is that the birthright had been sold by Jacob to Esau. In fact, did you notice that even the Scripture here does not call Esau the firstborn? In verse 1, he's called what? He's called the older, his older son, but Scripture isn't calling him the firstborn. It is calling him the older son. And the reason for this is that Esau no longer, if you will, had firstborn status. He's the older son, but he's not, technically speaking, the firstborn anymore. Okay, he was born first, he was still that. But what I'm alluding to here, what I'm pointing out here, is that he sold his birthright. And what it appears now is that Esau, with the help of Isaac, is breaking that oath. There's a difference, of course, between the birthright and the blessing, but it was the birthright that apparently entitled one to the blessing. Is that why Isaac's doing this in secret? Yeah, I know you sold the birthright. Let's gather in secret and I'll still bless you nonetheless. And Jacob, or I'm sorry, Esau, at this point, doesn't say, it shouldn't be, Dad, I sold the birthright to Jacob, it now belongs to him. He's ready, nonetheless, yeah, let's do this. I'll take that blessing. But here's the greatest problem with what Isaac is doing. God had said to Rebekah, while the boys were in the womb, the older shall serve the younger. There's no doubt that this, though spoken to Rebecca, was told to Isaac as well. And what Isaac was doing here flew in the face of what God had said. In fact, do you notice the blessing that Isaac thought he was pronouncing on Esau? Verse 29, in particular, let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. This is what God said would be true of the younger. And Isaac was trying to pronounce it on the older. Your brothers are going to serve you, Esau. So he thought he was saying to Esau when God had said it was going to be otherwise. And so do you see what Isaac is doing here? Do you see the big problem here? He's challenging the word of God. He didn't like what God had said. He's trying to, to thwart, to change. the plan of God, to thwart the will of God. Of course, it's never going to work. You cannot thwart the plan of God. But he's trying to give to Esau what God said belonged to Jacob. And of course, we see it does not work. God's plan cannot be thwarted. God's plan cannot be undone. We often think of Rebekah and Jacob in sin here, and indeed they are. There's deception here. But what we have to see here is Isaac challenging the sovereignty of God. He fails, but he challenges it. Then in verses 5 to 13, we see Rebekah move into action. She heard the talk between Isaac and Esau. They didn't have one of those high tech tents with soundproof curtains. Probably this older man thought he was talking quietly, gotta talk loud. And so now she wants to thwart the plan of Isaac. And she has quite a plan and really thinks of all these little details. Jacob's to get two kids, not children, two kids. Children, you know what kids are, right? Baby goats. and she'll cook them up in a savory way. And Jacob is to bring it to Isaac, pretending to be Esau, back from the hunt. Isaac now is near blind, so he can't see who it is. But we know that Jacob and Esau were quite different. Esau, a hairy man, Jacob, a smooth man. And her plan includes placing the kids hide. skin with hair on Jacob's hand so that when Isaac touches it, he'll feel the hair and think, oh, that is Esau. Makes me kind of think, man, he must've been a really hairy guy if that was gonna be the plan. She'll even have Jacob put on some of Esau's clothes so that he'll have the scent of Esau. What a sly, devious plan. And it actually works, as we'll see. Isaac is deceived and the blessing is pronounced on Jacob instead of Esau. Now some will point out that though her plan is a lie, her motives are right. And there's some truth, of course, to that. Perhaps Rebecca is really concerned about the plan of God. God had said the older will serve the younger. And now she sees Isaac's plan as an attempt to thwart the plan of God. And so as devious as her plan may be, she's going to attempt to thwart the plan of her husband to thwart the plan of God. But let me stress, brothers and sisters, what I hope you know already, two wrongs don't make a right. Children, you hear that from your parents or your grandparents? Just because somebody else is wrong doesn't mean you should be wrong in dealing with them. She may have a great motive here. Isaac's plan is flying in the face of the revealed will of God. But her actions are sinful. Her actions are wrong. It's possible to do the wrong thing, even if you might say for the right reason. By that, I'm not justifying doing the right, the wrong thing. You ought not to do the wrong thing. It's never right to do the wrong thing. It's never right to sin. But perhaps she's hoping to see the plan of God fulfilled. But there are problems, several reasons why her plan is wrong, why her plan is sin. It's a lie, it's deception. She's lying to her own husband. Secondly, she's leading her son in sin and in lying to his father. Third, God doesn't need her help to keep his word. Perhaps we don't know all of what is in her mind, all of what she was thinking. But perhaps she thought that if Isaac's plan succeeds, then God's word is not going to be true. And she figured, perhaps I got to try to fix this. As I say, we don't know all of what she was thinking. But even if that's what she was thinking, it kind of reminds you, too, of Abraham, right? Different problems, different times, God made a promise. Yeah, go into Hagar. It's a good idea, Sarah. Maybe God will fulfill the plan that way. Or God, maybe you should keep this through my servant instead of giving me a son, thinking it would never happen. Problem, of course, with Abraham going to Hagar is that it was adultery and sin, and God didn't need Abraham's help to keep his word. And here as well, God doesn't need, if you will, Rebecca to deceive her husband so that he can keep his word. And yet God does, even through all of this mess and sin and deviousness, still keeps his word. So even if her motives were, I want God's word fulfilled, her actions are still wrong. She took matters into her own hands. Remember what it says in Proverbs, Proverbs three, five to eight. Trust the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turned away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Trust in the Lord, your own heart, don't lean on your own understanding. Perhaps that was. That's what Rebecca was trying to do, lean on her own understanding. She failed to trust the Lord and leaned on her own understanding. Fourth, though we might think that it might be unlikely for her husband to have heard her, what should she have done? She should have gone to her husband, peacefully, submissively. gently reminding him of the word of God. This is what God said. He said, the older will serve the younger. How can you pronounce the blessing therefore on the older? How can you say, may your brothers bow down to you? That is contrary to the word of God. She should have went to her husband, but she doesn't. And perhaps in her mind, she thought, he'll never listen. Too often, we view the word of God that way, don't we? What is one of the reasons we don't evangelize the way we should? He's never gonna listen. He's too hard. Again, you've already heard preached to you. That's the word of God and it's powerful. and is able to bring those who are hardened. Fifth, we never see her bringing this whole matter to the Lord in prayer. She has a plan. She fulfills her plan. She doesn't go to the Lord seeking wisdom. She doesn't go to the word. She doesn't bring the word to Isaac. She may have had some good intentions, but she was wrong. And just because you have good intentions doesn't mean that what you did or do is necessarily right. We often want to justify the things we do because we think, well, we have we had good intentions, but good intention doesn't make it right. What's God's word say? Our intentions aren't our rule for faith and life. God's word is the only rule for faith and life. Neither Isaac nor Rebecca were following the word of God here, nor Jacob, for that matter. Jacob here is guilty as well. We do see him having some objection to his mother's plan in verse 12. Perhaps he says, my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and he'll bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. However, his objection was not because of the morality of the issue, because of the plan being not biblical, not according to the word of God. The problem he had with the plan was what? I might get caught. Children, is that why sometimes you obey your parents or you obey what God says? I might get caught doing otherwise. Now that's something, but what's a whole lot better? I'm going to obey because it's right in the sight of God. Jacob's objection is not because of the lack of morality in the plan, it's because he didn't want to get caught. and instead have a curse rather than the blessing. By the way, he's probably in his late 70s here. His mother says, however, the curse be upon me. She comes up with this plan, bring animal skins and the clothes of your brother to fool your father. Jacob, the smooth man that he is, goes through with Rebecca's plan. And in verse 11, Jacob says that his brother is Harry, and that he is smooth. Now, he's talking about the skin here, but there's an interesting thing to note. The word smooth is primarily used of one who is slippery or seductive. Or, you know, we might use that terminology even in our own English language, right? He's smooth. He's a smooth operator. He's devious. Isaac is not fooled immediately by Jacob. He hears the voice of Jacob, And not only that, how could he have gotten back so soon from the hunt and prepared food? Wow, that's quick. But smoothie Jacob here confuses the rest of Isaac's senses. The skins on Jacob's hands are there and his neck. He fooled the sense of touch. The food prepared by Rebecca fooled his sense of taste. It wasn't wild game. It was goat. He fooled his sense of smell wearing his brother's clothes. He fooled his sense of time when Isaac thought that things went too quickly. Jacob's response was, well, because the Lord granted me success. Children in my catechism class, what commandment is that a violation of? Well, OK, probably a couple of commandments there. Of course, bearing false witness, right? But not just that, what's he doing? when he's taking God's name. The Lord granted me success. He's violating the third commandment, taking God's name in vain. God bear witness to this. Not only lying, taking God's name in vain. This is sin and this is a serious matter. All sin is a serious matter. In the prior incident with the selling of the birthright, I told you then