SIN
AND GRACE; A ONE-SIDED CONTEST
GOD’S CHOICE, MAN’S CHOICE
Genesis
25: 12-34
INTRODUCTION
I remember
being 10 or 11 years old and working on a math homework assignment. I
couldn’t understand one of the problems and kept writing down one solution
after another. The paper was becoming unreadable from the smudges my eraser
left after each attempt. I became hysterical as I wrote and erased time
after time. Finally, my mother took hold of me, pulled me out of my chair,
and told me that I shouldn’t worry, that it would be OK. I was only slightly
pacified as I was sure, not only that I’d never get the problem correct
but that I had ruined my assignment sheet. My mom sat down at the table,
patiently worked through the problem with me, and then in her neat and
firm printing wrote out the problem and the solution so that it stood
out from the smudged background my hysteria had created. I was finally
at peace and could finish my work.
"There,
there honey, don’t worry, don’t cry. It’s going to be all right."
Every parent has at some time spoken these words to a wailing and distraught
child. It’s one thing to tell a child struggling with his homework that
it’s going to be all right. It is quite another thing to tell a child
dying of leukemia that everything will be all right. Or to tell a young
woman who has just been raped that it is going to be all right. Or to
tell a wife with three small children whose husband just left her for
a man that it’s going to be all right. Or to tell a worker who has just
been laid off because the company is moving the plant to Mexico that it’s
going to be all right. Or to tell a person who cannot stop themselves
from overeating that it’s going to be all right. Can anyone, in a world
like ours that is so full of evil and suffering, ever meaningfully say,
"Don’t worry, it’s going to be OK"? Is this phrase merely a
cliché that parents use with troubled children or is it the truth?
I am convinced
that this is a true statement because we do not live in an impersonal,
random universe. We live in a universe that is ruled by a wise and gracious
God. As Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan king says of him, "His dominion
is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold
back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’" Or as the psalmist
tells us, "The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes
of his heart through all generations."
From now
until the middle of June, we are going to seek to understand and I hope
delight in this great God who sovereignly and graciously rules. We will
be examining the story of Abraham’s children and grandchildren in Genesis
25-35. Today we begin by looking at Genesis 25:12-34. Here we discover
that…
MAIN POINT
God’s
purposes prevail because he is…
I. Faithful
to his promises (vv. 12-18)
Don’t you
hate it when you’re watching a TV show and 3 minutes before the end of
the show this huge, unexpected event occurs and is immediately followed
by the line, "To be continued"? You’re so eager to know what
happened and yet you have to wait a whole week to find out. When the show
comes on the next week, how does it begin? It begins with the words, "In
our last episode…" Then it shows scenes from the previous week to
remind you of what happened. The book of Genesis has several "to
be continued" spots in it. It also has several, "In our last
episode…" spots. Genesis 25: 1-11 is one of those "to be continued"
scenes. Back in chapter 11 we were introduced to a man God chose and promised
to make into a great nation. That man was Abraham. God told him to leave
his country and go to the land he would show him. He told him that he
was going to bless him. He told him that through his descendants all the
nations of the world would be blessed. The first 11 verses of chapter
25 record the death of Abraham. While God had blessed him in remarkable
ways, yet he was certainly not a great nation. He only had eight sons
and six of those sons were mere blips on the screen of world history.
The other two sons, Ishmael and Isaac are both married but we know nothing
else about them.
So vv. 12-18
are one of those "In our last episode" scenes. They serve as
a reminder of some of the significant events from the past story and as
a brief summary of how God has dealt with one of Abraham’s sons, Ishmael.
Verse 12 is a real mouthful. It reminds us that God made a promise to
Abraham before he was 75 years old, that he would have descendants more
numerous than the stars of the sky. Yet, Abraham, when he was 85 years
old still did not have a single child. So, Sarai, Abraham’s wife, came
up with a plan to help God out. She gave her teenage maidservant, Hagar,
to Abraham as a second wife. Hagar became pregnant by Abraham and gave
birth to Ishmael. We are reminded in this verse that the last time we
heard about Ishmael was in chapter 21. He was 15 years old. Isaac, the
miraculous son of Abraham and Sarah was 1 year old. At his half-brother
Isaac’s one-year birthday party, Ishmael mocked Isaac. Sarah commanded
that Hagar and Ishmael be driven from the camp of Abraham because, she
said, "The son of the maid-servant will never share in the inheritance
with my son Isaac." God confirmed that this was his will when he
told Abraham that it was through Isaac that his plan to bless the world
would go forward. We left Ishmael and Hagar living near the border of
Egypt, with Ishmael having married an Egyptian woman.
But now we
find out that Ishmael has 12 sons. These 12 sons become rulers or princes
over 12 tribes that live in what is today the nation of Saudi Arabia.
Ishmael’s descendants are the Arabic peoples. Saudi Arabia and the other
Arabic nations are the ongoing fulfillment of this promise to Abraham.
The emphasis of these verses is on how God has faithfully kept his promises.
In 17:20 God tells Abraham about Ishmael, "I will surely bless him;
I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will
be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation."
See how these verses show us that God does what he promises to do. He
is faithful to his word.
This is so
important for us to know if we are going to live hopeful lives in the
midst of the sin and chaos of our lives and of this world. God’s purposes
always prevail because "God is not a man that he should lie, nor
a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not
act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Num. 23:19) John Paton was
a missionary to the cannibal people who lived on the South Sea island
of Tanna. He and his wife Mary arrived on Tanna Nov. 5, 1858. She was
pregnant. The baby was born on Feb. 12, 1859. Mary had repeated attacks
of ague and fever and pneumonia and diarrhea with delirium for two weeks.
John Paton records in his biography, "Then in a moment, altogether
unexpectedly, she died on March third. To crown my sorrows, and complete
my loneliness, the dear baby boy was taken from me after one week’s sickness
on the 20th of March. Let those who have ever passed through
any similar darkness as of midnight feel for me; as for all others, it
would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows!" He dug the two
graves with his own hands and buried them by the house he had built.
"Stunned
by that dreadful loss, in entering upon this field of labor to which the
Lord had Himself so evidently led me, my reason seemed for a time almost
to give way. The ever-merciful Lord sustained me… But for Jesus and the
fellowship he vouchsafed to me there, I must have gone mad and died beside
the lonely grave." Then he records, "I felt her loss beyond
all conception or description, in that dark land. It was very difficult
to be resigned, left alone, and in sorrowful circumstances; but feeling
immovably assured that my God and Father was too wise and loving to err
in anything that he does or permits, I looked up to the Lord for help,
and struggled on in His work." How did the ever-merciful Lord sustain
him? How was he immovably assured that God was too loving and wise to
err? He knew these things because he knew God’s promises in his word.
Faith holds fast to the promises of God because it knows that God will
fulfill all that he has promised. This in turn fills the heart with hope
and joy and peace and perseverance, no matter the circumstances.
"Don’t
worry. Everything’s going to be OK", is a meaningless cliché
unless God is the one who speaks it. In his word, he makes promises to
us in Christ that we must hold on to if we are going to be hope filled
people.
God’s
purposes prevail because he is…
- Faithful
to all his promises
- And
because he is…
II. Sovereign
in his grace (vv. 19-28)
Verses 19
& 20 are another of those, "in the last episode" scenes.
We are reminded of the miraculous birth of Isaac when Abraham was 100
years old and Sarah was 90. He was born at the "appointed time"
as God said in Genesis 18. We are reminded of the miraculous way in which
God provided a wife for Isaac. How he led Abraham’s servant on a journey
over a thousand miles into a city of thousands of people and right to
the home of his nephew. In other words, we are reminded, right from the
start of the story of Isaac, that God was in control of when and how he
was born and when and to whom he was married. It is important that we
are reminded of this because of the very next thing that we are told about
Isaac and Rebecca’s life together. We discover that, like her mother-in-law
before her, she is not able to have children.
