Now we come to the reading of God's inspired word. And I invite you to turn to your Bibles to Genesis 27. We'll read from verse one to verse 40. On page 21 of your Pew Bibles. 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, Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau. Bring me game and prepare me delicious food that I may eat it. and bless you before the Lord before I die. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock, 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, 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 Rebekah 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 had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went into 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 have 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. He 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 he 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 as 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. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, let my father rise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me. His father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came and I have blessed him. Yes, he shall be blessed. And as soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, even me, also my father. But he said, your brother came deceitfully. He has taken away your blessing. Esau said, is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Then he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, behold, I have made him Lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, have you but one blessing, my father. Bless me, even me, also my father. and Esau lift up his voice and he wept. Then Isaac, his father answered and said to him, behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword, you shall live and you shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen. A while ago, I met a friend who I hadn't seen in quite some time, and he showed me a beautiful picture of his family. Everyone's smiling, well-dressed, well-behaved. It's a picture that belonged in a frame on a wall. What a beautiful family, I said to him. He responded in this way. He said, don't be fooled. we're way more dysfunctional than we look. Now, I wonder if Isaac had a family picture, if it would be much the same. Father Isaac would be standing stately as the family patriarch. Rebecca would be beside him as his devoted wife. The boys would be in the family picture too, one hairier than the other, but both looking like model sons and the best of friends. Everyone clean, everyone well-dressed, the picture-perfect family. And yet, that wouldn't be the whole story, would it? Genesis 27 shows us the deep dysfunction of this family. What a mess. What a mess they've made. What a mess they are. And as you think of your own families and say, it's not too far off from my own, I want you to hear this as well. God's sovereignty over our sinful family stories is written all over this passage as well. And so he shines the light of his grace through this dysfunctional family. I want us to see this and apply it to our own lives and our own families. And I want us to do this by looking at each member of this family, one by one. Let's start with Isaac. He's growing old. nearly blind, and he wonders how many years he has left. As it is, he has 43 years left to live, but he doesn't know that yet. He feels the weariness of this life weighing on him and as his eyes grow dim and his senses dull and he first loses his eyesight, he wonders if this is the beginning of the end. And so he does what any patriarch would do at this time, he calls for his son in order to bless him. And notice here, he doesn't gather his sons around him, he calls for one son, Esau. Bring me my son, I want to bless him. And isn't it interesting, disturbing even, how he says of Esau, my son, and Rebekah says of Jacob, my son. They've got their favorites. Esau is Isaac's personal favorite, and Father Isaac is determined to bless Esau. And he's determined to do this, even though God told his family before the twins were even born, what did God say? The older will serve the younger. God said that the blessing belongs to Jacob, but still Isaac is determined, even despite the clear word of God, his love for Esau is so strong. His favoritism burns so intensely that he says, no, it's my firstborn I'll bless, and I will do it if my life depends on it. What does he love so much about Esau? It isn't the man of God that he's becoming, because if you look back at chapter 26, verse 36, You'll see there at the very end of the chapter that it says that Esau took Judith, the daughter of Biri the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basimath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. You see, here's a man in Esau who does the opposite of what Isaac himself did in finding a wife from amongst the people of God. Instead, he goes out and he marries two pagan women, and they make life bitter. for Isaac and Rebecca. You see, everything that Isaac loves about Esau is worldly. He loves the food that Esau prepares for him. That's all he ever talks about. Go hunt me some food, my son. Oh, I love the taste of the game you cook He loves the strong hunter that Esau has become. Perhaps Esau is the manly man that Isaac always hoped to become, an idol of what he could have been if he'd done it all over again. He has little regard for Jacob who spends his time around the home. But he loves Esau, the man of the field, the man who cooks him food, the hunter who catches game for his dad. And right here, we right away see that Isaac is a father who has become blind to the spiritual dynamics in his own household. This is a man whose outer blindness reflects a kind of dulled spiritual sense within. He is blind on the outside and it reflects the blindness within. What is that blindness? That he doesn't see what's right in front of his face, right in his family. That his family's in trouble. That his son has little regard for God. That his son is taking pagan women, plural for wives. And yet