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*This message is delivered by S. Hyok-sang Han of Anam Center, but most of the material is from M. Sarah Berry's website. (http://sarahbarry.org/messages/book/Genesis/1992/57) The inheritance of the faith Genesis 25:19-34 Key Verse 25:23 "The Lord said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." In today’s passage we learn that the faith of Abraham was inherited to his son. Not only being inherited, it grew even more. 1. Isaac and Rebecca pray (19-23) Isaac grew up knowing and trusting the Lord. He was fully aware of what was happening when his father took him to Mount Moriah and offered him to God. He had a quiet and gentle nature, and did not fight for his own rights--he was a man of great patience, a man who waited on God. God gave him Rebekah, who comforted him after the death of his mother. She was an able and active woman who loved Isaac and cooked delicious food for him (27:9). She was also a woman of faith. When she discerned the will and direction of God, she could take decisive action. Her decision to leave her family and go to an unknown country to marry a man she had never seen was one such decision of faith. Isaac's family had a problem similar to that of Abraham and Sarah. Rebekah was barren. But Isaac did not consider taking another woman. He simply prayed and waited on God. He had learned a great spiritual lesson first hand: The Lord will Provide. He knew that his life itself was what God had provided. Abraham had waited only 10 years before taking Hagar and giving birth to Ishmael. Isaac waited and prayed for his wife for 20 years. (25:19,26) How many families could be spared the tragedy of divorce or the sorrow of becoming a battlefield of frustrated expectations if men could pray for their wives instead of trying to use some human method to solve their family problems. Isaac's patient faith was rewarded. Rebecca conceived twin sons. Rebecca did not know that she was carrying twins. Her twin boys were so different in character that they fought and struggled in the womb even before birth. Rebecca didn't know why she was having so much trouble in her pregnancy. She couldn't go to a doctor or have an ultra sound check-up--so she inquired of the Lord. She prayed. She could have complained to Isaac and blamed him for her discomfort; she could have become fearful and sought Isaac's sympathy. But she had personal faith in God. She did not depend on weak Isaac for help or comfort--she went to the Lord in prayer. We learn from this family how to wait on God when we have our own problem in real life. Isaac and Rebecca did not give their human struggling when they had to marry and even when they had no children for twenty years. Rebecca, unlike her mother in law Sarah, did not make mistake by giving her maidservant to her husband. When she had a trouble in her pregnancy, she simply went to God and asked about it. How they could do this is simple. They learned about God from Abraham and Sarah. They learned how faithfully God fulfills his will through the persons he chose. They learned how human can disturb the way God had prepared. They learned what is giving faith and what is making mistake. Isaac and Rebecca faced the same situation as Abraham and Sarah did. But they did not repeat the same mistake their parents made. They learned and made a different example of life. Making a mistake is OK. We can learn from our mistakes. But the better of learning is to learn from other’s mistake. When Abraham had to teach his son Isaac, he, not only teaching him his faithful decision of life, also taught what he had learned from his mistake, so that his son will not repeat his mistake and live a more faithful life. As Isaac and Rebecca, we can learn from the bible. Bible is full of examples of life. We can get great lessons from many examples. There are lessons about what attitude we should follow and what kind of mistakes we should avoid. We are so blessed that we can learn from the bible. Let’s give thanks and study the bible even more deeply, so that we can make the better example of faithful life and please God through it. Look at verse 23. God blessed Rebekah's prayerful faith. He revealed to her his special plan and purpose for her family. Especially, he revealed to her that the younger twin would be the man whom God would bless and use. "The Lord said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.'" This prophecy concerned not only the two boys in her womb; it also concerned God's future history--his redemptive plan to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham and Isaac. Rebekah remembered this promise of God. 2. Jacob and Esau (24-34) The two sons of Isaac and Rebekah were as different as day and night, or, as winter and summer. First, they were different in appearance: Jacob was smooth and Esau was red and hairy. Second, they were different in character: Esau was a sportsman. He liked to hunt and fish and play around with women; Jacob was a quiet man who liked to stay at home and hang around his mother in the kitchen. But Jacob was born with ambition. He entered the world grasping his brother's heel, as if to pull him back and get there first. Jacob was a man of struggle. His struggle began in the womb. He struggled with his twin brother to come out first, and he lost. So he struggled for honor. He wanted honor of being the firstborn. He didn't like being number 2. Once, he was in the kitchen cooking red bean stew when Esau came in from the open country, famished. Esau asked him for some stew. Jacob agreed to give him some in exchange for his birthright as the eldest son. Esau readily agreed--"you can't eat a birthright!" So Esau "swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob." Then Jacob gave Esau some stew. He ate and drank, then got up and left. In this way, Jacob achieved the honor of having the birthright of the firstborn. Later, he would struggle for love, then he would struggle for wealth, and finally, he would struggle with God. He was definitely not a dead fish, drifting downstream with the flow! He was alive, and he was swimming against the current. Isaac loved his manly, happy-go-lucky eldest son. He enjoyed the wild game he brought home. But Rebekah loved Jacob, partly because he stayed at home and helped around the house--but mostly because she remembered God's revelation to her concerning these two sons. She knew that the younger son was the son whom God wanted to bless and use as the covenant son. The event in verses 20-34 gives a clue as to why God chose Jacob and did not choose Esau. The writer of Genesis comments, "So Esau despised his birthright." Esau lived on a physical level; he could see no practical value in his birthright. He was a pragmatist. Such a man does not know what it means to be faithful. He lives by his feelings and acts according to the demands and needs of the moment. He could not be entrusted with the covenant, for God's covenant rests on God's promises. God's covenant people must know that God is faithful and they, also, must be faithful. At this point, Jacob was not a spiritual man, either. But Jacob had a sense of honor. He wanted to be first, not second. He knew that the covenant blessing was important, even though he didn't fully understand why. He was not a pragmatist. He knew his brother's weakness and perhaps he took unfair advantage of him. But the writer of Genesis puts the blame on Esau, who despised his birthright. Hebrews (12:16) says that he was a godless and immoral man. God cannot bless such men. Jacob could have asked Esau for many other things in exchange for the bowl of stew, but he asked for the thing that was most important from God's point of view. The birthright carried with it the covenant blessing and promises. The covenant bearer was the man who would stand in God's redemptive history. Jacob became that man. From the passage, I am touched by the example of Esau and Jacob. I learn even more from Esau’s mistake, because I have been making the same mistakes. Esau despised what was most important and sought his own feeling of the moment. Likewise, I despised the God’s plan on my life and was governed by the momentary emotions at given situation. I despised my identity as a blessing, as a man of God, as a shepherd for campus students. I didn’t pray in the early morning because I enjoyed my laziness much more than the fruit of prayer. I often gave my heart and body to lustful desire because I despised the holiness of God and his future blessing of faithful marriage. Esau said, “Look, I am about to die! What good is the birthright to me?(25:32)” Esau did not know what he said at that moment. Later, however, he truly realized what it really meant. Many years later, when he realized the meaning of the birthright, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me- me too, my father!” I realized that I should truly learn from Esau’s example. God has already given me so precious blessings. He gave me the eternal life, life of mission, life as a shepherd, life as a scholar. He has given me faithful meeting, people and friends. In 2006, I delivered my, over all, first message in this English Worship Service. When I was asked to deliver a special message, first, I felt I was undeserving. But, then, I was just so thankful that God wants to use even me. I struggled really heard to write a best message, and had it checked by M. Caleb Cook. It was not a burden. It was a joy and thanks. In 2007, I was asked to regularly deliver the English messages every five weeks. Again, I felt so undeserving. In 2008, I was asked to regularly give announcements and prayer topics in this English Worship Service. Again and again, I felt I was so undeserving. I was overjoyed that God wants me to grow as an international man of mission. Every time God gave me a new mission, I knew the preciousness of it, and was overjoyed. However, I was not a faithful man when I had to undertake them. I loved my laziness and physical convenience more than the desire to serve God with best effort on messages. Finally, recently, I despised all the things God has given to me. I was like Esau who would said, “Look, I am about to die! What good is the life of mission to me?(25:32)” “I am about to die, what good is the worship service to me?” “What good is the English GBS to me?” “What good is this UBF ministry to me?” “I am about to die! What good is the God’s plan to me?” However, I thank God that he did not despise me even though I despised him. He still wants me to live a blessed and meaningful life. He wants me to learn from Esau’s example and to receive the blessing by repenting deeply. May God restore a sense of honor in my heart, and teach me the value of spiritual things. May God raise me as a faithful servant who always reminds what is important and act according to it. May God use me as a faithful man of prayer, English messenger, and an announcer. Through today’s passage, we learn how the blessing of faith was inherited. We saw how Abraham’s faith grew even more when it came to Isaac’s family. With the same problem(having no child), they showed a different example of life by waiting on God through prayer. We also learned how Esau despised the blessed life of faith, and how Jacob honored and achieved it. We have both Esau’s mind and Jacob’s mind. We are here, because we honor and seek the spiritual value. But we often despise what is really important, because we love our desire more at the moment. Let’s should learn from the example of today’s passage. Let’s remember what is truly important and repent and struggle. May God bless our decision so that we may inherit and leave the eternal value and fruitful life! |
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