There is a great deal of debate swirling in our society today about the foundations of our system of justice. On June 8th, police in Seattle abandoned their east precinct and protesters moved in to establish what became known as the Capital Hill Occupied Protest. This movement sought to establish an area of the city where there was no police presence and from which they could make demands about reforms that they wanted to see. But, by June 22nd, the zone, which the mayor at one point described as a block party, had quickly unraveled into a place of lawlessness and death.
While we may criticize CHOP for its naivety in believing they could reach a utopic world free of the police, most Americans, whether Christian or not, believe in one way or another that progress and ultimate blessing can be obtained by human efforts. Some believe that abolishing the police and transforming the legal system will accomplish that. Others believe that electing a conservative president and overhauling the supreme court will have a similar effect. Yet, even with a conservative president and a majority-conservative supreme court, recent rulings have legitimized LGBT claims to sexual identity and struck down a Louisiana law restricting abortion.
Since the German philosopher, Hegel, put forward a system known as “Progressivism”, we have been consumed by the possibility of somehow working towards some perfect cultural or political system that could fix all of our problems. Lennon and Stalin practiced their progressivism through the revolution of communism. Adolph Hitler practiced the same progressivism in Germany through the racial purity of Nazism. And at the same time that Communism and Nazism were rising in Europe, presidents from Woodrow Wilson to FDR carried out a practice known as Eugenics, in which the poor and those of certain races were forcibly sterilized so they could no longer be a problem to society.
When considering the errors of this “Progress”, the writer of Proverbs said it best in Prov. 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it is the way of death.” Mankind has always sought progress at the cost of life. Mankind has always sought the blessings of God without obedience to God. We have seen it in Adam and Eve, in Cain, in Lamech, in the pre-flood societies, and in the people of Babel. We’ve even seen it in the chosen line of Abraham.
This error of seeking God’s blessing on our own terms is clearly displayed in Genesis 27, as all of the actors in this story seek the blessings of God on their own terms. Interestingly, for centuries, Jewish rabbis and early Christian writers tried to find a hero in this story. Many promoted Rebekah as the heroine acting behind the scenes to ensure that the will of God was accomplished. But, the more you study this story, the more you come to realize that every last person is acting from selfish, sinful motivations. To see this, I want to look at the errors of the two parties involved: Esau and Isaac, and Jacob and Rebekah. As a backdrop to this, remember the prophecy of Genesis 25:23 – “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” Remember that God has already established his purpose for these two boys fighting within Rebekah’s womb. Remember also that chapter 25 tells us that Isaac loved Esau, and Rebekah loved Jacob.
First, let us consider the errors of Esau and Isaac. Isaac calls Esau to go hunt game and prepare a “delicacy” that he loves so that he might bless him. Esau gladly obeys and rushes out. There are two errors of Esau and two errors of Isaac here. First, we are told in verse 34 of chapter 26 and again reminded in verse 46 of this chapter that Esau had married two Hittite women, and they made Isaac and Rebekah miserable. Remember the great care that Abraham gave to ensure that his son, Isaac, didn’t marry from among the people of Canaan. Abraham knew what the Israelites would later painfully discover: no one can be “unequally yoked”. Abraham and his descendants were set apart by God, and it would be impossible to follow him if they were influenced from within by the gods of the women that they married.
The second error of Esau is that he despised his birthright. The writer of Hebrews warns us in Hebrews 12:17 not to be like Esau who despised his birthright by selling it for a cup of soup and then later trying to get it back only to lose it forever. Esau was a man of the immediate. He went for the closest woman he could find, and he went for the most immediate need he had rather than treasuring the promise of God above everything.
Next, let’s consider the two errors of Isaac. Isaac is also regularly portrayed as a man of the immediate. He is always acting based on his senses, especially his sight (in seeing Rebekah and falling in love), his taste (in loving the game his son prepared), and his smell. Like Eve in the Garden, he judged the situation not by his obedience to God but by his senses. And, in this story, all of those senses failed him.
But the greater error of Isaac is that he allowed his love for his firstborn son and his own gluttony to bring him into direct rebellion against God. Remember, Isaac knows the prophecy of God that the older will serve the younger. He knows that Jacob should be the one to receive the blessing. And yet, he loves Esau and the food that he prepares. He is willing to go against the purpose of God for the sake of some delicacy.
Lest we think that Jacob and Rebekah are any better, consider their errors as well. Rebekah acts in direct disobedience to her husband, choosing to elaborately deceive her husband rather than submit to his leadership. Jacob, too, is complicit in this deception and fails to honor his father by choosing to deceive him.
In all of this, the characters of this story break every last commandment. Isaac puts Esau before God. Esau and Jacob both make an idol of this birthright. Both Esau and Jacob would gladly take the blessing in vain, taking on God’s name while dishonoring him. No one in this story rested in God’s provision and timing. Both Esau and Jacob dishonor their parents. Esau would come to hate his brother, which Jesus would later say is the same as murder. Esau also committed adultery by marrying two women. Jacob stole his brother’s birthright and bore false witness to his own father. And, everyone in the story coveted what the other had. And they did all of this for the sake of gaining God’s blessings on their own terms.
What they did would set the stage for strife and sin that would extend through the nations of Israel and Edom. Both nations would repeat the sins of their fathers. Because of the failures of Esau, the nation of Edom would never look up from their idolatry. And, like their fathers Isaac and Jacob, the nation of Israel would seek to gain God’s blessings on their own terms. They would make alliances with foreign governments, marry the women of the land, and ultimately face exile because of their ongoing disobedience.
The Israel of Jesus’ day was no better. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians had gladly made uneasy alliances with Rome to preserve their power. They had hoped that the Messiah would come to usher in power. They had hoped that he would come to crush the Roman Empire, and that they would be first in his kingdom. But, Jesus came to the lowly and despised. He revealed the kingdom of God by casting out demons, healing the sick, and challenging the religious and political leaders. So, they drew up some trump charges and summarily had him executed. Yet, what they could not know is that everything they did, from the sham trial to handing him over to Pilate, was all in accordance with the will of God. Jesus had already told them in John 10:17 that “no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely, and I have the power to take it up again.” They didn’t know what was coming, but Jesus did. Peter would later tell these same Jews in Acts 2:23 – “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Jesus’ death wasn’t some accident. Jesus’ death was the pinnacle of God’s plan. You see, Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, accomplished what God had purposed from the very beginning, all the way back in Genesis 12:3. God’s purpose could not be thwarted by the rebellious blessing of Isaac or the conniving of Rebekah. It couldn’t be thwarted by the unfaithfulness of Israel or the hypocritical religion of the Pharisees and Sadducees. God would bless the world through Jesus, and he would use all of the mistakes, the sins, the rebellion of men to do it.
Brothers and sisters, this is good news for us. For one, it should be a reassurance to us that even our own sins cannot thwart the purpose of God to save us. Even though we may stray terribly, we may even act directly against the will of God, and yet, God is still faithful.
But, it is also good news because God’s purposes in saving the world are not hindered by our inability. So often, we in the church can fall prey to this philosophy of progress. We think that we have to usher in the kingdom of God by some means or another. We think we need politics or programs or power to get our way and bring about the kingdom of God. Yet, God has not appointed those means for us. Rather, Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:21 that it is through the foolishness of preaching that God accomplishes his purposes through the church. He also says in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The power of God is not found in the right political party or the right outreach program. The power of God is found in the foolishness of preaching the Gospel. Our calling is to trust in the promises of God and seek the blessing of the kingdom of God through obedience to the Gospel.
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