MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
REVISED - 2016
(PowerPoint slides used in this sermon are available at no charge. Just e-mail me at mnewland@sstelco.com with your request - #219.)
TEXT: Genesis 27:25 34
ILL. One day in school, Calvin, the precocious, smart-mouth kid of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strips, raised his hand in class. Warily, his bespectacled teacher, Mrs. Wormwood, asked, “You have a question, Calvin?”
Calvin replied, “Yes! What assurance do I have that this education is adequately preparing me for life in the 21st Century?” Waxing eloquent, he stood up & continued, “Am I getting the skills I’ll need to compete effectively in a tough, global economy?”
And dramatically ending his speech with a raised clenched fist, he proclaimed, “I want a high-paying job when I get out of here! I want opportunity! I want success!”
Approaching his desk & tapping it with her pointer, Mrs. Wormwood looked down at Calvin & said, “In that case, young man, I suggest you start working harder. What you get out of school depends upon what you put into it.”
Calvin responded, “Oh. Then forget it.”
Thankfully, not every child is like Calvin. Listen to this little poem:
"To get his good night kiss he stood beside my chair one night,
And raised an eager face to me, a face with love alight.
As I gathered in my arms the son God gave to me,
I thanked the lad for being good, & hoped he'd always be.
His little arms crept around my neck, & then I heard him say,
Four simple words I shan’t forget, four words that made me pray.
They turned a mirror on my soul, on secrets no one knew.
They startled me. I hear them yet. He said, ‘I'll be like you.'"
ILL. Fatherhood has changed over the years. I heard about a father being asked who was in charge at his home & answering, "Well, my wife bosses the children, my children boss the dog & cat, & I can say anything I want to the goldfish.”
A. Fatherhood may have changed a bit in our society in recent years, but I don't think God's perception of what the father is to be & do has changed.
So this morning I'd like for us to turn to the 27th chapter of Genesis, to the story of Isaac bestowing his blessing to Jacob. Of course, the blessing was intended for the oldest son, Esau. But through deception the blessing was given to Jacob instead.
As you may remember, Isaac & Rebecca had twin sons, Esau & Jacob, who were not anything alike.
Esau was an outdoorsman with hairy arms & hands & he loved hunting & fishing. Jacob was more of a homebody, & spent a lot of time with his mother.
In the 27th chapter of Genesis, their father, Isaac, has grown old & blind, & he decides it is time to pass on the blessing to his oldest son.
Now a Jewish father's blessing was a formal bequeathing of the father's leadership & authority in the family to his oldest son. And since the oldest son was to assume family leadership responsibilities, he also received a double share of his father's possessions. So the bestowing of the blessing was a very important event indeed.
In Genesis 27:2 4 Isaac tells Esau, "I am now an old man & don't know the day of my death. Now then, get your weapons your quiver & bow & go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.
"Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like & bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die."
B. So Esau leaves, & while he is gone, Rebecca, his mother, seizes the opportunity to secure the blessing for Jacob, who was her favorite. She quickly prepares some tasty food & tells Jacob to put on Esau's best clothes.
To help fool blind old Isaac, she puts goatskins on Jacob's hands & arms to make them feel hairy. Then she sends him in with the food to ask for the blessing.
Listen to vs’s 19-20, "Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up & eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.'"
Now Isaac was suspicious because Jacob's voice didn't sound like Esau's. So he asked, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" Jacob replies, "The Lord your God gave me success."
Continuing on in vs’s 21-23, "Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.' Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him & 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."
C. The blessing that was given is found in vs's 27 29. "So he went to him & kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him & said, ‘Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
‘May God give you of heaven's dew & of earth's richness an abundance of grain & new wine. May nations serve you & peoples bow down to you.
"Be lord over your brothers, & may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed & those who bless you be blessed."
After he received the blessing from his father, Jacob left. Shortly after, Esau came in with the game that he had killed & prepared, & was ready to receive his father's blessing.
Listen to vs's 33 34. "Isaac trembled violently & said, ‘Who was it, then, that hunted game & brought it to me? I ate it just before you came & I blessed him & indeed he will be blessed!'
“When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud & bitter cry & said to his father, ‘Bless me me too, my father!’”
ILL. Dr. Gary Smalley wrote a book entitled, "The Blessing." In it he examines the blessing that Isaac bestowed upon Jacob & he says, "The blessing contains 4 ingredients that ought to be present in every home today.”
“And when those 4 ingredients are present, & practiced consistently, then our children grow up solid, secure & confident of themselves, able to go out into the world & function normally."
But if those ingredients are absent in the home, then too often the child ends up like Esau, steeped in bitterness & anger.
PROP. So let me share with you the 4 ingredients of Isaac's blessing.
I. THE 1st INGREDIENT WAS A MEANINGFUL TOUCH
A. "The first ingredient," Dr. Smalley says, "was a meaningful touch." Notice vs. 22, "Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him." Vs. 26 says, "Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come here, my son, & kiss me."
Now this is not an isolated incident in scripture. Almost every time a blessing is bestowed in Hebrew culture, it involves touching the laying on of hands, a kiss, an embrace something that conveys acceptance & love.
The 10th chapter of the Gospel of Mark says that people brought children to Jesus so that He could touch them. Jesus took them & placed them on his knee, & laid His hands upon them, & the scripture says, "He blessed them."
Jesus knew exactly what children need to feel loved & accepted. So He touched them & blessed them.
B. It's important to do that in our homes, too. When children are very small you can't communicate love with words because they don't understand words yet. But the best way to communicate love to a very small child is by touching them, & holding them close.
