Alright. Okay, so Genesis chapters 25 and 26. As I said, chapter 25 is primarily genealogy, not all of it. There's a little bit at the end that is very important for us to reflect on, mainly because the latter part of Genesis chapter 25 becomes relevant in the New Testament in terms of talking about God's election. And we'll talk about the significance of that for a few minutes today. But let's deal with these first three paragraphs or so before we get there. Chapter 25, beginning in verse 1, says this, And the sons of Midian, Ephah, and Epher, and Hanok, and Abida, and Eldah, all these were the children of Keturah. And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward unto the east country. And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, a hundred threescore and fifteen years. And Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth. There was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. It came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed Isaac his son, and Isaac dwelt by Beer-le-Hiroy. All right, so many people are unaware of the fact that Abraham had another wife, Keturah. We don't know exactly when she became his wife, whether this might have been alongside of Sarah in her latter years. We don't even know for certain the legal status of Keturah. And what I mean by that is that in verse 1 she is referred to as a wife, but in verse 6 she appears to be referred to as a concubine. Now what's the difference between the two? A concubine is a servant wife or a slave wife. She would have been a servant in the household who was brought into the harem of a powerful man and was used as a surrogate to raise up children. But her children would not, under ordinary circumstances, have the same inheritance rights as the son of a legal wife, and she might not have all of the legal status and privileges. Now, as I'm reading this, and I want to be careful here not to be dogmatic, as I'm reading this, I think that Katera falls into that category of concubine. Again, not certain of the dates when she might have become a servant wife to Abraham, probably while Sarah was, in fact, alive, just if you do the dates on their ages when they died and things like that. But nonetheless, at some point, Keturah is brought into the picture, and she has additional children. So there are additional tribes that are descended from Abraham besides the Jews. And yes, this is where some of the Arab people do come from, through Ishmael and through the various sons of Keturah. So their offspring, the offspring of Keturah, the offspring of Hagar, who was the other concubine, they will come into contact with the descendants of Abraham again, the Israelites, many times, and still come into contact with them even today. When verse 6 refers to the sons of the concubines, plural here in the ASV, I think that it has in mind Keterah and Hagar. I don't have any reason to believe that there are additional concubines beyond that. Obviously there could be, but the text certainly doesn't mention them. It does identify, though, several people coming through Keturah, including, interestingly, a character named Midian, some of whose descendants will be important later in the Bible story. But notice that in verse 5, Abraham gives the inheritance to Isaac. Now, when it says he gave all that he had unto Isaac, obviously that is not a literal, absolute statement, because the very next verse says that Abraham gave gifts to his other offspring. He does provide for them. He does bless them, but he does not give to them the legal inheritance as heir of the estate. Some of you probably have seen this, perhaps in your own family or in families of your friends or you're aware of other circumstances. where a wealthy man might have multiple children, and after his death, there is a debate about how the estate is going to be divided. In our culture, we assume that the estate is going to be divided in some proportion that we think is fair. Of course, that's always the kicker, right? What is fair? But that would not be the way it was in the ancient Near East. That would not be the way it was in this part of the world. Other children would receive some inheritance, some blessing, some gift, but the heir would receive everything. He would be given everything else. And there was no debate about who was the heir, who controlled the estate, who inherited the power and the wealth associated with that family. And in this case, it's Isaac. I will say this. I'm not advocating this and not suggesting this is the way that people ought to handle inheritance in their own families. But I will say that from the standpoint of God's covenant promises, point of view, there is a great advantage to doing it this way, as opposed to the way we do it today, where there is that debate, and where there is litigation, and where there is all kinds of separation. It's just very, very simple here. Abraham says, these guys are sons of a concubine. I will give them gifts. I will bless them. I will get them started on their way. And they will move away. so that there is no rival to Isaac. There is no question about who the heir is and who is going to be Abraham's successor. He sent them away from Isaac, his son, while he yet lived, eastward unto the east country. That's already what we've seen happen with Ishmael. Now it is also happening with the children of Keturah. And then Abraham dies. He is an old man. 175 is a good age. You say, wow, that's a really good age, right? You've got to put this into context. In Bible