In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing the author of the Bible, just as in business, it's not what you know but who you know. The story of Jacob and Esau is used as an example to teach several lessons. One lesson is that Esau traded his divine privileges for carnal gratification, while Jacob learned about the rights of the firstborn. The speaker also mentions Laban as a crafty character in the story. The sermon encourages listeners to reflect on the lessons from this story and how it applies to their own lives.

Welcome to the 18th study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapter 27 through chapter 29 verse 30. I was asked if, um, if I consulted the Lord for, uh, coming here tonight. My name's Rick. I generally share at Calvary Chapel West Casino. Anyway, if I would consult the Lord to see if he'd give me a song pertinent to tonight's study. Now, even though you've never seen my face here tonight, I've got a stack of tapes. I'm, uh, I'm hoping where you guys are, I hope. So, I've heard this tape, I've made on the page several times, that this class is known as Heresy 1A. So I'm going to name the song as Heresy 2B. Um, I hope I can do it justice. It was written about 10 minutes before it was started. My mama said, son, I want to talk to you. I'm gonna make your daddy some savory stew. I heard your daddy talking to your brother today, so we've got to get to work right away. I'm going to fetch you now a couple kids from the goats. And Cody, he saw skin rip off one of these coats. And since your daddy's old and his eyes are grown, maybe you're a chance of getting caught as quite as slim. Mama made him do it, she did. I never was that kind of a kid. Because of my name, I've got to bear the blame. And mama made him do it, she did. Mama, mama, he saw his all covered with hair. And next to him, I look and feel like I've been there. She took him by the skin, she threw him in the process, put him on my neck and my hands, and said, now you are a very hairy man. To make the story short, I gave the stew to old dad. He said it was the very best stew he ever had. He blessed me, he kissed me, and he sent me away. Now he so wants to kill me today. Mama made him do it, she did. I never was that kind of a kid. Because of my name, I've got to bear the blame. And mama made him do it, she did. I never was that kind of a kid. This is the book of Genesis. Heresy 1b or something, as some people would accuse me of. Because this is a laboratory course in Acts 17.11. And that's where those in Thessalonica were pretty enthusiastic. But Acts records that the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica. In that they received the word with all readiness of mind, but searched the scriptures daily to prove whether those things be so. So this is the Lord's way of challenging you to do your homework. Because you'll be, if you believe what I tell you, you'll be in deep trouble. And the intention is to explore the book, and highlight some things, and have some fun, and let the Holy Spirit lead. But I will take refuge in that approach. That we're here to stimulate and intrigue, rather than teach. And the Lord commands us that we should be the salt of the earth. Which means my job is not to feed you, but to get you thirsty. All right, isn't that neat? Kind of sneaky cop-out. So you're here in thirst one tonight. And I'll introduce you to where the well is. As I mentioned several times, being a businessman, I can point out to you, as something you all know, that in business it's not what you know, it's who you know. The same thing with this book. It's, again, the whole idea is to become acquainted with the author. So let's go before our real teacher, and ask his blessing on the evening. Heavenly Father, we praise you from the bottom of our hearts for this opportunity to gather together to explore your word. And Father, we would just have you open our hearts to your spirit. That we might behold Jesus Christ. That we might understand those things which were written before time for our learning. That through the scriptures we might have hope. Father, we just ask you this very evening to be with each and every one of us. Show us in these things, those peculiar, particular things that you would have for each and every one of us. That we might better know Jesus Christ. That we might better understand what you have done for us. And that we might more fully comprehend that unique, special ministry that you have called each and every one of us to. To the end, that Jesus Christ might be glorified. In whose name we pray, amen. Well, last time, if my memory serves me correctly, we got up through the end of 26, right? And while we got in a lot of other things, we talked about the seven wells of Isaac and so forth. The theme we want to pick up on tonight is this whole business of the blessing. And last time, we included chapter 25 and 26. But in chapter 25, we had this famous story, episode of the sale of the birthright. And I won't repeat that lesson completely, but I would like to call your attention to what was at issue. We often get a little misunderstand what this birthright business is. And the birthright was the precedence over one's brothers. The precedence of the firstborn, typically. Over the brothers. The birthright belonged to the firstborn, and it made him the head of the household. Upon the father's death, several things, a double portion of the inheritance was given the firstborn. If there were five brothers, there were six portions, two given to the firstborn and the rest equal to the others. And so forth. So the idea of a double portion of the inheritance, that's Deuteronomy 21, 17. For those of you that want to track back into the roots of that. And secondly, the firstborn, or correctionally, the holder of the birthright, would be the head of the family after the father's death and be the priest of the family. And the priest of the family. And that's in Exodus 22, Numbers 8, Deuteronomy 21. Now, there are several occasions where the birthright was forfeited through a heinous offense of some kind. There certainly is one here with Esau that we're dealing with, but also Reuben forfeits the birthright. That was his because of incest. That's in Genesis 35. Mentioned again in Genesis 49 and recorded in 1 Chronicles 5.1. For those of you that want to chase that stuff down. Now, on the one hand, Esau was snickered out of his birthright in chapter 25 by this pottage issue. But the real test comes when the birthright is confirmed by the father before dying. And that's what, Isaac, that's the part we're going to get into tonight. But as we do, there's several things that I'd like you to sort of keep in mind. Is the Holy Spirit seems to paint a contrast right up front between Esau and Jacob. Esau was a man of the field. What is the field in mystical or idiomatic terms? The world, and the authority being Matthew 13, the seven kingdom parables where that is repeatedly the idiom used. And Jacob was a plain man. The word is Tom, which means upright and so forth. Esau is the type, if you will, of the unbeliever, the worldling. Jacob, surprisingly enough, is the man of faith. And that may shock you. This conniver, this character is a man of faith. Yeah, strangely enough, you'll see that he is. And we take comfort in the fact that he was justified. Despite his shenanigans. Esau was a hunter, therefore a stranger to peace. The only other hunter emphasized in scripture is Nimrod. And we've talked about that, I believe. And you can go through a concordance if you like. It's an interesting exercise and study hunters in the scripture. First Samuel 24, the tape. Those of you that want to chase this down. First Samuel 24, 11. Job 10, 16. Psalm 140, 11. Proverbs 6, 26. Micah 7, 2. Ezekiel 13, 18. And so forth. There are examples where hunter is sort of connotatively in the adverse sense. And Jacob is a contrast to that. Dwelling in tents, therefore a pilgrim. As opposed to a man of the field and so forth. Now, it's interesting that what led to the sale of the birthright was the fact that Esau could not satisfy himself from the field. He needed that which Jacob had, which is interesting. And it's very interesting, over every one of our thirsts, we can write that we will thirst again. And indeed, Esau is of that vein. Now, incidentally, one of the things that comes up here in the sale of the birthright is really Esau's disparagement of the birthright in the first place. It really was a relatively casual transaction. You get the impression reading it. And it's possible that may there be more validity than I'm giving credit to that Esau says, gee, I'll die if I don't get some porridge. Some people believe that he really was far more desperate for food than we generally countenance. It's more broadly thought among scholars that Esau really was just disparaging, saying what does he care about the birthright after, you know, what is that after he dies? In the language is really just, again, a disparagement. Well, of course, Jacob indeed does his deal. Incidentally, a small point that I think I mentioned last time, Esau says, I pray the verse 30 with that same red. He doesn't mention pottage. The word pottage is added because we know it's pottage from later on, a lentil soup kind of thing. But much is made of by many scholars that Esau doesn't even know the name of what it is that that he is asking of Jacob. And he's ignorant of even the name of it. And what he's really saying to Jacob is that he can't live on promises. The birthright and all of that stuff is promises, and Esau could not live on promises. Now, it's interesting that we then have chapter 26, which we covered last time, which ends with the fact that Esau is 40 years old. That's the next mention of Esau after the sale of the birthright. And one could perhaps suggest the hint by the Holy Spirit of a probationary period that after 40 years are up, he still is really in an unrepentant state in the sense that he's taken two wives, not one, two, that were Canaanite wives, the ones that were prohibited. And so you do get the impression that he's not in fellowship in the sense that he's fathering either the example or the counsel of his father. So even 40 years later, we find Esau, from a spiritual point of view, in bad shape. Now, what we're going to find out in chapter 27, the one we're attacking tonight, which is perhaps the strangest chapter of them all, because we've all heard about the sale of the pottage and all that. Chapter 27 is bizarre in many respects, but one of the things that we'll be sensitive to right away is that Isaac, the father, still is insensitive to the will of God. He is still carnal here, and you'll see his passions and interest are one of getting some venison and still favoring the son after the flesh, if you will, the son that is appealing to him because he's the hunter, etc. And we're going to discover that the blessing that he gives for the birthright, the confirmation of the birthright, is given to the younger son through chicanery of the mother and the younger son, Jacob. But what's interesting, while we tend to be pretty tough on Rebecca and Jacob for this shenanigan that they go through, you can't help but be sensitive to the fact that Isaac is in kind of bad shape spiritually, or he would have remembered the prophecies that were given to Rebecca when the two children were born, that the elder would serve the younger, etc. But probably what we really ought to do is just jump in, first of all, and get the narrative, and then come back and take a look at some of the other issues. Chapter 27, Book of Genesis, verse 1, And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dimmed so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son, and he said unto him, Behold, here am I, and he said, Behold, now I am old, and I know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out into the field, and make me, and take me some venison, and make me savory food such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. Now as you read this story, it sounds like, gee, you know, the old man's going to give the son a blessing, you know, make me some venison, make me my favorite barbecue, and I'll give you the patriarchal blessing. What isn't obvious here is that the blessing is far more significant than just a pat on the head and saying you did well, that the blessing here is a confirmation of the rights of the firstborn. But you also notice here right up front it says Isaac could not see, and it's speaking of course, you know, physiologically, but I think as we go here we can get a sense that it may also be speaking spiritually, because Isaac is not being sensitive to the will of God, and yet before the chapter is over, before the chapter is over, Isaac does one small thing that gets him recorded in the book of Hebrews in the hall of faith. One of the strangest episodes about the story isn't the story, it's the way the New Testament describes it, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Okay, so this is the charge he gives the oldest son. This is the athlete, this is our Chuck Norris type, you know, and you saw it too, okay good. Verse six, and Rebecca spoke unto Jacob, her son, saying, Behold I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, sure have the feeling she's eavesdropping at the keyhole, and she gets the sense that something's up. Now you can get, you can begin to get the sense here. If the old man was just going to, you know, give Esau a pat on the back and a patriarchal blessing of which there's an unlimited supply, there wouldn't be all this foolishness going on. You can begin to infer that there's something big and irreversible, a one-shot event occurring that Rebecca is anxious for her favorite, namely Jacob, to take advantage of. Now, it's very possible, in fact I'd say very likely, that Rebecca remembered the prophecy when the two sons were born, that the elder would serve the younger. Part of the reason she may have favored Jacob all through Jacob's life is that she knew that he was the one to be blessed of God. The error is she shouldn't be taking matters into her own hands. She's not walking by faith here. It's hard to visualize this as an evangelical enterprise, and yet I suspect that we could not chuckle too loudly because I suspect all of us in this room are guilty at one time or another of building what some people would call a gospel blimp, if you're familiar with that particular book. In any case, she goes to some lengths of scheming and skullduggery here to wrest away the blessing, to deceive the old man into blessing Jacob rather than Esau. Anyway, she gets Jacob and explains that she overheard that the father said to Esau, the brother saying, verse 7, bring me venison and make me savory food that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death. In other words, before the old man died, he's getting old now, he doesn't have much longer, and he's going to confirm a testamentary trust, if you will, of the rights of the firstborn. Verse 8, now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock and fetch me from there two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory food for thy father such as he loveth. Now right there, it's kind of interesting because I really am not a culinary expert, but I really don't know how you'd make goats taste like venison. It doesn't really matter because apparently Rebecca knew how to do that. She apparently knew how to doctor this up so it had the right gamey flavor or whatever it takes to convince the old man that his favorite food really wasn't being served, that is venison, but rather it's a couple of kid goats. So I'll leave it to better experts than I to understand how, what she added, what a dash of this and a dash of that. But in any case, she's going to develop a synthetic substitute, so to speak, of the venison. That's just the beginning, verse 10. And thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, Behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. I don't see any reference to ne'er here, but I, all right, okay. My father perhaps will field me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, not a blessing. You notice Jacob's concern isn't at all for the morality of what he's doing. He's worried about getting caught, okay. What's sort of disturbing here is you would think that he might have a little bit of misgivings, but old Jacob is a pragmatist. His concern is, one would think, at least a, you know, a naive pragmatist, in the sense that he's saying, I'm going to get caught. I might seem as a deceiver. It's all right that I am a deceiver. I just don't want to be caught like a deceiver. Okay, we're going to get into a little quick study tonight, assuming time permits, in what retribution in the scripture, and Jacob will be the victim of some other deceptions for the rest of his life that will echo back to this event. So we'll come back to that. In any case, his mother was, you know, like a good Jewish mother, has the answer. She says, the mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice, and go fetch them. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. And Rebecca took the choicest raiment of her eldest son Esau. In other words, where she got it, she must have entered into Esau's room or area of belongings and lifted one of his, his choicest coat. Okay, so which were with her in the house and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck. Now, isn't that interesting? I mean, you know, hands are one thing, but you just figured that the old man would grab him by the neck. And so he'd feel the hair of these kids of goats. Now, you and I have a tough time visualizing that fraud succeeding without a lot of craft. You know, it obviously wasn't done in a sloppy way. She apparently fashioned it in a way that would pull this whole thing off, especially since it apparently works under conditions of suspicion. So the, the, the chicanery here, the facade, the charade, whatever you want to call it, is a non-trivial set of deception. It isn't a casual act. As a matter of fact, I would imagine both Rebecca and Jacob would have been in deep trouble had they been caught during the process. They, the old man obviously figures things out before it's at the end of this, or at least has an inkling that he's been the victim of some, some false dealing. But in any case, verse 17, she gave the savory food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. Verse 18, and he came unto his father and said, my father. And he said, here am I. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. Can you imagine? And Isaac said unto his son, how is it that thou hast found it so? Quickly, my son. And he said, because the Lord thy God brought it to me. Boy, that's playing with fire. And Isaac said unto Jacob, come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. Now, at this point, you get the impression he's recognizing the voice or a dialectal problem or something because the old man smells of fish, if you excuse the expression. Jacob went near unto Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he recognized him not because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. And he said, art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, bring it near to me and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him and he did eat and he brought him wine and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, come near now and kiss me, my son. As he came near and kissed him, he smelled the smell of his raiment. That tells you a lot about Esau's way of life. Yes. Like designers jeans, you just stand in the corner rather than hang up in the closet, right? Smell of his raiment blessed him and said, see the smell of my son is as the smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve thee and nations bow down to thee. Now here's the key line that tips you off as what's going on. Be Lord over thy brethren and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that curseth thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee. It came to pass as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, excuse me, had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob was yet scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. What a scene, huh? He also had made savory food and brought it into his father and he said into his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's venison that thy soul may bless me. Can you imagine the old man's feeling at this point? To have it start to dawn that he's been the victim of a very, very elaborate ruse. And Isaac's father said unto him, who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. Very key phrase here. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly. Why? Why would he tremble? Expect him to be angry, maybe. He's trembling. Could it be that it dawned on Isaac that God's will has prevailed over his own? Very interesting thing. Apart from the methodology, which is inexcusable, Isaac probably, I'll show you why I believe this in a minute, is aware of the fact, yes, he's been subject of a ruse and he's probably upset about that, but it also sinks in that whatever the mechanics, he has been duped, if you will, into blessing in the order that the prophecy before they were born suggested, as opposed to his own personal preference. That would cause you to tremble, to realize that God's will had prevailed in spite of your actions. That would be terrifying. Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, who? Where is he that taketh the medicine and brought it to me? And I have eaten of all that thou, before thou camest and have blessed him. Notice the line. Yea, and he shall be blessed. You see, in other words, he is now aware, maybe doesn't understand all the mechanics, but he's aware that he's been tricked. And yet he reconfirms the blessing he gave. Very, very small line. And we'll finish the thrust here, then pick up what the book of Hebrew says about this. One little line, but a very profound one. Anyway, verse 34. When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceedingly bitter cry and said unto his father, bless me, even me also, O father. Esau missed the point. And he said, thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath, see, Jacob means supplanter, the supplanter. And for he hath supplanted me these two times, usurped, stepped in the place of, stepped before me, upstaged me. For he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? Verse 37. Isaac answered and said unto Esau, behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants. And with grain and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son? In other words, what's left? You know, go in peace, a blessing in the casual sense. The real blessing, the confirmation of the lordship of the family has been granted. There's only one of those. And Esau said unto his father, hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac's father answered and said unto him, behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy sword shalt thou live. And thou shalt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass when thou shalt have dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. We might pause here and we could study this several different places. However, let's pick up this thread by flipping back to chapter 25, reminding ourselves of verse 23 was what the lord said unto Rebekah. Verse 23. The lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb. Two manner of people shall be born of thee. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And the elder shall serve the younger. Who's the elder? And he's going to serve the younger. How could he if he's going to have the rights of the firstborn? No, the lord had prophesied that he would not be the, he would not be the head of the family. He would not have the rights of the firstborn. And that, of course, has reversed. But that prophecy is what Rebekah was probably trading on in her participation in this whole plot. Now, did that come through prophetically? One of the sons of Jacob is one by the name of David. Turn to 2 Samuel 8, 14. 2 Samuel, chapter 8. Go to 1 Samuel, turn right. 2 Samuel, verse 8. And we'll look at verse 14. And speaking of David, it says, and he put garrisons in Edom. What's the land of Edom? The land of Esau. Edom means red, incidentally. And Esau was red and hairy. Edom is the name of his land. Edom and Esau are almost synonyms. He put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom put he garrisons. And all they of Edom, that is the sons of Esau, became whose servants? David's servants. David was a descendant of Jacob. And the Lord preserved David wherever he went. Terrific. That's part of the prophecy. Let's turn to 2 Chronicles 21.8. They are to throw that, when they become strong, they throw that yoke off, right? 2 Chronicles, chapter 21. Okay, this is after Jehoshaphat. Jerome succeeds him. And we have a revolt in Judah, against Judah. Verse 8, 2 Chronicles 21. In his days the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah and made themselves a king. Just a couple of little references. You can study this more competently by doing a dig on your own of the history of Edom, sons of Esau. But you will see that they indeed were subjugated, but then later broke away. And we could spend a lot of time talking more about Edom, but I won't take the time tonight. Okay. Now, we might turn at this point to Hebrews chapter 11. I think there's a very interesting passage in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. Chapter 11, as you well know by now, is the Hall of Faith. A chronicle, a history of the high points of faith. And it opens with a definition of faith, and then recounts a whole string of the great men of faith. And we looked at this at some length, because verses 8 through 19 deal with Abraham and offering Isaac and all of that. And in fact, verse 19, it points out that Abraham knew that Isaac was a type. The account of that God was able to raise him up. Who? Isaac, even from the dead, which he also received, from which he also received him in a figure. But verse 20 is a strange verse, if you really know the story. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. You got to be kidding. You got to be kidding. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. What does that mean? I got the impression that Isaac was totally snowed. I got the impression that he was totally duped by this chicanery between Rebekah and Jacob. So what does this mean here? By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Well, first of all, this could be built upon the simple insight that Isaac, once he realized what was happening, acknowledged God's will in the matter. That's enough. That's by faith. Okay. Very interesting that God gives him the credit. The writer of the book of Hebrews says, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. Something else that we'll discover when we get to Genesis 49, blessing the sons is prophesying about them. And Isaac did prophesy about both Jacob and Esau, we just saw, and that came true. And that was by faith. How did Isaac know that Esau would live by the sword and be serving the younger and later threw off the yoke? How would he know those things? He's about to die and these young bucks are yet to live their lives. How would he know? By the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit. And so by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. See, blessed Jacob and Esau. I would argue that the term here is used in the prophetic sense. We're going to see that Jacob, leading on a staff at the end of his life, blesses his 12 sons. And when you read that, it's the strangest blessings you ever heard. I mean, you make some of the strangest cryptic remarks about a son. One's going to be like a donkey and another one's going to be like a serpent, by the way, that bites the heels of the horses so it falls backwards. And what kind of a blessing is that? And when we study Genesis 49, we'll discover there's a whole prophetic preview of the history of the 12 tribes of Israel. And so when Jacob blesses his sons, he's actually prophesying over them. The word blessing, you know, we tend to look at in a more denotative way. And here it's used perhaps in a more connotative way, but it's an interesting passage in Hebrews 11 on our friend Isaac. Okay, you might also feel like being a little hard on Rebekah. This gal is really sort of hard to figure. You might look at Romans chapter 2, verse 1. This is just a little marginal note before we get too hard on our friend Rebekah. Romans, Paul in his letter to the Book of Romans, in what we call chapter 2, verse 1, Paul suggests, therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest not. And he says, therefore thou judgest not, for thou judgest the same things. And you can go on from there, if you like, before we get too tough on Rebekah. Now, incidentally, one other comment about the blessings. In Genesis 28, that we're going to get into, is a chapter in which God himself blesses Jacob directly, not through his father Isaac, but directly. And when we get through verses 13, 14, and 15, there's the blessing that God confirms to Jacob, and it's far more important, broader, significant, intensive than the blessing he got from Isaac. So, as just an aside, the blessing that he extracts from his father through the chicanery, while indeed confirms the birthright to him, is a far cry from what God himself reconfirms to Jacob later in the next chapter. Okay. I've got a couple of things I'd like to get into before we charge on. And let's just talk about some lessons about this. I started to jot down a long list of observations, and I'm going to suggest these, not that they're exhaustive, but to give you the flavor of the kinds of things you might think about when you come across a story like this. We know that, what is it, Romans 15, 4, all things are written before time, for our learning, that we, through the comfort and patience of the scriptures, might have hope. So, what's all this do with us? We're not really planning to put on skins of goats to con our father of a blessing, right? Or anything else of that matter. I suspect that, you know, you can be cute about a lot of this, but you sort of wonder, what's the real, what's really going on here? Well, there's several lessons. First of all, Esau was guilty of bartering, using carnal gratification in exchange, bartering his divine privileges for carnal gratification. That sounds heavy when you put it that way. Do we do that? Probably. Are there ways that you and I disparage the promises of God in exchange for some worldly privilege? Do we sleep in on Sunday morning, rather than come to the morning service? Whatever, you know. You can make your own list. But when you make that list, where you're exchanging some carnal or worldly offset, which really does despite to one of God's promises, my suggestion is that should show us the Esau that's in us all. Do I do that? Sure. I won't bore you with my little list, it's different than your little list. But do we do, is there Esau in all of us? Sure. Because is the carnal man still inside us? You can't cast him out, it's not that easy. Verse two, or item two, excuse me, I'm going through my numbers here. Beware of doing evil that good may come. I don't know really how to justify what Rebecca did. I personally believe, don't know if I can defend this, I throw it out for your own thinking, that if Rebecca had not conspired, that God would have found his own methods to establish Jacob as the ruler over Esau. I really don't believe that God needed Rebecca's help to sustain the messianic line. Now she did, there's some lessons for us, but I would not use this passage as an excuse to say that the end justifies the means. I do not believe that's what the scripture is intending to communicate to us. Okay. Now something else that we might all do is try to pray that we don't put ourselves in the position that Isaac was in, wherein we are blind to God's revealed will, and substitute our own natural affections. Isaac loved Esau, he was neat, he was the kind of son that that father wanted, and that shows up in perhaps its most unvarnished form at this particular story. But Isaac was thus not sensitive to the will of God that it should have been from the prophecy before the birth onward, and we might pray that doesn't happen to us. How many times are we exposed to, or vulnerable to, having our desires blind us to what God would really have us do? Being overridden by his love and his revealed will. Okay, now there's some interesting ironies here, and we're going to get into irony shortly. I've got another list, but one of the things you notice here, Rebecca, it was Rebecca who engineered the plot that's going to be responsible for sending Isaac away. I mean, excuse me, responsible for sending Jacob away, not Isaac. It wasn't the father that was upset and sent Jacob away. It was Rebecca that had to do it. In fact, she sends her son away into exile for quote, some days, close quote. Turns out to be 20 years. She in her natural life would never see him again. So she pays, if you will, in that sense. And furthermore, we're going to see that her brother, Laban, is going to end up cheating Isaac, excuse me, cheating Jacob the same way Jacob had cheated Isaac, his father. So you're going to see some interesting retribution take place as Jacob flees the area, goes into exile, and lives with Laban for a while. Laban teaches him about what the rights of the firstborn are all about. And we could get into a whole study here of God's will, if we wanted to, how Isaac's desire and Esau's desire collectively were no match for God working out his purposes, albeit in perhaps a strange way here. But there's something else, just to focus on Jacob for a minute. We may look at this and say, Jacob, let's put it this way, did Jacob earn the blessing? Huh? Did he merit the blessing? No. Take comfort in that. Because Jacob is where you and I hope to be. In our hearts where Esau were people of the world, of the field. But what we really want to be is justified by faith as Jacob was. And furthermore, notice what Jacob did. Jacob found the acceptance of his father and received a blessing because he sheltered behind the name of the firstborn beloved son. Isn't that strange? Chuck, you've got to be kidding. You mean to say that there's a type here? I don't know. That's up to you to judge. I'll just make that observation. Jacob found the acceptance of his father and received a blessing because he hid behind or sheltered himself in the name of the firstborn beloved son. Know why? He was clothed in his garments, which diffused to Isaac an excellent odor. Isn't that interesting? Eee, freaky. That either reaches you or it doesn't. And I suggest just as you and I shelter behind the name of his firstborn and we're clothed in the robe of his righteousness, and if I may quote Ephesians chapter five, verse two, hath given himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Isn't that wild? Is that what the Holy Spirit had in mind? I don't know. I don't know. I really don't. That's something you take comfort from or you don't. Mister, you're