and this is another one. Chris asked me a question tonight and I want you to ask me that again. Okay. Right now? Right now. So we were talking earlier about Rahab and how she lied to the men in the city and hid the two spies and then about Jacob and Rebecca how they lied and deceived Isaac to get the blessing and then I was asking about Moses and Sarah how they went ahead of God and he had a child with Hagar and and that was not okay that was like out of God's will but you you're teaching that what Rahab did was good and what Jacob and and Rebecca did to the dad Isaac was okay and I want to know how do you how do those three things mesh because to me they all look like they're not right they're all And and if and if if one is right, can't God do his will without humans having to do something deceitful and lying? Can't he succeed and do his will without us? Well, I just want to tell you this God's on God's eternal purpose and unpreventable progress. Remember that God has an eternal purpose and he has an unpreventable progress. He will bring that about, regardless of mankind. And sometimes, maybe something might not be his direct will, but it might be his permissive will. And let's go back to Abraham and Hagar. You have to look at the whole story, and you have to look at all of Abraham's life. Abraham married his half-sister Sarah God told him to get out of your country and go He began to go he took his father with him and they went as far as Horan and his father had to die before God could get him go any further and His brother died and His brother died young God allows things to happen something like that because Abraham probably wouldn't have gone if his father hadn't died and his brother hadn't died. And when his brother had died, then guess what? Then he took his nephew Lot with him. Why did God allow Abraham to take his nephew Lot with him when Lot was a saved man but he was ungodly buzzard? Well, how can you see far ahead Why did God allow Abraham to take a lot with him? Why did God allow his brother to die? Why did God allow his father to die in Haran? Because he wanted to get him into the promised land and God can just absolutely make all things that try to block him You know a lot of things have happened to me in my life I I've had people trying to kill me and They almost did. But you know what? I look back on it, and I've been through some really hair-raising scrapes in my life. Terrible, close-to-death deals. But they never had a chance. They may as well have given up. Because until God is finished with you, you're not going to go anyplace. I'm standing up here shaking from arsenic poisoning and trembling all over from that. And I'm dying from that and mercury poisoning. But I'm shaking from the mercury poisoning. And my vascular system is destroyed by the arsenic, literally. It was supposed to kill me. Eight years ago, I only had two months to live. That's what they told me to do it. Just get everything ready, because you've got two months. That's all you're going to live. That's it. It's over with. Just prepare. Well, I just kept on preaching. I couldn't see to preach. I had to get somebody to read my Bible for me and everything, but I just kept on doing it. Because I knew what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to preach, so I'm going to do that. The devil can throw everything at you in the world to try to get you diverted in every way, but he don't have a chance. God's gonna win Go back to Abraham Abraham married his half-sister, sir God had the lot do a lot in Abraham's life To get him where he wanted him He went into the land of Canaan come on and he left He went down in Egypt. He got down in Egypt and he got afraid God was going to protect him no matter what and He didn't have to fear about anything, but he wasn't sure, was he? So what did he do? He sold his half-sister, which was the woman through where the promise was supposed to come. He sold her to another man as his wife. So what happened? What did God do? He protected her from becoming sexually united with Pharaoh. And he made it very plain. He closed all the wombs up of the women in Pharaoh. They could not cohabit with the women. Their wombs were closed. Pharaoh says, something's going on here. This isn't right. And so he confronted Abraham. And Abraham admitted that he lied to him. And Abraham, in the meanwhile, before this, he had taken a bride from Pharaoh. Pharaoh gave him his daughter. Pharaoh's daughter was Hagar. Now you can look that up in the book of Jasher, also. It was a political marriage. But instead of marrying her, like he was supposed to do, to begin with, he gave her to Sarah for a slave. Boy, what an insult. to favor all that was. So he gets back over in the land. He goes down a little bit further and then he goes over to Bimelech. And what does he do with Bimelech? He sells his wife again to Bimelech. Just look at this mess. And guess what God does to Bimelech? Don't you touch that man. Don't you touch that woman. I will kill you. You have that man that he's a prophet of God and you have him pray for you. Why, Bimelech should have been praying for Abraham. But Abraham was the prophet of God. He was God's man. And so he took her and he said, just do whatever you want to. Keep her. Don't lie to me. And he was safe. Did Abraham have to do those two things? Two of the same sins. Was it a sin for him to be a used wife's ailman? I mean we think about terrible people as used car saleman's they used to be you know them I've worked in that and with those people But he did it two times and then Isaac did it I Think did it well we see all of this and just see God's unpreventable progress There and his eternal purpose. You can't bend it It's gonna happen there somehow God is gonna bring you through Well, then, Sarah said, hey, I don't have a kid. It's your fault. It's your fault I'm not getting pregnant. So I'll tell you what, just to prove it to you, Abraham, you go into this young barrel woman and just see what happens. Now, this is what she's thinking in her head. It's his fault. But it wasn't his fault. Because see, a woman that's womb was closed up, the woman that couldn't conceive, it was considered that God had cursed her for some reason. Okay? And so she thinks she's cursed. But she's gonna prove