Presentation 42

Presentation 42

Have you ever played a card game called 'Happy Families'? If you have then you will know that all of the faces on the cards have one thing in common. They possess a smile that splits their face from ear to ear. There is often something false and unreal about that fixed smile. It disguises the selfish rivalry, pettiness and fallenness, that intrudes into family life. Tolstoy, in the opening lines of Anna Karenina observes,‘All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’.

The Bible is refreshingly honest in the biographies of its characters. They wear no false smiles on their faces. We see them as they really are, warts and all! The unhappinessIs exposed for all to see.

Introduction

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Reading through this story we need to guard against two extremes. Giving undue sympathy to, or expressing unwarranted criticism of, the lives of the characters involved. We mustn't make excuses, where they're unwarranted and we mustn't make unjust and uncharitable judgements.

When we begin to examine the lives of biblical characters, what we so often discover, though we don't like admitting, it is that we are looking into a mirror - we see our own heart condition. The amazing thing is that God works in such alien environments and often despite them in order to achieve his own objective..

Introduction

Presentation 42

We turn our attention first to Isaac in his old age. Some elderly people still living life to the full, they continue to live active and fruitful lives. Barbara Cartland was interviewed on Radio, when 93 years of age. She said she had just written her 600th book. I have never read a Barbara Cartland novel but I can admire the industry of a person of her age.

On the other hand some people can become so self-pre-occuppied that they give up on life, when they reach a certain age. Their family dance in attendance catering to their every whim, when they are not as frail as they make out. Was Isaac such a man? He lay on his death bed for over 40 years. Did he take advantage of his old age?

Stubborn Old Man

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One of the things Isaac did as he lay in bed was to plot and scheme, how he would be able to pass on the coveted blessing to his favourite son Esau - in spite of the fact that God had made it clear that the blessing was to go to Jacob. Isaac knew that if he gave this blessing publicly and openly, then the whole household would erupt. Rebekah would stick up for Jacob's rights and make his own life unbearable and so Isaac decided the blessing should be given secretly.

Normally the bestowal of the blessing was a joyful public occasion but Isaac reduced it to a shabby underhanded ceremony.

Stubborn Old Man

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The blessing was to revolve around a meal, which would mark Isaac’s selfish indulgence of his own physical appetite. This was not to be a great public family occasion! Can you imagine someone celebrating Christmas by chewing their leg of turkey under the bedclothes, while other members of the family were unaware of what was going on? Such a secret selfish celebration would disgrace Christmas. What kind of example had Isaac set his family?

Parents need to think long and hard about the kind of examples, which they are setting their children. We can be sure of one thing, they are most likely to mimic the worst of them.

Stubborn Old Man

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Isaac may have hoped that the responsibility of possessing the blessing would have transformed his son's character. Perhaps he hoped it would create a deeper spiritual appetite in his heart. That sort of thinking has always been a recipe for disaster.

On more than one occasion I have heard church leaders suggest,

‘Give so and so some spiritual responsibility, make him an elder. Oh he doesn't come to church very often, and has little interest in it at present but the responsibility will surely change all that.‘

Nonsense!

Stubborn Old Man

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We have yet to touch the very root of Isaac's problem, which was one of defiance. God had made clear his intention to bless the younger son Jacob! Isaac disagreed with God. He sought to outwit him, outmanoeuvre him and foist his own selfish will upon the purposes of God. In seeking to dispense his blessing secretly, he sought to defy God. Before we raise our hands in horror we need to ask ourselves if we can see our face in Isaac's mirror? Have there been occasions in our lives when we have behaved like Isaac? God has made his will unequivocally clear to us but we have attempted to reroute it, to alter it to suit our own selfish desires!

Stubborn Old Man

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They say that 'walls have ears'. This was certainly true of Isaac's tent, for Rebekah had her ear to the tent wall. It is also said, that homes usually take on the chief characteristics of the mother. If that is so then the friction, suspicion and distrust that characterised this home can be traced to Rebekah. No one in this family trusted anyone else.

Isaac did not trust his wife, nor she her husband. Jacob knew his father did not trust him cf, v12. Neither of the brothers trusted one another. What an environment to grow up in!

A Suspicious Wife

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Rebekah's real failure was spiritual in nature. She had every right to cling to the promise of God concerning Jacob. Her fault lay in failing to trust God to keep his promise. She decided to fulfil God's will through her scheming. How much of the mother is in the son! She managed to manoeuvred Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of Esau but at what a price! It sowed bitter seeds of hatred in Esau’s heart.

Esau’s determination to kill his brother resulted in Jacob being sent from the family home for his own safety. He was away for 20 years and Rebekah would never see her favourite son again! What a price to pay! In addition, Jacob the home-bird went into an exile for which he was ill-prepared. When we attempt to fulfil God's will our way things will invariably backfire.

A Suspicious Wife

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Moses learned this lesson some centuries later. He was a child of destiny with a particular purpose to fulfil Heb. 11.23. Moses mother would have revealed this to him. In adult life Moses saw his people experiencing hardship under the hands of their Egyptian slave masters. He reasoned, 'God has called me to be the deliverer of his people so I will just get on with the job’. He killed an Egyptian. Ex.2.11ff

The revolution he expected never took place. Instead, he had to flee to the desert, where he stayed a further 40 years. He too paid the price of running ahead of God. Far better to wait upon God than to needlessly complicate our lives.

A Suspicious Wife

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Isaac's wilful stubbornness created in Esau's heart unrealistic hopes. Esau had demonstrated his contempt for his birthright by selling it to Jacob for a dish of stew. But now that his father's death seemed imminent, the material benefits that came with the blessing would have appeard attractive to him.

Esau reflects the attitude of so many people Today! They eagerly stretch out their hands for the benefits and blessings of God but they have absolutely no intention of living the life of faith and obedience associated with those blessings.

Esau’s hopes are raised only to be dashed. Isaac, by offering Esau what God did not intend him to have, embittered his son’srelationship with his Jacob.

Unjustified Hopes

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As we turn our attention to Jacob it is easy to forget that it is not a young foolish teenager we are dealing with but a man who had reached his maturity. Jacob had certain reservations about his mothers plot to decieve his father. Not that Jacob was against deception in principle. He believed that the end justifies the means! Nor is he reluctant to take advantage of someone he considered to be a senile old man.

He is without pity for his father in this situation. His sole objection is based upon fearful self-interest cf v12. It was not the deception but getting found out that really bothered him.

Plots and Stratagems

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A great many people express grief and sorrow over their sin but only when they are found out. They are ashamed, not of having offended God but of having lost face before men. Answer this question, “ What is the greatest restraining influence on your life, when temptations are whispered into your ear?”

Are you restrained by the thought that some action would hurt the heart of God? Are you more concerned about what people will think and say about you if a particular action were uncovered? Our answer will tell us a great deal about our spirituality or lack of it.

Plots and Stratagems

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As Jacob entered his father’s tent disguised as his brother he was about to discover something of the awful momentum of sin. How does the rhyme go? ‘O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive'. Jacob is slowly drawn into the web, first by impersonating his brother, then by lying to his father and finally by implicating God. He is getting deeper and deeper into sin. But he is also discovering that with practice the sin of deception becomes easier and easier. Sin breeds sin. Sin is the natural expression of our fallen natures.

Do we see ourselves in the mirror of Jacob's life. Does our nature which reflects his? William Golding author of ‘Lord of the Flies’wrote; ‘I know I am born with a great capacity for evil and a warped ability to enjoy it.’

Plots and Stratagems

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Jacob discovered that the triumph of his ingenious deceit was short lived. He became a victim of his own deceit as the consequences of his action began to press home. He fooled his father by pretending to be Esau and received the blessing. On discovering this his enraged brother wants to take his life. Jacob is then sent away from home by the only person, who has ever shown him some kind of love. If he was insecure before that is now compounded a hundredfold.

Sin is short-sighted. It sees only today and is blind to tomorrow’s consequences.

Plots and Stratagems

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Jacob planned and plotted to steal something, which God intended to give him as a grace gift. And at the end of the expenditure of so much effort and energy he is left with nothing to show for it. His exile would give him no enjoyment of his birth-right. It would be more than 20 years before he could enter into its enjoyment and only then after being enrolled in God’s school of discipline and brought to a place where he was willing to turn his back on self-effort and self-confidence

He had a long road to travel before he had learned to live by faith and in achildlike dependence upon God.

Plots and Stratagems

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All of the appalling intrigue and deception of this domestic situation has a remarkable twist in its tail. In v 13 the curtains are pulled back as Esau returns home with wild game which he prepares for his father in anticipation of his Isaac's blessing. As the meal is presented Isaac, who an hour or so earlier has just blessed the disguised Jacob asks, 'Who are you'.

When Esau identifies himself we read, 'Isaac trembled violently', An awful realisation dawned upon Isaac. He does not tremble with anger because Jacob had been given what he intended for Esau! He trembles in fear as he recognises that he had tried to outwit The Almighty God and failed. His plan had been Derailed by one far greater that he!

A Twist in the Tail

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The incident is not far removed from Paul's encounter with the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road, when he discovered that all of his energy and effort was being directed against God and his purposes. Paul trembling asked with great embarrassment in his voice, “Who are you Lord?” Acts 9.5.

Some commentators certainly believe that the ‘trembling’ in Gen 27.33 was the point of Isaac's conversion or at the very least a crisis life experience, which turned him into an obedient servant of God.

What was effected in an instant in the life of Isaac, would take a whole night of wrestling on the part of Jacob some 20 years later. Gen 32.22ff

A Twist in the Tail

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Proof of Isaac's transformation is found in v33 'I blessed him and indeed he will be blessed'. He is saying, “I can clearly see the purpose of God for your younger brother, I now submit myself to God’s plan and assure you that nothing at all can thwart it”. To understand the colossal significance of this statement read Heb. 11. 20. The writer has only one thing to say about Isaac. 'By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau with regard to their future'.

This act is regarded as the spiritual highlight of Isaac’s life! After 137 years, Isaac discovered what it meant to be a man of faith wholly surrendered to God.

A Twist in the Tail

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There are many character mirrors in this passage. The question this final mirror asks both young and old alike is:'Are you surrendered to God. Has your selfish will been broken? Before there can be any significant fruitful growth in our lives we need to ask if the same earthquake, which shook Isaac's self-will and defiance to the point of trembling, needs to operate in our hearts?

Are we prepared for that? To bring our stubborn hearts to the place of Submission. For that to happen what degree of trembling might need to be recorded in the Richer scale of heaven?

Conclusion

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