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Okay, thank you Rob. Keep your Bible open there in Genesis 25. So we get to the story here of the twins that are born unto Rebekah. I haven't got a title for the sermon this morning. If you guys have some ideas for me, let me know. There's a lot of different topics we can look at when it comes to this chapter. So I wasn't sure to title it. I'll title it later on. But let's just start off with verse number 1, Genesis 25 verse 1. And of course we're picking up the story last that we saw Rebekah given as a wife to Isaac. And prior to the chapter before that, we saw that Sarah had passed away. Sarah the wife of Abraham. So we pick it up here from verse number 1, Genesis 25 verse 1. The Bible says, And the sons of Dedan were Asurim, and Letushim, and Leomim. And the sons of Midian, Eepah, and Ethah, and Hanuk, and Abidah, and El Da'ah. All these were the children of Keturah. Now one thing I want you to notice, if you can just keep your finger there. Go to 1 Chronicles chapter 1. Go to 1 Chronicles chapter 1. 1 Chronicles chapter 1. I've had to sort of reassess my understanding of what a concubine is when it comes to the Bible. Quite often you'll find this term a concubine. But you might have noticed as we read Genesis 25 verse 1, the Bible says, Then again Abraham took a wife, and that wife was Keturah. But if you go to 1 Chronicles chapter 1 verse 32, the Bible reads, Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's what? Abraham's concubine. Sheba, Zimran, and Jokshan, and Midan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shewa. And the sons of Jokshan, Sheba, and Dedan. So you can see it's the same list. It's the same lady here. But in the book of Chronicles, Keturah is known as Abraham's concubine. So that's all I wanted to show you there in Chronicles. Go back to Genesis 25. Genesis 25, the Bible here tells us that Keturah was a wife unto Abraham. And so one thing that I had to reassess my understanding, it's not so important. It's not going to change necessarily how you read the Bible. But quite often growing up in churches, the idea of the concubine was kind of this sort of, kind of the way we would think of a de facto relationship. You know where a man and a woman would live together. They're not married. They've never exchanged any vows. But they've lived together for so long where the law itself, like in Australia, the law if you live together, I don't know how long it is. Is it over a year? Something like that. Where the law acknowledges or just acknowledges that relationship by law in a sense. Meaning that yes, you're not married, but you have the same legal rights as any other married couple. That's the idea of what a de facto relationship is. So if that de facto relationship were to break up, you know, the two would go their own separate ways. That the law would require 50% of possession to be given to both parties. Kind of like any kind of marriage that might end in divorce. So you know, when it comes to de facto relationships in Australia, it's not a marriage, but it is legally recognised. And when we look at the concubines in the Bible, it's kind of the opposite. It's kind of the opposite. We see here the Bible does call Keturah his wife, even though she is a concubine. So one thing you'll notice different is that a concubine is one that has entered into that marriage relationship. As husband and wife. We'll have a look at this shortly. The difference is that the concubine is not legally recognised in the same way as a fully fledged wife. As we see in the Bible. Now if you're curious, you can go to the book of Judges chapter 19. Judges chapter 19, just to prove this a little bit further for you. Judges chapter 19. And we go to the story here, just of the very wicked story of the sodomites in the tribe of Benjamin. And we have this story of the man with his concubine. And I've gone through this before. But I don't want to go into any major detail here. But look at Genesis chapter 19. Sorry, Judges chapter 19. Judges chapter 19 verse 1. Just so we can see some of how the Bible describes the concubine here. Judges chapter 19 verse 1. The Bible says, When there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah. Now if what I'm saying is true, that a concubine is a wife, then we'll see that this is being confirmed to us through this story. Look at verse number 2. And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there four whole months. But look at this. Verse number 3. And her husband arose. So what's the concubine's man called there? The husband. So you can see they're recognized as husband and wife. And her husband arose and went after her, to speak friendly unto her and to bring her again, having his servant with him and a couple of asses, and she brought him into her father's house. And when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. Now look at this father of the damsel, the father of the concubine. Verse number 4. And his father-in-law, the damsel's father, retained him and he abode with him three days. So they did eat and drink and lodged there. So what do we see in the Bible? We see that when a man takes a concubine, she is his wife, and he is her husband. In fact, her father here is known as a father-in-law. So you can see there is a recognition here by the law that this is a married couple. But one thing I know, I won't go into all the detail right now, but a concubine was basically a servant. A servant girl that lived in the household, and if she was taken into marriage, she did not take on the status of a fully-fledged wife like Sarah did, because Sarah was a free woman. She was not a bondwoman, she was a free woman. And so when you took a servant girl as a wife, she became known as a concubine. And she wouldn't have the same legal recognition as much as a fully-fledged free woman as a wife. Now you see this play out in the rest of the chapter if we go back to Genesis 25. And this, of course, when it comes to wives and concubines, we start asking these questions because we often think about King Solomon. King Solomon who had 700 wives. Those are fully-fledged wives, and then he had 300 concubines under him. So that's 300 servant