Sermon Tone Analysis
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1
Love Builds Up
Genesis 28:1-22
20211128
Hopeless in our flesh but overflowing with hope in God
Introduc)on
Where we begin today is captured well by Paul’s statement that knowledge puffs up but love builds up (1 Cor.
8:1).
I say this because acLng upon knowledge – knowledge gained in unceremonious fashion has brought the
Isaac and Rebekah household to a place of uPer devastaLon.
No one in their right mind could look at where
the family is upon Jacob’s exit and say – “There that is the family model I want to uphold!”
No way!
The husband and wife – relaLonship has some major issues.
Rebekah has manipulated and deceived her
husband while leading her youngest son down a most dubious path.
Isaac is unable to see but that doesn’t
mean he lacks the ability to discern what has happened – last week he clearly declared to Esau that Jacob had
come in deceiZully and taken away the older brother’s blessing (27:35).
The blood is boiling over and Esau is
ready to kill Jacob.
The Hi^te daughter-in-laws now are a convenient excuse to get Jacob out of town quickly.
I even think both
Isaac and Rebekah saw this an expedient way to get Jacob out of the threat range of Esau as he fumed in his
anger.
This is why I say Paul captures what is going on well – knowledge puffs up but love builds up (1 Cor.
8:1).
Everyone in the Isaac and Rebekah house has a bit of knowledge they are operaLng from – completely puffing
up - while no one is aPempLng to build up in love.
What we want to learn from our study is that the pursuit of what we want in and through the power of our
wits and cunning most definitely doesn’t lead to a building up in love.
God, as he jumps directly into Jacob’s life
pushes through the nonsense and declares reality.
God states plainly that Jacob is the one to take on the
Abrahamic promises and he does so in a declaraLon of grace.
Again, Paul states, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I
hated (Ro.
9:13)” – quoLng the OT prophet Malachi (Mal.
1:2-3).
It is without a doubt that deceiZulness, cunning, using our wits, accumulaLng knowledge are a constant threat
to our relaLonship with God and with others because we use these human devices to control our
environment.
1.
How many Lmes have you thought: Just one more Lme and then I’ll stop?
That is deceiving yourself.
2. How about: They will never know that I got my way at their expense because I’m more aware and they
are just too dim to see it?
That is cunning.
3. How about relying upon your wits to get you out of trouble?
Thinking fast and peddling what needs to
be heard in order to deflect what is headed your way – using your wits.
4. My nemesis: accumulaLng knowledge.
Thinking if I can figure out what is really going on I can make
myself and others aware of what is happening in any given situaLon.
The challenge with this is no
amount of accumulaLng knowledge is enough and also it plays right into the major lie of our current
age that peddles content in an unending torrent.
2
When I take a step back from all of this and when you take a step back from these tendencies that we are
prone to.
I mean really stop what you normally do and take a step back.
This allows our focus to change.
And it
changes for the bePer!
For when we take a step back, we can ask the most fundamental quesLon – Where is
God at work?
What is God up to?
Then, friends, we have the privilege to turn to him and away from our fool
hearted aPempts to control our environment using deceit, cunning, our wits, or through the accumulaLon of
knowledge.
Now – as God grabs ahold of us, the long-term tendencies of our life don’t always just melt away
but rather through the process of sancLficaLon, which can be quicker in some areas but slower in others, we
are morphed into the man or woman God is calling us to be.
In the passage today elements of all that I have just shared are present but the inescapable and most
capLvaLng aspect of the chapter is not the human, not the human at all - but the divine.
God enters into
Jacob’s life, the heavens are opened and the angels can be seen ascending and descending, and God simply
declares what he will do.
What we witness is mercy over merit.
Jacob clearly doesn’t deserve the favor of God but that is what he gets.
God’s choice is for Jacob.
No maPer how much deceit or conniving or jockeying for posiLon has happened nor
does it maPer how much will happen for surely God knows our heart and is indeed greater than our heart (1
Jn. 3:20).
So, though the consequences of his acLons remain for all the fallout is surely just to Jacob’s south but
the eternal purposes of God are advanced.
This leaves us hopeless in our flesh but overflowing with hope in
God - dependent upon God’s grace and it is towards this end that we will see God’s word takes us.
Going
through this passage, engaging in the study of God’s word we want to end up: Hopeless in our flesh but
overflowing with hope in God.
Outline: Knowledge Puffs Up vv1-11 – Love Builds Up vv12-22
Knowledge Puffs Up (vv1-11)
1. I’ll contend that Isaac and Rebekah recognized they had a real problem on their hands.
a. Jacob has, with the help of his mother, cheated Esau out of the patriarchal blessing that Isaac was
intending for his oldest son.
b.
AddiLonally, the wives Esau has taken have been a real source of consternaLon for the family.
i.
So, what is lem to do? Get Jacob out of sight!
Simply move the problem to a place where he
cannot be seen and maybe just maybe in Lme the result will be peace gained for the family.
2. vv1-2 “Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife ....””
a.
This is what I mean by moving the problem further away.
An expedient soluLon is taken up for back
in Gen 26:34-35 “When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the HiBte to
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