AUGUST 25, 2024

Bible verse “GENESIS 27:1~4”

Sermon title "The Jacob’s life 3"

preacher Rev. Joshua Oh

 One thing to always remember when listening to the story of Jacob is that Jacob is the grandson of Abraham, who is called the ancestor of faith, and the son of Isaac, the seed of the promise. Jacob is the third generation in Abraham's household, meaning he was born into a devout family of faith for three generations. The question of what kind of faith and life of belief Jacob, the third generation in Abraham's household, lived is extremely important and serves as a significant guideline and model for the lives of all believers. This is because Korean Christianity is at a transitional stage, moving from the third to the fourth generation. Therefore, there must be many Christians who live according to Jacob's life. However, in reality, there are almost no Christians who live according to Jacob's life. No, there are none at all. No one expected that the identity of Christianity could collapse so completely within just three to four generations of the beginning of Korean Christianity. Believers who should follow Jacob's faith and life have completely and perfectly transformed into a Korean-style Christianity that is unprecedented in Christian history, corrupted by materialism, mammonism, success-oriented attitudes, disregard for life, and prosperity theology that views things like universal success and long life as God's blessings. The characteristics of Korean Christianity can be summarized in three points: triple blessing, fivefold blessing, and early morning prayer. It's also known as a country that sends out the second-largest number of missionaries in the world. That's it. So, does that mean Korea is a Christian country? Do people around the world know Korea as a Christian country? No. Korea is still known as a Buddhist country, a Confucian country, or a country that believes in shamanism and folk religions. On Buddha's birthday every year, the whole country is filled with lanterns, and in Mia-ri Ridge, there are hundreds of fortune-telling houses and shamanistic places lined up. There is no other country that adheres to folk beliefs as much as Korea does. On New Year's Day, people casually check their fortunes and do it as a hobby. Are you saying that only non-Christians do this? No, Christians are the ones who read their daily fortunes in fortune cookies. This is the result of no one teaching that living like Jacob is faith and belief. All people know is the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel by the Jabbok River all night and eventually winning and receiving an answer. So, they taught that we too should pray persistently, holding onto the throne of God until we receive an answer, just like Jacob, who wrestled with the angel and won, and so people prayed all night. And that was the end. "I prayed all night persistently like Jacob." That was the only thing to boast about. There's nothing after that. There's no interest in what kind of life Jacob lived after he won the wrestling match with the angel by the Jabbok River. Why? Because he never lived a life that would attract people's interest. If God had made Jacob's face shine like Moses' after wrestling with the angel, or if He had made everything Jacob touched turn to gold like King Midas from Greek and Roman mythology, or at least made him successful in all he did, allowing him to live a long and healthy life and giving him hundreds of times more blessings than Abraham or Isaac, letting him walk only on flower paths, then the story of Jacob would have become the legend of legends. Every Christian would have wanted to live like Jacob, prayed to be like him, and aspired to live a life like his.  However, as we will see, Jacob's life after wrestling with the angel by the Jabbok River and winning was, in a word, what today's youth would call a "complete failure" or "a life ruined beyond hope." He lived a life that seemed utterly ruined, as if this life was completely over. The book of Genesis records how Jacob lived a life of complete downfall over 24 chapters. It is the longest and most detailed account of any individual in the Bible. Jacob's life was one of continuous troubles without a moment to breathe. As a result, believers silently agreed to only think about and believe in the event where Jacob wrestled with the angel by the Jabbok River and won.  No matter how much we preach and talk about Jacob’s life after the encounter at the Jabbok River, no one listens or even wants to listen, so we only talk about the prayer at the Jabbok River and then move on to the story of Joseph, which people prefer. Why do people like the story of Joseph? Because he became the prime minister of Egypt. That’s why they like it—because he made a name for himself. It’s not because they want to emulate Joseph’s faith and belief; they just want to succeed like Joseph did. They don't pay much attention to how Joseph lived before he became prime minister. And why should they? He lived as a slave, a servant, and a prisoner, being sold off here and there—who would want to follow that example? Yet, they say that Joseph’s life before becoming prime minister was one of faith and belief.   When the Bible is not taught and conveyed exactly as it is written, but instead only the pleasing words and messages that tickle the ears are selected, people end up interpreting and reading the entire Bible through the lens of prosperity. This inevitably leads to a misunderstanding of the Bible. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 22:29, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." He said that they misunderstood the Scriptures because they did not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Moreover, in Mark 12:27, He said, "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are greatly mistaken." He didn’t just say they were mistaken; He said they were greatly mistaken. Here, "mistaken" does not mean the kind of misunderstanding we commonly think of. The word "mistake" here means that the essence has been distorted, misinterpreted, and misunderstood to the point of no return.   What does this mean? To give a simple example: A soldier is standing guard in the middle of the night, and he mistakes the approaching soldier for the enemy and shoots. The other soldier dies. It’s irreversible. Because he is dead. Can admitting the mistake and saying it was a misunderstanding bring the dead back to life? That might happen in movies or dramas, but in reality, once someone is shot dead, it's over, even if it was done in error. Jesus was talking about this very thing. He was saying that because the Jews didn’t know the Scriptures or the power of God, they misunderstood—meaning that their souls were dead. And by saying they were greatly mistaken, He meant that they were completely and utterly dead. From that point on, it is not enough to just try to understand. A dead soul cannot come back to life simply by understanding. A soul that has died because of misunderstanding the Scriptures and the power of God must be revived by someone else. And that someone is Jesus Christ. Only when Jesus revives a soul that is already dead can it truly begin to understand the Scriptures without misunderstanding. Misunderstanding the Scriptures is a serious matter.   Before Jacob wrestled with the angel at the Jabbok River, he misunderstood God’s Word, but after the wrestling, he began to understand it. So, the wrestling at the Jabbok River was not the end but the beginning of Jacob’s life of faith and belief. It was the beginning of his understanding of God’s Word. However, it is often treated as if it were the end, with a dramatic tone: "Just as Jacob wrestled with the angel in prayer at the Jabbok River, let us also pray through the night until the angel challenges us to wrestle." People pray fervently until their voices are hoarse, and then the next day it’s over. The only concern is receiving an answer—getting an answer to succeed, prosper, do well in business... But then what? How are they living their lives of faith and belief afterward? If there is no continuation, that’s not Christianity.   Jacob bought Esau’s birthright with a bowl of lentil stew. However, this was something only Jacob and Esau knew about. Isaac didn’t know that Jacob had bought the birthright with a bowl of stew, and even if he had known, he would have been furious, saying, "How can you buy and sell a birthright with a bowl of stew? The birthright is not a child’s plaything!" Though Jacob did indeed buy Esau’s birthright, that didn’t mean he was recognized as the firstborn by Isaac. He had to be recognized as the firstborn by his father, Isaac. Being recognized as the firstborn by Isaac doesn’t mean receiving some formal certificate of firstborn status; it means receiving the blessing prayer that only the firstborn could receive.   How could Jacob receive the blessing prayer meant for the firstborn from Isaac? Unless Isaac was suffering from dementia and couldn’t recognize Jacob and Esau, there was no way he would give the blessing of the firstborn to the second-born Jacob. That’s why Rebekah intervened to ensure that Isaac would give the firstborn’s blessing to Jacob. Rebekah is Abraham’s daughter-in-law, Isaac’s wife, and Jacob’s mother, but there is very little recorded about her. All that is mentioned is that she is the daughter of Bethuel, the sister of Laban, Abraham’s daughter-in-law, Isaac’s wife, and the mother of Esau and Jacob. It was this Rebekah who devised a scheme to help Jacob receive the blessing prayer meant for the firstborn. It wasn’t that Rebekah understood the significance of the birthright; rather, God used her for His   purpose. Perhaps Jacob’s cleverness in tricking Esau out of his birthright with a bowl of stew was inherited from Rebekah. After all, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree...        In today’s text, verse 1 says, "When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see..." As people age, they often develop presbyopia, causing their vision to deteriorate. Isaac’s presbyopia was so severe that he was nearly blind. Suddenly losing his vision likely made Isaac feel anxious, as if something could happen to him at any moment. Typically, the blessing of the firstborn would be given as part of a final blessing just before death, but Isaac, uncertain of when he might die, wanted to bless his firstborn Esau while he still could. So he called Esau and said, "Now then, get your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die."    There’s an old saying that "the walls have ears," meaning that secrets are hard to keep. And just as in the saying, Rebekah overheard Isaac’s conversation with Esau. Rebekah didn’t just overhear the conversation and think nothing of it. She had always favored Jacob, who stayed home more often than Esau, who was always out hunting. Genesis 25:28 says, "Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob." Even among one’s children, it’s natural to have a little more attachment to one over the others. Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed the wild game Esau brought home, while Rebekah loved Jacob, who stayed home and followed her around. Rebekah wanted the son she favored more, Jacob, to receive the blessing of the firstborn. She thought that if Jacob received the blessing, there might be some advantage in it for her as well. She likely thought Jacob would be a better choice than Esau, who was always out and about. After all, they were twins born on the same day, with Jacob holding onto Esau’s heel. She might have thought it didn’t matter much who received the blessing of the firstborn. So, while Esau was out hunting, Rebekah called Jacob and devised a plan to ensure he would receive the blessing instead of Esau.   Isaac favored Esau, while Rebekah favored Jacob, but because of this favoritism, Jacob ended up receiving the blessing of the firstborn. This was all part of God’s plan. It was God’s plan for Jacob to receive the blessing of the firstborn. Just as Jacob’s entire life was within God’s plan, we must believe that our lives are also within God’s plan. This is because God decided to love Jacob even before he was born. If God decided to love Jacob before he was born, do you think He would just say, "Live however you want" after he was born? No, God guided Jacob’s every step according to His plan, and He will do the same for us, guiding our every step according to His plan. We may be unaware of God’s plan as we live our lives, but whether we are in pain, sadness, joy, or happiness, we are living according to God’s plan. May we live today trusting in God’s guidance within His plan, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.