Grace Through Dysfunction

I have no doubt in my mind that you're wondering, why did we change the service like that? Well, because my tablet would not turn on and I couldn't get the sermon and so I had to go out and print it. That's why. You know, the Lord's always trying to teach me because I always want everything to run smooth on Sunday morning and he's showing me that sometimes it goes bad because of me and not someone else.

Take your Bibles and let's turn to Genesis chapter 27. We're going to finish reading the narrative that Joe began for us this morning. finish the story, this story that we all know of the stealing of the birthright. We're going to start in verse 30 of chapter 27 and read through chapter 28, verse 9. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau's brother came in from his hunting.

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. His father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I'm your son, your firstborn Esau. And 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've blessed him.

Yes, and he shall be blessed. 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. But he said, Your brother came to see Philemon. He's taken away your blessing. Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times.

He took away my birthright, and behold, now he's taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? 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? 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. Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be and away from the dew of heaven on high. 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.

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. 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.

Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you and he forgets what you've done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day? Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.

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. 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.

God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of people. 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. 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.

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. and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac, his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalat, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaiot.

Let's pray. Father, now, as we come to this passage, which is so familiar to us, we pray that you would teach us what we need to know from this. Open our eyes, open our hearts, enlarge our faith as we see once again your work. In Jesus' name, amen. We had just moved here to LaRue in the spring of 1985, and about the second day that we lived here, we decided to go out and kind of drive through the countryside and get a lay of the land. and so we headed south out of LaRue.

We came to LaRue Green Camp Road and we turned on that and started going down that until we came to another road, a road that went off of LaRue Green Camp and went into the woods It was called Shoddy Road So we said that looks interesting let go down that road And so we turned and we went down Shoddy Road until we came to this bridge that crosses Scioto. By this time, the bridge is no longer there, but that time it still was there. But it was dilapidated and old and obviously could not carry the weight of our vehicle.

For all practical purposes, we'd come to a dead end. Our exploring was over and so we headed home. Well, when we get to this so familiar story, we all know this story. We've all heard it a hundred times since we've been in Sunday school. When we come to this, what you need to see is this. It seems like we've reached a dead end.

It appears there's no way to proceed with the promises of God. God made a promise to Abraham and had confirmed it with Isaac that he would bless the nations through his seed. There was someone who would come from him who would be a blessing to the nations. And also, not to mention also the other promises that went with that, the promises of innumerable descendants, the land that would be given to their possession, the reputation of greatness, the presence of the Lord, and the Lord's protection.

Those who curse you, I will curse, and those who bless you, I will bless. God had determined to shower His grace upon the nations through this seed. But that all seems to hit a dead end with this family, with its crazy dysfunction and cast of unholy characters. How is God going to keep the promise with this, right? How can He possibly fulfill the promise with a man like Isaac?

Now a man of little faith, driven by his appetites, and a failed spiritual leader, willing to rebel against the clearly revealed will of God. And then there's Esau, unthinking. He does not reflect on the consequences of living for the immediate gratification of his appetites. a violent and duplicitous man. And of course, what can we say about Rebecca?

A domineering woman who stoops to scheming and manipulation in order to gain the goal of her life, which is the success of her favorite son. And then last, of course, there's Jacob. an unprincipled, deceptive, blasphemous man who determines to get what he wants and there's no moral scruples about it at all. He's going to get what he wants. God's going to fulfill his promise through that group of people?

Now, not to compound the problem, there's this incredible rivalry that's going on in this family. Rivalry that runs so deep you start to wonder, can we even call this a family anymore? I mean, come on. I mean, look at it. You've got dad attempting to bless his son, note, in secret. Not normally with a celebration, a public celebration of passing the blessing on to the son. look at the personal pronouns that are used in chapter 27 verses 5 and 6 i think the writer here is trying to make a point and i think it's clear now verse 5 now rebecca was listening when isaac spoke to his son esau so when esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it Rebecca said to her son, Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

Do you see that? It doesn't say, it doesn't even say Isaac spoke to his favorite son. It doesn't say that Isaac spoke to one of his sons. It says Isaac spoke to his son Esau, and Rebecca spoke to her son, Rebecca. That's pretty blatant, isn't it? There's rivalry there.

You have a wife here who undercut the head of the family through a well-thought-out scheme. And notice, she does not speak forthrightly to her husband about his dishonesty and his dishonest plan. She learns about it, but she doesn't go in and talk to him then and say, Honey, what you're planning is wrong. You were going to do this in secret, weren't you?

That's not right. She doesn't do that, does she? and he's never spoken to her about this secret plan. That's obvious. Real communication between this husband and wife no longer exists. And you see the continued lack of communication, even deception, between these two, even after this ruse has been exposed. Look at the end of the chapter.

Look at the end of chapter 27. There is no honest confession. There is no honest discussion about the true nature of things. Note, Jacob's in trouble. She needs to get him out of there. Right?

But he can't go without the father saying go. So what does she do? Does she say, Isaac, our oldest son wants to kill his brother. What are you going to do about that? Should you stop Esau? Should you send him out?

She doesn't do that. What does she do? Verse 46, Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I love my life because of the Hittite women. 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? Again manipulation Again not telling the whole truth Yeah she loves her daughters There no doubt about that We started out the reading with the fact that they made her life bitter But she uses that as a manipulative technique to get her husband to send Jacob off to safety.

There's not even any communication between these two, husband and wife. This is how deep the rivalry is. again, look at this rivalry. You have a son willing to get the best of his brother. Again! And you know how he does it? He takes advantage of the weaknesses of an old man to do it.

And last but not least, you have one brother willing to kill the other brother. Right? Right? Personally, I think this probably is not just because of that. I think this is like the last straw between these two brothers. Right?

I think that's kind of what's going on too. You've got rivalry so deep. Unbelievably deep. You know, I had three boys and three girls. And the boys sometimes would have a rivalry between them. But as far as I know.

And the sisters too. And the sisters to the brothers and brothers to the sisters. I don't know if any of them really planned to kill the other one. Sometimes they acted like it, and sometimes they said it, but I don't really think that they really hated each other to that point. I mean, the boys made life miserable for Annie, but I don't think that she ever really decided to stomp out and leave the family.

This kind of rivalry that's going on here, it's unbelievable. What's happened in this family? This is the family that's going to fulfill the promise of God? Right? I think with such rivalry, hatred, and deception, you could fairly say we have a dysfunctional family here. Wouldn't you say?

I would. I would. So it appears that we've reached a dead end for the promises. They will be squandered in a family like this that is wracked with unrighteousness. Now, the picture that we have, primarily in chapter 27, going through part of 28, is framed. It's like a picture that has a frame around it, except this frame interprets or gives us understanding as to what's happening in the middle.

The frame is Esau's marriages. With that in mind, on both ends, you start to understand why what's going on in the middle. Here's the first. Look over at chapter 26. Chapter 26, 34. When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Baeri, the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basamat, the daughter of Elan, the Hittite, and they made life better for Isaac and Rebekah.

That's the beginning of the story. Now let's look at the end of the story, chapter 28, verses 6 through 9. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, sent him away to Paddan Aram, took a wife from there, 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, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram.

So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not displease Isaac, his father, But Esau seems to be a guy who just doesn't get it. I mean, this is truly a jock here. This is a guy who's saying, what? You don't like my wives? Duh. What a surprise that is.

I mean, he's just always beside the point. He doesn't get it. All right? So let's come back here. I mean, that's just the character of this man. What do you mean you don't like my wives?

This is news to me. Right? I mean, they live in the same camp. Come on. but be that as it may. So Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac, his father. So 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.

Now, this is the frame that colors what's in between, that tells us what's going on in between. Here's what's going on. Esau, contrary to custom, contracts his own marriage. Dad doesn't get his wives for him. He does it himself. That's kind of unusual.

And he does this in direct opposition to God's instructions in the Abrahamic Covenant or the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. He does it in opposition to them. Now to marry these wives is not just to marry somebody your mom and dad don't like. It's to marry people who are going to compromise your faith. It's to marry these people who will seduce you away from the true God.

It's someone who says, I don't care what those women are like. I don't care. I'm going to marry them anyway. Because as a son of Abraham or a grandson of Abraham, he should have known that God condemned these people. In chapter 15, we saw that. Where God is making the promise to Abraham, he says, your descendants are going to go to another country where they'll be abused for 400 years.

And then they will come here and they will dispossess all of these people because of their wickedness. you see Esau knew that Esau knew that these were the people that God was going to judge someday but he didn't care he's going to marry that kind of woman and therefore if you will if we can put it in our terminology compromise the faith you see and he certainly knew about his grandpa's efforts to keep his dad away from the Canaanite women, so much so that Grandpa sent one of his servants to the same place to find a wife for his dad his mom Rebecca He knew all about that This signals a lack of commitment to God's promises. He is clearly operating in opposition to what God had said in the covenant. that attitude is confirmed when when he finally figures out that his parents don't like his wives he goes and gets another one but where does he go he goes to uncle ishmael the rejected natural seed of abraham now here's the question how will god keep the promise of that seed to bless the nations with all this going on. Question, will Jacob also wreck the fulfillment of the promise by getting into a compromising marriage?

See, that's the question. Is God going to be able to keep the promise? Because it looks like Jacob who's not that much different than Esau. Esau's run by his appetites. Jacob has got the long view term. I'm going to get what I want.

So how is it that Jacob's not going to end up marrying a woman like Esau? And thus, right? He marries a Canaanite woman. That's the end. It's the end. Dead end.

Completely. Completely. Well, what you discover again is that nothing will derail God's gracious purpose. He will fulfill the promise he made to Abraham and confirmed with Isaac. Not even the wicked action and schemes of a dysfunctional family will keep him from fulfilling the promise. Nothing will keep him from fulfilling that promise.

In fact, he will actually use the evil of their deception, manipulation, anger, and everything else, he'll actually use it to accomplish his gracious purpose. So what's the first thing we learn as we look at this story? This familiar story, this story that we all know. Let me ask you, did anyone ever teach you this story with this in mind? We just learned this story about don't lie like Jacob now, don't do that, don't be a deceiver, and certainly don't get angry like Esau.

Those are the kind of lessons we learned. There's much more at stake here. It's the very faithfulness of God that's at stake here. Here's the first thing that we need to learn. Know that sin cannot derail God's promise. Sin will never derail God's promise.

Now, Isaac intends to bless Esau with the birthright. Now, as I approach this chapter, I'm always wondering, and maybe you are too, Is there a difference between the birthright and the blessing here? And Hebrews looks at this as one. And so I think it's this whole issue of birthright. It's still that issue. The birthright.

Blessing the son with the birthright. You get the head of the family. You're the one who inherits the covenant promises. All of that. All of that's going on. Who's going to get the birthright?

Isaac intends to bless Esau with the birthright. And Esau, of course, agrees to the plan. A wicked, unrighteous deed here. Isaac certainly crafts a wicked design here. First of all, he's going to do this in secret. Not through the normal public ceremony of blessing.

But he doesn't care. He certainly must know that Esau already agreed to give the birthright to Jacob. Esau agreed to it, certainly. Certainly, Jacob took advantage of his brother. Nevertheless, he made the promise. But Isaac doesn't care.

He doesn't care if it means his son breaks his word. It doesn't matter to him at all. He's failed as a spiritual leader. Evidently, he did nothing to heal the rivalries in this family. Unless we think he tried and failed, please note that he's encouraged the rivalries. He's actually encouraged this rivalry by favoring Esau and not saying anything to his wife about the fact that she favors the other son.

He's failed. But he doesn't care. Worst of all, and here's the point that we really need to see, he knew the birth oracle. You remember the oracle that came before the twins were born? The older will serve the younger. This is a word from God.

Quite possibly, probably delivered through Isaac himself. The older will serve the younger. Right? He knew that birth oracle. He knew that already. God clearly stated that the older would serve the younger, but he doesn't care.

He doesn't care. He's willing to defy the clearly revealed word of God in order to pass on the blessing to his favorite son. The only thing he does care about is his appetite. I like that food and Esau can give it to me. his favorite son would give him what he wanted now I don't know if you've noticed but Isaac has become a lot like his favorite son not thinking of long term consequences but just thinking about satisfying his desires now.

That's what Isaac has become. Now Esau, Esau's not innocent here. He's just as guilty. He'll renege on his promise to Jacob. He'll renege on that promise. I don't care what I said.

I'm going to get it from Dad. But here's the deal. You've got to remember this. This is why Hebrews looks at him and says he's a profane man. Why? Because remember this, that along with that birthright came the responsibility of leading the family, becoming the head of the family, the spokesman for the family, the leader.

And what did God expect the leader of this family to do? Isaac hasn't done very well, but what does he expect him to do? He expects him to lead the family in relationship to God. Remember, Abraham and the covenant, and from then on, you circumcise your household. Why? To show that I am committed to leading my family in the worship of God.

That comes with the birthright, right? And if he gets the birthright, he inherits all the covenant blessings and promises. But the point is, Esau doesn't care about that. Esau couldn't care less about God. He couldn't care less about the promises or the blessings. The only thing he cares about is the wealth. and the power that comes with it.

And so, he's willing to break his promise in order to gain wealth and prominence. Can God keep his promises in the face of the unrighteous, wicked schemes and actions of depraved individuals? Can he keep the promise? Especially when those actions purposely work against that promise. Do you see that here? This is purposely working against the promise of God.

This is Isaac who doesn't care what God has said. I'm going to do what I'm going to do. Wow, what's God going to do now? No, I think we have the wrong view of a God who sits up in heaven going, Oh no, oh, what am I going to do now? All right, look at Acts chapter 4 again. Here's the greatest example of God working His purposes.

Acts chapter 4. Apostles have been released from the Sanhedrin who are actively working against the purpose of God. They've told them, no longer preach in the name of this Christ. And what did they say? They said, look, you've given us a choice. Either we obey you or we obey God.

Guess which we're going to go with? and then you come to chapter 4, they come back to the church. The congregation is meeting. They're concerned about the fact that they've been told not to preach. And so there's this marvelous prayer that's prayed. They lift their voices. They recognize God's sovereignty and his creation.

And then they do this, starting in verse 25. They start quoting from Psalm 2 as they pray this psalm back to God. we know that through the mouth of our father david your servant said this by the holy spirit why did the gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the lord and against his anointed right they're they're purposely working against the plan of god for truly in this city they were gathered together against you, your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. You see, they were working against the plan of God.

But guess what? That was part of the plan. They weren't going to succeed. They're gathered against the Lord's anointed and the Lord's anointed still accomplishes the purpose that God sent him for. You see, listen, God doesn't just work around the evil schemes and intentions and plans and actions of man. He doesn't just work around them.

He uses them. The very things intended to thwart God, He uses to accomplish His purpose. I mean, there's absolutely no illustration to make that clearer. I can't think of one. None of us can do that. There's no example of how we can.

But God can actually use the things that are intended against Him. He can actually use that to accomplish what He intends. And so here's Isaac and Esau in this unholy agreement to do what God has clearly said they should not do. The older will serve the younger. Isaac knows that. He's going to work against it.

Alright? But even that sin cannot derail the purpose of God. That's not the only lesson I see in this chapter. Here's the other one. Know that good intentions cannot derail the purpose of God or the promise of God. even our good intentions are bad a lot of times. Now, why do I say that?

Well the plot thickens here with a woman who knows the promise who believes the promise and wants to see the promise fulfilled Let give her some credit here Rebecca knows the promise. Okay? She believes the promise. She believes her favorite son, Jacob, is going to be the one who inherits the promise. She believes it. She actually believes it.

She wants to see that promise fulfilled. but she also has the gotta help god along attitude that we've already seen in abraham in sarah in isaac and in you and me right we gotta help god otherwise he can't get the job done so what you see here is she's going to act on her faith by unfaithful means see she doesn't trust god that he's going to get the job done she's got to help him she's got to see that that promise gets fulfilled and with the information that she has she concocts this plan of fooling isaac with counterfeit food and a counterfeit son. Now, again, I'm not going to read through the whole story. We all know this story, right?

Jacob objects. Jacob objects to the plan. But notice he doesn't object on moral grounds. He doesn't say, oh, mom, I could never be part of such an evil plan as this. Oh, stop. Is that what Jacob does?

No. He says, oh, mom, I'm not sure this is going to work. That's his problem. He doesn't think it's going to work. That's where his problem is. Not that it's evil, but boy, if this doesn't work, I'm in big trouble.

I'll get cursed. To which he replies, let the curse fall on me. Right? We've got to do this. We've got to get this done. Now you know the story. knowing that Isaac is blind but figuring he may be suspicious they've determined to fool him through the other senses that are still working he may not be able to see so they're going to fool him through his sense of taste with food like Esau's through the sense of touch with hair like Esau's and even the sense of smell with clothes with Esau's clothes Now you can sense Jacob's a bit nervous as he comes in.

He's a little bit nervous about the plan because he's very quick in what he says. He says essentially, hey dad, it's Esau, here's your supper, sit up, eat it, bless me and I'll be gone. Okay? Oh man, here we go. Of course, he's figured out what his dad's like. He knows what his dad's going to do.

He says, you sound like Jacob. and you know he feels him he smells him he tastes the food he says okay you must be Esau but worse than the lying worse than the subterfuge is the blasphemy that occurs you'll see it in verse 20 you'll see it in verse 20 Jacob said to his father I am Esau your firstborn what outright lie I have done as you told me now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me but Isaac said to his son how is it that you found it so quickly my son he answered because the Lord your God granted me success there's a very good example of using the Lord's name in vain. Great example. Right?

I'm going to lie even about God. Here is blasphemy. Did you ever think it was this bad? It's really bad, isn't it? Well, Isaac falls for the deception, does he not? But notice, he still has enough faith in his Lord to give a blessing.

Now, he's given it to Esau. No doubt about that. Or he thinks he's given it to Esau. No doubt about that. But he truly believes, if I pronounce this blessing, as the representative of God, the patriarchs, at this point, are God's representatives on earth. As God's representatives on earth, when they speak, God fulfills.

It's not magic here. He knows, That through a blessing, God will keep His promise. He will fulfill the words of the patriarchs. Now, he thinks he's pronouncing God's blessing on Esau for sure. But he does believe that God will fulfill the purpose of that blessing. So he blesses, not Esau, he blesses Jacob with fertility and dominion.

He talks about, you're going to have all the dew of heaven. you'll reap rich harvests which I think is in keeping with the Abrahamic covenant that God would make his name great and that day how were you great? great prosperity he's going to have dominion again unwittingly fulfilling the oracle he's going to have dominion over his mother's sons now it's not that and I ask this question too it's not that Rebecca has more sons than the twins. It's that her sons could, grandsons, all of those sons of hers that come through this boy Not Jacob but Esau Although he thinks he again he thinks he blessing Esau but he's blessing Jacob and saying, Jacob will have dominion over the descendants of Esau. You see? so Isaac reaffirms that birth oracle that he heard at the beginning unbeknownst to him yet he's blessing Jacob and saying Esau will serve him he reaffirms the promise of God's covenant with Abraham when he says curse be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you.

Now granted, he thinks he's doing this to Esau, but in fact he's doing it to Jacob, which is what God had certainly planned. Now, no sooner does Jacob walk out the door and turn the corner around the tent, Esau comes walking in. Right? Esau comes in, he prepares the food, he brings it to his dad, looking for the blessing. And you don't have to imagine the anguish and the anger here.

You see Isaac trembling violently out of anguish and quite possibly anger. And you see Esau's incredible anger as he cries out and he weeps and he determines to kill his brother. You can imagine the anguish and the anger that's going on at this point. And he says, he's rightly called Jacob deceiver because he's cheated me again. that guy's no good but notice I want you to understand that when Esau grieves and he weeps because there's no blessing he's not weeping over the fact that God has made great promises to his people he's weeping over the fact that he doesn't get all the stuff that's all he cares about but Isaac can't give him a blessing you say now why couldn't Isaac give him a blessing Because to bless Esau would be like saying to him, here's something, but it's really not going to happen.

Because I already pronounced the blessing. God's going to work through that blessing here. I can't give you a blessing saying God's going to work. Because He won't. And so He gives him kind of an anti-blessing. Notice, His descendants will live by what?

Hunting whom? Hunting men. They're going to be a violent, just like Esau, they're going to be a violent kind of people who get success by conquering and by killing. And you're not going to have very prosperous harvests. Your descendants won't. But someday you will break the yoke of your brother.

