back to index2021-01-17 Weak Men, Great God
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If you can turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11, we're continuing on the series on the 00:00:13.840 |
I'm going to be reading from verse 20 through 22. 00:00:18.560 |
For my main text, we're just going to be on one verse today. 00:00:31.040 |
Reading out of the NASB, "By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things 00:00:37.300 |
By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped, 00:00:43.840 |
By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel 00:00:51.640 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your grace, we pray for your guidance, we pray for your 00:01:01.280 |
Lord, we know that the exposition of your word, Lord, will only allow us, Lord, to understand 00:01:08.960 |
mentally if your Holy Spirit doesn't illumine us. 00:01:14.160 |
Search our hearts, our thoughts, our motives. 00:01:18.560 |
May it be surrendered to your word this morning. 00:01:24.160 |
All right, so when I started the sermon, I was planning to cover the three verses. 00:01:31.640 |
My goal is not to go one verse a week, but the three verses that we're looking at covers 00:01:41.360 |
So I could just kind of skim over and say, "This is what faith looks like," you know, 00:01:48.520 |
Or I can just kind of dive in and review over what's going on in Genesis. 00:01:52.640 |
So obviously I've chosen to do the latter, and I think it's beneficial for us to understand 00:01:57.640 |
the historical context in which this is going on. 00:02:00.520 |
And so the text that we're looking at, it really is covering over about two and a half 00:02:05.000 |
chapters, and then the other two men that are mentioned, Jacob and Joseph, they're 00:02:09.800 |
going to be covering about 12 to 13 chapters each. 00:02:12.720 |
But I think it would be beneficial for us to know what's going on in Genesis so when 00:02:16.200 |
he says, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau," regarding things to come, that we know 00:02:23.000 |
So instead of just assuming you know the story, I think it'd be good for us to review it, 00:02:26.960 |
and it'll help us to understand better why he says what he says. 00:02:30.960 |
Right off the bat, we're looking at verse 20, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau," 00:02:38.280 |
That verse, if you just skim through it and you didn't ask any questions, that's enough 00:02:42.560 |
because it's consistent with everything else he's saying in chapter 11. 00:02:47.240 |
But if you've ever read through the history of what's going on behind this verse, it causes 00:02:57.120 |
Isaac was involved in probably one of the greatest highlights in the redemptive history, 00:03:01.600 |
where the sacrifice and then saving him from that was a type of what Christ was going to 00:03:06.400 |
do, and we saw the Father's heart through Abraham and the things that he was going through, 00:03:11.720 |
and all of that to point to us, to strike in us about what God himself was going to 00:03:23.680 |
Most people think he could be as young as 14 or 15 or as old as 20. 00:03:28.960 |
So he wasn't a little kid where he didn't understand what was going on. 00:03:32.440 |
And that same guy, you would expect that after that great event, his life would be kind of 00:03:38.960 |
he takes the baton and then his faith grows even further than that, and then he's able 00:03:43.680 |
to do even greater things than Abraham because he had the benefit of a godly father who went 00:03:48.840 |
through all that he went through and then just passed it on to his son. 00:03:53.480 |
Instead, it causes us to look at Isaac plus Jacob. 00:03:59.560 |
If you know anything behind that story, it's like, what? 00:04:04.280 |
All of redemptive history happened like that, right? 00:04:08.920 |
And again, we'll review what is happening here, but I think it's important for us to 00:04:13.480 |
uncover that we don't look at something, especially in the Bible, like we don't fully understand 00:04:27.120 |
Why does something so important as a line in which redemptive history was going to come 00:04:31.680 |
down come through trickery, lying, deception? 00:04:36.300 |
Maybe even we might say it was unjust to take that away from Esau. 00:04:42.220 |
And why is that event described in this verse that by faith Isaac blessed Jacob? 00:04:53.440 |
You know, we could say by trickery, Isaac blessed Jacob, right? 00:05:02.040 |
Through Jacob's lying and conniving, he received a blessing. 00:05:06.440 |
Through a simple mistake of Esau, he forsook his blessing. 00:05:11.300 |
