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Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 38:24-26; 44:30-34 ESV

24 About three months later Judah was told, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality." And Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned."

25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant." And she said, "Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff."

26 Then Judah identified them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not know her again.

30 "Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life,

31 as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.

32 For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.'

33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father."

All twelve of Jacob’s sons married wives of the land. This may seem somewhat strange when the importance of both Isaac and Jacob not marrying a woman from among the people among whom Abraham and Isaac dwelt is considered.

Judah is the only other son of Jacob that is given any special attention. His character is not comparable to Joseph’s but he does show some very favorable features.

A. Genesis 37:26-27

26 Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers listened to him.

It appears that Judah is aware of the magnitude of wrong which he and his brothers were planning. Also his jealousy of Joseph had not led him to deny their family ties, “for he is our brother, our own flesh. He deserves some credit for refusing to be guilty of the death of his brother. To say more is to presume where the Scriptures are silent.

B. Genesis 38:26 And he did not know her again. The peculiar morality of the law of God - which is centuries in the future - peeks out in this account. First Judah is honest in recognizing Tamar’s claim upon him for a child and of his responsibility for her pregnancy. He could have as easily denied this and had her put to death. It must be accounted in his favor that he assumes his responsibility.

Secondly, Judah shows the sensitivity of conscience and awareness of God’s hatred of sexual uncleanness by having no further marital commerce with Tamor. It is a feature of the law and an accusation of the prophets against the sins of Israel that a man and his son not go in to the same woman for sexual favors. Judah, to his credit did not knowingly do this.

Thirdly, Genesis 44:16; 33-34 The sensitivity to sin and the willingness to be responsible for his family is a winsome feature in Judah’s life as it is set before us. The statement “God has found out the guilt of your servants” is a true indicator of Judah’s own sin and his repentance.

White, in his Bible Characters passes by Judah. Surely with his keen intellect and Christian imagination he could have helped in gaining an understanding of Judah’s standing in Israel. These are only glimpses of spirituality in his life but it is sure if they are there it is of grace.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 37:2-3 ESV

2 These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.

Joseph has entered the history of God’s Old Testament Covenant people. From chapter 37 through the remainder of Genesis, Joseph takes center stage. It can also be stated that there is none in the Old Testament with such a winsome life as Joseph. If anyone had the opportunity to be a spoiled brat Joseph did. He was the son of a wealthy man who doted on his children. He was this rich man’s favorite son. He was obedient to his father and evidently loved him greatly.

He could have been, but he was not a brat. It is interesting to note here that the introduction to his story is

“the generations of Jacob.” All he did was included as a part of the history of Jacob.

The story of Joseph opens with his dreams and closes with his instructions to carry his remains out of Egypt when Israel departed.

Joseph served only one master. Joseph lived with only one hope. Joseph acted with only one purpose. Joseph’s life is a life of fellowship with God. His master was God. His hope was that God would liberate him. His purpose was to please God alone.

His walk, character, and conversation is set before us clearly in one brief statement. Genesis 50:15-21.

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him."

16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died,

17 'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."

19 But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Joseph could have been angry. He never was. He could have been bitter. He never was. He could have had revenge. He never considered it. Joseph lived as much like his divine master who came later as a man could.

Listen to Joseph’s last words. Genesis 50:24-26

24 And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."

26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Lot’s wife could not get her heart out of Sodom when being drug to deliverance. Joseph might die in Egypt, but they could never get his heart there. Hebrews 11:22

22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 25:23 NKJV

²³ And the LORD said to her:
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”

Malachi 1:2-3;

² “ I have loved you,” says the LORD.
“ Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?”
Says the LORD.
“ Yet Jacob I have loved;
³ But Esau I have hated,
And laid waste his mountains and his heritage
For the jackals of the wilderness.”

Romans 9:10-16

¹⁰ And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac

¹¹ (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),

¹² it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”

¹³ As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

¹⁶ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

Jacob has so little to recommend him. In many ways he is not likeable. He shows faith and commitment and is obedient when God called him. But he never states a deep affection for God as David does, nor does he show a faith in God’s promise as did Abraham. What is it that sets Jacob apart to the high and holy privilege he received?

There is only one answer possible. It is God’s choice of Jacob. This choice was made before Jacob’s existence and it was made without respect to anything he would do. It was a gracious, sovereign, unconditional choice.

It was a choice to national success. That was accomplished. His heirs became a great and mighty, a prosperous and influential nation. It was a choice to earthly success. He became wealthy. He inherited his father’s wealth. He had a large and healthy family. He, in every vicissitude of life, received God’s care and deliverance. Socially and civilly, Jacob was promoted by God on the basis of divine election.

This still does not explain Jacob. He was a believer. Here the Old Testament writers and the New Testament writers - especially the author of Hebrews - leave us to understand this without doubt. Paul goes further. In Romans nine Paul tells the reader that Jacob is God’s poster boy for divine sovereign election. There are a number of particular concerns relative to God’s promise to and treatment of Israel answered in this context. But there is the fact of God’s choice of Jacob as the guarantee that every believer has the rock solid foundation of God’s almighty choice as the certainty of both the beginning and completion in his walk with God.

Election is in the Bible. It is in the Bible as a sovereign unconditional act of God. It needs no human defense. George Sayles Bishop writes,

“Election is a doctrine which no human reason could have discovered. It is a doctrine against which the human reason universally, at first, and always rebels. It is a doctrine, however, to which the human reason, if ever saved, must consent. “He that is of God, heareth the words of God. He that receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 8:47, 12:48)” The Doctrines of Grace, pg 181, George Sayles Bishop, D.D.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 48:14-16; 20

14 And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn).

15 And he blessed Joseph and said,
"The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

20 So he blessed them that day, saying,
"By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.'"

Hebrews 11:6, 21

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

Jacob, to the end of his life, is an ordinary man. There are no heroic acts of faith such as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, or the good king Josiah accomplished. His commendation in Hebrews 11:21 is very pedestrian.

This is what points up the life of Jacob to be such an accomplishment of faith. In the ordinary walk of life, with the trials and blessing of it, Jacob lived by faith.

By faith he sought both the birthright and the blessing. By faith he obeyed his parents and went to Padan Aram. By it he made a commitment of the tithe to the covenant God who had come to him in a dream. And this would be continued throughout his life.

Jacob was fearful, selfish, and conniving. But these weaknesses are not where the identity of Jacob is. Jacob is best known by his confession in Genesis 35:3 NKJ.

3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”

Again we have a glimpse of Jacob’s spiritual discernment in Genesis 37:11 NKJ.

11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Read the context and think about what Joseph has just said.

And does he not make our common confession in Genesis 48:15-16 “The God who has been my shepherd all my life-long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil.”

Amen Jacob! We, with you claim Colossians 1:13-14 NKJ

13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 35:1-3; I Samuel 15:22-23 ESV

1 God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."

2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.

3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone."

22 And Samuel said,
"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king."

Jacob doesn’t seem to have a lot to recommend him. He was deceitful. He wasn’t brave. He wasn’t a good father in many ways. He was greedy and he was self-serving. What about Jacob does commend him to the Bible reader? Jacob was obedient to whomever he served. He was obedient to his parents. He was obedient to his father-in-law, Laban, as long as it was possible for him to be. But above all he was obedient to God.

It was not that Jacob did what God told him to do. He did that but he also did it with zeal and understanding of the command. In Genesis 35:2, as he prepares to obey God, he takes the vital step of cleansing his people of idolatry. This is not spoken in the command but Jacob, with the heart of a believer, understood that walking with God was not compatible with transporting idols.

Note 35:3 “Then let us arise and go up to Bethel.” Compare this with Abraham’s preparation for the sacrifice of Isaac, Genesis 22:5-6. When fellowship with God is one’s purpose he can take neither what the world can offer nor anything such as the idols of Jacob’s company with. Jacob was going to the “House of God, Bethel”

The writer of Hebrews in 13:10 directs us to the altar we have.

10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

This day there is the call “Let us arise and with boldness go up to our altar to worship the true and living God. Amen”

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

II Corinthians 6:14-7:1 ESV

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
"I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty."

1Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Jacob, whether by consent or not, is the great Biblical example of the principle of separation. All Jacob’s continuing associations, whether business or pleasure, were pursued according to whether they prospered his relationship with God.

Any reader would have to be quick to admit Jacob’s relationships with others were not exemplary nor were they pleasant for those with whom he had business dealings and social relations. A quick examination of Jacob’s life will help to understand this.

A. Jacob traded his brother Esau out of his birthright and cheated him out of the Patriarchal blessing. Nothing Jacob did - or what he and his mother did - are excusable. He got nothing that was not by prophecy given to him. How he would have gotten this honestly there is no way to know, but that he would have had it is certain. It is to be noted that God did not require Jacob to give up what he got in such a rascally way. It is also to be noted that Jacob, by the time he went to Egypt, had all his father’s land and wealth.

Jacob and Esau were separated. Personally, locally, and everlasting separated by their spiritual inheritance. Jacob had one, Esau didn’t.

