[00:00:00] Welcome to Gracious Words. Gracious words is taken from the weekly women's Bible study, taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel Hostumeza, California. On today's program we'll see God's mercy and grace towards Jacob as he meets him alone and exiled and encourages him with a heavenly revelation.
[00:01:14] And now here is part three of Cheryl's message titled The Blessing. And though we don't commend the way he uses, we do commend that craving, that deep desire for the blessings of God. Jacob indeed deceives his father. Isaac has misgivings at Empowery Hitchens five times.
[00:01:37] He brings up his apprehensions. 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 really my son, Isa or not.
[00:02:03] 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 knew something was up. Five different times, Jacob had to lie and claim
[00:02:26] he was Isa. But Isaac blessed Jacob as if he was Isa. Surely this smell of my son is like this smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the due of the heaven of the fathomess of the earth and plenty of
[00:02:43] grain and wine, let the people serve you and nations bow down to be master over your brother and and let your mother's sons bow down to you. This hardly seems like much of a blessing.
[00:02:55] It doesn't contain the promises given to Abraham or confer to Isaac, but it is the ratification of the covenant to the sun with the birthright. Moving on, crisis of blessing. There are many who think
[00:03:12] that God is unfair to bless son and not others. There are those that believe that God should just bless everybody. This is an argument that Paul takes up in Romans 9. Paul states that God
[00:03:28] has the right to set the criteria by which he will bless. No doubt you have heard people say, if he will only bless through Jesus Christ and not through Buddha and not through
[00:03:39] Muhammad, though those people are so sincere that I don't want that God. They want to choose the criteria for blessing, but Paul says in Romans 9, doesn't God have the right to do with what
[00:03:55] he owns whatever he wishes? I mean, do I or do I not have the right with my money to give to whatever charity I choose? Should I be forced to give it to a charity that I don't approve of?
[00:04:12] Should I or is what I have mine to get? Can't I choose the child that I will get a certain inheritance too? I have this, I have this silver plate that my grandfather, my mom gave it to me
[00:04:31] when I was first married and her father gave it to her on the day that she got married to my father and she gave it to me. And the the forks and knives that have not gone down the garbage disposal,
[00:04:43] those are the ones that I passed onto my daughter Kristen. She was the one that most did mire dip from the time she was a child and I knew she let the whole history in kind of the
[00:04:55] the notion of my grandfather giving it to my mom. Don't I have the right? I have other things I'll give to the other children, but don't I have the right to choose? Doesn't God have the right
[00:05:08] to choose the criteria one he's got, one he owns it and yet people are like, that's not fair! And that's what we sound when it comes to the through the clouds in heaven. God has the right,
[00:05:21] the blessings are His. And Matthew 20 Jesus told the parable of the man who owned the vineyard and he hired some people in the morning, some people in the bitborning, some people at noon,
[00:05:34] some people met afternoon and some people right before the end of the day and sent them into the vineyard and then he gave them each a denarius for serving in the field and the people who had
[00:05:45] born the heat of the day they said, that's not fair! We've worked all day and we get the same as those who came in at the last moment. And he said, isn't it my right to give what I have? Do
[00:05:59] those who have worked for me? Don't I retain that? Are your hearts evil because mine is good? God has the right to set the criteria by which he will bless. There are those who think they should
[00:06:18] have God's favor in their life no matter the fact that they reject God or their choice to serve themselves above God, you know they get now when things don't go right or go their way like
[00:06:35] God didn't bless me when I wrote that bank. There are rejection of God's standards and the rejection of God's word and yet they feel and their angry God that he hasn't blessed them.
[00:06:50] So with Isa, he comes from hunting expecting the blessing of his father. He has met his father's criteria. He's hunted. He's made the savory stew. He's the eldest, but he has already sold his
[00:07:05] birthright. Who really? Who really? He is out of fault. Isa who is going in against God's word. Isa who is conspiring in secret to comfort God's blessing on his profane and ungodly son. Isa who
[00:07:22] is already forthated the birthright and therefore should not have the blessing conferred on him or Rebecca and Jacob who desire God's word, a steam the blessing of God will do anything to be in
[00:07:35] the covenant of God. You know we just look at this passage and we're like, shame on you, Jacob. Shame on you, Rebecca. Really? You can tell what I feel. When Isa finds out that Jacob has deceived Isaac
[00:07:51] and taken the blessing, he cried out with an exceeding bitter cry. This is not repentance. This is bitterness because that is what the author of Hebrews tells us. Beware, less any root of bitterness gets planted in you and then it says just like Isa.
[00:08:11] Just like Isa. Beware, bitterness. 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,
[00:08:35] you never grow. 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.
[00:08:55] He accuses Jacob. Isn't he rightly named his planter? He's taken away my birthright. He's taken away my blessing. He feels in titlement. It should just come to me because I'm the oldest.
[00:09:12] It should just be mine no matter how I live, no matter how I feel. I should receive the blessing. Isaac then tries to bless Isa but the blessing seems more like a curse. Let me read it from
[00:09:24] the Christian standard Bible. Look, your blessing place will be away from the richness of the land. Away from the dew of the sky above, you will live by your sword and you will serve your brother.
