Jacob: As a Man he Struggled with God

Genesis 27, and starting at verse 1.

When Isaac was old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see. He called for his elder son esau and said to him, my son, here I am, he answered. Isaac said, I'm now an old man and don't know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment, your quiver, and bow, and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like.

And bring it to me to eat so that I may give you my blessing before I die. Now Rebecca was listening as Isaac spoke to his son or he saw. When he saw left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, Rebecca said to her son, Jacob. Look, I overheard your father say to your brother, eesau, bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the lord before I die. Now my son listen carefully and do what I tell you.

Go out to the flock and bring me 2 choice young goats so that I can prepare some tasty food for your father just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat so that he may give you his blessing before he dies. Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, but my brother, Eesaw is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.

His mother said to him, my son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say. Go and get them for me. So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. Then rebekah took the best clothes of her eldest son Esaw, which she had in her house.

And put them on her younger son Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goat skins. Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made. He went to his father and said, my father. Yes, my son, he answered.

Who is it? Jacob said to his father, I am esau your firstborn. I've done as you told me, please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing. Isaac asked his son. How did you find it so quickly, my son?

The lord your god gave me success. He replied. Then Isaac said to Jacob, come near so I can touch you my son to know whether you really are my son he saw or not. Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Eesaw. He did not recognize him.

For his hands were hairy like those of his brother Eesaw. So he proceeded to bless him. Are you really my son Eesaw? He asked, I am. He replied.

And he said, my son, bring me son of some of your game to eat so that I may give you my blessing. Jacob brought it to him and he ate, and he brought some wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said to him, come here, my son, and kiss me. So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the lord has blessed.

May god give you heaven's due and earth's richness? An abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you? May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you, be blessed.

After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Eesaw came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, my father, please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing. His father, Isaac, asked him, who are you? I'm your son, he answered your first born Eesaw.

Isaac trembled violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came, and I blessed him. And indeed, he will be blessed. When he saw hurt his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father bless me, me too, my father. But he said, Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.

E source said, isn't he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me. He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing. Then he asked, haven't you reserved any blessing for me? Isaac Khan said he saw.

I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives, his servants. And I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What can I possibly do for you, my son? He saw said to his father, do you have only 1 blessing my father? Bless me to my father?

Then esau wept aloud. His father Isaac answered him. Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.

Eesaw held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are near, Then I will kill my brother Jacob. When Rebecca was told what her eldest son, Esoar had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, your brother Esoar is planning to avenge himself by killing you. Now then my son do what I say, flee at once to my brother Leben in Haran. Stay with him for a while until your brother's fury subsides.

When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in 1 day? Then Rebecca said to Isaac. I'm disgusted with living because of these hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land from hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.

So as it called for Jacob and blessed him, then he commanded him Do not marry a Kainanite woman. Go at once to padan Aram to the house of your mother's father, Bethwell. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Leben, your mother's brother. May god almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples? May he give you and your descendants the blessings given to Abraham so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner?

The land god gave to Abraham. Then eyes excent Jacob on his way, and he went to Padamaran, to laban, son of Bethwell, the Arameyan, the brother of Rebecca, who was the mother of Jacob and Eesaw. Now he saw learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Padam Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him, he commanded him, do not marry a canaanite woman. And that Jacob would abate his father and mother and gone to Padamaran. He saw then realized how displeasing the Caine and light women were to his father, Isaac.

So he went to ishmael and married Malath the sister of Nab and daughter of ishmael, son of Abraham. In addition to the wives he already had. Allison, thank you very much for taking on that big reading for us. It's a it is a fantastic story. And, we're gonna spend some time looking at it together now.

If we haven't met before, my name's Tom. I'm 1 of the pastors here at Cornerstone, and, it is great to have you if you are new with us this morning particularly. Let's bow our heads and seek the lord's help. As we look at his word together as pray. Father, we ask you, please, that through your living word, you would speak to every single 1 of us here and show us Jesus we pray.