But by faith, what does faith have to do with any of this, right? 00:05:15.640 |
So we want to examine this morning what this actually means and try to uncover that. 00:05:19.760 |
And so I'm just going to tell you ahead of time, we're going to spend our time in chapter 00:05:23.640 |
25 through 27 just going over the narrative so that we can better understand the story 00:05:29.920 |
And then my main point is going to be at the end. 00:05:31.600 |
I'm going to try to summarize what's going on and why this is stated in verse 20 at the 00:05:40.400 |
So first part of it, we want to go over the narrative of what's going on. 00:05:48.200 |
He was just involved in probably the greatest redemptive point where it's so clear what 00:05:54.320 |
And then he survives that, Jehovah Jireh, saying that God the Father is going to provide. 00:06:00.040 |
So again, you would think that the next event that we hear is Isaac with his great faith 00:06:07.040 |
Instead, Isaac is described to us very plainly, right? 00:06:18.240 |
He meets his wife and then he's sojourning in foreign lands and he runs into a greater 00:06:23.880 |
nation, the Philistines, and he's afraid just like his dad. 00:06:28.280 |
And when he meets King Abednmela, he said, "Tell them that you're my sister instead of 00:06:38.000 |
Because if they find out because you're so pretty that they're going to come and kill 00:06:45.400 |
Again, the same problem that his dad had when he was young. 00:06:49.120 |
But really the whole story of Isaac really centers on his blessing on Jacob. 00:06:57.760 |
And in the redemptive history, that's his highlight at the end of his life, right? 00:07:02.160 |
So at the tail end of Abraham's life, he has great faith, sacrificing his only son, believing 00:07:10.280 |
But here's Isaac at the end of his life, he's being tricked. 00:07:14.480 |
In humans' point of view, he's blessing the wrong person, right? 00:07:20.200 |
In Genesis 25, 27-34, this is how this is introduced to us. 00:07:25.520 |
When the boys grew up, the twins, Jacob and Esau, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man 00:07:31.840 |
of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man living in tents. 00:07:38.080 |
Now let's first see who these guys, these guys are twins and the older brother, Esau, 00:07:47.480 |
He's the guy who hunts, he's the skillful hunter. 00:07:51.600 |
And that word peaceful is very important because that's how Jacob is described to us, this 00:08:00.360 |
The word peaceful is one of those Hebrew words that you can't translate it with one word 00:08:05.520 |
So if you look at the NIV, it's translated, NIV and the ESV translates that word as quiet, 00:08:15.240 |
New King James translates that word mild, which is a little bit different, nuanced. 00:08:23.480 |
King James version, which is almost just straight plain, it just tells you what it is and it's 00:08:36.360 |
Peaceful sounds pretty good, that he's not a man of war, but King James says he's just 00:08:43.520 |
So all of these words are very specifically nuanced words because you can't translate 00:08:49.480 |
In fact, the literal understanding of that word means complete. 00:08:55.540 |
You can kind of see where that word comes from, complete meaning that you're not striving 00:09:01.760 |
So I think the best way to summarize all these words is he was just a content man. 00:09:08.380 |
He wasn't out there striving, he just lived in this tent, did what his mommy told him 00:09:16.320 |
This great man of faith, he was just peaceful, mild, plain, content. 00:09:24.100 |
Where Esau was a man of the field, he was a hunter. 00:09:27.920 |
So keep that in the back of your mind as we continue to go on this narrative. 00:09:33.160 |
Verse 28, "Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob." 00:09:39.600 |
Obviously Rebekah would love Jacob because Jacob's the one always by her side, right? 00:09:45.480 |
And you could tell why Isaac would love Esau because Esau's a manly man. 00:09:50.680 |
He's out there, you know, getting animals to come back and feed his family. 00:09:59.200 |
Verse 29, "When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished. 00:10:04.000 |
And Esau said to Jacob, 'Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am 00:10:15.480 |
The older brother comes in, he's hungry because he was hunting. 00:10:19.760 |
He said, "I'm hungry, can you give me that stew?" 00:10:32.880 |
I'll give you a little bit of stew, give me your birthright. 00:10:37.840 |
I mean, he's not somebody that we would look at, at least from the narrative, looking at 00:10:42.240 |
it as like, Jacob's not the type of guy that you'd want to be friends with. 00:10:49.040 |