girls that he had under his authority, and he took them to be his wife as well. But they did not carry the same status as the free woman, the 700 wives. And the simple principle is this, it's not such a big deal for us, simply because we need to acknowledge and understand that God's intention is one man, one woman for life. It's not about multiple wives and multiple concubines. We can see the definition of concubine, but it's not to say that gives us permission to take concubines for ourselves. No, of course not. God's never instructed that for a man, it's one woman, one man for life. Let's go back to Genesis 25, verse number 5. Genesis 25, verse 5. And as we keep reading, because we saw that Keturah had all these children to Abraham. But then look at verse number 5, and we can see this recognition that Abraham gives unto Isaac, verse number 5. And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. All that he had unto Isaac. This again plays into the idea that Sarah was that fully fledged wife that he had. And so Isaac, by being that legal son, that son of the promise, he inherits all the promises, all the possessions that was given unto Abraham. But he doesn't let his other sons go with that. We'll have a look at this, look at verse number 6. But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward unto the east country. So even though he had other children by this concubine Keturah, he still was able to bestow gifts, I'm sure great gifts, unto his other sons and sent them on their way. But they were not to inherit the same possessions that Isaac was to inherit, nor were they to live with him and sort of partake of his great possession. So it gives you this idea of the differences there between the son of a free woman and the children of the concubines. Now notice there in verse number 6, it said, But unto the sons of the concubines, plural, concubines plural, but we only had the one concubine named here, which was Keturah. So I want you to think about who could the other concubine be? It's possible that there's another woman out there that's not named in the passage. But this made me re-examine my thoughts about Haggai. Remember Haggai who was the servant of Sarah? And Sarah gave her to be a wife unto Abraham. And I was kind of scratching my head a little bit about that because the rest of the Bible does not really call Haggai a wife unto Abraham. But if you guys just want to turn back to Genesis 16 just quickly. Genesis 16 verse 3. Just a few pages back, Genesis 16 verse 3. And Sarah, Abraham's wife, took Hagar who made the Egyptian after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband, Abraham, to be his wife. When I was teaching through this in Genesis 16, I was kind of scratching my head a little bit because again, the Bible doesn't really name Hagar his wife anywhere else. But it seems to me it's possible by putting these passages together that Hagar here is being called his wife, but she's actually a concubine as well because she was a woman that was under servitude under Sarah at this point in time. So it's possible when it talks about here the sons of the concubines that it's referring to Keturah and to Hagar. That's what I think is happening here. So it's just something I had to rethink when it came to the concept of concubines there. But go back to Genesis 25. I hope that kind of helps you maybe understand the Bible as you're reading through it. As you're looking at this term concubine, you can start answering those questions for yourself what they are. But again, just to restate the fact, one man, one woman for life, this isn't the right thing to take multiple wives. Verse number seven. And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, and a hundredth free school and fifteen years. So how long did Abraham live? Well he lived a hundred, free school is sixty, and fifteen. So fifteen plus sixty, seventy-five plus a hundred. And what 175 years did Abraham live? A very long life. And verse number eight confirms this. Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age. An old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. And so here in verse number eight we get a definition of what death is. What is death? How does the Bible define death? And in verse number eight it said, then Abraham gave up the ghost. When your body gives up the ghost, that is when you are considered dead according to the Bible. Now the medical world has their own idea of what it means to be dead. Sometimes they have labeled people clinically dead and they've come back to life. And then we say, why has that happened? Is it true that we see these stories in hospitals where someone dies, they come back to life, is it true that they were actually dead? Well, not according to the Bible. Because if that happened, they've been labeled clinically dead, well if they haven't really died, it means the ghost they have is still in their body. The ghost did not leave their body. And we have this confirmation for us. You don't need to turn there. James chapter two verse twenty-six says, for as the body without the spirit is dead. The body without the spirit is dead. And the word spirit is just another way of saying the word ghost. We have the term the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. It's the same person. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the same person. These words can be used interchangeably. And I'll just quickly read to you from Luke twenty-three forty-six. This is when Jesus Christ was on the cross. It says, and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. So he's telling the Father here, Jesus Christ, that he's going to commend his spirit to him, and he gives up the ghost. So you can see how the Bible uses these terms interchangeably, the spirit and the ghost. And so when your body dies, it means your spirit or your ghost has left the body. We go to Genesis thirty-five now. Genesis thirty-five. Genesis thirty-five verse eighteen. Because it is not just the ghost or the spirit that leaves the body at death, but in Genesis thirty-five verse eighteen, we come to a story later on of Rachel, when she passes away, when she dies, it says, and it came to pass as her soul was in departing, that she called his name Benonai, and his father called him Benjamin, and Rachel died and was buried in the way of Ephra, which is Bethlehem. So you see here when Rachel dies, the Bible tells us that her soul was departed, was in departing, was in the process of departing. And so when you pass away, your soul and your spirit or your ghost both leave the body. So there's no such thing as soul sleep. You know that doctrine that's out there by some false religions out there, the soul sleep idea, is that they believe that when you're dead, when you're buried in the grave, that your soul remains in the body asleep. No, no, no, no. The soul's gone. The soul departs. The spirit departs. There's nothing in that grave except that dead body. If you're a believer, a dead body there waiting for the resurrection. Now, there's something else I want you to notice there that was said about Abraham in Genesis twenty-five, when he died, it said right at the end of there, it says that he was gathered to his people. That he was gathered to his people. And of course, this is something that I love reading about in the Bible. This gets brought up many times. It's basically that Abraham went to be with his spiritual forefathers. You know, that he went to be with his people in the faith. It's not that he just died and he went with his people in the ground or anything like that. Some people interpret it that way. But I'm going to read to you just quickly from Joshua twenty-four verse two. You don't need to turn there because I just want to confirm that this is not talking about just Abraham dying and being with his father. Because his father was an unsaved man. In Joshua twenty-four verse two it says, And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in no time, even Terah, that's the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods. They served other gods. So Abraham's father did not serve the same god as Abraham. He did not serve the god of the Bible. He served other gods. And so when Abraham passes away and he's gathered unto his people, it's not that he's gathered with his father. Because if his father died serving other gods, his father would be in hell. Okay? Abraham did not go to hell obviously. But he was gathered to his people. What are his people will come back to that thought. Will come back to that thought. You know, some people have the idea of people, you know, when they talk about my people, they often talk about their ethnicity. You know, they talk about their nationality or their background. You know, and you know, my ethnicity is Chilean. You know, South American Chilean. And there are some people that, you know, uphold their background so much, they talk highly of their people, you know, my people. You know, I don't think of a nation, you know, of a physical nation as my people. You know, the Chileans in South America, they're not my people. You know, when I think about Australia, I don't think of Australians as my people. There's a lot of people that I don't want to even consider as my people. There's a lot of wicked people in this earth. There is a people that I do want to call my people. And you're sitting right here in this congregation. You know, we're not related by blood. Okay, but we are related by the blood of Jesus Christ. You know, we're children of God. And you know, you are my people. You know, the spiritual forefathers that have gone before us, they are our people. We'll come back to that shortly. Look at verse number 9, Genesis 25, verse 9. Genesis 25, verse 9. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mechpela in the field of Ephron, and the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth. There was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. You may recall when Sarah passed away, Abraham bought a piece of land, which had a cave in it, and he buried his wife there. And he himself was buried together with his wife. Verse number 11. And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac dwelt by the well, Leharoy. Okay, so we've got that well again being brought up here. The well Leharoy. And again, if you may remember, this is where Isaac would go and meditate on the Lord, where he would spend time with the Lord, praying to the Lord, seeking the Lord's guidance. It's the same place that he first laid his eyes on his wife Rebecca as well. Rebecca was coming back on her journey. He was there meditating at that well Leharoy. Verse number 12. And these are the generation of Ishmael. So we go to Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the bondwoman. Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations, the first born of Ishmael, Nebachoth, and Kedar, and Abbeel, and Mipsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Maessa, and Hader, and Timah, Jethwa, Napish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their towns, and by their castles, twelve princes according to their nations. So you can see that Ishmael had a great lineage as well. He had a great number of descendants, and he had twelve sons that became twelve princes, with castles, great towns, nations according to their name. Now go back to Genesis 17 please, Genesis 17 verse 20, Genesis 17 verse 20. And the reason why Ishmael had a great descendants, great children, is that God had basically promised this unto Ishmael back in Genesis 17. Let's just close the story here, Genesis 17 verse 20. God says about Ishmael, Genesis 17 verse 20, and as for Ishmael, I have heard thee, behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. So we see here in the life of Ishmael, even though he was not the promised son, even though he was, you could say, a mistake, you know, he shouldn't have taken Hagar as his wife, and bear that child Ishmael, God still made a promise, God still blessed Ishmael being a son of Abraham, and we see, you know, God coming through with his promises once again. You know, not just to Abraham, but even to others, that for the rest of the Bible really we don't really think about Ishmael much more. You know, it really doesn't play any major role in the Bible, but God's eye was still in Ishmael. God's promises were still upon Ishmael, and those promises came to fruition. So we see