"4 Wrongs Can Make a Right" (Genesis 27:1-28:9) | 5/9/2021
Genesis 27:1-28:9 | 5/9/21 | Will DuVal
I heard a funny story recently about a child who was getting picked on every day at school, so he finally decided to stand up for himself and he punched the bully. The principal broke up the fight, called the boy’s parents, and they sat him down and said, “Now son, you know that two wrongs don’t make a right, don’t you?” And the boy thought about it for a minute... before replying: “Then how many does it take?”
As Christians, we know of course that NO number of wrongs make a right. Jesus not only taught us, he MODELED for us, “Turn the other cheek… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”. And yet, what I’m trying to emphasize in our sermon title for this morning - that “Four Wrongs CAN make a Right”! - isn’t that wrongdoing is ever justified, or that multiple sins can somehow cancel one another out. But rather, as we study Genesis ch27 and the first bit of ch28 together this morning, the point of this passage is to reassure us that we serve a Sovereign God who has a plan - a GOOD plan, a “RIGHT” plan - and that NO amounts of wrongs on our part - not two, not four, not two thousand and four, can EVER thwart God’s plan. Now, that doesn’t excuse our sin. The Bible clearly states that we should NEVER use God’s redemptive power - his ability to bring good out of evil - or God’s infinite GRACE as an excuse for sin; that’s Romans 6 - “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” And yet, when we DO sin, we can take comfort and REST in the knowledge that you and I do not have the power to derail God’s sovereign purposes.
Daniel 4:35 “God does according to his will... and none can stay his hand”
Isaiah 46:10 “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, says the Lord”
Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
Ephesians 1:11 “God works all things according to the counsel of his will”
Etc. etc. etc. You get the picture. You CANNOT foil God’s plans; that doesn’t make your sin RIGHT. It just means that GOD’s “right” TRUMPS your “wrong”. HIS grace really is GREATER than ALL your sin. Amen?
And we’re gonna see that on full display this morning in Genesis 27; specifically, and here’s the REST of your outline: we’re gonna meet FOUR “problem-children”; this passage is all about family dynamics, and this is one seriously DYSFUNCTIONAL family! Any of y’all come from majorly dysfunctional families? Well, you’re in good company; and I’m not just talking about myself, but about God’s CHOSEN family - Abraham’s family… Isaac’s family… Now his son, Jacob - that family was seriously dysfunctional. So yes, there is hope for your messed up family as well! But even more than any biological, nuclear family (by the way, contrary to the illustrations in your children’s Bibles growing up, Jacob and Esau are NOT teenagers in this story; they are both 77 years old at the time of Isaac’s blessing!) - but this story is really about the family of GOD. Even ISAAC - who is now 137! - is still a child, a child of GOD. A “problem-child” of God. And we’re gonna spend the bulk of our time this morning focusing on these 4 problem-children and their sin, because that’s where the passage focuses most of ITS attention. As much as we might like to just kind of briefly TOUCH ON sin, and then move on quickly to God’s GRACE, if we’re gonna put the emphasis where SCRIPTURE does, we cannot just gloss over the MASSIVE problem that IS: SIN. Genesis 27 is FULL of sin. And guess what: so are YOU. So am I. We are Isaac… Rebekah… Jacob… Esau. WE are God’s problem-children in need of grace. So we’re gonna read ourselves into their story. But we ARE going to see, toward the end of the passage, that DESPITE their sin… our sin… once again, God RENEWS his 3 unchanging promises that He has made TO his problem-children. Which invites us to respond in one of TWO ways, two diverging PATHS that you and I can choose. ALL of which ultimately falls within One Divine Plan: God’s plan.
4 Problem-children. 3 Promises. 2 Paths. 1 Plan.
-
So Would you stand with me... Genesis 27:1-28:9 (ON SCREEN, BUT…)
“When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, 4 and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. 10 And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”
14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” 20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” 25 Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 27 So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,
“See, the smell of my son
is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!
28 May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.
29 Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” 32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” 34 As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob?[a] For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” 37 Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
“Behold, away from[b] the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be,
and away from[c] the dew of heaven on high.