to Abraham that she isn't. Except it backfires on her. So Hagar gets pregnant and then she's mad. What does Sarah mean? What does the name Sarah mean? It means contentious. The woman was contentious. She was a crab. So she whined and griped and grumbled and everything and was miserable to Hagar. She's mad. God said, Sarah, it's you. It's you. So she's angry. So she blame shifts. That's what happened in the garden. Isn't that what happens? People, you know, it's their fault, not mine. So, they have this kid. And the kids don't get along very well. Sarah tells again to Abraham, get rid of that woman and that kid. I don't want them in my sight. And again, Abraham is very reluctant to do that because this is his firstborn son. He looks upon Isaac as his child, but, you know, his firstborn son was Ishmael, and that was something special to Abraham. And she's royal. She is a This child this woman is the princess of Egypt. I mean even though she was from a concubine, but she was Pharaoh's what daughter and So he cast her out Hagar means wanderer He cast her out and Then God appears to her Jehovah appears to her and she said Jehovah my shepherd That's the first time that the Lord my shepherd that was ever used that term in the Bible as far as I can tell Jehovah Roy Lord my shepherd And God watched over her. And in God's unpreventable progress and His eternal purpose, He tells her that there are going to be nations come out of this child. But the nations coming out of that child are going to be enemies of Jacob, aren't they? And Israel. That's what happened. Because Abraham went down in Egypt, God told Abraham your children are gonna go down in Egypt. They're gonna be down there 400 years But they're gonna come out with a lot and with a lot of wealth just like you did Now When Sarah finally dies, what does Abraham do? Does he just settle back and twiddle his psalms and just say, well, Lord, I have this child, and I'm just really happy that I have this one child, and even though I have Ishmael, that one child is Isaac. Of course, you know, God had already tested him. He told him to go to Mount Moriah and to sacrifice that son, and he was willing to do that, because he believed God. And we look at that as Abraham, but Abraham didn't always believe God and didn't always want to follow God, did he? So he married the sweet-smelling woman, Keturah. That's what her name means, sweet-smelling. And he had several children by Keturah, didn't he? Several children by Keturah. And guess what? Most of those children, and by the way, from these three wives, he had a Hamite, He had a Shemite and a Japhethite. From these three sons, we're almost all related to Abraham. Physically, by blood. If you did your DNA, you would probably find out that you're related to Abraham. Literally. Through him, his seed would be like what? The sands of the sea and like the stars of heaven. Well, now guess what? Most of those sons of Keturah are enemies of the promised son, aren't they? Is God going to protect, is he going to let those Esau's children, is he going to let Ishmael's children, and is he going to let Keturah's children overrun and overtake and destroy Israel? Jacob's sons? No. Not going to happen. Now, how many lives, how many lives, how much blood has been spilled because of those three marriages? Lots of it has God brought it to his His eternal purpose is he still used it instead now we covered Abraham just a little bit now we go back to Rakhab Rakhab Rahab Rahab Was a prostitute she was a very wealthy a well-trained prostitute and the despised, went to her house. She believed that God was going to give the land to them and she wanted to be part of the promise, which she ended up being part of the promise. But to be part of that promise, she lied, didn't she? Now, here we have a reformed whore, so to speak, a prostitute. We have another one in the New Testament, which is Mary Magdalene. Now, their professions were deceitful. They were liars. They were immoral. But yet God, through Rahab, brought forth his son. And for Rahab to succeed, she lied, didn't she? That was part of her former trade, was lying, deceiving. Did she deceive the king? Yeah. Did God use her in his eternal purpose and unpreventable progress? Did he? Could he have done it without it? Of course he could have, but did he? No. Now he writes down all the mistakes of these people here in the book. He writes all the mistakes down here. If I was going to start a religion, I would leave out all the dark places, all the skeletons in the closet, but God just lets it all hang out. He has nothing to hide, does he? Can God use sinful men and women to bring about his purpose? Yeah. Let us go to Jacob now. Now, if you go back a little further, You'll find out that Abraham bought a tomb. He buried his wife. He got a bride for Isaac. Rebekah is chosen by Eliezer to bring, he's going to bring her back in and give her to Isaac for a wife. She's very beautiful. She's very young. She probably has red hair. That's where Esau probably had his red hair, was from this woman. Because her brother Laban was called Whitey. And usually people that have red hair, when they get just about 30 years old or 40 years old, their hair just turns white. My great, great, great grandfather, Smith Paul, had red hair, and his hair turned white, just snow white. And probably Laban was a redhead, and so was Rebecca. Well, he brought her, and she was very young. She didn't get pregnant for about 20 years And it would be wondering, you know What's going on here? Well Now we find the descendants of Ishmael in the 25th chapter of Genesis We Have Isaac's sons When Isaac was 40 years old, he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Armenian of Padamaran, sister of Laban the Armenian, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. Now, she had been barren for a long time. And the Lord answered his prayer and Rebekah caught seed, literally, is what it says. But the children were struggling within her and she said, it is so, why then am I this way? And she went out to inquire of the Lord why that she's having all this wrassling in her stomach, it's like your guts are tying up or something. And the Lord said, there are two nations are in your womb. Two people shall be separated from your body, the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. When our days to be delivered were fulfilled, now do you think, Chris, you think if the Lord appeared to you when you were pregnant, you had twins, if the Lord appeared to you When you were pregnant with these twins and they were wrestling like this in you, and you inquired of the Lord and the Lord told you this, what would be the first person you told? My husband. Your husband. Do you think that Rebecca told Isaac? That would be a good assumption. Yeah, that would be a pretty good assumption. Do you think Isaac was ignorant of this situation? No. Okay. The older shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And now the first came out red, all over Harry like a garment. And they named him Esau, which means Harry or red. And afterward, his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, so that his name was called Jacob. It means to hold by the heel. And Isaac was 60 years old. And see, now look, 20 years later, the girl didn't get pregnant for 20 years. A lot of times when they have child brides, and she was a child bride, sometimes the child brides are never able to conceive because their womb has been damaged because they were married too young. And this is what could have happened to her. But God turned that around. We know that Muhammad and most Muslims want to follow their master, teacher, their prophet. Muhammad married a girl when she was five years old. Her name was Aisha. Aisha. He married, he contracted for her marriage from Abu Bakr when she was five years old. He married, he literally consummated that marriage when she was seven years old. She never was able to conceive. she was never able to conceive. She was a child bride. And it damaged her to where she could not conceive. That's what people think today. I mean, people that honestly study this type of thing. Now, there are still child brides over there all over the place, and a lot of times the child brides die. And even though this woman was a child bride, now you just think 20 years later, How old would Rebecca had been if she was 20 years old? That would have been 40. Of course, Sarah was 90. But most people think that Rebecca was 9 to 12 years old when she married. because she still had a wet nurse. She was still nursing her wet nurse at that time, so she was pretty young. They usually nursed the wet nurse until they were 12 years old, so she was probably under 12 years old. That's what a lot of Bible students and scholars think about this situation here. It's a miracle that she could have a child at all. But she did. She had two of them. And God had intervened and spoken to her directly with prophecy. God spoke to Noah in prophecy didn't he told what would happen? That the one son Canaan would be a cursed son and they would go in and settle land of Canaan But you're gonna come in there and you're gonna dwell and he's gonna be a servant to your sham and to Japheth also That happened didn't it? That was in the early book. Yeah, that's a ninth chapter of Genesis God is able to call the shots before they happen then He knew exactly what everything would do. When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter and a man of the field. But Jacob was a peaceful man and living in tents. Why did Jacob live in tents? Because he was a sheepherder and a cowboy. They had cattle. They might have even had elephants. They had camels. cattle, and they had goats, and they had sheep. Now, to protect those, he lived in tents and followed the herds. Now, Esau loved, or Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game. He was a glutton for that wild game. And Rebekah loved Jacob. Why did Rebekah pick out Jacob over Esau? She knew what was supposed to happen. She knew she could trust in Him because this is God's man. Now, Isaac, instead of heeding the direct communication from God to them, did God directly communicate with Rebekah? Absolutely. Did Esau, the boy, turn out the way God saw that he would turn out? He was a frivolous boy that didn't think anything about family. Jacob was a breadwinner. He was a shepherd. He was a cowboy. He was a defender and provider of the home and Esau just fooled around. He was always out playing in the fields. Now Esau was unsuccessful hunting and he came in from the field and he was famished. And so Esau said to Jacob, please let me have a swallow of that red stuff, the lentils. By the way, lentils are the cheapest commodity in that land. Nothing costs less than lentils. That's a very, what we call, easy product to get, and it costs very little. So he had been cooking this lentil. It's like beans. It's like a little bean. He said, I am famished. Therefore, his name was called Edom, red. But Jacob said, first, sell me your birthright. Now, did Jacob know that he was supposed to be the promised son? I'm sure he did. Who do you think told him that? His mother. His mother. And his mother had told his father that way, but his father was not going to follow the will of God, was he? Did Abraham follow the will of God when he went down in Egypt? Did he follow the will of God when he sold his wife, a used wife, to Pharaoh? Was he following the will of God when he sold the same wife to Abimelech? No. Did God overrule all of it? So how is God going to overrule this? Now since Isaac is bound and determined to bless Esau, the non-Promised Son, over the Promised Son, now turn back or forward in your Bibles to the book of Malachi. The book of Malachi. We could go God hated Esau so much that he wrote his name in his Bible in several places. Now this is an oracle here in the book of Malachi. Malachi means my messenger. And the oracle of the word, the bar of Jehovah to Israel through Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord, yet I have loved Jacob? Who was the chosen son? Jacob. But I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation, and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness. Now in the New Testament, it says again, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated, because Esau was a glutton and sold his birthright for a single meal. God's unpreventable progress and eternal purpose. The 25th chapter of Genesis. Sell me your birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am about to die. So of what use then is my birthright to me? So what? I don't care about it. The Bible says, God said that he despised his birthright. Jacob would have died for it. Esau didn't care. And Jacob said, first, swear to me. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread. Now, he gave him more than what he bargained for, didn't he? He gave him bread. And he gave him lentil stew. And he ate and he drank. What did he think he was drinking? He was drinking wine. He filled the table up. He sold his birthright for a single spoonful of lentil soup. That's what he asked for. Jacob gave him more than what he asked for And he went on his way and thus he's all despised hated his birthright If you look there and you go back in the New Testament, you'll find out in Hebrews 12 and verse 16 They'll go to the New Testament now. I'm not just depending on what happened back there. Let's go see what God said about it. I Verse 14, pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it may be defiled. And there be no immoral or godless persons, irreligious persons, like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was going to cheat his brother out of the blessing. He sold it willingly, but now he's going to cheat to get it back. And his father knows better and he's going to give it to the wrong man. He was rejected for found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears. He bawled when it was all over with. He bawled and bawled and bawled and squalled. His birthright is sold. Now we go over to the 27th chapter of the book of Genesis. Now it came about when Isaac was old and his eyes became too dim to see. Why do you think he became blind? Not every old person becomes blind. But why did Isaac go blind? Why did Isaac go blind? God's unpreventable progress and his eternal purpose, God caused him to go blind. Because he had to blind him. Because the man was going to go the wrong way. So, it's better, in the New Testament, it says it's better for you to be lame, cut that hand off, cut that foot off, poke those eyes out. Isn't that what it says? So God poked his eyes out so that he wouldn't go the wrong way. But he still tried. He's still sinning. He's still trying. Don't go the wrong way. So what does God do since he's going the wrong way if? God made it evident to him that this was his son. Do you think God didn't speak to East to Isaac's heart also? I Think what God Isaac kept saying no Lord. No Lord. I don't like that boy. I Even though he's providing food for me and taking care of all the animals, and my playboy son is out running around chasing and getting me an antelope or a deer or something now and then. I like that. I'm just going to bless him anyway in spite of you, God. So what does God do? He blinds him. And he uses... Now Jacob is an unwilling apomplice in this, isn't he? Is Jacob unwilling to do this? No. Yes, he is. He's unwilling I'm gonna tell you something a lot of people look at Joseph as the most perfect example of Christ But I'm gonna tell you want one of the most perfect examples of Christianity and the Old Testament to me is Jacob Jacob Jacob went to hell on earth Terrible times, but he always did the right thing He always did He always did the right thing He always chose God first. His older son, he saw and said to him, my son, and he said to him, here I am. I am going to thwart the purpose of God. I am going to get around that boy, and I'm going to bless you in spite of God and in spite of Rebecca. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Basically, that's what's happening right here. And Isaac said, Behold, now I am old, and I do not know the day of my death. So I am going to pervert the purpose and the eternal plan of God. I'm going to bless you instead. Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out in the field and hunt game for me. And prepare a savory dish for me as I love. and bring it to me that I may eat it, so that my soul may bless you before I die." I'm telling you what, he's shaking his fist at God. Isn't he? Is he or is he not? Am I reading something in here that's not there? I may be ad-libbing along here as things go on, but I'm telling you, that's what's happening. God's unpreventable progress and His eternal purpose is going to happen. Rebecca was listening. Do you think Rebecca was listening by accident? How come Rebecca could still hear good some women go deaf don't they? She's still able hearing she she's not deaf and she's not blind is she because God is gonna use her In spite of Isaac he is going to bring about his purpose in spite of Esau and Rebecca was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went out to the field to hunt for game and to bring it home, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau saying, I bring me now some game and prepare a savory dish for me that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, listen to me that I have command you. And you go to the flock and bring me two choice kids from there that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father such as he loves." She knows how to do this. And she says, go get me two billy goats because they stink a little more than the female ones. Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death. And Jacob answered, Behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, then I shall be a deceiver in his sight, and I shall bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing. He didn't want to do this, did he? So he makes an excuse for it. I can't do this My father will curse me now look Your father wants to bless to get blessed and go around when Esau despises birthright He's Isaac is gonna go around God's promise and he's gonna bless his is your brother instead of you now take work with me Work with me boy But his mother said to him your curse be upon me my son. I Obey my voice and go and get them for me so he went and got them and brought them to his mother and his mother made a savory food such as his father loved and Rebecca took the best garments for Avis all her elder son which were with her in the house Tent actually and put them on Jacob her younger son. Now. She's gonna dress him in his clothes Now I'm gonna tell you something Esau was a stinker. He stunk. He smelled like a goat. And his father was used to smelling that goat. And