Jacob was 40 years old when Isaac touched & kissed him to convey his blessing. No matter your age, personal contact – a handshake, a hug, a kiss, an embrace – is important to communicate love & acceptance.
So the first ingredient of the blessing was a meaningful touch.
II. THE 2nd INGREDIENT WERE WORDS OF AFFECTION & LOVE
A. The 2nd ingredient were words of affection & love. Listen as he blesses his son in the last part of vs. 27, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field. . ."
Now I suppose that today's child would not consider it a compliment to be told, "You smell like a field. I just wanted you to know that."
But to an old outdoorsman like Isaac, who thought he was speaking to Esau, the smell of a field about ready for harvest was a great smell. It was a compliment, a positive message that communicated his love.
B. You see, too often parents are quick to criticize & remind children of their mistakes. "You dummy, why did you spill the milk?" "You're lazy." "You're too fat." Words of criticism that really don't accomplish much. All they do is cause a child to withdraw.
I think there is room for constructive criticism. But it's more important to communicate love through words that say, "You're worth something. I'm glad that God gave you to us. You're better than any present I could ever receive."
Those are words that communicate acceptance & love. And they need to be spoken over & over again, even when our children stumble & fall. Don't wait until the last minute to do it.
III. THE 3rd INGREDIENT WAS ASSURING THEM OF THEIR VALUE
A. The 3rd ingredient of the blessing was assuring them of their value. Notice what Isaac says in vs. 28, "May God give you of heaven's dew & of earth's richness an abundance of grain & new wine."
He's saying, "You're special, so God will give you the best He has to give." And it is especially important to teach your children, "You're so valuable that God even came into our world & died on the cross for you."
But it's not just by words. We teach this in a number of ways. A lot of times when a child comes, we're so busy. We have one eye on the TV & one eye on them, & we can't concentrate on what they're saying.
So when a child comes to talk to you, turn off the radio or TV set. Lay aside the newspaper, & listen to what they have to say!
That communicates value. "You're worth something. You're more important to me than the ballgame or newspaper. You're a valuable part of our family. I'm glad God gave you to us. And whenever you have something you need to talk about, I'm here to listen."
IV. THE 4th INGREDIENT WAS PICTURING A GLORIOUS FUTURE
A. The 4th ingredient was picturing a glorious future.
In vs. 29 Isaac says to Jacob, "May nations serve you & peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, & may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed & those who bless you be blessed."
Isaac is helping him to raise his sights & see that his future is bright.
That is an important responsibility of parents, isn't it? We all know that passage in Proverbs 22:6 that says, "Train a child in the way he should go, & when he is old he will not turn from it."
We've always made a spiritual application there, "Teach them the things of God & when they're old they will not forsake them."
But there is another application. We're to help our children find their niche, discover who they are, & why they've been made. God made them special!
So as they're growing up, help them understand their gifts & talents, & what they're best suited to do in life. Counsel & guide them to become the kind of person God wants them to be.
B. And don’t make the mistake some make as parents by trying to get our children to become what we want them to be, instead of being what God made them to be. I wonder how many people have tried to force their children into becoming something God never equipped them for, or intended them to be.
Our responsibility as parents is to help them see themselves for who they really are, & to help them prepare for a glorious future.
SUM. I think this is the mortar that holds a family together A meaningful touch, words of affection & love, assuring them of their value, & picturing a glorious future.
CONCL. This morning, God is the perfect parent who has conveyed to us all the ingredients of His blessing in just one verse of scripture. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
ILL. I think you are all familiar with the parable that we call the “Story of the Prodigal Son.” Well, I want us to consider it again with a little different twist. Listen to the story in a modern setting as told by Philip Yancey in his book “What’s so Amazing about Grace?”
Yancey tells of a prodigal daughter who grows up in Traverse City, MI. Disgusted with her old fashioned parents whom she believes overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, & the length of her skirts, she runs away. She ends up in Detroit where she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen.
The man with the big car – she calls him “Boss” – recognizes that since she’s underage, men would pay premium for her. So she goes to work for him. Things seem good for a while – at least no one is trying to get her to change.
But then she gets sick for a few days, & it amazes her how quickly the boss turns mean. Before she knows it, she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, & all the money goes to support her drug habit.
One night while sleeping on the metal grates of the city, she began to feel less like a woman of the world & more like a little girl. She begins to whimper. “God, why did I leave? My dog back home eats better than I do now.” She realizes that more than anything in the world, she wants to go home.
Three straight calls home get three straight connections with the answering machine. Finally she leaves a message. “Mom, dad, its me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, & it’ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, I‘ll understand.”
During the 7-hour bus ride, she’s preparing a speech for her father. And when the bus comes to a stop in the Traverse City station, the driver announces a 15-minute stop - 15 minutes to decide her life.
She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. But not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There in the bus terminal stands a group of 40 brothers & sisters, aunts & uncles, cousins & a grandmother, & a great-grandmother to boot.
They’re all wearing party hats & blowing noise-makers, & taped across the wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads – “Welcome Home!”
Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares out through the tears in her eyes & begins her memorized speech. He interrupts her, “Hush, child. We’ve no time for that. No time for apologies. We’ll be late. A big party is waiting for you at home.”
This morning we offer God's invitation. A loving Father reaches down to touch us, speak to us, tell us how valuable we are, & help us see the glorious future that we have in Him.
If you have a decision to make this morning we invite you to come. We pray that you will respond as we stand & sing.
INVITATION
