The Life of Esau

0:00 I wasn't sure if they stopped when I stood up, so I was like, I'll sit here and listen to that all day, if we can just call it. Good morning, friends. It's good to see you. Welcome many of our guests this morning. Despite this ghastly blue, I am, in fact, a Louisville Cardinals fan. Go Cards. One of the few things I love more than Louisville football is opening the Bible and seeing what it says.

0:33 So why don't we do that together? The sermon this morning is a bit unusual. It's a bit unusual. The goal is to get us back into the world of Genesis before we return there in a few weeks this fall. Now, we're not going to stay in a single text. You definitely need a Bible with you this morning, either on your phone or on your lap. You'll definitely need a Bible this morning. What we're going to do is, again, we're not going to stay in a single text. We're going to track every passage that's related to an overlooked, misunderstood character in Genesis.

1:05 The Nephilim. No, I'm kidding. We're not doing the Nephilim. If you want to know my thoughts on that, we can talk after. No, we're going to look at the character of Esau. And again, the goal here is to follow Moses' thread, he's the author of Genesis, as he weaves Esau's tragic tapestry over several pages. Who is this guy Esau? I mean, is he just a hungry oaf who hated his family? Is he just a hot-headed redhead?

1:36 Is he just an unlucky, self-interested, maybe well-intentioned at times guy? Who is this guy? So we're going to look at five, it's really six, but I'm saying it's five, five scenes. That's all Moses gives us of this guy, five scenes. And I think Esau is a minor character, but he can teach us some major lessons. So if you take notes, the outline of the sermon is just going to be tracking through these five scenes. The five scenes are the outline of the sermon, and conveniently, they all start with P.

2:11 And only one of them was kind of like square peg round, like I have to find a word that starts with P, okay? So five scenes, they all start with P. Here's what I want to convince you of this morning. I believe it's Moses' burden in giving us the story of this man. It's that you were made for more than today's pleasure and tomorrow's prosperity. You were made for more than today's pleasure and tomorrow's prosperity.

2:45 I mean, think about it. How do those two things, pleasure, prosperity, how do they animate your life, your decisions, your worldview, your schedules, your bank account, your group chats? How does the pursuit of those two things, pleasure, prosperity, how do those things shape your life? Open your Bibles, please, to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis chapter 25. We're going to look at the first scene this morning.

3:16 Scene number one is simply this, the prophecy. The prophecy, scene one, Genesis chapter 25, beginning in verse 19. What we're about to read sets the trajectory of Esau and his twin brothers, Jacob's life. So here we are, Genesis 25, verse 19. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Padam Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife.

3:52 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife. Because she was barren, the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her. And she said, some of you sisters will resonate with this. If it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb.

4:25 Two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. Now, this promise, these words, they might not shock us today, necessarily. The older serving the younger, the younger more impressive and stronger than the older brother. I mean, sometimes it's just true that the younger brother is stronger, more impressive than the older brother. I mean, just think of, I wonder how you, you know, Jack and Justin Gilbert aren't even here to make a joke at their expense.

5:00 But sometimes it's just, yeah, you're getting it. Yeah, he's stronger. Yeah. Sometimes it's just true. But, they're going to have to hear about that from someone other than me. But, this prophecy would have been shocking to this mother. Against the grain of ancient Israel. Because the birthright, the inheritance, it ran through the oldest son. And yet the Lord here reverses these expectations. Now this prophecy looms in the background for this whole chunk of Genesis.

5:34 So Genesis 25 to Genesis 36, this is like the governing principle and theme that sort of runs in the background. And really it becomes a stumbling block to every figure at this chunk of Genesis. The kids and the parents, they struggle to come to terms with it. But what we'll see is that God's promises, they cannot be outrun. They can't be, sort of we'll see with Rebecca and Jacob, they can't be strong-armed by people to get them when they want.

6:05 Or like Isaac, who stiff-arms to kind of get something else. No, God's promises cannot be outrun. They must be embraced. That's the first scene, the prophecy. Here's the second one, scene two. Staying in Genesis 25, the purchase. The purchase. Genesis 25, starting in verse 27. And what we're about to read, this might be Esau's most infamous moment. Genesis 25, verse 27. The boys grew up.

6:38 Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country. While Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau. Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field. He was exhausted. Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew, for I'm exhausted. Therefore, his name was called Edom.

