Household Sin and Sorrow
(No. 3473)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1870.
"And he said, Your brother came with subtlety and has taken away your
blessing." Genesis27:35.
THERE are some households where all are saved–how happy they should
be! Where every son and every daughter, father and mother are all
Believers–a Church in the house, a Church of which the whole of the
house is comprised. It is such an unspeakable blessing that those who
enjoy it ought never cease to praise God for it day and night. And
there are very many other households that have a share of this
blessing, but the blessing is not complete. Like Noah with his
household in the ark–Shem, Japheth, and perhaps some of the rest,
their wives, Believers and saved, but Ham profane and wicked! And here
was the family of Isaac, not a very large one–but two boys–and here
were father and mother and one son, but there was also one
unregenerate, one of the flesh, one carnal-minded and minding earthly
things. And in this case this son, Esau, appears to have been a bold,
manly, outspoken fellow who did not keep his irreligion to himself and
made no sort of pretense about it. He despised the birthright. The
great blessing which God had promised to the seed of Abraham he thought
to be–well, a matter that did not concern him. For he received his
pottage and enjoyed it. He was satisfied, for he could put on his
goodly garments and disport himself as men of his time did–he was
perfectly satisfied. He had not any particular concern about spiritual
things–did not need them. And on one occasion he was so profane that
he showed the little esteem he had for what his father, and mother, and
brother valued beyond life, itself, by offering to sell this birthright
that they thought so much of, for just a savory meal! He was a profane
person, so the Apostle tells us, and I suppose that action to have been
one piece of his profanity. He did it out of profane bravado as well as
out of a careless disregard for it. He would, to show his profanity,
give it up for a mere basin of lentils! And he became a source of great
grief to his father and mother by his marriages, for he married a race
that had been cursed of God, namely, the Hit-tites. This, we are told
in the Chapter preceding the text, was a great grief of mind both to
Rebekah and to Isaac. They desired to have no connection with the
heathen nations among whom they dwelt, for they were not merely
worshippers of idols, but these nations were the most polluted in
character. They had committed crimes that are not mentionable!
You remember how it was that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The sins
for which those cities were destroyed were common enough in the land,
and Isaac did not wish, therefore, to cultivate any acquaintance with
the people. He desired to keep his family altogether apart, but where
there were two marriages you may readily imagine there was a good deal
of connection. There was much sorrow caused to the people at home
because there would be brought home to the tent, persons whose language
would shock the piety of the household. There would be seen there,
sometimes, reunions and gatherings that must have made Isaac's heart
and Rebekah's heart very heavy, indeed. Here was a household with all
that it needed of temporals, with the blessing of God upon it, but
there was one son in it that caused a world of trial and trouble! I
wish, sometimes, young men who are, as we say, sowing their wild oats,
would remember something of the sorrow they caused to others, even if
they did not think about the ultimate trials which they will be sure to
bring upon themselves! If they knew how often the father's nights are
sleepless and the mother's cheeks are wet with sorrow, they might at
least, perhaps, not be quite so bold in sin and open in it as they now
are. Now the worst of it was that the presence of this Esau in the
house was the occasion of leading all the others into a piece of
business most discreditable to them all–and not to be defended for a
single moment. Even one person in a household may put all the rest into
a wrong position. There may be but one who does not fear God, and yet
that one may eat, as does a canker, into the very vitals of the peace
of the family and the character of all the house. Though they may be
godly persons, they may be seriously deteri-
orated through having perpetually to come into contact with that one.
And this was the case with that otherwise holy family–the presence of
Esau became the occasion of much evil!
I shall briefly attempt at this time, first, to show you the sin into
which the godly members of that household fell I will show you how they
were recovered from it I will mark to you, also, some of the
afflictions which they had to suffer as the result of it, and then just
a word about that ungodly son who had not the blessing. Well then,
first, there were–
I. THREE GODLY PERSONS WHO FELL INTO SIN.
They were God-fearing persons in the household–Believers in the
Covenant, expecting the blessing, attaching value to spiritual
things–as Esau did not. All these three fell into sin. Their sin
consisted, first of all, in a lack of confidence in one another. It is
a very bad thing in a family when there is no confidence between the
husband and the wife, between the children and the parents. Now Isaac
wished to give Esau a blessing. He did not tell his wife but he
arranged very craftily that Esau should prepare a little banquet for
him–and then on that occasion, when they were all alone, he would give
him the blessing. The usual way, and the proper way, would have been
for the parent, when he expected to die, to have in the whole family
and pronounce the blessing before them all, just as Jacob did when he
departed and blessed all his sons. But this was to be done in a covert,
secret way. Isaac was afraid of the objections that might be raised by
his wife, afraid of the very valid objection that she would have raised
that God had said the elder should serve the younger and, therefore, he
thinks of this. Good, easy man as he is–he thinks of a simple way of
getting out of the matter–so he will have Esau there, and give Esau
the blessing. He had no confidence, you see, in his wife–did not tell
her what he was going to do. And it is generally a bad thing that a man
is going to do when he does not tell his wife of it.
Then, meanwhile, the wife has not confidence in her husband! She hears
this little speech between her husband and her son–she was
eavesdropping, I suppose, always fearful that something of that kind
might be done. And so without saying to her husband, "You are, in this,
about to do contrary to the will of God," as she might have done with
much gentleness–and Isaac, who was of a gentle spirit, a holy spirit,
would have been quite prepared to hear it. But she did not want to do
that–she thought, "You plot, so I will plot–and I will try to mar
your plot. You are about to see Esau alone–I will see if I cannot
circumvent you." Then she goes to Jacob, and Jacob shows a lack of
confidence in his father. He is willing to get the blessing out of his
father by deceit, instead of going, as a manly son should, to his
father and saying, "My Father, albeit I am not the first-born, yet you
will remember God rules in this household and He has said, 'The elder
shall serve the younger.' Evidently the blessing is mine and, besides
that, I have bought of my brother (however hard the bargain), I have
bought the birthright and you have no right to give it to him." He
might have said something at any rate–much or little.
But instead of that, there is no representation made between them–they
are all three, each one on his own account, plotting this and plotting
that! Now I believe there is never that in a family but what there is
sure to be mischief come of it. It is an excellent rule–though I may
be comparatively a young person–I venture to say–a rule which all who
try will find very advantageous to holiness as well as to their peace,
to take care and keep everything clear and above board. And when any
little difficulty comes, to try to remove it at once! And when another
difficulty comes, to move that away, too–otherwise one difficulty will
tell upon another. And little things kept back will go on multiplying
and increasing till, perhaps, even Christian people will fall together
by the ears, one with another! You must not tell me that it is a slight
thing for a husband to fall out with his wife, or for a Christian
household to be at sixes and sevens! I tell you it is a thing which
makes angels weep, makes devils rejoice, makes the world say, "Is this
your Christianity?" We must have united, happy Christian
households–and that we cannot have if we conduct our affairs with a
lack of confidence in the one and the other! "In preaching the Gospel,"
says one, "you shouldn't talk about this! Mind your business, my
Friend." It is just such talk as Christ would speak if He were here! He
often spoke about such practical things as these. His teaching was, in
fact, of all the household and of the common everyday concerns–and so
shall ours be if, perhaps, we may prevent some evil which otherwise may
be a serious damage to the Church of God!
Now the next sin in their case was a lack of confidence in God–all
three alike–for I can hardly distinguish between the one and the
other. Here is Isaac–he knows God's purpose, but he does not see how
God will fulfill it. There is Rebe-kah–she knows the purpose still
better, but somehow or other she thinks God's purpose won't be
fulfilled. She says, "Jacob, you are about to lose the blessing, yet
God has said you shall have it. The decree will fail. You cannot
believe that God will carry it out. Only tomorrow morning and Esau will
get the blessing! I heard Isaac say he would give it to
him." Now she is so afraid that God would not accomplish His own
purpose that she steps in to help the Lord! And what can any man or any
woman do to help the Lord? If the Omnipotent and Eternal God cannot
fulfill His own purposes, I am sure Rebekah cannot! But she thinks she
can. She does not have confidence in God. And there is Jacob–well, the
blessing is for him and he prizes it above everything. It could not
come to him by the rule of the flesh, but it is to come to him by the
election of Grace, but he cannot sit down and let the Lord work His own
purposes! "Be still and see the salvation of God" is a text that
neither of them could understand, or if they could understand it, they
could not put it in practice. Isaac is anxious to give the blessing.
