God's Purpose and Plan - Pastor Tom Loghry

God anticipates the reality of human sinfulness but is able to work out his good purpose of redemption.

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 When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, me too, my father. But he said, Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing. Esau said, Isn't he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me. He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing. Then he asked, haven't you reserved any blessing for me? Isaac answered Esau, I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son? Genesis 27, 34 through 37.

It is normal for us to make plans. And it is just as normal for our plans to collapse when some unforeseen challenge emerges. It happens so often that we coin sayings to guide us in those circumstances. Finish this saying for me. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, yes. It's a pretty apt saying.

When things go sideways, we try to make the best of things. This is our experience as human beings. But it's not God's experience. God is not taken by surprise. He knows what the future holds. He knows every action we would take in any set of circumstances. And so when God makes a plan, it does not change.

He has already accounted for everything and determined the best course. This means that when things go sideways, even when people don't act the way that they should, God is still there. God is in control, working out his purpose in all things. If God lacked such power and knowledge, and if he was also not perfectly good, we would have no reason to entrust ourselves to him.

He could be a powerful ally, but he would be no sure thing. In a world full of uncertainty, we need a God who is sure. A God who is in control. As we proceed in the story of Isaac's family, we turn back to the brewing conflict between Esau and Jacob. In Genesis 25, we learn that God's purpose is that Jacob, the younger twin, would supplant his firstborn brother Esau as the one to inherit the Abrahamic blessing, the promise of the land of Canaan, countless descendants, and worldwide blessing.

We learn also that Jacob is not a clean character. He takes advantage of Esau's sinful foolishness by persuading him to sell his birthright for some stew. Working between chapters 26 through 28, we're going to learn this morning more of Jacob's questionable character, the shortcomings of both his parents and Esau, and how God is yet able to work out his purpose in the midst of human sinfulness.

So we're going to have the scriptures behind me, but I, I do encourage you to open this morning because we're getting to kind of the part of Genesis where we're going to be covering a lot of territory. And so some of the passages I'll be summarizing, some of them I will be reading. So we're going to begin in Genesis 26, verses 34 through 35.

And I didn't include this last week because I think it kind of provides one part of a bookend, if you think about two bookends, kind of holding everything together in terms of the scriptures that we're going to be considering this morning. It says at the end of chapter 26 that Esau had married a couple of Hittite women.

When you think about the land of Canaan, you have to understand that it's made up of various tribes of people. So it's not just one tribe. And the Hittite people would have also been among those people occupying the land of Canaan. And, of course, these people weren't worshipping the one true God. They were not worshipping the God of Abraham and of Isaac.

And, so, there's a conflict there. There's also a conflict because there's a vulnerability to Esau marrying into these other tribes and his family just getting absorbed into them rather than them forming a distinct people. So there's things right up front that would suggest that he shouldn't have married these women.

But besides this, it says, That these women were, I guess, quite the daughter in laws. Because it says in verse 35, they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Now, hopefully you all don't have any experience with that. But, we can just imagine what sort of trouble they may have been having with them.

When we go to Genesis 27, we're entering into kind of a pivotal moment in In the life of this family. The boys are grown. Um, we just read that Esau was 40 years old. And Esau and Jacob are twins. So Jacob's also 40 years old. Isaac's getting older. And so in Genesis 27, we read, it says, When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau, his older son, and said to him, My son.

Here I am, he answered. Isaac said, I am now an old man, and don't know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.

Now, Isaac is an old man here, and he doesn't know when he's going to die. So, given kind of his poor condition that we read about here, his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he may be thinking, I'm, I'm going to be dying soon. Now as it turns out, he doesn't die very soon. He ends up living to the age of 180.

There's many years that pass between here and now, when he dies. But, in any case, he realizes, I need to get my affairs in order, so to speak. And he knows that he needs to give this blessing to Esau. Now the blessing that he's going to offer him is the blessing that he would receive as the firstborn.

It would be the blessing that would continue on this blessing that had been received from God, that was given to Abraham and to Isaac. And now, as Isaac would have it, to Esau. Now, you'll remember from Genesis 25, though, that God had said that it would be Jacob who would be the one that would receive this blessing, who would be the one that would be favored, rather than his older brother Esau.

And so, we're anticipating that something's gotta happen here. How it's going to happen, though, is not necessarily ideal. We go to verses 5 through 10. And we see there that Rebekah was kind of listening in, in terms of what Isaac was saying to Esau. And so when Esau goes out, she goes to Jacob and says, Listen, I heard that your father's preparing to bless Esau.

He sent him out to get some food, to have a nice meal together. So, we've got a plan here. We're gonna switch things up on them. We're gonna, bring me a couple of goats. We're gonna make a tasty dinner, just the way that he likes it. And that way, you can give him this food and he will bless you instead of Esau.

Now again, the whole reason why this scheme is even feasible is because, it's because Isaac's eyesight is just so poor. He wouldn't be able to visually tell the difference between his sons. But, Jacob anticipates a problem here. In verses 11 through 13, he says, Okay, we might be able to fool him with the food.

But I don't feel at all like my brother. My brother's a very hairy man, and I have smooth skin. So when I go to him, he's going to be able to tell right off that it's not me. And so the consequence will be, rather than receiving a blessing, I will receive a curse. And he's not just meaning that Abraham's, that Isaac's just going to curse him out.

He's meaning that something disastrous is going to happen for his future. Because this is what the blessings and curses are about. The blessing secures the son's future. The curse would doom his future. And so he's like, well, I don't want to have anything to do with that. That seems kind of dangerous.

He's not above deceiving him, but he wants to be successful. Rebekah assures him. She says, listen. If, if he's going to curse you, it's going to fall on me. Now it's difficult to figure out how that would work, but that's what, that's how she tries to assure him. And so we move on to verses 14 through 17. And the way that they go about trying to address Jacob's concern is by actually having him kind of dress like Esau.

They put, they cover him up with goat skins, so that he kind of feels kind of rough and, and hairy. Maybe, and kind of smells like Esau. And they bring the tasty food. And so, it's all prepared, and Jacob's ready to give his best imitation of Esau. And so, he proceeds to approach his father again, who is blind.

So looking at verses 18 through 22, Jacob goes in and just straight up lies to his father Isaac saying, I am Esau, you're, you're firstborn. I've got some food, eat it up. Give me your blessing. Now, Isaac is suspicious out of the gate. He says, wait, this is all kind of happened pretty fast. How did you find it so quickly, my son?

And then Isaac, I mean, Jacob just doubles down on his lie. He says, well, God supplied it to me really quick. Well, gee, that's not good. Now you're involving God in your lie. That's, that's not great. Isaac's still suspicious. It says, get close to me so I can touch you. And when Jacob touch, when Isaac touches him, he's just perplexed because he says, the voice is Jacob's, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

So, Isaac is still suspicious. But yet, he, he moves forward. Now we go to verses 23 through 27, and I will read these verses. Says that Isaac did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau. So he proceeded to bless him, proceeded to bless him despite his misgivings about the voice.

Are you really my son, Esau? Yes I am. He replied. Then he said, my son, bring me some of your game to eat so that I may give you my blessing. Jacob brought it to him and he ate and he brought some wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him. Come here, my son, and kiss me. So he went to him and kissed him.

When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. So, Jacob is all in on this deception, which is wrong. On Isaac's part, He's lacking some proper caution here, given his misgivings about the voice, how quickly the game was found.

But it seemed as though he just wanted to believe that this was his son. He probably wanted to eat the tasty food that was brought, was brought to him. And so, he smells probably the odors of the goat skin and says, ah, my son. You know, it smells like the field. Everything is fake, though. But despite the appearances being unreal, the blessing that he offers is a very real blessing.

Now, I think it's important to note here that it wasn't necessary that Jacob and Rebekah, really, because she was part of this scheme, it wasn't necessary that they would have taken this route of deception in order to secure this blessing. Now, we don't know the other route by which God would have given this blessing to Jacob, but God had promised it.

And so, because God had promised it, it was a sure thing that he would have received this blessing. Jacob could have chosen better, but greater than Jacob's choices is God's purpose. Because this wasn't a kind of decisive moment either. He's going to be blessed or cursed and God had promised indeed that he would be blessed.

So God can work even through our own wrongdoing at times. It doesn't mean that those things are good. It only means that God is gracious. And so picking up in verse 28, we hear the blessing that's given to Isaac. Given to Jacob, rather. It says, May God give you heaven's dew and earth's richness, an abundance of grain and new wine.