40 By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother;
but when you grow restless
you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44 and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away— 45 until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.[d] If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. 3 God Almighty[a] bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” 5 Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, 9 Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.” This is the word of the Lord... let’s pray…
4 Problem-children:
First, there’s Isaac. And Isaac’s sin, his “problem” is that he’s... WORLDLY. (27:1-4, 26-29, 39-40) Isaac is worldly. And I say that for 4 reasons:
#1 - We know that Isaac favored Esau. Even though GOD HIMSELF had already revealed to Rebekah back in ch25 that Esau must SERVE Jacob… that GOD’s chosen line would go through Jacob, nevertheless, “Isaac loved Esau” more than Jacob. WHY? “because Isaac ate of his game”. Esau was a manly hunter, and Isaac loved meat. Which raises a SECOND reason for my allegation of Isaac’s WORLD-liness:
#2 - Isaac was INDULGENT. He “pursued the gratification of desire”; Isaac lived for worldly pleasures. Now, lest you think God’s got something against carnivores, remember in Genesis 4: Cain had the green thumb and ABEL kept the livestock. And yet God chose Abel, not Cain. So the point is NOT that God blesses farmers over ranchers or vice versa; the point is that God’s sovereign choice of who He favors and blesses is “not a result of hunting OR farming or ANY works on our part, lest anyone should BOAST”. You can’t DO anything to make God love you any more OR any less than He does; because God doesn’t LOVE you because of you; He loves you IN SPITE OF you, and because of JESUS. Amen?
Isaac, on the other hand, picks favorites, because he liked Esau’s food better. Ch27, v3: “go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat”. He’s indulgent. Philippians 3:19 warns those whose “god is their belly… with minds set on earthly things” that “Their end is destruction”. That’s Isaac. He loved a good steak, and the son who killed it, MORE than He loved the things of God, the plan of God, the chosen heir of God’s promises, Jacob.
#3 - Isaac’s decisions are rooted in his FEELINGS, not his FAITH. It’s not just his taste buds; look back at ALL of the sensory language used of Isaac in this passage: v1, “was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see”, that’s the reason he’s in the mess in the first place; he’s so used to living by SIGHT, not faith, that when he LOSES his sight, he’s in big trouble! V4: I wanna taste “delicious food”; v21: “come near, that I may feel you, my son” - he relies on his sense of TOUCH; v22: ““The voice is Jacob's voice - his sense of HEARING - but the hands are the hands of Esau” - Touch again. ; v26: “Come near and kiss me, my son.”...And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!” Isaac REEKS of worldliness - he lives not by FAITH, but by what he can taste, see, hear, smell, touch - that was the mantra of the first wave of Enlightenment skeptics, by the way - Locke, Berkeley, Hume - the rise of EMPIRICISM: the idea that “all knowledge is derived from sensory experience”. That’s Isaac.
Lastly, #4 - Isaac is worldly because BASED on the way he feels, his preference for Esau, and his faulty belief that Jacob really IS Esau - that’s the problem with trusting your feelings, by the way; our feelings DECEIVE us, all the time! - and yet because Isaac trusts His feelings more than His GOD, he attempts (unsuccessfully, mind you; but he attempts, nevertheless), to bless Esau. Isaac defiantly chooses HIS way, HIS preferred son Esau, over GOD’S way, and GOD’S chosen offspring Jacob. And we should note, that Isaac’s blessing ITSELF in vv28 & 29, REEKS of worldliness. “May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.” - May God bless YOU with a life of indulgence too, my son!
“Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers...” - This is the WORLD’s version of blessing; Jesus said “those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[d] 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[e] of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Mk 10:42-45) Jesus said, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive”. And he proved it by GIVING his life for YOU, for ME, as a “ransom for many”. In Matthew 5, JESUS blesses: the MEEK, the humble, the servants, “for they shall inherit the earth”. Isaac, on the other hand- blesses the strong, the dominant, the man’s men, the Esau’s of the world, may THEY be blessed, and be bowed down to.
Now let’s APPLY all this; let’s make it personal: how about you?
