Missing the Blessing

SERMON: 2016-06-26--g27b16--missing-the-blessing-part-1 SOURCE DURATION: 00:42:07.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.98 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate 10 concludes the theological exposition of the sermon (lessons from Isaac). Candidate 11 marks a clear transition to non-sermon material—a logistical announcement about accessing online services. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We've been talking the last couple of weeks about the importance of particularly a father's blessing and how fathers especially call forth their children into the plan and the purpose that God has for their lives. And interestingly enough, at our staff meeting this past Tuesday, Dave Bonning shared with us an article from last Sunday's paper about the author Jean Little. I don't know if you know her. She is one of Canada's premier children's authors. She has written over 50 children's books. She is a Christian. She is partly sighted, having been born technically legally blind, as they define that. But in a speech on July 17, in connection with this whole writer's thing that they have in Toronto, she told a little bit about how she came to be a writer. And it ties in directly with what we've been talking about. Allow me to take a moment or two this morning and read you what she says about herself. She says, "When I was 11, a dad was home on leave from serving as a doctor in the Navy. Being the daughter of two busy doctors, her parents were medical missionaries to Taiwan with the United Church. And second eldest of four children, I was always fighting to get more attention. That day I found him sitting by himself reading the newspaper, and I was overjoyed. 'Dad, would you like me to sing for you?' I asked. 'No, thank you,' he said, continuing to read. But disappointed, but sure that he would respond with more interest if I persevered, I asked, 'Would you like me to dance for you?' He didn't even lower the paper. 'No,' he said. Later, mother was to tell me sternly that interrupting someone who was reading was equally rude as interrupting two people having a conversation. But I had yet to be told this. I gave up, though I can still remember wandering upstairs and standing gazing out my bedroom window at the sunset. There was one flame-colored streak of cloud, and I suddenly saw it was like a banner." Remember, her vision was limited. "I turned to my table, and for the first time in my life, I wrote a poem. Orange flags are flying, no overhanging, gray dims the rosy sunset, and so on. The rhymes and rhythm were fine, but the tenses were badly confused. I didn't stop to polish. I had it finished in a half hour or so. When I went back downstairs, my father was still reading his newspaper. 'Dad,' I said without much hope, 'I wrote a poem. I waited to be squelched again. But instead, here came the moment that changed my life. Here came the moment that changed my life. My father dropped the paper. He actually left the sheets flying to the floor, 'A poem,' he said, holding out his hand for the piece of paper I was clutching. Let me see it. And as I stood transfixed, watching him read and reread my lines, I realized that he was deeply pleased with me. What I had written excited him. He had not shown any interest in my singing or dancing. But clearly, my poem mattered. I had no idea, backtrack, although I had entered that room a disconsolate 11-year-old, I left it knowing myself to be a poet." And she goes on to say then how her father bought her her typewriter, and rhyming dictionary, and a thesaurus, and the writer's market, and how that, in fact, launched her into her now celebrated writing career. Isn't that an interesting story? That's the power of a father's blessing. What would have happened if he had continued reading his paper and disregarded her literary ability? That's what we want to talk about together this morning, because even as we talk about the blessing, what about those of us who have not received a blessing? Because isn't it true that the more we talk about the power of the blessing, the more alive we become in Christ, the more aware we become sometimes of those places in our lives where we feel that we have been robbed of blessing. And that brings us back this morning then again to the story of Esau. Esau, whose cry, "Father, bless me, bless even me," continues to echo throughout the generations as an example of a blessing that has been stolen. So let's take a few moments together this morning, read a portion of that story from Genesis chapter 27, and then we'll talk about that together a little bit. The backdrop here is this, Jacob has just stolen the blessing of the firstborn, and that's where we pick it up at verse 30 of Genesis chapter 27. After Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing." His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I am your son," he answered. "Your firstborn, Esau." Esau trembled violently and said, "Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him, and indeed he will be blessed." When Isaac heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me, me too, my father." He said, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing." Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times. He took my birthright and now he's taken my blessing." Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?" Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him Lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?" Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father." Then Esau wept aloud. His father Isaac answered him, "Your blessing will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother, but when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck." Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother Jacob." Pray with me. What a story, Lord, and how close these biblical stories are to our own lives if and when we are honest with ourselves and observe the dynamics of life here on the face of the earth. We pray this morning that as we talk about that story a little bit and as eventually we seek to apply it to our own lives, that Lord, you will always point us to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, that you will always show us again and again that even though father or mother forsake me, the Lord in covenant relationship by faith in Jesus will take us up and he has reserved for us the unsearchable riches of his glory and kindness in Christ Jesus our Lord. So bless this time together, give me the words that I need, and Lord, all of us hearts to connect with this story and to allow you to transform and to change our lives so that more and more we can be a people who can live out of the fullness of having more than enough because of Jesus. We ask it in his name and for his glory. Amen. Well the story of Esau that we have just read together is a complicated story. And it's complicated for four reasons. Allow me to run these by you as quickly as I can this morning. The first reason this story is complicated is because it involves divine election. If you go back a couple of chapters in the book of Genesis, you discover that after Rebecca and Isaac were married, they were unable to have children, they were unable to have children for 20 years. Isaac prayed that she might conceive and when she did, shortly thereafter, there was turmoil in her tummy. So much so that she went to the Lord to ask him what was going on and the Lord revealed to her two nations are in your womb, two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger. The older will serve the younger. When the children were born, who was born first? Esau. Jacob was born second, holding on to his heel and that plays a significant role in the story. So what God says to Rebecca is that he never intended for Esau to get the blessing of the firstborn. The blessing of the firstborn, which represented the blessing of Abraham, was going to go to the secondborn. That's a principle, by the way, that runs throughout scripture because God is always trying to establish that salvation, his blessings are by grace through faith. They're not something you have a right to by virtue of your natural position. And so later on, the prophet Malachi picks up on this. Malachi 1, the verses 2 and 3, God says, "I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau." Jacob here represents the nation of Israel, Esau here represents the nation of Edom, which are his descendants. And Malachi is saying, "I have chosen Israel to be my people. I have not chosen Esau's descendants to be my people." Paul, if you know the New Testament, picks up on this in Romans chapter 9, 11, 12, and 13, talking about divine election. He says, "Before the twins were born," notice this, "or had done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by him who called, she was told," she being Rebecca, "the older will serve the younger just as it is written." And that's the quotation from Malachi, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Election is a complicated subject. We don't have time to go into it. But understand that part of the dynamics in this story are the issue of divine election. God chose Jacob to be the heir to Abraham's promises, not Esau. Now, that being so, the second element in this story that makes it complicated is that Esau rejected his birthright. And that, of course, is part of the narrative that almost every Sunday school child knows, the story of how Esau went out hunting, came back absolutely famished. Jacob, who was a homebody, was cooking himself up a stew of lentils. Esau took a look at it and he said, "I want some of that." But remember, Jacob's name means "supplanter." He was born holding onto his brother's heel. He had really wanted to be the firstborn and he shrewdly saw his opportunity. And he said, "I'll tell you what, let's make a deal. I'll give you some of this food. You sell me your birthright." Esau's response was, "I'm famished. What use is my birthright to me?" And so he swore to sell his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of pottage or lentil stew. And that part of the narrative then ends with these profound words in verse 34 of Genesis 25, "And so Esau despised his birthright." Now, understand the implications of that. The birthright was the promised blessings of Abraham that he could be the covenant people of God and he would eventually inherit a new heaven and a new earth. Esau was the quintessential worldly man. He lived for worldly passion. He lived for worldly goods. He wanted worldly success and his worldly hunger trumped the desire for the kingdom of God. That would be like you and me, giving up, serving God, coming to church, following the Lord Jesus simply because we wanted to be something by worldly measures. And how many people haven't you known over the years? How many of our own offspring in this place haven't