7:08 Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, swear to me now. So he swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. And he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

7:43 Now, if you're like me, you grew up thinking that this story doubles as a warning to like not go to the grocery store when you're hungry, right? When you go to the grocery store when you're hungry, who knows what you're going to do? You'll see all these like eccentrically flavored Oreos and you're like, okay, peanut butter? Okay, I can do that. Mint? Maybe. Sriracha? I mean, there's a bridge too far, all right? Like you can't do that. And again, if you want more on that, that's what we think of the story, right? That's what we think of the story.

8:13 It's a story about a dumb and dangerous man and the dumb and dangerous consequences of uncontrolled appetites. I think that's kind of right, but it more or less misses the point. See, Esau's problem is not that he cares too much about food. It's that he cares too little about his family. In this desperate moment, he's spurred on by short-sighted pleasure. And so he sells off his future claim to his grandfather Abraham's estate.

8:48 Look again at verse 33. Look again, the very end. Esau despised his birthright. Again, Moses is just telling us what he's just shown us. Clearly, Esau didn't think anything about what the Lord was going to do through his grandfather Abraham. You're like, I don't know. What did the Lord plan to do through Abraham? Well, in two weeks, Greg's going to preach on Genesis 12, and you'll get probably like 90 minutes on that, okay? So here's like the one, here's the one sentence. Here's one sentence.

9:20 Maybe it's two. God promised to make Abraham into a great nation through which he would ultimately bless the whole world. That's what he promised to do. So it's Abraham passed down to Isaac, and we just read in the prophecy that that promise is now going to Jacob. Now, surely Esau grew up knowing about this upside-down prophecy, about how he'd serve his brother. Maybe it embittered him. He knew that he would not be the sort of next installment of the promise made to Abraham.

9:54 So maybe he sized it up, right? He'd heard about it. He sized it up as, like, irrelevant, or just family lore, or just sort of self-important superstition. Now, we can't psychoanalyze Esau. We only have his actions on a page. And we can interpret those actions clearly. So we can say his stake in it, whatever it was, it didn't mean anything to him. And that is a shame. You see, just because Esau was not going to advance the promise did not mean that he couldn't embrace it and enjoy it.

10:32 He could have said, okay, you're going to do it through Jacob? I still believe that. I believe you're good. And I'm going to, whatever my pardon is, I'm going to take it. Now, you might read this passage and think to yourself, man, poor Esau. His deceptive brother just tricked him. But notice, I call this the purchase, not like the heist. That doesn't start with P, but it's also not true. We're going to see a heist in a moment.

11:04 That's going to happen. But this is a purchase. Esau sold his birthright for exactly what he thought it was worth. A meal. Some bread. Some stew. I mean, who cares about the eternal promises from the eternal God when my belly is rumbling now.

11:40 I mean, it's clear. Esau does live for today's pleasures. And so he makes an awful trade. Do you ever think about tomorrow? Do you ever think about next month? Next year? Do your actions today communicate an interest or an investment in the future?

12:17 Again, to our university students, welcome. Welcome to college. You did it against all odds. Congrats. These next four years of your life, or if you're like me, five years of your life, It will, its goal is to prepare you for the next 60 years of your life, God willing. And that's awesome. You should like lean into that, embrace that, study hard, do your homework. Stop using chat GPT so much. All right, like eat some good meals.

12:50 Don't eat fries for every meal. You can go get salads and you can, you're like, it's so hard to put on the dressing. I was like, I know, but you can take two bowls and you can shake it up and then it's all, you know, it's all mixed around. All right, you got it? They still do that at cafeterias? Thank you. I got a few people nodding. Man, college is wonderful. It's going to prepare you. But what about the next 60 trillion years of your existence? What are you doing today, right now, to prepare for that?

13:30 the best way to prepare for that is to stop trying to ignore or outrun or conveniently categorize the promises of God. It's to instead embrace them by faith. It's to say, okay, God is real.

14:06 Step one, he has spoken to me. Step two, what he has spoken to me, I can know. Step three, that's in the Bible. And what happens when you embrace God's promises by faith, when you say, okay, I believe God is who he says that he is, and I believe that I am who he says that he is. And I even believe that all, I mean, like three-fourths of this thing is the Old Testament. I believe that this book, all these stories in the Old Testament, are fulfilled in this man named Jesus Christ, who's not just a miraculous dude or a moral teacher, but he is the eternal Son of God who took on flesh to live a perfect life, to die on the cross for sinners like you and like me, and who rose again as a sign, as proof even, that his sacrifice on the cross has been effective in his purchase, the salvation of his people forever.

14:56 And like this story gets fulfilled in that story. I believe all that. And so I'm going to turn away from my own life, and I'm going to turn toward the Lord. And I'm going to follow him, not perfectly, but I'm going to link arms with some folks. Maybe they're old and they wear suits all the time, or maybe they're younger than me, and they're a little bit weird. But I'm going to link arms with them, and I'm going to follow Jesus with them in this thing called a church for as long as I'm here.

15:27 Amen. Friends, who cares if you're in college? You could be 50, 60, 70, 80. If you haven't trusted in Christ, if you haven't embraced God's promises, you're wasting your life. And your life does not end with your final breath. If you want more on the connection between this passage and the New Testament, maybe you're not super familiar with the Bible, you should read Galatians 3 this afternoon.

16:04 Just like, what does that have to do with today? I don't know. You'll find out. It's edifying. Third scene. The pairing. So flip ahead to Genesis 26. Genesis 26. We're going to look at just two verses, 34 and 35. When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

16:45 Now, why were Isaac and Rebekah so bitter? Do they hate Hittites? Not necessarily. Are they worried about having a great granddaughter or granddaughter named Basemath Jr.? I don't know, second Basemath? I'm not sure. But here's what's going on. A few chapters ago, we skipped this. Genesis 24, Moses gives us a story about how Esau's dad, Isaac, finds a wife. It's a lovely passage. It's a funny passage. It's a romantic passage. Some of you are like, yeah, it's in the Bible.

17:16 Genesis 24, it's wonderful. Abraham sends his servant on this long and funny and romantic mission with one job. Hey, find my son, a wife, from our people. So he makes this 400-mile trek to do so. Again, this has nothing to do with ethnic bias and everything to do with religious belief. It's not like, well, I don't like what the Canaanites look like. I don't like their accent. No. They don't like the gods that they worship.

17:47 all right back to Esau his romantic mission goes south fast in fact you could say he defects right he's like I don't want any part of this and look again he he marries two women so that's strike one and then who does he marry again Hittites that's strike two so this is church league softball two strikes and you're out okay here's a piece of advice my friends that is as prosaic, that is simple, as it is mosaic, okay? It really matters who you marry. It mattered then, it matters now. Who you are crushing on tells a lot about the state of your heart now. But it actually might tell you more about your future destination. I have more to say on that, but you know what? Lunch is coming. Why don't you talk

18:51 about that at lunch? Sounds like a lovely lunchtime conversation. Now, I wonder if you realize that these two short verses in Genesis 26 signal a more permanent departure from Esau than even what we read where he sold his birthright. In other words, in that scene in Genesis 25, he's hungry, he's tired, he's exhausted, he's dramatic, I'm gonna die. You know, that doesn't excuse his actions. Yes, his actions reveal his heart as we saw, but you can imagine a version of Esau's life where Genesis 25 is like his rock bottom, where he's like, I can't believe I did that. That was very stupid. And his dad's like, yes, it was. But guess what? You can repent. There's forgiveness offered to you.

19:43 He could have said, okay, I don't understand why God, like, did this. His providence is tough. His promises are tough. But he's good. And I'm going to trust him. But these two verses in Genesis 26, where he gets married to these two Hittite women, Oh man, this is premeditated, level-headed disobedience.

20:16 If there was any lingering hope that Esau would repent of his short-sighted sale and return to his family, if there was any hope that he would begin to embrace these promises to his grandfather for himself, then it seems to vanish here. Scene four. This is the forced P word. The pilfering, that is to steal something. Genesis 27.

20:48 We've been going pretty fast, and what I'd like to do now is slow down. But before we do, before we read a lot of Genesis 27, I want to figure out the difference between the birthright Esau already sold and the blessing that's about to be stolen. Because I think that can confuse people a little bit. Because they're clearly not the same thing, but they're related. So the difference between a blessing and a birthright is like the difference between a square and a rectangle. Okay? So all birthrights, all birthrights are blessings, but not every blessing is tied to the birthright.

21:22 Usually, again, the oldest son receives the bulk of the birthright, right? Think cattle, clothes, baseball cards, whatever. Esau, he already punted that. He opted out of that. I don't want any part of that. I don't care about that. He sold his right to that. Blessings, the blessing that he's after here, pertains to his sort of future trajectory. It's like parting words. It's a promise from a father to a son, a rite of passage. Now, Esau still has the right to that.

21:53 He's still like, I want to know what your sort of parting word for me is, dad. Okay, Genesis 27, starting in verse 1. Isaac's nearing the end of his life. Here's what happens. When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he couldn't see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, My son. He answered, Here I am. He said, Behold, I'm old.

22:23 I don't know the day of my death. Now then take your weapons, your quiver, your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. Prepare for me delicious food. such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. Now, Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for a game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord, before the Lord, before I die. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock, bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. So I think what's going on here is she's, she's nervous that what her husband's about to do will somehow jeopardize what happens. I don't think she's

23:24 obviously not motivated by, like, she should trust the Lord that it's going to happen. So she's nervous about that. Okay, let's keep reading. Verse 11. But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man. I'm a smooth man. That's a good point. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go bring them to me.

23:56 Let's skip ahead to verse 18. He basically does what his mom asks. Verse 18. So he, that is Jacob, dressed up as Esau, went into his father and said, my father. He said, here I am. Who are you, my son? Jacob said to his father, I'm Esau, your firstborn. I've done as you told me. Now sit up, eat of my game, that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, How did you find it so quickly, my son?

24:29 He answered, I mean, this is blasphemy. Because the Lord your God granted me success. Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near that I may feel you, he's suspicious, feel you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not. so jacob went near to his father isaac's father who felt him he said this is jacob's voice but the hands are the hands of esau he didn't recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother esau's hands so he blessed him he said are you really my son esau he answered i am and he said bring it near to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you so he brought it near to him and he ate he brought him wine and he drank then his father Isaac said to him come near and kiss me my son so he came near and he kissed him

25:30 Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and he said see the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Those are fairly generic. These next few are not. Let people serve you. The nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you.

26:01 Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Now, friends, hear me for a second. Isaac should not be saying this to him. Again, what I said a moment ago, Isaac tries to stiff arm God's promises. He's trying to give what he knows is Jacob's to his favorite son, Esau. He is in the wrong here. And when Greg preaches this in like three years, we'll talk more about that. But we're focusing on Esau for a moment. As soon as Isaac finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting.

26:46 He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me. His father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I'm your son, your firstborn son, Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently. In other words, I think he knows what he did is wrong. And I think at this point he stopped stiff-arming God.

27:23 He said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came and I've blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed. As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry. He said to his father, bless me, even me also. Oh, my father. He said, your brother came deceitfully.

27:55 He's taken away your blessing. Is he not, Esau said, is he not rightly named Jacob, deceiver? For he's cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, that's revisionist history, and behold, now he's taken my blessing. Then he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, behold, I've made him lord over you. And all his brothers I've given to him for servants with grain and wine.

28:30 I've sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, oh, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and he wept. And Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be.

29:05 Away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live. You shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And he said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. Friends, I think that's one of the saddest passages in the Bible.

29:39 And there's a lot we could say about Rebekah's favoritism, Isaac's obstinance, Jacob's lack of character. But each little detail about Esau, it breaks your heart, doesn't it? I mean, he shows up right after his brother leaves. He's got soup in his hand, a smile on his face. He coaxes his dad, hey, dad, sit up, sit up. Let me feed you. And then these questions get asked.

30:11 Each one's sadder than the last. Isaac says, who are you? Esau says, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac responds, what can I do for you? It's like a last gasp from Esau. He says, dad, have you but one blessing? These questions hang in the air, and at the end, he gets curses. It is true that Esau is a victim of his father's delusion, his mother's disdain, his brother's deception.

30:51 He's not the promised son. But he does not deserve what happens to him here. It is cruel. And all this fuels Esau's fury. Look down at Genesis 28, verse 6. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, sent away to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there.

31:23 But as he blessed him, he directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. And that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram. Look at this verse. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Naboth. In other words, these are not neutral details. He looks at his deceptive do-gooder brother who got a good wife.

31:57 And he notices, oh, my parents really hate these Canaanite wives. They really like the godly ones. So what am I going to do? I'm going to go get me a few more from my uncle Ishmael, who's already married into the Egyptians. Again, level-headed, premeditated disobedience. The Bible is amazing because it can, on one page, raise our sympathies for Esau.

32:30 And then on the next, condemn his sins. He's a victim. He had horrible things done to him. He's responsible for his behavior. Friends, I want to be as clear as I possibly can. Victimhood is not vindicating. You understand what I mean? Being a victim does not vindicate everything you do. You can sin after being sinned against.

33:05 I mean, Esau, I mean, you can almost like feel the joy that he's like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do exactly what my parents hate. Some of you parents are like, I've seen that before. You parents, we've all been there, amen? Man, but it was wrong. Another good lunchtime conversation after you, you know, maybe do a little matchmaking. Why don't you talk about the ways that we can so easily cast ourselves as victims in our own stories and refuse to take responsibility for things that we do.

33:51 Esau, he should have repented, both to his human and heavenly father. But he didn't. Fifth and final scene. It's really two scenes. A party and the post credits. A party and the post credits. Twenty years pass.

34:22 Jacob goes through the ringer. The deceiver is deceived. Then he comes home. And he knows that on his way home, he has to pass through his estranged, bloodthirsty brother's land. So he sends some messengers with some gifts, and these guys give him a terrifying report. They say, yeah, yeah, Jacob, Esau's on his way, and he has 400 men with him. We've not heard from Esau since he said, basically, I'm going to kill my brother.

34:54 Flip to Genesis 33. We think the worst is coming, Genesis 33, verse 1. Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, 400 men with him.

35:27 So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. He put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, Rachel and Joseph last of all. That verse right there just plants the seed for the division in the family that will sprout for the rest of the chapter. But we're not talking about that. Verse 3, he went, he himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him.

36:00 He embraced him. He fell on his neck. He kissed him. They wept. When Esau lifted up his eyes and he saw the women and children who he's been hiding from so he doesn't kill them. He says, who are these with you? Jacob said, the children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the servants drew near and they and their children, they bowed down. Leah likewise, and her children drew near and bowed down. And last, Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.

36:31 Esau said, what do you mean by all this company that I've met? In other words, why are you trying to give me all this stuff? Jacob answered, to find favor in the sight of my Lord. But Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. Jacob said, no, please, if I've found favor in your sight, then accept me, accept my present from my hand. I've seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.

37:03 Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, because I have enough. So he urged him, and he took it. All right. What a surprising conclusion to this story. I mean, Esau's not really mentioned again. He sort of shows up at Isaac's funeral. He takes like 10 chapters to die. He shows up at Isaac's funeral. And then we get this note in Genesis 36, what I'm calling the post-credits of his life, sort of after the end.

37:37 There's a ton of names in this chapter. We're not going to read those. We're just going to read three verses. Genesis 36, verse 6 through 8. Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, His livestock and all his beasts and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir.

38:12 Esau is Edom. Of course, the Lord's prophecy comes true. Esau becomes Edom. Edom becomes one of Israel's most stubborn enemies. These brothers at odds really did become nations at war, of course. And yet it's so strange because Esau's life ends on an upswing. I mean, the brother who stole his blessing, Esau forgives him.

38:49 He embraces him. They're reconciled. His mind changes from murder to generosity, from revenge, vengeance to love. I don't need all this stuff. I have enough, my brother. Today's pleasure and tomorrow's prosperity, that was enough for Esau.

39:24 We might assume that the saddest thing that can happen to someone is that they rebel, and that they run from the Lord, they run from their parents, and they just make a mess of their life. but that's not the saddest outcome i don't think i think the saddest outcome of a life is pleasure and prosperity and peace in all the less important parts of life and that they just they just exist they float on and feel total apathy to the things of God that's the story of Esau for the saddest imaginable outcome of your life is that you experience

40:25 peace and prosperity and pleasure in and with everyone and everything except the God who made you earlier we read from hebrews 12 the new testament doesn't give us a lot on esau but it does say this we read it earlier for you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears that's not saying Esau was like man I'm really looking for a time to repent but I just can't figure out when no it means he didn't want to I mean who needs the blessing from your dad when you get rich and you reconcile with your brother

41:26 he doesn't need it His tears dried up and then his soul dried up. Esau's life is like the gospel in reverse. A favorite son receives a curse from his begrudging, empty-handed father who has no blessings left to give.

42:01 Oh, but it's a poignant question, isn't it, that Esau asks. Is there blessing left for me? Friends, several thousand years later, the answer, if you're asking that question of your own life this morning, of course the answer is yes. Through Jesus, the answer is yes. Friends, what are you going to do with all this? I hope that you don't just subsist on peace and pleasure and prosperity.

42:33 Instead, I hope that you respond better than Esau. Not with temporary tears, but with trust in the God who made you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, help us to see in Esau both a warning and an invitation. Father, the warning is sincere. The invitation is sincere.

43:07 I pray that all of us would not be so short-sighted, that we would instead embrace your promises with trust. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.