7/14/19 Genesis 25:19-34 “I’d Rather Have Jesus”

12 Jul 7/14/19 Genesis 25:19-34 “I’d Rather Have Jesus”

7/14/19    Genesis 25:19-34    “I’d Rather Have Jesus”

I hope that everyone got to enjoy the 4^th of July weekend a little.  It’s always hard to get time off when the holiday is in the middle of the week but I hope you did.  I got to do a little fishing with our son in law, Josh.  It was fun as he has never done much fishing plus it was just some good old fashioned family time.  Anyway, as we were fishing I got a chance to do a little thinking about this passage.  I couldn’t help but feel that all of us have a lesson to learn from this because we all live in a fast paced world where we have to make fast paced decisions.  And often times these don’t turn out for the best as was the case in today’s reading.  Let us take a look at where we might fit into this story and what can we learn for our own lives.

I don’t know if you have ever turned on the TV in the afternoon to watch Wendy or Dr. Phil or Ellen.  There are many more of these types of shows on but I really don’t know much about them as I have really never watched them.  So please correct me if I am wrong in what I am about to say.  These shows really specialize on people’s problems.  They don’t always talk about these problems as we would talk about them.  And I think that their focal point is personal problems and family problems with a flair for dramatics.  These people have found that they can make a lot of money talking about eating disorders, affairs, siblings who hate each other, homosexuality in a family, and who gets to inherit from mom and dad.  I know the list could go on and on and on.

But the point I would like to make is that we have problems in our families today.  Some of you would say that this is a terrible understatement and you are probably right.  But the problems we have today are not a whole lot different from the problems that were present in the days of Abraham and Isaac.  As a matter of fact, you can read many stories throughout the Bible and you will find dysfunctional families.  Before today’s reading we have read about Abraham and his disobedience and how that affected his family.  Abraham was the father of Judaism and even he had problems.

Today we read about the story of Isaac’s twin sons, Esau and Jacob.  If you remember Isaac had a wife named Rebekah.  Notice the parallel here between Sarah and her daughter in law.  They were both barren.  We find that Rebekah was barren for the first 20 years of their marriage.  Then she conceived these twin boys.  But the important point here is how they dealt with this problem.  In verse 21 we find that Isaac took it to the Lord as we learned to do last week.

This could be the end of the sermon right here because it is only right that we take things to the Lord in prayer.  When was the last time you prayed for help in a major problem?  When was the last time you prayed for help in raising your family?  When was the last time you prayed for help in your everyday life?  Now I know that some of you can answer this question with last night or this morning.

But I also know that there are some of you who cannot answer.  I know that there are people hearing or reading this that only pray once in a while.  There may be some of you that don’t pray at all!  And also I know that there are people that don’t know God that pray once in a while anyway.  If you want to get answers, if you want to help yourself and others or if you just need a best friend, then try praying to Jesus.  He loves to talk with you and He loves to answer your prayers.  But He will not help you unless you ask.  This is such an important aspect of prayer.  So far we have loosely covered about 25 chapters in Genesis.  We have seen the awesome, tremendous power of God from the creation story to the miraculous birth of Isaac and now of Esau and Jacob.  There is nothing that God cannot do and this includes things that He is willing to do for you.  Remember this and start a daily prayer life immediately.

So we find that Isaac and Rebekah are to be blessed with twin boys.  But Rebekah finds that they are already fighting and they haven’t even been born yet.  So if you think that you had it bad when your children would fight a lot, think about poor Rebekah who had her sons fighting since before birth.  But Rebekah is a woman of God and the first thing she does about this is to take it to the Lord.  She doesn’t wait or try to do something on her own.  No, she goes right to God with the problem.  We could learn the lesson here again.

And God answers.  God tells her the great news about her children that they will become great nations.  But He also tells her that they will be divided and that the older will serve the younger.  This is contrary to the law and custom of the day.  But the important thought here is that God’s way is not always our way.  Let me say that again.  God’s way is not our way.  It is not your way either.

And this is a good thing.  We have all been to this place before.  We have asked for things like a new house or health for ourselves or children or money to get us through hard times.  And we all have ideas of what we want and even some of us have the audacity to demand certain things for ourselves.  Many times when we pray, we are only thinking of ourselves.  We live in a society where ‘me’ has to come first.  And this is followed by ‘myself’ and ‘I’.  We seem to be under the mistaken idea that we are in charge of things.  Well, we are not.  God is in charge and He might give you a brand new house but it may be a camper in a place where you will be ministering to people.  Or He may give you enough health to help bring someone else to Jesus.  Or He may give you enough money to put in the collection plate for His glory and not for your glory in paying dues for some golf club or fishing trip.  God’s ways are for His glory.  There is nothing we can do about it except to join in with Him in ministering to whoever is in front of us.  God is in charge and not us.  Don’t ever forget this!

So finally the babies are born.  They are about as different as any two siblings might be.  Jacob was born hanging onto Esau’s foot.  And the boys grew up about as different as can be.  Esau was a hunter, an outdoorsman.  He would be the type of guy we would send over to the woods of Minnesota and let him live out in the forest by himself.  He would be satisfied and happy.  And more importantly, Isaac loved Esau because of this.

Jacob on the other hand was a quiet man and lived in a tent.  He was a homebody.  And we might even say that he was a mama’s boy as he was the favorite of Rebekah.  So we have the stage finally set for the impulsive Esau and the reflective and treacherous Jacob.  To make a long story short, Esau sells his birth right to Jacob on an impulse for a meal of meat stew because he was so hungry and he thought he would die.  His birth right in those days would be most of the possessions of his dad, Isaac.  The eldest male inherited most of the estate.  In other words, Esau would have been set for life if he hadn’t been so impetuous and really quite dumb.  There is really no other way to say it.

Now here we have just the opposite happen than what happened to his mother and father.  Esau took nothing to the Lord.  He just went charging ahead and did the first thing that came to his mind.  And in this case, it was giving up his future.

I don’t know about you folks, but I have seen a lot of Esau’s in our society.  I am going to pick on young people a little today.  I only do this because we have all been young once and we have all done things that are wrong.  I can walk into any high school in the area and I can see all kinds of young people acting like Esau.  I can see them throw away their future on drugs and alcohol and life styles that are totally sinful.  I can go to the rehab wards in Fargo and see lives that have been ruined by age 16.  These people did not realize that once you do certain things, they cannot be undone.  I think that maybe all of us can think back to this time in our lives and think of things that we should not have done.  We have all been Esau.

And we have all seen the Jacobs of this world.  They are the ones that help us to get into trouble.  They may be the drug pusher.  They may be the person who sells liquor to minors.  Or they may be the parents who say that there is nothing wrong with any of these behaviors.  They will also tell us not to judge them.  Well, here is a news flash for you.  We don’t have to judge people because the Bible has already done it.  God has already told us that these things are wrong.  He has already judged.  And if you don’t like it, then I suggest that you change your behavior.  Because the whole crux of all of this is that Jesus loves you no matter what you do as long as you bring it to him.  Our behavior has to change to align with God.  God’s word doesn’t change because it is already perfect.  So when the Bible says something is wrong, then it is wrong.  So if you are doing things out of God’s word, then change your ways! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  It’s we who are flapping around in any breeze that happens to come along.

God shows us here how he loves us unconditionally.  Remember back where we talked about how Isaac prayed and Rebekah prayed.  They were faithful and they had their prayers answered.  At this point we see nowhere in the Scripture where either Jacob or Esau prayed or were in any way faithful to God.  They were doing things on their own.  And God knows that the younger Jacob will become the stronger of the two but both will become great nations.  Just because one is a cheat and the other is not very smart, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love them.  Just because they make some mistakes doesn’t mean they will lose all of their blessings.  Esau, whose other name was Edom, went on to be the father of the Edomites who were a forceful tribe until the time of Jesus when they just disappeared.  The line of Jacob would be the beginning of the 12 tribes of Israel and eventually the line of Jesus.  Some of you already know this.  God will stick with you even though you make some mistakes.  And I praise the Lord for that because I have made lots of them.  We should be shouting out praises to Jesus because none of us are perfect and He loves us anyway!  Amen!

One of the greatest kings who have ever lived would have to be King David.  We all know the story as I told part of it last week.  David did many things wrong.  He was an adulterer and a murderer.  He disobeyed God many times.  But there is one thing that distinguished him from just about all other rulers and people.  When David realized that he had done something wrong, he took it to God.  This is just like Isaac taking it to God and Rebekah taking it to God.  It is the right thing to do.  When you are faced with your own wrong doing, it is time to talk to God.

Many of us had parents who prayed.  Many of us are parents who pray.  And many of us are just ordinary people who pray.  We all know how it works.  So why is it that you don’t work this glorious plan?  Why do you wait until after you do dumb things?  Why do you wait until after you cheat someone?  There is nothing more invigorating than reacquainting yourself with Jesus Christ every morning.  It is a new adventure every day.  He wants to tell you great things like he told Rebekah.

He told great things to George Beverly Shea when he was in his twenties.  This is the man with the beautiful voice who sang with Billy Graham for so many years.  When he was young, he was tempted to go to New York and try to make it in the secular music business.  He was so talented that he probably would have made it.  One Sunday morning when he was trying to make this decision, he sat down to play the piano.  His mother had the habit of placing inspirational poems around where George could read them.  She placed “I’d Rather Have Jesus” on the piano that morning.  Since that day, George has sung this song more than any other in his career as a religious singer.  George Beverly Shea was tempted with red meat stew just like Esau.  But because Jesus Christ, through his mother, had put this poem on that piano that morning, he became the artist that he was meant to be.

And this is the focal point today.  You are all either, to some degree, Esau or Jacob.  You either succumbed to temptation or you provide it.  But through the presence of Jesus Christ in your lives, you can overcome these things just like George Beverly Shea.  Jesus only wants what is the very best for you.  And He is the very best presence that you can have in your life.  Go to Jesus this week at least once a day and see if there isn’t something good that will come of it.  This is your life and you deserve the best so go and get it through Jesus.  It doesn’t get any better than a life in Jesus Christ.  I thank you Jesus for your patience and you love.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.