This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and Day 27 of our look through the book of
Genesis and so Chapter 27. And in Day 27, Chapter 27, we begin the story of
Jacob, full on. We've seen his birth, we've seen the beginnings of his life, but
now we're going to see the story of a man of faith and how he becomes a man of
faith.

Now it didn't start that way. Jacob, it's all in the name. Jacob's name means
schemer, and he schemed.

He cheated. He cheated for birthrights, he cheated for inheritances, for land.
We'd call him a man who cheated, but the end of the story is God calls him a man
of faith.

Hebrews 11, 21, we keep turning to Hebrews 11 because it's God's hall of fame of
faith from the Old Testament, and so many of these people that we're reading
about in Genesis make their way into that hall of fame of faith. Hebrews 11, 21
says, "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and
worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. " So it took him all the way
until that point when he was dying to be honored as a man of faith, but he was
honored as a man of faith.

In fact, I would say it this way. Jacob is a man who struggled his way to faith,
and as he struggled his way to faith, you really see four distinct phases in
Jacob's life and his relationship to God and relationship to people. Phases I've
seen in my own life and many other people's lives.

He starts with what I would call the bargaining phase or the scheming phase in
his life, and then he goes to the wrestling phase where he's really wrestling
with life, and then he goes to what I would call the limping phase or the
struggling phase of life, and then finally he ends up with the trusting phase of
life, the blessing phase of life. He goes from bargaining to wrestling to
limping to trusting. That's often how God works this.

We're going to see how this works the next two weeks. It begins with the
bargaining phase. In this bargaining phase, we see it most clearly in the two
things that Jacob bargains away from his brother Esau.

Last week we talked about Jacob stealing the birthright, bargaining so he could
get the birthright. Here in this chapter, Genesis 27, he steals the blessing,
his father's blessing. Let me share with you what happened beginning in verse 6
and reading down through verse 17.

"Rebecca said to her son Jacob, 'Look, I overheard your father say to your
brother Esau, bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat so that I
may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die. 'Now,'
Rebecca says, 'my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you. Go out to the
flock and bring me two choice young goats so that I can prepare some tasty food
for your father just the way he likes it.

Then take it to your father to eat so that he may give you his blessing before
he dies. ' Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, 'But my brother Esau is a hairy
man and I'm a man with smooth skin. What if my father touches me?

I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather
than a blessing. ' His mother said to him, 'My son, let the curse fall on me.
Just do what I say.

Go and get them for me. ' So he went and he got them and he brought them to his
mother and she prepared some tasty food just the way his father liked it. And
then Rebecca took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had in the
house, and she put them on her younger son Jacob.

She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with goat skins. And
then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread that she had made. "
You see what's going on here.

Esau may have sold his birthright. We saw that earlier. But here there's no
doubt that this blessing was the object of grand larceny.

It is stolen from Esau. And you saw it clearly, Rebecca, Rebecca, not Jacob was
the mastermind here. Now why?

Well, we find out, we find out in the earlier chapters that she loved Jacob. Now
I don't know if God's message to her that the older shall serve the younger
played into what was going on here. But obviously she is going about the right
thing the wrong way, trying to fool her own husband to trick a blessing out of
him.

Now you and I think how could that happen? How could you fool a blessing out of
somebody? They would just take it back.

In this day, and in fact throughout the Bible, they believe much more deeply in
the power of words than we do. And that tells me that I should believe much more
deeply in the power of words than I do. A blessing once spoken could not be
taken back.

Even if it was an error, it could not be taken back. That was how seriously they
took their words and the power of words. So Rebecca is the mastermind, but Jacob
is no shining example.

Not only does he follow along, he had a choice, but in verses 11 and 12 that we
just read, we find out his only concern, it isn't anything moral, his only
concern is, "But I might get caught. " Well, Rebecca convinces him. And so down
in verse 18, let me read verses 18 to 27, here's what happens.

He went to his father and he said, "My father, yes, my son," he answered, "who
is it? " Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as
you told me.

Please sit up and eat some of my game, that you may give me your blessing. "
Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son? " "The Lord your
God gave me success," he replied.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether
you are really my son Esau or not. " Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who
touched him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the
hands of Esau. " He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those
of his brother Esau, so he blessed him.

"Are you really my son Esau? " he asked. "I am," he replied.

And he said, "My son, bring me some of your game to eat so that I may give you
my blessing. " Jacob brought it to him and he ate, and he brought some wine and
he drank, and then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here, my son, and kiss
me. " So I went to him and he kissed him.

When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him. He gave him his
brother's blessing. The plan may have been his mother's, but the deception was
all Jacob's.

His lack of trust and fear lead him to an action that's going to affect his life
for the next 20 years. We should understand this, this scheming of Jacob to get
what God had said he was already going to give him. He schemes for what God said
he was going to give.

We should understand this because, in essence, we are a nation of schemers. We
all know what it means to scheme. I'll never forget a quote I read in U.

S. News, oh, it was years ago now, about America, America's religion. Here's the
quote, "If America has any national religion at all, it's not the Christianity
of its founding fathers, nor is it, as the cynics would have it, money.

It is rather the belief that we are each in full control of our own lives and
our own destinies. " That's us. We think we're in full control.

So because we think we're in full control, it's all on us, it's all on me,
instead of trusting God, we scheme. The shocking truth about what Jacob did
here, about what Rebecca did here, is they didn't have to. The thing that
bothers many of us about the story of Jacob is the fact that he got away with
this trickery.

At the end of the story, the blessing is his, and we think, how could God let
him do that? Jacob didn't steal anything here. He didn't steal anything that
wasn't already his.

We know from what God said when he was born that it was God's will for him to
have the blessing. Jacob knew that it was God's will, but he decided to achieve
it by human trickery. Why?

Because he had a lack of faith. He didn't trust in what God said he would do.
And the result, the result is that Jacob stole a blessing that certainly would
have been given to him.

God's will wasn't hindered here, but Jacob's lifestyle certainly was. He paid
for the way that he got this blessing, and family strife, and broken
relationships, and a bitter brother, and having to run away from the family. I
want you to hear this.

He paid for what God would have given because he felt more secure doing it his
way than waiting on God. Let me say that again. He paid for what God would have
given because he felt more secure doing it his way than waiting on God.

You see, God is a God who can reveal himself even in the midst of our struggles.
And that is the major truth that shines to the story of Jacob in Esau. Even
though Jacob struggled and did it this way, God was still at work.

So what about you? Do you struggle with life? God can reveal himself in the
midst of your struggles.

What about you? Have you schemed instead of waiting on God? I sure have.

I think we all have. Does that mean it's over? God can no longer bless you?

No. You may have to suffer some consequences, but God is still at work. You are
not perfect.

I'm not perfect. Jacob wasn't perfect. And yet God was still at work in his
life.

He's still at work in your life. But why bring that pain on us of trying to
control what God says is in his hands, of trying to get to ourselves what God
says he has already given? Let's take a minute to talk to Jesus.

And Jesus, as we talk to you, we admit that we recognize ourselves too often in
this story of Jacob. We want to be in control. We want to get it ourselves so we
can feel good about ourselves or because we don't want to wait on you or because
we don't trust you or help us to trust.

Help us to see that you are at work. Help us to know when you want us to wait.
Help us to know when you want us to move.

And help us to help us to obey you in both circumstances. Help us to be people
who, instead of scheming, Lord are trusting. Teach us, Jesus.

Show us the way. We ask this in your name, amen. Join us tomorrow.

We're going to get a real insight on how a schemer relates to God.