May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who cursed you be cursed, and those who blessed you be blessed. After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.

So this, this blessing that Isaac gives to Jacob has all the markers of the Abrahamic blessing of lordship, of nations serving him, of those who bless him being blessed, those who curse him being cursed themselves. And then very dramatically, as soon as, as soon as Jacob leaves the scene, here comes Esau.

Esau comes in ready to be blessed, but is in for a rude surprise. So, looking at verses 31 through 33. He comes in with the tasty food for his father, says pretty much the same thing, and Isaac's perplexed. He says, who are you? I just, I was just in here with you. I just gave you the blessing, and Esau is like, what do you mean?

I'm, I'm your son. Your firstborn. And that just, that just upsets Isaac terribly. It says that he trembled violently. He says, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him and indeed he will be blessed. So it's, it's a terrible surprise for Isaac.

It's a terrible surprise, of course, for Esau, because this blessing, again, means something. It's not something that he can just take back. As he's given it, so it stands. So looking at verses 34 through 37, it says there that when Esau heard what Isaac had to say, he urged his father to give him some sort of blessing.

And then he goes and rants about Jacob. He says, ah, isn't this just like Jacob to do this? It's in keeping with his name. He's a, he's a heel grabber. He's, he's, he's always trying to get me. He recalls how he took his birthright by persuading him to sell it to him for a bowl of stew. And now, here he is.

He's, he's he's taken the blessing, and so he's desperate here, he's like, Father, isn't there some blessing that you could have for me? And Isaac's like, I gave my blessing, what can I possibly do for you now?

But Esau's insistent. And so, picking up in verse 38, we'll read here. It says, Esau said to his father, do you have only one blessing, my father. Bless me too, my father. Then Esau wept aloud. His father, Isaac, answered him, Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

You will live by the sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke off your neck. Esau held a grudge against Jacob, because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob.

So, is there a blessing that Isaac can give? Yes, but it's not the same at all. It's, it's inferior, really. It says that Esau's dwelling will be away from the earth's richness. Away from the dew of heaven above. He's a guy that's going to have to live by the sword. And the only kind of positive turn that we see here is that eventually he'll throw off the yoke of his brother.

And so, hearing all this, Esau's like, that's it, I'm gonna kill him. But he's serious, he's like, I'm actually gonna kill my brother. He's ready to commit murder. And so, looking to verses 42 through 45. Once again, Rebekah's got great ears. Or she's got great sources. Because she hears that Esau said this. And she's like, alright.

I gotta make another plan again. And she goes to Jacob and says, listen, your brother's ready to kill you. Like, actually, he's going to kill you. And so, she says, I want you to go to my brother, Laban, who lives in Haran. Now, you remember Haran is where the family, going all the way back to Abraham, had originally departed from when they came to the land of Canaan.

She says, go to him, stay with him for a while, until Esau's not angry any longer, and when he's cooled down, I'll send word to you. Because I don't want to lose both of you in one day. Now, I don't know exactly what that means, in terms of losing both of them, if she was afraid, like they'd kill each other, or maybe Esau would kill Jacob, and she's like, I don't want to have anything to do with Esau because she loves Jacob so much.

And so she's willing to send her son hundreds of miles away so that he might be safe. And I'm going to show you a map in a little bit just to show you where exactly he went. But it was a really desperate move, because the reality is that Rebekah is never going to see Jacob again. She's going to die before she gets to see him again.

So the circumstances are quite dire that she would send him that, that far away. So, So, seeking a pretense that would at least satisfy Isaac so that he would in fact send Jacob away, Rebekah picks up the issues that they've been having with Esau's wives. Oh, actually, I did have the map there. Wonderful.

So that's Haran all the way up there. So we're talking about hundreds of miles. Sending him very, very, very far away. So, picking up in verse 46, going into chapter 28. Rebekah said to Isaac, I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your father, mother's father, Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. So, again, both Isaac and Rebekah agreed they do not like these Canaanite daughter in laws.

I just love the point that she puts on it. It says, if he takes another wife among them, my life's not going to be worth living. It's like, wow, this must have been really, really bad. So, they want to send Jacob back to their family, their people, and Paddan Aram, to the house of Laban. And he wants, because he wants Isaac, Jacob rather, sorry I keep twisting the names up there, he wants Jacob to take a wife from their home, from their hometown basically.