nuts. Fine, let's move on. Can't prove it. On the other hand, you say, wow, the Holy Spirit can reach to you like he speaks of in Hosea 12, 10. He speaks in similitudes and he's either speaking to you tonight in similitudes or he isn't. And I may be all wet. I often am. And I mean that seriously. I get on some kick and find out later that I really had the wrong perspective. Fine. This is your course, not mine. I don't give the final exam. There will be a final exam. However, I also couldn't resist making a list of some, some, some things about Jacob. And this is sort of getting ahead of the story because some of this comes later, but I just, it's just a list and it might be a good place to share with you. The man Jacob later becomes, his name becomes changed into Israel. Who is he a type of? Make a guess. Israel. Right. I mean the nation Israel. Right. Isaac was a type of Christ. Son, firstborn, offered by his father. You know, we went through that. Jacob is a type of the nation in a lot of ways. He was the object of God's election. You might want to turn to Romans chapter nine. And we might just reach, read through maybe chapter verses 10 through 13. This is God talking through Paul in this letter to Romans and verse nine says, for this is the word of promise at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand not of works, but of him that call. Notice the point Paul's making. Jacob and Esau had their destinies cast before they were born. Now, in many respects, you can say the destiny that Esau chose, he chose, he had the right to. The destiny that Jacob enjoyed was one that was foreordained. So Jacob doesn't get any credit for it. You can ascribe the blame of Esau's choice, his disregard for the promises of God, his disdain for the birthright, et cetera. And he really will stand before the throne without, without comfort. Jacob will not stand before that throne will be, will be before the throne of grace, having unmerited, being the beneficiary of unmerited favor, which is what we call, we speak of grace. When was it determined before he was born? And that's the point Paul's making. God will have mercy upon whom he has mercy, and he will have mercy. These are the children not being yet born, having done, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. How do I know if I've been elected? When did God choose me before the foundation of the earth was laid? How do I know if he chose me? Very simple, what's your relationship with Jesus Christ? If you love him, if you're his own, if you're drawn to him, he elected you. Simple. Might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. Verse 12, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. That was said before they were born. The destiny was preannounced. Verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated, or actually loved less. All right. So the first point is that Jacob is the object of God's election. Was the nation Israel? You betcha. Deuteronomy 6, Amos 3, you can find scads of chapters that will confirm to you Israel's foreordination. Jacob was loved before he was born, so is Israel. You might want to turn to Jeremiah 31, just to give you a flavor of dozens of passages you could pick, but just to give you the flavor of what I'm driving at. Jeremiah chapter 31, let's just take verses 2 and 3. Thus saith the Lord, the people who were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath the spirit of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee, etc. And so on. You can study the whole relationship. If you start, if you let me put it this way, if you undertake the study of the relationship of Israel to God, you got the whole Old Testament and most of the New before you. We can get into a lot of other things in terms of Jacob's lack of natural attractiveness, the one from whom the twelve tribes sprang, he's the one after whom the Jewish race is most often called. You have to study that to convince yourself of it, but you'll discover that Jacob is the dominant thing, Isaiah 2, 5 and others are examples of that. In fact, what's interesting about this is, you can make a list of people whose names were changed in the scripture, and there's lots of them. Abraham becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. Saul becomes Paul. Simon becomes Peter. The Rock, the Cephas. You can go through on and on and on and on. Examples. I believe in every other case, the new name is the one that sticks. Once Abraham becomes Abraham, you never read of him as Abraham anymore, he's Abraham from then on, right? And so on, right on through. You never hear Paul spoken of as Saul, except in historical reference, right? Once Saul becomes Paul, he's Paul from that point on, right? We're shortly going to discover, I forget the chapter, I think it's 32, Jacob gets a new name, Israel. What's he called after that? Jacob, because he's still in the flesh. Isn't that interesting? The God of Abraham, Isaac in Israel? No. God of Abraham, Isaac in Jacob, the old name. He doesn't shed it. Interesting. Is there significance in that? I think so. I'll leave it up to you to find it. I don't think the Holy Spirit does anything accidental. I think there's a big lesson there. And you'll see when he's walking by faith, he's Israel. When he starts tumbling in the flesh like the rest of us, he's Jacob, and he's most often called Jacob. He is to be served. And you can look in Genesis, you know, 25, 23, we saw where he was to be served, 27, 29. In Isaiah 49, you'll find one of the many cat passages where Israel will be served in the millennium and so on. Jacob is given an earthly inheritance. It's unique here. He has an earthly inheritance. So does Israel. Some of the confusion, theological confusion in 1900 years is confusing the promises of an earthly inheritance to Israel with the promises, the spiritual promises of the church. They're different. And many people get mixed up on that point. He also suffered attempts to be robbed. He valued the blessing of God, but he, in fact, so much that he sought it in carnal ways. He valued the blessing of God so much that he sought it in carnal ways. What's the problem with the Pharisees? That they lack desire for the promises of God? Hardly. What's their problem? Going at it legalistically, going at it with carnal ways. You can look at Romans 10 for a commentary on that whole issue. And, of course, Jacob is exiled because of his sin. He spent his life as a wanderer. He had no altar when he was in exile. He was called back from exile. And incidentally, neither did Israel and Hosea 3, 4, and other places. He yearned for his homeland and his negotiation with Laban. He wanted to go home. He was dealt with unjustly when he was in exile. He became a crafty schemer. He received the promises in exile that he would return. He receives no further revelation during exile until he's bidden to return to the land. He's preserved by grace in exile, and he's the object of God's providence, but he returns eventually to his land wealthy. And he's thus so wealthy that he draws the enmity of those among whom he sojourned. He ultimately returns with Gentile wealth, but he is seen as a blessing to the Gentiles before it's all over. Now, I've gone over this somewhat fast because we're yet to get into some of this, but just as a background perspective, you might find the man Jacob worthy of some special study. But there is one thing that I really like to sort of dig into. Turn to Hebrews 2, 2. We'll use this as a point of departure and study one other little There are a number of places in the scripture. This is one of them. Okay, in the New Testament, Hebrews 2, 2 says, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, etc. I'm not interested in the main theme of the author here, because that would be a whole other study, but notice his presumption. He says, every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. Oh, really? That's interesting. Is there a basic principle of retribution? Which is what we would call it in the scripture. Job says, in Job chapter 4, verse 8, Job says, even as I have seen, actually, Allah has, they that plow iniquity so and so wickedness reap the same. Oh, really? Is that really true? Well, let's take a look at it from our memory. Do you remember the Pharaoh of Egypt in the days of Moses? He didn't like the idea of the Hebrew children, right? So he ordered them all killed, right? How did he have the Hebrew children killed? By drowning. In Exodus, the truth, Exodus chapter, Exodus chapter 1, verse 22, and Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born, you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive. Pharaoh killed all the male children by drowning. What happened in Exodus 14, 28? All the Egyptians died. How? By drowning. Well, what an interesting coincidence. In number 16, a person by the name of Korah creates a cleft in the congregation, a division. How is he judged? Cleft in the earth opens and swallows him up. Interesting. Adonai Bezek in Judges chapter 1 boasts that he cuts off the thumbs and fingers of his enemies, 70 kings he did that with. Guess what happened to Adonai Bezek? His thumbs, I mean his fingers and his thumbs and his toes got cut off. Interesting. King Ahab, fascinating story. We study in 1 Kings 21. Remember Ahab and the Naboth and his vineyard? Remember that? We studied a lot because we're interested in Jezebel and that's the first inquisition because Jezebel arranges the idea. Ahab wants Naboth's vineyard and Jezebel arranges for him to be falsely accused in a theological hearing, has him killed so that the will refer to the king, right? She says, King, I'll handle it. Boy, she sure does, right? When Naboth is killed, let's turn to 1 Kings 21.19. This is probably more fun to actually see rather than take my word for it because it's just, it's interesting. We're in a little study on the way the Lord deals with things and I think we should be very cautious to always read the fine print. 1 Kings 21, story of Naboth and we all remember the study, know that Naboth gets falsely accused and gets killed. It's engineered so that his land will go to King Ahab. But verse 19 says, Thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession? Thou shalt speak to him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, in the place where the dogs lick the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine. Now this is the case where Elijah is prophesying. Excuse me, I didn't get the verse I wanted, but that's fine. It'll serve the same purpose. That the place where the dogs lick the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine. And when you skip ahead a little further to chapter 22, verse 38, after the king is dead, one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood and they washed his armor according to the word which the Lord spoke. All the point I'm making is not only was the prophecy of Elijah fulfilled literally, but the specific mechanics of Ahab's death was the idiom used of Naboth where he was slain and the dogs licked up his blood. King Asa the prophet was put in, had the king Asa had the prophet put in stocks. You know where they put, you know, people know what stocks are. Put them in wood and they can beat the feet and so forth. That's in 2nd Chronicles 16.10. It's interesting, Asa's, as a result, gets diseased. Of what? The feet. Kind of interesting. 1st Kings 15. Haman is a classic example. He prepares gallows for the purpose of hanging Mordecai, right? Who's the first guy to hang on his gallows? All right, we have the engineer. Check it out. Yeah, that's good. He hung himself. He was hung himself. Esther 7.10. Another interesting thing, Saul of Tarsus was present at the stoning of Stephen. We all remember that. He probably held the coats, right? Go guys, go get them, right? Present stoning of Stephen. What happened at Lystra in Acts 14.19? He got stoned. In fact, as if the Holy Spirit gives his emphasis, Barnabas wasn't. He escaped. So why is Paul stoned? Is that a retribution, if you will, of the stoning of Stephen? Don't know. Interesting. Well, let's, why did I get in this digression? We can make a long, long list. I'll leave it up to you to just be alert to that sort of thing. Let's reserve to, let's revert back to Jacob. Jacob went through some length to deceive his father. And we're going to shortly see that Jacob is deceived equally as much, probably, by his father in law. Jacob had, had played games about the rights of the firstborn. And he fell in love with Rachel, right? Served seven years to marry her, right? And what is his father in law to be due on the wedding night? Because of the veils and the switch. Gave him the firstborn. Laban figured it was time for him to learn what the firstborn is. We marry our older sister first around here. Now you're welcome to work another seven years for the one you wanted, and he does. He does, by the way. He gets them both right away, but he owes Laban another seven years. Laban, by this chicanery, by the way, also tricked Rachel, didn't he? Rachel was, you know, we always think of it from Jacob's point of view. Rachel is probably a little put out too, that her father switched her older sister, right? So her father Laban gets tricked by Rachel before the scene is over. And we'll see how that happens. In kind, right? Jacob was a mercenary relative to the pottage, right? Laban, his conniving father-in-law, changes his salary 10 times. And he gripes about that in chapter 31, we'll see. But even more interesting, Jacob deceives Isaac by using the blood of kids of goats, right? On his hands, right? And neck. The skins of kids and goats, chapter 27, verse 15 mentioned to us. We're going to discover, by the time we get to Genesis 37, that Jacob's sons deceive him concerning his favorite son, Joseph, by showing him what? The blood of kids of goats. Isn't that wild? He is deceived, he's led to believe by his brothers, by his sons, by the brothers of Joseph, lead the father, the old man, to believe that Joseph was killed because they take his coat. It isn't a coat of many colors, I don't believe, we'll come to that, it's another little surprise coming. But the point is, they douse it with the blood of kids of goats to show the old man that he's been murdered. So they deceive the old man about his favorite son using the same instruments that he deceived his father about his father's favorite son. Interesting, interesting. Yeah, we could go on and on, but that gives you the flavor and you can dig out the rest of these yourselves. Let's, verse 41, chapter 27, verse 41, Esau hated Jacob, that's no surprise, I think you can imagine that, you know, that would be supernatural if Esau could say, okay old buddy, the Lord's will has been done. We're going to see that happen with Joseph. Joseph is so wronged that it makes this trip look like a kindergarten. They sell him into slavery, and on and on and on, and when it's all done, Joseph can embrace them and say the Lord's will was that that happened. And one of the most incredible stories in the scriptures, the story of Joseph, when we get to it, for a lot of reasons, from a human point of view, and from a supernatural point of view, it's a very interesting story. But in any case, Esau is probably where we would be at in the flesh. He obviously hated Jacob, you can understand it from in the flesh, because of the blessing which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob. I won't do it while I'm mourning, that's sort of, you know, gauche, but the minute that period is over, and I assume that that's a 30-day period, but I don't know that. But he's going to get him, you know, there's a blood feud brewing here. And remember this, because later on, after many years, Jacob meets Esau, and he's a little nervous about the whole episode. And these words of Esau, her elder son, and these words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. In other words, this wasn't just a private thing in his heart. He shot his mouth off, and Rebekah heard about it. And she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said, and behold, thy brother Esau is touching the death comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee thou to Laban, my brother, to Haran. Bear in mind, Rebekah came a long way. Eliezer, the servant, had gone to Haran and gotten her to come and marry Isaac. So that's a long way away. But she's suggesting to Jacob, flee to my in-laws, or rather, my brother. Go run to your, you know, run to my brother, your uncle, and he'll take care of you. Work out something there until it cools off. Verse 44, and tarry with him a few days. Those few days turn out to be 20 years before it's over. So she doesn't, I don't believe she sees him again alive. Until thy brother's fury turn away. They would let the, you know, while the heat's on, you know, lay low, and it'll settle down and come back. That's her concept. Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou has done to him. You know, I suspect Esau's one of these guys, though, that doesn't get mad, he gets even. So I'm not sure he's gonna, he's gonna, you know, it's gonna cool off that quickly. Then I will send and fetch thee from there. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And Rebekah said unto Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these who are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? Remember now earlier at the end of chapter 26, these two daughters, Canaanite daughters that Esau took, were a thorn in Rebekah's side. Remember, it's, in fact, they were, it says verse, the close of chapter 26, they said they were a grief of mine unto Isaac and Rebekah. So Rebekah's trading on that, speaking to Isaac. You know, gee, if Jacob take one, pick up one of these gals, we've had all we can handle. So she's gonna promote the idea that he go to the, you know, back to Iran and pick one of their own for a, for a wife. And so she plants that idea and Jacob picks up on it in chapter 28, verse 1, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. Now that takes, that's interesting. The old man would be probably pretty unglued from a carnal point of view, right? This kid who cheated me, who pulled this big shenanigan, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. Isn't that interesting? And charged him and said unto him, thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from there of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. All right? And God Almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people and give thee the blessing of Abraham. Yeah, give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a sojourner, which God gave unto Abraham. The old man has come around pretty, pretty effectively. He is speaking in a, in a positive way. He's speaking spiritually. I think it's interesting to see Isaac handle it this way in view of the history here. Verse five, and Isaac sent away Jacob and he went to Paddan Aram unto Laban, the son of Bethuel the Syrian, and the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and was gone to Paddan Aram. And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, then went Esau unto Ishmael. Now isn't that an interesting union? Now isn't that an interesting union? And you're trying to tell me that we've got a very simple solution for the Middle East problem today? I don't think so. Because it goes back four thousand years and it's complicated. And Esau went to Ishmael and took unto the wives which he had, Mehaloth the daughter of Ishmael Abram's son, the sister of Nebedjoth to be his wife. So Esau is picking up a few more. But he's picking it up from Ishmael, okay, not Canaan, Canaanites. So it's one better but it's still not of the last line. And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward, this is switching back now to Jacob. Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in that place to sleep. Now this is a very interesting event that occurs here. And he dreamed, this is the famous dream of Jacob. And he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. So the ladder becomes a communication channel that allows the angels of God to ascend and descend on this ladder. And behold the Lord God stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. Notice it doesn't mention stars in heaven. And thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold I am with thee and will keep thee in all the places to which thou goest and will bring thee again unto this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place. And he and I knew it not. And he was afraid. He said, how awesome is this place. There is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. Now it's very interesting how this idiom all through our language in our English tradition we have the expression Jacob's ladder. In physics we have a certain thing that's called a Jacob's ladder. You run into that expression all the time. Do you know what the Jacob's ladder really is? That's right. John chapter 1, verse 51. John chapter 1, Nathanael is there. Verse 47, Jesus sees Nathanael coming to him and saith unto him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Nathanael said unto him, How knowest thou me? And Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip called thee, I was under the, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee. And Nathanael answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel. That little incident rattles Nathanael. We don't understand why it's such a complicated thing, but Nathanael realized that for Jesus to know that had to be supernatural. How did he know it was supernatural? To us it's a subtle thing, but it rattled Nathanael. We see what he recognized in that event that Jesus was the son of God, as he says so right here. Verse 50, Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. Notice verse 51. He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon what? The Son of Man. The Son of Man. Who is the gate? Jesus. Why did Jacob describe this as being? The gate. Very strange idiom. Jesus said, The volume of the book is written of me. He said that in Psalm 40, but bear with me. Okay. And I'm going to suggest to you that any time you have a passage that seems strange or peculiar or you don't understand, try putting Jesus Christ right in the middle of it and see what happens. And here we have one of these strange visions of the ladder. That ladder is none other than the Lord we worship. And we can see that several different ways. But I'll leave that to you. I've given you enough to sort of run with that, I think. And it's very interesting how Jesus calls, refers to himself as the gate of heaven. There in John chapter 1, verse 51, he also refers to it when he speaks of the tabernacle. I am the door. Anyone that cometh in it by another way is a thief and a robber. I'm always fascinated by his description of having, there's two gates in two ways. One is very broad and wide the way. One is very narrow and straight is the gate. The broad gate is the way that leadeth to what? Destruction. The narrow gate leadeth unto eternal life. And I'm always fascinated how many people are drawn to universalism. That any ways are right. Anybody can get there. They're going through, their concept of the gate is it's very wide and anyone can get through it. If you're going through a gate that's very, very wide, anyone can get through it. You got the wrong one. Okay. He's told us what his, you know, which is which. But anyway, it's interesting also to contrast this blessing that he gets here at the place which is from now on going to be called Bethel. This is where the big news starts. This is where Jacob is first, first is addressed by the Lord directly. This blessing makes the one he got from Isaac look puny. You can compare it yourself sometime. And it's just a magnificent broad commitment of the Lord of hosts to watching after Jacob. He that keepeth Jacob will neither slumber nor sleep. That's how it tells us. Okay. Verse 18, Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. And it called the name of that place Bethel, which means the house of God. You know, you and I, if we just had a dream or a vision like that, you might get kind of rattled. But it's interesting that Jacob understood somehow either through the vividness of it or the events of it. He understood that this wasn't just some kind of a vision. It was something really significant. It really rattled him. Calls the name of that place the house of God, but the name of that city was called Luz or Luz at first. Luz means separation, by the way. Bethel means the house of God. Separation comes first, the house of God. Now, Jacob vowed a vow. Now whenever someone vows a vow, watch it. That's an invitation to trouble. Okay. I never advocate any of you vowing anything. I do not see in the scripture any constructive place that anyone should vow a vow other than the Lord himself. But Jacob jumps in. He vows a vow saying, if God will be with me, and the if there is not an indicative, it's in the subjective sense, it's in since God, since God will be with me, because he heard him say so. Don't say if, it's not a conditional in that sense. Since God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house, and all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth to thee. So he pledges the tithe. That sounds great, doesn't it? Boy, he's got a response. The Lord has given this vision, and he vows a vow, and he's going to commit himself to the Lord. Sounds great at first, except it scares me to death, because this is responding to the grace of God with legalism. That happen to you and me? You bet. We have the capacity to somehow appreciate that God's grace is God's grace, and that's his will. And we seem to want to create things we can do to somehow alleviate our guilt. I don't know if this is valid here, but it's a thought I'll just leave with you to think through. Surely though, the tenth is God's in the first place. As we learned from Malachi, the tenth is not an offering. It's returning that which is his. Your offering has to start after the tenth. So that's okay. Well, let's keep moving and take advantage of the time. Chapter 29. Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and behold, a well in the field. And, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And there were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep, put the stone again upon the well's mouth in its place. And Jacob said to them, My brethren, from where are ye? And he said, Of Haran we are, are we? And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the set of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. You know, these guys really do pretty well by these wells. Um, I, uh, I, you know, you can't help but get the impression that that, uh, seems to be a neat formula. Because Rachel, of course, as you know, becomes the big thing here. And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should, uh, be gathered together. Water ye the sheep and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot until all the flocks be gathered together, until they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we draw water. Then, then we water the sheep. In other words, they had, there's a big stone and they had a collectivism there. Verse nine, While he yet spoke with them, Rachel came up with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. Man, he was smitten. He didn't mess around. That's interesting. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother and that he was Rebekah's son. And she ran and told her father. And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. And Laban said unto him, Surely thou art bone of my, thou art my bone and my flesh. And he bowed with him in the space of a month. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nothing. Tell me, what shall thy wages be? Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder, notice the emphasis, the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years. Now that's quite a program. You guys might think about that on your way home. You've got your gals may remind you on the way home. But anyway, for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. In other words, I'd rather have her marry you than anyone else. You know, abide with us. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And isn't this a beautiful line? They seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had for her. Isn't that wild? I mean, that's in the scripture. That's not some, you know, headstrung poet kid writing his girlfriend a letter. I mean, this is in the word. They seemed to him but a few days for the love he had for her. That is just, you know, sort of finish on that one tonight. Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening when he took Leah's daughter and brought her to him. And he went in unto her. What's not visible here, of course, is a veiled wedding and all of that. Why he could pull off something like this. Laban gave his daughter Leah, Zilpah his maid, for a handmaid. And it came to pass in the morning when it, behold, it was Leah. That's got to be one of the great scenes in literature. That's got to be. He said unto Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? It doesn't need much comment, does it? Did not I serve thee for Rachel? Therefore then hast thou beguiled me. Laban said, It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the whom? Firstborn. Zing. Do you think that reached a tender nerve on our friend Jacob? Isn't that interesting? That Jacob, the Lord, raised a super conniver to deal with our conniver. And Laban turns out to be a crafty character, because it goes on. So anyway, this is Jacob's lesson in what the rights of the firstborn are all about. The next verse is very useful to you prophecy buffs. Fulfill her week and we will give this also for the service which thou shalt serve me yet seven other years. In other words, if you will fulfill another seven years, you can have the other one. You can have them both. That's what he's saying. But here's one of those rare occasions where in the English you find a week of years. In the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 9, Daniel prays a prayer. That's the interrupted prayer of the Old Testament, because Gabriel interrupts and says, 70 Shibuim are determined upon thy people, upon thy holy city, to make an end of sins, to finish the transgressions. We have the famous 70 week prophecy of Daniel, which hangs upon understanding there are weeks of years in the mind of a Hebrew, for lots of reasons. And our case does not rest upon this, but I just call it to your attention, because it's one of those places where you may get a little more comfortable with the idea that the seven years of service was a week. Not a week of days, a week of years. Okay, just as a footnote. Anyway, verse 28, Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. And he gave him Rachel, his daughter, as his wife. Also, and Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her maid. Now, these two handmaids become very important later on, because of the 12 sons that are going to be born to Jacob. There's a handful to Leah, six, I believe, and then Rachel gives her handmaid, and he has a couple there. Leah figures that's a good idea, so she gives him her handmaid, and they raise a couple more. Finally, at the tail end, Rachel has a couple, and one of which takes her in childbirth. So we have the 12 tribes. But whose son that particular one is, whether it's a natural son directly under Leah or Rachel, or whether it's through the handmaid is going to be important to later on. We'll get into all of that. But just be sensitive to the fact that that also explains some of the rivalry among them as to who's first and all that. And so, but incidentally, this is also a moving out of the code of Hammurabi, or that style of allowing, the same thing that Sarah had proposed with Hagar. Not an offensive practice. It was done in those days for a barren wife, apparently barren, to allow offspring to be born with a stand-in, or pinch hitter, or stand-in wife. Okay? I know it sounds, strikes us as strange, but in that tribal culture, it was very, very important. He went in also under Rachel, whom, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. In other words, he got Rachel up front, but he owed him seven years. You with me? And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. So Leah, even though she wasn't favored by the husband, was blessed with children. Leah conceived and bore a son and called his name Reuben, for she said, now each time there's a name of one of the twelve tribes translated for us. Now it's going to be important, because the meaning of the names of the twelve tribes will make sentences. And every time they're listed, they're listed in a different order, and the sentence is different. And one of the little exercises you can do, some over a dozen times in scripture, the twelve tribes are listed. You know, take the meaning of the words, lay it out, and see what the Lord says. He's got a little cryptogram to send you. Reuben means, surely the Lord have looked upon my affliction. Okay, that's why she names it. Okay, and now therefore my son will love me. And she conceived again, and bore a son, and said, because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath given me this son also, and called his name Simeon. One is called seeing, one's hearing. We'll get back to that when I get into this later next time. She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, now this time will my husband become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons, and called his name Levi. Okay, which is joined or attached. By the way, do you notice the desperation in Leah's life? You know, we all get taken with a love affair of Jacob and Rachel. And it is a beautiful thing. You can go today in Israel, and visit, and pray if you like, at Rachel's tomb in Bethlehem. It happens to be in Bethlehem. And Rachel is loved among the Jewish people, because of Jacob's love for Rachel. It's a very, very beautiful love story. But you can't help but be, your heart goes out to Leah. Can you imagine? You see in these repeated sons, in the naming of them, you can just see her statement of wanting her husband to love her, to see, to hear, and become attached to her. Okay, there's Levi. We've got Reuben, Simeon, Levi. And she conceived again, and bore a son, and said, now will I praise the Lord, therefore she called his name, praise, Judah. And she ceased bearing. That's all Leah has. She later will have, I believe it's two sons, by her handmaid, after Rachel does that. Rachel will rise to the occasion, let her handmaid raise a couple of kids. Then Leah figures okay, then she gives her handmaid a couple more. Finally at the end, Rachel herself has given two. And that gives you the 12 tribes of Israel. And we'll talk next time why there's 13. I think I've mentioned that. We've run a little bit over, but we've also got through the end of chapter 29. So the pace is picking up a little bit. And we'll get into a strange saga. We're going to have a lot more about Jacob next time. So I'll see you next Monday night. Thank you. This concludes the 18th study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler.