This week, we continued the “Grace Foundation” series. In
this part, we looked more at the significance of the Jacob and Esau branches of
Abraham’s family tree. The first branch
in the tree had to do with Isaac and Ishmael. Paul says in Galatians 4 that
Isaac represents grace and Ishmael represents law. Law always persecutes grace.
Ishmael is a child of Abraham. When we receive Christ, we also become children
of Abraham. We are in the family, but we choose which part of the family we are
going to align ourselves with. We can choose to align with the Ishmael branch
and, after receiving salvation by grace, try to live a Christian life governed
by law. This branch of the family also will persecute those who choose to walk
by grace.
Then, in the line of Isaac, there is another branch. This
one is between Jacob and Esau. We discussed it at length last week. Esau
represents the believer who does not live by law, but not by principle either.
Esau’s branch represents those who do things their own way, satisfying the
desires of the flesh, and never end up experiencing the kind of blessing that
was rightfully theirs.
Esau was willing to give up the birthright he had as the
first born for a cup of stew, just because he was “famished.” He willingly gave
up what was rightfully his in order to satisfy the flesh. We can very easily do
the same. You see, this is what sin, while under grace, can produce. Esau was
in the line of Isaac. He could have been blessed (though God prophesied to
Rebekah that Jacob was going to be the true heir), but He valued the
satisfaction of a physical desire more than the better blessing that was
available to him.
The Esau branch also hates the Jacob branch. They point
at the Jacob (true grace) branch and say, “No fair. He got what is supposed to
be mine.” I find that Ishmael/law believers often will eventually get fed up
with trying to live by all the rules and requirements and give up – moving over
to the Esau branch, but still persecuting grace. There are many believers unwilling to walk by
faith and live by God’s principles and precepts. In doing so, they never
experience the blessing, but they never see that as the reason. They just think
the system is unfair and that the grace people are cheaters (though Jacob WAS
cheating at times).
What we have to see about Jacob, on the other hand, is
that he was blessed regardless of his own mistakes. He was blessed because God
promised to bless him – not because of his works. That did not mean that
Jacob’s mistakes did not cause an unnecessary mess. He got where he did through
deception, and he ended up being deceived.
We looked at Genesis 27:41 and following. After the bitter feud with his brother that
ensued after “stealing” Esau’s blessing, his mother tells him to flee to stay
with his uncle Laban. Esau is holding a
grudge and continues to. Jacob is commanded by his father not to marry a
Canaanite (Hittite) woman. Why this admonishment?
See Genesis 26:44, where Esau marries Canaanites,
who became a “source of grief for Isaac and Rebekah.” (Also note that Esau was 40 when he did this,
so Esau and Jacob are not teenagers when all of this is happening. Esau married Hittite women at 40, and the
Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness before entering the land of Canaan
Why Hittite/Canaanite women? We looked at Genesis 9:20 and following. Ham was the father of Canaan
and saw his father’s nakedness and proceeded to tell his brothers. The other two covered their father. Noah cursed Canaan
as a result. Ham does not follow grace
by revealing his father’s sin, but the other brothers cover him. That is what love does—covers sins. Remember Exodus 20:25, a commandment with a
similar idea couched in it about covering nakedness. What are the inhabitants of Canaan
in your life? It is our faults, things
that are not a rightful inhabitant of our heart. If we become intimate with them and accept
them, like being married to someone, then we will not experience all God has
for us. It doesn’t mean to not associate
with certain types of people, but it means a depth of acceptance of things in
our lives that God would drive out and have us choose to say no to.
We then went to Genesis 29:1 and following. Jacob, not the burly Esau, sees Rachel, and
moves a stone that it usually took all the shepherd to move in order to water
the sheep, and then breaks into tears. When
he gets to Laban’s house, he finds the woman of his dreams, Rachel. He agrees
to work for his uncle for seven years to have Rachel, but he is tricked into
marrying Rachel’s sister Leah instead. He ends up working another seven years
to get the woman he loved.
At no point did God remove His blessing from Jacob. He
would not go against His promise, but Jacob had a much harder time than was
intended. Being a deceiver cost him 14 years of his life. God still uses Jacob’s mess regardless to
fulfill His promises. In fact, the two most important bloodlines for us as
believers were established through Leah – Levi which was the priestly order,
and Judah, the royal order that produced King David and Jesus (our king and
priest).
Our mistakes do not cost us the blessing of God, because
that blessing is not based on our works. Our obedience to God dictates the
level to which we experience the blessing that is ours. Grace has made you
right before God. It also is supposed to empower you to overcome sin and
experience the fruits of the blessing you’ve been given. The branch we choose to align with determines
ultimately how much of God’s plan we will fulfill in our lives. Let’s choose to maximize that by choosing
grace, and then letting grace teach us to say no to ungodliness and unlock our
true potential in Christ.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
