King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 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.]
Date: Friday, January 21, 2022
Chapters: Genesis 27-28
Message: Until God’s Will Be Done
Hello My Friend,
I have been thinking a lot about these past couple of years, how God had a purpose for whatever it was that I was going through when I had decided to date the guy that I thought was a blessing from God. Of course, I had to go through some things that I never and do not wish upon anyone, to discover that he was not, but my life is proof that we can mess up a thousand times, as long as we are faithful and repentant, and God will turn that mess around for good. We could account that God knows everything that is going to happen to us, and yet will continue to use us until He fulfills that purpose, [But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; – Acts 26:16]
Although we are not going to talk about Paul, he is the perfect example of someone Jesus converted, he went from persecuting Christians to becoming a great evangelist. Think about it, the decisions we make that are not really in God’s will for us are actually what God uses to prepare us for His will. As we continue in the reading of Genesis, we learn that Isaac is getting quite old, and has gone blind, he decides that it was time to bless his son Esau, being the first born, because he did not know how much longer he had to live. Giving the blessing is when the father passes down his inheritance, desire for his children, and what is predicted to become of them.
[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. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; 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. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. – Genesis 27:1-5]
[And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son.] Remember, God had already told Rebekah that the younger twin would rule over the oldest one, she was determined to make sure that that would happen. She came up with a plan for Jacob to receive the blessing instead.
[Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 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: And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 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. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.- Genesis 27:8-13]
[Upon me be thy curse,] Rebekah was so sure that what she was making the right decision by convincing her son that he needed to deceive his father to receive the blessing that she was willing to accept any consequence that came with it. Many people call Jacob the schemer, and was quite the schemer, they were really under the influence of someone else. Well, this scheme was not going to be easy to pull off as Esau was much bigger and hairier than Jacob, so, Rebekah dressed Jacob up in Esau’s clothes and put some goat hair on his body.
[And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? 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. 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. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him. – Genesis 27:18-23]
[Because the LORD thy God brought it to me.] Big mistake right here, if we are going to listen to those who influence us to sin, then we cannot say that it came from God, that alone brings a curse upon us. We do not hear much about Isaac’s life beyond him being the seed that God promised he would be to fulfill the promise that He made with Abraham. Much of this is due to the fact that he was about to bless Esau with great power simply because he favored him over Jacob. That scheme would actually bring a curse to both, Rebekah and Jacob later one, but if you think the rivalry between Jacob and Esau was bad enough already, this only made things worse. When Esau found out that Jacob received his blessing, he discovered just how important his birthright was that he so willing gave up.
[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. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. 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 when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? – Genesis 27:30,32-36]
[And Isaac trembled very exceedingly,] Isaac knew right there that he was wrong when he thought he was blessing Esau with the blessing that should have been Jacob’s in the first place. How? Well, everything that Isaac had tried to give to Esau was actually what Jacob would go on to be blessed with. So, while it was not in Rebekah’s or Jacob’s best interest to deceive Isaac the way that they did, it was God who gave the rightful blessing to the rightful son. We can think of it as Jesus said it in a parable, [Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. – Matthew 20:15-16]
[and hath taken away thy blessing.] Let me tell you, we have no one to blame, but ourselves if we find out that our plans were interceded by God, and He will judge us if we do not repent. And He will also take those blessings away, then give them to someone else, [Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. – Matthew 25:28-29]
Esau is a type of the man of the earth, in many respects he is more nobler and trustworthy than Jacob, but he lacked the faith in God us be used for anything more than a vessel that would bring Jacob to God. God will use whomever He needs to use in order to fulfill His purpose, and if that means that He would use one son to put that fear into the other in order to do that, then so be it. And at this point, Jacob really had not done that much to receive those blessings from God either, after all, he did deceive both Esau and his father. Because Esau was so angry that he wanted to kill Jacob, Rebekah encourages Isaac to send Jacob over to her brother’s house, but tells Isaac that she wants him to let him go there to get a wife. Isaac approves, and sends Jacob to Padanaram.
[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. 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. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, 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 the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.- Genesis 28:1-4]
[And give thee the blessing of Abraham,] You see, this was God’s purpose all along, why Isaac did not consider it at the time only had to be that he was thinking that this would have been Esau. Had Esau even one iota of faith to do the will of God, then He would have used him instead of Jacob, but since he did not, God used Jacob instead, [Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, – Romans 9:21-23]
Can you see how God does allow us to go against His will to some extent in order to prepare us to fulfill His purpose? Until we experience what it is like to have to be under God’s mercy, we cannot fulfill His purpose. Why? Godly sorrow not only leads to repentance, but obedience as well. Now, fearful, and perhaps a little guilty of what he had done, Jacob heads toward Padanaram, I imagine he had a lot of time to think about what he had done to his brother and father too. He stops to rest and was so tired that he used a rock for a pillow and fell right to sleep. That was when he dreamed a dream so incredible that is scared him when he woke up.
[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. 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; 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. 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. – Genesis 28:12-15]
[and will bring thee again into this land;] You see, God is always with His chosen, we can mess up a thousand times a day, but when He does make a covenant with us, He remains with us until it is fulfilled. That does not mean that we do not face some consequences for those actions, but it does mean that He will not leave He says, [I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.]
God promised that Jacob would return to the land he was standing on and that it would be for him and his children. Even though God would not have planned it out this way, He made use of the decisions that Jacob made, and he will surely find out that sin does bring a curse as we will learn in the next chapters. After years of his father’s guidance about God, Jacob finally heard from God, and realized that He was directing his path. We can all get diverted in other directions when we go against God’s will, but that does not mean God has walked away from us. After Jacob wakes up from that crazy dream he makes a vow to God.
[And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 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. – Genesis 28:18-22]
[If God will be with me,] Keep in mind that when we are faithful to God, He is faithful to us, but it works both ways, if we want God with us, then we need to go to Him. And we need to understand that God does not favor one of His children over the other, and if it seems that He does then, perhaps it is time to take a good look at what you are doing to see if there are some things that you need to repent of. Remember, godly sorrow works repentance, and then the blessings of God, [For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. – 2 Corinthians 7:10-11]
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 getting 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 also know who You are and what You expect of me. Lord, lead me and guide me. Put Your hedge of protection around me, fill me with Your mercy, grace, long suffering, 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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