that Ishmael, yes, you know, he eventually, even though he wasn't part of that household, you know, legally in the same way that Isaac was, he was still blessed greatly by the Lord, and the promises of the Lord came true for him anyway. Look at verse number 17. Verse number 17. Verse number 17. Again, Ishmael gets a lot of bad rap commonly in a lot of churches, because they see him as a competition against Isaac, and they'll often talk about him being the father of the Arabs, and the Arab world hating the Jews, because Isaac was the father of the Jews, you know. But we see here in verse number 17, now these are the years of the life of Ishmael, and 137 years, so he lived a good life, 137 years, and he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people. So we see almost identical, identical phrases and words he'd been used to describe Ishmael with his father Abraham. He dies, he gives up the ghost, and he also is gathered unto his people. Now I've already gone through, you know, proven this in previous chapter, that Ishmael was a saved man. You see that the Lord was with Ishmael, he was a bit of a wild man, you know, he was a difficult man to get along with, but you see even when he passes away, that he's gathered unto his people. I mean this doesn't sound like he's been cast to hell, it sounds like a peaceful passing, that he's going on to be with his spiritual forefathers, and I believe he was gathered to be with Abraham, you know. And those that he's heard, you know, are things of the Lord for, those that believe in the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they are gathered together to be with those same people in the past. Now look at, if you can go, please go to Genesis 35, go to Genesis 35 verse 29. Genesis 35 verse 29, we're going to fast forward to when Isaac passes away, when Isaac dies, Genesis 35 verse 29, the Bible says then, Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and look at this, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. So Isaac, same words, same phraseology here being used about his death, that he too is gathered unto his people. You know, I love these words, I love the idea of being gathered together with those that have gone before us. Go to Genesis 49, Genesis 49 verse 33, Genesis 49 verse 33. Of course Jacob would be a son to Isaac by which the promises of the seed would continue, and Genesis 49 verse 33, Genesis 49 verse 33, the Bible says, and when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. You see this being used again and again here in the book of Genesis. The Bible makes it very clear for us, if you're a believer, okay, and you pass on, it's not the end of you. You get to be gathered with your spiritual forefathers, to be gathered together with your people. Now if you can, if you're able to, go to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 12 please. Daniel, the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, Daniel chapter 12 verse 1. Now when it comes to Daniel, of course Daniel was a great prophet of God, you know, he was able to accomplish much for the Lord God, and quite often in the book of Daniel, you find this reference over and over again, thy people, thy people Daniel, thy people, thy people, again and again and again, and people often make the mistake of thinking, well this must have to do with the nation of Israel, and yes sometimes it does, because the nation of Israel was made up of saved people, but it was also made up of unsaved people, okay. So who are the people of Daniel, Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, and this has to do with the end times, and I just want to show you this, because I think it's so important, Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, and at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, there it is, thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, this has to do with the tribulation times coming up ahead, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time, that at that time thy people, okay Daniel's people, thy people, shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. That's the people of Daniel, everyone that shall be found written in the book, and as you read through your Bible, especially the New Testament, we get the name of that book, the name of that book is the Lamb's Book of Life, and here's the thing, if your name at the end of time, when it comes to the Lord opening those books and judging the people, if your name is found written in the Lamb's Book of Life, guess what, you are Daniel's people, you are my people, you're saved, your name's been written down there, it's been taken down, it's not been blotted away, it's there, that makes you the people of Daniel, and this proves that it cannot be the entire nation of Israel, because did every Israelite, did every Jew get saved? No, many of them were unsaved, many of them went to hell, I mean a great example is Judas Iscariot, I mean that's just one example of many that you can read about in the Bible, guess what, they're not our people, unsaved people are not our people, this is why I don't say Australians are my people, unless they're saved, if they're saved they're my people, but if they're not saved they're not my people, and we see the way this has been used here in the book of Genesis, being gathered together with your people is being gathered together with the believers, what an amazing promise that we have from the Lord, that when we pass away in this life it's not the end of us, we get to be in fellowship together with the people that have gone before us, Genesis 25 verse 18, And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest unto Assyria, and he died in the presence of all his people, and these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old, we saw this before last week, 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Befuel, the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian, and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. So what a wonderful truth once again, we saw Sarah, his mother, Isaac's mother barren for so many years, barren, unable to have this child, eventually God comes through and delivers on the promise, but here we have Rebekah, she's barren, and the Bible tells us in verse 21 that Isaac entreats the Lord for his wife, entreats the Lord for his wife, and I just see a great principle of husbands here, again being the leader of his home, seeing the struggle of his wife, she's unable to fall pregnant, so he goes to the Lord, he goes and entreats for his wife, he goes and prays to the Lord and says, Lord, she's barren, my wife is barren just like my mother was, and what I love about Isaac, I'm sure he learnt the lesson from his mother and father, that God can come through, and it sounds like if we just read verse 21, it just sounds like she's barren, Isaac prays about it, and she just gives, you know, she conceives, it sounds like a quick process, but I want you to notice here in verse number 26, look at Genesis 25 verse 26, just the last part of it, the end part of it, it says here, And Isaac was free school years old when she bare them. So what's free school years old? He was 60 years old. How old was he when he married Rebekah? 40 years old. How old was he when the children were born? 60. Hey, Isaac and Rebekah went 20 years barren. 20 years, Isaac is entreating the Lord. For 20 years, he goes to the Lord and keeps praying about the situation. Lord, my wife is barren. Lord, my wife is barren, please give us a child. You know? And I'm sure he has the faith. He knows that God has passed down the promises, the promise of the seed that would come through their lineage, Jesus Christ. Okay? But can you imagine for 20 years praying for something? Man, what great faith. You know, we just, again, we're seeing this great faith being passed down from Abraham and Sarah unto Isaac. And I'm sure, I'm sure this would have been a very difficult time for Rebekah. You know, 20 years barren, but Isaac did not give up. He continued entreating the Lord and he came through. He was able to conceive. And, you know, the Bible tells us that pray without ceasing. You know, 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing. You know, the Bible doesn't really define what that means. I mean, we can take that many ways. We can talk about, you know, just making sure that we're always continually praying throughout the day. You know, as things come up, as situations come up, you know, we should be bringing those things to the Lord. You know, a brother or sister in the church, you just remember them just briefly in your mind. You know, bring them to prayer. Ask the Lord to bless them. Ask the Lord to take care of their needs. That's one way of saying pray without ceasing. But another way is when you know the Lord wants to give you something, you know the Lord has promised you children, these things like that. Well, pray without ceasing. Don't give up. Keep bringing it to the Lord. Just continue doing it. If it has to take 20 years, it's going to take 20 years. If that's what the Lord has for you, we need to make sure that we understand the Lord's timing can be very different to our timing when it comes to prayer. And, you know, this is something that is very hard for us, very hard for us to grasp because we want the answers now. We live in a fast food society. We want it now. We want every answer now. We want every prayer answered straight away. But sometimes the Lord may need to take 20 years of your life to answer that prayer. You know, I had a great desire to be a pastor for many years. From my early 20s, I had a desire to be a pastor. You know, I didn't bring it to my pastor's attention till I was in my 30s. And even then, I waited probably another six years, I think, from the time I told him. You know, it's just something I keep entreating the Lord, something I keep praying for the Lord. Eventually, it came to be. You know, eventually, you know, with the Lord's best timing when he felt that, you know, it was the right time to start a church and be a pastor, he allowed me to go through that process. You know, we're required to be patient sometimes, or quite often, you know, in order for us to hear answered prayers, to see answered prayers. Genesis 25 verse 22. Genesis 25 verse 22. So she falls pregnant. She's conceived. And verse number 22. And the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. So she didn't know she had twins. You know, she fell pregnant. She's conceived. She feels this struggle within her, which are the two children, you know, fighting amongst themselves there. And she's like, why am I feeling this way? What's going on? And so she goes and asks of the Lord, verse number 23. And the Lord said unto her, so he announces the news that she's pregnant with twins, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. Now just let's read that again. And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb. He doesn't just say there are two children, but these two children would become two nations, right? And two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people, notice this, the one people, people is plural, right? More than one person. Shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. Now as we go through this, the elder, the first child that would be born is Esau, and the younger would be Jacob. Now if you misread this, you could read in verse 23 which says the elder shall serve the younger. You could misread this and say well that means Esau must become a servant unto Jacob. But if you read your Bible, Esau never ever served Jacob, ever, as two individual people. In fact, you keep reading this chapter, Jacob serves food to Esau. And quite often you'll see that Jacob, when it comes to these two brothers, he's the one that lowers himself, he's the one that humbles himself. We'll go through this as we go through the chapters here in Genesis. He's often the one that does that. He's the one that presents himself as a servant to Esau many times. He was a humble man, and this is why later on we see why God chooses Jacob to be the one which by the promise of the seed would come through. But again, the context here in verse number 23 is not just the two individuals, the context are nations, greater people that would come. And from Esau would come the Edomites, and through Jacob would come the Israelites. And the Israelites would have great victory over the Edomites. And when the Bible talks about the elders serving the younger, yes that's because the Edomites would be subject under the nation of Israel as the years go on. So we're talking about the nations here, specifically being mentioned here. Now what I want you to do is please go to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 verse 9. Romans chapter 9 verse 9. The New Testament gives us a commentary about these two twins in the womb of Rebekah. Romans chapter 9 verse 9 please. Romans chapter 9 verse 9. Romans 9, 9. For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. So now Sarah had a son, Jacob. Sorry, Isaac. And then verse number 10. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. And it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. When was this said unto her? When the children were still in the womb. She came to inquire the Lord. The Lord says that the elder will serve the younger. As I kind of explained to you, we're talking about nations here. The Edomites would serve the Israelites. But then some people look at verse number 13 and make a mess of what's being taught here in Romans chapter 9. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Wow. They'll say, look at this. While the two babies were still in the womb, God said that he loved Jacob, but he hated Esau. And then they tie that in with what we saw in verse number 11, where it says that the purpose of God according to election might stand. And this is where we start to get this idea of the doctrine of grace quite often, which has to do with Calvinism, where God will choose one over another in order to be saved. They'll say, well, the reason you're saved is God just chose you to be saved, and those that are unsaved, God chose them to be unsaved. God chose them to be cast into hell. He didn't love them. And here they'll point to this story where they'll say, well, see, Jacob, he loved Jacob and Esau. He hated Esau. But is that what's been taught here? Is that what's been taught? Now, I can understand if you read through Romans 9, you could be mistaken of thinking that, but I've always told you guys, as you read through the Bible, especially as you read through the New Testament, whenever the Bible says, look at verse number 13 again, Romans 9, 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, whenever you see that in the Bible, you should go back to the Old Testament to see where it's written, because it's going to help understand. It's going to help open up a lot more of the scriptures to you. The reason the New Testament writers write that, as it is written, is so you can go back and check where it's written. That's why it's there, okay? So you can become more knowledgeable, so you can study the Word of God. Have we gone through Genesis 25? Did we read anywhere where God says He hated Esau and loved Jacob? Did we see that written by God in Genesis 25? No. But we did see that He talked about the older serving the younger when they were still babies in the womb of Rebekah. So where in the Bible is it written that Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated? Where is that written? It's actually written in Malachi. You can go to Malachi if you want. It's the last book in your Old Testament. Malachi chapter 1. Malachi chapter 1 verse 1. Malachi chapter 1 verse 1. Now this is several centuries after the birth of Jacob and Esau. This is several centuries after Israel has become a nation. The Edomites have become a great nation. You know we're toward the end now of the Old Testament prophets. We see Malachi. And of course the book of Malachi would prophesy of Jesus Christ coming into the world, would prophesy of John the Baptist being a forerunner to Jesus Christ. So we're several centuries, several centuries after the birth of Jacob and Esau. I mean these guys have really passed away many, many years ago. And in Malachi chapter 1 verse 1 the Bible says, The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau. So here it is. And laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith. So what's Edom? That's the nation of the Edomites. Whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build but I will throw down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord have indignation forever. So did God hate Esau eventually? Yes. It was many, many centuries later on as they became a nation, the Edomites of Edom. They became wicked people. They hated the Israelites. And because of their actions, God says, Man you Edomites, I hate you. I'm going to destroy you forever. So it wasn't Esau as a little baby in the womb that God says, I hate you. No, it's all about the nations that came afterwards that were very wicked toward the nation of Israel. And what that makes sense to you, you can turn back to Malachi, that's where it's written. But the book of Romans just puts these two things together for us. Showing the differences there between Jacob and Esau and of course the greater truth being the nations that they would become. Please go back to Genesis 25 verse 24. Genesis 25 verse 24. And by the way, when it comes to the election, there wasn't an election. God chose Jacob. He chose Jacob to be the progenitor. He became Israel. He became then the father of the Israelites. The sons that would be born unto Jacob would be the children of Israel. Verse number 24. Genesis 25, 24. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were twins in her womb. And when the first came out red all over like a hairy garment, they called his name Esau. Sounds like he has red hair, you know. Verse number 26. And after that came his brother out and his hand took hold of Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was three score years old when she bared them. And the boys grew and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field and Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. Now we get this idea here of Esau. Nothing wrong with him being a cunning hunter. Nothing wrong with him having that in him where he goes out and he hunts for food, brings it back to the family or sells it or whatever it is that he does for a living. He's a man of the field, the Bible says. But the Bible then compares Jacob as a very different person. They were very different as brothers and it says here that Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. Now you could get the idea here that it's just this lazy bum. Just in the tents, just mucking around, playing video games in the tents. I don't know, what do people do when they stay home all day? That's probably the thought you might get when it compares to Esau being a hunting man, a cunning hunter. When the Bible talks about him being a plain man dwelling in tents, when it talks about a plain man, he was just a humble man. He wasn't trying to make this great name for himself. When we talk about dwelling in tents, it doesn't mean he just laid around doing nothing. He was taking care of the possessions, the household of Isaac. Again, just remember, Abraham was a very rich man. He passed down a lot of possessions, a great number of servants, a great number of cattle and creatures. They had a massive household to work in and so Jacob just lived in the household. He would look after his father's business if you want. Taking care of the things in the house, which he had a lot of things to do. Look at verse number 28, we see a major problem here in verse number 28. Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison. Venison is deer, cooked deer. It says here, but Rebekah loved Jacob. These words make me sad as a father. To think about these two parents, this is one of the major mistakes that they've made, is they have favoritism. Guess what the Bible means? Basically, that these two had favoritism. Isaac preferred Esau as a son and Rebekah preferred Jacob as her son. This is a topic that comes up every now and again with children. A lot of children tend to think about their parents as having favorites. If you're an only child, I guess you are a favorite. There's no one else to compare you with, but it's a sad thing. Even though I have 10 kids, there's been times where the kids have said, here's your favorite or she is your favorite, things like that. It's sad when you hear your children say that because usually parents, they don't have that desire. It's not like they want to, they desire to have one child as a favorite over another. That's not a natural thing that I think, but it can happen. We do see these biblical characters, they aren't the only ones. We see that Joseph, when he came to Jacob, that Joseph was a favorite unto Jacob as well. This can cause a lot of problems with children growing up. I just want to say to the parents, be careful about how you show affection to your children. If your child is constantly telling you, this one's a favorite, this one's a favorite, you may need to examine that and try to break down why does this child keep saying it. There might be some truth to it. There could be some truth to it. You could potentially be spending more time with one child versus other children and they have that idea that there's a favorite in the family. I think there are some things you can't help. There are going to be some kids that grow up and they're going to be a little bit more interactive with the parents. When it came to me and my brother, my brother was a lot more talkative with my mom. He would share a lot of things with my mother and they would talk a lot. In my mind I kind of thought maybe he's kind of a favorite, but at the same time I reflected upon myself. I've always been more of a quiet person. I didn't really want to talk about my personal issues with my parents. I was maybe a bit embarrassed or just whatever, whereas my brother was very open about those things. I could have had the idea, I suppose, that he's the favorite, but at the same time I recognized that he was just someone that could get along with my parents a lot easier than what I was able to. I was a lot more open with his personal life. But then growing up, my brother, because my parents were more strict with my brother, and then when it came to me, because I was seven years younger, they were a little bit more lenient with me. My older brother would think, oh yeah, Kevin's the favorite, because they were more lenient with me when it came to discipline and things like that. But again, we've grown up and it's like whatever, I guess. It's not like that was a major issue, but kids sometimes can have that idea in their heads and I think it's important for parents to, if that's been said to you from your kids, that you think about it, like why are they saying this? It's something that's bothering them and you want to try to get to the bottom of it is what I'm trying to say and try to make sure they understand that there is no favoritism. Or if there is favoritism, that you try your best to give equal time to your children. But verse 29, verse 29, And Jacob's sod pottage, the word sod means to simmer or to boil. So Jacob's cooking pottage here and Esau came from the field and he was faint. Verse number 30, And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. Verse 31, And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. Now when it comes to this birthright, again, Esau was born first. And so it appears the custom of this day here was that if you were born first, you would have a greater share of the inheritance. We kind of saw that a little bit with Abraham giving all of his possessions to Isaac because he was the promised child, even though Ishmael was actually the firstborn. But we see kind of the idea of the birthright being passed down to Isaac because he was the son of a free woman. So you kind of see this culture in this day that you would want to give a greater portion of the inheritance to the firstborn. And that's what is being referred to here as the birthright. Verse number 32, And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And look, I don't think for a minute that Esau was about to die. He was hungry, he was tired, but he's exaggerating. I'm about to die and you want my birthright? Who cares about the birthright is what he's saying, right? Verse number 33, And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he swear unto him, and he sowed his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. The Bible tells us here that Esau despised his birthright. And again, I