[00:09:37] But when you rebuild, you will break his yolk from your neck. You're like, you know what? Maybe no blessing. Maybe just be quiet. This is not the blessing you want. You know, years ago I was not feeling well and I said, Brian, I need to take some house,
[00:09:53] friend, will you bring me a piece of 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 that?
[00:10:10] Because yeah, 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, I don't know, man.
[00:10:31] Like, did you not think that maybe I would want to napkin or maybe on a plate? Did that he looks at it and his finger, you know, he's like, oh, he just starts laughing. I'm like, okay we're laughing now.
[00:10:46] Do you think you could get me a plate? He just sets it down on my, on my nightstand and walks out. It's like, like that was putting. But there was no other piece of toast that came. I just say.
[00:11:01] Yeah, here, so don't ask, yeah, I had this. So, you know, the moral of that story is, don't ask a man for a piece of toast, specify you want to plate. Just specify that's all you
[00:11:13] need to know is for plate. It's not what they do. You wanted a napkin, you should have said something. Okay, now I know. Could I have a piece of toast toast it on a plate with a napkin? The preferably you don't pinch? Okay.
[00:11:32] ESA's life would be a life lived on his own terms, devoid of any divine blessing. That's how he had lived is like that's far. That's how he would continue to live his life. Whatever he made of himself
[00:11:43] would be the essence of his life. He would end up being subordinate to his brother as everyone who lives on their own terms will always be subordinate to those who live in the way of God's blessing.
[00:11:57] God cannot and will not bless the self-world, the self-serving or the self-indulgent. Trying to make them blessed only creates a greater crisis. On hearing the word of his father, ESA anger only increases to a murderous rage against his brother. The author of he reports out
[00:12:16] that ESA's tears were not tears of repentance. He did not want to change. If you wanted the blessing of God on his own terms and that was not going to happen, just like King wanted the
[00:12:29] blessing of God on his own terms and would rather murder able than to offer God what he really wanted. ESA then tried another approach to the blessing when he begins to realize the consequences
[00:12:43] of the misery that his choices have made. The King and Light Wines making both Isaac and Rebecca's lives miserable. He marries a daughter of Ishmael. He thinks, oh you know what? I just need to add another
[00:12:58] thing to my life. I just need to add a little spirituality to what I already have and that will change everything. Adding something to his life like an accessory rather than changing his life, changing his standards, repenting and asking God to lead into guide. This is not repentance.
[00:13:24] This is an addition, an intent to assessorize life with God, not to change or to follow or be under the authority of God. And we know people like that, that want God just I'm just going
[00:13:39] to get a little religion and then that will make my life blessed. Instead of I'm going to follow the Lord, being the blessed one doesn't mean that Jacob will inherit his father's estate.
[00:13:51] Rather he is sent away and hears the crisis of blessing, send away with only another blessing and instruction on where to find his wife. The blessing may God Almighty bless you. He's not sending
[00:14:04] away with money or tents or camels or servants but commending them to God's blessing. Make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of peoples and give you the blessing of
[00:14:17] Abraham to you and your descendants. That you may inherit the land in which you are stranger, which God gave to Abraham. Here is the blessing that Jacob actually wanted. Here is the desired
[00:14:29] covenant of Abraham. And then the instructions on where to find a wife. This will be the wife of a covenant. See, the covenant wife is so important. It has been Sarah, not Hagar or Katura.
[00:14:44] It had been Rebecca, not a Canaanite woman. Finally, there's certainty of blessing. It might not appear at first like Jacob is blessed. When you consider he is exiled. His brother who is a hunter
[00:14:59] wants to kill him. That's like the serial killer's got your address. He is going to a place he has never been. He is all alone. He is how to leave home. He is how to leave the promised land.
[00:15:11] He is how to leave his father. He is how to leave the estate of his father. He has had to leave his mother and is hand to leave a life of privilege and authority. And he does not have any surpluses or
[00:15:25] any supplies with him. And he spends a night of deprivation, probably the last spot. Last place he sleeps before leaving Canaan, the promised land. He is outside. He is among the elements of nature
[00:15:43] and he has a rock for a pillow. He could easily conclude at this point that his deception and his circumstances show that he has jeopardized the promises of God. However, as he sleeps,
[00:15:58] he has a dream. And he sees a ladder that reaches all the way to heaven and on this ladder, their angels going up to heaven and coming back down to earth. He hears God's speak from above
[00:16:09] the ladder. I am the Lord God of the Abraham, our Father and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. I will give to you in your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall
[00:16:23] spread abroad to the west and the east of the north and the south. And in you and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and we'll keep you wherever you go.
[00:16:34] And we'll bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done all that I've spoken to you. Here is the covenant of Abraham. Here are the blessings that Jacob wanted. It is not conferred
[00:16:47] to him in perfect conditions but comes to him in a time of deprivation, exile, pilgrimage and uncertainty. But when Jacob awaits, he realizes surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.
[00:17:03] His acknowledgement is that the Lord is even with him though he is not the favorite son of his father. Though he received the blessing by deception, though he is hated by his brother,
[00:17:14] though he is fleeing from the land of promise. God is even in this place with him and still promising him covenant, his presence, his protection and his prosperity. Jacob enters into a covenant with God
[00:17:31] and I love this. He makes a makeshift alter. Do you realize he doesn't have an animal for sacrifice? He just takes what he has which is just a little bit of oil. He takes what he has.
[00:17:44] He piles rocks together and he pours the oil on it. He doesn't have wood, he doesn't have animal. And he names the place Bethel. By naming this place Bethel or a house of God,
[00:17:59] he is claiming this place for God. He has saying, this is an awesome place. This is the house of God. This is the gateway to heaven. This place is sanctified. It's holy and it belongs to God.
[00:18:13] This is the place where he met encountered and heard the voice of a living God. And he makes a vow to God or enters a covenant with God. If God will be with me and keep me in
[00:18:26] this way that I'm going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house and peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have said
[00:18:36] is a pillar shall be God's house. And all that you give me, I will surely give a tent to you. What Jacob is saying is this, if this is what you promise to do for me, then I'm all in.
[00:18:52] I'm all in. I will be yours. If this is what the promises of God are, if this is what you're offering me, yes and yes and amen and yes, I'm all in. I'll give you a tent. I'll do whatever it takes. God's blessing has been transferred and secured
[00:19:13] and now ratified to Jacob, the son who did not come to it legally, biologically, culturally or because of perfect behavior. Doesn't that get you excited? You do not deserve the blessing of God. Legally, you do not deserve the blessing of God, biologically, unless you're
[00:19:34] Jewish but you still don't. You do not deserve the blessing of God, culturally or because you have perfect behavior. Rather the blessing of God has come to Jacob as it comes to you by God's word.
[00:19:49] And by Jacob's willingness to do whatever it took to receive God's blessing and is like, do you desire the blessing of God on your life? Yes, sure we do! We'll try it again. Thank you.
[00:20:01] Do you desire the blessing of God on your life? Take that up and pray this after now. Practice doesn't Jacob, sorry, give you such hope. God wants to bless those who truly want his blessing.
[00:20:17] God has a specific means to his blessing. The blessing of God comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ. All he need to do is want his blessing and seek it through Jesus Christ's Peter said,
[00:20:32] nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 412, Jesus is the standard and the way into all the blessings of God.
[00:20:47] Ephesians 1 3 and 4a, blessed is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ to his blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Here comes in Christ in Christ. Just as he
[00:21:03] chose us in him, in Christ before the foundation of the world. We have been chosen, we have been designated for blessing, not by birth, right? Not by behavior, not by culture, not by education, not by giftedness, but through the simple criteria of esteeming and wanting and receiving
[00:21:27] the source of all blessings which is Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Through Jesus all the blessings that Jacob felt he had to deceive and pretend to be somebody else for.
[00:21:42] All the blessings that Jacob went after that he sold a pot of stew for. All of these blessings are ours. The blessings that Rebecca wanted for Jacob, we can want and desire and pray for for our
[00:22:03] children. All the blessings that Jacob wanted for himself are ours. Through Jesus Christ we are in covenant with God and God says that he will be with us. I will never leave you nor forsake you
[00:22:20] that you may boldly say the Lord is my helper. I'm not going to fear what man can do. These blessings cannot come to those without Christ because Christ is the source of all blessings. God will not
[00:22:37] divinely favor those who do not esteem in Son, who refuse to receive his Son, will not walk according to his Son and will not place faith in the work of his Son. Those who will not esteem
[00:22:53] the Son will not be esteemed or blessed of the Father, but God will and God does bless those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Those who seek the blessing of God will be able to claim even
[00:23:09] over the darkest, most desperate and lonely times. Surely the Lord is in this place. Surely the Lord is still for me. Still wanting to bless me. Still has a great plan and I knew it not.
[00:23:29] All the blessings of God, all of them are in Christ Jesus. He is our arch of the covenant. He is our agreement with God. He is the reconciler of God with man. He is our source of blessing and those
[00:23:51] blessings are all available to us. Not only available to us, but God wants to bless us. God eagerly wants to bless us and He does it through faith in Christ Jesus. Those of faith
[00:24:10] are ripe for blessing. Not by birth right. But by. We have been designated for blessing not by birth right, not by behavior, but simply by wanting and receiving the source of all blessings.
[00:24:31] Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Through Jesus Christ we are in covenant with God, and all the promises of God are ours. God's heart and desire is to bless his children
[00:24:44] and His biggest blessing comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ. Even as Jacob was alone and on the run, God was with Him and reaffirmed His covenant to Him. May this encourage us that even in
[00:24:57] our desperate and darkest times, God is true to His Word and will never leave us or forsake us. We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study. For more information about the gracious
[00:25:08] words radio program and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Broderson, please visit our website at GraciousWords.com. Coming up next time on the GraciousWords program we'll look at Jacob's new life as we continue
[00:25:21] 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 This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California.
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