Amen. Some years ago, I spent probably a year of my life, watching Eastenders. I don't know if you have ever watched Eastenders or whether you still watch it today, but I spent about a year watching it. And then further back, I spent at least 2 years watching neighbors, the, the soap opera neighbors, and I have to say reading Genesis 27, you know, Genesis 27 is right up there with the very best of the soap operas. Now if you are an international and you've never heard of neighbors or, eastenders, you honestly do not need to worry about it at all.

Or look into it. But I was looking up some international alternatives, which you might recognize. So if you, are from China, there are soap operas that are called sea dramas. I don't know if anyone's ever heard of those, sea sea dramas. All the Chinese people looking very confused, obviously not.

In Poland, there's something which looks quite a lot like Eastenders. It's called el is for love. Any Polish people here recognize that? Great. Hopeless Google.

And then in South Africa, apparently, there's something like neighbors, which is called generations. Any South Africans? Yeah. Well done, Dave. Thanks.

Are you just humoring me, or is it real? Sorry? I've heard of it. Never watched it. Alright.

Okay. Is that your story? And you're sticking with it. Yeah. Alright.

Fair enough. Anyway, that's the tip. And it and it honestly, this is a chapter that really does deserve multiple slow reading. I would encourage you to do that when you get home because it's got everything, this story. It's got lies.

It's got betrayal. It's got cliffhangers. It's got a family that are ready to kill 1 another. It it's brutal, and it's absolutely brilliant. It's a brilliant story full of suspense and intrigue and everything that makes a good story.

But as we're gonna see this morning, this is not just good drama and good writing. This is the word of the living god. And what we have here in Genesis 27 is a window into a fallen world. This is not a story that clearly shows us heroes and villains. You cannot divide the story that way.

These are the heroes. These are the villains. This is a story where everybody loses Everybody loses because sin makes everybody a loser. Isaac gets deceived. Eesaw gets cheated.

Jacob lies boldly and repeatedly to his father's face, and Rebecca is the cold mastermind of this whole operation. Nobody comes out of this chapter clean because that is life in a fallen world. And this morning, we need to feel the mess of that. What we have here is a group of people who are not just wrongdoers. They are wounded individuals as well.

It's very hard when you read it. You say, well, he really shouldn't have done that. And then you think, yeah, but maybe if she hadn't done that to him, then he wouldn't have done that. And then you find yourself arguing, yeah, but that doesn't excuse what he did. Well, no, it doesn't excuse what he did, but at least it helps us to understand him better.

And and the whole thing is just a mess. You've got a group of people who are supposed to love 1 another who who are both sinning and being sinned against by 1 another, and that is the mess of life in a fallen world, isn't it? We do wrong and wrong is done to us. We sin and we suffer. There are things that we do which people see, and there's a whole weight of experience and emotion that we've had that goes into making us who we are.

I think as you look at this chapter, you just see you see that aspect of fallenness coming to the coming to the surface. But if that's all that this chapter showed us, it would be quite depressing this morning. And so what we actually need to also realize is that as well as giving us a window into a fallen world, this chapter gives us a window into a faithful god. It's quite extraordinary that in all of this soap opera craziness, the plan of god moves on. And somehow the promises of god are able to survive and endure and get passed on, even in the middle of this family, which is blowing up.

With sin and being sinned against, the promises of god endure and roll on as they have a tendency to always do. And so those are our 2 headings. The first 1 is gonna be much longer than the second, a window into a fallen world. And then secondly, we're gonna see a window into a faithful god. So firstly, a window into a fallen world, and let's start with Isaac.

We'll look at these characters in turn. So Genesis 27, As you can see in your bible, hopefully, or if you've got a phone, you can turn to it. Genesis 27 opens with Isaac, and it's quite a sad scene. Isa, the man of prayer from chapter 25, is now really beginning to struggle in his old age. We're told that his eyes are starting to fail.

He can no longer see as clearly as he once did. And we get the impression in this chapter that his mind is also beginning to decay and to slow down, and he's finding himself more muddled than he's ever been. It's quite sad, isn't it? As you read through, it's who are you? Is that you, my son?

