Sermon Notes + Quotes:
Transcript:
We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and we have been studying the very first of the 66 books of the Bible. It’s called Genesis, and we’ve called our study, “In the Beginning.” That’s the way the book starts itself. But it also points us all the way back to the very origin of all things in this universe, begins to help answer some of those really big questions that people have had forever.
As long as there’s been a thinking human being, we’ve wondered about where everything came from. We’ve wondered about what it means to be a human person. We’ve wondered about what’s gone wrong with the world and if there is any solution to it. And we’ve wondered about if there is a God. And if so, what kind of God is this God that exists? Genesis is just overflowing with helpful declarations and helpful insights to help us with all of those kinds of big giant questions.
Genesis is not a science book, so it doesn’t seek to explain how God created everything. But it does declare that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Then we’ve flowed through the chapters all the way into Chapter 25 today.
But let me put up there first for you sort of an outline I ran across, just based on the personalities that are at the center of the storyline anyway. This might be helpful for some of you who’d like to have an outline for the book.
Genesis 1 and 2, of course the Creation event. Genesis 3-5, the Fall, the entrance of sin into the world, the rebellion of humanity against the God who created them. 6-9, the story of the flood, and many of you are familiar with the story of Noah. Now, 10 through 11 are kind of a table of nations. And then we’ve been in the storyline that focuses in a little bit on Abraham and Sarah. And now Isaac in Chapter 25, just has a couple of chapters, not nearly as much text given to the story of Isaac and his life. But there’s some there and there’s a continuity that’s being shown. So, I think we need to be aware of that and it helps to see this in context, I think. The story of Jacob and his life and his wrestlings with God, et cetera, Chapters 27 through 36. And then of course Joseph, as we come toward the last section of the book.
OUTLINE OF GENESIS:
- Genesis 1-2……………….Creation
- Genesis 3-5……………….Fall
- Genesis 6-9……………….Flood
- Genesis 10-11……………Table of Nations
- Genesis 12-25……………Abraham
- Genesis 25-26……………Isaac
- Genesis 27-36……………Jacob
- Genesis 37-50……………Joseph
What a powerful story. When you watch God in pursuit of a people He can call His own and you look at all that happens throughout the book of Genesis, you keep seeing this amazing God who is so patient, so gracious, so kind, so generous with people who continue to sort of be self-centered and impatient, want to take the reins and want to be in charge and all of that sort of thing.
So, I’m going to call Genesis 25 the story of “Redemption History in Motion.” It is going to show us that God’s plan for redemption history began all the way back right after the Fall (we got the preview of it in Genesis Chapter 3). It continues to unfold throughout the pages of Genesis and really all the way through the entire Bible, all the way to Revelation. It’s such that ‘if you had a little thread that ran all the way through the Bible and you pulled on that thread in Genesis, it would crinkle the pages in the book of Revelation.’ I think that’s true. I think it’s all connected. I think it all finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But here in Genesis 25, we’ll read about Abraham passing from the scene and the storyline shifts to the much shorter story of Isaac. So, without much ado here, let me pray and we will take a look at Genesis 25.
Lord, thank you for your word that it’s living and active. As we approach these pages today, I pray, God, that you’ll show us what we cannot see on our own. Holy Spirit, that you’ll lead us to understand things that we wouldn’t be able to understand on our own. Open the eyes of our hearts and our minds, and may your word speak to us. Give us a clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love toward us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen and amen.
Genesis 25 begins with the passing of Abraham. “Now Abraham took another wife,” as we just read in Chapter 24 and 23. As Sarah passes from the scene, and we see that Abraham has arranged for a wife for Isaac his son. Such masterfully told stories there in those two chapters. But Abraham now at probably about age 140, which is remarkable just to even think about it. He’s going to live to 175, we’ll find out in this chapter. He is about 140 right now and he remarries or he takes another wife, if you will. “Her name was Keturah and she bore to him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak and Shuah.” These names of course are quite strange to our ears here in our own time. I always find myself just fascinated with them. Sometimes they have meanings that we can discover. Other times they might lead us to see the fountain head for instance, of another people group that we hear about later on—like Midian, for instance.
Verse 3: “Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. And the sons of Midian were Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah, all these were the sons of Keturah. Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.” So, he has got some great respect for God’s covenant promises and for God’s instruction to him as it relates to this because God has told him that while he has made many promises to Abraham, even to Ishmael, to Isaac as well, the promised covenant Messiah, the seed of Abraham if you will, that will be coming will be coming through the line of Isaac. And God’s made that really clear to Abraham.
And so, he “gave all that he had to Isaac but to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living and he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the land of the east.” This is probably Transjordan and parts to the south as well.
“All these are all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, 175 years.” And that just blows my mind to think about that. “And Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man, satisfied with life. And he was gathered to his people.” Man, what an interesting tombstone, if that were in some way summarized for him. He’ll be buried as we’ll be told here in the same cave that Sarah was buried in. But what a great way to describe someone’s life that he was satisfied with life. Some of your English translations will probably say “full” or “full of years” or it might say “contented,” and just had a flourishing life and not without trouble, not without some failure and some frustration, not without some family trouble, et cetera, just like we all have. But I love that this is the way he’s described. “He died at a ripe old age, an old man satisfied with life, and he was gathered to his people.”
Well, verse 9 is interesting because it says, “Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the Hitite facing memory. The field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth, there Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife.” The narrator is taking great care to remind us of this cave at Machpelah. As we learned before when Abraham buried Sarah in that same cave, this is the only bit of land that Abraham actually owns in what is the whole promised land that God promised Abraham and his descendants. And so, he ends up purchasing this cave in the field in front of it and he buried Sarah there. Now he’s buried there. We will see later Isaac and Rebecca will be buried there. Jacob and his wife Leah will be buried there. Joseph’s bones will be brought back from Egypt to be buried there as well.
And so, the gathering of the people of God, so to speak, together in this tomb, and here, Genesis closes with this full tomb. You read on into the New Testament and see the four gospels close with an empty tomb. I love that the book of Revelation, the end of the entire Bible, the end of the New Testament, declares that one day God intends to empty literally every tomb in great resurrection day. But here at this particular funeral, Isaac and Ishmael come back together and they have not had… Last time we read about them being in the same space, it wasn’t going well. And so as with a lot of us in our own experiences and our own families, sometimes the funeral is what brings people back together. And Isaac and Ishmael are together.
They bury Abraham in this cave, and “it came about that after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac and Isaac lived by Beer-Lahai-Roi.” And that’s The Well of the Living One, (“My Seer”). This is an interesting name. We’ve read that name before and its meaning is rich. The living one, of course, God, the author of source life itself, again answering some of the big questions we have and yet at the same time telling us that God is the one that sees us, which I also really appreciate. If God is just the battery or the hum of the universe or just some kind of conceptual thing as opposed to a personal being, that would lead us to think a certain way about God.
But here, we’re told that God is the Living One and that He sees us. And no matter where you’re at today, no matter where I am, what’s going on in our lives, no matter where any of us are at, we can trust that this God who is alive, the God who is really there, He sees you. He knows exactly what you’re going through and what’s going on in your life. And that is fresh water. It’s a well here, it’s a place that Isaac will sort of center hub his home out of.
We get now a couple of verses that are going to give us the records of the generations of Ishmael and then we’ll begin with the sort of story of Isaac and his sons. Verse 12: “Now these are the records of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names in the order of their birth, Nebajoth the first born of Ishmael, and kedar, and Abdeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names by their villages and by their camps, 12 princes according to their tribes.”
And remember, if you will, that all the way back in chapter 17, I think it’s verse 20, God had promised to Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, as He makes this promise to Hagar, that the Lord would cause Ishmael to have many descendants (I think it’s even mentioned 12 there). And so here we have their names. And thank you for listening to me as I struggle to read some of those! If I mispronounced any of them, which I’m sure I mispronounced some of them, you probably don’t know that I did anyway, so we’re all just going to working at this, in terms of pronunciation, aren’t we? Verse 17 says this: “These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. And he breathed his last and he died and he was gathered to his people.” Again, the rootedness, the connection of family is so important. And something, in our own day in time, that I think we need to recapture a sense of the value.
Well, “they settled from Havilah to Shur,“ S-H-U-R, “which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria, he settled in defiance of all his relatives.” The way that the narrator summarizes the life of Ishmael there, it’s in keeping with the prediction that God had said that he would be a wild donkey of a man, that he would sort of live a contentious life. Maybe you know somebody like that or maybe that even resonates with you and might describe your own life, you always being in contention with other people or you always having difficulty with other people. You won’t be the first one, but at the same time it need not be that way. And the Bible’s great about leading us to the place of seeing how God works, redemption in and through history into our lives.