all Isaac can think of is how proud he is of the things his son is doing and the food he cooks for his dad. There is a warning loud and clear for fathers here today. Because this same blindness can afflict you and afflict me. When does that happen? when we satisfy ourselves with our kids' academic success, or their athletic achievement, or their outward looks, and we neglect the main thing that we ought to instill in them, a spiritual vision for life, a deep love and commitment to the Lord. And we're so blind that, We live through our children and their successes, their worldly successes, and we neglect the one thing that they need more of all. They need Jesus. But we content ourselves with all these little projects that they do that make us look good. So here is Isaac. Yes, the same Isaac who was spared from death on Mount Moriah, the same Isaac who's the promised son, the Isaac who is a spitting image of his father, Abraham, and yet here he's falling, fall short of what his father represented to him. He's falling far, fall short in this moment of the promises of God that call him to be a father after God's own heart. He's for sure the first to blame for the dysfunction in his family. And by the time he trembles over what he's done and what he hasn't seen, it's too late. And then there's Rebecca, his wife. She's heard her husband's plan to bless Esau, but tents have thin walls. She's heard the whole plan. And right away, Rebecca concocts a counter plan to steal the blessing, to jump in right at the moment, right before he blesses Esau and to get that blessing to who? To her favorite, my son, Jacob. Yes, she has a favorite too. And she's determined to see him blessed. Quickly, my son, change into one of your brother's work shirts. You'll smell just like him. Quickly, strap these goat skins to your hands. Your brother has more hair than you, but you'll feel just like him with these. Your father won't know the difference. So underhanded, so manipulative. This is far from what a wife is supposed to be in the scriptures. A helper, a friend, a companion to her husband. Here she is and she's working behind his back. Never does she talk with Isaac. Never do we see her saying, please, you're not doing this the right way. Please, the Lord said to bless the younger over the older. No, she takes it into her own backward plan to steal the blessing right out of her husband's mouth and to send it to the son of her choosing. This is what happens when a husband and wife place a child at the center of the home. Rather than grounding themselves in their relationship with the Lord, and then the relationship with one another. When children get elevated to this favorite place in the home, well, a divide starts to happen between husband and wife, and the inevitable occurs. They stop talking, they stop communicating, and they start stabbing each other in the back. Be on guard for this in your own homes. I wonder if Rebecca excused her manipulative tactics because she remembered the word of God while the twins were still in her womb. The older will serve the younger. And I wonder if she remembered that and excused it and said, I just heard my husband is going to do the opposite of the will of God. I need to get in the middle of this. I need to stop him. I'm gonna make sure that God's plans are fulfilled and that Jacob is blessed, the younger. You see, here's Rebecca's biggest problem. She thinks God needs help. Her help. She thinks God won't be able to accomplish his purpose without a little manipulation from her. And so she excuses doing the right thing in the wrong way. And I wonder how often we think like this. We spend years worrying about things outside of our control. Sometimes we let that worry fester so much that we take matters into our own hands. We convince ourselves that personal ethics don't matter if we're moving closer to God's goal. We say, Doesn't matter if I tell a white lie on my job application, if it allows me to provide for my family. Doesn't matter if I withhold truth from my husband, from my wife, if it gets us closer to where I think we ought to be going as a family. We deceive, we lie, we cheat our way to control because we've told ourselves that God would want us to have that control over our lives and the lives of our children. We ought to repent. We ought to repent of this. We ought to repent of the manipulative tactics and the worrying that leads us to try to help God out. We ought to let God write our children's testimony rather than always poking our way and saying, I know what's best for them. There's a point at which we have to let God write our children's testimony. Rebecca doesn't understand that yet. And then there's Jacob, the heel grabber, the deceiver. He's more than willing to fake his way to his father's blessing. Picture him crawling into a silly costume. I wonder if he was embarrassed as he stood there covered in goat's fur, taking from his mother a food that she'd prepared. And then picture him creeping into his father's room, cosplaying his father's favorite. It's me. It's Esau. Don't you know me, Dad? What a liar. Three times in this passage, Jacob lies to his father. Did you see it? And they are the boldest, most blatant, most disgusting lies. Here I am, it's me. Is it really you, Esau? Yes, it's me, I am. And then the worst lie of all, he takes the Lord's name in vain. Did you see it in verse 20? The Lord, your God, granted me success. He's willing to drag the name of God into this lie. This guy is a master deceiver. Jacob would show up to your doorstep and have you selling away your entire inheritance within 10 minutes. He's that slick. He comes up with a tie and a suit, and he has you deceived within moments. He's quick on his feet. His words come out quickly and he deceives with them. He gobbles up all of his brother's blessing till there's nothing left to share. He takes it all without stopping his father. Give it to me, the land. Give me the descendants. All of it. He takes it all. He takes the lordship. He takes it all. It's all stolen. And he doesn't even think twice. He