And Esau, you know, he's just being a man of the field, he doesn't really think through. 00:11:07.400 |
So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 00:11:11.560 |
I'm going to die, you know, I'll give you my birthright. 00:11:16.280 |
Now, you have to understand, what happens here in that text, as silly as that is, determines 00:11:31.560 |
And if you remember the history of Israel, Edomites keep coming up in the prophets saying 00:11:36.280 |
how Edomites are judged because they gloated over the judgment of Israel. 00:11:41.040 |
They were always a stumbling block to the nation of Israel. 00:11:46.000 |
It started right here, because he was hungry and he was overdramatic. 00:11:56.840 |
Jacob, on the other hand, he becomes, his name gets changed to Israel, one who wrestles 00:12:04.120 |
And God's redemptive plan comes through this line. 00:12:10.240 |
Instead of being generous and saying, "Man, you must be famished and you brought all this 00:12:14.120 |
game for us, the Aedes," he said, "Well, if you want that, give me your birthright." 00:12:19.120 |
Maybe knowing his weakness, took advantage of his brother. 00:12:21.720 |
And that's how, that's how redemptive history, the redemptive nation of Israel is named after 00:12:40.640 |
Why would such an important thing happen in this way and is allowed? 00:12:47.680 |
Well, you have to understand that the birthright here is much more than an average family's 00:12:54.960 |
In verse 34, Jacob gave Esau the bread and lentil, and he ate and drank and rose and 00:13:08.040 |
But it says, "Thus Esau despised his birthright." 00:13:14.280 |
Now typically, when a father passes away at that particular time, the firstborn would 00:13:19.600 |
get the double portion of whatever the other children would get. 00:13:23.680 |
But the birthright here, the blessing here is not simply talking about financial gain. 00:13:28.560 |
That because he's the firstborn, he's like, "What good is it to me? 00:13:34.720 |
When he says he despised his birthright, this is no ordinary birthright. 00:13:39.600 |
Remember, Isaac was the sacrifice that Abraham was supposed to give. 00:13:44.720 |
So Isaac, in redemptive history, represented the type of Christ. 00:13:49.840 |
His possible death and resurrection, coming back from the dead, God delivering him, was 00:13:56.000 |
So Isaac, I can almost guarantee, knew full well why his father was doing that. 00:14:03.760 |
His father, he probably asked him, "What did you do that for?" 00:14:08.120 |
And I can guarantee, right, if Abraham left the Calvary, he was already a pretty wealthy 00:14:15.320 |
man when he left, and he's wandering into desert or in areas where he's not safe. 00:14:21.400 |
Any human being would say, "Well, if you want to live a nice and comfortable life, just 00:14:27.240 |
The only reason why he did it is because God said to go. 00:14:33.800 |
This covenant promise was the only reason why they did what they did, because what Abraham 00:14:40.720 |
So I don't think it's a stretch to think that Abraham took every opportunity to tell Isaac 00:14:51.840 |
And I can guarantee that Isaac told Jacob and Esau about this blessing, about what happened 00:14:57.680 |
The biggest event that happened in Isaac's life was what happened at Mount Moriah, explaining 00:15:06.360 |
So when Esau said, "Well, what good is my birthright when I'm hungry?" 00:15:11.680 |
He wasn't simply rejecting the double portion. 00:15:19.280 |
And that's why it says he despised his birthright. 00:15:24.800 |
In Genesis 26, 3-4, God reminds Isaac of this covenant. 00:15:32.680 |
"Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. 00:15:36.840 |
For to you and to your descendants, I will give all these lands, and I will establish 00:15:40.480 |
the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 00:15:43.840 |
I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and will give your descendants all 00:15:47.840 |
these lands, and by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." 00:15:59.960 |
This is exactly, almost verbatim, repeated in Genesis 12, 1, 2, and 3. 00:16:04.880 |
This is the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants. 00:16:07.920 |
And it's reminding Isaac, and again, I don't think it's a stretch to think that Jacob and 00:16:18.200 |
And Esau just kind of like, "What good is that? 00:16:24.480 |
What good is the covenant promise if I'm hungry and I'm going to die?" 00:16:30.760 |
You see, Esau, Esau would have been the better leader. 00:16:36.920 |
In fact, the scripture says Isaac loved Esau. 00:16:41.680 |
Not only was, by law, was he obligated to bless his older son, he wanted to bless his 00:16:46.940 |
