Abraham’s Blessing Is Passed On

Text: Genesis 25:1-34

I. Abraham Dies, Leaving Behind Nations (vv.1-18)

1. vv.1-6 is a summary of additional descendants from Abraham.
   1. Yet, the main point of this passage comes in vv.5-6, as we are specifically told thatIsaac is especially chosen among all Abraham’s other children.
      1. Not just Ishmael, as we’ve already seen, but among Keturha’s sons as well.
   2. To mark this special status, while Abraham ‘gave gifts’ to his other children and sent them away, Isaac alone was Abraham’s heir.
2. vv.7-11 after 175 years, Abraham’s remarkable life comes to its conclusion.
   1. Though these verses record Abraham’s death, the emphasis here is on Abraham’s blessed state. God was faithful to him to the end: Abraham died an old man full of years.
      1. He is buried by his sons Isaac and Ishmael, with his wife Sarah, in the one piece of the Promised Land that he owned during his lifetime.
   2. In v.11, emphasis is specifically put on the fact that, after Abraham’s death God blessed Isaac his son. God continues his redemptive purposes, and his faithful to his great promises, even after Abraham has passed off the scene.
3. In vv.12-18 although it is made clear in this chapter that God’s special blessing and Promised Seed only apply to Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob after them, it is also made clear that God’s blessings on Abraham were so abundant that they overflowed to anyone associated with him at all.
   1. Not only did Keturah’s children become great peoples, Ishmael also (as was promised in Ge 17:20) becomes a great nation. This is extraordinary!
   2. Even given the exponential growth of most people’s family trees, it is not normal to become the ancestor of multiple, distinct nations!

II. Esau and Jacob Are Born (vv.19-26)

1. In v.19 we run into another major internal chapter break: ‘these are the generations of Isaac…’ It will mark another sizable section of Genesis, lasting from here in Genesis 25 all the way through Genesis 36—a total of 12 chapters!
2. vv.20-21 We find that Isaac & Rebekah, like Abraham & Sarah before them, had trouble conceiving children.
   1. Although v.21 may sound relatively simple: Isaac prayed for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer. But this simple statement represents a huge trial in Isaac and Rebekah’s life.
      1. We see in v.20 Isaac married Rebekah when he was 40 years old, yet we are told in v.26 that he was 60 years old when she gave birth to the twins Esau and Jacob.
   2. v.21’s simple statement summarizes 20 years of barrenness and prayer, before God granted the answer to Isaac’s prayer!
3. vv.22-26 contain one of the most striking assertions in the Bible of God’s sovereign, uncounseled, unconditional will being worked out in the world.
   1. When Rebekah finally conceives, she feels the twins struggling with each other in her womb. When she asks the Lord, ‘Why is this happening?’, God answers: ‘Two nations  will come from the two twins in your womb, and they will wrestle with each other.’
      1. However, unlike what we would expect, the oldest child and his descendants will serve the younger child and his descendants.
   2. Sure enough, in vv.24-26 when Rebekah gives birth, Esau comes out first, but the younger twin is grabbing his heel and so is named Jacob (which lit. means ‘heel-grabber’ but implies he is a ‘deceiver/usurper/cheater.’)
      1. Though Jacob, as we will see even in this chapter, is a subtle schemer, God had chosen him to be Isaac’s heir and Esau’s ruler before Jacob was even born!
4. Paul famously references this very passage when he, in Romans 9, argues for the sovereign right of God to do whatever God wishes to do, with whomever He chooses to do it. (Rom 9:7, 10-16).
   1. If you are not familiar with this teaching from Scripture, then there is no better place than here in Genesis 25 to be introduced to it: God does whatever he wants to, saves whom He wishes to, has mercy on whomever He chooses to!
   2. However, this teaching does not stand alone in Scripture. It is balanced by this complementing truth: God does not randomly, willy-nilly condemn people.
      1. Every person that suffers the judgment of God deserves that judgment: God is not only sovereign, He is also just. That is why his sovereign choosing is not described as ‘condemning whomever he wishes to’, but ‘having mercy’ on whomever he wishes to.  
   3. The fact is, we all have fallen short of God’s perfect standard; therefore, God could justly condemn everyone. However, instead He has sovereignly chosen to have mercy on some who deserve judgment.
      1. We see both balancing sides of God’s sovereignty—that God only and always condemns those who deserve it, and yet has mercy on some despite what they deserve—in the verses that close out this chapter…

III. Esau Despises His Birthright (vv.27-34)

1. vv.27-28 describe the respective personalities/interests of Esau and Jacob.
   1. And they record the sad fact that there is distinct favoritism/tension in the household, as Isaac plainly prefers Esau and Rebekah sides with Isaac. This sets us up for the further interactions we will read about in chp 27 later.
2. vv.29-34 tell the almost inconceivable way in which Esau and Isaac trade places in regard to inheriting God’s blessings to Abraham, then to Isaac.
   1. Consider how much waiting/suffering/faith-testing took place in Abraham and Sarah’s life as they obediently pursued God’s Promised Land and Seed.
      1. Yet Abraham’s body is barely cold in the grave before his grandson Esau is willing to  sell all of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants… for a bowl of soup, after one afternoon of hard work!
      2. But don’t we see a similar short-sighted tendency in our own lives also?
   2. Just as strikingly, we also see that Jacob definitely is not chosen to receive God’s special blessing, to be in the line of God’s Promised Seed, because Jacob is so noble or deserving or admirable. He is in fact the very deceiver/cheat/usurper his name suggests! God must have mercy if Jacob is to be saved!

Conclusion

The same is true of you and me today. Our only hope is the intervening grace of God. Our only hope is that God will pierce thru the layers of selfishness, of self-justification, of short-sighted pleasure-seeking—and draw us to himself in love, in spite of ourselves.

1. We need for the very God whose blessings and promises we have despised, to change our hearts and save our scheming, deceitful souls.
2. Will you trust in Jesus Christ today? Or will you despise the amazing blessing of knowing of God’s redemptive plan, and instead trade it in Esau-like to satisfy temporary hungers here on earth, instead continue Jacob-like in your efforts toward cheating God out of the salvation that only those in Christ by faith truly deserve?