just sent out and make sure that we're going alive. I think we're ready to go. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. This is where every weekday you and I would get together. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2023. Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Yeah, Genesis. Genesis to Revelation. Whoo, that'd be a lot of reading to do with Genesis through Leviticus. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, you are a generous, gracious, loving and kind God. You've given us your word. You've placed it in our hands. And Father, we pray now that you might put it in our hearts. Teach us this morning, Lord. Help us to understand. Help us to live according to your promises, in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so we're at Genesis chapter. We're going to kind of do a little bit of overlap with yesterday. It's don't worry it's tied together. Genesis chapter 27, beginning of verse 41. And we're going to go through chapter 28, verse five, so it's not too much we can handle it this morning. Let's go ahead and jump into God's word Genesis chapter 27, beginning at verse 41. So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said, and it's hard. The days of mourning of My Father are at hand then I will kill my brother Jacob. And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebecca, so she sent and called Jacob, her younger son and said to him, surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you, intending to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, arise, flee to my brother Laban in her own and say with Him and stay with him a few days until your brother's fury turns away until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also, have you both have also have you both in one day and Rebecca, said, Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of hath like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him, You shall not take away from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan around to the house of Bethel, your mother's father, and take yourself away from there and of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother, may God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you that you may be an assembly of peoples and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham. So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram to Laban, the son of Bethel, the Syrian the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob, and Esau. While we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best version of summarize this and see what are we called to do in response to these words, so what's what's this about? Well, just yesterday, we read about Jacob and he steals the blessing in cahoots with his mother Rebecca from Esau. Now, Esau has a heart of murder use flaming hot red, he wants to kill his brother. As soon as my dad dies, I'm gonna kill that boy. Right that's what's going on. In his heart. And so, Rebecca, she uses this irritation that's underneath Isaac skin and her skin of these two wives that Esau has taken these Canaanite women that he's married, and they have different customs or there's kind of like strangers brought into the family and they don't really like this I just learned a new word. Actually, as I was kind of researching this text. In dog me. I think that's how you spell it, say it. Somebody can research that and tell me how to pronounce it. But But this idea that you marry one of your relatives, is what we find in the patriarchs over and over again. specifically dealing with why would they do this, you know, kind of with this idea of different customs that you would not have to deal with if you marry one of your family members, but also inheritance, right? If you're marrying somebody within your family even if you don't have sons, the inheritance stays within the family. This becomes kind of the negative, broader as a family gets bigger. But by the time we get to the Israelites in the book of Numbers, and as well as places like Ezra marrying within the covenant community is a big deal. And so what is this getting out here is she's she goes to Jacob, and she uses this idea that he is very well familiar with. Rebecca, remember was brought to him from? She says, first cousin, I think once removed or something like that, and so there's this idea that there's go and get a family get away from the family. And Isaac degreases he thinks this is a good idea. He's an old man, he would love to see his son Jacob. Get a wife and have children. So he sends him away. Now there's a different than how this worked for him in his story. His father had sent one of his servants to go get a wife here. Isaac is sending away to go get a wife. And so this sets up a very drastic story. Rebecca, it seems she's inclined that he's only going to be gone a few days. He's going to be hard for a lot of years. He's going to come back for a different man than he's leaving. But Jacob is leaving. Isaac is with him. And as he's saying goodbye. He blesses him. Now, this is where the, it really comes around full circle. See, Jacob desired the birthright and he got it. By selling, being shrewd in selling his his brother, a bowl of soup for the birthright. And then he's just tricked his father into giving him the blessing. And now his father. It seems as if he's realized, no matter what he does, this boy is going to be the one to inherit the covenant promises. His favoritism seems to melt away. And he looks at his son and he tells him some of the final words whoever hear from his father's lips and he gives him this blessing in verses three and four. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of people and give you the blessing. of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger which God gave to Abraham. See at the core of this passage, is not just Isaac sending Jacob away to go get a wife. But it's Isaac, formally passing down the covenant with Abraham to Jacob is why we talk about the patriarchs, and we talk about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because Jacob receives those promises of God. He he has them now. They're handed down from father to son. He calls the lord El Shaddai. God Almighty. He says that God, who is the Lord of hosts, hear make you into a great nation. May He give you the land, may He bless you. He passes down these promises. God is a God who keeps his covenant, who remembers his promises. And this is Isaac's faith that even though he doesn't own a lick of land. He's traveled amongst the Canaanites and he's lived with the Philistines but he doesn't own the promised land. And yet he believes the promise that God has given to him. And here he gives it to a squirrely son to the boy who seems would not deserve it. And he gives him the Abrahamic covenant He passes on the blessing. He by Faith sees to it that his son would continue on the line not marrying from the people of the land, but that it would stay within the family of Abraham. And so what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I would underline verses three and four. Right, that covenant blessing that he's passing on the covenant to from Abraham, from Abraham to Isaac, and now it's in Jacobs hands well, what's this calling us to do? We're strangers to this, aren't we? I mean, this is this is so foreign to us. This idea of getting a wife from our own people and and I don't know maybe maybe you're from, from an area where you should marry people from your own town or from your, from your own extended family. I don't know. There's a lot of people who watch this in different parts of the world and parts of our country. I don't know. But maybe this is what it's not so strange for you but it is super strange for me. But we should not be strange for us. Is walking by faith not by sight. Now, Rebecca is sending Isaac who are sending Jacob away with mixed motives. She wants to save his life. She doesn't want him killed because she knows what she's done has stirred up Esau Zinger. But yet at the same time, the Lord is using this to pass down the covenant. To have another generation hold on to the promises. I remember reading a sweet story one time, have a man who is near his deathbed. And as he was getting old in his life and his children gathered together for one of the last times that he knew that he would see them and be able to actually speak with them when he still had his wherewithal. And he went with his children one by one. And he had written out a blessing for each of them. Something a prayer for them a good word that he wanted to hand over to them. So he prayed for his oldest son that the Lord would give him a spirit of wisdom and of reverence that he would bless him with a heart of servant leadership. And then he prayed for his daughter, that she would be a woman of renown that God would watch over her and give her strength. That she would be an amazing mother and wife. And then he prayed and he went through each of his children. And he just prayed for them. And he pleaded with God that he would remember the covenant that you would be with the children, the fathers and their children, that their covenant blessings would go on. And this was the last time these children saw their father. Remember those blessings that have made a marked impact on their lives? I wonder how much how much we think about praying to bless our own children. Going to God's word to remember the covenant covenant. And as we remember the covenant going and praying that our children might know Christ my love, Christ may be blessed by him. praying that God would make them citizens of the kingdom. Give them endurance of faith. I think what I'd like to do this morning is just pray like to close us with just praying that the Lord would remember our children and that he would remember His covenant. Let's go ahead and do that. No. Father, we thank you so much. That you are the God of the covenant. You are El Shaddai You are Lord. Almighty. You are the commander of the armies of the angels. Lord, we do pray that you would please remember your promises. Lord, you have made promises to Abraham, you have made promises to our forefathers to our forefather Adam. You have told us that a seed would come and you have kept that promise. Lord, we know that the land that you promised Abraham was a real rent of real land. It was received in the days of Joshua, but it is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth. The day in which you will come and you will rain. The Father we pray that you would let us remember that covenant, this New Covenant, this better covenant, this broader covenant, this bigger, better covenant Lord, we pray that you would remember our children. Lord, we pray that you abide by the power of your Holy Spirit. Bless our children, that you would let our homes be filled with boys and girls, men and women who would love you and follow in your ways, Lord, we can only pray these things. We can put it into their hands but it's up to your Spirit working in their hearts whether or not they'll cling on to it. Whether they'll wrestle with you and be blessed by you. God, please. Please come back. Continue to remember your covenant. Remember your promises. Remember our children. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may you continue to walk by faith not by sight may you continue to revel in the grace of Jesus Christ. And may you know that El Shaddai God Almighty fights for you. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai