[Text: Gen. 27) “Two Ways (In Need of a Third)”

Scripture Intro: Sometimes we read stories in the Bible and think, “I’m not sure what to think here because nobody seems to come off very well! Everybody seems to be doing things their own way!” In this case, that is quite true. So what does that tell us?

[Read and pray]

In many ways, Genesis 25 prepared us for this dramatic story of deception and blessing that reads like a semi-nomadic era soap opera. Back there we heard that Isaac and Rebekah each had their own favorite son. Isaac loved Esau because he loved the wild game Esau caught and cooked. But Rebekah loved Jacob. We saw how little Esau appreciated being the firstborn in the family whom God had said would be the channel of blessing to the whole world. Esau gave up his birthright back then (with this blessing that was tied to it) for a bowl of stew.

But most importantly, in chapter 25 we heard about the Lord’s choice of younger Jacob over Esau. Before they were born God said, “the older shall serve the younger” in a reversal of the natural order of the world to show that His plan for redemption is always based on his mercy alone. But that comment wasn’t just for us. Rebekah and Isaac heard that same word about God’s choice to bless Jacob over Esau. In the story of chapter 27 we see in Isaac and Rebekah two possible ways of responding to God’s word. So, let’s get right to the point of this story of favorite sons, deception, fear, blessings, curses and revenge. There are two ways of responding to God being presented here in Isaac and Rebekah:

- You can hear God’s word but be willing to break it and go your own way.

- You can hear God’s word and want to keep it, but want to keep it your own way.

I see myself in both of these ways. There are times when I know what God says, but then I run after what I want. I know God says, “Do not covet.” But have you seen the new Subaru WRX? I know God says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” But my popularity, comfort or security is often what my time and energy (that is, my worship) is actually directed toward. So I hear God’s word for how life works best, but my rebellious heart is willing to break it and go my own way.

But I’m also like Rebekah. I hear God say, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and I want to do that. But if my way of doing that is to just throw some money at someone in need and not really enter into their life to meet them in all the places of their need, then am I really walking in the heart-level obedience that is honoring to God? I’m hearing God’s word and wanting to keep it, but wanting to keep my own way.

Left to ourselves, those are the options, the two paths that are open to us. But in the end, both are lacking. Isaac’s path is obviously wrong, but then again, so is Rebekah’s. Both ways are ways of rebellion against God because both are humans seeking to live life on their own terms – one as a known rebel and one through the guise of religion. If God in His mercy had not made a Third Way[1], then this story would not have a happy ending. Let’s look at the story to see where Isaac’s and Rebekah’s ways lead and where there is room for hope that God has provided another way.

So Isaac knows that his days on earth are numbered. As the son of Abraham, Isaac gets something right and understands his responsibility and role in the Story of Redemption to pass along the blessing that was set on him to the next person. Isaac had heard God’s choice of Jacob, but watch how he goes his own way in outright opposition to God.

Even the opening lines might be preparing us for what was about to happen. Isaac’s blindness is physical (and we’ll saw that come into play in the story), but this seems to be a hint that his love of Esau’s hunting and cooking abilities has blinded him, actually controls him, so that he is willing to give the blessing to Esau that God revealed was for Jacob. Remember that Isaac knew the LORD and worshipped him, but now we find him blind to his sin. And that’s what sin always does. It blinds us to the reality that we are in rebellion.

We’ll come back to Rebekah’s and Jacob’s deception in a moment, but first try to hear this all from Isaac’s perspective. Just accept, like he does, that the person in front of him for the next 28 or so verses is actually Esau.

He intends to bless Esau. As I understand it, the blessing was supposed to be accompanied by a public feast. But something in his heart must be telling him how wrong this blessing of Esau is as he eats alone before the blessing. Even his request he makes of Esau about a meal of “delicious food, such as I love” has echoes of Esau’s unholy appetite that controlled him and made him give up eternal promises for a bowl of stew.

And the blessing was supposed to be public event, but Isaac doesn’t even include his wife in this official imparting of a blessing. Sin always blinds us, but it also makes us want to hide, just like Adam hid from his Maker in the Garden.

Then, there’s the blessing itself. Now, the blessing wasn’t magical, but it was symbolic and powerful because it was spoken before God. But the power wasn’t in the man who spoke it. The reality the words were calling for belonged to the Sovereign God, who used even a sinful man like Isaac to do His will.

