January 21, 2021 – I'm Following Jesus

King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34

Date: Thursday, January 21, 2021
Chapters: Genesis 27-28
Message: Beware of Clones

Hello My Friend,

I was looking up the definition of clone, and of course, got all kinds of meanings that related to these fools who are attempting to play God and create life themselves by taking cells from some other life form. Then I finally found the meaning that I was looking for and that is; a copy of. A clone is a copy of something or someone that is attempting to act as if it were the original. The thing with copies is that they always appear to be as the original, but there are always flaws. Jesus said, [Matthew 24:23-24 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.]

Now, who is the clone that attempts to copy Christ? That would be Satan, and he will do anything in an attempt to keep prophecy from being fulfilled. As we continue our reading in Genesis, Isaac is getting up in age, and is partially blind, he actually favored Esau more than Jacob and felt it was time to give a blessing to Esau. Giving the blessing is when the father passes down his inheritance, desire for them, and what is predicted to become of them, and is usually given to the eldest son. [Genesis 27:1-5 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. 2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; 4 And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. 5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.]

[that my soul may bless thee before I die.] [Bless; To set apart or consecrate to holy purposes; A present; a gift given with kind wishes for the welfare of the giver. A solemn prophetic benediction, in which happiness is desired, invoked or foretold.]. Isaac had already purposed in his heart that he was going to bless Esau because of his favoritism. Isaac made two errors here, one, his favoritism toward Esau, and two, trying to alter God’s plan. Rebekah overheard Isaac talking to Esau, who never forgot what God told her about the elder son serving the younger, and she was going to make sure that happened. [Genesis 27:8-13 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: 10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. 11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.]

[Upon me be thy curse,] Many people call Jacob the schemer, and while he did have his moments, they were really under the influence of his mother, who by the way, actually favored Jacob more than Esau. This was not going to be easy to pull off, after all, Esau was bigger and hairier than Jacob. Rebekah dressed Jacob up in Esau’s clothes and put some goat hair on his body to appear as though it was him. [Genesis 27:15-20,23 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 17 And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? 19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. 20 And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me. 23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.]

[Because the LORD thy God brought it to me.] The one thing that we are to never do is say that what we do in our own will is from God. We do not need to help God out, He knows who we are, where we are going, how He is going to use us, and what is to come of us before we are even born. And we definitely do not need to scheme our way to get them, [Hebrews 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.]

Now, as for Isaac, just think about how easy it was for him to believe that Jacob was Esau, even after noticing that he sounded like Jacob in his voice. Nevertheless, he pulls him close to him, hugging him, and when he smelled that outdoor, woodsy smell on his clothes, he believed it was him, and that was when he gave him the blessing. [Genesis 27:27-30,33 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: 28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: 29 Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. 30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.]

[And Isaac trembled very exceedingly,] Do you know why Isaac was scared once he realize that it was in fact Jacob that he blessed and not Esau? He knew that he messed up. Isaac not only embarrassed by being deceived, also realized he was wrong, yet blamed it on Jacob, and since he had given everything to Jacob, he had nothing to bless Esau with, which made things worse between Jacob and Esau. [Genesis 27:38-41 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. 39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; 40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. 41 And 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; then will I slay my brother Jacob.]

[Hast thou but one blessing,] This is nothing more than a severe case of sibling rivalry, all instigated between two parents who favored one child over the other. We do not hear much about God blessing Isaac apart from being the promised seed for this reason, we cannot try to alter God’s plan, and even though all of this was unnecessary, God used it for His purpose. Had Esau actually not despised his birthright, God would have used him, He actually despised him because of that, [Romans 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.]

While this entire scheme is a perfect example of Jacob attempting to appear as his brother to receive the blessing that his father intended to give to Esau. It is actually an attempt by Satan to overthrow the will of God had he given the blessing to Esau. We need to be very careful that we are not blinded by those who appear to be of Christ, but are not. Had the blessing actually been given to Esau there would have been a completely different outcome. Nevertheless, Isaac finally understood his error and blessed Jacob with what God foretold.

[Genesis 28:1-5 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Padanaram, 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. 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. 5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.]

[And give thee the blessing of Abraham,] You see, this was the plan all along, why Isaac did not consider it at the time had to only be that he was thinking this would have been Esau. God’s choice of who He uses to fulfill His will does not depend on what family they are born into, or if they are the first born, it is dependent upon their faith in Him. Esau knew that his lifestyle was not something that God approved of, he had every opportunity to turn his life in the right direction, instead he chose to go his own way. [Genesis 28:6-9 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; 8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.]

[Then went Esau unto Ishmael,] This is why God chose Jacob to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Esau only thought of his flesh, what he could get out of the blessing. God will only bless us if we are willing to give up the will of our own flesh and follow His will for our lives. Of course we are going to mess up and God is going to hold off until we get in His will, but He never goes back on His promises, [Numbers 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.]

Now, fearful, and perhaps a little guilty of what he had done, Jacob embarks on his journey to Padanaram, he stops to rest, and that was when God spoke to him for the first time and revealed His plan for him.

[Genesis 28:11-16 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.]

[until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.] God will always fulfill His promise, Satan knows this and that is exactly why he will keep on sending his clones in an attempt to keep the lost from finding Christ before He returns. Jesus warns us that there will be many clones who will even deceive the elect, these are actually those who never got saved, should have gotten saved, but never received Christ as their Saviour. We cannot bypass the most important step to our salvation, and that is calling upon Him to save us and accepting Him as our Saviour. There is a promise to all who are not deceived, [Matthew 24:11-14 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.] Amen!

Jesus Christ Magnified: [Genesis 28:22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.]

Today’s Prayer: God, I know that You have a purpose and a plan for my life, and I am living it right now. And while You have blessed me tremendously for being faithful to You, just knowing I am get to spend an eternity with You is enough to stay faithful. I know that my decisions are not always what You want them to be, but I know who You are and what You expect of me. Lord, lead me and guide me, let me not be deceived by the clones attempt to prolong Your promises for me and hinder me from fulfilling Your will for my life. Put Your hedge of protection around me, fill me with Your mercy, grace, longsuffering and give me Your strength and power to stay in Your will until You have done all that You have purposed for me. I ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.

God Bless You, I am praying for you,

Christina

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