older son because that's the one that would make sense. 00:16:54.400 |
If you were to choose a leader for the covenant promise who'd lead the nation of Israel, whenever 00:16:59.340 |
God establishes that, whose line would you choose? 00:17:13.960 |
Or Jacob, smooth, plain, content, quiet, mama's boy, right? 00:17:29.600 |
If you were to put on paper who should lead, where the covenant should go to fulfill this 00:17:40.840 |
And he said, on top of that, Esau was very hairy, which is going to come out later. 00:17:47.240 |
Everything that you would think about a testosterone-driven manly man who's going to lead this nation 00:17:52.600 |
to conquer their enemies, Esau fit that description. 00:17:59.160 |
And yet, Rebekah hears about the plan that Isaac is about to bless his son, and she schemes. 00:18:09.060 |
She suggests to Jacob, your father at his old age, he doesn't see well, so I have a 00:18:15.280 |
Instead of having Esau be blessed, I want you to be blessed, right? 00:18:19.520 |
And so he said, well, look how it's described, verse 11. 00:18:22.560 |
Jacob answered his mother and said, behold, Esau, my brother, is hairy man, and I am a 00:18:30.960 |
You know, the thing that pops out at me is Jacob doesn't say, that don't sound right. 00:18:44.320 |
He doesn't worry about like, that's my older brother, I can't do that to him. 00:18:53.680 |
Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring 00:19:09.280 |
Verse 13, but his mother said to him, your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice 00:19:20.400 |
What if this backfires, doesn't work, he's hairy and I'm not, you know, and I know he's 00:19:24.520 |
old and he's blind, but it's just too obvious. 00:19:26.960 |
He said, don't worry, any consequence, I'll take it. 00:19:30.560 |
So he did what his mommy told him to do, right? 00:19:34.880 |
Verse 14, so he went and got them and brought them to his mother and his mother made savory 00:19:43.080 |
Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the 00:19:48.160 |
house and put them on Jacob, her younger son, and put the skin of the young goats on his 00:19:55.900 |
She also gave the savory food and the bread which she had made to her son, Jacob. 00:20:05.640 |
This is the formation of Israel where Jesus is going to come through that line. 00:20:16.240 |
And the way that he gets the blessing is he puts on goat skin so that he can pretend like 00:20:23.120 |
And the first thing I think of is just how hairy was Esau that he was going to touch 00:20:40.960 |
In verse 21, then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come close that I may feel you, my son, whether 00:20:49.540 |
So Jacob came close to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said, "The voice is the 00:20:54.440 |
voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." 00:21:03.960 |
He said, "Oh, that sounds, you know, I mean, it sounds like Jacob, but it feels like Esau." 00:21:16.640 |
God's covenant blessing is coming down through this. 00:21:22.760 |
You know, there's a lot of strange things in the Bible that sometimes we read and we 00:21:27.080 |
just kind of like, oh, it's hard to understand. 00:21:29.200 |
So, you know, a lot of times we treat Leviticus like that, right? 00:21:32.920 |
We come through Leviticus and it's like, what? 00:21:40.320 |
And you go through all that and say, oh, I don't understand. 00:21:43.120 |
There's something important going on, but you just kind of move up, right? 00:21:46.800 |
But some of the greatest treasures in the Bible are hidden in these things, right? 00:21:51.000 |
I mean, I remember the time when I was preaching through the Old Testament and I got through 00:21:56.180 |
And I came to judges and judges is a constant cycle of Israel. 00:21:59.760 |
You know, everyone did what was right in their own eyes because they didn't have a king and 00:22:05.920 |
And then they would cry out to God when they're oppressed and then God raises up a judge. 00:22:10.360 |
And there's a couple of stories in there that just, I had such a hard time preaching because 00:22:18.680 |
And he said that Eglon was a guy who was a ruler oppressing Israel and God raises up 00:22:25.440 |
But the guy is so obese that he sticks the knife in him and he can't pull it back out 00:22:33.400 |
And the Bible describes this, but that's not, that's, it's not, it doesn't end there. 00:22:39.960 |
He gets stuck and then he's able to escape because his guards don't come in. 00:22:45.360 |
And the reason why they don't come in is because they thought he was relieving himself for 00:22:51.200 |