Jacob 1 – World 0

B. Jacob entered into a business deal with his cousin Laban. It would be hard to find a sleazier fellow that Laban in the Scriptures. If he was alive today, you would expect to find him doing the sleaziest job you can imagine. It seems he met his match in Jacob. He lost his daughters, grandchildren, and wealth to Jacob. Also he received a warning from God to leave Jacob alone. After he met Jacob nothing went his way either terrestrial or celestial.

Jacob 2 – World 0

C. The next associate Jacob makes is a social one. This one breaks bad for him from the beginning. His daughter is seduced and the deal placed before his was the worst thing in the world for him. Genesis 34:8-10.

8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.

9 Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

10 You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it."

Jacob should have demanded his parental rights and explained his separation from the people of the land. He doesn’t. He slides the responsibility onto his sons and gives them no leadership in what to do about it. In anger they murder every man in the Shecemite community. Jacob knew this was both wrong and dangerous. But he is delivered from the association through marriages with which he was faced.

Jacob 3 – World 0

D. Jacob was faced with severe famine and with the direction of God goes to Egypt. There he is received with honor and prospers greatly. His family grows. He ends his life with dignity and it looks as if finally there is someone who can have a safe association with Jacob. But fast-forward to the first 14 chapters of Exodus and read the song in Exodus 15:1-21.

There is a warning for those who would be separate in Israel’s stay in and departure from Egypt. They came out with two continually troubling features. One was the mixed multitude who came with them and the second was their taste for the produce of Egypt.

We are going to have to say Jacob 3 ½ - The World ½

It is God’s purpose for His people to be separate. And there can be many an ache in the process.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 29:16-20; 30 ESV

16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.

18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."

19 Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me."

20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

30So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

Jacob is the dominant person in the Old Testament. From the moment of his birth he is never far from the Biblical writer’s mind. Jacob will be the subject today and for the next four days.

The text we have before us, Genesis 29:20, is one of the most beautiful statements in literature about true romantic love. The only other Biblical character who is described as loving a particular woman is Samson, and it is well to suspicion Samson in most of what he did. But there is no suspicion attached to Jacob’s love for Rachel. It continued throughout her life and extended to the two sons she bore.

It is a credit to Jacob that he could have such an unselfish affection as this is. It is a revelation of the complicated personality of man that he can be so self-absorbed in his life and have such complicated involvements with others and at the same time be tender, and committed deeply, to another person.

This shows us the complexity of human nature and more especially the very complex person Jacob was. Griffith Thomas, a British writer - one of the few who appreciates this lovely description of love - writes, “There are few verses more familiar in the story of Jacob than this beautiful description of his love; whatever else may be said about him, his sharp practices, cleverness, and craft….Love such as this takes little account of time; buoyed up and urged on by its joyous hope, it lives and labors and grows stronger and stronger”. Genesis: A Devotional Commentary, pg. 271 W. H. Griffith Thomas, Ninth Printing 1976.

Sometime in the past I read this description of love, “Love is a peculiar kind of relationship; it is a union which destroys separation but at the same time intensifies distinction,” Well said such a one.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

To all who read these blog postings, you do me a great honor.

Genesis 28:10-18 NASB

10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.

11 He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.

12 He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.

14 Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”

17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.

Hebrews 1:1

1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

The experience of Jacob here recorded is a graphic demonstration of what is known as direct revelation. In direct revelation there is no mediator between God and man. As with Jacob, God speaks directly to the hearer. The Hebrews reference informs the reader this happened to different men at different times in different ways. The common confession of Christianity is that this revelation ended with the death of twelve Apostles of Jesus.

There is another type of revelation known as general revelation. This is mediated by some agent. It is correct to think of general revelation as that which the creation tells us about God and His acts. Psalm 19:1

¹ The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Both of these forms of revelation are equally perfect. There is no error in that which is revealed. The problems arise as man tries to understand and interpret these forms of God’s self-revelation. It is a common human error to see more than intended or something different than that which is revealed. By common is meant this error is universal and without exception.

This brings the discussion to how revelation in its truth is known. This process is known as spiritual illumination. I Corinthians 2 identifies this as discernment and “the mind of Christ”, which all believers have with a lesser or greater development. It must be added that no unbeliever has this spiritual quality.

This leaves one more item for this discussion – logic. This can be termed “reason”. The fact of the necessity of reason is so plain it needs no argument.

The question that arises is whether revelation is subject to reason exercised to its final conclusion. An illustration of this is Gordon Clark’s conclusion that God is the immediate cause of sin, as He is the cause of all things. Does the common demand of logic require this conclusion or any so-called necessary conclusion. The answer is no for two reasons.