so now, Rebecca is going to take a goat skin with all the musky smell of it, and she is going to put it on her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids on his hands, and on the smooth part of his neck, because she knew her husband was going to kiss him on the neck. And so she's going to make him smell like a goat, like Esau did. And she gave the savory food and the bread which she had made to her son Jacob. What's she doing wrong? Do you think God made her able to hear. Do you think God put her in the right place to hear what was going on? Or do you think God was using her to bring about his purpose? Okay, yes, but but we're raised with saying that don't lie. Don't Steve. Don't cheat. Don't steal. Deceitful. That's right. Like we're raised that that's deceitful. Yes, you are deceiving someone and you're deceiving not just someone you're deceiving the head of your house. Yes, like as a woman, you know, I even believe I'm to listen to Jason even if, even if I think he's not making the right decisions. Right decisions, yes. You're supposed to obey the, but this man was going contrary, diametrically opposed to the will of God. That is true, and I, and I, and God doesn't tell us to follow someone that it's going against what he tells us to do. This man was gonna dead, dead set to go against the will of God. He is dead set to do it. And if it's the last thing he does, he's going to bless that boy he loves instead of the one that God loves. Now, does God clearly say in his word that he hated Esau? Yes. Is there any mistaking that God hated this man? No. Do you think God wanted Isaac to bless Esau? No. No. So what's he doing? He's using Rebecca. She is there. She is a tool that she's using. She's a tool. Then he came to his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? Now, evidently, Isaac could still hear OK. God hadn't really done enough job work on him to where he couldn't hear. He could have made him deaf also. But no, he didn't do that. With mercy, he could still hear. With God's eternal purpose in sight, God made him lose his eyesight. He blinded him. And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Get up, please, and sit and eat my game, that you may bless me. Now Isaac is just a little bit leery of what's going on here. Everything that Rebecca did was necessary. Every move that she made was directed by the hand of God. Because let's look and see if it didn't work. And Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have so quickly, my son, have you come so quickly, my son? He said, because the Lord your God caused it to happen to me. Now, did he use God's name in vain? No. Did the Lord God, did Jehovah Elohim actually guide this whole situation? Was He actually standing back letting everything flow just exactly like He wanted it to flow? Yes. In spite of them, in spite of Isaac, He's going to bless the right man. He didn't want to. Your God has caused it to happen to me. Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come close, that I may what? Was it necessary for her to get Esau's clothes? Were Esau's clothes accessible? I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob clung close to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Was it necessary for Rebecca to put the goat skins on his arms? Yes. Did a goat sin smell like a goat? Of course. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. Look at the whole story. Look at every little angle of the situation. Every little angle. And he said, are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am. So he said, bring it to me and I will eat of my son's game. that I may bless you. And he brought it to him, and he ate. He also brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, please come close and kiss me, my son. Was it necessary for him to put the stuff around his neck? Every little thing, he made Rebecca think of every little clue. Didn't he? So he came close and he kissed him. And when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, Oh, I've got it. I've done it. I have overcome God finally and once for all. I'm going to bless Esau. See, the smell of my son is like the smell of the field felt like a goat. Which the Lord has blessed. Now, may God give you the dew of the heavens. and the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine. May people serve you." Look at this! What is he doing? What did God tell Rebecca? That the older shall serve the younger. And he's going a direct contrary will of God. Is he or is he not? He is doing it. Everything he's going against the will of God. Directly. Yet God blinded him and allowed Rebecca to think of the right things to do. Every little angle, every little loophole, she thought of the right thing to do. He said, may people serve you and may nations bow down to you. Esau is not Jacob and Esau is not Israel. Be master of your brothers. Yeah. I am going to overcome you, God. I'm going to give it to my boy that I want, not what you want. But what did God do? He circumvented the situation. He used Rebecca and he used Esau. I mean, Jacob, even though Jacob wasn't really willing, was he? He didn't want to do this. But he did what his mother said, do what I tell you. I did a sermon on do what I tell you. Remember that, Marilyn? What did the doctor tell you to do? Do what I tell you. Do what your husband says. Boy, I tell you what, that'd cost a lot of money for most people to get from the doctor to get him to say that, wouldn't it? Do what your husband says. Be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Curse be to those who curse you. This is bad. Chris, this is real bad. Because everything he's saying is dramatically opposed to the will of God, isn't it? Did God have to use her? Yes, sir. He had to use her, didn't he? He had to. Because it was going to go all wrong right here, wasn't it? It was going to go the wrong way. And God, in the middle of all of this deception of Isaac, He walked in and deceived Isaac. Isaac tried to deceive them and God. And God deceived Isaac. Who deceived Isaac? Was it really Rebecca? Was it really Jacob? Or was it God? Because he was going to go against the will of God. And God stopped him. And blessed be to those who bless you. The stolen blessing. People talk about Jacob as being the thief