If everyone could turn to Genesis 25, I am going to begin reading in verse 19. Genesis 25:19-28:
And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac: And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated JEHOVAH for his wife, because she was barren: and JEHOVAH was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
I will stop here, but we will pick up a little later in verse 29.
We have here the account of Isaac and his wife Rebekah giving birth to twin sons: Esau and Jacob. God mentions both of these men often in the Bible. He also often uses them as types and figures in the Bible.
But before we get into this, I just want to point out that even though it says:
Isaac loved Esau…but Rebekah loved Jacob.
I do not think that this means that they did not love their other son, not necessarily. Maybe Esau had a special place in his father Isaac’s heart because they maybe had a little bit more in common, but I am sure that this does not mean that Isaac hated Jacob. And I am sure that because Rebekah loved Jacob, this does not mean that she hated her other son Esau. I do not think that God is saying that here. It is just that each one took a particular or maybe a little bit more liking or had more affection to the one son.
We can understand why Rebekah would feel a little bit closer to Jacob since God had told her the reason for the struggle that was going on within her womb, “Two nations are in thy womb…and the elder shall serve the younger.” God specifically told Rebekah this, and so she had in her mind that Jacob held a more special place with God than Esau. It then developed in her life, too, that she would look on Jacob a little bit differently.
As far as Isaac is concerned, let us go to Hebrews 11 where we will find a verse that tells us all that we really need to know about his feelings for both of his sons. In Hebrews 11:20, it says:
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
He was not partial. He was not showing favoritism. He blessed both of them with the Gospel, with the Word of God. He did this because God had given him information, the Scripture, to some degree, and he shared this with his sons. They were, therefore, both blessed.
This is a significant statement that God is making here because we know that Esau was never saved. God, however, tells us that he was blessed. He was blessed because he heard the Gospel, which warned him about things to come as well as all of the other information that God gives about eternal life and salvation. As far as all of this information, both sons were blessed.
This is also good instruction for any parent to bring the Gospel to all of the children. Whether they show some interest in the Bible or no interest in the Bible, we are to equally share God’s Word with them; and this is a blessing. Whether they realize it or not, this is a blessing that they are being warned, that they are hearing the whole counsel of God, that there is a potential, from our perspective, that the Lord could save any of them.
If we look at our children, yes, maybe they give us some indicators at this time as to whether or not they are saved, because we find that they are not listening many times to the Gospel as we share with them. We can also find that some seem very much interested and are maybe even afraid of some of the things that are coming out of the Bible at this time, and this is a good thing and a healthy thing. But still, we just share equally with them all, and then we leave it up to God because we do not know in our own family who is Jacob and who is Esau. I say this because God uses these two brothers, twin brothers—which is about as close as you can get to another person—to typify the saved and the unsaved.
In Malachi 1:1-4, the Lord writes:
The burden of the word of JEHOVAH to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith JEHOVAH…
By the way, “Israel” was also Jacob’s name. God changed his name from Jacob to Israel as an indicator that he would be a prince with God and that he had God’s blessing.
It continues:
I have loved you, saith JEHOVAH. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith JEHOVAH: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom JEHOVAH hath indignation for ever.
God uses Esau many times to typify the churches and the congregations and those who are unsaved within them. He uses Jacob oftentimes to typify His chosen people, His elect people, those whom He had predestinated to salvation from before the foundation of the world. God sets this up by saying that He loves Jacob and that He hates Esau.
With this, we find immediately that the teaching that is so widespread today in the church world—which is that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life—is wrong, or that God loves everyone, that God loves all people. They say this based on a misunderstanding of John 3:16:
For God so loved the world…
Well okay, so God loves the world, but that means that He must love everybody but Esau. Does God love everybody but Esau? No, no. Why would He particularly say that He hated Esau? Other people have done far worse than Esau ever did in his life. God is using Esau as a figure and a type of all of the unsaved people of the world. God hates you. I know how horrible this sounds, but the Bible says that God hates you.
He does not hate you in such a way that He would not send the rain upon you, because He “sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” He has many temporal blessings and good gifts that He gives to men and the children of men. He gives them good health at times and life and breath. Any good thing that one can think of in their life comes from God; it all can be traced back to God.
However, where it is most important is that the love that He has on Jacob is an everlasting love. It is the eternal love of salvation, of giving Jacob and His elect people eternal life, and He gave this to Jacob but He did not give this to Esau. He passed him by. He left Esau in his sins and all of those like him. In sin, we are under God’s wrath. He is angry with us and He is going to destroy us.
If we go to Psalm 11, we find a verse that you really do not hear much taught in the pulpits of the churches. It says in Psalm 11:5:
JEHOVAH trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Just like Esau, except now God is expanding it. He is indicating all of the unrighteous. He tries the righteous. He does not try the unrighteous, the wicked people. Instead, He hates them.
We would have to say, yes, we can see why, because God, in His fury and in His anger, is going to bring judgment on May 21 in 2011. At that time, He will bring about the torment of all of the wicked of the world for five months. Then on October 21 in 2011, He is going to burn up the world and the universe and all of the unsaved people.
This is not an act of love. This is an act of wrath. Why is God wrathful? He is a God of wrath because anger has been kindled in Him due to man’s sin, due to people’s transgressions of the Law of God. Therefore, God will judge them and He will destroy man. Man will perish because of this.
Let us also go to Romans 9. As we look at Jacob and Esau, we wonder why God made this choice. Why did He elect Jacob to salvation and why did He just leave Esau as he was, under His wrath? What is the reason? What did Jacob do right? What did Esau do wrong? What is the answer to this? God answers this in Romans 9 where we read in Romans 9:10-13:
And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder [Esau] shall serve the younger [Jacob]. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
We can see that what the Lord is saying is that this choice was made before they were born.
We can also look elsewhere, like in Ephesians 1, which says that this choice was made “before the foundation of the world.” This is when Christ died. He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The Bible also tells us that “the works were finished from the foundation of the world” that were necessary in salvation. All of the sins of His elect people, typified by Jacob, were placed upon Him at that time, before this world even began. He suffered and died as the Lamb of God and made payment for all of the sins of His people before He even spoke to create this world and this universe.
In discussing His choice in salvation, the Lord is using an example of twins, and you cannot get any closer than that. Yes, husband and wife are close; but as far as people being alike, twins are about as close as you can get because they are alike in appearance, they are alike in speech sometimes, and they are alike in actions oftentimes. Sometimes they can be very different, but twins are even practically born at the same time. Esau came out first, and then Jacob, grabbing Esau’s heel, came out second. We are not told exactly how long apart the births were, but they were probably pretty close together. They were very similar.
Also, they were newborn babies and neither had yet done anything good or anything bad in action. They had not sinned outwardly as yet, even though God tells us in the Psalms in reference to men, “They go astray as soon as they be born,” and that they are born “speaking lies.” And He is looking there at the heart of man because babies do not speak. Right? They can make a few sounds, but a baby will not speak for quite awhile after birth. And yet God says, “as soon as they be born,” they are born “speaking lies.”
Why does He say it this way? He says this because of what we read in another Psalm. It says in Psalm 14:1:
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God…
When does the fool make this statement and who is a fool? A fool is any unsaved person, so this applies to them as soon as they be born or as soon as they become an individual in the womb. They have a heart. God has given them a soul. In that heart of unbelief, a heart of stone that they have right away, they are already speaking. Evil is already flowing out of it in rebellion against God as they believe that there is no God.
As children grow, you begin to see this sin nature and that they do lie. As soon as they are caught doing something, they lie. If you ask them if they did that, they lie and point to their brother or sister when they really did do it. They do this because they are a liar.
This is what the Bible says about us. It is not very positive and it is not something that we would like to admit, but the Bible says that all men are liars, “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.” We are all liars, naturally-born liars. This comes out often in our life. God is the only One who is true. His Word is true and faithful, but no man is.
So before they had done any good or evil of themselves in any action, they were already sinners. They were already under the wrath of God from the time that they were in their mother’s womb, because sinners beget sinners and the Bible tells us, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” Before they had done any good or evil, God made a selection—and He chose Jacob. He did not choose him because he was more obedient. He did not choose him because he was more faithful. He did not choose him because he was good looking. He did not choose him because he was charming. He did not choose him because of anything in this world. The only thing that the Bible tells us in regards to God’s choice in saving people is that it is “according to the good pleasure of his will.” He is a merciful God and He decided that Jacob would be one of His elect, but not Esau.
This is God’s privilege. He is God and King. As King, if He has a million rebels in a dungeon and He decides to pardon one based on His own good pleasure, then that is His right to do so. It is His right to do this. No one can say that this would be a wrong thing to do. No one could say that He is being unjust or unfair.
God says this in the following verse of Romans 9. We read in Romans 9:14-15:
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
This is His sovereign right, is it not? The only thing that someone could say to try to accuse God and to try to make it seem that He is being unfair and unjust is, “I deserve to be chosen. I deserve for You to choose me. I deserve for You to elect me to salvation. I deserve to be saved.”
Do we? Does anyone? Absolutely not! We all deserve death, “For the wages of sin is death.” We are all sinners and we all deserve to die and to perish. We deserve whatever God’s justice deems necessary in payment for sin. Whatever God’s Word says that the punishment for sin is, that is what we deserve.
I can use an example that I have used in the past of the fallen angels. The fallen angels rebelled against God and they sinned. Did God make any provision for salvation for any of the fallen angels? Not even one? Well, is that not fair? Who says that this is not fair? Who says that it is not fair that God did not provide any means of salvation for Satan and the demons? God did not die for any of them. He did not take their sins upon Himself. Is anyone going to say that He was not being fair or that He was not being just? Who says that?
No one says that! Who cares about the devil and the fallen angels! Why do we not care? Why do we think that they are getting their just desserts and that it is a righteous act of God to destroy them forevermore? Why do we think this? We think this because of what they did. We see their sin. We see how evil it was for Satan to tempt man and to get man to fall into sin and all those who were with him. It is a just thing that we really feel when we say, “Let God destroy them forever!”
But we are just as sinful. We are just as rebellious against God. If we could step back away from ourselves, we would see that if it is just for God to destroy the fallen angels, it is also just for Him to destroy every single human being in the same manner. Actually, no one could complain and no one would have the right to say that this would be unjust. This would be very just, and yet God in His mercy and in His love and in His grace decided to save some, perhaps as many as 200 million people out of the whole sum of mankind. He mercifully took their sins upon Himself and paid for those sins and redeemed those people in such a way that we can only say that God is a great God of love and mercy, even though He does reserve the right to have mercy upon whom He will have mercy.
Therefore, as we know that time is short and that the Day of Judgment is near, none of us should go to God pleading our own merits, pleading that we deserve anything, pleading that He should save us. Maybe we do not say this with our own words to Him because we are wiser than that—we are a little bit smarter than that because we hear these things—but maybe in our hearts and in our actions, after we have besought the Lord and He did not answer after one minute, we get up and we are in a little bit of a snit that God did not hear us, as though He should have, as though He was obligated to, as though He must have mercy on us!
You see, that is not a humble approach to God. We really have to recognize that we are the condemned criminal and that we are guilty, that we are in the dungeon and that there is only one way out, only one way of salvation, which is through the great love of God through Christ, and that it is possible, because we do not know whom God saved or did not save, that we might be one of those elect, that we might be like Jacob.
So we can go to God very humbly, like a prisoner. Even today prisoners on death row are permitted to write a letter to their governor. What do you think would happen if the governor was to get a letter from a prisoner who said, “Look, I have been on death row awhile now. This is my tenth request for a pardon and you have not answered me! But you must pardon me! You must!”? Well, the governor would throw that letter into the trash.
But is this the way that we are to approach someone who has the power and authority to set you free, to deliver you? In earthly terms, would anyone dare do that who had any common sense and understanding of the way that this system in this world operates?
No, most prisoners are smarter than this. They write a very humble letter, “I see my wrongs. I know that what I did was not right and I have cried a thousand tears over it. If it could be, if it might be, governor or president or whoever, please pardon me. Do this only because I have heard that you are a merciful governor.”
You see, this letter may also be refused, but at least the governor would read this. He would not just rip it up right away. He would take a look at that letter and possibly consider it. And we know that God is gracious and merciful. This is why we “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Let us go back to Genesis 25. I will start reading in verse 29. Genesis 25:29-30 says:
And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
In the Bible, the Edomites or the descendants of Esau have several names. For example, they are called Edom, Bozrah, Mount Seir or the children of Mount Seir. God gives them several names. These names normally represent the unsaved people in the corporate churches.
I will read verse 30 again. It continues in Genesis 25:30-34:
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
I will stop reading there.
Have you ever made a bad deal in your life, a bad transaction? Have you ever been almost swindled in a deal? How about those of us who have bought used cars: have you ever gotten a really bad used car? I have and it does not feel good when you have exchanged something of greater value than what you get back.
I remember on the tract trip to Brazil, I had American dollars but I needed some Brazilian money. There was a place right where I was that was very convenient, and so I made the exchange. Then a little later on, I saw another place that was giving a much better exchange rate and I felt like I had gotten gypped. I had this nagging feeling that I had gotten gypped.
Now, that was on a small scale, and yet I think that this has happened to most of us with certain things in life. We also know from history that some American Indians had sold Manhattan to settlers. An estimation of how much they had sold it for would be about twenty-four dollars. It is, of course, worth a lot more today, but they sold it for trinkets that they estimate were worth about twenty-four dollars.
You see, one thing that happens in transactions with people who wind up getting cheated is that they sometimes fail to consider the future concerning these kinds of transactions. As the Indians looked around at Manhattan at that time, all they saw were a bunch of trees and grass. They could not see anything that was really worth anything. They hunted and they fished and they were not really landowners anyway, plus it would not be until the future when developments began to take over that Manhattan would become a very big piece of real estate in the United States.
There was also another transaction between the American government and Russia in the nineteenth century over Alaska. At the time that America bought Alaska for 7.2 million dollars, which we would have to say was a lot of money for that day, the newspaper writers thought that we had gotten the bad end of the deal. The man who engineered this deal was named Seward and they called it “Seward’s Folly” because he bought a frozen wilderness for 7.2 million dollars. Well, Alaska is worth trillions of dollars today.
The issue is the future. The purchase at that time did not look too good, but there was a future time when the value of that transaction, of that exchange, really increased incredibly. Everyone could then see what a wise thing it was for America to have purchased the territory of Alaska, which became one of our states.
In the Bible, God also speaks of you and me in a way that is like a transaction, as far as salvation is concerned. For instance, if we go to Matthew 16:24, it says:
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Let us just think about this for a second because God does not hide from us the truth about the Christian life. Taking up one’s cross is not a pleasant thing. It is really an affliction to take up the cross. We are afflicted. The Bible tells us, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” and “that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” We are going to be looked down upon and despised and lowly. In the world’s eyes, we will be as nothing. This is how the world views someone who brings the Gospel message.
So God is saying that this is the situation. If we follow Him, as He has stated many times in other places in the Bible, there is eternal life, eternal joy, eternal happiness, eternal peace, for ever and ever and ever, into eternity future: tremendous and abundant blessings that are beyond our ability to understand in the least.
On the other hand, in this life, you are going to have trouble. It is not going to be easy. You are not going to be loved. As a matter of fact, the more you abundantly love, the less you will be loved.
Jesus is pointing this out and being straightforward in Matthew 16:24. Then in Matthew 16:25-26, He says:
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Here is the deal. Here is the trade. This is the bargain, or is it? You see, this is how our life is like a transaction, much like we find with Esau who had the birthright. It was his. He was the firstborn and the firstborn was to receive a double portion of the inheritance.
So, yes, having that inheritance sounds good, and yet Esau was starving. He was just starving and that soup smelled good, “That soup smells good and my conniving brother will give me a bowl if I give him my birthright.” Who knows; maybe he even made a joke of it. We do not know what his mindset was. We only know that Esau agreed, “Take it,” because to him it was not of much value.
It is the same when God says to follow Him and to take up our cross and that the child of God is saved and has life eternal. We can see now, at this point, that this does not appear too valuable in the eyes of the world. They cannot see it. They cannot measure it. They cannot prove it. Therefore, it is lowly and esteemed. It is not given too much weight at all. But the things that the world can see—the things that we can feel and touch and sense in this world—are given much more weight, even if it is just a bowl of soup, even if it is just a bowl of porridge. Yet God tells us that in this exchange, we could even have the whole world, not just a bowl of soup, but the entire world, the whole world.
Would you not like to be a billionaire? Who would not mind having billions of dollars? Most people look at billionaires and they just feel a sense of desire, “I would like to have all that. I would like to have all of that money!”
Well, what God has done is that He has told us in many places that we are not to desire the things of the earth, the things of this world. No, you are to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” We are to desire eternal life.
When most people are asked if they would desire to be like some billionaire and have all of those houses and jet planes and the respect and honor of the world, they really would long for this; that is until that same billionaire woke up one morning and hopped out of bed, tripped over a shoelace that he forgot to tie, tumbled down the steps and lay at the bottom with a broken neck. Of course, they rush him to the hospital. They know that he is one of the richest men of the world, and so they give him the best care possible. However, he just cannot survive, and so the doctors give him a day or two to live.
Who would want to be in his shoes then? Would you want to be that billionaire then? He still has all that money. He still has the clothes. He still has the jets and all the things that are his. Everything is still his, but would you want to place yourself in his shoes when he is lying in a hospital bed with about 48 hours to live?
No, you would not. Why not? Because you understand that in 48 hours he is going to die and that whatever he has and whatever possessions he owns will be gone. He cannot take them with him. He cannot enjoy them any longer. They are removed from him forever.
As a matter of fact, in the day that he dies, the Bible tells us, “in that very day his thoughts perish.” He lost his soul. It was a dead soul, but now it is gone forever because it ceases to be. It is an “everlasting destruction,” and that billionaire now knows nothing of his life. He now knows nothing of his memories. What he accumulated in wealth and in riches is all gone. He now knows nothing of them and everything will now go to others, just like Solomon says, “And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour.”
So where is the billionaire the better? When we know that a man like this is also going to die, we realize that money and valuables and the things of this world are not important. The only important thing is a relationship with God, to have our soul. Our soul is valuable. It is very valuable, is it not? Do you really believe this?
Let us go to Proverbs 20 where we will find an interesting verse that I was thinking about. Let us see if you can see what I am seeing here. This is a proverb of Solomon, as God moved Solomon to write this. In Proverbs 20:14, we read:
It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer…
“Naught” means “nothing.” The buyer is saying, “It is nothing!” By saying this, he is lowering the value of what you want to sell to him. “It means nothing to me. Who is going to even want something like this? How am I going to make any profit on something like that? It is nothing, nothing, nothing,” saith the buyer.
However, then notice what it says:
…but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
This is because he tricked you. He got the better part of the deal. He put down in your eyes as low as he could whatever it was that you were selling because he wanted to make more money on it. He knew the worth of it; and so through his bartering, he got you to practically give it away for nothing. Then when he goes his way, he starts boasting and rejoicing.
Have you ever been on the good part of a deal where you sold something and got much more in return than it was really worth? Most of us have and we do tend to tell others about it. We tend to share when we just got a really good deal on something.
That is what this is, but who is this buyer? And is this buyer being truthful? Is he being honest? No, he is deceitful and a liar. He is a liar, is he not? He knows the value of what you want to sell, but he is saying that it is worthless and that it is nothing. He is a liar who wants to purchase something from you and he is willing to lie to get it.
What did Satan say to Eve in the garden? Let us go back to Genesis 3. We read in Genesis 3:1:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which JEHOVAH God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
First of all, he is trying to bring doubt into the mind of Eve about the Word of God.
Then we read in Genesis 3:2-4:
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
That is a lie. It was an absolute lie! Jesus called Satan “a liar, and the father of it,” because here he was lying to Eve.
What was Satan going to get out of this by lying? What was Satan going to get? At that point, what would man lose if Eve and Adam sinned? What were they going to lose? They were going to lose their souls.
There is an exchange going on here. Satan is lying. Right now, they have a wonderful relationship with God, a perfect relationship, a good relationship, and there is no indication that they would ever die if that continued. God, of course, would continue to bless them; but if this transaction continued—and it is already at the point of tragedy—then Eve and Adam will lose their souls, and Satan is lying to them.
First of all, we read what Eve says in Genesis 3:3:
…Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Then we read in Genesis 3:4-6:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And they died, spiritually. They then became subject to the second death, and it has been all misery ever since.
Now here we are at the very edge of the end of the world. We are now below 500 days left before Judgment Day. We are at day 497. In another week, it will be 490 days left. In answering one of the disciple’s questions about forgiveness, Jesus said to forgive “until seventy times seven.” This is how long we are to forgive. Therefore, in literally one week, we will have 490 days for God’s people in this world to actually exercise, by God’s grace, forgiveness to our fellowman.
In saying this, Jesus was actually referring back to the book of Daniel and its seventy sevens, which go all the way to the end of the world. That is how long Christians are to forgive. We are to forgive every day until we are out of this world, until God takes us out of the world.
Here we are with a few short days remaining and the question really has to be asked: what are you selling your soul for? How much are you going to get? What is the transaction worth? What is it? What are you getting? What is it that you just refuse to part with, to turn from, to give up, to repent of? What is it? What sin is it in your life that you think is worth more than your own eternal—excuse me, unsaved man’s soul is not eternal—but more than receiving the gift of God of everlasting life? What is worth more than that?
Some people just think—well, they do not think; they do not want to think about it—but really, how can you think that anything in this world is more valuable? It must be that there is a deceiver. It must be that there is a deceiver in your life who is convincing you or has convinced you that what you possess in your soul is worthless, that it has no value, that it is naught. “It is naught; it is naught,” saith the buyer—and the buyer is a liar and the buyer is taking you captive at his own will and you are in the dungeon of sin. Your own iniquity has you wrapped about like cords, and Satan is the ruler.
So here we are approaching this day and some people just really try to quiet their conscience about the transaction that many people, to some degree, are aware of that they are making where they are choosing the world and its pleasures rather than suffer afflictions with the people of God, as Moses realized when he said, “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” Moses saw the worth of the exchange. But unsaved man is willing to give up any possibility—it is not guaranteed—but any possibility of salvation and eternal life in exchange for what?
What did God say in Ezekiel? He said, “For why will ye die?” He tells us, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” and then He asks that question, “For why will ye die?”
You will die for TV, for searching on the computer, for drinking, for smoking. What? What is it? What is it that will not let go or that you will not let go of?
We see with Esau what a great tragedy it was even though he did not realize it at the time. He went out from the presence of Jacob and that empty bowl of pottage feeling just fine. He was not troubled then. It did not bother him. He made that lousy exchange and gave up his birthright for a bowl of soup, but it was not until later that he became bothered.
If you go to Genesis 27, we will not get into this whole story, but Rebekah encourages Jacob to put on animal fur in order to give the appearance of being his brother Esau. Then Jacob goes in and receives the blessing because Isaac is not able to tell that it was Jacob and not Esau, the one whom he intended to bless. It says in Genesis 27:30-38:
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
He wept because he was now impacted by the decision that he had made earlier to sell his birthright. Now he was losing the blessing of the firstborn and he was weeping.
If we go to Hebrews 12:16-17, it says:
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
What can we say? Esau now realizes what he did not realize earlier.
When are the people of the world going to realize that in exchange for their souls, they received nothing? They received that which is worthless. Anyone who thinks that the American Indians got the bad end of the deal does not understand just how bad a transaction it is that mankind makes with their very souls.
What day will it be when people will realize this? It will be on May 21 in 2011 after the door of salvation is shut, which was the only way to have gotten into Heaven. There will be no salvation for that five-month period. At that time, the people will realize this. They will not be able to avoid this fact because they will have witnessed the resurrection of the dead, earthquakes the world over, and God’s people having been raptured who are still alive at that time.
At that point, everyone will understand and see with their physical eyes that the Bible is true, the Word of God is true, and now there is just terrible heartbreak. How God puts it is “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It will be like the bitter cry of Esau who was blessed “concerning things to come” by his own father Isaac. Isaac informed them both “concerning things to come.” One, by God’s grace, entered into Heaven, while the other was left to cry and weep.
What a horrible thing it will be for five months for those who have heard these things and known these things! They are not going to forget it on May 21, or for however long they live thereafter. They are going to remember. Just like we can remember things now, they will remember what God has said and the tracts and all of the preaching. It is going to be in their minds, and that will be the biggest cause of torment for those left behind.
Let us close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us advance information and for letting us know what is soon to come. Father, we all have allowed sin into our life easily. It has easily beset us. Father, we pray that You would give us a hatred of sin, an abhorrence of evil, that we would not be deceived by the lie that tells us that the value of the thing that we are desiring and the pleasure that it can provide is far greater than our own souls. Father, may we understand. May You give us wisdom and eyes to see the truth that the real valuable thing is to do things Your way and to seek Your salvation and to let go and avoid and run from anything that would get in the way of this. Father, we pray that You would be with us the rest of this day, that You would bless Your Word and open up a door of utterance for the Gospel. As we go out into the world, we ask that You would bless Family Radio as it is broadcast into the world. We pray for the people of Somalia, that You would open a door there to the oppressed, to Your elect. We just pray that You might open a door so that they can hear the Gospel. We pray also for everyone at Family Radio, that You might bless them and their families. We pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.