Deception and Theft

Good morning. We're going to move into this passage here shortly. Just as we're going through this, you know, set of songs and hymns, I just happen to recall, you know, there's that one line there, there to my heart was the blood applied. I was just remembering for some strange reason when my mother was growing up in church. You know how kids get funny ideas of what the actual words are? Well, she thought it was there to my heart was the blood of Clyde. I don't know who she thought Clyde was, but anyway.

Chapter 27 is a fascinating chapter. There's a whole bunch of things wrong in that chapter. Don't get me wrong. It's scripture and it's definitely inspired. But, well, you'll see in a minute here. What we're going to do is this. We're first going to kind of step quickly through the chapter in terms of what happened and then take some time to go back through it to learn what are the lessons we learn out of this. Okay? So bear with me here.

First, I'm going to flash back to chapter 25. Isaac had favored Esau basically over the years because of his hunting of game and the savory dish that came out of Esau is hunting and the meal prepared. So Isaac had this favoritism towards Esau. And then, something to bring out here, sort of an aside, is the Genesis men who had problems with eating and drinking.

OK? That those two things got him in trouble. Adam, for example, had a problem with a particular fruit. I think it was okra, but anyway. Noah, after the flood, for instance, had an instance where he had a drinking issue crop up. And so that's another one.

And we're going to see one here today where It was the particular thing that Isaac had asked Esau for that put the time gap in there for Jacob to take advantage of. And even the eating issue where Esau was willing to trade his birthright for a very expensive bowl of soup. Okay. Isaac's wife, Rebekah, had favored Esau's brother Jacob.

Why? Because he focused more on the flocks and things around the tent. He was more of a domestic sort of guy. So when Isaac was near the end of his days, as he saw it anyway, he didn't know quite when he would move on out of this life, but at least he perceived himself getting older.

And he sent his eldest son Esau off to hunt game so that Isaac might have his savory dish. He wasn't quite sure how many more he might have, so he thought, well, let's at least have this one. And then when he had had his savory dish, his favorite one, the one that caused him to favor the son Esau, then he would place his blessing on Esau.

That's the way the chapter starts out, as Wayne read it for us here. Now, Rebecca, having heard Isaac speak with Esau, planned along with Jacob to make a substitute savory dish, something that tastes approximately the same, I suppose, but from their own flocks, something right there versus something that was gathered at the hunt. And Jacob was to act as Esau, to come across as Esau, and then receive the blessing.

That was the plan. He would bring the savory dish and also along with it some wine and some bread. He would place a hairy garment on his arm since Isaac couldn't see well and therefore Isaac would, because of this deception, put his blessing intended for Esau upon Jacob. That was the scheme. That was the plan.

Now, How well did it come off? In fact, at least from a human standpoint, it came off fairly well. Oh, Isaac had some questions. Yeah, no doubt. But it seemed like it was pulled off well. It looked that way. Isaac did question, hey, wait a minute, you're back from the hunt awful quick.

This doesn't seem quite right. As a matter of fact, what we find out is Isaac questioned this in verse 20, 22, and 24. Those three verses he kind of, are you sure? You know, are you certain? You know, something seems funny. So he actually did question it.

But he was puzzled also because he heard the voice of Jacob. furry arm like Esau. Okay, we got some kind of savory dish. So he was a little puzzled, but he went ahead with it. Jacob assured him that he was Esau. Of course, that was an outright lie. He says, I'm Esau. That wasn't the only lie.

He answered when Isaac asked, how come you're back so fast? And Jacob answered, oh, the Lord blessed the hunt. It went really, really well. So Jacob had come up with the right things to say, even if the voice didn't quite match. And so Isaac was willing to go ahead with it. Now, so Isaac did give Jacob the blessing of the firstborn son that Isaac had intended for Esau.

In the culture of the day, this blessing of the son, even by error or deception, was final and irrevocable. There was no undue icon. It was final and irrevocable. So by this scheme, which certainly Jacob went along with, he cooperated with the deception. The blessing that was intended for Esau actually was stolen from him and given instead by the deception to Esau's by moments younger brother, Jacob. It could not be reversed. There was no way to undo it. The blessing to Jacob went like this.

So he came close, that is Isaac, and kissed him and when he smelled the smell of the garments, of course he had some kind of fake garments on there to smell like he saw and to feel like he saw, he blessed him and said, See the smell of my son is like the smell of the field which the Lord has blessed.