Verse 19 is a little pivot: “Now, these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister of Laban the Syrian to be his wife.” And this is Rebecca as we studied earlier, came from Abraham’s sort of hometown area if you will, and his extended family. And here we’re given insight into the age of Abraham. That’s why I said Abraham had to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 years of age when he took Keturah as his wife, or somewhere maybe a little bit more than that because Isaac marries Rebecca at age 40. So, we know that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. If we’re still reading about that and we know that Abraham was alive when Rebecca and Isaac married, then we know that Abraham’s at least 140.
“Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife,” verse 21 says. And she had a similar difficulty to the difficulty that Sarah had. Watch this. “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren, and the Lord answered him and Rebecca, his wife, conceived.” What you aren’t told in that verse because it’s so often with a narration of these stories, he’s moving so fast, covering a lot of territory and summarizing, well, 20 years go by between when they’re married and when they actually have a child. And we’ll see that in verse 26 here in just a second. Let me just emphasize: 20 years of praying for the same thing and not getting the answer you desire.
I don’t know how patient you are. As I look at my own life, I recognize I’ve not been patient. I’m often frustrated with God’s timing. But what happens is God continues to show us over and over again that He’s ultimately the one in charge, that He is faithful to His promises. And that even when all of the physical circumstances seem to say this can’t happen or that can’t happen or whatever, “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). And so here, Isaac is praying for Rebecca and it goes on for 20 years. And in summary we’re told that Rebecca becomes pregnant, “but the children struggle together within her.” She’s got twins within her. “And she said, ‘If it is so why then am I this way?’ In other words, ‘If this is an answer from God to our prayers, why am I having this struggle?’
Why all this difficulty? Of course, whatever her age is at this particular point, first time pregnant after 20 years of trying to get pregnant, here is this difficulty, this struggle that she’s having. And she’s going, ‘why is it this way?’ And how many times have we said, “Lord, why are we going through this struggle? What is going on here?” And so, “she went to inquire of the Lord,” we’re told in verse 22, which is beautiful. Do we? Great thing, great challenge for all of us too, to inquire of the Lord.
Watch how the Lord speaks to her. “And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two people shall be separated from your body. The one people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger.” And so, here’s a prophetic word to Rebecca directly from the Lord as far as we can tell here. It’s basically suggesting that the struggle she’s feeling within her womb is sort of foreshadowing the kind of struggle that’s going to happen between the two boys.
“When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.” Just as God had said, there two people (or two nations) in her womb. “And the first came forth red all over like a hairy garment and they named him Esau.” And Esau means hairy, not H-A-R-R-Y but H-A-I-R-Y, hairy. And so, he was hairy all over like a hairy garment. “And afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding onto Esau’s heel. So, his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was 60 years old when she gave birth to them.”
If Isaac is 60 when they’re born, how old is Abraham? He’s still alive. Even though we read about his death, that was kind of a summary statement. But he’s still alive because he’s going to live to be 175. So Abraham is going to have 15 years with these two wrestlers, these two strugglers, if you will. And that’s just wonderful to think about, isn’t it?
“When the boys grew up,” verse 27 says, “Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man living in tents.” Now here it says that the parents had sort of a favorite child each. And the favoritism is not something to be admired here at all, I don’t think for parents, but it’s stated as a bit of reportage. The narrator’s letting us know that each of the parents had a favorite.
“Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. And when Jacob had cooked Stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff therefore, I am famished.'” Therefore, his name was called Edom.” Esau also has the name Edom. And this was common. This wasn’t an uncommon thing to have more than one name, and Edom means red. And so he’s red and hairy. He wants that porridge, that lentil soup, that chili, whatever it is, because he’s just famished. And his stomach is driving him, that’s what’s happening.
“And Jacob said to him, ‘First, sell me your birthright.’” Now this is huge. Jacob, the younger would not have been in line for the cultural thing called the birthright. The birthright went to the firstborn in lots of nations, actually. It was pretty much a common cultural tradition. The birthright would be a double portion of the inheritance that would be split up among the siblings. A double portion was the part of the birthright that went to the firstborn. And also, all of the sort of the headship or the leadership of the family would be included in the birthright as well.
So, Jacob says, ‘You want this porridge, you want this stuff I’ve made, you’re so famished?’ And he literally takes advantage of this particular opportunity to say, ‘Give me your birthright.’ “Esau said, “Behold, I’m about to die. So of what good then is the birthright to me?” Again, he’s letting his stomach completely drive him here. “Jacob said, ‘First, swear to me.’ So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate it and he drank, and he rose and he went on his way. Thus, Esau despised his birthright.” This is the way the narrator assesses, summarizes, and closes out what we call Chapter 25.