Is that really you? Where? Where am I? Where am I now? Is that it sounds like you, but it doesn't smell like you.

Look at let me tuck let me feel you. The whole sense is that here is a man who is physically beginning to wind down in life, that his eyes are failing, and that his mind is failing. And yet, there is 1 thing he's absolutely sure of in this chapter. And that is that he saw his boy, he saw his favorite, is gonna get that blessing. According to 1 commentator, what Iset does here is very unconventional.

So at the time, the common practice was to gather the whole family with all of the children just before you died or when you sensed your end was coming, and you would give your legacy blessings in the presence of all of them. And the idea of that was that then there would be a shared accountability. Everyone would know what had been said. Everyone would know what to expect. The wife was there.

The sons were there, and it was clear what the father intended to happen after he had gone. Well, Isaac very clearly seems to go against the convention of the day and rather calls his best boy esaw in for a kind of private legacy giving. And that was not a good thing to have done. Because in Genesis 25 23, and we looked at this last week, God had said something very different to Rebecca and Isaac. Rebecca and, Isaac.

Yeah. Rebecca, Isaac. Sorry. These name is a mother getting all these names on. And remember, 25 23, the prophecy in the womb the older will serve the younger.

That's what they've been told. So it was a bit unusual, but they'd heard it clear from the mouth of God that Jacob the younger was going to inherit the lord's main blessing. And yet now in his old age, We find an Isaac falling apart yet absolutely clear that he's going to try to use his position and authority to work a different outcome. Not what god had told them, but the outcome that he wanted for his best boy. Gordon Wenham, who I've referenced before in this series, has written a great commentary on the book of Genesis.

He, makes this suggestion as to why he's, he's, Isaac behaves as he does. We have already been told that Isaac loved Eesaw because he enjoyed eating his game. So when he says, make me a tasty dish that I love, we realize that Isaac's sensuality is more powerful than his theology. And it could be as simple as that, couldn't it? That he gathers him in, calls Acele to himself, and now in his old age, the theology that was like a rock that once drove him along, he was not driven by his sensuality, by his desires.

He was driven by his theology. Now in his old age, that's beginning to sadly upend itself. It would be a big mistake, wouldn't it? To think that in old age, with many years of Christian experience behind us, that we could not fall in some sad way. Age, years on the planet, experience in the Christian life, books, read, being an elder in a church, even being paid to help lead a church.

None of those things cancel the pool of sin. Some of you would have known people in your life, Christian people who have finished their race very well. And in those last years, they have only grown in grace and been a great blessing in their old age. That is a grace that we should all pray for and seek. It is a wonderful service both to your own soul and to the community of believers around you to finish the race well.

That is something we should seek from the lord. Cause as we see with Isaac, it's sad, isn't it? But in his old age, sensuality, that old sensuality, begins to drive him over theology. And yet as you read this chapter, I think Isaac as well as being blamed needs also to be pitied. Is living through the pain and confusion of old age.

That's a hard old burden, isn't it? Particularly if you remember times when your eyesight was great and your body was healthy, and your mind was sharp, and you saw to the bottom of a thing, straight away, now to be aware of the pains of a fallen world, and your body is beginning to fall apart. And then by the end of the chapter, you've discovered that your own wife has been conspiring against you, and your own son has lied to your face. It's hard, isn't it? Messi.

It's messy. Life in a fallen world. He's a bit like all of us, isn't he? We both do wrong stuff, and we get wounded by people that we love. It's not all right, and it's not all bad.

It's just messy living in a fallen world. And so that's him. Secondly, let's have a look at Rebecca, his wife. Verse 5, she overhears Isaac's secret plan. She then calls for Jacob, and then she hatches her own plan, which definitely should not work.

I mean, when you read about it, this thing has got no right to work. Really. You know, it we're gonna we're gonna bring some we're gonna make a stew that he loves, and you're gonna take it in, and you're gonna dress up in a combination of your brother's clothes and goat skin and we're gonna wrap some of that old goat skin around your smooth parts. And with that done, we're gonna deceive the old man. You know, we're gonna trick him out of this thing.

You read it and you think that doesn't deserve to work. That that's got no right working. Is it? But that's her plan. It's bold.

It's a bold plan. And it's interesting when you read the chapter because all the other characters, so, Esaw and Jacob and Isaac, they have moments when they're they're like emotional jelly. They're all wobbling and screaming and crying and falling apart. Rebecca is the only 1 who's like a slab of granite. She is she's cold and she's unmoved.

And she does not hesitate even for a moment. She's absolutely sure this lie is happening. This is happening, and this lady is not for turning. She ain't changing her mind. This this this thing's getting done.

It's interesting if you look at verse 11 and 12, there's a moment where Jacob hesitates. Just for a second. And and you might say it's a it's a kind of whisper from their shared conscience. There's a whisper of something. A moment of hesitation, but Rebecca bulldozes it.

And squashes it like a bug and says, we'd I mean, look at it, verse 11 to 13. Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, but my brother esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin, and he's just, a slight tremor. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him, and I would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing. His mother said to him, you let the curse fall on me.

Just do what I say. Man. It's a strong woman, isn't it? No hesitation? No.

Yeah. You're right. Maybe this isn't a good idea. And let's go back to the drawing board. Maybe we can rewrite something else.

It's cold, committed to going through with her plan. And so if you ask the question, who gets what they want in this chapter? Rebecca is the clear winner. But, wow, did that victory come at a price? Look at what she had to do.

She had to conspire against her own husband. She had to manipulate her favorite son. She had to rip apart her other son, and she had to override god's promise. With her own methods. And that's the irony in all of this story that the blessing and the birthright was actually coming to Jacob.

It was going to come to him. But they decided together that they were not going to trust god's methods. I mean, just imagine how different the story might have been if they had chosen to trust in god's method and god's timing. Instead of trying to take the whole sorry mess into their own hands and to make it happen on their terms. That's Rebecca.

And by the end, just look what she's left with. I mean, I hadn't realized this until I started preparing. But in chapter 28 verse 5, when Jacob leaves, she will never see him again. Chapter 28 verse 5, when Jacob walks away from her, her favorite son walks off the stage of her life, forever. She will never see him again.

And as she turns to go home, she's left with 1 son who is now embittered against her and has got rage in his heart. And she's left with a marriage, which I can only assume was going to need a lot of work. It's been famously said and You can see it on the screen. That CIN will take you further than you want to go. It'll keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

It was a bold plan, but in order to get it done, she had to walk further and further into the shadow, and it cost her, I would think more than she was willing. To pay. And yet, can we look at her life from another angle? We can. You see, just imagine being her in 27 verse 5.

She's going about her business in the tents, and we're not told that she was actually deliberately eavesdropping on her husband. She may have just been there overhearing the conversation. But it'd be quite hard, wouldn't it? To hear your husband and planning the family future without you. The whole suggestion here is that Esaw and Isaac's plan was a secret plan.

And it was designed to exclude both Jacob and Rebecca, perhaps because they'd heard something different, and he knew that. He leaves them out. Be hard, wouldn't it as a wife? Listening to your husband of about a hundred and 70 years, I think it is at this point. Hearing your wife planning the family legacy without any consultation, any involvement, And then at the end of chapter 26, we didn't read it, but we hear of esau at 40 years old going to marry 2 hittites, and the hittites were a subset of the canaanites.

And so what you've got there is a firstborn son who not only despises his birthright, but hates the family customs. He doesn't wanna marry into the into the family. He wants to go to the folks who are gonna be the enemies of your people and take 2 wives from there. That's some kind of grief, some kind of sin against her. And so it's messy, isn't it?

It's messy. They're wrong. They're wrong, but they get wronged. And they're fallen people living in fallen world. That's a messy.

That's a messy thing. Thirdly, let's look at esaw, and we'll pick up his story in verse 33. If you could make sure you can see verse 33. Isaac trembled violently and said, who was it then? That hunted game and brought it to me.

I ate it just before you came, and I blessed him. And indeed, he will be blessed. When esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father Oh, bless me too. Bless me, my father. But he said, your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.

Isn't he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time that he's taken advantage of me. He took my birth right, and now he's taken my blessing. Then he asked, haven't you reserved any blessing for me? I so can't said he saw I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives, his servants and I have sustained him with grain and new wine.

So what can I possibly do for you, my son? Isor said to his father, do you have only 1 blessing my father? Oh, bless me too, my father. Then esau wept allowed. The word in verse 34 for a loud and bitter cry is more like a scream.

It's the word for screaming. You imagine esau, this man of the earth, deep voice, hairy, used to seeing stuff in the world. Imagine that guttural scream. From this man of the he's a wrecked man. And we might wonder reading this.

Well, why can't Isaac just take it back? I mean, you know, when he gets to the end of the story, he could say, ah, you you you tricks this, you slippery lot, I'm gonna take that back and I'm gonna say the right thing to Eso and I'm gonna say this thing to Jacob, and I'm just gonna change it. I'm just gonna change all the words. And it sounds weird to us, but that just wasn't gonna be possible. Because at this time, when a blessing of this nature was pronounced.

It had a kind of incarnational quality to it by which I mean that to speak the thing out was to actually give it flesh to say it was to bring it into existence, and it had a a legal weight to it. This wasn't like the will, which you can just go to the solicitors and change who gets what. It had a it had a it was to bring it into into reality. And so when the blessing is spoken, there is no way it can be withdrawn. And yet it's hard, isn't it not to feel sorry for esau, in this moment, not to feel a little bit sorry for him?

Until that is you remember what we're told about him in Hebrews chapter 12. We looked at we looked at this verse last week, and It'll be up on the screen there for us as well. Steve, if you could, click that on, please. Hebrews 12. See that no 1 is ******** immoral or is godless, like esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, verse 38, esau wept aloud, he could not change what he had done. Was he so angry? He was furious. Was he disappointed?

He was disappointed. Did he know himself to be cheated? He felt himself to be cheated. But was he repentant? The Bible tells us that he was not repentant.

You see, for all of his reaction here, where is the acknowledgement that he was wrong to despise his birthright? And where does he say sorry for going back on his oath? I mean, you remember in chapter 25, he actually did swear on oath before god to give that thing to Jacob. And now he's made a little plan with dad to go against the oath that he had sworn. And what about those canaanite wives that he bought into the family home?

And what about this murderous rage living in his heart at the end of the chapter? He's got a desire to became number 2 at the end of his chapter. He's gonna go and shed his brother's blood. That's what he wants to do. Where where where is the acknowledgement of all of that?

See, sometimes, when we're angry, we go blind to our own failures, don't we? Anger has a strange way of clouding our judgment when we're really angry. You know what it's like when Someone in your life has done something to you, or they've not done something that they should have done, and the the the hot red mist begins to rise. And all you can see is what they've done wrong. They've they've wronged me.

You their their wrongs are so clear in your mind. And it's so hard for us in those moments to explore our own contributions to the mess, and our own failures that might have done something to bring about this messy situation. Anger has that blinding quality about it. And something like that is going on in Israel's heart. No ownership of his own sin.

Just blame, and just a plan to murder his brother. And so when the new testament looks back at him, it tells us that he found no opportunity to repent. Because repentance was not what he was looking for. The reason he couldn't find no opportunity is because he wasn't after 1. He was after the blessing and putting things right and venting his anger in order to bring justice.

That's not repentance. That's a different kind of thing. And yet, once again, you imagine being esau in his chapter. Taken advantage of yet again by his brother, having his own mother plotting against him. I mean, you you have to remember that these 2 brothers, they were twins.

These were twins. They they were not it's not a 15, 20 year age gap. They were twin they come out at the same time. And he's gotta grow up in a home where his own mother is gonna work things against him and to plot against him because it's been very clear for years that Jacob was her favorite boy. Must can't it can't be nothing to grow up in an environment like that.

Can it? It's messy. Life in a fallen world is messy. There's wrongs. And there's wrongs done to us.

There's sins and there's suffering. It's just a messy fallen world. And then lastly, let's look at Jacob. Jacob. Verse 36, esau said, isn't he rightly named Jacob?

This is the second time he has taken advantage of me. He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing. And there's no 2 ways about it, taking advantage of others is what he has done. It might have been his mom's plan, but in the presence of his own father, who he can see is beginning to fail. You've got a picture that.

He's with his dad, and he sees his old man, and his mind is given out. And his eyes are beginning to fail. This is his dad beginning to crumble. Physically before him. And he lies to him.

He lies to him boldly and repeatedly. I am, esau, your son. Says that to his face. And then Isaac says, but how did you how did you get it so quickly? The lord.

The lord your god. Gave me success. What a way of using the name of the lord to give strength to his lie. And in verse 27, perhaps most chilling of all, he seals the betrayal with a kiss. In chapter 25 and here, Jacob gets what he wants by fraud and not by faith.

And therefore, even his wobbly moment in verse 12, What if my father touches me? That moment of hesitation, in the end, we see that that was not a moral concern. That was a practical concern. He's not asking at that point, is this thing right to do He's asking, can we get away with this thing? Those are 2 very different concerns, aren't they?

His concern is not 1 of morality, but of practicality. Not should we, but will it work? And you know frequently, that can be us as well. Can't it? When truth be told, we are more worried about getting caught than about doing the right thing.

When we're in the middle of something wrong, or when we're planning something wrong, often what concerns us most is not how this might affect my loving savior and my neighbor, but what knock might my reputation take. Should I be discovered? Better not do it because I may get found out. Not because it's either wrong or right for me to do. Well, that's that's Jacob.

That's Jacob. Not is it right, but can I get away with it? And although you could say that he did get away with it, by the end of chapter 27, everything has come out in the wash. As it has a tendency to do, doesn't it? Everything comes out in the wash in the end.

And yet from another angle, here is a boy who's also had to grow up in a home full of favoritism. His own father there's quite a big thing for a son, I think. His own father, he's known for a long time, prefers his other brother over him. And works everything for the other son, who he seems to love more. And then you've got this mum who I know it's a modern way of looking at it, but it it is a sort of abuse what she does here, isn't it?

The way she folds him into this lie of hers and manipulates him to be a part of it. I know he's an adult, but she's using her parental position to get him to do stuff that is wrong for him to do. And now alone, he's gotta leave home hunted by his brother exiled from his homeland. And so you see once again, there are no heroes and villains in this story. There is just mess of life in a fallen in a fallen world.

And that's the first point. A window into a fallen world. And just before we move on, let me just spend a a minute or 2 applying this. I think this is really important for us to get I remember watching a lecture some time ago, and, it was a lecture given by a man called David Paulerson who, used to work for a Christian Counseling organization in America. And, in this lecture, he got a bottle of water out And, he took the lid off the bottle of water.

It was full of water. And in front of all of his students, he started punching the bottle of water like this. And every time he punched the bottle of water, a little bit of water would just spurt out the top and go onto the floor, and he kept doing this for sort of 5 minutes. And then he asked the students in the room, why did the water come out of the bottle? And there's 2 ways of answering that question.

1 is because you were hitting it. If you hadn't been hitting it like that, then it wouldn't have caused the water to come out. The water came out because you kept hitting the bottle. But in the end, the truest answer is, the reason that water came out of the bottle is because there was water inside the bottle. And it uses that as an illustration of human behavior.

We live in a fallen world And because we live in a fallen world, there's all kinds of things that hit us all the time. Our bodies begin to fall apart. That's a hit. People lie to us. That's a hit.

We get betrayed by those we love. That's a hit. There's all kinds of things hitting us, and they are not insignificant. They are not insignificant. But in the end, why does the water of sinful response come out of us?

Is because sinful hearts are within us. That's why. And so 2 things we need to do. We need to not treat lightly the hits of this life. Because they are real and they matter.

But we also have to take accountability for our own sin that comes from nowhere but within. And tends to spoil the relationships which matter to us most. And so maybe there are people here and there is someone or something that needs to stop being blamed. And we need to start taking accountability for the water that comes from within us. I think that's quite helpful for looking at these characters in Genesis 24.

They're hit, and that matters. But the sinful responses are their own. And they're held accountable for them. So that's the first thing, a window into a fallen world. Secondly, and very briefly, a window into a faithful god.

Friends look at chapter 28 verse 3 to 4. Isaac says to Jacob, presumably now realizing he's been on the wrong side of this thing. May god almighty bless you and make you fruit full and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you your descendants the blessing given to Abraham so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner the land god gave to Abraham, 2 times Abraham's name is repeated. Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddon, Aram.

How remarkable is that? The, in the soap opera craziness of this chapter, the promise of god survives. And the promise of god comes again as it had come to Abraham and to Isaiah so it now comes to Jacob as if to say that the covenant keeping god cannot be undone by the worst of human nature. Net the foolishness and the failure and the lies and the betrayal come. But in all of it and through all of it, the promises of god will roll on from generation to generation through the mess of human fallenness.

They survive. In 2 Timothy, 2 13, Paul says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. Now in that verse, god is not endorsing sin. He's not saying it's alright for you to be faithless because god will be faithful because in the previous verse, he said if we deny him he will deny us.

So holiness and faithfulness does matter. But that verse is a wonderful affirmation that despite all of the mess of human sin and fallenness. The promises of God do not finally depend upon us, but upon his commitment to see his word through. The church of Jesus Christ is gonna be built and the bride is gonna be gathered, and the people from every nation are gonna be called, and every knee will 1 day bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is lord. And no messy family or foolish individual or broken church can ever, ever, ever put a stop to that plan.

I mean, friends, you think of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 1. What kind of stories get included in that? You've got Isaac, he's in there. You've got Jacob, believe it or not.

He's in there. You've got David, you've got Judah, you've got Rahab, you've got Ruth, You've got Solomon. These are not clean stories. These are messy stories. And yet somehow, god found a way to bring his promise to them, to pass it on through them and to include them as messy as they were in the genealogy of the lord Jesus Christ.

What amazing grace? But god would include such messy people in the greatest story. And then finally, let's just consider Christ. Let's consider Christ for a moment because when he came into this world, he was stepping into the East Enders world. And it was a mess, and it was every bit as messy as Genesis 27.

He was betrayed by a kiss. He was rejected by his brothers. He was lied about repeatedly. He was denied by his best friends. I mean, talk about a man taking the hits in this life.

Taking the hits. And then ultimately, on the cross, he takes the biggest hit of all as he bears the judgment of god in our place for our sin. He takes the hits and yet what came out of our lord Jesus Christ. Only ever, holy joy and trust and obedience. No sinful response ever came out of him, but only faith and joy.

And so we're reminded looking at Genesis 27, that Christ Jesus, the perfect man, is the savior that we need, hit, but never sinful, dying to bring people like you and me messy people, right? Messi people dying to bring you and me into that genealogy. Of of his family. What a great story. Let's pray.

Heavenly father perhaps in different ways we've seen ourselves in these characters, whether it's the sins they committed that we also recognize in our own hearts Whether it's some of the wounds that were inflicted upon them that we also recognize in our own lives. Lord, these stories are so real, and they are so true to what life is like. And we want to apologize for where we've been like these characters, and we want to ask for healing help for where we've been wounded like these characters. And we want to thank you most of all for the lord Jesus Christ. And for his gospel promises, which just have a way of rolling on despite all the faults and failures of people.

And we thank you lord Jesus that you have included us as messy as we are into your story of grace and salvation that our names too are written in the genealogy, in the family line of Christ, not because we deserved it, but because he was kind to fallen people. And so as we come to the table now taking this bread and juice, which remind us of the sacrifice which made it all possible, we pray that you would give us thankful hearts in Jesus' name. Oh, man.