Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20000109.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III - God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
Q. Round Sixteen - CONTINUALLY Trusting God OPPOSITE Relying On The World And Its Lusts
(Genesis 25:12-34)
  1. Introduction
    1. Scripture tells us not to love the world with its lusts of the flesh, of the eyes and of the pride of life, for these lusts belong to an ungodly, transitory world system, and not to the eternal Lord, 1 John 2:15-17.
    2. As the Lord worked to wean the developing nation of Israel away from the Babel apostasy which was so full of the lusts of the world system, He left hints along the way aimed to get His people to look to Him and not to the meeting of their lusts as life's goal. The mixed results began to develop early on as we can see in Genesis 25:12-18, 19-34 with a big lesson for us today:
  2. CONTINUALLY Trusting God OPPOSITE Relying On The World And Its Lusts, Genesis 25:12-34.
    1. When first confronted with this world's lusts, Isaac responded in faith as he should have, Gen. 25:12-21.
      1. God kept His promise to Abraham in blessing Ishmael with twelve sons, Gen. 25:12-18 with 17:20.
      2. However, Isaac did not immediately have any children as Rebekkah was at first barren, Gen. 25:21.
      3. The disparity between the fertile Ishmael and the non-fertile Isaac and Rebekkah stressed them: after all, Isaac -- not Ishmael -- was the heir of promise regarding massive offspring, cf. Genesis 22:16-18. Isaac would have been tempted by the world's pride and lusts of the eyes to feel blue or angry at the way life seemed to be making things look better for h is brother than for him.
      4. Well, fittingly, Isaac did not fume or fret, but prayed for Rebekkah to have children, Gen. 25:19-21a.
    2. However, as time went on, both Isaac and Rebekkah with their offspring let the lusts of pride, the eyes and the flesh in the world's system get the best of them to sow seeds of suffering in days to come, 25:21b-34:
      1. God rewarded Isaac for his faith in prayer, giving Rebekkah a conception, Genesis 25:21b.
      2. Yet, the divine provision was supplied in such a way that God intended the couple to continue looking to Him for blessing instead of heeding the lusts of the world's system as follows, Gen. 25:22-27:
        1. God's provision of a conception for Rebekkah created a question, for Rebekkah noticed unusual activity in the womb and wondered what destiny God had in mind for her because of this, 25:22a. Accordingly, she properly went to the Lord in prayer, seeking an answer, Genesis 25:22b.
        2. God explained that two sons were in her womb, sons who would be great and produce two nations, Gen. 25:23a. Though this announcement would have alleviated the sense of disparity with Ishmael's blessing as his 12 sons were just princes of a single nation (Gen. 17:20), God said something that would have created a great need for FUTURE faith in Him: one nation would be stronger than the other, and the younger son's people would rule the older son's offspring, Gen. 25:23b! That order stood opposite the usual format of the time, HINTING that a FUTURE TENSION would result requiring ADDITIONAL help from GOD, Leupold, Genesis, v. 2, p. 705.
        3. Sure enough, two sons were born, Esau and Jacob, and Esau, the eldest turned out to be a strong hunter of the field where Jacob was content to be a man of the tents like Isaac, Genesi s 25:24-27.
      3. Nevertheless, Isaac and Rebekkah let the joy of their sons' births get the best of them; thus, they slipped subtly into the world's prideful, lustful value system as they reared the boys, sowing seeds of trouble:
        1. Forgetting his need to look to God to handle the anti-cultural inversion destined for his sons, Isaac foolishly favored Esau and Rebekkah equally erred, favoring Jacob over Esau, Genesis 25:28a,b.
        2. Accordingly, the boy's worldly lusts got the best of them, and Esau's lust of the flesh led him to sell his birthright for a meal where Jacob's pride led him to grasp that birthright in deceit, Gen. 25:29-34.
        3. This all only opened the door for a later, worse round of hatred and competition between the sons.
Lesson: Isaac and Rebekkah failed to see that God's HINT of looking to Him in FAITH to OBTAIN their sons was ALSO to apply to their RAISING them. As a result, they sowed seeds of future trouble!

Application: When we are PRESSED to HAVE to seek God's help to meet needs in this life as OPPOSED to feeding off of the world's LUSTS, God intends it to be a LASTING lesson. FAILURE to CONTINUE looking to God will breed long-term failure, 1 John 2:15-16, 17!