sneaks out the door. Blessing. And I wonder if here too, you see yourself in Jacob. I wonder if you see in Jacob a mirror of your own selfishness, devouring other people's lives. Insisting that you deserve your way with them, taking advantage of them, using them for your good. There are people like that. We can often be people like that. Did you know it? Living for ourselves and for our own satisfaction, not thinking of others, but gobbling up any good that they would have to give to us and never thinking of what we would give to them. Here we are to master deceivers, stealing blessings from others, but never thinking to give blessings to them. Esau is our final son here in the family picture. He comes home to find his blessing stolen by his brother. And the only thing left for him is crumbs off the table. It's hardly a blessing at all, it's an anti-blessing. The only hint of a blessing is this, when things get really bad for you and your brother's pushed you down so hard you can barely breathe, I'll give you a little bit of relief. That's all he gets, after pleading, after crying. Do you feel sorry for Esau? Don't be so quick. Never did Esau ever show any sign at all of seeking after God. Total lack of sensitivity to spiritual things. Remember what he did years before this. He sold away his birthright for the same food he now serves his father. And now he's facing the consequence of his actions. This moment is just his indifference to the things of the Lord coming right back to haunt him. And only now does it sting. And why does it sting him? Does it sting him because he realized he's done something wrong? Does he repent? Are these tears, tears of sorrow over sin? No. He doesn't take responsibility. His heart hardens in hatred of his brother. He becomes like Cain. hating his brother, the seed of murder in his heart. And here is Esau saying, I deserved it. I wanted it. You took it from me. I wonder how many people like Esau lament the mistakes they've made in life, but never display a heart change. I wonder, how much that's true for us. We're sorry for the sins that we've committed. We're sorry for the mess that they've made, but we're not really sorry that we've sinned. We haven't come to the point of repentance, and our sorrow is a worldly sorrow. If you recognize yourself in Esau, if you love worldly things and are sorry that your sin has robbed you even of those, There's still time to repent. Turn from worldly sorrow to true spiritual grief. Mourn over your sin. Turn to the Lord, ask for his forgiveness. And rather than pointing the blame at everyone, your brother, your mother, your father, point the finger at your own chest and say, I have sinned, fallen short of the glory of God. So here it is, the dysfunctional family, a blind father, a manipulative mother, and proud, bitter, worldly, self-seeking sons. There are no heroes in Genesis 27, only sinners. Sinners much like ourselves. And yet the good news is that this dysfunctional family does not disrupt God's good purpose for humanity. God's grace works despite our family failures, I dare say even through our family failures, to bring about His grace-filled purposes. You see, the Savior of the whole world would not come from a picture-perfect family, but from a long line of sinners. from this dysfunctional family of sinners. This is Jesus's ancestry. This is his family tree. This brood of vipers stabbing each other in the back. And they did their very worst to one another. And they were grabbing and stealing at the blessing and pulling and pushing and what happens? Through it all, the blessing passes through and God sends it on to a son. who would be born the savior of the world. This should give us incredible hope that despite the sin that continues to plague our families, the sin which we must repent of, when sin does its worst in our families, through Jesus Christ, grace can overcome and redeem even the worst dysfunctional situations. I want us to think even further about this savior who came out of this broken family. Jesus came not to steal someone else's blessing, but to give us his blessing. He came as the opposite of Jacob, the one who didn't steal and hoard the blessing to himself, but who shows us the picture of how we can live, not broken, but beautiful families, families that are full of seeking to bless one another, to say, let me sacrifice for you. Let me lay down my plans for you. Let me sacrifice my dreams and desires, the things I want for you. Let me give you what you need in Jesus. Let me seek blessing in you. You see, the curse that Isaac deserve for his worldly ways, that Rebecca deserve for her manipulative ways, that Jacob deserve for his cheating ways. That curse that you and I deserve for our sin, Christ took upon himself on the cross so that the blessing of Christ could be given to us. What a pattern for our families, what a pattern for our souls. And Jesus came so that you and I might be lawfully clothed in our elder brother's garments, his spotless righteousness. Not by trickery, not by deceit, but given to us freely by God's marvelous grace. This is our Savior, Savior who works through broken people, broken families, but through his sovereign love, blesses us. And we know we don't deserve it. So let's go to God in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the clothing which we wear. The aroma, the very smell of Christ's righteousness is on us. Not because of anything we've done, but because we, cheaters and manipulators, all of us, have been freely given the garment of his grace and the aroma of his righteousness. So that when we come before you, Father, you say, here he is, my son. whom I love. We thank you that Christ did not hoard the blessing for himself, but he gave it to us. And we pray that this would be something that we do in our own lives, in our own families, and throughout all of the human family tree, that we would reverse the curse by the power of Christ, by living out a willingness to freely give his blessing to others. We pray this. In the name of Jesus, who is our righteousness, amen.