The first is revelation is the discipline for the intellect. If revelation requires the rational mind to stop short of a necessary conclusion it must stop at that point. For the case in question with Clark, look at James 1:13.

¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

The second reason for caution is the reasoning mind is fallen. Human intellect is at its best influenced by sin. This is a good reason the rational mind must ever be subject to the discipline of Scripture.

Those who deny the cardinal truths of Christianity have logic on their side at least in some instances. They have logic but they don’t have illumination.

The question a professing Christian must answer in 2011 is not “do you believe in Jesus”, but “what Jesus do you believe in?”.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 27:30-41; 28:6-9; Malachi 1:2-3 ESV

The brothers, Esau and Jacob, are not the only important brothers in the Bible. In Genesis four, the sad account of Cain and Abel introduces the Bible reader to what can happen between brothers. But Esau and Jacob, along with their posterity, continue to be major contributors to Bible history and theology. God’s choice of Jacob is an absolute proof of His sovereign election according to Paul in Romans 9.

There are some features about Esau which are common to the lost. These are:

1. Esau does not have a spiritual nature therefore he does not value spiritual necessities. He casually barters away his spiritual birthright. Genesis 25:29-34

29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

30 And Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!" (Therefore his name was called Edom.)

31 Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright now."

32 Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?"

33 Jacob said, "Swear to me now." So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

2. Without a spiritual nature he thought he could have the blessing of Abraham which was a spiritual blessing without the birthright. Genesis 27:34-36

34 As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!"

35 But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing."

36 Esau said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob?For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." Then he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?"

3. Esau, being no more than a natural man, sought to please his father’s and mother’s spiritual desire for success for their sons. Genesis 28:6-9

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, "You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,"

7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

8 So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father,

9 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 Nebaioth.

4. Without a spiritual nature Esau never understood repentance and never repented. Hebrews 12:16-17

16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

17 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.

5. Esau never had spiritual discernment. His best effort was never more than what a person raised in a good family would do. Esau must be evaluated in the light of I Corinthians 2:14. In fact we all must be.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 25:19-21 ESV

19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac,

20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.

21 And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Isaac’s story begins at Genesis 25:19. Isaac is always remembered in the Covenant with Abraham and Jacob - though he does not have the conflicts, the victories, or the personality of either his father or his son. Isaac is a meek man who lives a quiet life. He has no great exploits. He is not a hero but he is the Covenant heir and he is a man of true faith.

Genesis 25:19 through 28:5 gives enough information on Isaac to form an opinion about him. Isaac is presented in the following way.

1. As mentioned above he is a man with a very average personality. His acts and accomplishments are all very average. He becomes very wealthy (Genesis 26:12-13), but he does not appear to be greatly affected by it. He is a believer and lives like one. This should remind a Bible student that a believer can and most often will be an average person who lives a normal life within the bounds of faith.

2. Isaac, as a believer, is capable of effectual prayer, Genesis 25:21. Though there is not another illustration of his prayer life, it must be assumed that the example given above is the practice of Isaac, when confronted with a problem or a need he prayed to the Lord in whom he believed. Here again his experience is example for the normal believer. Prayer is a necessary part of the spiritual life of the believer.

3, Isaac was a man of strong faith, Genesis 26:24-25; 28:3-4. This is with us as it was with Isaac, a true faith does not guarantee there will not be times when it will fail. Isaac feared and his faith failed, 26:6-7.

6 So Isaac settled in Gerar.

7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he feared to say, "My wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah," because she was attractive in appearance.

But when it matters most he proved himself a believer. Genesis 26:24-25.

24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake."

25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

4. He appears in the Scripture to be dependent on the strong women in his life. Genesis 24:6-7; 27:46-28:1-2. This might have contributed to his meekness. It does not seem to affect him adversely. But a believer – man or woman – should seek to be dependent on God alone.

5. Isaac’s lack of spiritual discernment seems to be the most troubling attribute for him. Genesis 25:27-28.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.

28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Rebekah’s knowledge of God’s election of Jacob and His intent for Jacob to be the one who continued the Covenant line is plain. Lack of spiritual discernment is the only explanation for Isaac’s failure.

The context of Genesis 27:30-40 strongly indicate Isaac’s sorrow at having given the blessing to Jacob. As his oldest son, Esau should have been his material and spiritual heir. But that does not excuse him for being reluctant to accept God’s will for his sons. Malachi 1:2-3.

2 "I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob

3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert."

Isaac might not stir a believer to great deeds of faith, but neither does he leave a bad impression of what a believer should be. And he truly was a meek man. Matthew 5:5

5"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.