Trading In Grace

Trading In Grace

Sunday May 19, 2024

Every child of God has been given some measure of grace

John 1:16 KJ21

And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.

2. You don’t need to do anything special to be blessed

Ephesians 1:3 LSB

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

3. We just need to find out what is leaking our oil.

Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.

God’s grace never fails. It is man who fails of grace.

4. What is Grace?

Grace is a gift from God. Grace is alternatively called favor or mercy. Favor and mercy are different ways God chooses to manifest His Grace, depending on the need of the hour.

Talent. Resources. Position. Status. Wealth. Spiritual gifts. Divine Favor. 

1 Corinthians 12:7 KJ21

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit thereby:

5. God gives grace for His glory. Any benefit we get is an overflow of His goodness, but should never become the primary consideration.

 Grace is powerful and easy to misunderstand.

People misunderstand the purpose of God’s grace and trade the grace of God for their own personal purposes and agenda.

God gives grace for us to trade for His profit and His glory. 

See the parable of the talents in Luke 19:11-27  

Let’s look at a family of four who misunderstood and so traded God’s grace.

The account of the transaction between Jacob and Esau looks like a business deal.

Genesis 25:29-34 KJ21

And Jacob boiled pottage; and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. [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. 

Jacob’s clear response left no room for ambiguity.

Genesis 25:31 KJ21

31] And Jacob said, "Sell me this day thy birthright." 

One may accuse Jacob of price gouging. How could he equate the destiny-impacting BIRTHRIGHT  with one meal, (one morsel, according to the book of Hebrews?)

To us, that might seem like an unfair deal. But not to Esau. There was no protest from him. He did not even try to negotiate at all. He thought it was a good deal.

Genesis 25:32 KJ21

And Esau said, "Behold, I am at the point of dying. And what profit shall this birthright be to me?"

It is clear a business transaction was going on here. Jacob used the word, “sell,” and Esau used the word, “profit.”

Jacob was certainly a shrewd businessman. He needed to confirm the deal lest Esau turned around at a later time say, “You can’t be serious. You really wanted the birthright for a bowl of porridge? I thought you were kidding.” To guarantee that the deal would hold firmly, he did something very serious. He wanted to communicate his seriousness, that this was not two brothers just playing with each other. 

Genesis 25:31 LSB

[33] And Jacob said, "Swear to me this day." And he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 

Earlier in verse 31, he said, “Sell me this day thy birthright.” Now in verse 33, we see him again saying, “this day.” 

Every business contract has terms of agreement, the date, and signature. 

Birthright for  porridge was the term. “This day,” was the date. Swearing an oath was the signature.  So we see, Esau swore on the day, and the exchange was made. Jacob fulfilled his part on that day. Esau made an immediate profit. Jacob had to trust that Esau would make good, at a future date. 

From that day, the birthright was no longer Esau’s. He had sold it. Jacob was now the new legal owner of the birthright. Jacob secured the birthright, by faith. He believed the birthright was coming to him, even their father, Isaac, the one who was to pronounce the blessing, was not informed about the transaction. 

Later when their father wanted to do what he wanted, God had to step in. God always honors faith. Just like God honored the faith of Abraham, and gave him Isaac in his old, old age, God also honored Jacob’s faith, by ensuring that Rebekah overheard the secret conversation between Isaac and his favorite son, Esau. 

Did Rebekah know of the earlier transaction between Esau and Jacob? Perhaps, since Jacob was her favorite. Whether or not she knew of the deal, God knew of the deal. God is the righteous judge and He will make sure that even things done in secret  will be brought to justice. 

Beyond God’s position as judge, He is also the ultimate father from whom all blessings flow. The Bible said Esau ate the porridge, which he valued, and despised the birthright.

Genesis 25:34 KJ21

[34] Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he ate and drank, and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

This is a significant statement. When Esau despised the birthright, he despised God, the ultimate source of the BLESSING. When Esau swore, God was called in as the Notary in their business deal. God would have to enforce the terms of their contract.

Years later, when his father Isaac wanted to transfer the blessing to Esau, he should have acted in integrity. He should have said, “No, papa. It belongs to Jacob now. I sold it to him.” 

Perhaps he forgot, since it has been a long time. But God did not forget. It was the same as when God required the blood of the Gibeonites which Saul had shed from the people of Israel in the days of David. God is a RIGHTEOUS judge. 

Esau rushed out to do what he needed to do to secure his Father’s blessing… a blessing he had despised; a blessing he had sold; the PROFIT from the sale of which he had used up. Now he wanted to renege on the deal and steal the blessing. 

Who is the crook here between Esau and Jacob?

God allowed Rebekah to be within earshot at the critical moment. Probably knowing of the transaction between Esau and Jacob, she was not happy with Esau’s dishonesty. Perhaps, she did not know of the deal but simply wanted to fulfill the prophecy that Esau the elder would serve Jacob, the younger, who just happened to be her favorite son. Whatever the case, she moved to frustrate the plans of Isaac and Esau. God will raise help for us, sometimes using even shady characters.

Esau was a shady character, but he was still a student, a neophyte, while the expert was none other than Laban’s sister, Rebekah. 

While Esau was trying to swindle Jacob from the birthright, which he bought fair and square, he was outsmarted by their mother. 

All the smarts in the world will avail for nothing if God was not at work, executing JUSTICE. While all the trickery, with Jacob wearing  Esau’s clothes and putting some hair on his hands, was quite convincing, there remains one important question. How was Isaac unable to tell the difference between the taste of his favorite dish of deer meat, for which he specifically requested, and the taste of lamb which his wife cooked? God, who had confused the tongues of men in Babel must have confused Isaac’s tastebuds. He ate Jacob’s lamb and conferred on Jacob the blessing he had bought a long time ago, a blessing that had been prophesied would be his, long before he was born.

Here we see God at work in the lives of less than perfect people. He used their personalities and their weaknesses and wickedness to work out an outcome He had always desired. 

Proverbs 21:30 NLT

No human wisdom or understanding or plan can stand against the LORD.

When we have done all we know to do, we will discover that we have only carried out God’s plans. 

Esau was carnal. He was given to his fleshly appetites for food, and women, and a source of pain to his parents. He belittled the birthright when he was hungry. He sold it for a meal.  Later, he gained an appreciation for the blessing, he wanted to receive secretly from his father what he had already sold to his brother. When he found out he had been outsmarted, he was filled with murderous intent. He decided to wait for the right time to execute his plan to cold-heartedly murder his thieving brother.

Jacob was a conniving, dishonest conman. He was well trained by his mother, Rebecca. He negotiated shrewdly with his brother at a moment of his brother’s vulnerability. When he saw that his brother was going to secretly steal back what he had already sold, Jacob was quick to follow his mom’s counsel to steal back from his brother what Esau was planning to steal from him. 

It was God’s will for him to inherit the blessing. He traded porridge for it. He deceived his father to steal it back 

Rebecca wanted to execute God’s will, that the older son would serve the younger. However, she did not do so in order to honor God. It just so happened that God’s will coincided with her own desires. She had a preference for her younger son, Jacob,  and so she could not trust God to do what God had promised before the twins were born. She had to take matters into her own deceitful hands. She coached and supported her son  in a major conspiracy. Her conspiracy was in response to another conspiracy between Isaac and Esau which she had overheard. 

Isaac wanted to do a major thing secretly. The passing of the Blessing was a significant act in the final days of a patriarch. Genesis 27:1-5 shows us Isaac being sneaky in passing on that blessing. He tried to trade the blessing for his favorite meal. Why would he be attempting such an underhanded approach? Could it be because Esau was his favorite son and he badly wanted Esau to be his heir? Even if that were so, it still does not explain the secrecy. 

Perhaps, he knew of the prophecy concerning his two boys and in his carnality, he wanted to circumvent God’s plan. 

He thought just because God gave him the responsibility to pronounce the blessing,  the blessing was his to give to nobody he wanted. He decided to give it to his favorite son.

Isaac must have known of God’s word that the older would serve the younger, yet he wanted his will to prevail instead of God’s. 

Here we see a family of untrusting, conniving, dishonest conspirators, all doing their best to ensure that they got what they wanted at whatever cost. 

But we also see God, prevailing even as He uses all their machinations to achieve His end. God’s will was done, and each person got the consequence their actions deserved. 

Outcomes of Wrong Trading In Grace

Isaac realized he was deceived and it broke his old heart.

Genesis 27:33 Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said “Then who just served me wild game? I have already eaten it and I blessed him just before you came. And yes, that blessing must stand!”

The blessing was never his in the first place to give to whomever he pleased. The blessing was God’s, and Isaac was God's conduit to transmit the blessing. At the end of the day, he found out that contrary to his wishes, he accomplished God’s purpose.

Rebekah had to send away her favorite son. She thought he would be gone for a short period, until Esau cooled off. In reality, he was gone for at least 20 years. Genesis 35:27-29 recorded Jacob’s return home to his father Isaac but no mention was made of his mother, Rebekah. We can safely surmise that she had died before his return. She never saw her favorite son again, but had to live with Esau and his heartbreaking choices of women. 

Genesis 26:34-35

At the age of forty, Esau married two Hittite wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon.

35 But Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah. 

Esau’s attempt to secretly steal what he had sold to his brother was foiled. He was outsmarted by the conspiracy of his wily  mother and brother. He cried and begged to be blessed too. 

Genesis 27:38

Esau pleaded, “Do you have only one blessing? Oh, my father, bless me too!”  Then Esau broke down and wept. 

Even at this point in the story, we can see from his words that he still failed to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of the birthright he had earlier despised. He asked if his father had only that one blessing. The answer which should have been obvious to him is in the affirmative. The BLESSING is not a blessing in general. It referred to the unique blessedness of grace that Abraham received by faith. This blessing passed over Ishmael, Abraham’s older son, to Isaac and it has now passed over him to his own younger brother, Jacob. His heartbreak was too much to bear for his doting father. The father decided to bless him too. The blessing he received did not come from God, but from his father. He had derogated the Divine blessing and it had passed from him. The father now had to manufacture  some blessing  and when it was pronounced,  it sounded  more like a curse on him. It included a strange confirmation of his brother’s blessing, which Genesis 27:39-40

39 Finally his father, Isaac, said to him, 

“You will live away from the richness of the earth, 

and away from the dew of heaven above.

40 You will live by your sword, 

and you will serve your brother. 

But when you decide to break free, 

you will shake his yoke from your neck.”

Jacob did not escape with the blessing scot-free. 

• He had to leave home in a hurry. 

• He never saw his beloved mother again. 

• His uncle deceived him by substituting the love of his life, Rachel,  for whom he served for seven years, with Leah. 

• Afterwards, his uncle renegotiated his wages unfavorably to him, ten different times. 

• His sons broke his truce with the people of Shechem,  Genesis 34:30

• His oldest son, Reuben, slept with one of his concubines, Bilhah, Genesis 35:22. 

• His sons deceived him, lying about

Conclusion

We cannot achieve godly purposes via ungodly means. The end doesn't justify the means. No lie is of the truth. 

God gives grace for His own purpose. His purpose predates us and will certainly outlast us. When we arrive on the scene, we ought to humbly discover what roles He wants us to play, receive the abundance of His grace, serve His purposes and not our own. 

We fail of the grace of God whenever we attempt to misappropriate His blessings and divert His agenda for our own personal purpose.

Moses found misappropriating God’s grace to be very costly.

Numbers 20:8-12 LSB

“Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” [9] So Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him; [10] and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” [11] Then Moses raised high his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. [12] But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

Deuteronomy 32:48-52 NLT

That same day the LORD said to Moses, [49] "Go to Moab, to the mountains east of the river, and climb Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho. Look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel as their own special possession. [50] Then you will die there on the mountain. You will join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors. [51] For both of you betrayed me with the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there. [52] So you will see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel."