WEBVTT 00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.799 Morning, church. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:07.599 Reading from the book of Genesis 27:41 to 28.5. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:13.359 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.079 And Esau said to himself, The days of mourning for my father are approaching. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:20.719 Then I will kill my brother Jacob. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.079 But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:32.000 So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:34.960 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:45.759 Arise, free to Laban, my brother in Haran, and stay with him awhile, until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.240 Then I will send and bring you from there. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:51.520 Why should I be bereft of you both in one day? 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:56.399 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:03.280 If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me? 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:09.439 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:17.760 Arise, go to Padan Aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.920 God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:31.840 May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.079 Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:41.760 And he went to Abadan Aram to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:43.200 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:44.480 Please be seated. 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:50.000 Good morning. 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:55.120 My name's uh I've got a bit of a cold. 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:57.040 So there you go. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:58.799 What do you guys have? 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:00.959 My name's James Rathman. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.200 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:05.280 Uh, thanks so much for joining us this morning. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:12.639 Um, yeah, I think we're, you know, this is the voice that I hope to have one day as a preacher. 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.759 I just wish it wasn't, you know, today. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.319 Um but thanks for thanks for joining us. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:24.400 I'm gonna pray for us and then we'll get back into Genesis. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:31.039 Holy Father, thank you for drawing together your congregation in worship of you. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:44.719 Thank you for the intricacies of the stories in the lives in this room, that you've woven together towards a moment of praise on a Sunday morning on the Lord's day. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:49.759 Lord, we praise you that you are the God who draws near to us. 00:02:52.400 --> 00:03:04.319 That even amidst our chaos and our unholiness, you make your promise to draw near and you teach us to live by faith in that promise. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:18.960 Lord, as we look at your word today, I pray that your word would be effective to train our hearts to draw closer to your promise and to see how glorious you are in your love towards us. 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:20.719 Lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:21.680 Amen. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:29.199 Now, you're gonna hear a lot of gross noises, but imagine how they sound to me. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:31.520 I'm gonna do one right now. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:37.120 Man, I'm I apologize. 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:39.680 I was not this sick when I went to bed last night. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.639 Um, but here we go, let's start preaching. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:49.360 Frighteningly, there is perhaps no such thing as an isolated incident. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.280 Everything is connected. 00:03:54.639 --> 00:04:04.080 Every little move impacts stories and they change trajectory, and the future becomes almost impossible to calculate in that regard. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:15.039 In college, we all had to read this guy, John Stuart Mill, and he has a ethical philosophy called utilitarianism. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:24.079 And the idea is that we should determine the rightness and wrongness of any particular action by the outcomes that that action will produce. 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:27.839 And for like a hundred years, we all believed him. 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:36.079 But somebody should have raised their hands the first lecture and said, which consequence are you talking about? 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:52.160 You think that you can stand back before you commit an action, and you'll be able to tell whether it will have good consequences or bad consequences, whether the outcome will be positive or negative. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:05:01.519 And you think that you can determine the rightness or wrongness by whatever you're about to do because of some mystical reading of the future? 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.240 It's an outrageous proposition. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:10.879 And it's not a way that we can practically live, because the world is just too complicated. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:12.319 It's too strange. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.240 The things that happen to us are very hard to get a read on. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:46.480 Today, as we continue through this story in Genesis, we're seeing how the actions of Isaac, Esau, Jacob, and Rebecca, and particularly the deceitful approach that Jacob and Rebekah took so that Jacob would receive the blessing, causes these terrible consequences that, in one sense, the family never recovers from. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:55.600 In today's section, this is the last time that the family of Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau will be together. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.639 They will never be together again after this. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:07.519 And they were parted by a hatred that was formed by the sinful actions of Isaac and Jacob. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:09.920 Well, all of them were sinning. 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:21.839 You know, life with its incomprehensible connectedness, it can it can cause you to just feel like you're swimming in just a pool of chaos all the time. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:39.199 But the Bible gives us a through line, a through line of hope that allows us to understand and interpret the chaotic circumstances that we live in by the promises of God. 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:48.639 And we'll see how it is these promises of God that enter into the chaos of our lives to show us meaning in the midst of them. 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:56.720 So the first thing we're gonna look at today is Rebecca acting wisely amidst a chaotic situation. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:09.439 We've seen Rebecca and her sort of cunning, and she's used that cunning and uh shrewdness for uh deceitfulness against her husband, but today we see that she is a master diplomat. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:20.160 She is someone who can assess quickly the characters and events involved in a situation, and then have a plan immediately for what to do about them in a positive way. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:26.399 And then we're going to see how this results in the passing on of the covenant. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:29.920 And we're going to zoom out in our story. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:34.639 We're going to see how the covenant holds this whole narrative framework together. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:36.639 So those are our two things we're doing today. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.560 Let's begin by looking over the diplomacy of Rebecca. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:42.959 Genesis 27, verse 41. 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:49.120 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:54.800 And Esau said to himself, The days of mourning for my father are approaching. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:58.000 Then I will kill my brother Jacob. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:01.279 Okay, so we get a little snapshot. 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:07.120 If you're just joining us, we've been preaching through Genesis for, I think, since I was like 15. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:16.639 And we are entering a point where uh there is this deceit amongst this family about the passing on of a blessing. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.720 One brother wanted the blessing, the other brother also wanted the blessing. 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.680 God had ordained the younger brother would get the blessing. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:28.800 It's passed along through deceit and uh manipulation. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:39.360 And yet we see that the blessing passes on to the younger brother whom God intended it to pass to, even amidst all the deceit and manipulation that took place in the story. 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:55.519 But because of the deceit that took place, because of Jacob deceiving Isaac, because of Rebekah's plan for Jacob to deceive Isaac, the result is hatred. 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:05.759 Now, what might have existed in this family of very different people, Isaac is very different from Rebekah, Esau is very different from Jacob. 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:16.799 What might have existed in this family as just some sort of cordial disagreements now comes to the watershed of murder. 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:21.600 It becomes a hatred that is now born into the family. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:26.559 And whatever would have just been a subtle disagreement is now full-blown hatred. 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:30.320 Esau hates Rebekah. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:55.279 And it makes us wonder what might have happened if Rebecca and Jacob, instead of acting deceitfully towards Isaac and Esau, what might the condition of the family be if they had gone to them and spoken plainly, if they had laid before them their hope in the promises of God that they had received. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:57.519 But that's unknowable. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:02.000 Perhaps Esau would have hated them still, but we can't know. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:10.000 Here we see that Esau certainly hates them because of the deception that took place. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:22.720 But just like when Rebekah overheard Isaac planning to bless the wrong son, now Rebekah overhears Esau planning to murder Jacob. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:24.639 Your mother is listening. 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:29.519 That's the point of that passage. 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:36.159 It's called you observe and then you uh make applications from the text. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:52.559 So Genesis 27, 42, but the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebecca, so she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:57.759 Now, when we were when this was being read, I heard multiple people chuckle at that. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:10:59.919 You guys are freaks. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:04.159 What else is funny to you? 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:06.799 Just wanted to say that. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:16.000 The um see, what we're seeing here is Rebecca's Rebecca's wisdom at reading what's really happening in the situation. 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:26.320 You see, she knows her son Esau well enough to understand what role his plan to kill Jacob is actually playing in his life. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:28.799 He's comforting himself. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:39.440 You know, this idea that he'll be able to concoct his own vengeance and he can put it just on the other side of his father's death is just a means of self-talk. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:41.840 It's just a means of gaining comfort. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:53.919 And this allows Rebecca to act very wisely here because she knows that the move is not to go to Esau and say, hey, Esau, let's try and talk you off a ledge right now. 00:11:54.159 --> 00:12:01.759 You know, we're we're uh the way that you're acting, and like let's try and rethink this murdering your brother plan. 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:05.519 Let's see if we can come up with three other solutions. 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:08.240 And we'll make a pros and cons list. 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:13.519 Now, there is no space for reasonability in Esau's life at that point. 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:15.440 So that's not where she goes. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:24.799 Instead, she goes to Jacob in order to concoct a plan which will provide Esau with time and space to cool down. 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:29.120 She knows that's what's necessary in this type of moment. 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:33.279 She acts incredibly wise, incredibly shrewd in her action. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:45.840 So, as we saw Rebecca do earlier, although a sort of you know wicked version of what she does now, she concocts a plan immediately. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:51.120 Earlier, she said, Jacob, Isaac is about to bless your brother. 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:56.320 Let's pretend you're Esau and we'll manipulate your father and lie to him. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:02.480 Now it was a plan and it was effective, it worked, but it was wicked and cruel. 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:14.799 Now, as though the hatred that's been born into her family is already beginning to teach her a lesson, she approaches this differently. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:18.799 And she uses her wisdom for good in this regard. 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:36.960 So she goes to Jacob and she says, Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, arise, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away. 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:40.639 See, she places a timeline on it. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:53.840 And her plan is for Jacob to go to Laban to her brother, and then the verse after this, which I don't have on the screen, she ends by saying, Why should I lose both of you in one day? 00:13:54.080 --> 00:14:04.080 Now you can't hear this story of Isaac and Rebecca, the parents, and they're two warring sons where hatred is brewing. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:06.240 Brew, eh, you know. 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:10.799 You can't hear this story without the background of Cain and Abel. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.360 It's the same story, right? 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:20.399 The first brothers, where Cain ends up killing his brother Abel over these religious differences. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:32.000 It's as though Rebecca understood what the stakes really were here. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:41.519 In a way that perhaps Eve, not having seen anyone do this before, was unable to understand. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:50.399 She understood that the likely outcome here, if I don't intervene in some way, is I lose both of my sons today. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:53.919 Why should I lose you both in one day? 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:21.679 And so she acts in this way that instead of manipulating the situation so that her and Jacob could perhaps skate through this difficult family problem unscathed, instead, she plans a situation which demands her sacrifice. 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:28.159 Her plan is to send away her most beloved son. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:35.679 Send him to Laban, where perhaps, although she hopes otherwise, she may never see him again. 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:39.919 And as a matter of fact, she will never see him again. 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:47.600 But isn't that a glorious and beautiful picture of a motherly courage? 00:15:48.480 --> 00:16:06.240 It reminds me of when Solomon is given his first kind of riddle to demonstrate his wisdom once he becomes king, and the two prostitutes come to him and they're arguing over whose child is theirs, who is the mother of this one child. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:10.879 And Solomon says, Well, let's cut the baby in half, as you do. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:24.799 And the real mother is the one who's willing to sacrifice her possession of the child for the child's own goodness. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:30.320 But do you see the courage and sacrifice that that takes? 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:45.039 It's a glorious picture of a motherly courage towards Jacob, her beloved son, whom she wisely encourages to go away, leave home. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:52.799 And if there's one thing that we know about Jacob, it literally says in the Bible he liked tents, you know? 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:54.799 He was kind of an indoor cat. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.519 And he didn't like to leave home. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:09.279 And yet she convinces this son, who doesn't like to leave home, to go to a place that he's never been, where he will face many challenges and she won't be with him. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:25.119 Well, just as skillfully as she maneuvers in that situation and courageously as Rebecca maneuvers that situation, we see her offer the same sort of skill and uh understanding with her husband Isaac. 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.000 And so she comes to Isaac. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:30.799 Here's the deal. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:36.400 Jacob needs to go with Isaac's legitimate blessing for a couple of reasons. 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.000 One, to maintain some semblance of family unity. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:52.400 Second, because if Isaac blesses Jacob, that acts as a sort of backstop temporarily until Isaac dies for Esau to murder Jacob. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:18:04.799 So Rebekah understands that Isaac needs to be involved in Jacob leaving if this is going to be long-term effective. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:08.960 So she comes to Isaac and she says, This. 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:26.400 Now, I know what you're thinking. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:34.400 That doesn't sound very much like a request to bless Jacob and send him to your brother Laban. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:36.960 But that's precisely what it is. 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:53.759 The difference is that she is including her husband Isaac in a way that is understandable to him, meaningful to him, and in line with his good convictions. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:19:08.400 So what she does is what she does is she makes this about Jacob's future marriage. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:15.680 Now it is important that he doesn't marry one of the Hittite women, one of the women who live in the land of Canaan. 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:21.599 Esau, the other brother, has already married two Hittite women. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:31.920 And it says earlier in the text that they made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah, that these women made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:49.200 So, and also remember, Isaac and Rebekah's own story involves going to the land of uh where Abraham came from and finding a wife from that land. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:56.880 And so this is a conviction that Isaac already has to marry within the family. 00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:59.119 I know it raises other questions. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.400 But it's a conviction that Isaac already has. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:11.039 And so she moves in line with that conviction to position this in a way that's that's immediately accessible to Isaac. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:17.920 Now, there we have to understand this in light of what Rebecca had done previously. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:37.279 Now he previously Rebecca had concocted this plan, and instead of moving with and speaking to Isaac, she moved just in the shadows and manipulated, tried to manipulate the situation around her husband. 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:39.599 And that resulted in hatred. 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:50.000 But here, in this situation, she moves with her husband, and it results in family unity and blessing. 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:53.119 Because here's a reality that's in this text. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:01.440 I think I'm willing to, not having known them personally, but with these few stories, I'm willing to make this claim. 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:05.440 Rebecca is far smarter than Isaac. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:09.359 She's a more in-tune, more intelligent person. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:12.480 She's able to read situations more quickly than he is. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:16.480 She's able to understand the realities of characters and events more quickly than he is. 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:19.920 She's able to come up with plans more quickly than he is. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:32.960 And sometimes, what we've seen is she might use this leg up on her husband as a means of manipulation, as a means of actually tearing him down. 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:59.440 But here we see her use this shrewdness, this wisdom, which outpaces her husband, not as a tool against him, but as a benefit for him, as an opportunity for him to step into a goodness, to step into the role of the one who holds the promise, the patriarch of the family, the one who's been given the covenant headship. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:06.480 Now her shrewdness and wisdom, which are part of her character, are benefits to that process. 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:10.720 They are not something that are used merely to manipulate Isaac. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.960 And it just makes you wonder, right? 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:23.920 What might Rebecca have come up with if she was willing to talk to Isaac face to face before she had decided to just manipulate him? 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:26.880 What if she had acted in love before? 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:29.839 We see her wisdom is so clear and good. 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:35.440 It might have been something wonderful, a totally different story, but we don't know. 00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:38.400 That's not the way the Bible works. 