times, people are living in the early chapters of Genesis into the hundreds of years. Adam lives 930 years. But what we've been seeing happening since the time of the flood is the lifespan has been falling rapidly. And 175 is a good old age at this point. Moses will live to be 120. Joshua will live to 110. But the lifespan is declining pretty rapidly. And by the later historical writings of the Old Testament, it's going to be roughly comparable to what we have today. People will be dying in their 50s, 60s, 70s. And old men will be dying in their 80s, right? And so you say, wow. That's pretty close to home, right? Well, that's kind of where it's leveling out. And then, of course, in some ancient civilizations, you see it plummet much further than that and only begin to rise with the advent of modern medicine and better nutrition, which is why we're seeing our lifespans increasing in the Western world over the last several decades. But notice that when Abraham dies, verse 8, there's some interesting language that the Bible uses in association with that. He gave up the ghost, or gave up the spirit. I think that's a beautiful biblical description of what happens at death. As the body without the spirit is dead, James says, James chapter 2 and verse 26, human beings are spiritual beings who are embodied. And we will always be embodied in the resurrection in the age to come. In other words, God's purpose for you is not to become Casper the friendly ghost. And for some reason, some unfortunate reason, some Christians have that idea, is that, oh, this flesh is just awful. It's bad. I can't wait to be rid of it. And then when we go up into heaven, we're going to be floating around in the clouds and playing on the harps and skipping over. OK. Not exactly, right? The heavenly hope is a very earthy hope, but it's not this earth. It's the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that our desire in the resurrection is not to be unclothed, as in taking off our flesh, but rather fully clothed so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. This may not mean a lot to you, but it might mean something to your grandchildren. When I teach younger people about the resurrection hope, I take them through that passage, and I say, basically, the Christian hopes to be Iron Man. He's not taking something off. You think about Superman. He takes off his disguise as Clark Kent, and now his superpowers are revealed. No, in Iron Man's case, it's the weakness of man being encased of the armor, right? And that's the Christian hope, is that the resurrection body is not less real than the body you have right now. It's more real. It's more substantive. It is a body that is impervious to disease, to decay, to death. that cannot be tempted, that cannot be injured. Jesus' own resurrection body is the model of the resurrection body that we one day will have, 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2 says. And that indicates that we will recognize one another in the resurrection. We will have a physical body. Jesus' body even had scars. It's an interesting debate about whether we will or not, but we could have that debate at another time. Jesus could eat, he could be handled, he could be touched, he could be hugged, he could also walk through walls, and he could fly. So there is the model of the resurrection. And Paul says that is the resurrection hope that we have, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that the current body is mortal. The body that will be is immortal, but it's no less body. So what's happening in death is the person who dies is giving up the spirit, giving up the ghost. The soul and the body are separated, but it is temporary. And at the return of Christ, the soul and the body will be reunited, and the body will be raised, to use Paul's language, imperishable. In other words, in an undying form. That will not be the case for the wicked, by the way. Their souls will be re-embodied, but their form is never described as glorified or immortal. In other words, they will be in a state of death and decay for eternity. But not so the believer. So we talked a little bit about the resurrection hope last week with the idea of burial being an expression of this Christian hope and resurrection. We see it here again in Abraham's own death. He gave up the ghost, died in a good old age, an old man full of years. And then here's an expression I love. He was gathered to his feet. Right? You think about the idea of a Christian in death being gathered to his people. Now, this is an expression that wouldn't only be associated with believers in the Bible, and yet it is a beautiful thing to think about it in relation to a believer. The book of Hebrews portrays all of these fathers of the faith who have lived and died by faith in chapter 11, died in hope of the promises, not having seen their fulfillment, But God has provided for us that we might see that fulfillment. And the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1, He's talking about all of those Old Testament saints, all of those Old Testament heroes, men like Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and Isaiah. And think about being gathered to your people. Think about in Luke chapter 16, when Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus, he describes Lazarus being comforted by Abraham. Can you imagine being comforted after your death by Abraham? And here's the sad thing. We have imbibed the spirit of the age, and I think it was the poet Dylan Thomas that wrote the poem, Rage Against the Dying of the Light. Basically, fight and claw and do everything you can to prolong your life in this world. I'm not advocating that you be reckless. I don't want anybody going out and stepping in front of buses or eating a lot at McDonald's or anything like that. Those are reckless things to do, right? However, I hope you recognize that when Paul talks about the prospect of his own death in Philippians chapter 1, he says to depart and be with Christ is a far better thing. It's not just better, it's far better. You say, well, better than going to hell, obviously. No, Paul's saying it's far better than remaining here. That's his point. not better than hell, better than now, then there is no comparison. He says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 18, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that awaits. It is a far better thing. And we need to recognize that hope of being gathered to our people who are God's people. Not all of my biological family will be part of that community. But my people are God's people. But Jesus looks around the circle at his disciples in Mark chapter 3 as his brothers are standing outside trying to bring him home because they think he's crazy. He said, who are my mother and my brothers? He looks around the circle. He says, whoever does the will of my father is my brother and sister and mother, gathered to my people. gathered to God's people. That's a beautiful hope. And then Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, bury him where? In the cave. The cave of Machpelah. The cave in that field that he purchased. The down payment on the land promise. Abraham did not live to see that promise fulfilled. Neither will Isaac, neither will Jacob, neither will Joseph. But Abraham is planted in that land. because he knows it belongs to him by promise. And God blessed his son. Verse 11. Don't miss that. That's important. We're going to see that confirmed even over the rest of this chapter and the next chapter. Chapter 25 now in verse 12. Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names according to their generations. The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebihoth, and Kedar, and Abdeel, and Mibsam, and Mishmah, and Duma, and Massah, and Hadad, and Tema, Jeter, Naphish, and Kadema. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their villages and by their encampments. twelve princes according to their nations. And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty and seven years. And he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people. And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt. As Thou goest toward Assyria, he abode over against all his brethren." Remember the prophecy that the Lord gave to Hagar as she was fleeing The Lord said, he will be a wild man, a wild donkey of a man, he says. And his hand will be against his brethren, and his brethren's hand against him. There is even a reminder of that, an echo of that statement in his death. Again, many of these offspring are going to become nomadic tribes and Arabic sort of people who are going to, at times, come into conflict with the other descendants of Abraham. And then in verse 19, and these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife. And Isaac entreated Jehovah for his wife because she was barren. And Jehovah was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, wherefore do I live? What she's asking is, if all is well, why is this happening? You'll see that translated more clearly in some modern text. And she went to inquire of Jehovah. And Jehovah said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy belly. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. All right, the first story about Jacob. And we have barely had any stories about Isaac, right? All of Isaac's participation in the story thus far has been in relation to his father, his birth, when he's weaned, when he's sacrificed, and then when they secure a wife for him, and then when he buries his dad. That's almost it, right? There's going to be two more stories that he factors into. But you're going to notice there's really only one story in the whole book of Genesis where Isaac is the main character separate from either his father or his son. In every other story, he is either connected to his father or his son. He's just not by himself a significant character in the book. Isaac marries Rebekah when he's 40 years old. And again, if you want to do this, Genesis gives you enough ages and dates of birth and death to be able to kind of do some math and figure out when all of these events are happening roughly in relation to one another. But his wife, Rebekah, is barren. You say, what are the odds? What are the chances? Isaac's mother was barren and now Isaac's wife is barren and Isaac's daughters-in-law Are going to be barren one in particular Rachel. What is it with barren women in the Bible? They're all over the place so many of them and we've mentioned this before The theme of the barren woman in the Bible is very significant God elects. In other words, He chooses barren women to be the mothers of sons of promise and instruments of blessing. Why does He do that? Because He wants it to be clear that the blessing comes from Him and is not merely the product of naturalistic processes. God is concerned to protect the integrity of His grace and to make all see in heaven and on earth that it is His grace that is the ultimate source of all good things. One of the ways that you can see this, by the way, is by reading the first half of Ephesians chapter 1. In Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 to 14, Paul has this extended doxology concerning our salvation. And the refrain that is found three or four times in that section is that God has done all of this for the praise of His glorious grace. To glorify Himself. You say, why did God save us? Well, because He loved us so much. Well, no. That's just not really the reason. Biblically, that's not the reason. Did God love us? Oh, yes. Does God love us? Oh, yes. But that's not why He saved you. He saved you to glorify Himself. He saved you to magnify His greatness, His goodness, so that all might see in the ages to come the immensity of His wisdom, His power, and His grace in the kindness that He has shown toward you and to me in Christ Jesus. And if you question that, read Ephesians chapters 1 through 3. You'll see it affirmed in chapter 1. Chapter 2 and again in chapter 3. Chapter 3 is the capstone of that argument. God doesn't save you for you. He saves you and me for himself. And that's why he chooses barren women. It's because he wants it to be evident that the children of promise come from people and places that they could not otherwise come. You say, there's no way for Sarah to have a child. And God says, perfect, I'll give her a child. Isaac says, what are the chances that my wife is barren too? The Lord says, well, actually, that was me. I am the one who gives children. I'm the one who takes them. I'm the one who can provide conception, I'm the one who can withhold it. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He wants us to see that the power belongs to Him and not to us. And we see that theme over and over and over again in Scripture. Paul will say in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, not many wives according to the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish and the weak things of this world to glorify himself. Now that's not very flattering, because if you're a believer, the Bible basically just said that you're foolish and weak. Right? We say, oh, I must be pretty special for God to love me and God to save me and God to teach me and to grow me and say, well, actually, the Bible says that God chose weak fools to save so that we would all be clear on the fact that it was God who saved us and we didn't have anything to do with it. Right? That I can't boast of my intelligence. I can't boast of my honesty. I can't boast of my morality. I can only boast in the Lord." So what does Isaac do? When his wife is barren, she can't have children, what does he do? He pleads with God. He prays to God. You know, sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we say, well, all we can do is pray. That's really a bad expression. I know why we use it. I'm sure I'm guilty of using it many times. But it's really a bad expression because it leaves the impression that prayer is like this last resort. It's not much, but at least we can pray, right? It's all we can do, but it's something, I suppose, right? Better than nothing. No, it's not better than nothing. It's the very best thing that you can do. You know who provides conception? Not fertility doctors. It's God. Now God may be pleased to use fertility doctors. He may be pleased to use various means that couples who are unable to conceive children, that they seek these means out to be able to have children. That may be a blessing. It's interesting. I've known a few couples that adoption seemed to work just fine. They tried and tried and tried and never could have children. They finally adopted a child and she got pregnant, right? It's funny how that works. But however that may look on a human plane, it's God who opens the womb and closes the womb. And so Isaac turns to the Lord and pleads with the Lord, entreats the Lord for his wife, and he listens to Isaac, and Rebekah conceives. God will put you and me in situations where all we can do is pray, so that we will pray, so that we will pray like we would not otherwise pray, so that we will depend upon him like we would not otherwise depend upon him. By the way, those are difficult moments in our lives. You pray for God to strengthen your faith. You've got to be careful about how you pray about that. God may answer that prayer. And that can be a painful experience, but it's a good experience. Why does Isaac have to go through the agony? Why does Rebecca have to go through the misery of wanting children and not being able to have any? So that they would pray like this, and so that it would be evident to all of us that the children that are finally born are not accidents. They are God's gifts. That's what children are. They are God's gifts. There are no accidents there, right? Well, Rebecca gets pregnant, and the children, because they were twins, are wrestling within her. I cannot imagine. I cannot imagine. I do thank God that he made And so I watched my wife. Now, my wife never had twins, but oh my, right? One is enough, it seems like. The wrestling's within to have two. And these are two boys. And these are two boys that their conflict begins shortly after conception. They're butting heads their entire lives. One of them is going to comfort himself with the thought that, well, as soon as dad dies, I can kill my brother. So it'll all be OK then. That's coming next week, right? These boys are a handful, right, even before they are born. And Rebecca wonders, verse 22, Why are things this way? What is going on? If God has blessed me with children, why in the world do I feel the way