Do you love what God loves? Or do you love the things of this world?
Are you INDULGENT? Do you just LIVE for a good steak, a good cup of coffee, a good wine; do you live for a good party, a good time sexually, a good… fill in the blank with your worldly pleasure of choice. It’s not that these things are inherently BAD; Idolatry is when a good thing becomes our MAIN thing in our life. Is that you?
Do you live by feelings, instead of faith? Have you bought into the world’s LIE that you should “follow your heart”, “trust your gut”, instead of following JESUS and trusting HIM?
Have you bought into the WORLD’s version of “success” - “plenty of grain and wine… people serving you” - instead of JESUS’ version: taking up your cross and dying to yourself in order to live for Christ and serve others?
Are you an ISAAC?
Or… #2 - Are you a Rebekah? Rebekah is OPPORTUNISTIC. (27:5-10, 13-17, 42-46)
“Opportunism” is defined as “adapting one’s actions to expediency or effectiveness regardless of the sacrifice of ethical principles.”
“The ends justify the means” - that is Rebekah’s motto.
Unlike Isaac, she is actually on BOARD with God’s plan - God’s choice of Jacob - she’s just not content to trust the LORD to accomplish it in His own timing and way; she thinks she’s got to take matters into her own hands. She’s good with God’s WILL, but not his WAY; friends: did you know that doing God’s WILL isn’t enough - you’ve got to do it in God’s WAY.
But not Rebekah. SHE’s the one in vv5-10 who hatches this whole plan to deceive Dad. She’s even willing to take the FALL for it, v13: “Let your curse be on me, my son”, if things go south. So long as HER will, her plan, be done - “only obey MY voice”, she says. Not the Lord’s; MY voice. She’s gotta be in the driver’s seat: reread vv14-17 - listen to how ACTIVE she is: “his mother prepared delicious food… Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau… and SHE put them on Jacob… and the skins of the young goats she put on his hands… And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.” She TAKES CHARGE… of EVERYTHING!
Again, let’s make it personal: is that you? Do you like to be in the driver seat of your life, or have you surrendered your life, by faith, to a God who knows better than you do what’s best for you, and do you trust HIM to accomplish it? Or do you keep trying to yank the steering wheel back out of his hands?
Are you opportunistic? Do the ends justify the means for you; are you willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that YOUR plan in a given scenario comes to fruition, instead of simply doing what’s RIGHT, and trusting GOD with the results?
If you want to think in terms of the “4 root idols” that Tim Keller outlines in his book Counterfeit Gods, that I’ve referenced many times here from the pulpit: if Isaac’s root idol is COMFORT; then Rebekah’s is CONTROL. Is that you: are you a “control freak”?
Or perhaps, #3 - you’re a JACOB; Jacob’s root idol is APPROVAL, and his sin of choice, therefore, is HYPOCRISY. Jacob is HYPOCRITICAL. (27:11-12, 18-25)
Our English word “hypocrite” comes from a term used way back in ancient Greece in the theater, to refer to an actor who wears a mask in order to pretend to be someone they’re NOT - it essentially means “two-faced”.
That’s Jacob. We often label him as “deceptive”, but if you actually re-read the story, you realize, again: REBEKAH is the one plotting the deception here; Jacob just sort of goes along with it; even reluctantly: vv11 & 12 make him sound like he really doesn’t LIKE the plan; he’s afraid he’s gonna get CAUGHT and his father’s gonna disapprove of him even MORE... v12: he might “curse” me! And MY guess is that Jacob’s decision to capitulate, to go along with Rebekah’s plan, is really more about APPEASING her. Winning, keeping, her approval. Hey, if your daddy doesn’t love you - and can we get REALLY deep for a minute: every man wants his father’s approval, okay. I know it’s Mother’s Day, and we love y’all too, Mom, but at the end of the day, every man deeply wants to win his father’s approval… his father’s BLESSING. And maybe he’s even willing to LIE to get it, like Jacob. To pretend to be someone you’re NOT, to win your father’s approval. And if you STILL can’t get it, maybe you make moral concessions in order to win others’ approval, as a substitute, instead.