So this is someone that's going to be a relative of Jacob. Which is weird to us. At that time, it wasn't weird that they would be marrying within the family. But it's important in terms of God's plan, because once again, they are forming a distinct people group. And ultimately, if you're going to form a distinct people group, going back in those early years, you had to kind of marry within the family.

So, Isaac has already given Jacob a blessing, but now he's going to give him another blessing as he sends his son out. Picking up in verse 3 of chapter 28. He says to Jacob, May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful, and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessings given to Abraham, So that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.

Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, who is the mother of Jacob and Esau. So once again, this blessing that he gives is explicitly referring back to the Abrahamic Promise, Isaac isn't creating his own new blessing here.

It's, it's all standing in continuity. It's going from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. So Jacob goes forth and then we have this interesting little note here, verses six through nine where Esau observes how Isaac had blessed Jacob, sent him away so that he could get a wife from, from there. And he realizes, Oh, dad would be happy if I didn't marry Canaanite women.

And so he decides, Well, maybe to fix the issue, I'll, I'll marry some daughters of Ishmael. Now you'll remember that Ishmael was the son of Abraham. You have Abraham, he had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac was the son of promise, Ishmael wasn't, but Ishmael is still from the family of, of Abraham. And so he marries two, two of their, their, their daughters.

And it's funny because that doesn't really fix anything. It also highlights something that, you know, is problematic, which is the practice of polygamy. Which God tolerated in the Old Testament, but was far from the ideal. And throughout the Old Testament we see how it produces problems. There's never a situation where it's like, oh, this is a great thing that's going on.

But God, like through all these messy circumstances that we've read here, is able to work even through these things. So yes, God can work out His plan even through sinfulness. He can take our rebellion, and work it according to his purpose. We see this most clearly in the case of Jesus. I know many of you recently read this passage in your small groups.

And so, I'm presenting it again, though, just to remind us of the testimony of the early believers to God's sovereignty. Acts 4, verses 24 through 28. They make this confession in prayer. They say, Sovereign Lord, You made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Obviously, those who crucified Jesus, Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Jewish leaders that were involved in con conspiracy, none of them had interest in God's plan. They just wanted Jesus dead. Nevertheless, God used their sinfulness to accomplish his purpose. That Jesus would give himself up to them so he could lay down his life to be that perfect sacrifice to God.

No one took his life. He gave it just as God planned. Many bad things happen in this life. People are bad to us. We are bad to others. Sin abounds in every direction. When things go sideways, we are tempted to despair. We hear that kind of desperation voiced in the Psalms again and again. God, where are you?

What are you doing? The psalmist finds his consolation when he trusts in God. When we turn to God in faith, we have to be able to trust that our sins are not too big for Him. That of course applies to forgiveness. Jesus covers our sins by His sacrifice. But what I really mean is this. I mean that no sin of yours, or mine, or others, can foil God's plan.

If you turn to Christ in faith, you're not sunk because of your sinful past. You're not irredeemable. God is working out His plan in your life yet. You're not defeated when plans and people fail you. The game isn't up. God's plan is still clipping along smoothly. If God isn't bigger than your plans, if he isn't bigger than the wickedness around you, these circumstances, those politicians, and your sin, then he is no God at all.

God is in fact unmovable. He is unshakable. Yesterday, today, and forever. He's orchestrating all things unto his purpose, and for the good of those who love him. So don't be surprised how God can work, even through sin and tragedy. He is surprised by nothing. His plan remains firm. Let us pray.

Dear Father, It's very easy for us, as we hear this story of Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Esau, to point out all the flaws, to see how they went wrong. to judge them. But Father, even as we are able to point out their wrongdoing, Father, we must confess that we have gone astray so often ourselves, where you have promised us good things, and yet we've decided to try to take things into our own hands.

Father, we pray that you would help us. to not resort to the ways of this world, that we would not resort to sinful means to secure the peace, which can only come from your hands. Help us to look to you father, to wait upon you and what you will do. Father, we just pray that we would have confidence and security knowing that you are sovereign.

That even when we've messed up, even when things about, around us just don't seem to be going right, Father, that we can trust that You are in control. And that You are working out Your good purpose. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we gather for worship. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)