Of course, the chapter breaks were put in much later, but it’s an interesting way to describe these two boys. And I think we’ve got something to learn. Now, this chapter for me is a bit of a patchwork when I look at the themes. I was trying to think of, well, what is it we want to talk about when we study a chapter like Genesis Chapter 25?
First of all, very real people. I think that’s an important thing for us to all know and to recognize that as we read the Scriptures, as we read these historical narratives especially, they give real names and real places. And some of these can be sort of triangulated and cross-referenced in extra biblical literature from the ancient near Eastern cultures. But here we have some 4,000 years ago, some stories of that have been preserved for us for a reason. But they aren’t fictional characters; they’re actual real people.
Isaac experienced at least three things in life that a lot of us do. He buried a parent. Yeah, he actually may have helped literally put Abraham’s body in that cave right next to Sarah, he and Ishmael together. And speaking of Ishmael, Isaac also forever shaped his relationship with a sibling, which I think is interesting because to have that common experience like that and to go through that together always creates some kind of bond. Sometimes people get upset with each other, sometimes there’s difficulty and all of that. But it seems like when they came together to do this, to bury their father, that they did it with respect and with honor. And thirdly, Isaac began the great adventure really of raising children, didn’t he? And I want to point out by the way that Abraham loved Ishmael and he loved Isaac, both of the brothers. But they had a difficult start, didn’t they?
And yet here, as they’re reunited for this funeral of their father, it’s a good reminder to all of us. Let’s don’t wait till we are at a funeral to reconcile with one another. If we have sibling rivalries or difficulties with other family members, why would you wait? Sometimes those events like that push us out of the comfort zone of our withdrawal or our anger and all that sort of thing fades to the back. Sometimes the Lord will use an event like that. I don’t know if that’s the case for you, if you need to do that or not. But when I read about this kind of thing, I always am praying to the Lord that He’ll show us how this story of a common experience that we even have today might in some way encourage some of us, especially considering the gospel and how much we have been forgiven? How much that might just encourage you or me to reach out to those that we might have been separated from in some way?
Now, if you’ve had the great privilege and pleasure of being a parent, you might also read some things in here that you could draw into your own life about. For instance, when we see the favoritism of Isaac for Esau, of Rebecca for Jacob, you can learn by reading about these stories, especially the way they’re presented. They’re presented in honesty and with some clarity. We see what goes wrong when people behave in a wrong way, in a way that isn’t honoring to God and loving toward others. But I think that this isn’t just a chapter about moralism, and I think there’s more to the story. I want to rise up just a little bit, if you don’t mind, as I give you just three summary points here.
1. Number one, Genesis 25 reminds us of divine faithfulness. These portions of Scripture that catalog generations remind us that God is guiding human history towards His plan and His purposes. He will bring about Messiah at about a couple of 1000 years later. But His plan and purposes to do that it’s through the seed of Abraham, through the line of Isaac. And it just continues on, and we’ll see this unfolding as you go through your Old Testament all the way, leading all the way up to Matthew Chapter 1. God is always faithful to His promises. And so divine faithfulness, I think, is huge. I think this is something that we need to remind ourselves of over and over and over again.
Why? Well, we read here about Isaac praying for Rebecca for 20 years before God fulfilled His prayer request for children. And sometimes we’re in number one of that sort of proverbial 20 years of praying. And sometimes we get tired and weary of praying. We stop asking, we stop seeking God for His will and His ways and His wisdom. And so we need to continually be going to the Lord and surrendering all of our hearts to all of who He is, so that He can work in our hearts and do the kind of deep work that He’s so good at doing. And so that we don’t waste the waiting, that we don’t waste even our suffering, but that we open ourselves up to God so that He can show Himself faithful in our lives as He does. And we will see amazing glory flowing even through some stuff that is undesirable in our lives as well.
So these portions of Scripture serve the purpose to remind us of God’s faithfulness. I love the way that David Atkinson put it. He says,
“We do not see the glories and tragedies of national and global events, and the joys and the pains of day-to-day family life, as finding their meaning only within human history, or personal biography. Their true meaning lies within the purposes of a God who has made Himself known as loving and holy, as personal and infinite, as Creator and Redeemer, as Sustainer and Ruler.”
