This Time On Purpose

An Ordinary Extraordinary Life

(Genesis 28:1-5, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 29, 2015)

[28:1] Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him,

In the previous chapter, Rebecca and Jacob felt certain that they had to deceive Isaac in order to get him to bless Jacob as the child of promise rather than Esau. Once Isaac realized the trick, he “trembled greatly,” but he also affirmed that his words of blessing that he had given to Jacob would stand. The younger of the two boys would be the spiritual heir, just as the Lord had told their mother before either of them had been born.

Now Isaac calls the man that he knows is Jacob, and he will bless him and direct him on purpose.

“You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. [2] Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.

First the direction is recorded. As his father before him, Jacob, the new heir of God's promise, must not marry one of the local girls. The Lord is going to use the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for his purposes. They will be a distinct people group among the many different other groups where they are living. They will eventually show forth his wrath against sin. The Lord will also bring forth from their number one Man to rule the nations.

Isaac and Jacob only understand the smallest hints of the Lord's eternal purposes at this point in the story, but they must obey what they have heard. This obedience involves even the matter of who one marries or does not marry. Every decision must be in submission to the purposes of the Almighty. As Abraham had once directed concerning Isaac, now Isaac directs Jacob.

[3] God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. [4] May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” [5] Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.After the direction comes the blessing. Jacob receives the blessing that has now been passed down two generations. The fortunes of this people group, which will one day be Israel, will come from the hand of Almighty God. He will increase their numbers and build up what will one day be the twelve tribes who will be a “company of peoples.”

In giving this blessing to Jacob, Isaac emphasizes Abraham, Isaac's father. This great Word from God came from father to son to grandson. Along the way, the individuals involved, especially Isaac, had other plans. The Lord would bless whom He would bless. Jacob would be given the land, a gift that continues to be of utmost strategic importance in the current affairs of the entire world 4000 years later.

Put the Word to Work: Jacob's ordinary/extraordinary life was important in the Lord's eternal plan. So is yours. You have received the blessings of Jesus. Follow His Word. And pass it on.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 129:4

The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.

Gospel Reading—Matthew 20:17-19 – Jesus foretells his death a third time

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Who Will Prevail?

(Genesis 27:1-46, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 22, 2015)

[27:1] When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” [2] He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. [3] Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, [4] and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Isaac intended Esau to receive his blessing rather than Jacob. Did he not know what the Lord had said prior to the birth of these boys? God had a different plan: “the older would serve the younger.”

[5] Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, [6] Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, [7] ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the LORD before I die.’ [8] Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. [9] Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. [10] And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” [11] But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. [12] Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” [13] His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”Rebekah was determined to deceive her husband in order to see Jacob blessed by Isaac. No one in this story considered Isaac's blessing to be a trivial matter. Rebekah was willing to take the consequences that might come from this lie rather than see Esau designated as the child of the promise by his father. Jacob agreed to carry out his mother's plan.

[14] So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. [15] Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. [16] And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. [17] And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
[18] So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” [19] Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” [20] But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” [21] Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” [22] So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” [23] And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. [24] He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” [25] Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.Both Rebekah and Jacob had a part to play in this elaborate deception, but it was Jacob who had to lie directly to his aged father's face.

[26] Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” [27] So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,
“See, the smell of my son
is as the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed!
[28] May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.
[29] Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”Isaac gave everything to Esau, but it was really Jacob who was receiving His father's good words. Here was the promise God gave to Abraham, now passed on from father to son, but with a son's lies and his father's ignorance. Was this the way that the Lord's plan of salvation would come to the next generation?

[30] As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. [31] He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” [32] His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” [33] Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” [34] As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” [35] But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” [36] Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” [37] Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” [38] Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.Esau was entirely defeated by this ruse, and he was not amused. Though he had earlier sold his birthright to his brother in a moment of impulsive weakness, he still considered himself to be his father's “firstborn.” Isaac “trembled very violently,” but what he had said to Jacob could not be undone. There was power in Isaac's word. “Yes, and he shall be blessed.” Esau wept bitterly (Hebrews 12:17).

[39] 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.
[40] By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother;
but when you grow restless
you shall break his yoke from your neck.”Isaac did finally find a blessing for his beloved Esau, but his words were not words of peace.