By the way, that happened several hundreds of years later in 2 Kings chapter 8, when Edom, the descendants of Esau, throw off the rule of Judah the kingdom that are descended from Jacob and so he gives him that kind of anti-blessing well Esau seething with anger then vows that he will kill his brother after their dad dies because his brother stole what he rightfully thought or what he thought was rightfully his now of course rebecca man she must have an intelligent um an intelligence agency at work here last time she overheard it this time someone tells her about it i mean they got a huge camp they got lots of servants somebody heard esau make this threat so they make a beeline for rebecca and they warn her that Jacob is in danger. And so she encourages him to head for her homeland to await a word from her when all is safe. Again, good intentions, but followed by an unrighteous thing.

Good intentions. Hey, I don't want one son to die at the hand of the other and I don't want the other son to die at the hand of justice. Whether it's a blood avenger or some justice system, I'll lose both of them. I don't want that to happen. So I'm going to send this son away to safety. But how is she going to do it?

Does she go to her husband and say, Jacob's in danger? No. She goes and says, you know, these wives of Esau are just making my life miserable. We can't let Jacob marry one of these women. Right? Again, manipulation instead of honesty.

Boy, there's a lot of lessons to be learned from this chapter. Manipulation instead of honesty. But what happens? Jacob does not marry a Canaanite woman. Because now Isaac sends him off. And sends him off with the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant ringing in his ears.

You will notice what Isaac says, God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of people. 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. So Jacob leaves. Jacob leaves with the blessings of God's covenant ringing in his ears.

I don't believe he believes it. Jacob is a rascal still He be a rascal for a long time until God finally by His relentless grace conquers his heart. Nevertheless, he leaves with the blessings of the covenant in his ears. Listen, even our good intentions cannot impede God's gracious purposes. I'm really glad about that because a lot of times I have great intentions and I do them the worst way you can think.

And I think you do too. But that's not going to derail the promises of God. What's the point of all this? What is the point of all this? Simply this, Jacob is delivered from the danger of a compromising marriage that would destroy the promise. Jacob is delivered from a marriage that would compromise and destroy the promise and even though it appears this mess of a family would itself annihilate the promise God actually uses that mess and that manipulation and all that anger to fulfill his gracious promises God has not changed God has not changed do you worry about the horrendous events constantly displayed before you in the news and even in your neighborhood?

Do you ever get dismayed at all the horrible things that are happening? Question, has any of it frustrated God's plan to call a people to Himself and into the joys of His kingdom? Has any of it ever frustrated His plan? Well, I don't know. I look around. It seems like there's lots of people working against our joy.

I mean, real, solid, righteous joy. It seems that there's people working all over the place to cause great heartache and harm. And yet God has not changed. His gracious purposes will stand. Maybe you've experienced the horrendous nature of life in this broken world. Maybe even family members, maybe family members that you have, have betrayed you.

They've deceived you. They've hurt you. May I say, maybe you've even been abused. Maybe that's true. Will God, will any of that, keep God from accomplishing His gracious purpose in your life? Will it keep Him?

Will it keep Him from changing you so that you will learn to love and forgive the people who did bad to you? Will it keep Him from making you like Jesus? will it keep him from giving you the joy and fulfillment of serving God even when it seems all wrong around you will it keep him from rescuing you from despair and giving you hope in a messy wild broken world and the answer is nothing will keep him from any of those purposes because his purpose of grace he is determined to fulfill i remain confident in god's power to accomplish his gracious plan even when it seems that power is nowhere to be seen you know and i'm confident of that because of jesus think about it jesus is that seed promised in the abrahamic covenant he appeared when he showed up He had irrefutable evidence that he came to bless. But then, suddenly it seems, God's power evaporates.

Instead of people running to him for blessing, they turned against him. like Esau they were overwhelmed with a vengeful anger that wanted nothing short of his death like Isaac serving their appetites they turned against him when he would not fulfill their desires like Rebecca and Jacob they schemed and manipulated for His death because they thought that blessing did not come through Him, but it came by eliminating Him. What looked like a dead end for Jesus ends up as a road to God. Right?

That's why I'm confident that God's gracious purposes will never be derailed. No matter what happens in this world, no matter what happens in our lives nothing will keep the grace of God from accomplishing its purposes God actually used the evil and wickedness of depraved men to bring salvation from that depravity and wickedness with God nothing is impossible Father thank you for your word thank you for the hope that we have thank you Lord we do not find in we find in this good news but we do not find an excuse for our bad behavior but we do know this when we fail your grace will still your grace will still win out give us confidence in your sovereign grace we pray in Jesus name Amen