Genesis 25:19-28
Strength in Weakness

Isaac's Faith
1. The Dilemma: Rebekah Is Barren
  1. "This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac" (25:19)
    1. Compare with 25:12: "Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maidservant, bore to Abraham."
    2. Do you hear the intentional difference introduced?
      1. Ishmael is Abraham's son. Hagar bore Ishmael to Abraham.
      2. But Isaac is Abraham's son. Abraham begot him.
      3. Isaac is his beloved, his only-begotten son
        
        Just like in Gen 22 where God calls him "your only son" to emphasize what Abraham is being asked to sacrifice
        
        Abraham may have other sons, but in the most important sense, this is his only one.
    3. We're being reminded from the start that there's a big difference between Isaac and Ishamel
      1. Isaac, and Isaac alone, is the seed.
      2. All the promises of God have come to Isaac, and him alone.
      3. And on him all the hope for redemption rests.
  2. Yet Ishmael is over in Egypt breeding like a bunny
    1. By the end of his life he has 12 sons.
    2. Ishmael is 54 when Isaac marries Rebekah and 73 when Rebekah finally makes her plea to God
    3. In all probability he has had all his sons by that time.
  3. But what good are all the children in the world born to Ishmael? If a child is not born to Isaac, God is a liar, his promises are empty, and the world stands condemned.
  4. Again, this dramatic tension was introduced as it was in the days of Abraham and Sarah
    1. Abraham needed a child, and he needed it by Sarah. Yet Sarah was barren. And by the end she was old and had stopped having that time of the month.
    2. Thus we were taught to wait for the child and yearn for him
    3. Thus we were taught that God is sovereign and will fulfill his promises even though they are impossible according to the flesh.
  5. This is the first of several instances in which the life of Isaac will duplicate the life of his father Abraham. This will accomplish two things:
    1. We will see that Isaac is a man of faith like his father, believing in God's promises. So we will be satisfied that the godly line does continue in him.
    2. But even more, we will see that Isaac is a man of doubt and sin.
    3. He will repeat two of Abraham's biggest mistakes
      1. He will lie about Rebekah, saying she is his sister, out of fear of Abimelech (rather than telling the truth out of confidence in God.)
      2. He will strive with God to gain blessing for a son God has explicitly rejected.
    4. Thus we will see that Isaac is a man of sin, and therefore not the ultimate promised seed. We must wait for the one to come, who is Christ.
    5. Thus we will see that God's plan does not depend on Isaac's strength anymore than it depended on Abraham's. God will accomplish all that he promises to do in spite of the weakness of Abraham's and now Isaac's flesh.
    6. So we are comforted that our salvation did not depend and does not depend on any human ability but solely on the sovereign mercy of God.
  6. So now it is Rebekah's flesh that is weak.
    1. Not with sin, just with inability
    2. She needs a child and she cannot have one.
  7. All this, 2000 years before Christ, is preparing us for him
    1. It teaches us how all of history was yearning for the day of that most impossible conception, Jesus in the womb of a virgin!
    2. It teaches us how completely the birth of that most necessary child was beyond human control.
    3. Salvation belongs to God alone! Let us rejoice in him, for he has revealed himself strong to save!
  8. Meanwhile, how frustrating for Isaac and Rebekah!
    1. Isaac thinks back to the day his father was about to sacrifice him on that hill. And God came and prophesied that he would multiply Abraham's descendants as the stars and as the sand. That in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed. And Isaac, the seed, can't even produce a single offspring to get the ball rolling.
    2. Rebekah thinks back to the day she agreed to go to the Promised Land and marry Isaac. Her relatives prophetically echoed God's blessing on Isaac. Oh sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands, they had said. And for 20 years she has not even become the mother of one.
  9. How will Isaac respond? Will he try his own method of producing an heir, like Abraham? Or will he hold fast to the promises of God and wait on his timing?
2. The Response: Isaac Prays and God Hears
  1. In this, Isaac proves even more a man of faith than his father Abraham.
    1. Abraham once prayed for God to open the wombs in the household of Abimelech (recall story). And God heard him.
    2. But he never got the clue and prayed for God to open Sarah's womb.
    3. And when God announced that program to him, he laughed (though later he believed.)
  2. It's an immensely positive sign. This child of Abraham has adopted Abraham's faith and improved upon it!
  3. And God answers his prayer
    1. Hallelujah! What was impossible for man is possible for God.
    2. Isaac, for all his efforts, could not place a seed in the womb of this woman.
    3. Rebekah, for all her efforts, could cause nothing to grow in that place.
    4. But God, the Lord and giver of life, can and does.
  4. In doing this, the Lord confirms Isaac's faith
    1. James says that we ask and do not receive because we ask with the wrong motive, to spend what we get on our pleasures.
    2. But proper prayer is for things that are according to God's will, not our own. And it is an affirmation that God is faithful, a laying hold by faith of God's promises that he will supply all our needs.
    3. And these prayers, God hears.
    4. Isaac's prayer was genuine, a laying hold of God's promise.
    5. The proof is in the Lord hearing and answering the prayer.
  5. But wouldn't God have done what he was going to do anyway?
    1. Yes and no.
    2. Yes, God was committed to providing the seed through Isaac.
    3. And yes, he was not about to let Isaac's weakness frustrate his plans.
    4. (But, then, why bother with the prayer? God's just gonna do what God's gonna do, right? Well, let's look at the "no" half of the answer.)
    5. No, in the sense that this is the wrong way of looking at it.
    6. God had ordained that through Isaac's prayer, and in no other way, would he bring the seed into the world.
    7. Isaac cannot change God's plan, which is from all eternity. But he can participate in that plan.
      1. How? By adding his strength to God's? Isaac has no strength! And if he did, God wouldn't need it!
      2. By faith saying Amen to God's promises, just as Abraham did when God promised him a seed in Genesis 15:6.
      3. His prayer is his participation in God's promise and his saying Amen to it.
      4. Isaac, who can contribute nothing to this plan, thus enters into God's plan not by works but by faith alone.
  6. Do you see how beautiful this is and how our own prayers must be like this?
    1. (More on this in the evening sermon, btw)
    2. For now, let us just say that we come to God as those who have no strength, but we say Amen to his plan
      1. Amen, Lord, take my sins away!
      2. Amen, Lord, make me more like Jesus, however painful that may be to my flesh. Make me humble and gracious and patient and wise.
      3. Amen, Lord, purify your church and call in your elect from the four corners of the earth.
      4. Amen, Lord, come quickly and reveal you eternal kingdom!
      5. Thus we, who cannot do a single thing to make these things happen, participate in the plan of God and agree with it and long for it by faith.
  7. So, once again, God's program of redemption is on the move. The seed is conceived; the child will be born. But first, another plot complication….
The Election of Jacob and the Rejection of Esau
1. Rebekah's Question and God's Answer
  1. The children struggle in Rebekah's womb
    1. The children?
      1. I thought Isaac only needed one.
      2. He does, but he's about to get two
    2. The Holy Spirit lets us in on the secret even before Rebekah knows.
    3. All she knows is that this is not a peaceful pregnancy.
    4. One expects a little kicking and bouncing about.
      1. Women have always told stories about a child in the womb kicking so hard they momentarily lost their breath.
      2. But this is beyond all that.
    5. The tumult in her womb is like a couple of wildcats fighting!
    6. The disruption is continuous and severe and painful. It's amazing she doesn't have a miscarriage.
  2. And she cries out, "If all is well, why am I like this?"
    1. The Hebrew's impossible to translate. It's not a complete sentence so much as words gasped out between kicks.
    2. But the meaning is clear.
    3. She's saying if this is the way it's going to be, why did I even get pregnant?
  3. So she goes to ask God
    1. Just as Isaac is a man of faith, so Rebekah is a woman of faith!
    2. She knows by faith that her pregnancy is God's answer to Isaac's prayer.
    3. So she goes straight to the source to find out what part of God's program she's not understanding.
      1. Note: This is appropriate for the time she's in, when God has not fully revealed his plan in Christ.
      2. But today, in Christ, God is fully revealed.
      3. So we do not go to "inquire of the Lord" in quite the same way.
      4. We go, not asking for new information, but requesting that God will enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ through his word.
      5. And we come here, to the worship service, to inquire of the Lord with all God's people and to hear his word proclaimed with the clarity that only the light of Christ can bring.
      6. But Rebekah doesn't know what we know. Not even close. So she goes to God, desperate for him to reveal a little more of his plan than he has revealed.
    4. God answers Rebekah's prayer, a further confirmation of her faith as it was Isaac's.
  4. God drops the bombshell: You've got twins
    1. But not just any twins would fight like this in the womb.
    2. You've got twins who are going to fight with each other for their entire history.
    3. Not just their personal history, either. Nations will come from them and these nations shall be "separated" or "divided." They will be against each other.
    4. The current struggle of these unborn boys is a sign of how God will guide the development of each nation in the future.
  5. Then God takes sides
    1. He tells her they will not be equal in this fight, but one shall be stronger than (triumph over) the other.
      1. He doesn't tell her that it will be 1000 years before this happens under King David leading the children of Jacob in battle against the children of Esau in the country of Edom)
      2. He doesn't tell her that it will be 2000 years before this prophecy is spiritually fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the son of Jacob, defeating the serpent at the cross.
      3. But that's what's going on here. She's got the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent in her belly, the lover of this life and the lover of the life that is to come, Cain and Abel. No wonder the clash is so violent!
    2. And he chooses the younger one as the superior
      1. The older child should, by right, inherit the blessings that came to Isaac
      2. But God says, no, the older will serve the younger.
      3. He reverses the normal order of things.
      4. Again we see how it is not the flesh that matters, but what God by his spirit decrees to be
        
        Not the child who is superior by age
        
        But the child who is superior by virtue of God's choice
2. God's Sovereignty in Election
  1. Why does God do this?
  2. Paul tells us, "In order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by him who calls."
    1. He wants to make sure we understand who's in control of this whole process.
    2. It's not because of "works" - even a work as out of one's control as being born at the right time - but God's gracious choice that makes one favored in his sight.
  3. But can't we say that he looks forward in time and chooses Jacob over Esau on the basis of his works?
  4. Absolutely not!
    1. Paul makes the Lord's intention clear.
    2. God did this precisely to keep us from involving works in his election. "In order that God's purpose in election" might clearly be his decision for his own glory and for no other reason.
    3. Paul emphasizes, God did this before they'd done anything right or wrong. Even before they were "innocent babies" outside the womb he announced his divine choice which was from all eternity.
  5. Absolutely not, part 2!
    1. Have you looked at Jacob's life?
    2. He is crafty, deceitful, shifty, and often worldly.
    3. What is there in his actions to make God prefer him to Esau?
    4. Tell C. H. Spurgeon story (the punchline is "No, the part I don't understand is "Jacob I loved.")
    5. Clearly this is about God's choice in spite of the sinfulness of both parties.
  6. Yet Jacob, in spite of his weakness, was a man of faith
    1. Perhaps, then, it is faith that God foresaw and that's why he chose Jacob?
    2. No again, that would make faith a work.
    3. Faith is precisely that thing that admits we are worthless and helpless and no better than any other sinner. If God chooses Jacob because he admits this, then Jacob really is better than other sinners, isn't he. No, faith is the gift of God to his chosen.
  7. God chose Jacob and rejected Esau precisely so we would understand that he, and he alone, does the choosing.
  8. It was the same with Abraham, wasn't it?
    1. Was he more holy or more wise than the rest of his family?
    2. No, the Bible says they were all worshiping other gods
    3. Abraham was a pagan among pagans when God singled him out and said, leave this country and go to a place I'll show you.
    4. God didn't choose him because of his works but in order to make him a man of faith and good works so that all the glory goes to God.
  9. It's the same with you and me and all God's people
    1. And we can be glad of that and rejoice in it!
    2. Imagine if God had the tiniest little requirement: I'll choose people who do one good work once during their lifetime.
    3. We'd all be condemned, wouldn't we? There is no one who does good, not even one.
    4. God could have righteously rejected us all, just as he rejected Esau.
    5. And we'd have no one to blame but ourselves when he poured out his wrath on us forever.
    6. But instead he chose us, like Jacob, and granted us faith, a faith that points to Christ and says, that's where the good works are. That's where the righteousness is.
    7. Children of God, rejoice at the mercy of God who owed you nothing and has given you an abundance beyond measure in Christ Jesus!
    8. And give all glory to God for this act of mercy. There was nothing in us. Salvation belongs to our God alone.
3. The Children Compared
  1. Once the children do come out, we do notice differences between them.
  2. Esau comes out red and hairy
    1. He comes out red or "ruddy."
      1. This is how the Bible much later describes King David as a young man
      2. And redness of complexion in other cultures at the time was a sign of strength and good health. Many of the mythical heroes of those cultures had red complexions.
      3. So this redness is an indication of Esau's superiority
    2. As well he comes out "hairy." He's a rugged, hairy-chested man even from his birth.
    3. And he grows up to be a strong man, a skillful hunter, a man of the field, i.e. a man of action and ability. Everything points favorably to him.
  3. Jacob doesn't have such attributes
    1. He comes out, already the loser
    2. The struggle with Esau has ended in Esau's victory. Esau exited the womb first.
    3. Jacob comes out clinging to his heel, desperate to win this race, but unable.
    4. And this grabbing on to the heel is a suggestion of his nature as one who is contentious, who struggles and fights
      1. In a later story, he will fight with God himself.
      2. Hosea 12:2,3 speaks of both: "The LORD has an indictment against Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways, and repay him according to his deeds. ³In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God."
    5. (By God's grace, both these struggles will ultimately become signs of his faith, signs of his desperation to have the heavenly inheritance. But at this point in the story, it's not a good sign.)
    6. So he is named "Jacob"
      1. Supplanter - i.e. one who takes someone else's place.
      2. Deceiver, crafty
      3. But it can also mean something entirely different: "May God protect."
    7. And he grows up to be a mild man, living in tents.
    8. Here is no strong hero, but a stay-at-home Mama's boy
    9. Everything points away from him to Esau
  4. Jacob came out bruising Esau's heel while Esau steps on his head
    1. It's all backwards!
    2. The seed of the woman is supposed to crush the serpent.
    3. The serpent is supposed to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman
    4. Everything points to Esau being the one, the true seed
      1. He's firstborn
      2. He's strong and healthy
      3. He's crushing Jacob's head and having his heel bruised!
    5. Everything points to Esau except God's sovereign choice.
4. Strength Perfected in Weakness
  1. God does this again and again through Scripture.
    1. He does this to show that his choice is sovereign and he chooses whoever he will.
    2. And he does this to show how even when his chosen ones are weak he is strong.
  2. So Ishmael was the older child, but God chose Isaac.
  3. So later in this book, God will favor Joseph, Jacob's son
  4. And with Joseph's sons, God will choose Ephraim the younger over Manasseh the elder.
  5. God will choose David, the youngest of seven sons to be King over Israel
    1. To replace Saul, the tall man who was head and shoulders above everyone else
    2. To defeat Goliath who was taller still
  6. And this will all be brought to a stunning finale in Christ and his church.
  7. Christ comes in apparent weakness
    1. The ruler of the universe is born as a helpless baby
    2. He who was rich beyond all splendor was born the child of a poor carpenter
    3. He was not proud and swaggering but meek and humble
    4. He spent his time not with the leaders and the important people but with prostitutes and tax collectors and the poor.
    5. He went to the cross to die a shameful death
      1. What sort of salvation is this?
      2. Isn't this the serpent, the devil crushing his head?
      3. And he had hardly made a dent in Satan's kingdom before that kingdom overthrew him and murdered him. Why, he'd hardly bruised Satan's heel.
    6. But on the third day he rose from the dead and it was revealed how in this great display of weakness, Satan had been crushed, sin had been vanquished, and death itself had been swallowed up by victory.
  8. And as with Christ, so with his Church
    1. We come bearing the weakness of Christ
    2. We are not strong and able like Esau
    3. But like Jacob we are weak and feeble
    4. Yet God has chosen that in us who are weak, his strength should be perfected.
    5. We are persecuted, ridiculed, and ignored; yet God has chosen us and loved us and his thoughts concerning us are more countless than the sand of the sea.
    6. We are poor while they are rich; but in Christ we have all things.
    7. We die, sometimes by the hands of those who hate the Church; yet in Christ we have eternal life and shall be raised up at the last day.
    8. Come bear the reproach of Christ with him.
    9. Come declare your own weakness and yet the unspeakable strength of God.
    10. When we are weak, then he is shown to be strong.
  9. Just as Jacob, despite the odds, won his struggle with Esau and inherited the earth…
    1. So the true seed of the woman, Jesus, despite apparent weakness emerged the victor
    2. So we, the bride of Christ, shall triumph in him over the seed of the serpent, the sons of the devil. They may look strong, but the Lord of hosts is on our side.
    3. At the resurrection our weakness will pass away and the victory of Christ will be revealed.
Isaac's Unbelief
1. He Opposes His Will to God's
  1. God chose Jacob, but Isaac chose Esau.
  2. And why? Because Esau brought him good food (28)
  3. The things of this world turn Isaac's head
    1. He forgets that all that matters is what God has promised which is eternal
    2. He'd rather eat some food and be content.
    3. He becomes like his son, Esau, who in the next section will sell the whole promised land for a bowl of stew. He'll sell heaven itself for that stew.
  4. And he does it even though he knows which one God has chosen.
    1. Does he really think he can resist God's will?
    2. Oh Isaac! How far you have fallen!
    3. How much we must rejoice that the fate of the world is not in your hands!
  5. Rebekah, on the other hand, chooses Jacob
    1. But it's not clear that she does this out of faith
    2. Her decision may be as arbitrary as Isaac's
    3. It may be a coincidence that her choice agrees with God's
    4. Nevertheless, she will be God's instrument for getting the blessing for Jacob.
2. Future Tension Is Set Up
  1. The story must unfold from here.
  2. Jacob, from birth, wants Esau's place. How will he seek to get it?
  3. God has chosen Jacob, but Isaac has chosen Esau. Who will be the victor?
  4. How will Rebekah figure in this since she loves Jacob? Will she be successful in pursuing her son's good.
  5. Again and again, how glad we must be that these things are in the hands of God and of no one else.
  6. Let us rejoice, for he will accomplish his will and care for his chosen one!
  7. Let us rejoice for he has accomplished his will in Christ, though the world was against him. Salvation has come in spite of it all and God's glory has been revealed in his Son to the ends of the earth.

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Genesis 25:19-28 Strength in Weakness

Genesis 25:19-28
Strength in Weakness