What Does the Bible Say About Deception? Jacob, Esau, and the Stolen Blessing.

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, good evening. It's good to have everybody back, and especially the group here in the studio. We know that you put out a lot of effort to come in for this class. And as I've said so often, I just couldn't teach unless I had folk in front of me that are my friends, and I know that are praying for us, and that just makes all the difference in the world. Now, again, for you in television, we just want to welcome you to the class, and we trust that you're learning along with us. And I am constantly reminded that I do not make it plain enough, I guess, that we do need financial help from the viewing audience. After all, these things take money. I have nobody underwriting. We are not with any particular organization. We are just simply teaching the Word, and we trust that folk can take it into their Sunday school classes or whatever. And the VCR tapes. Someone said, well, maybe people think you're making so much money on the tapes that they take care of the program. Well, now, the tapes we sell for our costs, and when we mail them out across the country, we even stand the postage out of our own pockets. So we're not making a dime out of this ministry one way or the other, as long as the good Lord holds the price of cattle up where we can make a living. I'm a full-time rancher, and that's the only thing that we do. So someday I just may read our financial statement to you on the air to show that the only cost that comes out of our budget is the production of the program, airtime, and our accountant. There are no salaries. Nobody takes a dime out of it. It all goes to buy airtime, and of course, I think very few people realize we're also on a Denver, Colorado station, and we also have other stations that are waiting for our program once the funds are available. So I hate to waste time on things like that. So enough of that. Let's go right back to Genesis. I'm hoping that we can be ready for the book of Exodus within the next couple of weeks. All right, now if we'll come back to chapter 27 where we left off, and remember now that Rebekah and Jacob have literally connived, there's no doubt about it. She put the skin of a kid on his arms to fool old Isaac into thinking that indeed it was Esau. And now Esau comes on the scene having, of course, gotten his deer and he's prepared the food that he knows old Jacob loves. And now let's drop in at verse 30 of chapter 27. And it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, now remember I pointed out in the last half hour that the blessing was the double portion of the material estate. And that's, of course, why Esau was really interested in this one. The birthright didn't bother him. That didn't cause any turmoil, as we pointed out, that in that time from 24 till their 77 years of age, there was no enmity. There wasn't any hard feelings over the birthright, because that didn't mean a thing to Esau. But oh, this blessing, now that's something different. I mean, we're getting in their pocketbook. And so as soon as he had finished making a blessing on Jacob, verse 30, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. He had also made savory meat and brought it unto his father and said, Let my father arise and eat of his son's medicine, that thy soul may bless me. And verse 32, And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. Now, he gives the same answer that Jacob did. Of course, he's speaking from the physical reality. He was indeed the firstborn, but so far as God's concerned, he's the second. And he said, I am thy firstborn. Verse 33, And Isaac, what's the next word? Tremble. Now, stop and ask yourself, why do you suppose Isaac suddenly breaks into a trembling? Well, number one, I think he was scared to death of what Esau might do. Now, maybe I'm wrong, but I think Esau was the kind of a man that Isaac realized that he was very capable of hurting old Isaac for what he had done. Now, that's just a thought. But we have to realize that Esau is a man destitute of faith, and when people are destitute of faith, it affects their behavior. In fact, we were talking last night in our class or after class, you know, this is what's happening in our beloved country. I was talking with a lady who works with teenage girls who have become pregnant and so forth. And she said what they're finding is that these teenagers have no sense of right and wrong. I mean, no one is teaching them, and they just don't comprehend that violence is wrong. They don't comprehend that there's such a thing as immorality. And you see, faith changes that. When you're a person of faith, you automatically know right from wrong. But Esau was a man destitute of faith, was incapable perhaps of knowing right from wrong, and Isaac realizing that, and when he sees now that Esau is upset, Isaac begins to tremble, and he said, Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him. And Isaac says what? And he shall be blessed. I'm not going to take it back. Now then, verse 34, And when Esau heard the words of his father's, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, my father. Now can you hear a son that is really, really pouring out his heart, broken over the fact that he's missed this material blessing. Now I think we looked at it a couple, three weeks ago, but