Rebekah is anxious. Jacob is anxious to get it for himself. And so all
round they did not lean on God at all! They desire to do His will, but
they do not trust Him to fulfill His own purposes! And what a sad thing
this is in a household, and what a sad thing it is in an individual
household when we cannot trust the Lord! Unbelief is a very prolific
sin. Once we doubt the Lord, I know not what we may do next, and next,
and next! It is a sharp turning off of the right road, that turning to
trust in ourselves rather than in the Most High! It won't do, my
Brothers and Sisters. It won't do. We walk rightly when we walk
trustfully, when we leave our concerns in the hands of the Lord. But
when we will carry our own burdens, we shall soon be in mischief. He
that carves for himself will soon cut his fingers. He that runs before
the cloud of God's Providence may have, before long, to come back again
faster than he went forward!
There was another matter, and that was a lack of confidences in doing
right. Isaac ought to have had confidence and to have given the
blessing to Jacob. He knew it was for Jacob, but he was, in all
probability, afraid of Esau, so he would not venture to bring upon
himself Esau's wrath. He will give the blessing to him, contrary to
God's purpose. Rebekah cannot leave the matter with God and be
truthful–she must concoct a scheme. Jacob cannot trust in doing
right–he must make lies and do wrong to make things go right. And on
the whole, he thinks that because God's purpose runs that way, he may
take some license to lie as he will! Oh, dear Brothers and Sisters, let
us always have faith that, as a straight line is the nearest distance
between two places, the most efficient way to prosper, after all, is to
do right–and the shortcut and the right cut is integrity, uprightness
and truthfulness! If we begin to tack about this way and that, we shall
have to our sorrow to tack again–only the longer we run we shall have
to sail a great deal further and scarcely reach our haven at all, if we
once begin that process! Some have been foolish enough to infer that
their duty is to be judged of by Divine Purposes or Providences. This
shows, again, a lack of faith in doing right. If they believed in doing
what was a right thing, they would know that God would see those
purposes were fulfilled. There is much mischief done in believing that
we are to follow the promises of Scripture apart from the Law of God!
There was a man who once had no wood in his house–and it came into his
mind that his neighbor had a large stack of wood, and he thought, "All
things are yours." Says he, "I'll go and take some wood. 'All things
are yours'–why should not I have some wood off my neighbor's stack?"
But just as he was going to take a log of wood, this came into his
mind, "You shall not steal," and he very wisely preferred the latter to
the former!
And there have been some who have said, "Such a text came into my
mind." Never mind, you stick to God's Law! It can never be right, text
or no text, for a man to tell a lie! There are some things that cannot
be altered and God never does alter. He bids you keep to His statutes.
You keep to them. "But, perhaps, that might involve a great deal of
suffering to myself." "He that cannot take up his cross and follow
Christ is not worthy of Him." And this is a part of the cross–to be
willing to suffer for well-doing. "But I may bring suffering upon other
people, and might lose many opportunities of usefulness if I were to
act exactly as my conscience should teach me." My dear Friend, what
have you to do with usefulness? After all, your serving God is your
first business, whether you shall be useful or not! God will see to
that. You are to seek usefulness, but never usefulness by sinning–for
that is the old doctrine of, "Let us do evil that good may come," and
the notion, the old Jesuitical notion, that the end justifies the
means, which can never be right! Do right if Heaven itself should
grieve! If the skies should not be propped except by a lie, let them
fall! Come what may, you never must in any degree or in any shape
depart from the honest, the true, the right, the Christ-like, that
which God commands, that which alone God will approve!
"Well," says one, "but suppose now Rebekah had not thus deceived Isaac
and got the blessing for Jacob, what might have happened?" Ah, that is
one of the things I don't know, and that is one of the things none of
us can guess! But I can as readily suppose what might have happened to
set it right, as you can, or will dare suppose what would have happened
to set it wrong. I can suppose that long before Esau brought in the
savory meat, there might have come to Isaac's mind the recollection of
the Divine Word, and he might have felt he was about to do wrong, and
might have said to Esau, "I cannot do it. I am convinced, after all,
that I have been guided by the flesh, and not by the spirit. I must
give the blessing to your brother, Jacob." I do not see why that could
not have happened! I think it very probably might. Certain I am that
the Divine Purpose would have been fulfilled somehow or other–somehow
or other–and it was not Rebekah's business, nor yet Jacob's business
to attend to God's purposes! Their duty was to do the right thing and
let things take their course.