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:40.640 We don't get counterfactuals. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.799 By the way, it's not the way your life works either. 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:49.119 You don't get to go back and rerun what ifs. 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.880 So Isaac hears this concern of Rebecca's. 00:22:57.039 --> 00:22:58.480 It's about Jacob's marriage. 00:22:58.640 --> 00:22:59.839 It looks to the future. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:05.440 He looks and says, Do I want a wife that says her life is worth nothing to her because of the Hittite women? 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:11.839 Do I want to continue living with these women that Esau keeps bringing around that are making life miserable for us? 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:14.960 I think they popped their gum. 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:17.759 Something, I don't know. 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:24.319 Some cultural commentators, uh, they're uh Hebrew experts. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:32.079 Look at how Isaac moves with the wisdom of his wife that he's able to move into. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:34.640 Genesis 28, 1 through 2. 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:38.799 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him. 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:42.799 You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:54.319 Arise, go to Padonna Aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. 00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:00.240 Rebecca's, you know, I bet she overheard it, if I know anything about Rebecca. 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.880 She tends to be an overhearer. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:06.799 Uh, and when she heard that, she must have thought, good idea. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:09.279 Because that was her idea. 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:10.480 Right? 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:11.599 It was her idea. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:23.839 But it but it it was able to be received and authentically uh conveyed, you know, with no duplicitousness, with no hidden agenda by Isaac. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:30.480 He was able to wholeheartedly receive that wisdom when she brought it to him as a as a benefit to him. 00:24:31.359 --> 00:24:36.720 Okay, so it we just see this is how it could have gone. 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.880 This is how it could have gone. 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:52.079 So Isaac commissions Jacob to go and and to marry from the family, to marry within the people of promise in this way. 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.559 And his blessing continues. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:24:59.359 Genesis 28, 3. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:13.119 Isaac says, God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:19.920 Now we've got to enter into the dynamic between Isaac and Jacob at this point. 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:23.440 Isaac the father is blessing Jacob the son with these words. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:37.680 The last time that this took place, it was because Isaac thought he was blessing Esau, because Jacob was deceiving him into thinking that he was his brother. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:47.359 But this time, Isaac is truthfully, wholeheartedly, open-heartedly blessing Jacob. 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:51.839 There's an incredible dynamic that's taking place here. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:57.680 He starts with this phrase, God Almighty. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:12.319 Now, this is used in Genesis 17, when Abraham receives the covenant and receives the sign of the covenant, which is circumcision. 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:17.519 And for the first time, God introduces himself as God Almighty. 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:23.519 He is the one who is in control of everything. 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:30.960 Now you can think of just so many reasons why Isaac might use that phrase at this point. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:41.119 Isaac would use the phrase God Almighty because he's remembering, remembering the promise that was given to Abraham. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.759 And so he calls on that very same phrase, that very same name of God. 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:54.559 He might use the phrase God Almighty because he is understanding the very circumstances that he is in. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:57.200 Excuse me. 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:01.519 He might look back and say, man, what a week. 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:08.400 It started out, and I had these intentions that were perfectly counter to God. 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:11.279 But I had such a good plan. 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:19.759 I was going to have Esau, the son I wasn't supposed to bless, come in, prepare a covenant meal, and I would bless him. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:25.680 And the blessing would pass on, although to the son of my choosing, perhaps not God's. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:42.480 But then my wife and youngest son collaborated, prepared a covenant meal, and tricked me in my blindness by disguising everything from their touch to their scent. 00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:45.920 And I blessed the wrong son. 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:52.799 And then murder, murderous intentions came into my family. 00:27:55.359 --> 00:28:04.720 And I was filled with fear over seeing the providence of God working even within my own sinful intentions. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:11.039 It's been quite a week of trying to pass this blessing on. 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:17.599 And yet, God has accomplished precisely what he intended. 00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:35.200 And yet, this promise of God, through all this mess and chaos, through all my own sin and the sin of everyone in my family, throughout all of that, God's promises still stand. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:41.039 Perhaps that's why he would say, God Almighty. 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:52.400 And then we also might remember that when he thought he was blessing Esau, but was actually blessing Jacob, he didn't use the phrase God Almighty. 00:28:52.559 --> 00:29:02.960 And then when he discovered that God had gotten his way, he trembled violently at the fear of the Lord's providence playing itself out. 00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:09.039 The nature of the promises of God being undefeated by human intentions. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:20.400 And so when he says God Almighty this time, it's probably not like any other time he had said it when he remembered the promise to Abraham. 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:24.400 I think this time he knows what those words mean. 00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:27.279 God is Almighty. 00:29:28.319 --> 00:29:31.359 His promises absolutely hold. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:58.000 Now that's actually a very exciting word, company, because it expands the notion of what the multiplication would mean. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:08.799 This is actually the first instance of the Hebrew word for congregation, the Hebrew word for church. 00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:11.359 This is the first instance of that. 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:14.240 In this promise, it's expanded. 00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:23.200 And that means we're starting to see that the expanse of this promise goes even beyond the immediate family lines. 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:37.519 But that there are other nations and other peoples, a diversity that might be brought in to hold together in a unity around the promises of God. 00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:49.200 That first glimmer of that transformative truth that we know in the gospel of Christ starts to glimmer forth here in this twisted family. 00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:52.400 God's promises continue to shine forth. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:31:07.839 And then in Genesis 28, verse 4, Isaac says, May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:14.160 He makes it explicit that this is the same promise that was given to Abraham. 00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:20.240 The very same promise that was given to Abraham in Genesis 12, when Abraham was first told to leave his land. 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:26.079 In Genesis 15, when God does the weird thing and is a flaming pot and torch and passes through the animals. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:27.680 You know what I mean? 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:29.359 Same promise. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:35.039 Same promise as in Genesis 17, when they're given the covenant sign of circumcision. 00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:42.880 It's the same promise that is fulfilled when Isaac is finally born after years of turmoil. 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:57.200 It's the same promise that shows its results playing out as there isn't a suitable wife for Isaac, but a good servant goes back to where Laban lives and finds Rebecca so that Isaac might have a wife. 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:04.160 It's the same promise that continues to shine through, even when the instructions are so clear from God. 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:14.000 Bless the younger son, and the family conspires together to do everything they can to make sure they sin as much as possible in that process. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:19.039 And the promises continue to shine through. 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:32.799 We've been in the trees with this story for a while now, with the transition of the promise and all the sin that takes place between Isaac, Esau, Rebecca, and Jacob. 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:39.759 Here, with this relaying of the covenant, we're moving back to look at the forest again. 00:32:41.440 --> 00:33:04.400 And when we look at the forest, we see that amidst all of the chaos and uncertainty and unpredictability and finiteness and unholiness that takes place in the world where we live, that amidst all of that, not just amidst, right? 00:33:04.559 --> 00:33:18.640 Not just like a mist hovering over, within, within all of that, in those very sinful actions themselves, the covenant holds. 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:22.319 The promise holds. 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:25.839 It continues marching on. 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:28.880 What is a covenant? 00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:31.680 What is this covenant? 00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:37.200 Covenant is the means, but a covenant is a promise. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:34:09.760 And the promise is the means by which God himself, of his own accord, reaches out to sinners, to the corrupt, to all of our sinful intentions, all the mess of our chaos and unholiness, all of the entropy that rules in the world, he reaches into that mess and accomplishes his good purposes. 00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:14.559 He draws that close to us. 00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:31.920 The covenant, the promise, is the means by which this holy, righteous, perfect, and infinite God draws close of his own accord, nobody's twisting his arm, but his love in himself, this is the good news. 00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:53.840 His love in himself inspires himself, or whatever, I don't know how to talk about things in the Trinity, to reach out into our mess and say, I'm going to make myself a part of that for the good of these people, that they might know me and love me. 00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:56.079 That's how all promises work. 00:34:56.239 --> 00:35:00.639 There's no such thing as a relationship without the background of a promise. 