think this gives us the idea of the picture of these two brothers. One would go out hunting in the field, okay? Now, yes, I'm sure he had great skills, but this gives us the idea that he didn't really care about his household. He didn't seem to care about the promises that God had given to Isaac. And that, you know what, his birthright, who cares? He would rather get out there, just be out hunting, not really caring about the household management, all the possessions that God has given his family. But we see that through Jacob, even though he was being deceptive here, Jacob had a great love for the birthright. He had a great love for the promises that God had given his family. And it wasn't just the possessions that came with his birthright. It also came with the promises of the seed, which would be Jesus Christ. And Jacob wanted it. Jacob wanted the promises of God. Jacob wanted the blessings of God. Jacob wanted the birthright. He wanted to be the one that would, you know, through his lineage, would bring Jesus Christ into this world. And if you can please go to Hebrews chapter 12 now. Hebrews chapter 12, we're almost done. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. Again, the Bible gives us a bit of a commentary here of the situation where Esau sells his birthright to Jacob. But then it gives us a spiritual lesson for ourselves. It gives us a spiritual lesson. Because you see, we all have the same birthright. We've all been given this birthright of God. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. And in the context of what we're reading here is basically God chastising his children when we do wrong. And as we continue reading here in verse number 14, the Bible gives us instruction of how we ought to live our lives. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. Hebrews 12 verse 14. The Bible says, So we've been commanded to be a people of peace. To seek to live peaceably with all men and to live with holiness. Again, separated lives. Lives that do not reflect this world. We want to try to live holy lives because our Lord God is holy. We ought to try to reflect Him in our daily living. Look at verse number 15. The Bible is warning us about the roots of bitterness. Being careful about our relationships. How we might wrong people or how we might clash with people. And this can cause a root of bitterness springing to trouble you. But not only does it trouble you, the bitterness, it says, You know, your bitterness, your conflicts, your problems can cause other people around you to be defiled. Look at verse number 16. So you see, God is using Esau as an example here. He says look, he's like a, he's a profane man, he's a fornicator. He gave up the birthright just for a piece of meat. Just for a bit of potage. Just for a bit of food. He gave up his birthright unto his brother. And then look at verse number 17. You see, there came a point in time for Esau that he sold off the birthright just for a bit of food. But there came a point that he wanted to repent. He wanted that birthright once again. He wanted to be the one that would inherit the promises and the blessings that would come through Isaac and eventually through Jacob. He wanted that. But it was too late. It says, What's the spiritual lesson here for us? The Bible's telling us that we've been given a birthright. Just like Esau here, okay? When you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were born again into his family. Jesus Christ being the first begotten of the dead. You know, you've been brought into the family of God and you now have a birthright. You have the right to heaven. You have the right to eternal life. You have the right of rewards in heaven. God wants you to have a mindset of eternal matters, not just of temporal things. He wants us to live peaceably with people, especially the brethren, especially in the church. You know, God wants us to live holy, not to live as profane people, not to live like fornicators, not to defile our bodies, defile our lives. He doesn't want us to live like this world. He wants us to be a peculiar people, to be a holy people. You know, our responsibility, brethren, yes, we're saved. Our responsibility is to love the birthright that we have, the spiritual birthright, okay? And seek to live holy lives, seek to live lives that are pleasing to God. And the example was given here that he sold it all, Esau, for a bit of food. And that's what you do. When you don't live according to God's commandments, when you don't live according to God's laws, you know, you decide to live a different way. You decide to live like the world. You decide to entertain yourself with the world's business. That's you selling your birthright. You're saying, right now, I don't care about my birthright. I care more about being worldly. I care more about being carnal. I care more about being anywhere else but the house of God. I care more about reading any other book than reading the Bible. I care more about entertaining myself than spending time in prayer with God. When you start giving up these things in your life, when you start to backslide, when you're not picking up your Bible as much as you should, what are you doing? You're selling your birthright. You're saying, you know what, that birthright's not so important to me. I would rather that morsel of meat. I'd rather satisfy the belly. I'd rather satisfy this carnal flesh. This is why we're constantly fighting with this flesh. You know, that flesh wants that meat, that bit of food. Because it's a waste of time though. That temporary stuff cannot be compared to the great birthright, the great privilege, the rewards that God wants to give us in heaven. And so, brethren, I just want to end with that challenge for you today. We saw how Esau was willing to give up such great promises, the inheritance that came from God just to satisfy his belly. But we can make the same mistake in our spiritual lives. We can seek out this world, the pleasures of this world, the pleasures of sin, and giving up that birthright, giving up the rewards that God has in store for us in heaven. I hope your eyes are on your birthright that you've been given. I hope your eyes are on eternal matters. Let's pray.