Despised!

I ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis chapter 25, our text for today is verses 27 through 34. Before we look at God's word, let's pray and ask him to help us see ourselves in light of his eternal word. Let's pray. Lord God of heaven, we are here by your appointment, for you have wanted us to worship you, but you have also wanted to speak to us.

And as we come now and open your word, we know that this is the living word of God, that this indeed is not a text of a history long ago and far away, but is your word addressed to us today as the congregation of your people. Give us insight, not just into our hearts, but into your word. Help us, Lord, to see Christ and to seek to obey him for his glory.

God now just open our eyes in Jesus name Amen promises, promises we all live by promises it's part of life in this world your son says he's going to visit you on Thanksgiving and on the basis of that you begin to think about cooking his favorite stuffing and getting out the mural that he loves so much because you believe that He will keep His promise. On the other hand, your father who's never had a dependable day in his life says that he too will be at the Thanksgiving feast, but you roll your eyes and you scoff at that. He's not a man of His word, and so you don't believe Him.

However, it would be different if when you got the phone call from your son telling you that He was coming and you just shrug your shoulders saying, oh, it's not that big of a deal. I couldn't care less one way or the other, whether he comes or not. The rest of the family would be offended by that, acting as if the promise of your dependable son meant nothing to you.

You shrug it off as if he means nothing to you. Well, that's the story that we have before us. The story of a man who acts as if God's promise is nothing special, as if his inheritance is a worthless thing. You also have a story of a man who's not quite sure that God will keep his promise. So let's look at Genesis chapter 25. You follow as I read verses 27 through 34 of this very, very familiar story from the Old Testament. verse 27 when the boys grew up Esau was a skillful hunter a man of the field well Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game but Rebecca loved Jacob once when Jacob was cooking stew Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted and Esau said to Jacob let me eat some of the red stew for I'm exhausted Therefore his name was called Edom.

Let me just say something right now. You see a footnote there. His name is called Edom, so he's Esau or Edom either way, because Edom means red. He saw the red stew. And so because he wanted it so much, he got the nickname Edom. So let's go on.

Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said swear to me now so he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate and drank and rose and went his way thus Esau despised his birthright now recall what we've seen in Genesis up to this point God has promised a seed that will crush the serpent's head and as we progress through the book we've seen the development of that promise of God to the point where we come to Abraham.

And the seed now is to come through Abraham and his descendants. And God has made a covenant with Abraham promising that through that seed he will bless the nations. And part of that development of the seed is the giving of the land and the promise of descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. And as we heard Abraham's story, we realized that his is a story of faith, of how Abraham's life was driven by the promise of God.

Now we come to Abraham's grandsons, Jacob and Esau, and how God will continue to fulfill that promise seed, the promise of the seed, through the one grandson, Jacob. And again, as we've seen with Abraham, we will see whether or not Jacob, his brother, even his parents will follow the path of faith. Now we are first introduced to the family dynamics here in the incident, in the narrative that's before us.

We're introduced to the family dynamics. Do you know what I mean by family dynamics? It's how a family operates. It's how they relate. All the stuff that makes a family and all the things goes on. The Paschma family has a certain dynamic.

It's usually loud and boisterous. It oftentimes revolves around a controversial subject or person. It's very opinionated. There's much laughing, and it usually happens around a table. For us to sit in a living room and talk is just almost you know it just doesn cross our minds I know people who have become part of our family have thought it very strange indeed that we sit in wooden chairs around a table with our loud, boisterous, opinionated talking.

And I could give you, it's interesting how you learn things from the people who come into your family. But be that as it may, that is the dynamics of our family. That's kind of how we operate. Well, the family Jacob grew up in also had a certain dynamic. First of all, the parents played favorites. The writer here makes that clear, wants us to understand that the parents played favorites.

Isaac loved Esau, the rough and rugged hunter, because the boy knew what his dad liked. Hey, Dad, you want some venison? I just got a doe this morning, hanging it up in the tent, ready to gut and butcher it. You want some? And he's thinking, that's my boy. He's a real man.

And he knows what his dad likes. Right? Now Rebecca, on the other hand, loved Jacob. Because, probably like her, he was more refined and sophisticated. Hey mom, I just got the album of Beethoven's 7th symphony. Do you want to listen to it with me? and she's thinking that's my boy smart and sophisticated he's going to go a long way and so Esau is loved by his dad because of what he does for his dad and Rebecca loves Jacob so there's the first element of that dynamic there's favoritism going on there's favoritism going on surely I would believe the boys understand the stories of the family.