But he was in the bathroom and he wasn't coming out and Israel is delivered. 00:23:01.880 |
I was like, what am I going to preach on this? 00:23:04.800 |
What is God teaching us through this couldn't pull the knife out, therefore trust God. 00:23:15.680 |
And I remember very specifically what I preached there, which I would not preach again. 00:23:20.840 |
But I remember preaching that when you are not right with God, that even people like 00:23:30.400 |
Then we talk about Samson, you know, this man of faith. 00:23:38.040 |
So when I took a close look at him, he's like, this is the judge that God raised to deliver 00:23:43.440 |
There's a lot of stories in the Bible where it just doesn't fit, right? 00:23:50.760 |
This is one of those things where it's like, what? 00:24:03.040 |
But when you read the redemptive history, what does faith have to do with this? 00:24:13.720 |
Everything that Abraham did, everything that he went through is all coming down to the 00:24:20.620 |
And the way it happened was like, you sound like Jacob, but you feel like Esau. 00:24:39.200 |
Why did God allow this in redemptive history? 00:24:46.320 |
In fact, if you look at Jesus' genealogy, this is Jesus, the son of God. 00:24:52.000 |
There's prostitutes, adulterers, and murderers in Jesus' genealogy, right? 00:25:01.320 |
And God orchestrated this, and yet we see people in there, it's like, what? 00:25:14.880 |
Why wasn't Jacob punished for his lying and scheming? 00:25:26.600 |
Again, I told you that the main point is at the end, so we're at the end, okay? 00:25:33.080 |
You look at Esau, it's like, wow, I mean, that's unfair for Esau, right? 00:25:37.400 |
How many of us have made dumb decisions when we were young? 00:25:40.600 |
And because of that, his whole heritage, all his descendants started going down the wrong 00:25:51.960 |
In fact, in Hebrews 12, the chapter we're going to get to pretty soon, in verse 16 and 00:25:56.040 |
17, describes Esau this way, that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who 00:26:03.360 |
sold his own birthright for a single meal, for you know that even afterwards, when he 00:26:07.960 |
desired to inherit the blessings, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though 00:26:16.320 |
And in Genesis itself, in 25, 34, it says, "And Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, 00:26:21.660 |
and he ate it and drank and rose and went on his way. 00:26:26.840 |
We may look at this particular event and say, "Well, he made a mistake. 00:26:35.800 |
There was a mental lapse for a minute, and that's what led to this? 00:26:43.800 |
And because of that, he's called immoral and godless, who despised his birthright?" 00:26:50.680 |
You have to understand that the rejection of his birthright was not simply a rejection 00:26:59.880 |
It was a rejection of all the promise that God made to him and to all the descendants. 00:27:07.000 |
God was planning to bring about the salvation of mankind through the nation of Israel. 00:27:14.120 |
And so when he rejected, when he despised it, it may seem like a small act, but from 00:27:29.560 |
You know the word for glory in the Bible literally simply means weighty, something serious. 00:27:41.100 |
So when it says that he simply despised it, he considered it as nothing. 00:27:46.480 |
He compared his birthright, the promise of God, the covenant promise, and he compared 00:27:51.400 |
it with his hunger, and his hunger was more important. 00:27:58.400 |
What we may look at as a simple mistake, a useful indiscretion, God says, "No, you rejected." 00:28:06.600 |
In fact, in Mark chapter 3, 28, it says, "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven, 00:28:11.760 |
And whatever blasphemy they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has 00:28:16.380 |
forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin." 00:28:19.000 |
He said all things can be forgiven except for those who reject his promise. 00:28:25.580 |
And that's exactly what it says that Esau did. 00:28:28.800 |
Esau considered the weightiness of what God was doing, and he took it flippantly. 00:28:35.860 |
How often do you and I look at simple indiscretions and not realizing what we are doing? 00:28:46.540 |
I'm not saying that God is not important, but I got to pay my bills. 00:28:55.620 |
And so we don't look at it as a rejection of God. 00:29:02.340 |
I got to take care of my needs first, and then I'll consider the big picture," not realizing 00:29:08.680 |
that we may be rejecting, despising the promises of God. 00:29:16.260 |
The small things that sometimes that seem so urgent in our lives in the context of eternity 00:29:24.940 |