00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:18.239 And they can be explicit, like in a marriage, where you stand before your friends and you promise to one another, and then that becomes the background on which the relationship functions that moves it through time and holds it steady in that relationship. 00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.800 Or any relationship requires that. 00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:29.840 I mean, there's what is a what is like what is friendship other than just like a collection of inside jokes? 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:33.199 And what is an inside joke? 00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:42.159 It's it's this promise that says, I remember what you've said before, and I promise to remember it in the future. 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:49.119 And we'll know that we've committed in this way to know one another. 00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:55.360 And that becomes the backdrop of a relationship implicit in these promises. 00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:18.719 When we zoom out to the forest, we see that if we try and understand the world or our lives by just discerning the strangeness and the chaos of it, we'll be lost forever. 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:21.199 There's no hope of. 00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:24.079 There's no hope. 00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:36.800 This is why as Christians, we live by faith. 00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:45.360 Do you see why that's the do you see why that's like why sometimes I think faith can feel like um just kind of like an addition. 00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:49.199 You know, it's like include faith in your life. 00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:51.039 Uh in it, and it can seem strange. 00:36:51.119 --> 00:36:53.679 Like, why are Christians so obsessed with faith? 00:36:53.920 --> 00:37:10.960 Wouldn't you think that we they should be more obsessed with like um, I don't know, generosity or love or um politeness or something that that seems to kind of grease the wheels of culture a bit better. 00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:32.480 But instead we talk, those are all good things, but we talk as like central to understanding what it means to be a Christian is to understand that what holds the world together is the promises of God, that those are the deepest matter of fact in existence, because they always happen. 00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:47.760 And when we see that, then in order to live wisely and live with an understanding of what the world is, then it is faith in those promises that conforms us to the reality. 00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:53.199 And so we live by faith in the covenant. 00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:56.639 And what is the covenant? 00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:08.480 It's that God draws close to us after we learn the rules and get our act together. 00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:11.679 Can you imagine? 00:38:12.559 --> 00:38:14.079 It would take so long. 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:23.920 The covenant is that he says, While we are yet sinners, I will be your God. 00:38:25.599 --> 00:38:35.280 I see this abundance of chaos in your life, in your life, and I will draw close to that. 00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:52.719 And you want to say something like, Look, God, you know, if we were like a good consultant of God, like if we were an optimistic angel or something, we were sitting there and God shares this plan, and we'd say something like, Look, I love your heart. 00:38:57.119 --> 00:38:59.840 These aren't the type of people you want to draw near to. 00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:03.760 Like you draw nearer there. 00:39:05.039 --> 00:39:08.320 I I'm I'm gonna uh I'll be bluntly serious with you. 00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:13.840 You'll you'll you'll get yourself killed if you draw near there. 00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:17.920 You'll be taken up in that swirl of chaos and violence. 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:26.079 You'll be manipulated, and the whole time that you're present with them, they'll be trying to talk you out of whatever good plan that you have. 00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:29.760 They'll turn on you, they'll betray you. 00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:33.519 There's no amount of evil they won't commit against you. 00:39:33.679 --> 00:39:36.159 You think because you're God that they'll treat you well? 00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:39.599 It's a very bold angel. 00:39:48.079 --> 00:39:53.519 We know in Christ that God draws close to the uttermost. 00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:59.840 That the shape of the covenant is that in the midst of our sin, God draws close. 00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:04.000 He accomplished our forgiveness. 00:40:05.440 --> 00:40:13.760 I want this sermon to be of particular help if you feel like your life is a pool of unanswered questions. 00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:22.079 Or if you sense that even when you try and get involved to help things, that it's 50-50 at best. 00:40:24.239 --> 00:41:00.320 And I want you to be given this covenant promise from God to you in Christ, that you might hold it by faith and say, it is true that he loves me, that he has made me clean by what he has done in Christ, that he desires and is willing to draw close to me, and that that is the most matter-of-fact thing about me. 00:41:03.760 --> 00:41:06.159 Hold that promise by faith. 