Now may God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and an abundance of grain and new wine. May people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you and blessed be those who blessed you.

So, now comes the problem. Alright, Jacob's got the blessing. He says it's cool. He can take off all this furry stuff. And it doesn't matter how he smells now. When the real Esau returned, he found out, hey, wait a minute. There's this bowl of something here already. And there's bread already. And there's some wine here already. What's happened? This is not good.

He found that Jacob had usurped his blessing. Here's Jacob, whose name means heel grabber. This little heel grabber has come along and grabbed his brother's blessing. Both Isaac and his son Esau were greatly disturbed, although the disturbance was described differently. Esau was really, really ticked off, fuming mad, extremely upset. Isaac, it says, was trembling. He just was very shaken to have given, mistakenly now, this blessing that he could not take back. He couldn't reverse. There were no forms to fill out. There was no website to go to. There was nothing you could do to change this.

Both Esau and Isaac were greatly disturbed at this deception. So now, Esau sought the blessing from his father. Father, can't you do something? He sought it even with tears. And even the New Testament makes note of that. He sought it with tears. He, at this point in time, though it was quite late, did desire to pursue it intensely.

So Isaac, since he already had given the blessing to Jacob, could only give what was left over, the consequences of the blessing he had given to Jacob, and what was remaining. He couldn't simply replace it, duplicate it, or undo it. It was more prophetic. The blessing on Jacob, given obviously by deception, was, may the Lord do this, may this happen. But the one to Esau is shall, shall, shall. It's one left over. It goes like this. It's a little more brief.

Then Isaac, his father, answered him and said to him, behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling and away from the dew of heaven from above. And Esau's offspring dwelt, by the way, in the deserts south and east of the Dead Sea. And by your sword you shall live and your brother you shall serve. And it shall come about when you become restless that you will break his yoke from your neck.

Very difficult times between the two. Now, the grudge goes on. Esau, having been outmanipulated by Jacob twice now, easily twice, was planning on killing his brother Jacob, but he would wait until Isaac died. That was the plan. So things had gotten really bad. By this time, he was extremely upset. Rebekah somehow knowing, the Bible doesn't say how, but boy, it seems like Rebekah just hears everything around the tent. Somehow knowing of Esau's plan, sent Jacob off before the grudge plan could be put into action.

Your brother is going to kill you, get out of here. And the plan was then to send him up to Haran, Nehor, which is actually the city where her brother Laban lived, is right next to Haran. And it'd be somewhat comparable to this greater area. Some people just call it Denver, even though we know that there's other smaller communities named nearby.

So Jacob heads off hundreds of miles, basically, to the north. to Rebecca's home, where she was originally from, to get way out of sight of Esau. Now, Esau's wives were a pain in the Rebecca. That's a play on words. Genesis 27 ends with Jacob having fled to Haran to the house of his uncle Laban. his mother's brother. Esau then did not get to carry out his revenge plan against his brother Jacob. Rebecca spoke in this last verse here of the distress that Esau's two Canaanite wives, we've seen them mentioned before, were to her and she's saying if Jacob gets a wife from here, I just will have no reason to live anymore.

It's that bad. He's got to go and get a wife from somewhere else. No more of these Canaanite wives. It's intolerable. And so sending Jacob off would do two things. One, it would get him away from Esau's revenge and intent to kill. And secondly, that Jacob would then have an opportunity to get a wife, and it turns out to be a couple of them. a wife from up there, but none of these Canaanite wives who are a pain in the Rebecca. Okay.

As you look at this, aside from the drama in this passage, and we've kind of gone over these 46 verses quickly, aside from the drama in the passage, and there's certainly that, aside from a lot of the tension and deception that took place, yeah, plenty of that, why is the passage here? After all, the whole passage is full of bad things. People doing bad things to each other, intending to do worse things. Why is it here?

There are, in fact, some deep and precious lessons, and I think lessons particularly for families, but lessons for all of us. And so let's take a look here and see what these truths are. What we'll do is we'll step our way through some of these things here. and learn some of the lessons and gain some of the insights from God's Word. One of the things I think to think about as we step into this is, have you ever seen a really, really good bad example? This chapter is one of those. It's full of really, really good bad examples. And that's what we're going to draw from here this morning as we step our way through it. One of the first lessons we're going to draw from it is this.

