A Daily Walk

Announcer: Have you been praying for something for a really long time? Pastor John Randall says, "Don't lose heart. Keep praying."

John Randall: And the Bible does tell us in James chapter five, verse 16, that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Effective, fervent, consistent. Don't stop. Keep on praying. Some prayers you will see answered in this life, and some prayers won't be answered until after you're gone and after I'm gone. But we keep praying. We keep praying.

Announcer: You know, as Americans, by and large, we hate to wait. We grow impatient in the drive-thru if we have to wait more than five minutes. We get upset in traffic when it slows to a crawl. But imagine having to wait for something you really wanted for 20 years. That's the place we find Isaac and Rebekah in today on A Daily Walk. They waited 20 years for a child, diligently praying all along the way. Pastor John Randall observes some great lessons in this story. So let's join him now in Genesis chapter 25.

John Randall: That brings us to verse 19. "Now this is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived." Here we gain a little bit of insight into this second patriarch, Isaac.

It says concerning Isaac, first of all, he didn't get married until he was 40. He got married at 40, and yet much like his father and mother before him, he and his wife Rebekah struggled to have children. They weren't able. Infertility ran even in the family, apparently. When Rebekah first met Isaac, no doubt he told her about the covenant promises that were made to Abraham, that were passed to him. Generations were going to come from them. "Is this exciting? We're going to have a family, and God's going to bless us in this way."

What you find is although she may have expected to be pregnant, it didn't happen overnight. In fact, it didn't happen for a long time because she was barren. 20 years go by before she was able to have a child. When you get to verse 21, she's still barren, and by this time Isaac's half-brother, Ishmael, has had 12 sons to Isaac's zero. How is the promise going to be fulfilled? Here we are in the same situation. Are you going to trust God? What are you going to do?

We know what your dad did, and that didn't go well. What are you going to do? Abraham and Sarah had waited over 25 years for Isaac to arrive, and now Isaac and Rebekah end up waiting 20 years for their twins to be born. What did Isaac do amid the barrenness of his bride? It tells us here, I love this, he pleaded with the Lord for his wife. He didn't try to help God out. He said, "God, I need you to help me out. I'm pleading on behalf of my wife. I'm praying. I'm asking you."

Isaac took his problem to the Lord and pleaded with the Lord. The Lord heard the prayer of Isaac the moment that he prayed, but he didn't answer it until two decades later. Have you ever waited on God for something a long time? Maybe you're still there tonight. "I'm still waiting for God on this." I believe that through this extended period of waiting, they came to realize that God's promises could only be fulfilled by the Lord and not by human effort.

Interesting to point out also that the same word for "prayed" or "pleaded" here is also used in Exodus to describe Moses's powerful appeal of the Lord to remove the plagues. Just interesting, same word used. As Isaac continued to pray, intercede for his wife, eventually his prayer was answered. The Bible does tell us in James chapter five, verse 16, that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Effective, fervent, consistent. Don't stop. Keep on praying. Some prayers you will see answered in this life, and some prayers won't be answered until after you're gone and after I'm gone. But we keep praying. We keep praying.

During this time of prayer, the Lord answered. I love this because he didn't just pray for a child, but God gave him two. God gave him twice of what he asked for. "Isn't that just like the Lord? Just one? No, I'm going to give you two. Whatever you want, Lord." But the children struggled together. Notice this, "The children struggled together after she conceived within her and said, 'If all is well, why am I like this?' And so she went to inquire of the Lord."

Isaac's prayer is answered, now she's pregnant, and in the process of her pregnancy, there was some intense activity going on in the womb. Ladies, you know what that's about. I remember when the children were not yet born and as my wife grew and the children grew, she'd say, "Feel this foot! Feel it! He's kicking!" It's like, "Whoa, that's a foot! Look at this. What's he doing in there? Kung fu?" Just going all kinds of battles in there. "What did you eat?" "I don't know." You could see it. Ladies, you guys are amazing. I don't know how you do it. I salute you all, mothers, grandmothers. God bless you all.

There's a struggle going on, basically, and she asks the Lord what is happening. I love this. This is what I want to take from this. The internal struggle that Rebekah has, and it's painful, where does she turn? She inquired of the Lord. She took it to the Lord. "Lord, what's going on inside? Can you tell me? Because I don't understand." Obviously, she was pregnant, but, "Lord, it's more than that." Sometimes we do struggle with things internally. We all have struggles, different battles for different people, but what do we do? We need to turn to the Lord. We need to inquire of the Lord, take it to the Lord, draw near to him, and he draws near unto us.

Rebekah is just saying, "God, if everything's okay, why am I like this? If everything's good, what's going on inside of me?" The Lord responded to her and he said, "Two nations are in your womb." Whoa, I had no idea. No wonder. Two nations are in there. "Two peoples are separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger." The Lord's response to this inquiry is prophetic in nature. For one thing, he said there's two nations in there. I thought there's just two babies. No, two nations are going to come from you.

Of course, Esau would be the father of the Edomites and Jacob would be of course the father of the Israelites. Two nations battling it out in the womb. It says here prophetically, the older is actually going to serve the younger. The one who comes out first is going to be the servant to the second born. Now that's not normal in the sense of culturally speaking. The oldest son would always have the birthright. He'd be the one who would get the greater blessing. He's the firstborn. Not in this case. God said beforehand, it's to be the opposite. The older is going to serve the younger.

The fight between these brothers began in the womb, and I will say this, as we go through this, the fight continued when they got out of the womb, even when they got older. So when her days were fulfilled to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over. So they called his name Esau, hairy little baby. Afterward his brother came out and took hold of Esau's heel. So they named him Jacob, which means heel-catcher. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them.

Esau was born first. Again, it says he came out red and covered with hair. So they called him hairy. Then Jacob came out grabbing his heel, and they called him heel-catcher. Hairy and the heel-catcher, both coming out. It's interesting they both came from the same parents and they could not be more opposite one another, opposite in every way. As they grew into men, their giftings began to surface, both born in a godly home, a rich heritage of faith, yet both had to make their own decision who they were going to serve, ultimately.

You can come from a great rich godly heritage, but you still have to make a decision who you're going to serve. Just because your parents are godly doesn't mean you're going to be. You have to have a personal relationship with Jesus yourself. Every child growing up in a Christian home has a great advantage in the sense that you have the opportunity to learn and to know the truth of God's word, but you still have to make a decision who it is you're going to serve. Your parents can't do that for you. Your grandparents can't do that for you. God doesn't have any grandchildren, he only has children.

So you have to make a decision who you're going to serve, not based upon who your mom or your dad or anybody was in your family, whether they served in the ministry or not. You have to make a decision. So these boys would have to do the same. It says in verse 27, they grew. Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

So Esau now grows up, now he's a man. Fast forward through the teen years, all of it. Now he's a man. He's rough. He's rugged. He's an outdoorsman. He's born with a beard and still had it. I mean the guy was just some man. He smelled like a man, spit like a man. I mean he was just a guy. He's dude. He would go out and hunt and his dad's like, "That's my guy. I love the game that he brings home. Oh man, I love that kid. Man, I'm hungry. Esau, could you... right on." And then Jacob on the other hand, it says he was mild-mannered, which carries the idea of sound, solid, level-headed.

Maybe he's just different than his brother. He's controlled, conventional. He just did things differently. Wasn't necessarily a hunter, oh but he could cook. Just like his mom, picked up the recipes. But the sad thing here is that they made a mistake, the parents made a mistake. They started showing favoritism to one or the other. It says that Isaac really loved Esau because of what he could do, and the mom really loved Jacob because of the fact that he hung out with her. This didn't go well. Parents, listen, here's a good lesson for us as parents if you have more than one child. Be careful not to compare them to the other. "Why can't you be more...?" Maybe you were that kid and your parents said, "Why can't you be more like your sister? She gets straight A's. What's your problem?" "I don't know. I'm not sure." It's just the worst thing you can do. Don't pit them against one another. Make sure that you love them equally and strengthen them in their giftings. Esau was loved by his father and Isaac loved the fact what his son could provide, but on the other hand Jacob was loved by his mother, but that created a rift in the family and it wasn't good.

As you go on in the story, and we're almost through for this evening, but in verse 29, notice what Jacob's doing. He's with his mom and Jacob cooked a stew. And Esau came in from the field and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary." Therefore his name is called Edom. So not only did he come out red, he loved red stew, they call him red. That's what they called him.

But Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright as of this day." And Esau said, "Look, I'm about to die. So what is this birthright to me?" And Jacob said, "Swear to me as of this day." So he swore to him, sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils, and he ate and drank and arose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Jacob in the kitchen, cooking. Esau returning from a hard day's work. He's hungry. He smells the lentil, he smells the bread.

Isn't that a wonderful thing, if you ever come home and your wife is cooking something, you just walk in like, "Whoa, what does that smell?" It just brings a smile to your face. Or maybe if your husband cooks, ladies, and you come home and he cooks something, you think, "Oh sweetie, you're the best. What did you cook?" "I didn't, I ordered it and I brought it home." No, some of you can cook. But Esau was returning from the field, he's hungry, he's smelling the food and he's weary and Jacob takes advantage of the situation, gaining his brother's birthright.

What is this birthright that the Bible speaks of? The birthright was the honored rights and privileges of the family's firstborn son. After the father died or if the father was absent, the firstborn son assumed the authority in the home, the father's responsibilities. In addition to assuming the leadership role in that home, he was also the recipient of, he would inherit more than his siblings because of that position.

The birthright also came with a spiritual responsibility because you would assume the role of the patriarch and priest of your home, especially in the death of your father. You would carry out the spiritual sacrifices and the worship of the living God. You would be the heir to the spiritual blessings that were passed down. Isaac was blessed because of Abraham, so the eldest son would then be blessed because of Isaac and receive the same blessing and then in turn pass it on to the next generation. It was an incredible privilege that carried great responsibility and great opportunity.

But what we find out about Esau's character right away is that he was a man who was governed by the flesh. What he cared about was not spiritual things but fleshly things. He was controlled by it, his body appetites. We've talked about this before, but the flesh, when we speak of being governed by the flesh, the flesh is that built-in law of failure making it impossible really to please and serve God apart from the spirit of God within us. It's the compulsive inner force as it were of man's inherited will from the fall, to do what he wants rather than what God wants.

And it expresses itself in general and even specific rebellion against God. That's what the flesh is. It's ugly. There's nothing good about it. In fact, we read it in Romans, those that are in the flesh cannot please God. There's nothing good. The only thing about the flesh that needs to happen is it needs to be crucified with Christ. The old person crucified with Christ so that the flesh no longer rules and dominates you.

But Esau, he was governed by it. And so he comes in, he sees the red stew, he wants it, and he gives in to the craving of his flesh. And what's so sad in one sense is that he valued the temporary over the eternal. "I want temporary satisfaction, I don't really care about the other part." He chose the present temporary satisfaction over future lasting blessing. You sold out! You sold out for what? Really, he sold out this great blessing for a bowl of beans, of lentils. I mean red stew for that?

We might say, "How could you do that?" How do people do that every single day? How do people sell out their family for what? How do people turn on their wife or their husband or their kids for what? For nothing, compared to what you have and the blessings that God's given you. How could you do that? That's just the flesh. It's just disgusting, it's just what the flesh is. And the enemy loves to come with those tactics. "Hey, I'm weary, I want this right now, and you don't have to wait on God. You don't have to wait on God, you can have it right now. Don't listen to those people. Don't listen to those people. What does the culture say? What does everybody in the world say? Listen to them. Don't listen to those people, they're so narrow, they're so judgy. Don't listen to them. You can have what you want right now, just go ahead."

Whatever stew may be in your life, you can just take it. It's there. You can sell out if you want to. It's always brewing, man. No stew for me. Red? No way. Not having it. But Jacob being the deceiver that he was, he said, "Esau, no problem. I got you. I got you. I'm your guy. The stew's yours. I'll give it to you, love to. I just, birthright. That's all I'm going to need and we're good. Throw in a little extra bread on the side, make it worth your while."

So much like the devil in the sense, the whole temptation. "Here, I'll give you this, but here's the very fine print. You don't need to read it, just sign it. It's not going to affect you, don't worry about it." But really what the fine print says is give up your family, give up your ministry, give up your dignity, give up your testimony. It's cool, just right there, you're good. Remember the devil came to Jesus and he said, "All this can be yours if you just got to bow down. Just bow down before me, I'll give you all these things can be yours, just take a knee, Jesus." No way.

But you notice how the flesh in Esau, how it's so dramatic. Notice how dramatic it is. "I'm about to die." Really? "I'm about to die, so what profit is the birthright to me?" And the flesh has ways, you know what the flesh does? The flesh has irrational ways of justifying things to make it seem like it's okay. "I'm about to die, so it's not a problem." And we find excuses that we latch onto that make it sound like it's okay. If you're about to die, then that's fine. You should be able to do that if you're about to die.

He wasn't about to die. That's a lie. But that's the lie you believe. You buy into it, and it seems right in your own mind. The Bible says there is a way that seems right to a man, and the end is destruction. It sounds right, everybody else agrees with it. "I know people who do this all the time. And I'm about to die." So then you justify it and you go through with it. And so he does. He sold it, he gave it away. And the sad thing is he missed out on the blessing. He traded it for a bowl of stew, one meal, one bowl of lentils for momentary satisfaction. One decision would lead to another decision.

In fact, as you go on in the story and in the life of Esau, Esau not only depreciated the value of his inheritance, but when he did that he then succumbed to even more of the flesh. You gave into the flesh there, it was so much easier to give into the flesh the next time. And it just didn't matter. In fact, there is a New Testament commentary on Esau's life. Did you know that? The best commentary in the Bible is the Bible. You knew it. Listen, Hebrews chapter 12. Look at what it says about Esau.

"Looking diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for a morsel of bread sold his birthright. And you know afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected and he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." We need to learn the lesson from Esau to never sell out for anything that the world's pitching our way.

We have a divine birthright. We've been born again into the family of God. We are heirs of the kingdom of God. Don't sell out! Do not despise this inheritance that you've been given as a joint heir with Christ, this blessing that's upon your life because it's just not worth it. It's not worth it. There is a trail of people, if they were honest enough and willing enough to stand up and say, "It's not worth it." I think there's people in this room tonight where we've made mistakes and we gave in or we sold out and we would say, "Man, praise God we're on the other side of this, we've been restored, but we would say that wasn't worth it. That was a mistake. I regret that." But that doesn't have to be our story. The stew is being made right now. That devil's got it out there. Whatever it is for you, he was making it.