00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:08.800 Hold it by faith. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:12.079 Are there any questions today, Ian? 00:41:14.320 --> 00:41:15.119 Question. 00:41:15.360 --> 00:41:16.800 Is it good that evil exists? 00:41:16.960 --> 00:41:17.199 No. 00:41:17.440 --> 00:41:21.280 God obviously uses our poor actions to accomplish his will in this context. 00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:24.559 Um yeah, it's not it's not good that evil exists. 00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:26.880 But here's how we know. 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:33.280 Um you've got to think in terms of story. 00:41:33.440 --> 00:41:35.280 I'm obsessed with saying that. 00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:38.400 And I don't know if it means anything to anyone. 00:41:40.239 --> 00:41:48.400 So when we look at like a snapshot, we take a snapshot of the world right now. 00:41:48.719 --> 00:41:51.440 Google's probably doing this as we speak. 00:41:51.599 --> 00:41:57.119 And we look at it, and and we see that's an apartment building that exploded in Ukraine. 00:41:57.440 --> 00:41:58.880 This was a miscarriage. 00:41:59.039 --> 00:42:00.400 There's a divorce. 00:42:00.559 --> 00:42:03.760 There's a car that was stolen. 00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:07.360 Maybe it's for your own good. 00:42:08.320 --> 00:42:09.119 Maybe. 00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:10.960 We got it back, by the way. 00:42:11.360 --> 00:42:12.639 Yeah, incredible. 00:42:12.800 --> 00:42:14.880 Um so that's also in the picture. 00:42:14.960 --> 00:42:16.000 There's a couple of good things. 00:42:16.159 --> 00:42:22.480 And and then we say, okay, let's assess God based on this snapshot. 00:42:22.719 --> 00:42:26.239 Then we'd say something like, okay, there's evil in the world. 00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:31.760 So there must be some sense that it's good that there's evil in the world. 00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:36.559 But then we we've got to think narratively. 00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:38.639 Yeah, there's evil in the world. 00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:47.679 And so there is this element, this strange element that's deeply mysterious in the depths, you know, the bowels of Christianity of where did evil come from? 00:42:47.760 --> 00:42:48.960 Why was the snake in the garden? 00:42:49.119 --> 00:42:50.239 Why were these things permitted? 00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:52.719 And I I don't know the answers to those questions. 00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:54.480 But it was, and it's here. 00:42:55.119 --> 00:43:00.639 But what does God do to the evil that is in the world? 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:03.039 What is his response to it? 00:43:03.360 --> 00:43:05.280 He destroys it. 00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:11.679 Notice, he doesn't make sense of it. 00:43:13.360 --> 00:43:20.079 Making sense of evil is um that's an oxymoron. 00:43:21.039 --> 00:43:22.800 Evil that makes sense. 00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:25.440 There's no such thing as that. 00:43:25.599 --> 00:43:31.199 Like when those are different categories, evil and sense making, different categories. 00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:33.679 And so, what is God's response to evil? 00:43:33.920 --> 00:43:35.840 He destroys it forever. 00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:40.400 He makes it all, he makes it all go away. 00:43:40.639 --> 00:43:42.320 He punishes it and ruins it. 00:43:42.480 --> 00:43:53.760 And then how does he explain our approach to evil once we understand the gospel and what do you what he the good things that he was able to accomplish even in the midst of it? 00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:58.880 Ironically, he doesn't explain it to us qualitatively. 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:01.360 Which is what I would expect. 00:44:01.599 --> 00:44:06.480 What I would expect is for him to say something like, You see all of that evil? 00:44:06.800 --> 00:44:09.760 Look, it was actually good. 00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:14.159 And then we'd all say, Wow, it's like a mad an amazing magic trick. 00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:24.880 And so much of theology and philosophy is people wandering around saying, like, I can show you how this evil is actually good. 00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:30.719 But that's not the way Paul talks. 00:44:32.800 --> 00:44:45.280 Paul doesn't say this light in momentary affliction you will see was actually good. 00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:48.320 He doesn't say that. 00:44:49.280 --> 00:45:08.320 He says this light in momentary affliction will be swallowed up in a weight of glory and wonder that is so incomprehensibly grand that you'll basically say, what was the problem we were talking about again? 00:45:09.840 --> 00:45:13.280 Do you see the difference in that line of thinking? 00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:24.800 It's very important for us to recognize as Christians that our understanding of God's sovereignty is not like a uh fatalism or a justification for wickedness and evil. 00:45:25.199 --> 00:45:28.480 It's given to us as a place of hope in the midst of it. 00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:32.320 We're plunging deeply mysterious realities. 00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:37.039 And our cosmologies are a work in progress at best. 00:45:38.480 --> 00:45:45.840 But we're still able to hold these wondrous mysteries together in a way that is deeply effective for our lives. 00:45:46.400 --> 00:45:54.400 That we're able to look and see, I'm surrounded by evil and chaos, but I know that his promises hold and they will hold. 00:45:55.199 --> 00:45:59.599 That even in the worst thing, even in the death, there's a resurrection. 00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:07.199 That resurrection wasn't just an act of creation, it was also an act of destruction. 00:46:09.119 --> 00:46:10.960 Destruction of death. 00:46:15.519 --> 00:46:18.639 One more thing, but this is just neat. 00:46:21.039 --> 00:46:25.760