Our family has stories. And sometimes we're sitting around talking about, do you remember when? Right? And we laugh and have all kinds of fun things around those stories. Well, I imagine they knew their stories too. Isaac and Rebecca must have told them of the blessings and promise of the seed of their family and that that seed would bless the nations.

I'm sure they talked about that. This was the family that had this covenant with God. I can't imagine them, or at least I can't imagine Rebecca not telling the boys of the oracle that she received when she was pregnant, that one of the boys, that the older was going to serve the younger. My guess is they grew up with that story. They knew that an oracle had been given to the family that said that Esau someday was going to serve his brother Jacob.

And then we can't discount Grandpa Abraham. Now, if you do all the calculations, Grandpa Abraham was around until the boys were 17 years old. So can you see Abraham stopping by for a visit? Can you see him holding them on his knees and pointing to the sky and the stars and looking at the land all around him and telling the boys the promises to the family that was contained in their covenant and how he told them all that God had promised him.

And no doubt, probably Abraham told them about his own stories of faithlessness and faithfulness. I mean, he must have told them because they're recorded. He told somebody about what happened when he went to Egypt and when he conquered those other cities and when he went to Abimelech's land and all the sorts of things that happened. All that was part of the family lore.

So they had favoritism going on. They had the family stories, the lore, and all the stuff that made them a particular family. And, of course, you have the dynamics of opposing personalities. You have two brothers who are exact opposites on either end of the spectrum. Esau is the skillful hunter. He's the man of the outdoors.

He's a rough and tumble guy. He's the original redneck. Okay? I mean, man, this guy, he's not much on thinking. He's more on experiencing. It's not so much about reflection for him.

It's about action. That's the kind of guy he is. Now, Jacob here says he's a quiet man. And as I've studied that term, it seems that it's not so much that he's just a quiet guy. There's more to that term. He's the civilized man.

He's the one who speaks with sophistication and finesse and acts that way. And as we look at his story, you can see he's somebody who reflects. He's not just, oh, let me have what I want now. He's thinking about, he's the kind of guy who sits there and says, no, no, no, if I did that, what would happen? He thinks about the future. He thinks about what might happen and how to get there.

He's the reflective kind of a guy. Now it says that he dwells in tents. And I'm sorry, but I think Jacob has gotten a raw deal when people look at that and he dwells in tents. That doesn't mean that he hung out with his mom baking cookies and that night around the fire they did needlepoint together. That isn't what Jacob was like. He was a shepherd.

He was a guy who knew animals. He knew what to do with sheep and goats. And he was out there doing a dwelling in Tensas more about the fact that he was a nomad. He was a shepherd. And you notice, as we look further on in the story, do you notice how absolutely successful he is when he's working for Laban? And he knows what to do?

And he increases the flocks of tons? This guy knows what he's doing when it comes to sheep and shepherds and so forth. shepherds were considered much more civilized and sophisticated than hunters it seems that when you read the old testament hunters are kind of like you know rednecks right But shepherds are held in a much higher esteem They the more civilized ones And so Jacob isn't this guy who likes to sit around and bake cookies while his brother is tramping around. Because you know what most of us do?

Most of us look, read that and say, I don't know, I kind of like Esau better. At least most of the guys. I imagine the women out there go, oh, isn't Jacob such a nice boy? No, Jacob was the kind of guy who was finesse, he was civilized, he was sophisticated, he knew his job, he knew how to work with animals, he got all that down. So you've got these two opposite personalities in the same family, right?

So that's all part of the family dynamic. That's all that's going on in this family. Now this whole story revolves around this thing called the birthright. When a man died, his property was divided among his sons. Now, I got it wrong a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't it that the eldest got all of it?

That's not the case. When a man died, his property was divided among all his sons. But the oldest, the firstborn, got the double portion. He got two of the portions, or a double portion of the inheritance. So, if a man had nine sons, you would think you'd divide it up nine ways, right? No.

The eldest son would get two of that, and the other eight sons would have to divide the rest of the seven portions that are left. Okay? Are you with me? So the oldest got the double, two portions, and the rest, they all had to divide it up. But what do you do in a family that has only two sons? the eldest still gets double which means if you only have two sons the eldest son gets it all and the young son the youngest son gets nothing and that's the case here Esau being first born now they're twins obviously in the description they're fraternal twins but Esau came out first.

Esau was born first, remember, with Jacob holding on to his heel. So as the firstborn, he gets the double portion. Not only that, but the firstborn son would assume the position of head of the family with the responsibility of taking care of the family when the father died. but there's an extra wrinkle in this family that is not in any other family and it's the most important part in abraham's family the one possessing the birthright inherits the abrahamic covenant with all its blessings and promises the eldest son if if it was it would go according to plan, then the oldest son, the firstborn, would be the one through whom the seed would come that would bless all the nations.

And so there's an extra special, and I think the most important part of this birthright inheritance is the covenant with God. so then here is the arena of faith and promise the nitty-gritty everyday whirlwind of family relationships family traditions and grating personalities okay and isn't that the way faith operates though you know faith does not operate in a pristine environment faith operates in the rough and tumble, nasty now and now. Faith is happening. Faith is exercised in this kind of an arena where there's all these things swirling around, the favoritism, the stories, the personalities, all of that.

That's the arena of faith and promise. So the question then becomes, and this is the question the text asks us, in the nitty-gritty of life, how do you respond to the promises of God? That's what this whole narrative is about. In the nitty-gritty, give and take, grading personality, whirlwind of family relationships, whatever the case may be, your work, all of that, when given the promises of God, how do you respond to them?

And as we look at this story, we will see that there are two responses that are pictured for us. Two responses to the promise of God. Now the story pits the boys against one another in such a way that you see clearly how not to respond to the promises of God. And so what we have here is a picture of how we should never respond to the promises of God on either part.

That's what we see here. The first is this, and I think this carries the weight of the narrative. This is the primary point, and that is this. Do not despise the promises of God. Do not despise the promises of God. That's what it says in verse 34.

Thus Esau despised his birthright. Now that's God's verdict about Esau. That's God's interpretation of the whole incident. And that carries over into the book of Hebrews, right, as we heard it this morning. Esau despised his birthright. Now, how do his actions indicate a heart that despises God's promises and covenant?

Well, he is a passionate, sensual man. Now when you hear the term sensual I don want you to think sex Sensual has the idea of senses It feeling It all about a sensual person is someone who just got appetites and has to satisfy them and loves is not so much about thinking as he is about experiencing. Right? That's sensuality. Here's a man driven by the satisfaction of his desires.

That's what he lives for. And you see in verse 30, it's about immediate gratification. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew for I'm exhausted. Okay? Now, you can translate that, literally, red stuff, this red stuff, give me some. Okay?

You get it? That's how he is. Give me that now. I'm hungry. So he acts on immediate demands with no reflection. He doesn't think about it.

He's not thinking about the future. He's only thinking about the fact that he's hungry. And he's hungry now. red stuff, red stuff, give me some of that stuff that's the way he is and so Jacob says sell me your birthright now I want your birthright now and Esau says I'm about to die you see that in the text I'm about to die do you think he was on death door do you think he was do you really think that he drug in so weak he could hardly sit down because he was that close to dying?

No, you know that's not the case. You know what's going on. You do the same thing, don't you? You know, you come home from work and you say out to your wife, don't expect anything from me tonight. I'm about to die. Right?

Life was so hard today for me at work. Right? As if she had a great day all day long. Right? It's that idea of life is so hard for me. It's all, oh, life, I'm hungry.

I've got to have it now. If I don't have it now, I'm going to die. Right? That's how he's, he wants his satisfaction now. Look, I'm hungry. I don't care about my inheritance.

Give me some food. That's the man. Jacob. Jacob's sitting there with a, you know, this is how I imagine it in my mind. Here's Esau. He's going, I'm so hungry, I'm going to die.

Give me some food. And Jacob's standing there with a bowl of stew and he's going, yeah? Okay. Give me your birthright. Oh, okay. All right.

You can have my birthright. Swear to me that you'd give me your birthright. Right? How'd you like a brother like that? And so what does Esau do? He says, okay, okay.

I swear by the name of Yahweh. Now give me the stew. That's how he is. Now remember, he still has the right of inheritance. It's still his, right? It's still his.

But you know what? Fulfilling his duty to the family when Isaac dies means nothing to him at this point. worse the blessings of god in the covenant are worthless in his eyes they're worthless to him when compared to the value of a bowl of soup that's what you have to see the promises of god given in the covenant which would be fulfilled in him as the firstborn at this point means nothing to him. They're worthless to him compared to the value of having a bowl of stew right now.

And then if that's not enough, the quick boom, boom, boom in verse 34 of his response heightens that. Notice, Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. The writer wants you to see that. He ate, he drank, he rose, he went away. The idea is he gets up, he wipes off his mouth, he walks out as if nothing significant has happened.

