Ready? This morning, continuing on with our study in Genesis and stories of the Old Testament. We've studied about Abraham. Now we're in the family of Isaac. There's not much left of the The story of Isaac himself, he's getting, we'll see it today, he's getting to be of old age. He's not going to live much longer. And so we're studying his family, specifically his two sons, Jacob and Esau. And if you remember from last time, the last part of Chapter 26, in verse 34 he says, and Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife, and he mentions these two women here, the Hittites, which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebekah. We'll see a little bit more about Esau today and the grief that he causes with the family. And, you know, well, first, you notice he was 40 years old. So we know him and Jacob being twins, they're both 40 years old now. So there, when we get to checker 27, we have a timeline of about well how old they are uh... as far as we know this is the first time either one of them has married uh... and and you notice it Esau marries outside the family remember the the tradition so far has been you know abraham himself married in the family so did isaac and uh... jacob will also but Esau doesn't Now remember Esau, we looked at where he gave up his birthright to his brother because he was hungry and starving. He gave up his birthright, sold it for a bowl of stew. But there's other things, and we'll look at this today also, there's other things that go along with that birthright. there's the blessings of what's referred to as the blessings from Isaac, his father. As Isaac is about to pass away, Isaac knows his time is short and he wants to bless the one that has the birthright, the one who is the heir. The birthright simply means that he was the heir to all that his father owned. And the same way Isaac was with Abraham. And Abraham gave to Isaac the birthright and a similar blessing, if you remember. And, of course, Abraham and Isaac, Sarah and Rebecca, all four of them knew the promise from God. And they had passed it down to their children. Jacob, if you remember, was mostly raised at home with his mother, so she had taught these things to him. Isaac, on the other hand, saw Esau as the favored son, even though that's not what God said, not what God wanted. He still favored Esau and we'll see that in this chapter also, that he still favors Esau, even up until the time of his death. Isaac is still expecting Esau to be the promised one, the promised one whose seed would become the great nation. But it's not so. It's not the will of God. And I mentioned there in verse 35, which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and Rebekah, like I said, Whoever the promised one was to be, whether it was Esau or Jacob, their bloodline had to be pure according to God. They had to be of the family. And we refer to the family of God. They were to marry within the family. So Esau has already married outside the family, hasn't he? Remember, Abraham did something similar, didn't he? He married Hagar. And he had a son by Hagar Ishmael. We'll see Ishmael mentioned a little later. I don't know if we'll get to it today or not, but Esau will marry again and will marry two women who were the daughters of Ishmael. So he just keeps on, you know, If you're the favored son, you would think you would at least be trying to follow the Lord and follow what he has for that one. But Esau's not even trying. Every time we turn around, he's doing something to rebel against God. Now, we know that that's also in God's plan. But he still, he didn't have to marry these women from other tribes, did he? He could have married within the family. But we'll talk more about Esau in a bit. In Genesis 27 verse 1, And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. Now Isaac He's old. He's blind. Can't see. He can't tell who's in front of him, but he recognizes voices. And we'll see this a little bit later also where it comes up again. But he recognizes Esau. He calls for Esau to come to him. He recognizes his voice. He knows who he is. There's no doubt. And Esau immediately comes and he says, and he said, behold, now am I old. I know not the day of my death. Now, therefore, take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. Now, Esau, remember, is a hunter. He's a worker, a farmer. He's a man's man. He's everything that a father would want in his eldest son. The one who he's going to leave is his heir. Abraham, we have already seen in this story once where Isaac loves venison. That's his favorite meal. And Esau knows this. Esau, it seems as though pretty frequently Esau brings his father venison and cooks it for him. And you notice his son cooks it for him. And in this case we see it again that he asks Esau to cook it for him. His sons are good cooks. They've been taught well. They can survive on their own. And he says, make me savory meat such as I love. It's the best thing Abraham, I'm sorry, the best thing Isaac has ever had is this venison that Esau cooks. And then in verse four, we see he says that, that my soul may bless thee before I die. Isaac, I'm gonna get Abraham out of my mind. Isaac here is preparing for his death. And in preparation for his death, he wants one last really good meal. And he wants to placed his blessing upon his favorite son, his eldest, the one who he believes is going to be the heir. Then we see Rebekah. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Now Rebekah is there. She hears this. She knows the process or the custom of the birthright and the blessing. She knows that once Isaac gives this blessing to Esau, Jacob's out of the picture. It's humanly speaking. Now we know God has other plans, but to follow the tradition and to follow and Some say that this was something that the Lord had taught them, how to do these things, which makes sense, that, you know, if you had an heir, you were to give this blessing to him before you passed away. They're just following what they've been taught. And he saw, or Isaac is about to, it's as soon as he eats and is As he sees that his days are numbered, his days are short, he's going to give this blessing unto Esau. And remember Abraham, when Abraham did this with Isaac, he gave Isaac everything that he owned. And then he gave gifts to his other children. I remember Abraham had other children. He remarried after Sarah passed away. He also had Ishmael from Hagar. He gave gifts to them, but they didn't get the main inheritance. They didn't get everything. It tells us, in that story, it tells us that Abraham gave everything to Isaac. This is what this blessing is. It's going to give everything to the heir, whether it's Esau or Jacob, it's going to be everything. The other one will get something, but basically they're not going to get to home wherever they lived. They're going to have to move. They're going to have to leave home. They're going to be forced to leave home. If you remember the story of Abraham, his other children were forced to go to other lands to live because they were no longer, they're still part of the family, but they're no longer under Abraham's protection or under Abraham's place there. So Isaac inherited everything that Abraham had. His other siblings had to leave once Abraham died. The same thing's gonna happen to Esau. Once Isaac dies, he's gonna have to leave because his brother's gonna get the birthright and the blessing. And Rebecca knows this. She knows all this. She knows for Jacob to continue on with the promise of God, he's got to receive the blessing from Isaac. That's the only way it works. And she tells Isaac, do everything I tell you. I'm going to tell you what to do to make this happen. So we commonly think Jacob is the one here that's working the trickery here, that he's the one that's being the conniving and the sneak and all that. But notice Rebecca is just as bad. And she's, actually she's the one that instigates it. And she says, Go now to the flock and fetch me from thence to two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth, and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. So she's going to give him goat instead of venison. Now, I don't know if you've ever had goat before, But you could season it up to make it taste like venison, I believe. It's the same texture, pretty close, you know. So they're going to, not only are they going to trick him with their words, but they're also going to trick him with the meal. He's not even going to get to eat his favorite meal. He's going to get a goat instead. But they're going to do all this before Isaac dies. You notice it seems like they're in a hurry here. One, Esau's going to be coming back soon, whether he got something or not. He's going to be coming back. Plus, Isaac is so ill, they don't know when he's going to die. It could be any time now. So they want to hurry up and get him this last meal and get the blessing from him before that takes place. And Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. There's a big difference, not just in their voices, as we mentioned before, and we'll see that again later, but also Esau, he says, is a hairy man. He's got hair all over his body, and I'm, Jacob's bald. You know? He says, I'm not. I'm smooth. And he says, my father, per venture, will fill me. And remember, he's blind. So he's going to fill to make sure there's going to be things that he's going to do, not the voice, the filling of him. He knows how Esau cooks and what he's going to bring him. There's several things that Jacob's, I mean, Isaac's going to do that would give it away if things are not right. And he says, and I shall see him, seem to him as a deceiver. And I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing. So here's the other process. If you tried to cheat your father out of the blessing, instead of a blessing you get a curse. That's the tradition. That's how it works. It's to protect the heir. Here, Jacob knows if he gets caught deceiving his father, he's never going to get the blessing. It will never happen. And his mother said unto him, upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice and go fetch me them. Rebecca's willing to take the blame. If you get caught, don't worry about it. I'll take the blame. For one, I believe Rebecca knew that God's in this. It seems like deception, but God's in this. This is how the Lord has caused it to come about. This is the way it's going to happen. And she knows this. And so she's willing, if he gets caught, she's willing to take the curse and not Jacob. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory meat such as his father loved. Notice, Isaac asked Esau to cook the meat for him. Here, Jacob, their mother, Rebekah, cooks it for him. So obviously Jacob didn't even know how to cook it for his father like Esau did. He had to rely on his mother to do it for him. And Rebekah took goodly Raymond of her eldest son, Esau, which were with her in the house and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck. And she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So they put the skins of the goats on his hands and his neck. That tells you how hairy Esau was, doesn't it? Because I don't know if you've ever felt of a goat, but it's a lot hairier than most men. I'll tell you that. You would know a difference if you had been around both. But we'll see that it works. Isaac falls for it. He's blind, of course, but he still he's got his touch, his feelings. And he came under his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I. And notice Isaac says, Who art thou, my son? He recognizes right away that it's not Esau, but the voice. And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou bidest me arise. I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. So we see the deception here. Jacob lies to his father. not only with the meal, but also about who he is. He portrays his brother Esau. And not just by telling him so, but by putting on his clothes, by putting the goat skins on his hands and his neck so he feels like his brother. Isaac has no idea, other than the fact he knows it's not Esau's voice. And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn, I have done according as thou hast badest me arise. I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. So he's insisting on the blessing here. And Isaac said unto his son, how is it thou hast found it so quickly, my son, and he said, because the Lord thy God brought it to me." Now things got serious, didn't they? He brings the Lord's name into this and he lies about the Lord. Well, we say that, but remember, this was He says, the Lord thy God brought it to me, which is not totally a lie, but it is a lie because he didn't bring to him what Isaac asked for. And he's lying about who he is. Oh, that's the lie. The Lord did provide the meal, but not in the way he sang. And Isaac said unto Jacob, and don't forget, we'll see at a later time, this comes back on Jacob. Because remember, when he gets ready to marry, what happens to him? Yeah, he's plagued by this lie the rest of his life. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may fill thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. And he said, here's the blessing. Not yet. He's going to bless him. And he said, Arthael, my very son Esau. And he said, I am. And he said, bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat. And he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, near now and kissed me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. And therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven. Here's the blessing that he blesses him with. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, And Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that he saw his brother came in from his hunting." Now, they're fixing to get caught in the lie, but it's too late. This blessing is like a covenant, in a way, that it can't be broken. It's a promise. The father has blessed his son, who he thought was his oldest son, but is really not. Legally, it's legal because remember Esau had given his birthright to Jacob. That's what sealed it. His birthright was given to Jacob. And then, now he has the blessing. Now he's the heir. It doesn't matter if it was all a lie or not. According to the law, or to their customs and their laws in that day, it's as good as done. Isaac has just blessed the wrong son, or in his eyes the wrong son, but it is the son that God had chosen. And then we see Esau has come back now. He wasn't gone very long. just long enough for all this to happen, a few hours maybe. He comes back, and he also had made savory meat. He's cooked the meal for his father, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. So now Isaac's confused. What are you talking about? We've already done all this. We've already been through all this. And now this is not the same voice. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, Who, where is he that hath taken venison and brought it me? And I have eaten all before thou camest and have blessed him. Yea, he shall be blessed. So, Isaac is not happy. It troubles him so that he trembles. He knows he's given the blessing to the wrong son. Or at least in his eyes, the wrong son. We know that Jacob was the chosen one from the beginning. So, it is the right son, but it's not the eldest. I remember God had told them before. He had told Rebecca when she was with child, with the two babes in her womb. Remember when they were fighting in the womb? The Lord told her then that the eldest was gonna serve the younger, didn't he? So she knew. And Isaac, he says, well, I've blessed him. It's good. It's done. It's too late. He said, yea, and he shall be blessed. That means it's done. It's too late to change. Esau's been cheated out of his inheritance again. He was cheated out of his birthright, and now he's been cheated out of the blessing. And now he's just like the the rest of the family, the rest of the children. Even though he's the firstborn, he's not the heir. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, It is not he rightly named Jacob, for he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? Now, he's all blaming this all on Jacob. And, humanly speaking, we think rightly so. But remember, with the birthright, He didn't have to give it up. He could have turned down the bowl of stew, couldn't he? That's all it was. He was starving to death. He was hungry. And Jacob threw that out there and said, give me your birthright and I'll give you something to eat. He didn't have to take it. He had a choice. And the choice he made was to give away his birthright. And so now, it's a little different this time. He didn't have a choice in this matter, did he? He went to do what his father asked him to do. And when he come back, he laid his mother and his brother. And notice he doesn't bring any blame on his mother, does he? He brings it all on his brother. Because these two brothers, remember, have been fighting almost since conception, it appears. They fought in the womb. They've not been, you know, we think oftentimes twins, whether they're boys or girls or one of each, Usually they're close friends, at least most of their lives. But not in this case. These two brothers are bitter enemies. Total opposites. And we can tell by one of them being hairy and one of them being smooth that they weren't identical twins, were they? There was a difference in the two. And now Esau, he's asking Isaac, do you have a blessing reserved for me too? Can you give me a blessing too? Where's my inheritance? And he says, Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord. In other words, I've put him over you. And that was another tradition. The older son was supposed to be over his younger siblings. But again, we go back to when they were in the womb and God told Rebecca, the eldest was going to serve the younger. This is what happens. He says, Behold, I have made him thy Lord and all his brethren have I given to him for servants and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son? I've got nothing left. There's nothing left to give you. And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Esau sees what's happened. He's lost everything. Notice he's more concerned with possessions and with his father's blessing than with anything of God. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion that thou shalt break his yoke from off his neck. And this plays out later in the Old Testament in the days of Israel, and well, actually down into the time of the split kingdom with Israel and Judah. And in Judah, the descendants of Esau will become the nation of Edom. They will become basically the servants of Israel for many generations. They will serve Israel. They will live in a land that's not very prosperous. And they will have to live by fighting, mostly. They will be robbing and stealing from others to live, from their neighbors. But it was in the days of Judah. And I believe it was in 2 Kings 8 and 20 through 22. We won't turn there this morning. But if you look at that and see in the days of Joram, the king of Judah, He was, I believe, the fifth king after the split of the kingdom after Solomon. He was the fifth king of Judah. They would, Edom would win some battles and would break free from Israel. They never conquered Israel, but they would break free from Israel, free from their bondage. And for a short time, they would have their own kingdom. All that would go away when Babylon come. and destroyed all of Israel's enemies in Nebuchadnezzar's day. So these two brothers are going to be, even though Edom is going to be under Israel for many generations, they're going to be bitter enemies from now on because of all this that has happened. The Edomites are going to feel cheated from their inheritance because of all this. because of all that's happened between these two brothers. And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob. So as soon as we're done mourning our father's death, I'm gonna kill him. And these words of Esau were These words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. And she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. So isn't that how oftentimes we, in our grief, especially if we think someone has wronged us, especially if it's concerning family especially and sometimes even church members, friends, co-workers. And when someone, especially when someone passes, we're already grieving that loss. But if we're someone that has caused us problems, we often lash out at them and try to blame them for things that have happened. That happens a lot. And in this case, that's what happens is Esau was so, notice he wasn't upset at his father's passing. He's upset because he didn't get the blessing. Because he was cheated out of being the heir. And his answer to that is, I'll kill my brother. Well, was that saying we have two wrongs don't make a right? You know, if he kills his brother, that's not going to make everything right, is it? That's not the attitude to have. The attitude that he should have had was he should have went along with it and just dealt with it. There was nothing else for him to do. Instead, he's going to be a bitter enemy and he's going to continue the rest of his life to stray further and further from the ways of God. and we'll see more of that in a later time also. Now, Rebecca tells Jacob, Now therefore, my son, obey my voice and arise. Flee thou to Laban, my brother in Haran, and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away. Let him cool off, son. Well, if you remember, she says a few days, but it was, remember when Abraham sent his servant to find Isaac a wife. We see it took 17 days by camel to get from where they were to Haran. Well, where they are now is not much difference. They're not that much closer than what Abraham was. It's going to be a couple of weeks at least before Jacob could get there. It's a long journey. But she tells him to go there for a few days and let him cool off a little bit. And until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him, then I will send and fetch thee from Theons. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? So, I don't know why Rebecca would think that Esau's gonna forget this. This is something, this is pretty serious. He's, his birthright and his, at least in his eyes, his birthright and his, his inheritance has been stolen from his brother. And she says let him forget about it and come back after he's forgotten about it. He's not gonna forget this, ever. And we see death of the generations, as I mentioned before. His seed is not going to forget this either. And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a life of the daughters of Heth, such as these, which are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? So before Isaac dies, they have this conversation. We've got to do something with Jacob. He's the heir. We know what God's promise is and who the bloodline has to go through. He has to marry someone not of Canaan, remember? And that's where they're living is in the land of Canaan. The daughters of Heth, where they live, or the people of Heth that are there, she doesn't want her son to marry into that tribe. She wants him to marry, like his father, out of his own family, out of her family. And she requests that Isaac send him back to Haran to marry, or to find a wife of her brother Laban's, or I'm sorry, her father, is it her father or her brother? Her brother Laban. It's in Haran. And he does that. Isaac, the very first part of the next chapter, Isaac gets with Jacob, blessed him again, and charged him to go and take a wife from Haran, from their family, his mother's side of the family. And he does that. And next time, When we get to the next chapter, we'll see a little bit about that. It's very similar. Well, it's very similar to how Abraham had done with Isaac, other than the fact that Jacob goes himself. They don't send a servant. But it's the same process. He goes to the family to find a wife. And we'll also look at this dream that Jacob had while he was on his journey. And we'll, I don't know, there's all kinds of thoughts and doctrines built all around this dream that he has. A lot of it's false doctrine you have to be careful about. We'll look at some of that. Jacob's ladder, as it's called. Our Sunday school teacher mentioned it this morning. There's people that try to take it literally here, and you'll see these pictures they'll paint of an actual ladder going up to heaven. But this is one of those places where it's figurative. It's not an actual ladder. It's a dream. It's kind of like, you remember in the New Testament, Max, Peter, the Lord showed the big sheet to him and all the animals that were in it and told him to eat. That wasn't literal, it was figurative. And it's the same way here. And so we'll look at that next time.