[00:00:00] Welcome to Gracious Words. Gracious Words is taken from the weekly women's Bible study, top by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel Host a Mesa, California. We'll be home to the reward in the face of Christ. It shows us who you are, we'll be in the Lord.
[00:00:35] God's grace is extensive and wonderful. Even when we take matters into our own hands and preempt his perfect timing, God is merciful, ready to forgive and ready to reinstate us in His promises. And now here is part two of Cheryl's message titled The Blessing.
[00:01:19] In ancient civilizations, as in Monarchies still today, the blessing are the greater inheritance, goes to the oldest child or firstborn. It is Charles who will receive the monarchy, not Anne, Philip or Andrew. William, not Harriet, especially not Harry now.
[00:01:41] George, not Lewis. Who will receive the blessing? That's the cultural way to do it. We see with Adam that this is not a criteria that God followed. God honored able not came the firstborn. God blessed, Seth, God chose Abraham, not Nehor or Haran,
[00:02:04] God chose Isaac, not Ishmael. God had specified a word to Rebecca that the elder would serve the younger Genesis 2523 and it's this birthright that Esa sold for a pot of stew, Genesis 2533. But the third criteria of Isaac, we've got time, we've got convention,
[00:02:31] is self gratification. Isaac preferred his eldest son, the hunter. Genesis 2528, Isaac loved the stew that East on Mayde and by blessing Esa he was ensuring for himself many pots of stew. It indulged his palate. But God's criteria is totally different than
[00:03:01] man's criteria. God blesses those who want and pursue his blessing. Those who are in different are hostile to God's blessing will never, ever know it. Genesis 265, God said that this blessing was on Abraham because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my commandments, my statutes and my laws.
[00:03:28] God blesses his creation. In other words, God blesses what he is allowed to lead guide, build and create. God blesses those who seek His criteria for blessing or seek His ways, seek to meet His requirements for blessing. Esa did not meet the criteria for God's blessing.
[00:03:54] One he had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. The blessing was due to the one who had the birth right. The blessing was the ratification of the birthright. In most cultures, it was the state, the material,
[00:04:10] a state of the father, his goods, what he had acquired. However, for Abraham and Isaac, the greater blessing was the covenant and promises of God. We see that Esa despised or did not
[00:04:26] place value on his birthright. His appetite was more important to him than the promises of God. He was a hunter. He wanted what he could acquire for himself. According to Hebrews 12, 16,
[00:04:43] he did not obey the voice of God. He was a fornicator or an idolator or one who put his own self indulgence or pleasure above obedience to God. He married Kina Knight women, not one but two.
[00:05:02] And these Kina Knight women were a grief to Rebecca and Isaac. They were idolatrous. They were of the practices in how the priorities of the Kina Knight, those without God, those who served,
[00:05:15] other gods. He didn't think of what he was bringing into the covenant family and he didn't care how would affect his parents. He was self-centered. He did not keep the commandments, the statutes or laws according to Hebrews 12, 16. He was a profane person or one without any appreciation or
[00:05:39] regard for spiritual principles or promises. Matthew 7, 6, Jesus talks about this attitude. When he tells us his Christians do not give what is holy to the dogs. Nor cast pearls before swine unless they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces.
[00:06:01] You cannot bless a pig. If you give a pig, something expensive like a string of pearls, they don't care. It's like Brian Sass. Barnabas cannot tell the difference between a dog bone, like a milk bone, dog biscuit and
[00:06:24] flaming on. That's wonderful as he is. He just swallows the flaming on whole. We're not. We've given him pieces of it. He's just like, I was got to cut any more of anything. Any roadkill? Anything?
[00:06:40] There's no appreciation for these types of treasures. Years ago, when I was 13 years old, I had this Bible that I absolutely loved. They don't make them anymore. It was a swayed cover.
[00:07:00] It was just the perfect size and how to snap. Just the right way. I just loved this Bible. When my favorite thing is to do as a young woman was to go to the chapel store and buy a Bible.
[00:07:10] I mean, it was so fun. I remember buying this swayed Bible is just the right size. We had gone out. We were on one of my dad's trips to Hawaii. I was with a group of people and there was a woman
[00:07:22] that we were just kind of all hanging out with. She had lived in Hawaii so she was kind of giving us a tour. We were on the island of Maui and we were on the main street and there was this
[00:07:30] kind of demon possessed guy, kind of, kind of weird, blasphemous guy. She was trying to share the Lord with and he just kept cursing and he kept, you know, just doing all these terrible things.
[00:07:45] Why she was sharing the Lord with him? I remember she says, I'm going to give you a Bible. I am going to give you a Bible anyway. She turns out she goes, who has got a Bible?
[00:07:57] And she grabbed it out of my hands. My perfectly beautiful beige swayed Bible. And she handed it to him and says, I'm giving you this. I need to look the Bible and in our site he
[00:08:09] began to just rip it up. Just rip it apart. And remember she said, I'll buy you another one and she never did. I'm just saying. Just saying that woman, if I ever see her, she still owes me a Bible.
[00:08:22] I think she's in her 90s but she still owes me a Bible. But I just remembered how he had no regard for something that was so precious to me. You might know it's for in there. It was just
[00:08:37] precious to me. I just know regard at all. That's how the profane personnel, they have no regard for spiritual things. You know what, Calvary? We would give brotherly hugs to one another.
[00:08:54] We still do sometimes. We just hugged and it's so pure such a healthy touch. And I remember at graduation at my public high school, this guy came up to me and I said, can you believe we
[00:09:06] graduated? And I went to hug him and he just was like, it was just sick. It was like, get the behind me, Satan. And it was just, it was like, wow, I have been in the company of those that
[00:09:20] things are healthy. And I realized he doesn't have regard for purity and for innocence and for the beauty of holiness. There was no value to it. So, Issa had no practical use for the
[00:09:34] birthright or the promises of God. They were no value to him which meant that if they were given to him, he would not safeguard them. He would not pass them down. He would not walk within them.
[00:09:51] Because already his lifestyle and his choices showed that he would neglect. He could care less about them and he had no regard for God's word promises in way. They would not be steamed. They would be thrown
[00:10:06] away. But Jacob had a craving for blessing which brings us to our third point, craving for blessing. Genesis 27, 5 through 29. What links would you be willing to go to to receive God's blessing?
[00:10:27] How important to you? How essential is God's blessing for your life? Are you going to do it your way or are you going to wait and do it God's way because you so desperately want the blessing of God? Do
[00:10:40] you crave it? Do you long for God to say, well done now good and faithful servant or oh, you showed up. You finally got here. How desperate are you to see God's blessing on your children?
[00:10:56] How desperately are you willing to pray for it? Are you willing to take time out? Are you willing to tell them the way of blessing? Are you willing to exemplify it for them?
[00:11:10] Rebecca desperately want to God's blessing on our son Jacob. She did not seek it because of her preference of liking Jacob better but because of God's word to her, because of Jacob's godly character, Jacob had been responsible with a tense of his father with the management
[00:11:30] of the household of Isaac. Jacob had not sought a wife among the Canaanite women. He had instead chosen singleness until he would have the godly wife because Jacob wanted the blessing of God. Jacob esteemed valued and would do whatever it took to receive the blessing of God.
[00:11:54] Rebecca instructed Jacob brought him into conspiracy to deceive Isaac into blessing the right son. Rebecca realized that Isaac was attempting in secret to bless Isaac. She herself had received a word from God concerning her sons. Genesis 2523, the Elder,
[00:12:15] would serve the younger yet. Isaac is attempting to go against the Word of God. So Rebecca instructs Jacob to get two young goats and she will make a savory stew that will taste just like anything Isaac can get at the mall. What she makes with what God
[00:12:38] has already given to the household of Isaac is just as good as the one that requires going outside of what God has given. Rebecca makes this stew. She dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes.
[00:12:55] She places goatskin on Jacob's neck and hands and she sends Jacob into Isaac to receive God's blessing. Now Jacob has misgivings about this plan that we read in Genesis 2712. He says, perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be a deceiver really to him.
[00:13:17] And I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing but Rebecca is willing to be cursed herself in order to see God's blessing and the promises of God upon the sun that once them
[00:13:33] that will safeguard them, that will hold them tight who will appreciate and pass them on and live in it. Jacob obeys his mother and Jacob goes into his father pretending to be Esau.
[00:13:46] Here is where we see the desperation of Jacob. He wants this blessing so badly that he will risk a curse, pretend to be someone he isn't, deceive his own father but at this we must stop
[00:14:04] to remember that God is looking at the heart. He's looking at the one who wants him. In Jeremiah says, God says, you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart. Perhaps he would stop me
[00:14:25] at this moment and say, Cheryl, hopefully not that meanly. Jacob is a deceiver. This is deceit. This is wrong. This is like living out a lie but the Bible does not make that judgment.
[00:14:42] Bible doesn't say, Jacob was wrong. This is terrible. It simply presents what he did to show us the greatness of his desire, the depths of his willingness and the huge deep craving that Jacob
[00:14:59] had for the covenant of God, the promises of God and the word of God. It is so deep. It is so strong that he'll go to any links to get the blessing of God. And though we don't commend the way he uses,
[00:15:19] we do commend that grady, that deep desire for the blessings of God. Jacob indeed deceives his father. Isaac has misgivings at Empower Hitchens five times. He brings up his apprehensions.
[00:15:36] We read in Genesis 278 that he says, who are you? My son. Genesis 2720. How is it you found it so quickly? My son. Genesis 2721, please come near that I may feel you. My son. Whether you are
[00:15:54] really my son, Isa or not. Genesis 2722 the voice is Jacob's voice but the hands are the hands of Isa and one final time Isaac asks, are you really my son, Isa? Genesis 2724. I think that Isaac
[00:16:15] knew something was up. Five different times Jacob had to lie and claim, he was Isa but Isaac blessed Jacob as if he was Isa. Surely this smell of my son is like the smell of the field which
[00:16:32] the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the due of the heaven of the fathomous of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let the people serve you and nations bow down to you, be master
[00:16:44] over your brethren and let your mother's sons bow down to you. This hardly seems like much of a blessing. It doesn't contain the promises given to Abraham or confer to Isaac but it is the
[00:16:56] ratification of the covenant to the sun with the birthright. Moving on, crisis of blessing. There are many who think that God is unfair to bless son and not others. There are those that believe
[00:17:14] that God should just bless everybody. This is an argument that Paul takes up in Romans 9. Paul states that God has the right to set the criteria by which he will bless. No doubt you have heard
[00:17:28] people say if he will only bless through Jesus Christ and not through Buddha and not through him. Amen. Those people are so sincere that I don't want that God. They want to choose the
[00:17:40] criteria for blessing but Paul says in Romans 9, doesn't God have the right to do with what he owns whatever he wishes? I mean do I or do I not have the right with my money to give to
[00:18:00] whatever charity I choose? Should I be forced to give it to a charity that I don't approve of? Should I or is what I have mine to get? Can't I choose the child that I will get a certain
[00:18:19] inheritance too? I have this I have this silver plate that my grandfather, my mom gave it to me when I was first married and her father gave it to her on the day that she got married to my
[00:18:31] father and she gave it to me. And the the forks and knives that have not gone down the garbage disposal, those are the ones that I passed onto my daughter Kristen. She was the one that most
[00:18:44] did mired it from the time she was a child and I knew she let the whole history in kind of the the notion of my grandfather giving it to my mom. Don't I have the right? I have other things
[00:18:56] I'll give to the other children but don't I have the right to choose doesn't God have the right to choose the criteria one he's got one he owns it and yet people are like that's never fair!