We certainly see that God, in prior chapters, spoke to Isaac. Not in this one, but in prior chapters, it's spoken to Isaac. And Isaac did, in fact, do some things that were in faith. But one of the things that comes out loud and clear, we saw it earlier, but it really comes out loudly in this chapter, Isaac and Rebecca both held earthly views of their sons and their marriage. How Isaac and Rebecca came together is certainly charming and romantic, and to see that come together, a fascinating account.

But When they actually became married, one of the things we see is they held earthly views of their marriage. They didn't see marriage as God sees it. They also held earthly views of their sons. They did not see their sons as God would have had them see their sons. Isaac and Rebecca both failed to see their marriage before God as first and priority among any and all human relationships. The marriage is first among human relationships. The marriage is first in priority among human relationships.

Honesty and fidelity must begin there, at home and in the heart. We have on a supplemental handout in your bulletin a diagram that looks like this. Yeah, the one you have has something else in it. We'll get there. The biblical priority in families, and this comes from numerous passages everywhere starting from Genesis 2.24 on, is that the husband and wife are living out a unity.

There is the oneness principle that's brought out repeatedly, brought out in Genesis 2.24, Christ brings it out in the Gospels, Paul brings it out in Ephesians chapter 5.

The oneness between a husband and wife is priority. Their relationship with the Lord is the basis for their marriage, not just the marriage itself, but their marriage behavior. Example, Here is the husband. How is he to act towards his wife? The example is given in Ephesians 5 as Christ is to the church. So the relationship with the Lord is there as an example. The wife is to submit as it says in Ephesians 5, to her husband as to the Lord. So the submission to the Lord is the basis for her submission, and it is the example for her submission to her husband. Relationship with the Lord is the starting place for the oneness principle in the marriage.

The children in the marriage come outside of that circle. Does it mean that the children are not important? No, by no means. That's not the message. What it does mean is that even the children know that those parents' relationship with the Lord is first, and their relationship to one another is first. They don't come in the middle, and they don't tear the marriage, and as we saw here in this chapter, they don't tear the family apart.

Now, we're not going to go into this diagram in depth here. What I suggest, if you're interested in looking at this more, we covered this in detail in the class just prior here, Biblical Counseling, so you can listen to today's Biblical Counseling class if you're interested in more detail on that, because we explain things in further detail there.

Isaac favored Esau because of his stew. Can you imagine? Bottom line is, why is this my favorite son? I love the stuff he cooks up. When he goes and hunts game, I love to eat it. That's why he's my favorite and that's the way it's going to be. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

He failed to convey what's truly valuable to either Esau or Jacob. because the stew was so important, his savory dish. Rebecca favored Jacob since he was more domestic than Esau. You hang around the tent. I don't know if you're into hanging around tents, but that was what made Jacob a favorite. He hung around the tent. He was more domestic than Esau. One of the principles that comes forward here is our children are entrusted to us by God for a time. They are not to become gravitated towards, especially individually, such as to compete with the marriage relationship. That's not God's intent.

As we showed this example here, the concentric circles, One of the things that we see is that Isaac and Rebekah had drifted apart to the point where Rebekah felt free to deceive her husband. They had drifted apart to the point where they had each favored a different son. And so you see that favoritism and gravitation now taking place. And here is Isaac and Rebekah now no longer in the circle.

Something else you see in this chapter In the family relationships, there's very little mention of relationship with the Lord. Really very little. And it had nothing to do, certainly, with the relationship that Rebekah had with Jacob, or the relationship between Rebekah and Isaac. Just don't see it there.

What ends up happening is a drift that did not appear to be an open conflict, but a drift between husband and wife ended up being open conflict to the point of intent to murder between the two sons. The problem in the marriage got magnified to the point where the two sons were alienated ultimately. one deceiving the other and one intending to kill the other.

So, ready, aim, live is kind of the sequence here. Isaac and Rebekah both looked at earthly superficial things in order to value their sons. Oh, what I really value in life, the most important thing, is that stew. What I value in life, as I like it, this guy hangs around the tent. And for that, the marriage will come apart. Oh, it's not that they got divorced, but it functionally was not there.

They, Isaac and Rebecca, utterly failed to convey the value and importance of character. It got to be all about, I really love your stew, I really like where you hang out, instead of character. the person of the heart. They utterly failed to communicate that and to convey that.

They also fell short on conveying to their sons what the godly character of a man, a husband and father are. And a woman and wife and mother. What do those look like? Both in what they said and how they did. They fell short in conveying those things to their sons. You have also on your handout a diagram that looks like this. Now, that's way too complicated. I won't count on you to make sense of that, so let's step our way through it.

In a home situation, the man, the husband, and the father is communicating several things to the son or sons. He is communicating the identity. What does it mean to be a man? He is communicating the role. What is it like to be a husband? What is it like to be a father to his son of the same gender? He is conveying to that son value and worth. What's the basis of your value and worth?

Likewise, there is in a complementary fashion the role of the wife and mother who is communicating to the daughter. What's a woman? What does a wife look like? What does a mother look like? That is the message that the wife and mother communicates. And even what does an adult daughter do, how do they behave towards older parents?

All those things are being defined and lived out and there is additionally the opportunity to talk about it, to help explain and give understanding. There is additionally a cross-communication. The man The husband and father is communicating to the daughter. This is what a man is like. This is what a husband is like. This is what a father is like. Likewise, the wife and mother is communicating the identity. Here is a woman. Here's what she is like. Here's what a wife and mother looks like to the son.

So there's a great deal of communication going on there. One of the things we make additional note of is the father has an especially important role in communicating value and worth in the family. And things have gotten pretty confused with Isaac and Rebecca. What did they see their value and worth as being? Actually, let's look at it this way. Why was Esau favored by Isaac? Let's do. What are you worth, Esau?

Stew. What are you good for? Stew. Somebody else brought some stew. Uh-oh. See the message? Value and worth is being communicated, especially by the Father. All right. Again, if you want to dig in more detail on that, the biblical counseling classes, We'll be online here before long and you can listen to that for more detail. Let's move on. What we value matters and actions do have consequences. What we consider of value does make a difference. What we convey of value in the home does matter. and actions do have consequences, some of them are very hard to reverse.

Esau earlier had traded without seemingly much hesitation, his birthright for a bowl of stew. In the law of the custom of the day, a verbal contract like that was perfectly valid and it was irreversible. One of the things that's an important principle that comes out of this, even outside of that culture, is not everything that is possible or allowed or legal is necessarily wise, moral and ethical. It's important that we see the distinction between those two, isn't it? Oh, this is perfectly allowable.

Yeah, it still might not be a good idea. So that's one of the things that they didn't pass along to their sons, is what's wise? Can you trade your birthright for a bowl of stew? Yeah, it's perfectly legal. Is it a good idea? Uh-uh. What's valuable? What's wise?

This is the place that parents have to pass along to their children, not just what's legal. You can go see a lawyer for that. But what's wise, what is valuable, that's the place that parents have. Now we have here life offers many forks in the road, okay?

Some decisions can be made easily, but they can still have great long-term consequences. Some decisions you can make quickly, but the consequences are kind of sticky. They don't reverse easily. And they might be big, even though made quickly. It's important that people kind of grow up with an increasing sense of what are those kinds of decisions, what things ought I to consider carefully, more carefully than others.

Rebecca and Jacob place value on earthly inheritance, status and blessing ahead of principle. It is so important, so important that I get this blessing that wife will scheme to lie to husband. It is so important that I have this status and standing and get the inheritance that I'll tell my father that I'm Esau even when I'm not. Truth was put aside for the value of what do I have? What do I get? First Jacob and later Rebekah and Jacob use manipulation and actually outright deceit in order to get this inheritance and status and blessing from Isaac for Jacob at the expense of Esau. The deception and manipulation is quite unnecessary.

Remember, we go back to the promise to Abraham I will bless you. I'm going to bless you unconditionally. And all these things will come about. That blessing was repeated to Isaac. And you know that when we get down to Genesis 35, the blessing is going to be repeated to Jacob.

Jacob didn't need to do all this stuff. All this deception was entirely unnecessary. God was going to grant his blessing and no deception was needed to receive it. It was entirely by grace. So all this aggravation and deception and extreme anger and running off to Haran in order to keep from being killed was completely senseless. The Lord was going to bless anyway. And this is the other thing.

Frequently these manipulations and deceptions are thought to be done in order to gain something. The truth is, nothing is really gained from them. The blessings, the things that really matter, are not something that you can gain by manipulation. They're not something that can be gained by deceit.

In Ephesians 1.3, it says, Bless me the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. Now this is a done deal, right? If you are a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, this is a done deal. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

There is nothing we can do or refrain from doing that will impact the extent and character of our spiritual blessings in Christ. Can I pull off any deception or get elected to any office? or get any initiative measure passed that will impact my blessings in Christ one bit. No. There is no impact. As a matter of fact, this big huge financial crisis that our nation is having, and it's real, I'm not making light of it, nothing that's decided in Congress over this weekend will impact these blessings. None. Zip. Nothing.

There's nothing that will happen the first Tuesday in November that will impact these blessings. If we were to attempt to do something out of our own human strength and resources, we could, and I could even add to that, we will, diminish our enjoyment of those blessings in Christ. An attempt to manipulate and deceive to get something won't result in our getting anything but could in fact diminish our enjoyment of the blessings. Did it touch the blessings? Nope. But our enjoyment of them. That's the difference.

Relationships in the home are to be spiritually valued. That's a key lesson that comes out of this chapter. Isaac and Rebekah had marvelous opportunities in front of them, but what they did was completely overlook the spiritual values in the home. Those values that come from God's assessment of things are critical. God has revealed to us his perspective and what is valuable in his eyes. What does he value? What does he consider important? He has done so in his written word, and he's done so through Jesus Christ, the living word.

Here, for example, is the connection between what is taught and character, how people live. Notice here's Paul writing to Titus, who's kind of an apostolic delegate, and as he's writing to Titus, he talks about the character that different people in the church by age and gender should have. But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. By the way, that word translated sound is the word where we get our word hygiene. It has an implication of being healthy doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith and love and perseverance.

This is the character that he's focusing on. Older women likewise, and he goes on to describe that. He describes what's encouraged among the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands. That is a radical different message from what Rebecca was living out and conveying to her sons.

So that, and here's the end result, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. So that the Word of God will not be dishonored. The next verses go on talking about the young men and even others in the culture there. 1 Peter 3, 1-7, and I've only got a quote here of 1-4 and verse 7, repeatedly comes back to character, character, character, the condition of the heart.

Isaac and Rebekah forgot all about it and they forgot to convey it to their sons. They had two kinds of truth problems as well. Rebekah and Jacob did not convey the truth to Isaac and that was a big problem. Together they schemed to deceive and manipulate Isaac. But their need to deceive came from not telling themselves the truth. They thought, oh, if we lie and deceive and manipulate, then we'll get a blessing which will make things better for us. And especially you, Jacob, my favorite son, because you hang around the tent. They weren't telling themselves the truth. They didn't tell themselves that godly character is first priority, is not to be traded for anything. They thought they could manipulate or deceive their way into getting as good as God's blessings.

Wow. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who, because of deception, has blessed us with every blessing? No. No way. Finally, it's only by faith in the truth of the Gospel that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. It's faith that results in blessing. Initially, the person who believes that Christ, the Son of God, died for their sins and was buried and then resurrected and rose again, the person who believes that is saved. That's the gospel. If they believe that, they're saved.

It is true from then on, whether they know it or not, that they've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. They may be entirely ignorant of that, but it is still true. It is only by faith in the truths that are revealed, as Paul later on says in Ephesians, unfathomable blessings, that we come to enjoy those blessings. Our understanding and faith in them does not change the blessings that we have, but it changes our enjoyment of those blessings. That's the difference.

And frankly, that's why we're gathered here this morning, for enjoyment of those blessings. In each case, it's believing the truth that brings the blessing, the truth of the gospel, and that results in enjoyment of those blessings as we come to know them and believe God about them. One of the things that Scripture makes abundantly clear is that you, as a believer here this morning, are in Christ. We have abundant blessings from that. Additionally, Christ is in you. Scripture tells us those things and elaborates on them.

In fact, I think just today they finished the elective, Who You Are in Christ, that has been spelling that out for weeks and months here. So that in our families, or even if you're just married, or even as a single person, All of us here this morning can enjoy those incredible, unfathomable blessings, the truths that he's laid out, until we see the Lord face to face.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at these truths here, we see a really good bad example in Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Esau. And yet we also see your marvelous grace. And we pray that you would draw us to learn from these truths, to learn from this really good bad example, and to see the importance of the relationships that you've set up in our homes, in our families, and among us as a church body. We pray, Lord, that you would draw us to know and understand and live by to walk in your truth that you've revealed for us because you love us so very much. We pray that our hearts would be drawn to hunger and thirst and long for what you have for us and to understand it and to walk in it. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.