But look at just one part of the blessing and you’ll see Isaac’s deliberate attempt to break God’s word. He deliberately attempted to break God’s word by blessing the one he thought was Esau saying, “Be lord over your brothers, may your mother’s sons bow down to you….” Remember God’s word, “the older shall serve the younger?” Isaac in his blindness wants the exact opposite of what God has spoken.

Isaac’s rebellion and blindness here is presented as an ugly reality in humanity after the Fall in the Garden. Sometimes we are tempted to be afraid as we see God’s people sinning so openly. It makes us fearful that God might actually reject those to whom He was once so gracious. But I want us to look carefully at Isaac when Jacob’s deception is revealed and the motives of his own sinful heart are laid bare and naked before the Lord, motives and sin he didn’t fully understand for himself until the Lord’s grace showed him who he actually was.

In v. 32, Esau comes in with food just after Jacob left with the blessing of God resting on his head. And in that moment, Isaac understands himself … and trembles.

I always thought that violent trembling in v. 33 was anger at being deceived by Jacob. It wasn’t. The words used here literally translate as “Then Isaac trembled with great fear (or anxiety – the Hebrew has both connotations) …” as he understood that in spite of his sinful, blind preference for Esau, the LORD had blessed Jacob just as He had said before the boys were born. Isaac’s trembling was from fear and anxiety as his rebellion was known to God and God’s word had come to pass anyway. Conviction shook his body. In the attempt to disobey, Isaac discovered himself to be in rebellion against God and without hope except in the mercy of God. That is an anxious place to be.

Have you experienced the moment that you began to understand the depth of your sin against the Lord? What was it like when your blindness to who you are was removed? When you saw your rebellion and shame and your nakedness before the Holy One Who lives in unapproachable light, were you undone like Isaac here? If you were, then it was the right response. Isaac gives no excuses. He blames no one else. He doesn’t try to lessen his guilt by appealing to unique circumstances. He owns it fully and despairs of himself.

But then listen to him. Isaac figures out that the blessing must have fallen on Jacob (and he says as much in v. 35). But listen to what he said. Isaac says of the one whom he blessed, “Yes, and he shall be blessed.” He doesn’t say, “I was deceived and blessed the wrong person so I’m taking it back!” He submits to God and to the will of God that has now come into reality through his own words and no matter what Esau says or how Isaac felt earlier, Isaac says the blessing on Jacob stands forever because God has made it so. I know it seems subtle, but Isaac is different after that moment of trembling. He now submits his will to the LORD’s and considers Jacob to be the blessed one of God.

And the blessing he leaves on Jacob is a full blessing that encompasses all of life! Nothing is left out! It’s a picture of holistic flourishing and total authority as not only his brothers submit to him, but all the nations bow down to him as well! The blessing of God was set on Jacob and his offspring after him, even though Jacob was a liar and a cheat.

If we had time we’d talk more about Esau’s response. But basically you can contrast Isaac’s repentance and return to the LORD with Esau’s continued plea to receive something he never cared about before. And when all he gets is a lesser blessing (if you can call it that) from his father, then his heart is not submissive to God. In his heart he begins plotting his revenge. That isn’t repentance. That’s bitterness toward his brother and God turning into rage.

I think it is easy for us to see where Isaac’s way went wrong and to recognize the grace God showed to Isaac in showing him his blindness. But what about Rebekah and Jacob? How is their way just as rebellious as Isaac’s?

Rebekah heard the same word from the LORD – “the older will serve the younger” – and her heart wanted the will of the LORD to come into reality. But she relied on herself to force the promise of God into reality much in the same way Abraham did as he took his slave as his wife in order to force God’s promise of a son to him into reality. Rebekah leads Jacob into this elaborate deception in order to keep God’s word her own way. Obviously, we can’t hold Jacob innocent in the matter either, but it’s clear that his mother is taking the lead (and the blame) on herself.

Even after the initial deception, Rebekah has to continue her manipulation of Isaac to protect her favorite son from the wrath of Esau. She still does God’s will her own way as she keeps Jacob from marrying a Canaanite woman by manipulating Isaac into sending Jacob away.

I’ll be brief. Here’s the point: you can’t sin in order to prevent sin and think that you are doing the will of God. We can’t do evil so that good can come.

