pilgrim people

"Faith, Faithfulness, and Failure" - Genesis 27

Talk about your dysfunctional family! What does this scene in chapter 27 reveal to us? We see parents who have picked favorites amongst their sons, a wife scheming against her husband and instructing her son to lie and deceive, and a son cheating his father and stealing from his brother. We see another son planning his brother’s murder, a son fleeing home, and a mom who detests her daughters-in-law. We see crying, commotion, bitterness, and hatred. This seems more like a family that belongs on the Jerry Springer Show than on the pages of holy Scripture!

Amazingly, however, this is the covenant family; not just a covenant family, but the covenant family! This is the family headed up by the Patriarch Isaac, the promised son and heir of the covenant. The way in which the Bible reports the story of redemptive history is a strong evidence of its validity and authenticity. If you were going to make up a story in order to start a religion, you would hardly have the heroes of that religion involved in messy family conflict, lying, and theft.

But the Bible is not interested in maintaining phony appearances. It tells the story, warts and all. It tells us what we need to know in order to see that the whole story of the Bible is about God; what he has done and what he has promised to do as our Creator, Redeemer, and Consummator. He is the One who has brought salvation to us by his own arm. He is the One who has provided the very righteousness he demanded through the Person and Work of Christ, the only true hero in the Bible. And he is the One who, despite all the failure and messiness of his people, remains faithful to his covenant and faithful to his promises.

Even in the midst of this messy scene, we see him working all things according to his purpose and for his glory. So let’s think about this chapter which highlights faith, faithfulness, and failure. Let’s look at this in two parts: 1) God’s blessing received through faith; and 2) God’s faithfulness despite our failure.

I. God’s Blessing Received By Faith

The text tells us that Isaac “was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see.” He was over 100 years old at this point. He is blind and physically weak, and he doesn't expect to live much longer (even though he ended up making it to 180). He summons his favorite son, Esau, in order to give him the blessing.

But Isaac is no dummy, of course. He first tells Esau to bring him some of that “delicious food, such as I love.” The Hebrew verb here is usually used for personal relationships, such as a man’s love for a woman. The point being that Isaac was passionate about the food that Esau would bring him. Thinking with his belly, Isaac takes the opportunity to get another great meal before pronouncing the blessing on his favorite son.

But what exactly was this blessing? What was this all about? Well, in the first place, the blessing within a family from father to firstborn was something of huge significance in the ancient Near East. This wasn’t just a mere family tradition, or a prayerful wish for one’s children. This was a legally binding act. A transaction took place. The chosen heir would formally be given his inheritance rights from his father. And this blessing from father to firstborn could only take place once. It could not be altered or rescinded.

And yet, this particular blessing within Isaac’s family had even greater significance that the usual inheritance of property and possessions. It involved something much more important than that. This was a holy blessing, not a common one. This blessing was nothing less than the priestly pronouncement of God’s blessing upon the heir of the covenant. It had first passed from Abraham to Isaac, and now from Isaac to Jacob.

Later, it would pass from Jacob to his twelve sons, who would father the twelve tribes of Israel. And from there, the blessing would be pronounced by the priests of the tribe of Levi. They were commanded to place the covenant name of the Lord upon the people every time they lifted up their hands and said, “ The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”

The pronouncement of that blessing continued for the nation Israel for centuries. It continued until the Messiah finally came in the fulness of time. After he accomplished redemption for his people through his life, death and resurrection, he lifted up his hands and blessed his apostles before he ascended into heaven, where he continues forever as our eternal high priest.

And that same blessing has gone out to the nations. Remember what God promised Abraham in Genesis chapters 12, 15, 17, and 22? He promised that he would give him offspring numbered like the stars in heaven, and a land in which they would dwell. He promised that he would make Abraham a light to the nations. And he promised that he would be their God and they would be his people.

That is the essence of his blessing: his presence with his people, taking them as his own to dwell with them in covenant forever. That is the blessing we hear echoed throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It culminates in the final chapters of the Bible with that great vision of the new heavens and new earth, where we read of that loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

This is the blessing of Abraham that has come upon us even NOW! That is what Paul is talking about in Galatians 3: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ – so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

The promised blessing is the gift of the Spirit, the presence of God with us now, which is a foretaste of what we will fully experience in the new heavens and new earth. It is just a little part of the glorious age to come brought forward into our time.

Yet, the only way this blessing could come upon sinful people like us was for Christ to become a curse for us. Our sins had to be imputed to him, and he had to be punished for them under the justice of God. In exchange he gave us his righteousness and sent his promised Spirit into our hearts.

As Martin Luther said of this passage, “there is no way we can avoid the curse except to believe and with assured confidence say, ‘…I am your sin [Christ], your curse, your death, your wrath of God, your hell. Conversely, you are my righteousness, my blessing, my life, my grace of God, my heaven.’”

This is a blessing that is to be received by faith. It is through the instrument of faith alone that the Holy Spirit unites us with Christ and gives us all his benefits. Only faith takes hold of God’s promises. True faith possesses a knowledge of the facts of the gospel, it believes those facts are true, and it trusts in them in alone. It rests in the promises of God, which have been made clear in the Person and Work of Christ.

Sadly, however, faith is precisely what Esau lacked. Esau was a member of the covenant outwardly. He was circumcised. He had the sign of the covenant applied to him, carved in his flesh as a stamp of God’s ownership and as a constant reminder of the covenant God made with Abraham. But Esau didn’t care about the promises of God. He lived for the things of this present evil age. He lived for his belly and his passions. He had no interest in the things above. Remember chapter 25? What did Esau do? He sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew. He was willing to barter something eternal for something temporary. He despised his covenantal right to take part in Abraham’s promised destiny. Ultimately, he thought God’s covenant was worthless.

This is how the natural man thinks. He lives for this present evil age alone. He can only see what is in front of him: material gain, food, and pleasure. He lives for that alone. He thinks the gospel is waste of time and energy, and so he despises it. He is interested in a different gospel, a gospel of therapy, a gospel of self-improvement or spiritual experience, a gospel that makes you healthy, wealthy, and happy. He is not interested so much in whether or not the gospel is true, only if it is useful to him in this life so that he can get what he wants. And if it is not useful to him in a way that serves his immediate, practical purposes, then he will pass, thank you very much.

You see, what makes Esau such a profane person is that he was born into the covenant community, yet rejected the covenant. He was circumcised. He was a member of the visible church. He was the very son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham himself. Yet, he did not have true faith. This is why the writer to the Hebrews uses Esau as an example and warns us, “[be careful that you are not] unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”

Esau wanted the inheritance of land and possessions, but he wasn’t interested in bearing God’s covenant into the next generation. He wasn’t interested in banking on the promises of God. And this is the very sort of mockery that God will not tolerate. This is why the Book of Hebrews is filled with warnings to the covenant community. As baptized members of the visible church, we must be careful not to go down the path of Esau, who sought his life in himself, instead of the promises of God.

But if Esau lacked faith, what can we say about his brother Jacob? Is this really the behavior of one with faith? Lies, deception, and manipulation?

II. God’s Faithfulness Despite Our Failure

Rebekah believed the promise of God. Remember what the Lord had promised her in chapter 25? The twins were struggling in her womb and she inquired of the Lord. The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the other older shall serve the younger.” She knew that Jacob was the heir of the covenant. She believed the promise of the Lord. In fact, she was so confident in what God had promised that when Jacob explained how he was afraid that if the plan were to fail he might bring a curse upon himself instead of a blessing, Rebekah says to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me in this.”

As we read this story, we should keep in mind Rebekah's faith in the promise of God. Yet, that didn't make her plan excusable. She sinned by doing this. She should have simply waited patiently for the Lord to confirm in Jacob what he had already promised. While she had faith in the promise of God, her methods of trying to bring it about were sinful. She was a failure in this respect.

And so was Jacob. It is difficult to tell what he was thinking at this point. He seems to have no qualms about the ethics of his mother’s plan. As one writer points out, “He who is later capable of wrestling with God wrestles little with his mother or with his own conscience.” He conspires with his mom against his father and his brother. He is willing to sin against his family members and against the Lord in order to get what he wants. He not only lies to his father, but even blasphemes the name of the Lord by using it in his lie. Notice v.20: When Isaac asks how it was that he hunted so quickly, Jacob replies, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” He seems to have no qualms at all about this.

And Jacob’s sin had messy consequences, as sin so often does. He had to flee home because his big hairy brother was now going to kill him. Jacob lied and cheated and was now on the run. We have to conclude that Jacob was a failure in this scene.

And so is his father Isaac. Even though he had faith in the promises of God and pronounced the blessing upon Jacob with full faith in God’s covenant, he tried to give the blessing to Esau in private when he knew full well the prophesy about his younger son. The blessing was to be a public affair, as we see in Genesis 49-50 when Jacob blessed his twelve sons.

The irony of this, however, was that Isaac’s plan backfired. His own deception is thwarted by the greater deception of his wife and his conniving youngest son. He ends up blessing Jacob after all, thinking he has blessed Esau. And his blessing upon Jacob is so great, that he has no real blessing left for the son he truly favors. In fact, Esau receives an anti-blessing: he is denied those things that Jacob receives.

Failure, failure, and more failure! That is what is described in this scene.

Yet, in the midst of all this failure and family sin, God remains faithful to his promise. God is sovereign over all this conspiracy and conflict, and is able to use even these acts for his glory and the advancement of his purposes. And that gives us great hope, does it not? The fulfillment of God’s promises and the advancement of his kingdom depends upon his sovereign grace and power, not upon our abilities or faithfulness. Amazingly, however, he chooses to use failures like us in order to accomplish his work and purposes. It just highlights his amazing grace.

He is even able to use the sinful acts of sinful men for his own glory. He not only used these circumstances in Genesis 27 to accomplish his purposes, but he even used the work of lawless men who crucified and killed the Lord Jesus to bring about his definite and foreordained plan of redemption.

He did it all so that sinful, self-seeking Jacobs like you and me could be made forever right with him. He is the God who takes a conniving, self-absorbed person like Jacob and says, “You’re mine! I have chosen you. Let me tell you, therefore, what I am going to do for you.” In the very next chapter we will read of that great dream that God sent Jacob in which he appeared to him and renewed the covenant of Abraham and Isaac with him. Jacob didn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve to be brought into God’s covenant of grace.

And neither did we. Was there really anything lovable about us that could move God to choose us as his own? There was nothing good in us that would cause him to set his love upon us before the foundation of the world and say, “You’re mine!" Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Like Jacob, we are all failures because of our sin. We have not achieved God’s standard of righteousness. We are losers, not winners. Not one of us has merited God’s favor or blessing. Like Jacob, we are totally unworthy. Had it not been for the sovereign grace of God who works all things according to the counsel of his will, we would be lost. If salvation were left up to us, and our failing, unfaithful ways, we would be doomed.

But the Good News is that by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, we have been saved. And this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. He has sent the only One who was truly faithful – the Lord Jesus Christ – so that we are not saved through our faithfulness, but through our faith in him, the faithful One. He is the One who was actively obedient all the days of his life, never failing, never sinning. He is the One who was made a curse for our sakes so that the curse would be forever removed from us, and we would receive the promised Holy Spirit.

Rejoice believing sinner! The same faithful God who set his relentless, undying love upon Jacob, has set his love upon YOU! Praise God for his faithfulness to failures like us! Amen.

MGB