Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #12 of Genesis, chapter 27, and we are reading Genesis 27:37-40:

And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

I will stop reading there.  We are continuing along, verse by verse, trying to see what we can learn, by God’s grace, as He opens up His Word to our understanding.  At least, that is our prayer and our hope, as we compare Scripture with Scripture and look to the Lord to guide us into truth.

I was saying at the close of the last study that this is a picture of what would take place on Judgment Day.  It is revealing that it is the time when those that are blessed will come to know they are blessed, and those that are cursed will know they are cursed.  To say that another way, the cursed will know that they have not received the blessing.  And that was Esau’s position.  He knows that Jacob, his brother, had received the blessing, and he knows  he did not receive the blessing.  It had just happened that his brother had been there, and his father Isaac blessed him, and he went out.  As he was going out, Esau came in, and now there is this whole issue of “blessing.”  It is the main focus of this passage: “Is there no further blessing?”  At the end of verse 36, Esau said, “Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?” 

The blessing has to do with salvation, and that is why we looked at that Psalm a couple of times, in Psalm 133:3, where it says the blessing is “life for evermore.”  That is the blessing, eternal life.  And then comes the real point of this passage in the spiritual realm, which has to do with the unsaved, as represented by Esau.  And there is no question that he is representing unsaved mankind.  He is the one the Bible says was “hated,” and Jacob is the one the Bible tells us was “loved.”   So it is the time when unsaved man finds that his brother has been saved, and he has not.  That is, God’s elect have received the blessing.

So let us step back and see that this is what is in view here, by just applying Biblical definitions.  We know Jacob represents the elect (or he can also represent Christ, as we have also seen), and Esau represents the natural man, or the unsaved man.  Isaac, the father, giving the blessing, is a type of Christ.  We also know that at other times in his life, like when his father Abraham laid him on the altar to sacrifice him, he was clearly a great type of Christ, and he was also the “promised seed” that Galatians tells us is the seed (singular), pointing to Christ.  So the spiritual definitions are clear for Isaac, Jacob, Esau and for the blessing.  Again, the blessing is life evermore, and let me read it again to make sure I am referring to the right verse, in Psalm 133:3:

As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there JEHOVAH commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

We could also go to the Beatitudes, where it says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”  And this also has to do with inheritance, does it not?  It has to do with the blessing the firstborn son was in position to inherit.  So, yes, there is a clear spiritual link between “blessing” and “salvation” in the Bible.  It is the Bible that establishes the definitions for the characters and the subject matter of blessing, and when we see these things established and then we look at the overall passage, it really paints its own picture.  It begins to describe itself.  What is it describing?  What is the spiritual picture it is illustrating for us?  It is painting a picture that perfectly matches with our present time of Judgment Day, a time wherein the Bible insists that all to be saved have (already) been saved.  Or, to use the language of Genesis 27, Jacob, the elect, has received the blessing.  All the elect (the people whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life) have received the Word of God and God has saved them.   We have “scarce gone out,” on May 21, 2011, and then the door shut.  And following that and for the rest of time, which is a prolonged judgment period, in comes “Esau,” as natural man approaches to God because they have heard from their churches or others that there is a “throne of grace.”  So they come to the door of heaven: “Lord, Lord, let me in.”  And the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”  Or, as it says in Luke 13, when once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door, they come seeking entry, and then Christ says, “I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”  That is, they do not identify with a proper time and season insofar as God’s program for rain and fruit, or fruitful seasons, because the rain has fallen, and the fruit has been brought in – all to be saved have become saved.  Therefore, the question is, “Who are you?”  It is just as Isaac said to Esau, “Who art thou?”   There is a lack of recognition concerning how this person can be coming to God to find salvation after it is done.  It is over and it is accomplished. 

All that is in view, and then we come to Esau’s weeping,  back in Genesis 27:34:

And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.

That is, he is saying, “Save me, O, God, save me,” with bitter crying.  He is very sincere.  He is very desirous, and we have spoken of this before, but if only it were the proper time and season within the boundary of the day of salvation.  This is what the people of God longed for regarding the “Esaus” in our lives.  If only our family members, friends, neighbors, fellow workers and everyone we had contact with would have come in this way at the proper time!  How we would have rejoiced!  How we would have thanked God and prayed all the more for them.  But now it is not the proper time.  It is “out of season.”  The door is not open.  The “sun” is not shining.  The “rain” is not falling.  So how can we be happy and rejoice in that?  But we know that God has revealed in His Word that there is no more salvation.  Pitifully and sorrowfully, we have to tell them, “The door is shut,” because that is our task as lowly doorkeepers.  The door is shut.  That is what the Bible says.  “The time is over, and you cannot enter in.  There is no more blessing.” 

That is what we have to tell people.  “The blessing has been given.  And those that have been blessed are, indeed, blessed.  God has saved His people.  And the only thing we can tell you is that if you were outside the churches during the period of the Latter Rain, maybe God saved you.  If He did, He completed that salvation by May 21, 2011, so the hope is that in a past action of God if you heard the Word prior to that date, that is the way you can still go to God.”  But it would not apply for anyone still in the churches on that date, because there was no Latter Rain there and no Holy Spirit there.  That is part of the reason their judgment is greater.  So, no, we cannot give that hope to those that stayed in the churches and congregations, and they despised God’s Word and His gracious warning to come out of the churches, and they rebelliously stayed put.  But for those outside the churches, we can share that small hope that, perhaps, God saved you then, and the only way you can rightly and properly approach unto God now is to come humbly, saying, “O, Lord, having had mercy, could it be you had predestinated me before the foundation of the world, and could you have had mercy by saving me with your Word before May 21, 2011?” 

So this person could say, “I did hear the Word of God.  I did hear your warning, I did hear something from the Bible.  That is my only hope – that you might have saved me.  And, yet, I see there has been no change in me, and this frightens me, Lord.  And maybe I have even been hostile toward you in the last several years since May 21, 2011, and that frightens me all the more.  But this is what I have learned: that you did save up to that time, and the Bible does speak of a delayed process of drawing those people that were saved during that time in the second part of the Great Tribulation.  So, my hope is, and it is a small hope, but, O, Heavenly Father, could it be that you might have saved me then, and for your own purposes, you have not yet drawn me?  And I pray that you would draw me now, because I do qualify because I was outside the churches.  Having had mercy, have mercy!  Could it be that if you did save me then, O, Lord, will you draw me now and give me that ongoing desire to do the will of God, and that I would turn from my sins?” 

And that is the little bit of hope that only qualified people in the world may have at this time.  Again, it would be that God might have worked (prior to May 21, 2011) to save them.  But, again, that is not that God will save them now – there is no hope of that.  But it is simply looking back at what may have already taken place and what God has already done.

But Esau is coming too late, and this is the way that most people will come: “O, save me, God.  Save me now!”  It is after the door is shut, and there is not even a discussion about it: “Depart from me.  I know you not whence you are.”  There will be no budging or opening of the door.  There is no possible way to persuade God to open the door He has shut in the Day of Judgment – it is shut.  Soundly shut.  No man can open it.  So this is the situation with Esau, and the reason for his strong, bitter cry, an exceeding bitter cry for blessing. 

We went to Zephaniah last time, and I want to look at that again.  Zephaniah 1 is in the context of the day of JEHOVAH, and it says in Zephaniah 1:14:

The great day of JEHOVAH is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

That is exactly what Esau pictures as he was crying over the loss blessing.  This is the reason that the “mighty man” cries in the Day of Judgment.

Let us turn to Ezekiel 27,  a chapter that has to do with the king of Tyrus, pointing to mankind.  And, again, Esau and Edom are closely related to the word for “Adam” or “man.”  And mankind is in view in Ezekiel 27:29-32:

And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land; And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?

This chapter reflects in several ways the things we read in Revelation 18 about the fall of Babylon because it is talking about the same subject matter.  It is Judgment Day and the reaction of the people of the world, and it is the way God is showing this spiritual truth through the reaction of the mariners, and so forth.  So we see, too, that there is a reference to crying bitterly, bitterness of heart and bitter wailing, just as we read in Revelation 18:15-19:

The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

It is the fall of Babylon, the fall of the kingdoms of this world.  It was Satan’s kingdom that was fallen, and it is revealing the fact that Satan has been defeated and overcome, and his kingdom has been taken, to be divided.

Well, this all fits in with Esau crying, and God actually mentions Esau’s tears in the book of Hebrews.  It says in Hebrews 12:14-17:

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

That is a significant statement the Lord is making here.  Esau with his strong, bitter cry of weeping, when he was saying, “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father.”  He was crying and weeping.  But God says he was rejected when he would have inherited the blessing.  And, of course, this has to do with salvation.  He had despised his birthright.  This was mankind’s earth.  It was their world.  God created man good, and man would have inherited this earth – it belonged to him.  But he despised his birthright.  Then, afterwards, as we come down through history as all had experienced God’s program of salvation as God sent the Gospel into the world up until the point it stopped on that great day of May 21, 2011, and He completed that part of His salvation program, and He would no longer evangelize the earth. 

Then we are told, “for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”  He sought it carefully with tears.  That is interesting language.  It says in John 14 that Christ goes to prepare a place for us.  Of course, that is the place of the new heaven and new earth, and our citizenship in the kingdom of God.  And Esau is seeking a place of repentance, and repentance is that which goes hand-in-hand with salvation.  Repentance is also a gift of God.  God must grant the sinner repentance, because the Bible teaches that true repentance that is “right repentance” is a turning away from the sin of the heart.  And that is why people can repent of outward sins, like drinking, smoking, lying and stealing, and, yet, not have “repented” in the eyes of God just because they stopped some particularly evil things.  But there is a whole fount or a whole river gushing forth evil out of their hearts, but they are trying to clean up things “on the surface.”  I have used the illustration before of an “oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.”  They could not cap the gusher for some time, so what they did was to clean the surface.  It was an environmental catastrophe, and the wildlife was being destroyed, but all they could do was clean the surface and try to save some of the birds and animals by giving them baths.  But as far as the oil gusher that was down on the sea floor, they could not cap it for some time.  And that is the difference in repentance.  When unsaved people repent, they turn from a surface sin, and they think, “Now I am fine.  I am good with God,” and, yet, there is all manner of iniquity still gushing forth from their heart.  It is only when God takes away that heart and gives us a new heart that we can turn from the sin of our hearts, and that is why the Bible says that the one born again cannot sin in their new, born-again heart.  And that is Biblical repentance, when there is no more sin in the heart – it has been turned from completely. 

So Esau found no place of repentance – no salvation – because true Biblical repentance has to have salvation.  You cannot have true repentance without salvation, “though he sought it carefully with tears.”  And, again, we come to the idea of “seeking,” because the word translated as “sought” is the same word used in Romans 3:11:

… there is none that seeketh after God.

There is no human being that seeks after God in a proper way on their terms.  Yes, Esau would seek the blessing when it was too late and when it cannot be had.  And that is not on God’s terms.  God says we must seek Him while we can find Him, and now He can no longer be found.