that Jacob was basically In the right, that's not what I'm gonna tell you in this incident here. Jacob is resorting to deception, again, lying to his father, even going so far as to take the name of the Lord on his mouth and say, the Lord is the one who granted me success. And Isaac is fooled, though he obviously has some doubts. And again, why didn't Jacob trust in the plan of God? Why didn't he go to his father and say, my brother sold me the birthright and God has said. And see what his father did with that. But here's what the whole passage is about. Despite the fact that Isaac tried with all of his might to thwart the plan and purpose of God, despite the fact that Rebecca and Jacob sinned and showed themselves not worthy of the blessing that was pronounced. God's sovereignty nonetheless triumphed. Take a look at the blessing that was pronounced on Jacob. And remember, as we're reading this again, that Jacob in his, or sorry, Isaac in his mind, was pronouncing this so he thought on Esau. Verses 27 to 29. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, see, the smell of my son is the smell of the field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. A few things to point out about this blessing. One, he says, may God give you the dew of heaven. Dew is very important, especially in that part of the world that had a long, dry, rainless season. Dew could keep the plants alive during those seasons. Second, he also asked that God give him the fat of the earth and grain and wine. And third, the chief part of the blessing here, may nations serve you, bow down to you. And the blessing, of course, recalls what the Lord said to Jacob while he was in the womb. And here's what I love. Isaac is fighting the plan of God. He thinks that he's pronouncing the blessing on Esau. And here he is, used by God to bring about what God had said. He's trying to undo the plan of God. He's fighting against the plan of God. And what he does is he keeps the plan of God. The sovereignty of God is an amazing thing. An unwilling participant, you might say, in the hand of a sovereign God, who can even use and does use the actions of wicked men to accomplish his good purpose. There is nothing that is outside of the plan of God. There is no action. God governs even the actions of sinful men to accomplish his perfect purpose. I think you heard from Pastor Toley during the Sunday school class about God not merely permitting things to happen, but God sovereignly ordaining things to happen, that His will be done. And here God is ruling this whole situation to bring His will. When man thinks he's fighting against the plan of God, he's being used in the hand of God to accomplish His purpose. You can think of so many incidences in scripture. Right here, one, you can think again of Joseph being sold into Egypt, wickedness on his brother's part. But this was the plan and purpose of God. to feed his people in the famine. You can think in Acts chapter two and Acts chapter four. Both those chapters talk about Christ being put on the cross according to the planned purpose of God, which you did with wicked hands. God is in control of all things. And God, even in this mess here, keeps his word Jacob is blessed and Christ comes into the world and is born through the line as God has said. Something else to point out here in talking about the sovereignty of God, I think you ought to see very clearly the doctrine of election. Word he told you that Jacob was in sin for his deception here and yet Still, the blessing of God is pronounced upon him. It's not because he was worthy. It's because God had chosen him. In fact, perhaps we want to scream out here as we look at this. Look what he did. He's a deceiver. He's not worthy. The fact of the matter is, I consider the fact that God brought me to faith. I could say the same thing. I'm not worthy. I didn't come to him, God brought me. Romans chapter 9, 10 through 13 says, and not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done neither good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved and Esau, but Esau I hated. God doesn't love Jacob because he's lovable. God loves him because he chose him. God doesn't love us because we're lovable, but because he chose us. If you're in Christ, it's not because you're great. It's all of grace, all of his electing love. We are not worthy. told you many, many times the doctrine of election is such an amazing, humbling doctrine. What is their prideful? What is there to be prideful in being sons of Jacob? It's not you were responsible for your election. It's God. What can we take pride in in that? In fact, we know we've been elected We back up, right? We think about the fact of God bringing us who were dead in sin. If I was dead in sin, it's not me who had the wisdom. It's all of God. There's nothing for me to boast in. What an amazing passage of scripture. Isaac fights against the plan of God, but can't thwart it. Jacob shows that he's unworthy of the blessing of God, and yet by grace still receives it. God still, through that line, sends his Son into the world. Christ is born. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank you and how we praise you that you are the sovereign God and you have a perfect plan that includes all things. You govern all things and you've worked out your plan and you are working out your plan. You have sent Christ into the world.