[41] Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” [42] But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. [43] Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran [44] and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away—[45] until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
[46] Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. 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?”

Brother would stand against brother. Yet Rebekah was confident that Esau's resolve would eventually weaken. She made another plan for Jacob. His life would be saved through exile.

Put the Word to Work: The Lord's Word on inheritance (John 1:12) is often passively ignored or openly rejected. This disobedience yields great strife. Yet the Lord and His Word will prevail.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 129:1-3

[1] “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”— let Israel now say—
[2] “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.
[3] The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.”

Gospel Reading—Matthew 20:1-16 – Laborers in the vineyard

You Are Blessed!

Greatly Blessed!

(Genesis 26:6-35, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 15, 2015)

[6] So Isaac settled in Gerar. [7] When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. [8] When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. [9] So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” [10] Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” [11] So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
[12] And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, [13] and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. [14] He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. [15] (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) [16] And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
[17] So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. [18] And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. [19] But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, [20] the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. [21] Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. [22] And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”Isaac was the child of promise following in the line of the promise to Abraham. Like his father before him, Isaac is presented as a man who experienced the fear of man and who struggled with his neighbors. How did Isaac survive and even thrive? He had the blessing of Almighty God (26:14), and was willing to acknowledge the same and move forward in confidence (26:22).

[23] From there he went up to Beersheba. [24] And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” [25] So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.
[26] When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, [27] Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” [28] They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, [29] that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.” [30] So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. [31] In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. [32] That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” [33] He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
[34] When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, [35] and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.God Himself revealed this blessing to Isaac, and his neighbors had to admit it as well.

Put the Word to Work: Agree with God! You are greatly blessed in Jesus, despite bitter trials.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 128:5-6 – The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children's children! Peace be upon Israel!

Gospel Reading—Matthew 19:16-30 – The rich young man

Is there no fear of God?

Two Brothers—One Birthright

(Genesis 25:29-34, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 1, 2015)

[29] Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

After the account of the struggle in Rebekah's womb, the Lord provided us with a glimpse into the character of both Esau and Jacob. In this brief passage we learn about Esau's decision to sell his right as a firstborn to his younger brother for a bowl of stew. Though Jacob and Esau were brothers—even twins, they were not identical in body or soul. The pathway of their lives and their desires and decisions were very different from each other. One day Jacob was cooking at home and Esau was working the field. When Esau came home he was exhausted and famished.

[30] And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) [31] Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” [32] Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” [33] Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

We are told in both the Old and New Testaments that when even your enemy is hungry, you should give him something to eat. But Jacob sees an opportunity in Esau's request. The bowl of stew has a high price attached to it. Esau's right as a firstborn must be sold to Jacob. Jacob takes this episode very seriously, calling for a solemn promise that is meant to be remembered. Esau considers his hunger life-threatening, and is willing to speak about his right as firstborn as if it is of less use to him than one desperately desired meal here and now. The transaction takes place.

[34] Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

In a final word of commentary, we are plainly informed that “Esau despised his birthright.” We are also told explicitly in Hebrews 12:15-17 that Esau's behavior was far from commendable: “See to it … [16] that no one is … unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. [17] For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” We see from that commentary that the birthright was connected to the blessing of Isaac and even of God. Esau's decision, which he later blames entirely on Jacob, was not a good sign of the man that he was.

While it may be less obvious, there was also a problem with Jacob's behavior. What was he doing trying to buy the gracious gift of God through taking advantage of his brother's hunger? Did he not know the word that God had spoken to Rebekah before his birth? Jacob was to be the elect child of promise according to God's gift, yet throughout Jacob's early years we are introduced to a man who thinks he can win the Lord's gift by some form of trickery.

Put the Word to Work: How good it is when brothers can dwell together in unity, but these two brothers were not able to live together in peace. Two men who might have been united in love and submission to God's Word were now divided in worldliness and intrigue. Why can't we live as people of faith, trusting in the Lord's promises and obeying His commandment that we love our neighbors as ourselves? This is the pathway of the best blessing that God has for us. First, believe His promises. Second, give yourself to Him and others in generous obedience. Reject the ungodly choices and methods of a world that has no fear of God (Isaiah 11:1-5).

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 128:2 – You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Gospel Reading—Matthew 18:21-35 – Teaching about divorce