Whether we become millionaires, become famous, where our children grow up to become superstars 00:29:29.620 |
and taken care of, and we live to 105 years old, all of that eternity is very, very trivial. 00:29:37.980 |
But the things that God says in His Word has eternal value. 00:29:42.260 |
So His covenant promise, Esau's great sin was that he considered the covenant of God 00:29:52.260 |
Jacob's, he's a guy that's like, "Well, okay, now we see why Esau's sin was so great, but 00:30:08.860 |
The Bible says that if you have a faith of a mustard seed, I don't know if you've ever 00:30:16.980 |
seen a mustard seed, mustard seed looks like a lint. 00:30:20.380 |
It's so tiny, but if you see that plant and when it grows, it grows into this great tree. 00:30:25.220 |
He says if you have a seed, if you have faith of a mustard seed, you can move what? 00:30:31.080 |
So the point that Jesus was making is not that you're a great man, it's not your great 00:30:36.180 |
achievements, but if you have faith in this great God, even if it's tiny like a mustard 00:30:41.260 |
seed, even if it's hard to see, but it's there, even if you have that, you will see the power 00:30:51.180 |
His power is that tiny little connection to this power is where the power is. 00:30:59.340 |
Jacob is a perfect example of a man who had tiny faith, at least at this time, or at least 00:31:08.740 |
I think the best way for us to understand what Jacob did is this way. 00:31:14.420 |
I don't know if you've ever been to a large conference. 00:31:16.780 |
You have celebrity pastors come and speak in great sermons, great music, and people 00:31:27.020 |
They're like beating everybody to the front seat, and they get there and then they save 00:31:33.700 |
All their friends and family and cousins who may come there, may not come there, but they're 00:31:37.740 |
saving all the seats and everybody else is ticked off. 00:31:47.780 |
And so people watching that may look at it and say, "What are they doing? 00:31:53.140 |
But the reason why they're doing that is because they want the great seats. 00:31:58.620 |
They wanted to be in the front and have the best seats so that they can have the best 00:32:05.100 |
They can see that whoever is speaking, all the nuances and emotions on their face, so 00:32:11.300 |
So the motive behind what they're doing is great. 00:32:15.940 |
But the method in which they did it ticks off a lot of people. 00:32:19.100 |
I don't know if you've ever been to a big conference. 00:32:22.420 |
I've been to big conferences like that where it's just eager. 00:32:24.820 |
It's like iPhone 18 is coming out and they have to be the first ones to get it, and they 00:32:29.460 |
run and they're literally running against other people. 00:32:32.300 |
They get there and they spread out like, "Mine!" 00:32:38.060 |
I look at what Jacob does here is similar to that. 00:32:43.220 |
You could see that tiny faith where he understood what he was getting, and he wanted it. 00:32:51.340 |
Let me ask you, what does God want from us more than anything else? 00:33:10.060 |
All of these things are commanded in Scripture, but what does he desire of us more than anything 00:33:17.140 |
To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 00:33:27.580 |
Worship is when we value something, when we desire something, worship comes from that. 00:33:32.460 |
He didn't just say plant churches and make disciples and pray and do all this and be 00:33:36.460 |
a good Christian and get things done, bear a lot of fruit so that other people can ... He 00:33:41.020 |
said, "All of these things are true, but the biggest, the most important thing, in fact, 00:33:45.220 |
he says, "All of that thing, all of those things that I desire can really be summed 00:33:50.300 |
To love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength." 00:33:52.460 |
Jacob, as foolish as he was, as questionable as the method was, he valued what God promised 00:34:12.620 |
And that tiny little faith, that tiny little faith is what brought the blessing upon his 00:34:19.540 |
He said, "Lord, I pray that you will seek me and find me when you search me with all 00:34:28.540 |
And you see that repeated over and over and over again, all throughout Scripture. 00:34:33.700 |
You know, the challenge of being a Christian for a while, knowing things, studying the 00:34:38.820 |
Bible, is we seek him, but not with all our heart. 00:34:43.980 |
I think all of us can remember when we first became Christian when Christ was everything. 00:34:58.120 |
And for the rest of our Christian life is to look back at that and try to be that same 00:35:06.100 |
Because that's what God desires from us more than anything else. 00:35:09.820 |