that I do? And so how does she handle that? She inquires of the Lord. She prays about it. And God answers her. I don't know how he answers her. This is during the patriarchal period, and so during this period, the fathers of the families are functioning as both priests and prophets. So it's entirely possible, maybe even probable, that this revelation is mediated through Isaac. But we don't know that for certain. It may be that God reveals this to her directly or in some other way. That will be important, by the way, in chapter 27. That's part of the reason I'm bringing it up now. Just file that away until next week. However the Lord reveals this to Rebecca, he does reveal to her that two nations are in thy womb. You not only have two babies, you have two people groups, right? No wonder you're miserable. Two peoples shall be separated from within your belly, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." Now Paul makes much of this. If you're curious about it, go home and read Romans chapter 9, beginning in verse 6, going down through verse 24. Paul says that God did this in order to establish that it is his choice, not man's choice, that is the controlling factor in salvation. You say, that doesn't sound right. Aren't we supposed to choose Jesus? Of course you're supposed to choose Jesus. My question is this. Who chose who and who chose first? Did your choice of Jesus cause God's choice of you? Or did God's choice of you enable you to choose Jesus when you did? The Bible's not unclear about this. Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 37, all that the Father has given me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. That's a passage to meditate on, John 6 verse 37. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4, Paul says, he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we might be holy and blameless before him. Who chose who first? Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8 and Revelation chapter 17 and verse 18 says that God wrote the names of those who would be saved in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Now wait a second. I thought my name got written in the Lamb's Book of Life when I was 14 and decided to give my life to Jesus. I remember the night. I remember what I did. I remember what I confessed. I was baptized. I thought, that's it. Now, God just penciled my name into the, well, I hope he wrote it in sharp, permanent ink. That's when it happened, wasn't it? The Bible says twice that he did it before the foundation of the world. How could that be? A person says, well, God looked down the corridors of time, and he saw that Joel one day is going to be a believer, so he decided to choose Joel. Oh, well. But if that's the case, then God chose me because he knew I would choose him, in which case my choice came first. Maybe not in time, but logically, God wouldn't have chosen me unless I had chosen him, or he knew that I would. You see, Paul in Romans chapter 9 says, now, this story, among many others, just proves that that's not the case. The Lord chose these two boys and gave them to Isaac and Rebekah. But God chose two very different paths for these boys and for the people that would arise from them. And Paul says it is to establish that before either of them had been born, before either of them did anything good, God made a choice. Now what does that mean? People say, oh, that creates all kinds of problems. in that regard, but could I point out that in all of these passages we've mentioned, John 6, John 8, John 10, John 17, Ephesians 1, Romans 9, Revelation 13, Revelation 17, and many others, all of these passages bring up God's election, which just means God's choosing those whom he will save. All of those passages bring the subject up in order to comfort the saints and praise the God who did it. Because here's the reality. If God had not made such choices, none of us would be saved today. Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. and I will raise him up on the last day." Here's an interesting tidbit. If you read the New Testament in Greek, the verb that Jesus uses there for God drawing people to Christ is the same verb that is used later in John chapter 18 to describe Peter drawing a sword. Did that sword choose to jump into Peter's hand? Or did Peter choose to grab hold of that sword and bring it where he wanted it? See, that's what God did with you. That's what God did with me. You did make a choice. Praise God for that. But God made a choice so that you could, to ensure that you would. And he's made many other choices throughout your life and mine to make sure that we are his and will remain his. And if you could lose your salvation, you would. But Jesus said, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. He will make sure that you don't, because it's ultimately his decision, not yours. And that's supposed to comfort you. That's supposed to give you things to be thankful for. These aren't supposed to be topics that we argue about. They're supposed to be matters that we rejoice over. Look at the goodness of God. By the way, you may say, well, God chose Jacob, the younger, and not Esau, the elder, because he knew that Jacob would be a believer. Have you read Jacob's story? Seriously. I'm going to spend a few weeks talking about Jacob in this class. I love Jacob's story in the book of Genesis, because Jacob is a wretch. He is like the bad boy of the book of Genesis. I am not kidding. I am convinced that Jacob's story in Genesis is a story of conversion. It's a