Now think a minute about the sin of each one of these persons. There
was Isaac. Isaac, a true Believer, a man who lived near to God, one of
whom we know that he was given to meditation. He was often in the field
at eventide to commune with God–a man of a quiet, gentle spirit. When
the Philistines quarreled with him, he just went out of their way. If
they took one way, he took another. If they took that, he took another,
and so on–a man of a very gentle mold. This was a virtue, but it led
him into a fault. He was like some persons who are too gentle to say,
"No." Too gentle to encounter opposition. Perhaps this was why he
resolved to give the blessing to Esau, lest he should have a quarrel
and bring down the wrath of Esau upon his head–and he thought he would
do it so slyly that nobody would know it, and so he would avoid all
sort of tempest and trouble in the family. My Brothers and Sisters,
there is such a thing as allowing your gentleness to lead you into
wrong. Firmness is needed in every question, and firmness especially
where God's will is concerned. Isaac was in a great haste to transmit
the blessing. He expected to see his seed. Now Esau was married, but
Jacob was not. The father, perhaps, for that reason thought that the
seed must, after all, therefore run on in the line of Esau, and not in
that of Jacob. So he could not wait the Lord's time–could not tarry
for the Lord to give the blessing, but, he said, "My eyes are dim. I am
getting old"–not remembering that he might have 50 or 60 more years to
live–even in his advanced old age! So he hurried to do what would have
been right to do if God made him, but wrong to do when his own will
made him! Ah, good men, and experienced men, too–you may be in a great
haste through unbelief, and you may have to rue the day in which you
were in such a hurry!
Then Isaac sinned in that he was forgetful of the mind of God. If God
had said, "The elder shall serve the younger," it was not for Isaac to
judge of the rightness of that. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right? He quarreled a little with the Doctrine of Election–could not
quite see it–wanted, after all, that it should be of the will of man,
of the flesh, and not altogether of the will of God. He liked Esau–who
would not? A fine fellow, a man given to athletic exercises. And men of
gentle mold always admire the opposite in their sons. They like to see
the manliness developed in them. So Esau became his favorite, while
Jacob, quiet in spirit, and one who loved holy things, should have
been–if there had been any difference–should have been, at any rate,
more dear to him. And so, running counter to the mind of God, the old
man thought of this cunning device of giving the blessing in secret.
There was Isaac's sin.
Now look at Rebekah's sin. She was a true Believer, too. Think not
harshly of her, and yet excuse not her fault. She looked upon the
blessing which went with the line of Abraham as being invaluable and
precious. She desired that Jacob should have it. She knew, moreover,
that Jacob would have it, for God had declared that it should be so.
She was mindful of the Divine Words and deserved honor that she had
that laid up in her heart. She was anxious, however, to prevent that
Word of God from being thwarted. There was her weak point! She could
not leave God to fulfill His own decree, but so anxious was she about
it that she determined that her own son, her dear son, should get the
blessing–and she was willing to sacrifice herself and all that she had
for it! I like to see in a mother a willingness to lose anything if but
her son should be saved, and something of that is in Rebekah, though
put in a wrong place, when she said, "Upon me be your curse, my Son."
If he will but seek after the blessing, she bids him seek after it, and
if there was any loss involved in it she is quite prepared to bear it.
Her fault was that she came of a cunning family. We should call her a
shrewd woman–a true mother of the Jews, as Jacob is the father. Their
sin seems to have been stamped in them by their progenitors and she
used that, as she thought, in order to prevent the purpose of God being
frustrated, and her favorite son being deprived of the blessing!
Then, as for Jacob, he was a fine man in some respects, but he had too
much shrewdness, too much business tact, I think they call it
now-a-days. (Is not that what they call it now-a-days?) Or too much
prudence?–That is another fine expression for a very spurious thing.
He was anxious for the blessing. He valued spiritual things–he would
not lose the spiritual blessing, whatever might happen, and he would do
anything in order to obtain it, for he set a value upon it. Yet with
all that, Jacob was too eager and became untrue in his eagerness to get
spiritual things.
You see their faults, then. I have set them before you, and with
nothing to extenuate them. Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us learn a
lesson from these failings and pray God that we may be preserved from
them. Now you notice in the second place–
II. HOW THEY ARE RECOVERED FROM THIS SIN.
I will call it their repentance. Now look at Isaac. As soon us Isaac
perceives that he has been wrong in wishing to bless Esau, he does not
persist in it. He will give Esau such a blessing as he may, but he does
not think for a moment of retracting what he has done–he feels that
the hand of God was in it. What is more, he tells his son, "He is
blessed, yes, and shall be blessed." And a second time he calls Jacob
to himself and in a solemn manner pronounces over again the blessing
giving to him outright what at first he had gotten by subtlety. Here
you see Isaac rising somewhat to a hero. He was timid and subtle, but
now he has become bold and, let what consequences will follow, he will
carry out what he knows to be the mind of God! The good old man, though
he makes no confession of the fault here, doubtless did confess it
before his God–and stuck firmly to the right.
As to Rebekah, she saw the mischief that she had caused, and did the
best thing she could. She gave up her son and sent him away. Little do
we know how much she loved him. Those Eastern mothers have a
remarkable–a more than ordinary fondness for the favorite son. Yet she
would give him up, she would make a sacrifice of him for the blessing's
sake, that he may live and the blessing be continued in him.
As for Jacob, from that very day he begins to develop–he becomes a
pilgrim and a stranger–he puts himself under the protection of God.
And the manhood of Jacob seems from that day to have been awakened in
him, awakened, perhaps, by a sense of the fault he had committed.
Altogether, the three persons, though the worse for their sin, were so
led to repentance that they became afterwards better men and a better
woman in future life. But now I have to remind you
of–
III. THE AFFLICTIONS WHICH THEY BROUGHT UPON THEMSELVES.
There are families that have been very happy up to a point, but from
that point something wrong was done and from that hour all happiness
vanished. A whole family has been scattered, perhaps, or, if united,
yet they are still subject to great adversity. Now in this case Isaac
had wanted to see very soon the blessing continued. He did not see it.
Jacob must be sent away–right away. He has the blessing, but he must
go. Isaac lived to see him again in extreme old age–he lived to see
his son come back, but there were some 40 years, perhaps, during which
he was away. The son at home would be small comfort to him–and the son
whom he had blessed must be taken away from him for a time. As to
Rebekah, she never saw her son again. She bade him farewell with many a
tear, and when he returned, Rebekah was gone to her rest. She did not
know what she was doing for herself. As far as she was concerned, she
was forever separating herself and her son in this world. As for Jacob,
he for whose good the whole was done–from that moment he had such a
chapter of sorrows as made him say when he had gone through it, "Few
and evil are the days of your servant." All through his life that one
transgression cast a gloom over it all! The right part of it, the
desire to get the blessing adhered to him–he never lost it–but the
wrong part of it came on, came on very soon. God generally pays His
people back in their own coin. If we sin against Him, somebody very
soon sins against us–in the same way, too. Observe, he cheats his
brother–then Laban cheats him! From the moment he enters Laban's
family, it is first one cheat and then another. Laban tries to outdo
Jacob, and Jacob tries to outdo Laban–a long, long tale of shrewdness
and sharpness. If you choose to go on your own tack, you may. If you
elect to be your own manager, you shall manage and you shall see what
comes of it. Jacob found what came of it through his having to go to
Laban in that way. He became the husband of two wives and he brought
into his family a perpetual element of discord and alienation. When
they brought him that coat which had been dipped in blood, and said,
"Do you know whether this is your son's coat or not?"–when his sons
deceived him, do you not think he must have remembered that coat that
he had put on to deceive his father? When he went down into Egypt, must
there not have been some bitter thoughts? "Perhaps I had never been
here if that turn in my life had not led me to the marriage of Laban's
daughters, and thus brought quarrel into the house, causing Joseph's
coming down here, and my coming down." We cannot tell, but certainly it
seems from that moment to have been true, "Thorns, also, and thistles,
shall your life bring forth to you."
You have often noticed his craftiness and said, "How wrong it was."
Notice the chastisement that followed. If he had not been a man of God,
the thing might have answered, perhaps, but as a man of God he must be
chastened for it. "You
only have I known," said God, "of all people of the earth. I will
punish you for your iniquities." There is no punishment for the
Believer in the world to come, but in this world there are
chastisements that will surely follow upon every sin. "As many as I
love will I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." And
especially in family sin–family troubles will come up with a terrible
harvest if we once fall–perhaps it might be but once–into some family
transgression. Fathers, people of God, take pains to rule your
households in the fear of the Lord! Mothers, pray for Grace that in
your families you may never lead any of your sons or daughters in a
wrong path! Sons, ask for Grace that you may have the blessing! And if
you are godly sons, deal wisely with your ungodly brothers, never
letting them have to say that you were harsh, or overbearing, or unjust
to them as Esau could truthfully say of his brother, Jacob. But rather
be more tender to them, give up more to them, be more kind with them
than you would have been if they had been Christians, if by any means
you might yet win them over and they might be brought to know the
Savior. Oh, for a family in which there is constant prayer–family in
which every child may safely follow the father's example–a family in
which the parent's life shall always encourage the child to follow
their example! Oh, for God-fearing households! They are the strength of
the Church! They are the glory of the nation! God loves the tents of
Jacob well, and there will He command a blessing, even life
forevermore, where brothers dwell together in holy unity. Now as for
Esau (one final word about him)– IV. THE UNGODLY SON WHO MISSED THE
BLESSING.
He was a profane person in character, a derider of holy things
altogether. Care about them? Not he! His blind father's God? He cared
not a bit for Him, nor any of those Covenant blessing that were to
come! Let him live by his sword and by his bow–let him be a fine
gentleman among the Hittites and among the Philistines and that will
quite satisfy him. Now there are many–many of that sort. But it will
be asked, "How is it written that Esau would have inherited the
blessing but that he was rejected, though he sought it carefully with
tears?" So will you be–so will you be if you go to work on Esau's
plan! Esau wanted to have this world and the next, too. He wanted to
have the pottage and the birthright. He wanted to be a fine gentleman
among the Hittites, and yet have the blessing. He wanted to have his
wife of a fine noble Philistine family and be thought a famous fellow
among them–and yet at the same time have the blessing that belonged to
the separate people of God! And so with tears he sought to get that
blessing, but he could not have it.
And so may you. You may say, "Oh, that I might be saved! Oh, that I
might have the privileges of a Christian." You cannot have the
privileges of a Christian unless you have the separated life of a
Christian–unless you are willing to give up this world for the
separated life of Christ–unless you will, with Isaac, feel that your
possession is Canaan and walk by faith, and not by sight. If you do
like Esau, you cannot have it hereafter. It is like John Bunyan's
parable, Passion and Patience. Passion would have his best things
first. Patience would have his best things last. Passion had all his
best things and laughed at Patience as Patience sat there, but after a
while Passion had used up all his best things, and then he had nothing
left. But Patience had his best things last, and then he came in for
his turn and, as John Bunyan says, "There is nothing after the last, so
the good things of Patience lasted forever and ever!" So the good
things of Jacob, when he chose the good part and sought after it–and
with all his sin he did do that–it lasted and his name is in the
Covenant, and he rejoices at this day before the Throne of God!
But Esau did not care for the spiritual, at least not enough to let go
of the carnal. He only looked to have that if he could have the other,
too, and as he could not have that and the other, he preferred to let
the spiritual blessing go. And though he cried about it and mourned
about it, yet he could not go to the point of giving up the world for
the sake of the world to come! And I know some people–I think I know
some old people, too, who would like to be Christians, but they like
their wine cups. They would like to be saved, but they like worldly
amusements. They would like, in fact, to run with the hare and the
hounds, too! They would like to serve the devil, or breakfast with the
devil and sup with Christ! They would like to have in this world all
the joys and the pleasures which belong to downright worldliness, and
then they would like to have the pleasures of Christ as well at the
Last Day! It cannot be. If they seek it carefully with tears, it cannot
be. If you have chosen the world, have the world–if you choose Christ,
you must count the riches of Egypt to be as nothing for the sake of His
reproach!
May God bless these words and lead us all to faith in Jesus Christ, to
a desire for the best things, and may He prevent our walking in the
unbecoming way in which these three good people did. If we have so
walked, may He lead us to repent, and help us to mend our manners, and
save us, above all things, from being profane persons, as was Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS27:1-29.
Verses 1-4. 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 you, your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and
go out to the field, and take me some venison. And make me savory meat,
such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat: that my soul may
bless you before I die. A sad misfortune to lose the sight of your
eyes! How greatly, how much more than we do, ought we to thank God for
the prolongation of our sight, and it has been well remarked by one of
our greatest men of science "that ve seldom hear Christians thank God
as they should for the use of spectacles in these modern times." A
philosopher has written a long paper concerning the blessings which he
found in old age from this invention, and we, still enabled to read the
Word of God when our sight decays, should be exceedingly grateful for
it. After all, with all alleviations, it is a very great trial to be
deprived of one's eyesight. While some of the greatest divines in
modern history have poor eyesight, we have here one of the best of
men–one of the Patriarchs whose eyes were so dim that he could not
see. He seems to have had some sort of mistiness of soul about this
time which was far worse, and so he desired to give the blessing to
Esau, whom God had determined should never have it!
5-11. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went
to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it And Rebekah spoke
unto Jacob, her son, saying, Behold, I heard your father speak unto
Esau, your brother, saying, Bring me version, and make me savory meat,
that I may eat, and bless you before the LORD before my death. Now
therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.
Go now to the flock and fetch me from there two good kids of the goats;
and I will make them savory meat for your father, such as he loves. And
you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, and that he may
bless you before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother,
Behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.He does
not appear to have raised any objection to what she proposed on moral
grounds, but only on the ground of the difficulty of it and the
likelihood of being discovered! It only shows how low the moral sense
may be in some who, nevertheless, have a desire towards God and have a
faith in Him. In those darker days we can hardly expect to find so much
of the excellences of the spirit as we ought to find, nowadays, in
those who fully possess the Spirit of God.
12-15. My father, perhaps, 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 your curse, my son: only obey my
voice, and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched, and brought them
to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father
loved. 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.
And Esau, altogether a man of the world, one very like the sons of
other families around about, took care to adorn himself in goodly
raiment. It seems always more becoming to the worldling than the
Christian! Esau had a suit good enough for this occasion, but Jacob had
not. I would that those who fear God were less careful about the
adornments of their persons. There are far better ornaments than gold
can buy–neat ornaments and comely raiment– may we all possess them.
16-19. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands,
and upon the smooth of his neck And she gave the savory meat and the
bread, which she had prepared, into the hands of her son, Jacob. And he
came unto his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, who
are you, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, your
firstborn.Which, whatever may be said about it, was a plain lie, and is
not to be excused upon any theory whatever! It was as much a sin in
Jacob as it would be in us, except that perhaps he had less of the
Light of God, and the general cunning of those who surrounded him may
have made it more easy with him and a less tax on conscience for him to
do this than it would be in our case. "I am Esau," he said. Why is all
this recorded in the Bible? It is not to the credit of these men. No,
the Holy Spirit does not write for the credit of man–He writes for the
glory of God's Grace! He writes for the warning of Believers, now, and
these things are examples unto us that we may avoid the blots and flaws
in good men and may, thereby, become more what we should be.
19-20. I have done according as you told me: arise, I pray you, sit and
eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his
son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said,
Because the Lord your God brought it to me. Here he draws God's name
into this lie! And this is worse still.
21-29. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, Ipray you, that I may feel
you, my son, whether you are 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. And he said, Are you my very son, Esau? And he said, I
am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's
venison, that my soul may bless you. And he brought it near to him, and
he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac
said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. 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 has blessed: therefore God give you of the dew of
Heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.
Letpeople serve you, and nations bow down to you: be lord over your
brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you: cursed be every
one that curses you, and blessed be he that blesses you. So he tied his
own hands–he could not revoke his blessing, or, had he done so, he
would have brought the curse upon himself.