But notice
what Isaac is doing. He does not say, "Well this must be God’s will
because after all, he is sovereign." Rather, he prays for Rebecca
to be able to bear a child. Knowing that God is in control of the universe
does not make us pray less but rather it makes us pray more. But it makes
us pray in a certain way. You see, Isaac knew that God had promised to
make his descendants more numerous than the stars in the heavens. He knew
that God had sovereignly provided Rebecca as his wife. Therefore, he knew
that God wanted Rebecca to have children. So he prayed. Now if you’ll
just look down at v. 26 you will discover that he prayed for 20 years.
If you believe that God is sovereign then you will be able to persist
in prayer over a lifetime. If you don’t believe he is sovereign. If you
believe human beings or the devil can thwart God’s purposes then you will
not be able to persevere in prayer. Please note, the kind of prayer that
we persevere in is prayer for God to do what he promises to do. That is
how Isaac prayed. After 20 years of persistent prayer God answers by causing
Rebecca to become pregnant.
But what
a pregnancy Rebecca had! The NIV does a real disservice when it says the
babies "jostled" each other in her womb. The literal Hebrew
term is, the babies "crushed" each other in the womb. Remember
that Rebecca doesn’t know she has twins. She only knows that there is
so much violent thrashing going on inside of her that she cries out in
a state of panic. The language of her question is very strong. Gordon
Wenham in his commentary says, "The pregnancy is so painful that
she wonders if there is any point in going on living." She is driven
to despair. We discover that though God is ruling over our circumstances
for good purposes, that doesn’t mean that the circumstances are always
good.
Just think
for a moment about the actual circumstances that Isaac and Rebecca are
living in. From the time they met, Isaac has been talking about the amazing
promises that God made to Abraham about him and his descendants. Every
anniversary he and Rebecca remember the miraculous way in which God brought
them together. But for twenty long years, month after month, they remain
childless. At the same time, about every 18 months, they get news that
Ishmael has had another son. Then when they finally get pregnant, the
pain of the pregnancy is so great that Rebecca despairs of life. How do
they survive during all of this? They hold on to the promises. They hold
on to God’s sovereign grace and they pray. Look at the end of v. 22, "So
she went to inquire of the Lord." Just like Isaac prayed, so does
Rebecca.
God tells
her why this is happening. Note, he does not stop what is happening. Rather
he turns Rebecca and Isaac’s attention to his future purposes. This is
so important for us to understand. He tells Rebecca that the suffering
she is enduring is for a purpose. She is suffering for a reason. But the
purpose is not clearly spelled out. The answer God gives her is somewhat
mysterious. This is how God deals with us. When we go through suffering
he assures us that he is in control and that it is for good, but he doesn’t
spell out the details. Sometimes we see a part of the reason in hindsight
but most often, we will not know the full reason until we get to heaven.
I often had
this discussion with Iris Peterson before she died last summer. The last
4 years of her life were nothing but one medical problem after another.
She had almost non-stop pain. She had open-heart surgery and then when
she was just getting better from that she had another major surgery on
her neck. Then when she was almost recovered from that the doctors discovered
a tumor in her chest. She had one round of radiation and chemotherapy
and the cancer went into remission. Then just when her hair was growing
back and she was getting back her strength, they discovered the cancer
had returned. Five months later, she died. We often talked about why God
was doing this. There were some things we could see but mostly we rested
in his sovereign grace. We often read 2 Cor 4: 16-18, "Therefore
we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly
we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."
So, like Rebecca and Isaac, we must be content with promises that don’t
explain all the details but assure us that God has a good purpose in the
suffering.
What is it
that God tells her about her suffering? He tells her that there are two
nations or peoples in her womb. These two nations will not dwell in unity
but will be separated from one another. In other words, like with the
birth of Isaac, these children are not just a gift for a childless couple
but part of God’s plan for the future. However, it is also clear that
the conflict that is going on within her womb is going to continue outside
the womb. But God decrees the outcome of the conflict.
The two children
have the same father and mother and so you would expect both to share
in the promises of God to Abraham and Isaac. Yet God says only one of
them will be the recipient of the promises. The one who will receive the
promises will not be the one you would expect from the human point of
view. What God is telling us here is so important to understand. Before
the twins are born or have done anything good or bad and then against
every human expectation God chooses Jacob over Esau. God decides out of
the pleasure of his own will that Jacob will be the one through whom his
plan will go forward. God’s preference of Jacob over Esau was not a reward
for anything that Jacob did and it was not something he attained by his
own effort. Rather, freely, out of his own electing love, he chose Jacob.
Now, as the rest of the story will show, that does not mean that Jacob
and Esau are robots. It does not mean that they are forced to do things
against their will. Rather, we are told at the beginning of their story,
the reason that Jacob ends up being the father of the nation of Israel
and not Esau is not because of him but because of God’s choice before
he was ever born.
Verses 24-28
show us all the ways that Esau, from a human point of view is superior
to Jacob. Esau was the first one out of the womb. To be the firstborn
son means that he will receive double the inheritance of every other child
in the family. He is regarded as the successor to Isaac’s position and
title of patriarch of the family. Next, he was red and had lots of hair.
In other words, he was the picture of health. Then in v. 27 we discover
that he was a skillful hunter and self-sufficient in the wilderness. He
was a man’s man. Finally, in v. 28 we discover that Isaac, the recipient
of the promises of God, loved Esau more than he loved Jacob. On the other
hand, Jacob is described in ways that accentuate his inferiority. He comes
out of the womb second. He is grasping at the heel of Esau. In other words,
he is shown as trying, but failing, to usurp Esau’s position, even as
he is born. Then he is said to be quiet and to live among the tents. His
mother prefers him to Esau. He is presented as a weak and conniving mama’s
boy. The point of these verses is to leave us wondering, how in the world
will Esau, who has everything going in his favor end up serving Jacob
who has nothing going in his favor?
No one is
a Christian because of anything they have ever done. It is all of grace.
God is the author and finisher of our faith. When you ask the question,
"why am I a Christian?" the only answer you can give is because
God, before the world was formed decided to love me and then he killed
his son for me and then he sent his word and his Spirit to me so that
I might believe. The doctrine of God’s electing love ought to cause us
to be very humble people and very grateful people. There is nothing in
me, just as there was nothing in Jacob, which called forth God’s love.
So, I mourn my sin and I rejoice in his love. I know that many react against
this doctrine because it seems unfair that God should choose some but
not others. We will see in these next verses that when God is kind to
one person it does not mean that he is unjust to another. We will also
see that the only explanation for why anyone is saved has to be the gracious
work of God.
God’s
purposes prevail because he is…
- Faithful
to all his promises
- Sovereign
in his grace
- And
because he is…
III. Powerful
and just in his work (vv. 29-34)
Esau and
Jacob are young men at the beginning of v. 29. Jacob has cooked up some
stew when Esau returns from a hunting trip famished. He is ready to pass
out he is so hungry and thirsty. He sees the stew that Jacob has been
cooking, presumably for his own dinner, and demands that Jacob gives it
to him. Jacob immediately sees an opportunity. Jacob has been thinking
a lot about his situation. He knows, from his mother no doubt, that the
Lord has said that Esau will one day serve him. He knows that eventually
he will receive the rights of the firstborn son. But how will it happen?
How in the world will he, as the second born son gain the rights of the
firstborn? Can’t you just imagine how Jacob worries over how this will
take place? Every time Esau returns from a hunting trip and Jacob sees
how delighted Isaac is with Esau and the game he brings home, how must
he rage inside and chafe under the injustice of it all.
Ah, but here
before him is Esau; desperate for food and so Jacob quickly pounces. "First
sell me your birthright." Rather than responding as a loving brother
to the need of Esau, he attempts to use Esau’s need against him. Esau,
for his part, is like an animal. He cannot see beyond his own desires
and believes that the birthright is useless in comparison to the value
of a bowl of soup. So he says, "Look, I’m about to die. What good
is the birthright to me?" Jacob, to insure that Esau cannot break
their agreement requires Esau to swear before God that he will give the
right of the firstborn to him. Esau swears an oath like this, "May
God kill me by torture and send me to hell if I do not give you my rights
of inheritance." Jacob places some bread and water and the soup in
front of Esau and without a word he eats it and then rises from the table
and leaves the tent.
When we first
read this little story of Jacob cheating his brother out of his birthright
Esau appears stupid but not wicked, while Jacob appears smart but wicked.
However, we have at the end of the story God’s assessment of who is the
wicked one in the story and it is Esau. Most of the time in the book of
Genesis God does not give his assessment of the behavior of people directly,
as he does here. The reason he does it here is because it is counter intuitive
to how we would naturally read the story. This word "despise"
is regularly used in the OT to describe people despising God. In 1 Samuel,
Eli’s sons are said to despise God when they steal the best meat from
the people’s offerings for themselves and when they use their positions
as priests to seduce young women. David is said to have despised the Lord
when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband.
Clearly, it is a disobedient and wicked thing for Esau to sell his birthright.
Why is it
so bad? The sale of his birthright is so evil because he’s not just selling
his inheritance of material possessions. He is selling the promises of
God. He is showing that a bowl of soup means more to him than having God
bless him, make his name great and make him a blessing to the nations.
In short, he believes that a bowl of soup now is more certain to make
him happy than the God who made the universe. Esau has no faith, no love
for God and no interest in the things of God. He’s only interested in
the things of this world. That is why the writer to the Hebrews uses him
as a warning for us. "See that no one is sexually immoral or is godless
like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest
son." Esau is godless because he believes soup is more necessary
to life than God. Every time you and I prefer the things of this world
to the things of God we are godless, we are like Esau, despising God and
his promises.
Do you see
that it is fair for God to reject Esau? Esau like all of us is by nature
sinful. He knew that he did not create himself. He did not cause the rain
to fall and the sun to shine. He knew that he owed God gratitude for all
the blessings of his life. He had the example of praying parents. He had
heard time and time again the promises of God from his parents. He knew
how great and awesome and kind was the God of his father, Isaac. But he
didn’t care. He despised God and God’s promises. He suppressed the truth
he knew about God in his desires to pursue life in this world. So, God
gives him what he deserves. He rejects him as the heir of his promises.
But now look
at Jacob. He’s no prize either. While he is not explicitly condemned,
it is quite clear that he does not deserve to be treated well by God.
He acts in a very cunning and unloving manner. He certainly does not deserve
to be the heir of all these promises of God. But God has freely, for no
reason in Jacob, chosen him to be the heir of Isaac. But there is one
thing that Jacob does have that Esau does not have. Jacob believes it
to be a great thing to get the rights of the firstborn. Here we see in
Jacob the first signs of faith. He believes that to inherit the promises
of God is better than anything else in the whole world. He is willing
to give up his meal. He is willing to risk his relationship with his brother
and his father in order to obtain the promises. Jacob is beginning to
exhibit what everyone who is chosen by God exhibits, faith in the promises
of God. All those who God chooses for eternal life believe the promises.
But also, like Jacob they are not all perfect in faith. Jacob believed
the promises enough to want them but not enough to wait for God to give
them to him. He displays by his impatient and cunning abuse of his brother
that he is saved by the work of God, not by his work.
Neither Esau
nor Jacob deserves God’s kindness. It should not surprise us that God
rejects Esau. He despises God. It should surprise us that God is kind
to Jacob. We have been raised in a culture that tells us from birth, "You
deserve a break today." None of us deserve a break today. We all
deserve death today. We should not be surprised when bad things happen
to us. Who among us can stand up and say, "I’ve always loved God
and people. I’ve always obeyed God’s commands. God is obligated to be
kind to me."? Rather than being surprised by suffering, we ought
to be surprised by kindness. Rather than asking, "Why is this bad
thing happening to me?" We ought to be asking, "Why is this
good thing happening to me?" I want you to take some time today and
think about the fact that you are not hungry or homeless. Think about
the fact that God killed his son for your sins. Then think about how unfaithful
you have been to God. Then ask him to give you a heart that is amazed
at grace rather than being amazed at suffering.
God’s
purposes prevail because he is…
- Faithful
to all his promises
- Sovereign
in his grace
- Powerful
in his work
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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