–David Atkinson
I think that’s so important for us to understand. I think the world that we live in right now trains us up and shapes and forms us to think, ‘It’s all about me. It’s all about my little slice of history and my story.’ The problem with that is that we just turn in on ourselves and we don’t take a larger view or an eternal view of what might be going on.
The Bible’s so great about setting us free from our sort of naval gazing and obsession with the self and being able to see what God’s doing on a much grander level, much more majestic, much more eternal perspective that we really do need to gain. John Flavel, he was a 17th century English puritan and he said this,
“Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear useless, but put together, they represent a beautiful history to the eye.”
–John Flavel
I want to encourage us as we’re reading through Genesis together and studying it, to begin to see the big picture a little bit better.
2. Secondly, Genesis 25 reminds us not only of divine faithfulness, but also Genesis 25 reminds us of human self-centeredness. I’ve got to be honest, man, neither Jacob nor Esau come off looking very good here in this passage. In Esau’s case, he becomes the poster boy for the deception of immediate gratification and the blinded foolishness of impulsive living—the high price that we pay when we define what is valuable in life or significant in life by the way it meets our physical needs, our wants. Like mere animals, we recklessly toss aside what is truly valuable for a mere moment of pleasure or satisfaction. It’s like switching the price tags in a department store, taking the price tags from all the expensive items and putting them on all the inexpensive items and then taking all the price tags from the inexpensive items and putting them on all the expensive items. We just have everything backwards and we’re valuing the wrong things in life all the time because we’re just thinking impulsively, just following our nose like a dog would going through the neighborhood. Esau is shown to be that way. He’s impulsive, and we’re told here at the end of the chapter, he despised his birthright, something he should have treasured and valued, especially since it was tied to the covenants of God, the promises of God, the importance of family, all of that. And he just simply despised it all.
Jacob’s also not very shown very positively here, if you actually think about it, too. He’s shown to be maybe what you might call a cunning extortionist. While Esau had no forethought, he just was acting impulsively, Jacob’s got all the forethought of a master manipulator as he takes advantage of someone else who’s expressing some need, some desperation and all that sort of thing. So, Jacob is, instead of loving his brother and wanting to share with him and being eager even to share, taking advantage of his brother just to get what Jacob wanted.
In some way, the two of them are a picture of irreligion and religion in the sense that this birthright that Esau should have valued, he just dismissed it completely out of hand. It’s almost as if he said, ‘I don’t need that. I don’t need what’s important.’ And there are people who are irreligious in the world who will think, ‘I don’t need God. I don’t need any help. I don’t need that. I want what I want and I want it now. And I’ll do anything to get it.’ And that’s a reckless way to live, irreligion where you simply set yourself up as the final word and you’re your own “little g” god. And it’s too great a burden for anyone to bear, and it ends up leading to self-destruction. But Jacob’s way isn’t the better way, it’s another problematic sort of way of doing things. Jacob thought that what really was of great value could simply be negotiated for or manipulated. And so, he’s more like the self-righteous, ultra-religious rule follower type person in a way because he thinks he can just take it himself and that he deserves to be able to do that, if he’s shrewd enough and all that sort of thing.
I think sometimes we all get to be like Esau or Jacob in our lives. We just follow our impulses sometimes in life. And other times we think that God needs our help manipulating things, but sometimes we’re not even thinking about God, we’re just thinking about what we think is right and how we want what we want. And they’re both doing that. They want what they want and they want it now. And that self-centeredness is really just another way of saying they’re sinful human beings here on display. And I think it’s important for us to know that when self is at the center, sin has free rein in our lives. Tim Keller has a brilliant tiny little booklet called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. And he says this,
“True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. The freedom of self-forgetfulness.”
–Tim Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness
Think about that. Think about how free you would be if your life became a little less about you and a little bit more about what Jesus said, “If you want to find your life, you do that by giving it away.” And it’s paradoxical, I know. But that’s what the gospel is in so many ways, so many categories, isn’t it? And there is a great freedom that comes in that highly recommend that booklet by the way, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness, if you want to go online and grab a copy of that.
So, Genesis 25 so far reminds us of divine faithfulness, God working through history as He is accomplishing His purposes and aligning things just so in His own time. And that’s His divine prerogative, isn’t it? But His faithfulness, as we look back through history, we continue to see over and over and over again. And then, yes, Genesis 25 really showing us and sort of holding that mirror up to all of us and reminding us of our sort of capacity for depravity. Our human self-centeredness that breaks our relationship with God, separates us from God, separates us from others as well. We see that play out of course in these two brothers lives right here. And as well, we see that throughout the pages of Scripture, and we’re seeing that in our own lives as well.