story about the offspring of Abraham who doesn't believe, and it's the story about how God brings him to faith. And let me just give you a preview. You know how God brings him to faith? God breaks him, literally. He breaks him. He limps the rest of his life as a result of it. God breaks him. But the point is, God chose him. Not because Jacob was good. Not because he knew he would one day be good. He chose him so that one day he could be good. And that's the choice that God made in the lives of his people. That's pretty special, I think. Now, when the day of birth comes, twins are born. And immediately, I mean, these two guys, they're characters, right? One of them got all of the hair in the family. Jacob is going to be described as a smooth-skinned man, right? That's because all of the hair follicles that should have been on his body apparently were on Esau's body. Some Old Testament commentators actually believe, and I think with probably reasonable grounds, that Esau has a condition. There is a special medical condition that produces this kind of furriness, right? He's like a little Wookiee. He comes out. He's hairy all over. And it's red hair. That's why they're going to call him Edom, right? Now, Edom, I mean, that sounds like a respectful Bible name. OK, look, Edom just means red, right? So I grew up in Alabama, right? You would have guys that were called Bubba, and you'd call other guys red, right? They just called Esau red, right? Because he's just got red hair all over the place. He's so hairy that in chapter 27, his brother is going to be able to convince his father that he's Esau by putting the skin of goats on his arms. Good grief. I mean, seriously, that's remarkable, right? When Jacob comes out, the second baby, He's grabbing Esau's heel. That's why they call him Jacob. It's not because they think, oh, that's such a sweet name. We've got a great, great uncle that was named Jacob. Let's name him after him. No. It means supplanter. It refers to the fact that he is the kind of person who grabs the heel to pull somebody down the ladder so that he can climb up into his place. It's not a compliment. Now, they may have thought, well, this is kind of cute and ironic. Let's call him Jacob, because it's like he's trying to pull Esau back into the womb so that he can come out first. But really and truly, that's the way Jacob lives his life. Esau will later say, is he not rightly named Jacob? And he doesn't mean that in a nice way, right? So here is kind of a snapshot of things to come. these two boys, you're already kind of seeing something about who they are and who they will be. Jacob is not going to be a commendable character for most of his life story. But we're not there yet, so we won't get there yet. Their mother Acts like an unbeliever in chapter 27. Absolutely. That's exactly right. And we're going to have some conversation about where Jacob learned his depravity. OK. So we're not going to make it through two chapters today, clearly, because we've still got one more paragraph to go. And so let's look at this next paragraph before we finish up. Verse 27. And the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison. And Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob boiled pottage. And Esau came in from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore, his name was called Edom. By the way, that's not saying that's the point at which his name was called Enam, but it's saying, here again, that's why we call him Red, right? Verse 31, and Jacob said, sell me first thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am about to die. What profit shall the birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me first. And he swear unto him. And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright. All right, here's the first story about these two brothers where they actually begin to make choices, right? Paul says God's choices about them was not based on their choices. It was before they could even make any choices. However, when they start to make choices, what do you notice about both of them? They're scoundrels. They really are. Esau, he's an outdoorsman. He's a hunter. He's a man's man. And his daddy loves that. Isaac likes to eat the game that Esau finds in the field and brings. Jacob is a schemer. Jacob likes to stay in the tents. He's cunning. He's a businessman. His mother likes that. One day, Esau comes in, and Jacob's been cooking. You can imagine the conflicts that develop, right? You've got one guy who's this big game hunter, and the other one who likes cooking, right? These two guys could not be more different, except they're both depraved. They're both sinners, and they're acting out their sin nature. Esau comes in and sees his brother cooking and says, oh, man, I am about dead on my feet. Give me some of that stew that you've made. Jacob says, sure. Sell me your birthright. OK, real quick. What kind of a loser tries to deprive his brother of his birthright for the sake of a bowl of stew? I mean, seriously, what happens to concern for the needy, feeding the hungry, right? It's your own brother. Jacob sees Esau's need as a business opportunity, and he doesn't care that he is taking advantage of Esau in a disadvantageous position. I think Jacob knows something about Esau's character, by the way. I think he knows that he's the kind of person that doesn't care anything about important things, like birthrights. And Jacob knows that he can take advantage of Esau. Esau is a man who is governed by his belly. And Jacob is a man