40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 40 Minutes In The Old Testament: Episode 36

Episode Date: January 7, 2016

Jacob, Esau, Birthrights, Lentil Soup, the same sins again and how hard is it to kill Uriah. Have a listen.

Welcome to episode 36 of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. and a quick reminder for everyone 40 minutes in the Old Testament and everything that we do is listener supported stuff so if you would like to support it you can go over to ChristSoFast.org and go on the support page

and you can make a one time gift, you can make a reoccurring gift of any amount, your choice and that would help us and thank you so much to those who have done that Chad where are we at in uh in the genesis narrative we're gonna talk about food today are you hungry i am actually

hungry i haven't eaten yet well we will uh wet your appetite with uh some with a tale of some tasty lentil soup how's that sound fantastic all right good deal we are uh we're in chapter 25 beginning at verse 27 last time we got to the the birth of twins jacob and esau and we heard that rebecca was given a prophecy about the older serving the younger and when they were born the the younger was trying to get ahead of the older one it says that uh when when they came out when the babies were born that uh esau was born first but he came out with jacob hanging on to his heel jacob was trying to uh pull his brother back into the womb so that he could he could get ahead of him and and be the be the firstborn so even uh even from even from their

infancy even from the day of their birth jacob is trying to usurp the position that esau has and uh you know as far as all the arguments about nature and nurture at least in this case it's uh it's all nature for jacob he's uh he's a usurper he's trying to get ahead anything he can do even even if later he has a resort to to lying and and deception and all sorts of trickery to get ahead that's what he's going to do so that was their that was their birthday and uh so we're going to pick up here with verse 27, when they're all grown up. And as it turns out, nothing has changed. Esau, Jacob is still trying to get ahead of Esau. So here's how it starts. Chapter 25, verse 27 says, when the boys grew up. So we're going to leapfrog ahead here from their birthday all the

way to when they're presumably grown men you know i don't know this is 20 30 40 years we really don't know uh but they're adults now and we're briefly given a description of what kind of people they are so esau is a hunter he's a skillful hunter he's a man of the field it says and jacob is a peaceful or a mild man living in tents now that little that little uh tidbit is something the bible does very often it will uh it'll give us a brief description of somebody that uh it's kind of dropped but then it becomes significant later on and that part about him being a hunter and and jacob being a man that lives in tents that's going to become significant especially in a couple chapters down the road. And we're also given another detail that is equally significant

as the story unfolds, and that is that we have a divided loyalty between mom and dad. It says Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. So we've got the dad favoring the older son, we've got the mom favoring the younger son, and we're going to see how that all plays out when Isaac is old and it's time to give the blessing to the firstborn and how Rebecca is conniving with her favorite son to get that blessing from the older one. So we're given those two details about them,

what kind of lifestyle they lead and which parent they are the favorite of. And then we have the first story about the interaction between these brothers. And as we'll see, it's bad from the start. So here's what happens. Jacob is at home. He's cooking. So we're here to the food part.

He's cooking stew. It's a lentil soup. And Esau has been out hunting. He comes in from the field, and it says he's famished. So Esau says to his brother Jacob, please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished. Therefore, his name was called Edom, which means red. Now, put yourself in this situation. All right, your brother comes in from the field.

You've been cooking. You've got plenty of food, plenty of food for him and for you and for everybody else. And your brother says, hey, I'm starving to death. I'm famished. I'm weary, so give me some of that food that you're cooking there. What are you going to say? I would think I would probably give it to him. I think that would be probably a fraternal thing to do, right?

Somebody gets home. They're hungry. They're not just hungry, but they're starving. They're famished. So you say, well, hey, here's a big bowl. Fill it up. Take as much as you want. I was thinking something along the lines of, am I my brother's keeper?

Ah, yeah. So is Jacob his brother's keeper? I guess the answer would be yes. Yeah, I guess the answer would be yes. A little bit of a parallel here with Abel. Yeah, it is. Cain and Abel. You know, the fighting that takes place between brothers that we see beginning there with Cain and Abel

And continuing here with Jacob and Esau, that's a pretty constant theme throughout the scriptures. You know, it even becomes, I don't think we've talked about this, but in the book of Galatians, when Paul wants to use an example of the division between those who are still in captivity to the law and those who are in the freedom of the gospel, he uses the example of two brothers, not full brothers, but brothers nonetheless, Isaac and Ishmael.

So this idea of conflict between brothers is not only a common narrative that you see throughout the Old Testament, but really becomes thematic for two different kinds of people, two different kinds of nations in Paul's example in Galatians. Those who are of the law, those who are not of the promise, those are Ishmael, and those who are of the promise and freedom and liberation of the gospel, Well, that's what Isaac stands for. So two brothers, conflict between them is a pretty big theme in the Scriptures, starting in Genesis 4 and then going all the way to the end. I just want to say that the entire time I was growing up,

I heard, yeah, he traded his birthright for a bowl of lentils, right? And I don't know if you've ever had lentils or seen lentils, but they're like these little little bean type things yeah yeah something and um you know and it was always talked about like like they were just the worst or something you know and uh it's like it's like to make the story even worse yeah like oh he traded not not for something like for a juicy steak for lentils yeah yeah so it was uh they talked about it like it was like a bowl of like quaker oatmeal or something right but just recently a guy at my church invited me over and uh he was going to create his favorite peasant food dish peasant food and he has this he has this

cool um he has this cool kind of obsession with peasant food like with what what regular people eat in different cultures what like what is what is the rate what are the regular people eat yeah and uh and he's convinced that it's like the best stuff because like they figure out how to do it in ways that make it amazing and so uh one of the things that he made the thing that he made when i went over there was he made lentils and and he seasoned them just right and he put some put like some other stuff in there with it and it was actually amazing it was it was it was really really good so now in my mind ever since then it's now turned and when i think of like lentils i'm like well lentils are pretty great but it's uh at the very least i'm i'm i'm i mean it implies

that that uh that jacob knows how to cook right yeah yeah he's a he's a culinary culinary chef at least of soup i mean like his his mom likes him because he's like he's kind of a domesticated dude right and uh esau is more of a of a hunter gatherer type but uh yeah i i assume jacob knows how to cook some food apparently so yeah i i'm thinking i'm thinking it was those kind of lentils that are like they're at least good yeah at least at least if they're gonna sell his birthright for it it's gonna be a extremely tasty meal yeah yeah i mean still still not not a good deal but at least in my mind it's not gross anymore it's not like i'm dying give me that disgusting food you're making it's funny how uh when we know these stories especially from from uh our younger years

sunny school and whatnot you know we uh i think early on we fashioned these these ideas in our head about really what what it's about or you know we come in with all these assumptions like little soup is bad and sometimes i never stopped to question that yeah until we get a good meal made out of little soup yeah and i still and i do think that that jacob is uh i think you know putting you're putting yourself in in the shoes of jacob and trying trying to think like jacob trying to think like a sinner uh i do think that he's he's got this easily justified in his mind because I think that he's thinking, well, I mean, this guy's going to die, and if he dies, his birthright is mine.

So it's a very merciful thing if I keep him alive, and then I have the right to, I should still get the birthright, though. I mean, I'm going to get it either way. So really, it's an act of mercy that I give you anything because I don't have to give you soup for your birthright. I could just have you die, and then I'll take your birthright. I'm pretty righteous in this whole deal here. Yeah, I was thinking when you were talking of what we've discussed before way back in Genesis chapter 3, this quote from Luther that sin never wants to be sin.

It always wants to be righteousness. Yeah. And what he means by that is basically we will find any way possible to justify our sin. Yeah, I see that in my own life all the time, kind of this inner justification that takes place. I think it's rare that we say to ourselves, this is wrong, this is sin, I'm going to do it anyway. I've done it, but... yeah i think it's rare i think most of the time uh we are we are somewhat held back and so what we'll do is almost instantaneously at times and other times it takes longer but we will go through

this inner process of justification well at the very at the very least we believe a lie yeah at the very yeah at the very least we will believe a lie uh but that's the way that we sue their conscience that's the way that we uh make ourselves feel better about what either we have done or what we're what we're about to do there uh this self-deception is probably our our most practiced art as sinners nobody nobody believes you like you nobody believes you like you exactly we are able to convince ourselves of just about the justification of just about anything given given enough time to kind of think it through and reason it through

and dream up all sorts of justifications for it I think about David somehow in his mind he had convinced himself that that whole Bathsheba thing was on the up and up to the point that when Nathan's there telling him

a parable I mean he can't even see what's going on here he can't even see what's going on and he's getting all all hacked off and he's like man find that guy that you're talking about we're gonna kill that dude and uh it's like dude like how like how do you like how are you so how are you so bent out of shape at this guy right now after what just happened maybe david was like nope i love in

first sight that's right you ever heard of that like well if it's love at first sight then it can't be bad so i'm going with it yeah i'm sure he was able to justify it uh in some way in his own mind love at first sight or you know i'm i'm king and this is something to which i am to which i'm entitled and as far you know as far as the murder of uriah i suppose that was that was probably the the easiest to excuse in his own mind because people die in war you know it happens yeah and just just because uh you know he it wasn't like he said to the general i want you to put a knife in his back instead he wants him to put him in the most dangerous situation possible in war so could uriah have lived in those circumstances well yeah i suppose he could

have got away somehow and so david's thinking to himself well you know war is hell people die you know just because somebody had to be in the front lines right dude dude okay uriah is one of they were way off track here but uh uriah is one of david's mighty men right yeah which which means that uriah is awesome yeah right he's special forces yeah like you killed his thousands yeah dude dude david knows that uriah is such a badass that you're gonna have to put him in the front and then pull everyone back and maybe he'll die if he doesn't

kill the entire army he's fighting. That's the only way it's going to happen. It's like, put him up front and then everyone leave because he's going to kill who knows how many dudes before he goes down. Willie Wallace had nothing

on your riot. You cannot imagine scene that this this would have been yeah dude i want the footnotes of that it's like i want the like and after uriah killed 350 men he was he went down you know you know all of this all of this uh just makes me realize that david was even more foolish you know look who he's messing with he's uh this is uh this is the mightiest warrior and uh david still does what he does what he does sinners are foolish people and you and you do have like sort of a dual sin here too you know i mean uh so jacob obviously this is like not what you this is not loving your neighbor or your

brother uh well uh to manipulate him out of his birthright and then of course i suppose it is it is wrong of esau to sell his birthright a little bit i suppose his is more just i mean if you are going to die like i mean he does say this i mean hey i mean it's not like he wants to do it's not his idea right like it's like well i'm gonna what good is it to me jacob you bring up a good point you're gonna have it either way yeah he's in dire straits um and uh people people do uh things they regret later on when they're in we're in dire straits i mean he brings up later Once Jacob actually steals the blessing from him, he brings up this episode. You know, he's deceived me twice now, Esau says.

First, he deceived me by taking the birthright, and now he's deceived me by taking the blessing. Yeah, so both of these brothers do not come out of this unscathed. In fact, the book of Hebrews talks about Esau selling his birthright for a single meal and, you know, taking him to task for that. But at the same time, Jacob is, at least as I'm reading this story, if anybody comes out with more strikes against him, it's Jacob. It's not Esau. I've heard pastors preach on this and them say, and it always bothered me, say like, And he wasn't really, like, literally, like, starving to death. I mean, you know, he's just really hungry.

There's nothing in there that, like, implies that he wasn't actually scared that, for whatever reason, wherever they were, and however far, like, they, I don't know, had to go to get home or whatever, that it seems like Esau did not believe he was going to make it. That maybe it's winter, and there's not, or something, and you can't, you know, who knows. But at least in the text itself, there's nothing to imply that this is untrue, that if I don't eat something soon, I'm not going to make it. Yeah, there's nothing that seems to make this an exaggeration, at least in Esau's mind. That's where he was. He was on the point of death.

And so what good is a birthright if you're dead? Yeah. So I think this is – Jacob has been waiting for this to happen. He's been biding his time, waiting for just the right opportunity to be able to do something like this. And once it happens, he seizes the opportunity, and he does it. This is all in the realm of speculation. I feel like there's a better chance, knowing what I know about Jacob. I don't think Esau is like two blocks from his house and just really loves lentil soup

and was like oh man i really gotta get some of that dude i'm starving to death give me some of that i'll give you my birthright that's insane which probably more likely is that i don't know esau's esau's gone hunting or whatever he hasn't come back like the storm blows in or something it's winter i don't know whatever's going on so jacob being the deceiver that he is like packs up some stuff to make food man he's been gone a long time and like this is my opportunity I'm going to find him, and I'm going to sucker him. I'm not going to just save him for nothing. I'm going to save him for a fee.

Yeah, yeah. This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision on the part of Jacob. This was done. This was premeditated. I think it's comforting to see that it draws both of them out as sinners, that they've both sinned here. um i think that the comforting thing for us in that especially somebody uh who may have come out of a holiness movement or who's been told well if you just do the right things then you can you can

keep from sinning the fact of the matter is we don't live in a in a world where we can either be standing in the white or in the black it's a gray world and and we are sinners we are stained and everything that we do is tainted by this stain of sin that we sin because we are sinners, you could say. But what it all comes down to is not, are you keeping yourself from sinning by doing the right things and not doing the wrong things? This goes all the way back to first commandment stuff where Jesus really draws us out. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Or Luther puts it this way, fear, love, and trust God above all things. So the first commandment, you shall have no other gods,

is basically telling us that in thought, word, and deed, you shall fear, love, and trust God, obey him in all things. And none of us do that. So this is a comforting thing to see that in every situation, even in this situation where he's literally dying. And the only thing that he can do to preserve his own life is to give up, to despise his birthright, to literally despise the thing that uh his life uh has has earned him um simply by being born it's not something that he earned but something that he deserves um but if he should lose it it is as if he is dying so he's literally hating his own life um this is comforting for us then because we see it's not that this is now a permission to just go out and sin, but it gives us permission to turn to God

in trust and in faith that he is the only holy and righteous one, and that he is the one that only by faith and trust in God are we made holy and righteous. Are we not seen as the sinners that we are but are we seen then as righteous just as um jacob is called righteous later throughout the scriptures that's a great point and that's one of the reasons uh long ago i fell in love with the old testament is because it it illustrates the very things that you're that you're talking about by taking us into the the nitty-gritty the the dirty lives of people like jacob and esau or Abraham and Sarah or David and Bathsheba, you know, this is the Old Testament strikes us as what you might say existentially true. I mean, we see this in our very existence. This is who we

are. The things that Jacob and Esau struggled with, their fights, their jealousies, their deceptiveness all of this is the same stuff that we experience uh in our own existence day to day and the the thing that you that you see over and over however is that despite the uh the soiled resumes that these guys have and these these gals have as well is that they still are loved by god that despite you know over and over and over that the jacob ends up being this trickster that he nevertheless is loved by god and protected by god and and forgiven by him because ultimately jacob is righteous not righteous in and of himself not righteous because he's such a good brother or a good son but righteous because he has faith in the seed

that was promised back to Adam and Eve, the Messianic seed, the same one in whom Abraham believed and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. So this promise of the seed and the righteousness that comes through him to Jacob and to Esau and to all of us, that is the means by which God accounts us as righteous

and continues to forgive us and to love us, Even though our lives are no better than that of Jacob and Esau, because we were just like they are. We we create false gods among whom are the God itself and engage in the same sorts of duplicity and and backstabbing that that they engage in. They were reckoned righteous by the same thing by which we are reckoned righteous, the messianic seed. And that's that's the that's one of the great benefits of studying stories like this is you see yourself in these stories. You see your own life. You see the grace of God and Christ in the lives of of these these people, despite all of the flaws that they constantly exhibit. I just want to say one quick thing. That's all. That's great. This is also encouragement to allow yourself to be vulnerable, not simply so that you can shock people with the fact that you are a sinner, that you have done terrible things, but to give people a mirror in your own life to look into.

You can look at these folks in scripture and you can see yourself in Jacob. I can see myself in Jacob. I can see myself in Esau. I can see myself in David. I can see myself in Abraham and Isaac. And it's not generally the good things. I can see a little bit of myself in the bad things. That's what I'm talking about here.

And so people become a little maybe uncomfortable with that. but it's not necessarily, here's the thing I've learned. I do not become so uncomfortable around people who are honest with the fact that they are broken, that they are weak, that they stumble, that they sin because of those things in them. I'm not uncomfortable to be around them because of them, but because it shows me a little picture into my own soul and that I am a mess. I see myself in them a little bit. But this is a great way when you're witnessing to somebody or sharing your faith with somebody to, to, in a very gentle way, bring about the law, the proclamation of the law. And then you can turn right around and show them what a great savior you have. And so I always

encourage people, you know, let's, let's be honest about this. I mean, none of us are, none of us are holy in and of ourselves we're righteous in and of ourselves these are gifts from god and we desperately need them because of the the mess that we've made of our own lives yeah there's definitely something about being able to look at these other guys and not feel alone right uh where you're like well if jacob can be declared righteous then maybe there's hope for me you know and so like there There isn't encouragement there and something that's comforting about looking at the lives of those in the Old Testament and saying, okay. And I think that's why it's there. I mean, that's at least partially why it's there is to show you that you're not the only sinner on the planet.

So God had a bunch of stories about sinners written down so that you would know, actually, this is everyone. This is how you guys are. And I say people like that, if the Old Testament or just the Bible in general was just full of all the heroics, it was just full of giant slaying and martyrdom and all this kind of stuff, it would be rough, man. But instead, you get all these stories of, you know, you have David's sin and you have Abraham's sin and you have Peter's denial and all this stuff. And in a strange way, this is how God works things together for good, in a strange way, their failures are comforting to people who no doubt fail. Yeah, that's amen to all of that. That's one of the beauties of the scriptures is that it records the ugly truths of the lives of sinners so that we can see ourselves in these stories, that our story is no different than the life of Abraham or whoever it might be. And just as they receive grace, so do we.

Yeah, yeah. Well, we've got about eight or so minutes left here. Is there something that's going to happen after this that we can touch on a little bit because we've seen it before? Yeah, speaking of everything that we've just been talking about with regard to the mistakes and the sins of the patriarchs, well, let's get to the next one, which is chapter 26. Chapter 26 is sort of the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree kind of chapter because it's all about Isaac or mainly about Isaac and good things about him and not so good things about him. But over and over throughout this chapter, what God says to him, where he goes,

what he does, his interactions with people, even people with the same name, are all just like what happened to his father, his father Abraham. So they dig the same wells, they build altars, they deal with a guy named Abimelech. And as we're about to see here, they also lie about their wives. So in the few minutes that we have left, yeah, let's jump ahead. This is chapter 26. so it starts out with uh something we've heard before there was a famine in the land there was a famine in the land in the days of abraham and abraham ended up in egypt and that's where

everything happened between him and sarah and pharaoh as we've talked about before now this is a little bit different scenario because god explicitly tells isaac when there's famine in the land don't go down into egypt uh maybe maybe god realizes that uh abraham and his descendants don't do so well when they go down into egypt especially when there's famine famine in the land so god's like no no no no we're not gonna we're not going there again i know what happened last time your your dad went into egypt and i had to end up rescuing sarah after he had had lied about her and she was taken into the harem of pharaoh you know what a mess that was isaac we're not going to do that again so stay where you're at and then god god goes on to just

pour out all these promises you know i will be with you i will bless you i'm going to give you and your descendants all these lands i'm i've sworn to abraham i'm also making this promise to you. I'm going to give you all these descendants. He goes on and on about all these things that he's going to do for Isaac. And while these words are still ringing in the ears of Isaac, all these lavish divine promises of protection and grace and presence, the very next story we hear tells us that uh these things did not make much of an impact on isaac's behavior because after god finishes speaking it says isaac lived in garar and now verse seven when the men of the place ask about his wife he said drum roll he probably said yeah that's my

wife uh lucky man that i am yes you see that beautiful woman there uh she is definitely my wife no that's uh actually actually not what uh what isaac said i you know i i maybe maybe he had heard too many stories from his father about what happened down in egypt and actually what happened more than once also with uh with a former abimelech isaac had heard what his father did and as it turns out he decided to follow suit because when the men of the place ask about rebecca he said not rebecca uh yeah rebecca isaac's wife he said she is my sister for he was afraid to save my wife thinking the men of the place might kill me on account of rebecca for she is beautiful to think that these uh you know abraham and isaac and stuff these

these uh these jewish dudes right they're like tell you what they're just godless down there in egypt they will straight take your hot wife so you best lie about it and i have a feeling like did people in Egypt be like, I don't know what's with these sojourners, but they are some godless liars. Yeah, I could see that happening.

It would stand to reason, right? Both parties are like, these people got no fear of God whatsoever. Isn't that the way it goes? Everybody's a worse sinner than I am. I'm going to have to lie to defend myself against their wickedness. Notice that Isaac doesn't say, I'm going to lie to protect my wife.

No, neither does Abraham. Neither does Abraham, yeah. Neither one of these guys seem to be that afraid of what's going to happen to their wives. But they sure are afraid of what's going to be happening to themselves. Yeah, the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. yeah i mean it's fun it's funny how repetitive that is you gotta love it when the bible just repeats sins over again uh where you're kind of like uh yeah yeah we get it like this is something that happens and and uh but it's there for a reason you know it's like no no like this is

what you will i mean it's there to show us that again and again with different people like you will lie to save yourself and you will put someone else in jeopardy to save yourself when push comes to shove like you'll do it and like push doesn't even really come to shove it's just like these guys he's like afraid of reputation that he doesn't even because everything that we know about like abimelech or any of these guys it doesn't sound like they were like in their in their response like oh what we've taken this guy's wife it doesn't it doesn't actually they're dismayed yeah it doesn't lend itself to the argument that like oh no these guys will straight kill you and take your wife like they don't sound like those kind of dudes in their response

no they're the ones that come out sounding righteous in fact it's not isaac and abraham it's uh it's isaac and the band covering abraham's greatest hit same song third verse but it's a different singer and he's a crooner he likes to carry the song for a long time as it says in the next verse there yeah yeah no doubt right he had been there a long time yeah i wonder if abraham's like listen isaac i'm not saying you should ever do this but but let me tell you what worked out pretty well for me twice he's like you know you see all this money i have you know where the family's wealth came from well we were in egypt and this is what happened

if there's ever a famine i'm not saying you have to do this but this is what i did it worked out all right i guess isaac was the good listener he's a good learner yeah and yeah and it says he stayed there a long time so he like keeps this thing up for a while yeah this is a long time this is a long time deception uh are are we out of time are we gonna we're gonna have to cut this short story short we are out of time we have no one's gonna know what happens next i guess they just have to wait next week next week we're gonna find out what happens to isaac and rebecca it'll be par for the course but uh but uh so anyway uh guys you know what we are six weeks away from the christ old fast conference and right and it seems like if

you haven't registered for that you should probably get on that you can go over to christ fast.org and get that taken care of you can also get a hotel room reserved there if you go to that page and scroll down and click on the little hotel icon we've got some deals carved out with the hotels down there so you can get a good deal in a room and yeah you can come hang out with me and chad and brandon and a whole bunch of other people uh all the information is there so go check that out thank you guys for listening again and we'll see you next week