[00:19:11] And that's what we sound when it comes to the through the clouds in heaven. God has the right the blessings are yes. And Matthew 20 Jesus told the parable of the man who owned the vineyard
[00:19:25] and he hired some people in the morning some people in the bitborning some people at noon some people met after noon and some people right before the end of the day and sent them into the vineyard
[00:19:36] and then he gave them each a dinner for serving in the field and the people who had born the he to the day they said that's not fair we've worked all day and we get the same as those who
[00:19:47] came in at the last moment. And he said isn't it my right to give what I have to those who have worked for me don't I retain that are your heart's evil because mine is God God has the right
[00:20:04] to set the criteria by which he will bless. There are those who think they should have God's favor in their life no matter the fact that they reject God or their choice to serve them
[00:20:20] selves above God you know they get malmone things don't go right or go their way like God didn't bless me when I wrote that bank there rejection of God's standards and their
[00:20:34] rejection of God's word and yet they feel and their angry God that he hasn't blessed them so with Isa he comes from hunting expecting the blessing of his father he has met his father's criteria
[00:20:50] he's hunted he's made the savory stew he's the eldest but he has already sold his birthright who really who really he is out fault. Isa who is going in against God's word Isaac who is
[00:21:08] conspiring in secret to come for God's blessing on his profane and then God's son. Isa who is already forthated the birthright and therefore should not have the blessing conferred on him
[00:21:19] or Rebecca and Jacob who desire God's word a steam the blessing of God will do anything to be in the covenant of God you know we just look at this passage and we're like shame on you Jacob shame on
[00:21:33] you Rebecca really you can tell what I feel when Isa finds out that Jacob has deceived Isaac and taken the blessing he cried out with an exceeding bitter cry this is not repentance
[00:21:48] this is bitterness because that is what the author of Hebrews tells us beware less any route of bitterness gets planted in you and then it says just like Isa just like Isa beware bitterness
[00:22:04] he pleats for a blessing and he accuses Jacob blame is so much easier than repentance isn't it? I know people that live their lives blaming everybody else and never take you responsibility when you live your life blaming others you never grow you never grow
[00:22:27] you will become stagnated in that place of bitterness for the rest of your life and you will never grow you will never be free you will you will never learn from your experience he accuses Jacob isn't he rightly named sir plant's a planter he's taken away my birthright
[00:22:51] he's taken away my blessing he feels in titlement it should just come to me because I'm the oldest it should just be mine no matter how I live no matter how I feel I should receive the blessing
[00:23:09] Isaac then tries to bless Isa but the blessing seems more like a curse let me read it from the Christian standard Bible look your blessing place will be away from the richness of the land
[00:23:21] away from the dew of the sky above you will live by your sword and you will serve your brother but when you rebuild you will break his yolk from your neck you're like you know what maybe no
[00:23:31] blessing maybe just be quiet this is not the blessing you want you know I years ago I was not feeling well and I said brine I need to take some house brine will you bring me a piece of
[00:23:45] toast and so about 15 minutes later Brian walks all the way upstairs and he is pinching a piece of toast pinching like he's walking up with it and I said did you walk all the way out stairs like
[00:24:00] that because yeah it's so no nap can no plate just here is your toast it's one of those things like maybe not maybe I don't want that toast I mean we start now men
[00:24:17] God promised he would bless Jacob instead of Isa however when Rebecca overheard Isaac planning to do the contrary she took matters into her own hands she drew Jacob into a conspiracy to deceive Isaac and procure the ancestral blessing God expects his servants to carry out their spiritual
[00:24:38] responsibility by faith unfortunately faith is not always present and matters can become complicated this story portrays an entire family attempting to carry out their responsibilities in their own strength without faith in which produced consequences for generations to come may we learn to
[00:24:59] exercise faith in our spiritual responsibilities we hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study for more information about the gracious word radio program and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Broderson please visit our website at graciouswords.com coming up next time on
[00:25:16] the graciouswords program we'll look at the consequences of Jacob's actions as we continue our series our great creator and the book of Genesis with Cheryl Broderson we do hope you make plans to join us again for more information please visit our website at graciouswords.com
[00:25:40] we will fall on ease and surrender with surrender to this program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa California
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