and the trickster. Jacob was a man in whom the circumstances weren't always good. But he did the right thing. Did he want to be blessed? Did Jacob want to be the head of the family? Did he want to be the patriarch of the family? Did he think it was valuable to him? Was it valuable to him enough to risk his life? Was it? Was Jacob afraid for his life? Now let me tell you something else about Jacob. Jacob was a big man. He was a powerful man. Esau probably wasn't near the strong man that Jacob was. People have Esau being the he-man, but I'm going to tell you something. The man that guarded the sheep at night and guarded the cattle at night from the wolves and the lions and the jackals was not Esau, it was Jacob. And we have a little idea of what being a shepherd was from David when he killed a lion and a bear. Now, he did that. He protected it and he was the breadwinner of the family and yet Isaac was going to bless the wrong son instead of the bread winner Because this was the son that God saw and that God loved Jacob I loved Esau I hated Before they were ever born in the book of Romans that says I hated Esau and I loved Jacob Why did he hate Esau before he was even born? I? because he knew what he would be when he was born. How can God curse the land of Canaan, the people of the land of Canaan, before they were ever born? Because he knew what they would be. Why did God blind Isaac? Because he knew what he would do if he could see. So he blinded him. Why did God use Rebecca and Jacob to deceive Isaac? Because he was going the wrong direction. He would go in the wrong direction. I've known mothers that tried their best to help their sons. They did everything they could do to turn their son's lives around. You know, I used to work on Merle Haggard's guitars. And his lifestyle was really something that could be improved. a long shot. But Merle Haggard sang a song about his mother. My mother tried. My mother tried. My mother tried. She did the best he could, but my mother tried. And he talked about being in prison. And he was. He was a thief. He was a con artist. He was a problem child. And God, by his grace, turned his life around. And in the latter part of his life, he believed in God. That's what the Bible teaches to do. His mother must have pointed him toward God. We all try to do that. We all try to do everything that we can do for our Children to make their life better than ours was. Don't we? I mean, there are exceptions to that rule, Maryland. I know. But we want our Children to have more than we had. We want life to be a little easier for them than it was for us. Now I had a rough life. Marilyn had a rough life. We want our children to have it better than that. But sometimes you have to love them with tough love by cutting them off and making them feel the necessity of going the right direction. People have done that. That's called tough love sometimes. Your child gets in trouble, and they get picked up by the law. That happened right over here next door, didn't it, Marilyn? The young girl was picked up by the law and called her mama, come and get me, mama. And she said, stay there. You got there, stay there. Maybe you'll learn better the next time. Stay there. That's sometimes what you have to do. Not that you quit loving them, but you have to do what is best for them. Sometimes what is best for them is not what you want to do. I'm sure that Rebecca did not want to light her husband, not want to deceive him, but it became necessary at this point, didn't it? Was it necessary? Absolutely. Did God use it? Does God use people to bring about his unpreventable progress and eternal purpose? Does he do that? Does he do it in sometimes not the best circumstances? Does he? In my life, I've gone through some unbelievable things. If I told people that sometimes they would not believe me because it sounds too fantastic. But all I can say to you is that in my life, when I was under the most pressure and under the most stress, that's when I was the closest to God. Jacob had a lot of that. Did he not? Did he not have a lot of times when he was in distress and trouble? He had to leave here because his brother was going to kill him. Was he really afraid of his brother? Physically? No, I don't think so. He didn't want to kill his brother, so he left. If they'd have had a confrontation, maybe Jacob would have killed Esau. We find out later on that Jacob was quite a warrior, even when he was an old man. I'm pretty sure he could have waxed Esau easily, but he did not want to kill his brother. He did not want to fight his brother. He knew what his plan, his place, it was in the plan of God. When he left there, remember what happened? He laid his head on a rock and God appeared to him and he saw angels descending and ascending to heaven, back and forth. That's what we call Jacob's ladder. Did God tell him that you did the right thing? Yep, you did the right thing. You're my man, Jacob, you're the right one. Don't have any doubts about anything. I am going to use you. And what else did he do? He went into the land and he talked to Laban. And Laban cheated him, didn't he? How many wives did Jacob want? One. Who was she? Rachel. He was in love with Rachel. He didn't want anybody else. So he said, I'll work for you for seven years. That's a long time, people, working for seven years with this woman. Then it comes the time he said hey, I mean I've worked longer than that period time. It's time for me to get married now Can I have my wife and what happened and people say? Oh, well, he deceived his father now he's just getting paybacks I Heard that so many times. That's not what happened there God's unpreventable progress and he's eternal purpose He would have four wives he only wanted one and But from the four wives would come the twelve tribes of Israel. God used Laban and used his deception. He gave Leah to him and he got him drunk. I mean, he was falling down drunk. And he took him and threw that gal into his tent and he became the husband of this woman. She conceived. And he woke up in the morning and he realized that he was deceived and he wasn't very happy. So he goes to Laban and he tells him, you have deceived me. Why did you do this? Why, what, what, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? Why did you give me Leah? I didn't ask you for Leah. Now she's my wife. I don't want Leah. I didn't want her. I didn't work for her. So Laban said, oh, well, you know, that's the law of a camaraderie. I can't give you the youngest daughter. And according to the book of Jasher, they were twin girls. But again, twins. The older one was not the one that was supposed to be blessed. OK? Jacob had his eyes on Rachel, not on Leah. Now, Leah was a beautiful woman. And Leah probably had blue eyes. Her eyes were enchanting and captivating, it says. And those people over there, a blue-eyed woman, it says, boy, that's a jewel. Well, her blue eyes didn't do him any good. He was unhappy. So he said, well, I'll tell you what. You go ahead and stay and sleep with her for the rest of this week, because you're supposed to be in her bed for a whole week. Give God a chance for her to conceive. then I'll give you Rachel so he did and Then he was with a woman he loved and he was with her a lot He didn't want to be with the other woman and and Leah felt rejected the rejection of the firstborn remember The first mentioned principle in the Bible in hermeneutics. We see that over and over and over again so really Jacob really did reject Leah But then God heard her prayers and he gave her a son and the nuns name was Simeon that God hears Okay, and another son and another son and another son and another son and what was God telling Jacob Jacob even though you love this woman I'm gonna shut her womb up for a while and you're gonna have children by this other woman. I not only by her, but then he became husband to the two concubines, and he was her husband. And these concubines, actually their children did have rights, didn't they? So they were his real wives. These weren't just normal concubines. Concubine children don't have rights, but these children had rights. They were the 12 sons of Israel, of Jacob. So what was God doing? He's just using all of these terrible circumstances to bring about his eternal purpose regardless of what these people did. He's going to, it's going to happen. And so then God appears to Jacob in a dream and said, get out of here. It's time for you to go back home. And he does. He, he listens to God and he takes all. And Rebecca, not Rebecca, but Rachel steals her father's idols. Terrifying. She steals them. Because she thinks she's going to have good luck if she has these idols. So here they were. Now, the reason why God wanted them out of that land is because this is a pagan land. So she takes the idols and she hides them. God's eternal purpose and his unpreventable progress, again. And she hides these idols. And then here comes Laban, trotterty, trotterty, trotterty, trot, coming after them. And Laban is mad. And he tells Jacob, you've deceived me. You've taken off my children without letting me kiss them. Well, he wasn't ever going to let him go. He changed his wages, he said, four times. He deceived him. He kept control. He didn't ever want him to leave because Jacob's good luck. And Jacob is providence. Was Laban ever a believer? that we know about? No. He had to get him out of there, didn't he? He had to get him away. He had to get Rachel away from that. She was caught up in it. He had to get him out of there. And so he came down after them and he said, I'll tell you what, Rachel, or Laban, whoever has your idols, you can take them and kill them. Because I didn't take them. Guess who had them? The one woman he loved. And then her father comes to search her tent. And she's sitting on a camel saddle. And he's going to move the saddle. And she said, no, don't touch me. I'm in my monthly period, basically. I'm in this problem. Well, now, a man wouldn't touch a woman at that time of the month. So he stayed away from her. And she kept the idols. Then later on, we find out when Jacob's going to go down. And all of everything has gone wrong and he's got to meet his brother and all of this. He just absolutely just throws his all of his cares upon Jehovah God and Jehovah God appears to him at the brook Jacob. And he began to wrestle with Jacob. Jesus did in his pre-incarnate form. And Jacob would not turn him loose because he believed. Jacob said, I'm not going to turn you loose. And so Jesus crippled Jacob. Now he's crippled. He's not the stronger man than he was before. He's crippled. Now he's going to limp from now on. And pulled a ligament in his hip or something growing or whatever. And he would not turn him loose until he blessed him. Jacob really wanted a blessing of God God appeared to him. So you're the man Now he wants him to bless again because he's gonna I'm gonna go in there and face my evil brother Then my brother will kill me My brother has no heart. He's a wicked man. He will kill me and I don't want to kill my brother I don't want to fight my brother. I don't want this and So Jacob blessed him Now our God Blake blessed Jacob Now before this happened, who appeared to Laban before he got to Jacob? God did. Don't you touch that man, don't you say one bad thing to him, I'll kill you. The unpreventable progress of God. God is using all of these bad things to bring about his eternal purpose. Now, Japheth is going to meet Esau and he's crippled. He's standing on a staff. But God is not finished yet, because God is going to talk to Esau's heart. So he does. And Jacob says, that boy is a materialist. I'm going to send him a lot of gifts. And I'm going to call him my lord. And I'm going to send all these gifts to him. By the time Jacob got there, Esau's heart had been melted by God. And instead of killing him, he cried. and glad to see him. And that was the end of the story of the hatred between Esau and Jacob because God healed it right there. God intervened. He changed the heart. Then we come to the other time that we talked about earlier when Simeon and Levi went into Shechem and killed all the men after they had become converts. And they came down to Jacob again. Jacob had made a covenant with them. They had become proselytes, so to speak. And then Simeon and Levi goes and murders every one of them, steals everything they have. And Jacob said, you will make me stink. Stink in the nostrils of the people of this land. I will be a bad word. I will be a scoundrel from now on. You've done this to me, boys. And we know he never forgot it, didn't he? In the last words he ever said, he blasphemed those boys. I mean, he told it like it was. You guys are rats. And then God, and then Jacob said right there, I want you to get all the idols, I want you to burn all the idols, I want you to take a bath, I want you to clean your clothes, and we're gonna go to Bethel, and we are gonna seek God's help, because now we're gonna have to fight the whole Canaanite nations. All of them. And he did. And he did there, and God protected them all the time, and God gave him enough strength to fight with those boys. And all of them fought, and the greatest fighter was the Lamb of the tribe of Judah. Judah That's the story Does that answer your question? I? Mean it just we see this we know right from wrong and good from bad and all that kind of stuff But I'm gonna tell you something Abraham's life was not the life of a true believer in every way was it Jacob was a really a great man of God and Esau was a rat. Lot was a rat for a saved man. We know that he was saved because the Bible said he vexed his righteous soul. And God used all of these people to bring about and bring us to where we are to this day. God allowed Mohammed to be born. God allowed him to found a false nation. God allowed these people to believe and millions have died because of that man's hand and his lies. We see the Catholic Church, what it's done to the world. We see Islam, what they've done to the world. We see all the religious confusion out there in the land, but you know what? God's still gonna win. I can assure you that God will win. The book of Revelation says Jesus wins. You have another question? The Simeon Levi went down to kill the men because Dinah had been raped. Is that correct? I don't think she was raped. Oh. It said, now in the Hebrew language, this is where you get all this jewels. In the book of Genesis, it says that Shechem and his father went to Jacob and her brothers. They had taken Dinah. And they wouldn't let her go home. Now, he was in love with her. But it said, this is what it says there in the language. We can go there and look at it. I mean, I could go from Hebrew and tell you this. But it says, whatever you ask, if you ask 10 times what a virgin cost, we will give you for this virgin. She's still a virgin. She's still a virgin. Now, I don't think she had been violated at all, but he wanted to marry her, and he wasn't going to do anything contrary. He is a king and a prince. These are very important people. And even because of their power, he is going to concede to this man and his people. with Jacob and his sons. Even though they're the people, the rulers of the land, they're going to ask their blessing to have this woman, and they're going to pay ten times what she's worth, because you bought women back then. Now, they said, let the sky be the limit, ask whatever you want, we will pay it. And they got the money, and then what the boys wanted, they knew what they wanted. Will you be like we are? Will you have your God for our God? And they said, yes. Not only that, we'll believe like you do. We'll practice what you practice. But our family will be yours. We're going to be one tribe now. We're going to be one tribe. And our family will be your family. What we have is yours. And vice versa. They wanted to believe. They believed. And they were all circumcised, and they were grown men, and they were very sore. Three days later, they were very sore, sore. I imagine those butchers, they really butchered those people up doing this, because they had a premeditated, with sheer malice and a forethought, they circumcised these people. And then they were going to murder them, and they did. Well, why did they want to do that? Well, you go to the Genesis. I mean, didn't they kidnap Dinah? They wouldn't let her... As far as I know, she never had sex with the boy. Yeah, but they still kidnapped her and wouldn't let her come home. No. She came home. Oh. And Simeon married her. Oh. And they had children. Oh. You can find that in the book of Joshua also. look here in Genesis the 49th chapter and verse number 4 verse number 5 Simeon and Levi are brothers their swords are implements of Hamas violence let my soul not enter into their counsel I don't want to hear them. I am not going to listen to their cries. I don't want to have anything to do with these boys. I love them, but this is it. Let not my glory be united with their assembly, because in their anger they slew men. In their will, self-will, they lamed oxen. They even hurt innocent animals. cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel." We know that Levi did not have an inheritance in the land. We know that God used him as priest also. God's unpreventable progress and eternal purpose, that's all I can say. Isn't that something? And the sermon I was going to preach, let me just say this. We're saved from peril. That doesn't mean you won't get killed or whatever. You're saved from peril. Until it's time for you to go home, nothing can kill you. Boy, I ought to be an absolute perfect example of that. We're saved from ruin because that's where we go to ruin. Our impulses take us to ruin. We're saved from hell eternally and we're saved from ourselves every day. Aren't we? This is the story. Anything else? With Amiyah, nothing else. Let's have a prayer. Our Father, we send this message out for you. Even though Chris had these questions, I know everybody does. The last time when she came to Fish Lake Valley, she asked questions up there and Donald from Wales, Donald Grewar, he said, that's exactly what I wanted to ask if I was there. And I know you out there, that there are many people out there, Father, that have the same questions that she had tonight, and I hope I answered this sufficiently for your honor, for your glory, because we know that you have an eternal purpose, and we know that you have an unpreventable progress, and you bless us in spite of us. You bless us and you bring about your will in spite of us. And Father, thank you for that. Thank you for all of my students everywhere in the world. Father, I pray that you touch their hearts with your word and that you feed them and they'll grow in grace and grow for the honor and glory of you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.