sold their spiritual birthright for a bowl of lentil stew? The book of Hebrews says later he regretted it with bitter tears, but it could not be undone. So Esau rejected his birthright. It was his own deliberate choice. Third element that makes this story complicated is that Isaac, in wanting to bless Esau first, blatantly disobeyed God. It is, I believe, inconceivable that Isaac did not know the promise of God to his wife Rebecca that the elder son would serve the younger. Yet deliberately when he thinks he is dying, he calls in his oldest son Esau because he wants to give him the blessing of the firstborn. Why? Because he loved Esau more than he loved Jacob. The narrative makes that plain. Rebecca loved Jacob, Isaac loved Esau. Bit of a family dysfunction there, just for the record. But why did he love Esau? Because the Bible says he loved Esau because he loved the wild game that Esau would hunt for and feed him. So Isaac's own appetite for fine food made him use his natural preferences and his like for Esau to negate the promises of God. Do you understand that? That serious business falls right into that category where Jesus says later on, "Unless you hate father, mother, brother, or sister, you cannot be my disciple." There's nothing wrong with loving your kids. But you must not love your kids over God or over God's purposes. And so Isaac sinned blatantly in trying to bless Esau first. The fourth area then where this story gets terribly complicated is that Rebecca and Jacob conspired to take matters into their own hands. When you read the narrative, Rebecca is a bit of an eavesdropper. She overheard this deal that Isaac was making with Esau and she says, "Oh my goodness, this is going the wrong way. I need to help the Lord along." And you know the story, she recruited Jacob and she said to Jacob, "Quick, go get me a couple of little goats from the flock. I'll cook them up in such a way as we know that your father likes them. And then you take that meal and present it to your father's pretending to be Esau." Jacob was smart enough to say, "It's not going to work because Esau is hairy and I'm not." The name Esau means red because he was born hair all over his body. Well, Rebecca wasn't born yesterday. She said, "We'll take some skins, put it around the exposed parts of your body and then when he feels your skin, he will know that you are Esau." And Jacob was also smart enough to say, "Well, if my father finds out he's going to curse me instead of bless me," and she says, "Well, I'll take the curse. You just go ahead and do this." So they conspired to pull off this deal and sure enough, Isaac is deceived and blesses Jacob with a blessing of the firstborn. And that's how Jacob ends up with that firstborn blessing as opposed to Esau. I don't know about you, but I find it a fascinating story. And I find it a fascinating story because it illustrates the fascinating interplay between human responsibility and divine sovereignty, doesn't it? And that's an interaction that you and I will have a hard time getting our heads around because we live in time and space and God does not. Understand God does not approve of the shenanigans of the human race, but he can also beat an incredibly straight path with a very crooked stick. And so despite people's disobedience and very human predilections, God nevertheless accomplishes his purposes and Jacob gets the blessing of Abraham and Esau does not. And the rest of biblical history, if you read on, goes on to illustrate that tension between these two brothers that had started already in the womb. There was a constant conflict between the nation of Edom and the nation of Israel. Edom repeatedly rebelled, repeatedly got subdued and in the end Israel becomes the heir of God's promises. Now all of that said doesn't change the fact that Esau as the firstborn ends up pulling on the short end of the stick, doesn't he? He missed the primary blessing that his father had wanted to give him. And we know by now that that can play quite a number in a person's life. And so in the time that remains this morning, I want to go through the rest of the story with you that we read and look at three reactions that Esau experienced because he had been cheated out of the blessing of the firstborn. Here's the first, he experienced deep anguish. Verse 34, when Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me, me too, my father." Verse 38, Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father." Then Esau wept aloud. Here is a man who is torn up on the inside because he is not getting that blessing that he expected from his father. Now remember, here's a man who had sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. He favored earthly good over eternal blessings. This was not a man who was looking to follow in the footsteps of Father Abraham. He was more than content to live in this world and to use the power of force and whatever else it was that he needed to carve out a good life for himself without the blessings of God. But what it illustrates, I think, is how even worldly people in their heart of hearts long for the blessing of their father. And when that blessing is denied, there is an incredibly deep pain and anguish that most people spend the rest of their lives trying to resolve and feel. Rick Foltz talked to me after the service last week, and he related a story that just really illustrates the vacuum that is being created in people's lives for lack of attachment relationships with their parents. He and Mary Lynn had been up in Campbellford. They were supposed to lead a meeting with the youth, but all the youth went off to a dance, and so they ended up with the younger children, shared gospel stories with them, some of the children came to faith. But then as just sort of a closing exercise, they invited all the children to come up if they wanted to for a big hug, so they all lined up, all came up for a hug. But what really surprised Rick and Mary Lynn, that when the kids had received their hug, they went back to the end of the line to come through for a second hug. And I said, isn't that fascinating? Because it illustrates the love deficit in the lives of so many people today. And you know, it's not only the children who are suffering a love deficit in this day and age, one of the parties that is now the rage over in the United Kingdom is called a cuddle party. Anybody hear of cuddle parties? Apparently been imported from the United States, but it's the rage in England. For 100 pounds, now 135 Canadian dollars after Brexit, the bargain used to cost you 152 Canadian dollars, but the pound has been dropping precipitously. For 100 pounds, you can sign up for a 40-minute hugging session with two strangers. For $1,000, you become a cuddling party facilitator. It's non-sexual, it's carefully supervised. Here is a picture of what these parties might look like. There you go. That worth 100 pounds or 130 bucks, well, it all depends on how lonely you are and how you crave. Do you understand what we're facing in the world? We're facing a love deficit of unprecedented proportions, enough for people to sign up and do this with complete strangers. Esau had incredible anguish, but anguish doesn't usually stay as anguish for very long, does it? Esau now becomes angry to the point of wanting to kill his brother. And again to the narrative, Esau said, isn't he rightly named Jacob? Again Jacob means deceiver or supplanter, born holding on to his brother's foot. He has deceived me these two times, he hasn't forgotten the bargain that he drove earlier. He took my birthright and now he's taken my blessing. Verse 41, Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are near, then I will kill my brother Jacob. Let me pause here a moment. Do you know how old these two lads were when all of this was transpiring? You think of them as youngsters, don't you? They were 70 years old. And if that isn't enough, do you remember Isaac thought he was dying? Do you know how much longer he lived after he thought he was dying? Another 50 years, 50 years. And so Esau had to wait a long time before he could kill his brother. But what it illustrates is that anguish doesn't remain anguish very long. It leads to anger and anger almost inevitably will lead to the urge to kill. Don't know this morning if you've ever found yourself in a situation where you felt yourself unjustly treated. Whether by a parent, a teacher, colleague, at work, or at church. If you have ever felt yourself unjustly treated and if you ever felt God pulled in the situation to enforce the injustice, then you will know what anger is. Because there is no more primal anger in the world than the anger of I'm not wanted, I don't belong, there is no place for me. Remember when Neal Campbell was here, he said one of the first questions at conception of an infant is am I wanted? The second big question is will the world be a safe place for me? And to discover that you are not wanted or to feel that you're not wanted doesn't make any difference whether it's based in reality or if it's just in your imagination. If you feel that you're not wanted, especially if you feel that somebody else is wanted more than you, the little girl who is prettier than you who gets to sit on her father's knee, or the child who receives more attention than you do when you are so longing for attention, when you get overlooked for church leadership, or when you feel that you are not as valued or as important as anybody else, there is something on the inside that says where can I go with these feelings because the most primal need of the human heart is to be needed, to be wanted, and to be loved. And where that is denied, whether in imagination or in reality, and it's often a combination of the two, anguish leads to anger, and anger leads to murder. And you see it throughout scripture. Starts in the opening chapters of Genesis, Genesis chapter four, remember the story of Cain and Abel. Abel brought an offering to the Lord and it was acceptable, Cain comes along and he brings an offering to the Lord and the Lord says I don't want it, it's not good enough. Remember Cain's reaction. The Bible says his countenance fell. I think he was extremely pained. Because you see, there's no greater rejection than to experience, it's bad enough to experience rejection from people, but to experience rejection from God is as bad as it gets, because that's what hell is, understand that. Hell is eternal rejection by God because you are not worthy or fit to enter into his kingdom. And so what does Cain do? God says sin is couching at the door, it's a desire for you, you must overcome it. Cain doesn't want to. And so what happens, that seed of rejection becomes the seed of anger, becomes the seed of murder, and you have in scripture the first story of what's the word, fredeside. He killed his brother because if there's no place for me, there's no place for you. And then he goes out and he builds himself up by establishing his own kingdom, because if God's not gonna do it for me, then I gotta do it myself. Roll the clock forward, because this is a pattern in scripture, now Ishmael is Abraham's firstborn, Isaac is the second one, what happens? Ishmael persecutes Isaac, why? Because this little runt is going to take my place in the family and in the family inheritance and that is a tough spot to be. And so Ishmael gets sent away, because he's making life miserable for Isaac, and Isaac's mother is very protective of her child. And this is a pattern that you'll see throughout all of scripture, I bet you if you're honest with yourself this morning, if I'm honest with myself this morning, then I know none of us is immune to these dynamics. I notice, for example, in my own life, if I'm not secure in my walk or relationship with the Lord, if I think where are you, how come you're not blessing me, how come life is so difficult by times? And it's very easy to become irritable, very easy to become resentful, and it's very easy to become jealous of other people for whom life seems so much easier than it is for me in that particular spot, and I find if I'm not very careful, I become critical of other people in ways that I ought not to become critical because now it's about me. Am I the only one that ever feels that way? I bet you I'm not. It's part of the human condition. Isaac, or Esau, is filled with anguish, but his anguish leads him to a state of anger, and that state of anger leads to potential murder, so much so that Rebecca, who seems to know everything that's going on in this family, hears the threat, and so she engineers for Jacob to go back to the family where they came from, up in Mesopotamia, to find a wife of their own tribe as opposed to the wives of the Hittites that Esau had married, and that's the third thing then that we're going to end up with this morning, and that is this very interesting thing. Esau now tries hard to be good. He tries hard to be good, and it has to do with his business of marriage. He had married two Hittite women, women from Canaan. Remember those were idol worshipers. Here already you have an example of how he rejected the notion of covenant. He wasn't interested in a godly wife, he wasn't interested in a wife who shared the family's values in terms of serving the Lord God Almighty, the God of Abram, and Isaac, no, he just married whoever he wanted to marry, and it wasn't good enough to marry once, so he married two. But the story tells us the two women made lives bitter. For Rebecca and for Isaac, talk about in-law issues. Two different values living in the same compound is going to lead to nothing but trouble. Now what I find fascinating is I don't know if Esau was clueless or if they just didn't dare confront him about that. It wasn't until Rebecca goes to Isaac and says, "I don't want Jacob to marry these Hittite women, I want him to go find a wife back where I come from," that it finally dawns on him how angry and upset his parents are about the choice of his two wives. So what does he do? Well, the story ends with these words in Genesis 28, 8 to 9, "Then Esau realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac. So he went to Ishmael, and he married Mahaleth, the sister of Nabihoth and daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had." When you miss out on the blessing, you spend the rest of your life trying to find one, and sometimes that means trying to be good to earn the blessings of a parent or the blessings of significant people in your life. The tragedy of that is that it almost never works, because no matter how much you give of yourself, it's like it's never good enough. Saving the blessing produces anguish, it produces anger, it leads to murder, and it sometimes also leads to a resolution that says, "Well, how can I do better? How can I earn favor when favor cannot be earned?" I think that's where we'll stop. I've got a lot more that I want to say about that. I think in another week, Lord willing, next week we'll come back to it, and I want to leave you with this question. What are the places in your life, what do you do? Let me put it this way. What do you do? Some of you here, you have never significantly received the blessing of an important person in your life. What do you do with the feelings that that generates? Even more importantly, what do you do when you feel that God doesn't want you, that God doesn't care, that God has rejected you? Because one of the big cries of people who come through suffering and turmoil in life is always the question, "Where is God?" When I hurt the most, when I cry out, and the sky remains closed, and my heart remains uncomforted. Would you ponder those questions, and would you join us again next week as we continue to look at what happens, the lessons that we can learn from the misblessing of Isaac. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:41:36.510; remove through 00:42:07.000] Some of you will be away, you'll be on holidays, remember all these [CUT] services are online on our website, and you can listen either to the whole service, or you can listen to just the messages, and you can do that anywhere in the world. Stay with the community over the summer, and see what God continues to do in our hearts and lives. Deal? [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:42:07.000; resume after this marked segment]