let's go back again to Hebrews chapter 11, and see what the New Testament says about this man Esau. And then I think you can comprehend a little more of why God in His sovereignty designated that Jacob would be in the line of the Messiah rather than this man Esau. Hebrews chapter, I said 11, I'm sorry, chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And drop down to verse 16 and 17. I'm sure we looked at them a couple weeks ago, but let's read them again. And I think Paul wrote Hebrews. I think there is evidence enough in some of his language that there's no doubt. And so Paul writes, he said, Lest there be any, what, fornicator, now that's an immoral person, see? Lest there be any immoral or a profane person. Like who? Esau. Now there you got the Scripture's description of this man Esau. He was immoral, he was profane, who for one morsel of food, that was the bowl of bean soup, remember, back there in the earlier time, for one morsel of food he sold his birthright. It didn't bother him a bit. He didn't get uptight over that. And then verse 17, For you know how that afterward, thirty-seven years later, when he would have inherited the blessing or the double portion, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Now I think, again, we can put this attitude of repentance on not just Esau himself, but who was he hoping would change his mind? His father. And I think possibly this is what the Scripture is saying, that O Esau was so distraught that he thought through his weeping and his crying he could get Isaac to change his mind. But he wouldn't, because that just wasn't the custom. And then, of course, he was also bewailing the fact that he had now missed the birthright and the blessing. I see. But I think what you have to understand is that all of Esau's problems goes back to the same thing that we have with the man Cain. Now Cain had the same opportunity that Abel had, but what was his problem? No faith. He didn't see any significance in what God said, and so it is with Esau. He sees no significance in spiritual things. And again, let me bring it up to our own day and time. Isn't that exactly where we find so many of our fellow people right here in America? They see absolutely no need to believe what God says. I can get along fine without Him, thank you. I'm doing all right. And they just cannot comprehend that God has said, there's an eternity coming, there's a judgment coming. And even though they may think they can get along without God for 70 or 80 years, there's coming a day. There's an old famous Southern Baptist preacher, I think, who had a sermon that he preached hundreds of times from what I've read, and the title of it was, Payday Someday. And it's true. There's going to be a payday someday for every last human being that's ever been born, because God's Word says so. But they just refuse to believe it. Well, anyway, let's go on now to verse 35 in Genesis chapter 27 again. You have to kind of remind me when I forget to tell you what book we're going back to. I'm prone to pull that on my classes every once in a while. But anyway, back in Genesis 27, now verse 35, and Isaac said, Thy brother came with subtlety, with deception, and hath taken away thy blessing. And then verse 36, and he said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? Now you have to remember, the definitions of all these Hebrew names were definite. And Jacob meant the deceiver, the supplanter, whereas Israel, which we're going to see, if not this program, the next one, that meant literally a prince with God. So what we're going to see in the conversion of Jacob somewhere down the road is that the man is going to be changed from a deceiver and a supplanter to a prince with God. Now again, isn't that exactly what should happen to every one of us? When we're in our lost estate, where are we? We're sinners. We're nothing. We're rebels. We're enemies. But once salvation has come in, there should be that 180-degree turn. And I told my class the other night, the first thing I look for when someone claims to have just recently been saved is a change in lifestyle. It just has to happen. And I've seen it over the years in so many people, where there is just a total change. Now it may not happen overnight. It may take time. The Christian life is a growth process, just like an infant coming into the world, and they too have to be fed and nurtured and loved as they grow. And so it is in the Christian experience. So anyway, coming back now to verse 36, Isaac says, Is he not rightly named the deceiver, Jacob? Or I'm sorry, Esau is speaking. For he says, He hath supplanted me these two times. Well now the first time, that wasn't Jacob's fault. That was Esau's own asking. But nevertheless, he puts it in words. And he says, He took away my birthright. Now that's not true. Jacob didn't take it away. He just simply was in a position where he could say, Now Esau, I've got this food that you want, but I'm not going to give it to you for nothing. Sell me your birthright. And that's, of course, how it happened. And he said, Now behold, he hath taken away my blessing. Now we have to admit that, don't we? And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy Lord. Now I had to point out to somebody the other evening, and maybe I better stop and do it right here. This word, Lord, in small letters is just a term of address. In other words, today we would say, Dear sir, or My dear sir. But here the word, Lord, is just a designation of addressing someone. And so this is what Isaac means when he says to Esau, I have made Jacob your overseer. Positionally, he is above you. He's thy Lord. And all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And oh, Esau comes back and he says, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me also. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Now this is what Hebrews meant, that he sought this thing with tears. Now I think what we have to understand, that in spite of all the weeping and the wailing and the crying and the tear -shedding that Esau went through, did it change his status in faith? Not one bit. Not one bit. Esau doesn't come out of this experience and say, Well, from now on, I'm going to believe what God says. From now on, I'm going to be a man of faith. Not one bit. So again, we can experience these things even with people today. They may go through an emotional upheaval. And that's why I am not very much in favor of emotionalism on these things, because people can be forced by emotion to do things that they don't really mean. And my own favorite little cliché is, anyone convinced against their will is unconvinced still. And I had someone just give me a perfect explanation of that here a while back, where someone had brought people into their home to watch our, I think it was our number one tape, if I'm not mistaken, and they watched it, and immediately after that, someone tried to force them to get on their knees and ask the Lord to come in there. Listen, that doesn't work. That is not the way that God does things. He opens hearts, and it may take time. I've got people in my classes who I taught for two, two and a half years before they came to that place. And God has to do it in His own time. So you can force people. You can bring them to an emotional high and force them to do something that they don't really mean, and that's Esau. Esau, oh, he cried and he wept and he begged old Isaac, but it didn't increase his faith. He is still destitute, as we're going to see here by the end of the chapter. But as a result of all this now, we come down to verse 41, and Esau hated. Now I have to stop again. Usually when you run into the word hate in Scripture, and this is to don't occur with a lot of people. In other words, you remember when Jesus in His earthly ministry said, unless you hate your father and your mother, you cannot be my disciple? And that has bothered people. And it's been used in another place. Oh, let me show you one. Turn to Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, and I think it's in chapter 9, if I remember correctly. No, it isn't either, not the one I wanted. Malachi, I'll bet you that's the one I want. Let's try that. Malachi, chapter 1, yeah, here it is, Malachi chapter 1. That's your last book in the Old Testament, so if you find Matthew, just come back a page or two. Malachi, chapter 1, and might as well start verse 1, the burden of the word of the Lord of Israel by Malachi, I have loved you, saith the Lord, and that is as He speaks of Israel, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. Now verse 3, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness, whereas Edom saith we are impoverished, and so on and so forth. But anyway, whenever the Scripture uses the word hate, at least so far as God is concerned, remember it's a comparative word. It merely means that his love for Jacob was so much greater than it was for Esau, it was as if it was almost a hatred. But God can't hate. Hate is sin. And so always look at that word in its context and realize that it is only a comparative term. So again, getting to the verse where Jesus said, unless you can hate your father and your mother and follow me, you can't be my disciples, it does not mean that He expects people to hate their parents, as we look at the term, but rather our love for the Lord should be so much greater than even for our earthly parents that by comparison it's the difference between love and hate. Maybe that'll help a little bit. But back here now in Genesis again, in chapter 27, here I think Esau is using the word as we understand it. In verse 41, and Esau hated Jacob. Now how long has that hate lasted? Right up until today. This is the crux of all the problems in the Middle East. Now you want to remember these are all relatives, and I pointed that out several months ago when I put the genealogy on the board, how that all those Middle Eastern nations come out of Terah and Abraham and his two brothers. And then out of those three brothers we had Lot, and Lot had Moab, the Moabites, and the Ammonites. And then over on the other side of the genealogy, you remember, you've got Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and here we've got Esau, the son of Jacob, and all those that were not in that direct line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're relatives, but they're outside the covenant promises, and consequently they're enemies of God's covenant people. And so here again, Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. But like I told you, Esau recuperated, you know, and he lived a good many years after this, but that still didn't take the hatred out of Esau's heart. And so verse 42, the words of Esau, the elder son, were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold thy brother Esau, as touching thee doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now Rebekah got wind of that. Now therefore, she says, my son, that is to Jacob, obey my voice, arise and flee thou to Laban my brother, up there in Haran, up in Syria, north of present-day Damascus, tarry with him, what, a few days, maybe a week, two weeks, maybe a month, Esau cool off. But how long did it turn out to be? Twenty years, and Rebekah never lived to see Jacob again. And then verse 45, until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done unto him, then I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived of you both in one day? You know what she's saying? You know what they were practicing? What we should be in our capital punishment. She knew that if Esau murdered Jacob, she would also lose Esau, because that's what the law demanded. And oh, wouldn't we in better shape if it was still true? And so this is exactly where even the Middle Eastern law, now remember, they didn't have God's law yet. God had put it in conscience, of course, but most of these people actually lived their daily lives according to the old ancient laws of Hammurabi, who was a Babylonian. And then, of course, after the law of Moses comes in, that supersedes it. But these people back here before Moses, they lived pretty much their everyday life according to the laws of Hammurabi. And Hammurabi also definitely laid down the law that he who murdered had to have his life taken, and they weren't going to fool around for four or five years of appeals and so on and so forth. You know what she says here? In one day. In other words, if he would kill Jacob, his life would be taken within a matter of hours. And so she said, I can't lose you both. And so she said, verse 46, Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these who are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? Now, do you remember who had taken daughters of Heth? Huh? Esau had. Esau had already married two of these Canaanite women. And it was a grief of mind, it says, to Isaac and Rebekah. All right, now let's go on quickly into chapter 28, where Isaac now calls Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said, now, you see, Isaac is in full accord with all this. Even though he recognizes that Jacob may have deceived him, yet Isaac is comfortable with the whole setting. Otherwise, I don't think you'd see him calling Jacob back and referring the blessing and all this upon him as he does here. And he charged him and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Now, you want to remember, what were the Canaanites? They were pagan, they were idolatrous, they were immoral. But Oesau was comfortable with them, had two of them, whereas they do not want Jacob to get involved. Now, verse 2, so he says, Arise, and go to Padan and Ram. That's up there again where Terah died, you remember, earlier. To the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. Now, they all marry rather close-knittedly, and as I've always pointed out, the race is still relatively pure. They had a gene pool that could take these things without having any repercussions. Then verse 3, And God Almighty, now if you'll remember several months ago, we pointed out the various names of deity, and this word Almighty is the Hebrew word Adonai, from which we get the word Don, a school headmaster. And the word Adonai always is that term of God used with fruitfulness and sustenance. Alright, now he says here in verse 3, And God, oh I'm sorry, I said Adonai, I meant Shaddai. It should be Shaddai, Almighty God, the El Shaddai, you should have caught me before. And El Shaddai always is used in association with fruitfulness, as you see here, And God Almighty, bless thee, and make thee fruitful. Now you remember several months ago when we went through it, every time that God is used with regard to someone being fruitful, then the term is El Shaddai. And if it's referring to as a husband and his wife, or as master, then it's Adonai, see. And you always want to be looking for these various terms of deity, because it makes the Scripture so beautifully and fine-tuned as it's been put together. Okay, And that thou mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit, what? The land wherein thou art a stranger, that is Canaan, which God gave to Abraham. Wouldn't it be great if our State Department could just understand Genesis? My, they could save themselves so much grief if they could just know that that land between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan was given to the nation of Israel 4,000 years ago. And God never goes back on His Word. I remember reading a secular history book several years ago dealing with the antiquities. And do you know that even before God designated the Holy Land to Abraham, the ancients, the Egyptians and others that were on the scene before Abraham ever came out of Ur, were already calling the land of Palestine the divine land or God's land? Now, of course, they had no conception of the true God. But for some reason or other, they already knew that that land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River was a special God-designated piece of real estate. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Quinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Quinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.