James Boice[2] points out that “Having done it her way, good did not come. True, the blessing went to Jacob, which God could have arranged anyway. But the price [of doing it her way] was twenty years of unexpected exile for Jacob…” And the consequences for Rebekah were significant, too. It’s entirely possible that she never again saw the face of her favorite son.

So, it stands:

- You can hear God’s word but be willing to break it and go your own way (like Isaac).

- You can hear God’s word and want to keep it, but want to keep it your own way (like Rebekah).

Or you can run after the Third Way. That’s what we call the Gospel. And that’s what the Sovereign God of the Bible was working toward behind all of this human weakness. And that’s what the Sovereign God of the Bible always does, using even sinners to do His will to bring about the beautiful redemption of all things that He promised even in the beginning!

As the Story moves forward we learn that the blessing God intended for Jacob, the blessing that is entwined with God’s blessing on Abraham, which was the seed of our hope, ultimately found its fullness in the offspring of Jacob, Jesus Christ.

He has become the truly blessed Son because he heard God’s word, kept it and kept it God’s way.

In Matthew 4, Satan tries to deceive Jesus into claiming the universal authority that belonged to the offspring of Jacob, the one to whom Isaac said all nations would bow, by bowing down to Satan. Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world, the kingdoms God the Father had already promised to his son, and Satan says, “They can be yours now if you bow down to me!” Why would that have been a temptation for Jesus? If they were promised to him, what is appealing about Satan’s offer? Jesus knew the way God had said all authority would belong to him, the way salvation would come to humanity, would be the way…of the cross. Satan’s offer is the same end result (in a way) through a means other than what God has said and Christ agreed upon. For Jesus to have gone that way would have meant he was following the way of Rebekah.

Flash forward to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus’ agony before the crucifixion on the night he was betrayed. Hear the prayer of a man enduring intense temptation! “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup [the cup of wrath he was about to drink on the cross] pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) Do you hear your Savior rejecting the way of Isaac who tried to replace the will of God with his own? The submission of Christ as he hears the word and will of God and then does the will of God God’s way is what has saved you.

Rest in the reality that Christ has done what you and I cannot! Let his faithfulness become (or remain!) your faithfulness and receive him and embrace him as your Lord and your God! As we believe this good news, this Gospel, the obedience of Jesus becomes your obedience just as his death becomes you death and his life becomes your life!

When we walk the Third Way of the Gospel, then we find the grace that found even Isaac. And then we may begin, with gratitude in our hearts, to hear God’s word and want to keep it God’s way. We embrace what the Scriptures call “obedience.” And we love it not because it is our means of salvation, but because Jesus has already saved us and we love him.

And when those times come, like they did for Isaac, when our blindness is removed by God and we tremble at the depth of our sin, we tremble…and repent…and then continue to look toward our faithful Savior, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and was given all authority in heaven and on earth. We look to the grace that has already been shown to us and we pray for the grace to walk in the way of the Gospel, walking after new obedience and taking hold of the means of grace God has given to his people. We listen to God in his Word. We are strengthened and nourished by our baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And we pray that God would help us not to be mere hearers, but doers of the word (James 1:22).

So, take warning from Esau. He despised the blessings of God for so long that there was no possibility of true repentance for him. The tears he cried “were of frustrated selfishness and not of genuine regret….”[3] Bitterness and rage were his way of life. So we, too, if we despise the blessings of God in Christ, there will come a day when the grace offered will be withdrawn and God will give exactly what was desired in this life: to go one’s own way without God. Only then will it be discovered that Bitterness and Anger are the only companions on that road and they are bound to those who travel that way forever.

But take comfort, fellow Isaacs and Rebekahs and Jacobs. Though our own ways would lead us down the same path as Esau, there is a gracious Third Way that Christ has opened for us. For Isaac, the way of grace led to a dramatic moment of recognition that resolved in true restoration both with God and with his son, Jacob, as we’ll see in the next chapter. So for us, the conviction that we are far worse than we ever expected makes the reality that we are more loved and sought after in Jesus than we could ever have imagined all the more beautiful. It is the beauty we see as we look into the face of our Savior that leads us into new obedience out of love and gratitude. The Third Way of the Gospel is the way of peace and joy and freedom and life. It is the way of Jesus.

[1] This language is borrowed from Tim Keller

[2] James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: Vol. 2 – A New Beginning, Baker Books, 2002, p 754.

[3] Boice, 756.