But I want to point out here, for you people-pleasers, like Jacob: what starts as a little concession here and there, over time becomes a way of life. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Speaking of hypo-krites and acting, I can’t help but think here of one of MY favorite actors, the late Heath Ledger. His portrayal of the joker in the movie The Dark Knight is arguably the best performance by any actor, EVER. But did you know WHY? Because Ledger was a method actor, so he literally LIVED AS the joker for months leading up to and during the filming of the movie - he locked himself in an isolated motel room for months and read nothing but Batman comic books about his character, in order to get “fully immersed in the Joker’s headspace” - and it won him an Oscar, but it cost him his LIFE. He literally came unhinged and committed suicide. Because he didn’t know who he WAS anymore.
Friends: wearing a mask can be DANGEROUS. It may start with a few compromises to play the part, but you end up losing yourself somewhere along the way, in the service of pleasing others. In Jacob’s case, he played the part SO well, he committed to the ruse SO much, that he was even willing to bring GOD into the lie: v20 - “Isaac said, “How is it that you have found the meat so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”” I imagine Jacob was bracing, just waiting for the lightning to come down from Heaven, and strike him DEAD on the spot.
Are you a JACOB? Do you wear a mask to win others’ approval? Do you want it - do you NEED it! - even more than you want the approval of the Lord? Proverbs 29:25 warns “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” The apostle Paul wrote: “Am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? ...If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Paul says: “I don’t NEED to wear a mask, and pretend to be someone I’m not, to try to hide all my flaws, sweep them under the rug in order to win YOUR approval, because unlike MAN, the LORD looks NOT on my outward appearance - 1 Samuel 16:7 - God looks on my HEART; He already KNOWS the depths of my heart, the depths of my sin, and He loves me ANYWAY! That’s the good news of the GOSPEL, friends; you don’t have to DRESS your sin up; that actually ROBS God of the glory that He gets from showing undeserved GRACE to wretched sinners like you and me. The more SINFUL you can admit that you really are, the more AMAZING it is that God could actually love you… that Jesus’ sacrifice could actually COVER you… SAVE you. That doesn’t mean go out and look for ways to sin, that grace may abound; no, you are PLENTY sinful, just the way you are. You just need to admit it! “God - have MERCY on me, a SINNER!” Because as Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy who get the doctor, but the SICK.” Those who cry out for the CURE.
Have you DONE that? Or like Jacob, are you still reaching for a mask, trying to hide behind the empty approval of others?
Lastly, #4 - Esau is SELF-CENTERED. (27:30-38, 41) - he falls prey to Keller’s fourth root idol: POWER, “a longing for influence or recognition”. Esau wants to be IMPORTANT. Because with ESAU, it’s all about HIM. We’re not gonna re-read the whole thing, but you can go count how many times he uses the pronouns “I, ME, and MY” in vv30-38: I counted 14 times! ““Let my father arise and bless me…. “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” ...Jacob cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing.” Don’t you have a blessing for me? Father” ...Bless me, even me also” he repeats... I, me, my; it’s all about ESAU. He doesn’t care about God’s plan; Esau is totally self-centered. To the point, v41 that: “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”” Jacob’s mere existence is a constant reminder that Esau can’t have everything he wants.
How about you? Do you struggle with self-centeredness? What a stupid question: Of course you do; you’re HUMAN. Which means you’re a SINNER. And self-centeredness is the root of ALL sin. Think about it:
*Pride: thinking more highly of yourself than others
*Greed: wanting to accumulate MORE for yourself
*Envy: wanting something someone ELSE has for yourSELF instead
*Stealing: ACTING on that impulse and TAKING it for yourself!
*Lying: believing that only YOU deserve the truth
*Lust: objectifying others for your OWN personal pleasure
*Disbelief: trusting yourSELF, your own mind, more than you trust God
You can just go down the list - EVERY sin ultimately comes back to this one, of self-centeredness. As the joke goes: what’s at the middle of “SIN” - “I” am. I am at the middle of all sin… (some of y’all will get that one later at lunch… spell it out…)
Okay, so you’ve got a WORLDLY father chasing COMFORT: whose god is his BELLY…
An OPPORTUNISTIC mother who wants CONTROL; her god is her PLAN...
A HYPOCRITICAL younger son desperately seeking APPROVAL; his god is his REPUTATION - the image of him in other peoples’ minds…
And a SELF-CENTERED older son who needs to feel IMPORTANT; his god is… HIMSELF.
And GOD looks down at THAT family and says… “Yeah, I can work with that. Actually, this is gonna make for a GREAT story… when I prove that I can work MY will, MY purposes, out of even THAT dumpster fire of a family. When I prove that MY power to overcome your sin and REDEEM your brokenness is stronger than ANY family dysfunction you can throw my way.” God says, “That’s EXACTLY the family I’m choosing!” The kinds of “problem-children” I choose - Moses, the guy with the speech impediment, to be my spokesman… David, the youngest, smallest, most disrespected shepherd-boy to lead my nation... tax collectors and prostitutes; that’s who JESUS chose: poor, illiterate fishermen. “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world… so that no human being[d] might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor 1:27-29)
And to that family, and THROUGH that family, God reiterates and continues to work his 3 unchanging promises - made first to Abraham in Genesis 12, then repeated to Isaac last week in ch26, now offered to JACOB in ch28: a PEOPLE (28:1-3), a PLACE (28:4b), and a PLEDGE (28:4a). Very quickly:
“Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. 3 God Almighty[a] bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.” God actually USES their family dysfunction - Esau’s plot to MURDER his own brother - to accomplish God’s own plan and find a wife for Jacob in ch29, to make him into the Father of the people of Israel.
V4: “that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!”” - that’s God’s promise, once again, of a PLACE... for his people. The land of Canaan.
And V4: “May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you” - that’s God’s PLEDGE, to one day “bless ALL people, through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob… ultimately, through JESUS - the promised MESSIAH in this family line.
But God’s good promises still leave us with two potential paths: the path of OBEDIENCE (28:5) or the path of DISOBEDIENCE (28:6-9). The path of JACOB, or the path of ESAU.
Jacob was FAR from perfect! But when it’s crunch time, the moment of truth, when it really counts, like his father Isaac, here, who comes around in 28:1 and finally BLESSES Jacob like he’s supposed to… like his grandfather Abraham, who had failed countless times before that, and lied and fled in his fear and distrust, but when it mattered the most, on the top of Mt. Moriah with the knife in his hand, Abraham passed the test of faith. And similarly here, when his entire FUTURE, his LIFE is on the line, Jacob trusts God and obeys, and v5, he goes to Paddan-aram. Whereas ESAU, who ALSO struggles with the idol of approval apparently, in his attempt to please his father, ch28, v8, when he discovers that Canaanite wives are BAD, after he’s already married not one but TWO of them, back in ch26, he decides to take a THIRD wife, this time, from Ishmael’s family, Isaac’s rival, rejected half-brother. He’s like the child who accidentally makes a mark on the wall, and then tries to hide it by PAINTING over it… Esau just makes things worse; he slides farther into disobedience, away from the will of God.
The same still holds true today, friends: God’s good promises to you are unchanging - in Christ, God now offers you a BETTER people - the family of God - a BETTER pledge - the forgiveness of ALL your sins - and a better PLACE - eternal life with Him in all the splendor of HEAVEN. But you too have a decision to make: how will YOU respond? With obedience, or disobedience? The Bible says God “commands all people everywhere to repent” - Acts 17:30 - and turn to Him; will you obey? HAVE you obeyed? Repent and believe, and you will be SAVED.
But ALL of this… four wrongs, somehow made into a RIGHT?! Only GOD can pull that off. This was HIS plan. THAT is your 1 plan, and it ALL hinges on that central doctrinal truth that God is SOVEREIGN. He really does “work all things according to the counsel of his will”, even our sin.
Praise God, that his grace really is greater than all our sin, that his faithfulness is greater than our faithlessness, that our sins they are MANY, but his MERCY is more!