You get it? As if, you know, he eats it, he gets up, he walks, he chugs down something, he wipes his mouth, and he walks out the door as if nothing significant has happened in that whole exchange. the whole transaction is meaningless to him so you see Esau despised his birthright that's why the it's so strong there he's ready to exchange what is of eternal value for a moment of pleasure and satisfaction you see that's why the verdict on him is so hard he counts the privilege of the covenant the privilege of the covenant with god of less value than a bowl of soup put the two together i'll take the soup esau despised his birthright he despised the promises of god now it's so easy to talk about Esau isn't it so the question is do you despise the promises of God do you despise the promises of God have you heard God speak promises of eternal life to you have you heard in this place the promises of God of an abundant life now and how have you responded? to those promises. Ask yourself that.

How have you responded to the promises of God that you have heard here? Do you walk out of here thinking instead of the meal waiting for you at home and of the importance of the football game that's going to be on this afternoon, not giving another thought to what God has said to you today? Not giving another thought to the wonderful, marvelous, gracious promises of God, of things like eternal life, of things like an abundant life, of things of happiness if you're holy, all those things.

How have you responded to the promises of God? You've had the privilege of hearing of Jesus over and over here in this place, and week after week, and yet some of you continue to hold Him at arm's length. Do you despise the promises of God? you act as if it's all meaningless and not worth your consideration and you trade what is eternal for something that is of momentary value do not be like Esau don't despise the promises of God some of you have never come to Christ you've never bowed your knee you've never said Lord God, I am a worthless sinner.

Would you please save me? I believe your promises of eternal life. But instead, you walk away from Him week after week. Some of us as believers, we hear the promises of God. And in every little act of sin, there's a little bit of despising God's promises. Because I've become convinced that every time we're faced with temptation, we're faced with competing promises.

You ever think about that? Sin whispers in your ear always. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it says to us, give in and you'll be fulfilled. Now, you would never give in to sin if it didn't promise you that, would you? Sin doesn't come along and say, give in to me and then your conscience will torment you and then your fellowship with God will be ruptured.

What do you think? we'd all go, I'm out of here. That's not what sin does. Sin whispers a promise. Give in. And there's satisfaction. Of course it never delivers.

But yet we continue. God's promise is obey and find joy. You see? And so every time we're faced with temptation and we give in, in a certain little way we're despising the promise of God. We can't walk away from his promises. We can't do that.

We can't be like Esau. But now notice, Esau is not the only character in this drama, not the only one who responds to the promises of God. In fact, as I thought about this passage for the last few weeks, it seems to me that there are two responses to the promises of God displayed here by the actions of the boys. The first is Esau. He despises the promise of God.

And certainly God wants you to get that. But there's also a response to the promises of God on Jacob's part. And again, his actions tell us what not to do with the promises of God. And it's this. Do not doubt the ability of God to keep his promises. Does that surprise you Jacob is every man right Jacob is me Jacob is you Do not doubt the ability of God to keep his promises Now, God renders no verdict on Jacob's actions.

However, Jacob does express doubt in God's ability in this exchange. Now, Jacob proves to be a formidably cool opponent. Honestly, I would hate to compete with Jacob. I mean, at this point, man, the guy is a master manipulator, isn't he? Esau may be an impulsive and unthinking brute, but Jacob uses his reflective mind and his sophistication in cold, calculating manipulation. look at Jacob as he works now I think that Jacob does consider the covenant with God important and he actually believes it without a doubt he believes the oracle that mom probably told him about who knows maybe Isaac never mentioned it and Rebecca only told Jacob I don't know but I'm certain that Jacob knows the oracle but he does not believe that God will come through that God will fulfill that promise, or at least not fulfill it in the way he wants it to be fulfilled.

And like Grandpa Abraham, he believes he has to kind of what? Help God along. How is it going to come to pass that God's going to get the older to serve the younger? So Jacob is going to take a shortcut. Although the inheritance has been promised to him by God, he wants it now. Hmm.

I guess the two boys may not be as different as we originally thought. He wants the promise of God now. So he takes advantage of his brother. He knows his brother's weaknesses. You know what he could have done? He could have sat down.

He could have cooked that meal for his brother and could have offered it to him and could have sat down with him and chatted, if you will. But he knows his brother's weakness, and he's going to take advantage of it. You know, this last summer, the boys, that is my three oldest grandsons, Ryan, Austin, and Tyler, we all went to the Iowa State Fair together, right?

And, you know, you got all these vendors there. and the Iowa State Fair has some phenomenal vendors and they have these things called lemon shake-ups. It's like I don't ever go to the Iowa State Fair without getting one of those, right? So we're getting kind of thirsty and I say, guys, you've got to have a lemon shake-up, right? So I walk up to the stand and I said, I'd like four of them, right?

Okay, so he lays them out there and I'm handing them out to the boys and I look up and the guy says, that's $26. That's a fact. I shelled out $26 because it was the grandsons. And we were on vacation. Here's the point. You can really take advantage of people's weaknesses.

I mean, like, you can't go anywhere else to get something to drink. You've got to buy something. And they know it, right? And so, I know you're all raising your eyebrows saying, they wouldn't have got me for $26, but just, okay. Just get the point here you can take advantage of weaknesses can you that exactly what Jacob does Cool operator here He knows his brother He knows how he can get him and he does it What's more, even when Esau makes a verbal commitment to the birthright, Jacob is not content.

He demands that Esau take an oath. Jacob drags the name of God into this whole shoddy exchange. So the question is, do you doubt God's ability to keep his promises? Do you doubt God's ability to keep his promises? Of course, everyone here is going to say, oh no, Pastor Tim, I never doubt that God has the ability to keep his promises. Oh no.

No one would ever actually stand up and verbalize, you know, I doubt whether God has the ability to keep his promises. We all know that. We're all orthodox in our thinking, right? Someone has once said, too often though, we might say certain things, but we're practical atheists. We act, we know what's true, but we live like there isn't a God. And Jacob at this point is a practical atheist because he knows the oracle, he knows the covenant, but he's not going to wait.

I've got to have it now. You know the temptation. You desire to see God's healing, and so you pray, God, please do that. You want to have a spouse, or you want to have a better spouse, or you want your spouse back. You desire deliverance, let's say, from a tough, tough situation. And you pray.

And you know what? there's nothing wrong with that. It is appropriate to have those kinds of longings. But if you have to have it now, beware. Because then you're opening yourself up to the doubt that God will actually do what He says. You're in danger of desiring what God promises more than God Himself. And that makes you easy prey for doubt.

You'll begin to help God rather than living by faith. You know how that is, right? God has made, and again, some of these promises are very real to me, so I make reference to them all the time. One of the very real promises to me is found in Matthew 6.33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. What things?

My food, my shelter, all the things that I need for life. I don't have to worry about those. If I seek God, He'll give them to me. But sometimes we think God needs help, don't we? Sometimes it's starting to get near the end and we start saying, well, it's income tax time. You know, if I fudge a little bit here, I'd get more money back.

I'm going to help God now. I don't know. You know what it's like, right? Things are tough at work. Things are tough at work. if you say the right word in the right place it might get someone else in trouble but it might make life easier for you see we start to doubt we've got to have it now so we start to doubt God's ability to keep his promises don't despise the promises of God and don't doubt whether God has the ability to keep those promises what do you do with a pair like this What do you do with a pair like this Jacob no less than Esau needs to be transformed.

Would you agree? They both need the grace of God. Which should God save? Any neutral bystander would look at these two and say, neither one deserves it! Right? Why save either one?

Neither one deserves it. But then, you don't deserve it either. You don't deserve it. How many of you can say, I've never despised the promises of God? How many can say, I never would doubt God's ability to keep His promises? You know that's not true.

Both of them and all of us need the transforming grace of God. How can God do that? You know how He can do that? he sends a savior who regards his birthright that of equality with god and the praise of the heavenly hosts he sees that birthright as something he would freely give up in order to rescue sinners in order to rescue esau's and jacob's he must send a savior who would not only cook for his disciples but wash their feet and then serve them ultimately by giving his life as a ransom for them.

He has to send a savior who would regard the birthright of his people which they don't care about and trample underground as so precious he would give his own blood in order to purchase it for us. you see people who despise the promises of god people who doubt that god has the ability to keep his promise they need a savior like that father thank you for your word help us to look at our lives our small small actions of despising your promises to the large ones, Lord. Help us to always look to Christ. Help us to have hearts that are contrite and would openly confess, oh God, I have despised your promises, but please, I claim, I believe that they can be forgiven in my Savior, Jesus.

Father, help us to openly confess and with contrite hearts come to you and say, we have doubted, I have doubted your ability to keep your promise. God help us to look to our Savior, not just for forgiveness, but for the power, for the growth that would keep us from despising and doubting. And so, Father, we commit ourselves to you at this moment, asking you to work in our hearts.

Help us not to just look at Esau and Jacob as men who lived long ago, but help us to have the eyes to see that our character is too much like theirs. Help us to understand that our only hope, our only hope for the penalty that we deserve and for escape from the power of such sin comes to us through Jesus. Help us to look to him for forgiveness and power and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.