I love the reality of the Bible in this regard, that it’s not sort of a fairy book that’s telling us about some Pollyanna world. But it’s telling us about the real diagnosis and about the real problem. And it’s answering that very big question that so many people ask, “What’s gone wrong with the world?” Well, what’s gone wrong with the world is that we’re all individually self-centered. And we can’t get past that on our own. And so, I also love the third point I wanted to make about Genesis 25.
3. Genesis 25 reminds us of gospel progress. So, you got divine faithfulness, you got human self-centeredness, but I’m reminded of gospel progress as well. In spite of the shortcomings that we see in Esau and Jacob, in spite of the shortcomings that we saw in Abraham and Sarah, the bigger picture here is that God is superintending a redemption history.
His progress of moving us toward the Good News, or “the Gospel” as we call it, and progress is actually being made. God was quietly at work and at His own pace, sometimes in the far background or underneath and sometimes around the corner, ways we can’t see. While we may not be able to see what He’s doing, that doesn’t mean He’s not doing anything. And I think that’s important for us to be reminded of as we look here at this particular chapter, Genesis 25. I’m sometimes Esau, I’m sometimes Jacob in my self-centeredness. Perhaps you would see some of that in yourself and be able to come before the Lord in repentance and prayer, and lift up the empty hands of faith and ask the Holy Spirit to instruct us, to show us our need of him and to move us forward in the gospel growing from grace to grace.
How is this story about gospel progress? How’s what God’s doing in your life or doing in my life about gospel progress? How’s what He’s doing in the lives of maybe the Esaus in our life or the Jacobs in our life—the people that choose to manipulate us, the people that are always demanding from us? How is it that there’s gospel progress going on in this world right now? Jesus has already come. Jesus has died on the cross. Jesus has risen from the dead, and here is God’s down payment on the fact that He’s basically showing us that Jesus is the one. You need look no further; He really can do what needs to be done to redeem and rescue us all. Evelyn Underhill was sort of a 19th-20th century English Anglo Catholic mystic. And while I don’t embrace everything she taught and said, I got to tell you she said some things and her writings are just so powerful and so beautiful. And I want to throw one up on the screen for you here:
“Many a congregation when it assembles in church must look to the angels like a muddy puddly shore at low tide; littered with every kind of rubbish and odds and ends – a distressing sort of spectacle. And then the tide of worship comes in and it’s all gone: the dead sea urchins and the jellyfish, the paper and the empty cans the nameless bits of rubbish. The cleansing sea flows over the whole lot. So we are released from a narrow selfish outlook on the universe by a common act of worship.”
–Evelyn Underhill
And folks, that’s what’s so important is that we turn our eyes to Jesus. We get our eyes off of ourselves, we get even our story itself out of our eyes. It’s not all about me, it’s not all about you. When we turn our eyes toward Jesus, when He’s preeminent, when He’s first in our lives, then we start to see that kind of healing in our relationships. Even our internal selves begin to heal because we begin to see Him. He then showers us with His love and grace and mercy. And we receive His fresh forgiveness each and every day, his mercies that are new. And it’s because our eyes are gazed, fixed, on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
You see, God himself is precisely what many of us have never known that we always wanted. It’s not a bowl of soup, nor is it the birthright that we’re trying to claim from somebody else. Take something, some power, some control, some prestige from somebody. No, it’s none of that. The Lord himself is what your soul and my soul are hungering for. He’s placed eternity in our hearts, you see. And we will never be satisfied, we will never rest or find rest, until we rest in Him, as St. Augustine said. Lewis said it another way too, and some of you’re familiar with this quote, but I bring it around every now and then. I think it’s so brilliantly said:
“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition (and perhaps a bowl of soup!) when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
–C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
So yeah, man, that speaks to me every time I read it or think it through a little bit in my own life.
Let us pray together and ask the Lord to open our eyes to be able to see and to open our hearts that he might redirect our affections, reorder our priorities. And place within us an increasing hunger for Him, for His word, for His wisdom, for His ways, and the desire to walk in His will, all of that. Join us, let’s fall before Him and express our great need and our deepest heart’s desire for Him and for Him alone. Amen? Amen.
(Edited for Reading)