who is governed by his greed. And that will continue to be true throughout their lives. So Jacob says, sell me your birthright, and I'll give you some food. Esau says, I'm about dead. What do I care about a birthright? Fine. You can have it. Jacob says, no, no, no. Swear to me. I'm going to make sure that he doesn't back off of this later and say, I had low blood sugar. I didn't know what I was saying. No, no. Let's make this official. Make this official. And so Esau swears to him, Jacob feeds him, Esau fills his belly, goes on his way, doesn't think anything about it. Now, who's in the wrong here? Both of them. Both of them. You can see, I think, the way that Jacob took advantage of Esau. That's obvious. This is not a righteous transaction. This is not, if you're thinking, well, Jacob's just a good businessman. No, he's a greedy, dishonest person. That's not good business. That's not acting with integrity. That is loving money more than you love people. It's using people to obtain things. That's not righteous. What a lot of people don't realize is that the Bible is uniformly critical of Esau for this episode. You see it here in verse 34. Esau despised his birthright. You say, well, how big of a deal is that? Let me tell you how big of a deal it is. In Hebrews chapter 13 in the New Testament, the Hebrews writer circles back to this story and he says, beware lest any of you be a profane person like Esau who sold his birthright for a pot of stew. Now what does it mean to be a profane person? You think about profanity, you think, oh, saying bad words. Well, you shouldn't say bad words. The Bible says you shouldn't have filthy communication coming out of your mouth. But technically speaking, that's only one type of profanity. Profanity is treating that which is sacred or special as if it were not. Treating something holy as if it were unholy or common. There are certain things that are to be treated with reference. You know, I think we could have a good time. I think we do actually have a good time when we're having Bible study, and we see things that are humorous in the text, and we use illustrations that are sometimes humorous. But let me tell you something. Teaching the Bible shouldn't be like stand-up comedy, right? And yet I know preachers and pastors who kind of preach that way. Can't tell much difference between them and a stand-up comedian. You know, that's a problem. Let's admit it. They're not able to take serious things seriously. Esau treats something sacred. His birthright as the elder brother, he treats something sacred as if it were not, as if it were nothing. I don't care anything about this. Esau, do you not realize this is God's gift to you based on your position within this family? This is not a small thing. This is a big deal. Esau says, I don't care. I'm hungry. Sounds like abortion, doesn't it? In many ways, that would be another example of treating something as sacred, taking something sacred and treating it as not. There's so many illustrations of this, right? In the visible church, in our larger society. And that is profane. It is treating as common things that are holy, that are sacred, that are special. And the Bible, in both the Old Testament and New Testament, criticizes Esau for that. And the New Testament warns us, don't be like that. Be careful. that you don't treat as unholy that which is holy. Have respect for respectful things, for God's things. Treat with reverence the things of God and the gifts of God. Don't act like a fool and sell God's good gifts just to satisfy your belly. And yet, isn't that what we've been doing since the time of Adam and Eve? I mean, what do Adam and Eve trade for a piece of fruit? Everything! God? The garden? Immortality? For what? A piece of fruit? Judas sells the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver. Seriously. Seriously, the price in the Old Testament of a wounded slave. A wounded slave. He sells Jesus for that. Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of soup. And yet you and I, we do that all the time. We treat as unholy that which is holy. We make light of sacred things. We yield to temptation to satisfy a moment of sinful desire. We sell that which is more precious than everything in this world. You realize that Jesus is the one who says in Matthew chapter 16, whoever gains the whole world and loses his soul gains nothing at all. You've gained nothing at all. You've lost everything. You've lost everything. You realize that your soul is worth more than any amount of money, pleasure, power, experience, anything that the world could offer you. It's more precious than that. And yet we sell it for a pittance. We sell it for nothing. We don't give up our relationship with God for $10 million. We give it up for a moment's satisfaction, and then when we have given ourselves to sin, we find that sin isn't as satisfying as it said it would be. And all we are left with is the regret, and the misery, and the shame. It's not a good deal. So don't be like Esau, right? Don't be like Jacob. Learn the lesson that God is teaching. in the lives of both of these men. OK. Next week, Lord willing, we'll tackle chapter 26. And time permitting, we may even get into chapter 27. I don't know. Or we may have to stretch that over to the next week. That's OK. It probably happened because I said before our prayer that we were right on track, right on schedule. And the Lord smited me for boasting of that. So now I'm appropriately chastened. All right. Very good. OK. Any questions before we finish?