So in Hebrews 11, 6, it says, "Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who 00:35:13.620 |
comes to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of those who seek him." 00:35:18.660 |
But that word "seek" isn't just passively seeking. 00:35:23.140 |
King James, in New King James, says, "He who diligently seek him with all his heart." 00:35:29.180 |
In fact, Jacob, this slippery mama's boy who used all of his trickery to get the blessing, 00:35:39.180 |
he's the guy where his name gets changed to Israel, the one who contends with God. 00:35:51.700 |
He calls them people who wrestles with me, who wants me. 00:36:16.180 |
And if there's anything that is highlighted in Jacob's life, it's that through all of 00:36:25.420 |
And that's why he has a limp on his side, because he wrestled with God. 00:36:29.620 |
He's like, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." 00:36:46.300 |
Why didn't he, when he realized that he was tricked, say, "Okay, forget it. 00:36:58.140 |
You have to understand that at that time, for him to bestow a blessing, he wasn't simply 00:37:11.460 |
For him to reverse what he did would have not simply been reversing what he said, but 00:37:18.580 |
Because in the oral tradition, basically declaring that would have been no different than signing 00:37:23.660 |
a legal document saying, "I hand all this over to you." 00:37:26.260 |
And it wasn't in his authority to simply just wipe that out. 00:37:31.740 |
So as small and tiny his faith may have been, it was still faith. 00:37:38.980 |
The point of all of this is all of this is described in verse 20. 00:37:52.780 |
Because he's a younger brother, but his name comes first here because he was the one who 00:37:59.420 |
They're blessed, even regarding things to come. 00:38:03.900 |
So the point of the story is not about Isaac. 00:38:12.420 |
It's about a faithful God who keeps his promise, even through all this mess. 00:38:20.380 |
And if there's one thing that stands out of all of this, it's this tiny faith. 00:38:26.340 |
This tiny faith that connects them to this great God is why you and I are still here 00:38:34.780 |
We could probably pinpoint a minimum of two to three dozen times in redemptive history 00:38:46.460 |
I mean, think about a thousand years of the Catholics restricting God's people from his 00:38:53.460 |
word and literally killing people for wanting to translate his word, selling salvation through 00:39:08.540 |
Look at the chaos that you and I are in today. 00:39:10.660 |
I mean, people say, like, it's hard to find a church where the word of God is taught. 00:39:16.940 |
I mean, as sad as that is, how many of you knew people that you thought were men of God 00:39:38.460 |
When we look at man, the end conclusion is always, it's going to end in anxiety. 00:39:52.500 |
If the only reason why you and I are still here is because Jesus said, "I will build 00:39:56.500 |
my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." 00:40:01.220 |
It was small faith in a great God why you and I are here today. 00:40:07.340 |
So if there's anything that we learn from this, anchor in Christ. 00:40:15.980 |
Not your friendship, not your community, not your bank account, not other people. 00:40:24.700 |
Let me read a couple of verses for you before we end. 00:40:28.740 |
2 Corinthians 1.20, "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. 00:40:35.220 |
Therefore also through Him is our amen to the glory of God through us." 00:40:39.580 |
1 Peter 1.24, "For all flesh like grass and all its glory like the flowers of the grass. 00:40:44.260 |
The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. 00:40:49.060 |
And this is the word which was preached to you." 00:40:57.780 |
As our worship team comes up, why don't we take a few minutes to reflect and to pray. 00:41:03.060 |
If our hearts had caused us to drift, put our confidence in things that we shouldn't 00:41:09.820 |
Maybe there's people who've disappointed you in life and you are drifting as a result of 00:41:16.940 |
I hope that this would serve as a reminder to us that our God is sovereign. 00:41:23.220 |
There's times when we feel like our faith is even smaller than a mustard seed. 00:41:27.780 |
And yet it is that tiny mustard seed that connects us to God where we see God being 00:41:36.620 |
So wherever you are in your faith, let's take some time to pray and ask the Lord to open 00:41:40.660 |
our eyes so that we may see the glory, the weightiness of who He is and that we may not 00:41:45.620 |
despise the things that God has called us to be. 00:41:49.700 |
So let's take some time to pray as our worship team comes up.