Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #14 of Genesis, chapter 27, and we are going to read Genesis 27:41-46:

And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away; Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?

That brings us to the end of the chapter.  Jacob has deceptively obtained the blessing and, according to his father Isaac, he is the one who will be blessed.  It cannot be changed.  And this is something else that reminds us that Isaac is a type of God, in giving the blessing and bestowing salvation.  Salvation is not something that can be lost.  When the Bible says that we receive the gift of eternal life, that means we can never lose it.  If someone could lose the gift of eternal life, then it was never “eternal life,” but something less than that.  But the Bible is clear that the glorious, magnificent salvation that God blesses His people with is everlasting life.  The one saved will live forever.  And once God accomplishes that salvation within us…and we know that our sins were laid upon Christ at the foundation of the world, and He died and shed His blood for our sins at that point, but it was not until we entered into the world and lived for a time that the blood was applied.  Of course, the length of time was different in every case, but according to God’s timetable for each individual and according to the “fulness” of that timetable, God sent His Son into our lives.  And the Son came through the Word of God, as faith came and we were saved, as Romans 10:17 declares: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

We all obtained salvation in various ways.  Some had to hit “rock bottom.”  They were drunkards, drug addicts, liars, thieves, murderers, and some even went to prison for many years.  And, perhaps, they were like the thief on the cross who was close to death (before salvation).  But however God worked it out, He brought salvation to that individual because he or she had been chosen to receive it.  They were who Jacob represented as God said, “…neither having done any good or evil…Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.”  So He did save His elect, and they did become saved. 

There could be people that were much more outwardly righteous – holy, religious people, and people that were much more moralistic, with a better-defined sense of right and wrong – that were in the lives of these elect, and we could shake our heads and wonder, “Why would God save this wretch or this deceitful individual, like Jacob?”  But, nonetheless, God would save that person and that person would be saved and can never lose salvation, no matter what.  And that is what we see in Isaac’s declaring that Jacob was blessed and will be blessed, and he could not go back on it.  That also relates to the character of the Word of God, the Bible.  It is unalterable, and the character of God Himself does not change.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  And the one that God saves will remain saved, and that ties in with the declaration in Revelation 22:11 that the righteous are righteous still, and the filthy are filthy still.  God has done a work of saving in one individual, and not in the other, which produces their spiritual condition, and that is the condition they will be in (forever).

Well, Esau has come in and is desperately beseeching his father, crying with a bitter cry, “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. .lifted up his voice, and wept.” According to Hebrews 12, he was carefully seeking repentance with tears.  He was seeking salvation.  In the historical account, he was seeking the family blessing, the blessing of the firstborn, but on a deeper level, it had to do with obtaining the blessing of God, and that God would grant him salvation and repentance, and so forth.  Yet, he did not attain unto that salvation.  He received another blessing, a lesser blessing, in which he would have to serve his brother, and his brother would be his lord.  It was an earthly blessing, the inheritance that all unsaved people receive of life in this world.  They can receive things, and God can bless them with wealth, physical health, to a degree, for a time.  He can bless them in many different ways, like having food and clothing and all kinds of natural enjoyments, and so forth. 

And, yet, Esau was disappointed.  That is, at least, honest.  So many people in the world are quite satisfied with that, and they do not seek further blessing in the spiritual realm of salvation.  But God is painting a spiritual picture, and the truth is that when we compare the earthly blessings of unsaved man with the eternal blessings of saved man, there is no comparison.  No comparison. One is super-abundantly greater than the other.  The spiritual blessing of eternal life includes being equipped with a new resurrected body that will last forever in a place where, according to the Bible, there will be no more tears, and no more crying and sorrow.  There will be joy for evermore, and we will be with God and have the  most wonderful and glorious and incredible eternal future imaginable.  Actually, it is beyond imagination because we cannot fully imagine it.  It is, in fact, far too wonderful and glorious and spectacular for us to grab ahold of in our minds.  We can see only a piece of it.  It is far beyond our ability to comprehend how greatly God intends to bless us for evermore.  Yet, this is what the Bible says. 

Therefore, God has Esau reacting in this way in order to describe on a spiritual level the degree of the “loss” he has experienced by not inheriting the blessing of the firstborn, the blessing of the new heaven and new earth and eternal life.  So he was every disappointed, to the point of anger, and we see it says in Genesis 27:41-42:

And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah…

Now there is an interesting apparent contradiction where it says in verse 41 that Esau hated Jacob and planned to kill him, and he said these things in his heart, but in verse 42, the words of Esau were told to Rebekah.  He said them in his heart, which would identify with his mind and inner being, so how did someone tell Rebekah about it?  And there are two possibilities.  One is that he said them in his heart and, later, it came out of his mouth, and maybe some servants were around, and word got to Rebekah.  So it would be true that he said them in his heart, and then it could also be true that he spoke the words out loud later, and they were told to Rebekah.  I think that is the more probable explanation.

The second possibility is that Esau said these things in his heart…and, you know, the Bible does speak of man speaking in his heart, when we read what it says in Psalm 14:1: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”   He is saying in his heart that there is no God, but, of course, many “fools” or unsaved people speak it out loud and, yet, may do not, but it is what is being said in his heart.  That is why he mainly focuses on himself, his own needs and his own wants, and not on the things of God.  But we also read in Psalm 58:3: “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.”  Everyone knows a newborn baby cannot speak, not verbally with their mouths, but they can speak in their hearts.  And what are their hearts saying?  “There is no God.”  And the heart is in rebellion against God from conception, as David said that he was “conceived in sin.”  It is the nature of the unsaved to have a desperately wicked heart, because you cannot bring forth the clean out of the unclean, and if the mother and father are unclean, the baby is unclean. 

So that is the idea that could be in view.  Esau said this in his heart, and it was not spoken out loud, but “these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah,” which would mean the second possibility is that Rebekah was told this by God, because God knows the thoughts of the heart, and He knows what is going on therein.  And remember that God had already spoken to Rebekah, as we saw back in Genesis 25, when the children struggled in her womb.  It said in Genesis 25:22-23:

…If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH said unto her, 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.

And she has seen this come to pass, as it had been worked out.  And God did speak directly to her, giving her divine revelation.  So this is a possibility, although it is not stated who told Rebekah the words of Esau.  And it was stated in Genesis 25 that it was JEHOVAH who spoke to her and told her the reason why the children were struggling within (her).

That is why I would probably go with the first possibility: Esau first said this in his heart, and it was sin in his heart that later was expressed through his mouth.  And that is very common for people to do, as the thought begins in the mind, and then later they act upon it and it becomes more sinful as they speak it.  More than likely, a servant heard and warned Rebekah.

Going back, it says in Genesis 27:41:

And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him…

We are given the reason why Esau hated his brother Jacob.  They had some encounters earlier over the birthright, and Jacob bought his brother’s birthright, and that caused some friction, but we do not read of hostility between them until this point, as far as I can see.  But now there is clear hostility.  Esau hates his brother Jacob, and God tells us the reason is because of the blessing.  And, again, we have that blessing defined, and the Bible defines it in Psalm 133:3: “…for there JEHOVAH commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.”  One received it, and the other did not, and this caused jealousy and envy which festered into hatred from the son who did not receive that blessing.  He now hates his brother.  This reminds us of the account in Genesis 4 regarding Cain and Abel.  It says in Genesis 4:3:

And in process of time it came to pass…

We went over this and looked at the Hebrew, and we saw that, literally, this says, “And in the end of days it came to pass.”  “The term “in process of time” can more correctly translated as “And in the end of days,” and that is important because, spiritually, God wants us to know that when the (issue between) two brothers, Cain and Abel, would come to the forefront (at the end of time), and Cain would slay Abel.  It is just as we saw with Isaac’s age of “120” and how that related to “12,000 years,” but, actually, “13,000 years” of history.  And “120” is “10 x 12,” and the number “10” is completeness, and the number “12” is fulness, so it is in the “complete fulness of time,” which brought us to 1988 and the 13,000^th year of earth’s history – it was the beginning point of the end stage of earth’s history. 

And do not be fooled by the fact that we are 30+ years beyond that point, because that is as nothing when we look at key events that take place in Biblical history.  Sometimes, something occurs 23 years after a major milestone in years is reached, like the flood being 6,000 + 23 years after creation.  And sometimes they occur 45/46 years after a major milestone has been reached, such as the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross in 33 A. D.  That point (33 A. D.) is 11,045 actual years from creation, or 11,046 calendar years.  Likewise, of course, the year 2033 is 13, 045 actual years or 13, 046 calendar years.  So we are right within the limits of allowable “attachments” of time to major milestones, so from creation to 2033 would be 13,045 years, and the “attachment” of 45/46 additional years has Biblical precedent with the first coming of Christ from creation.  So we should not think that since we passed the 23-year mark, as the year 2011 was 13,023 years from creation: “Oh, now we do not have to worry about that, and it is no longer a possibility.”  Of course, God’s elect do not worry about it, but God’s elect do not worry.  The natural man does worry.  But God’s elect would think, “Well, that no longer seems to be a possible, legitimate time path, so that is incorrect, but we are very much within the pattern that the first coming of Christ established.”  And this whole time period from 1988 to the present and all the way to 2033, according to Biblical evidence, is the end of the world.  The “end” began with judgment on the house of God beginning in 1988, lasting for 23 years to 2011, and then the second tribulation (the recompence of tribulation) on the world itself and Satan and his kingdoms for daring to stretch forth their hand against God’s anointed, as God is recompensing tribulation, and so forth.  We have laid this out before.

But in the “end of days,” we find that Cain rose up and killed his brother Abel, and we also see in this Genesis 4 account that it says in Genesis 4:4-8:

And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And JEOVAH had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And JEHOVAH said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

There was also an indicator in this account because the next thing we read is that Adam lived to be 130 and then begat a son in his own likeness, and he called his name Seth.  And that is another pointer to the end of time.  The number “130” points to the 13,000^th year of earth’s history, just like Isaac’s age of “120” points to the fulness of time.  So God is certainly doing everything He can to develop these historical parables to teach us that at the time of the end, there would be trouble between brethren or between brothers.  Cain and Abel were very close in the sense that thy were the first brothers we read about, and Jacob and Esau were twin brothers.  You cannot get any closer than having a twin.  And, yet, at the time of the end, Esau hates Jacob because of the blessing, as it said of Cain that at the “end of days,” Cain’s offering was rejected and his brother’s offering was accepted, and, therefore, Cain slew Abel.  Why?  We have looked at this, but it does not hurt to review, as it tells us in 1John 3:9-10:

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Notice how God is setting this up, with the distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil, and then we read of Cain and Abel in the following verses, in 1John 3:11-15:

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

It fits very well with Esau’s intent.  He purposed to kill his brother.  He hated his brother, just as Cain hated his brother, and it fits very well with God’s timeline of history at the time of the end of the world.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look a little closer at the spiritual setting of the time of the end, and how God does speak of brother betraying brother, and brother rising up against brother.  And it is all related to the fact that the work of one was acceptable (and the work of the elect is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ), but the work of the other is refused because it is his own work, just as Esau was carefully seeking the blessing with tears, based on his own efforts.  And he was rejected for it.