Posted on 08/19/2006 7:44:58 PM PDT by sionnsar
From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have another sermon in his series on the Book of Genesis, The Stolen Blessing. This sermon is based on Genesis 27:1-40, the account of Jacob's being given the patriarchal blessing by Isaac, rather than the blessing being given to Esau. Fr. Klock has given us another good sermon with much Scriptural insight into human nature, and his summary is excellent:
The story is about the Jacob, Esau, Isaac, and Rebekah and they’re who we’ve been talking about as we look at this story. But there’s a fifth player here: God reigns and rules over everything and we need to understand the rest of the story – the human side of it – in light of him.This is a sermon "soaked in Scripture", and I thank Fr. Klock for sharing these insights with us.
We need to understand that right has to be brought about by right. St. Paul asked, “Ought we to do evil that good may come of it?” The answer was a clear “No!” But we seem to be prone to try tobring about high and lofty purposes by the worst means. Griffith Thomas refers to the “intolerable phrase ‘pious fraud.’ If a thing is pious it cannot be a fraud; if a thing is a fraud it cannot be pious.” Our ultimate goal as Christians is to do God’s will. How much sense to does it make to argue that we are doing God’s will by being fraudulent? You can’t make converts to Christ by dishonesty – but that seems to be a major part of modern Evangelism when we tell people that after conversion life will be a bowl of cherries. We can’t help the poor by robbing from the rich. You can’t grow a business through dishonest practices. I don’t care what our goal is, righteousness can never be put aside. In our personal lives, in our family lives, in our church life, in business, in society we need to follow God’s absolute standard of truth. Doing anything less ultimately discredits God. Not to mention that our sins will always find us out. All four of them, Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob, found this out and their lives were never the same again. As I said earlier, Godly leadership on the part of a Christian father is critical. Imagine how different things would have turned out had Isaac been the man God intended for him to be!
We need to walk in the light as He is in the light. Each of the characters in the story had their own desires and their own devices and in each case they tried to bring about their desires using their unrighteous devices. Isaac tried to give his blessing to Esau covertly. Rebekah tried to steal it for her son with deception. The end result was sadness and trouble. Now think how different things would have turned out if they had all lived in the presence of God. How different are things when we, instead of following the devices and desires of our own hearts, have a heart like David: “All my desires are before Thee”? If we “delight ourselves in the Lord” he will give us “the desires of our hearts.” And, of course, as we delight ourselves in him, he changes our hearts and our desires become his desires by the transforming power of his grace.
Finally, the story reminds us that the Lord reigns over all. I think this is the most important thing we can learn here, because when we understand that God is sovereign over all things, we also then understand the futility of thinking that we can thwart God’s purpose. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established.” And the Psalmist wrote “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples” (Psalm 33:10). Isaiah reminds us that, “the counsels of the Lord shall stand.” Whenever we try to play the part of Providence, disaster always results. Again, to quote Proverbs: “A man’s mind plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). If we are going to truly serve God in this life, we need to understand that we are not his agents; we are his instruments as he carries out his will. If we, with all our hearts, really seek him, waiting on him in prayer, in trust, and in obedience, we will find ourselves taken up into the working out of his wise Providence, used by him to bring about his purposes, and ultimately enabled to live to his glory.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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