Jealousy eats Esau's lunch

The word Edom means ‘red,’ from the red pottage Esau sold his birthright for, saying to Jacob, “Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?”

Jordan explains, “What’s Esau interested in? Spiritual things or physical things? He’s just self-serving. He’s saying, ‘I don’t need anything from God. I’m sufficient for myself. I don’t need to be into what God has to do. I can lose God and I don’t lose anything. I can lose the birthright, the blessing, the Abrahamic Covenant—I can lose that and I haven’t lost a thing.’

“It says Esau despised his birthright. Now you go to Hebrews 12 and you learn he later on repents and had sought to change the deal. You know the story of his dad Isaac trying to bless him. Listen, Isaac knew who ought to have been blessed. He knew what the prophecy was and you know how mom comes in there and gets the blessing for Jacob.

“When God said He hated Esau, He’s talking about Edom, the descendants of Esau. It’s the contempt that Esau and Edom had for the Abrahamic Covenant; for the plan of God through Jacob.

*****

“Lot’s daughters commit incest and become pregnant by their daddy and when they do that, Genesis 19: 36-38 says, ‘Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
[37] And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
[38] And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.’

“When you go through the Scriptures and read about the Moabites, they were Lot’s incestuous children. Lot is Abraham’s nephew. Lot understood the Abrahamic Covenant and the blessing and made some bad choices and winds up with a bunch of kids, the Moabites.

“The Moabites settle in what we call central Jordan and the Ammonites in northern Jordan. So all that territory of Jordan is settled by Abraham’s kin folk and all of them hate him. They hate his descendants; they’re mad at them.

“If you go to Numbers 22, you find it’s the Moabite king Balak who hires Balaam to curse Israel. He’s trying to invoke the Abrahamic curse on Israel because he thinks he ought to have it himself.

“There’s this ancient hatred among all of Abraham’s family that’s aimed at Abraham’s descendants because they’re jealous of them; it’s because of the covenant promising those descendants . . .

“That long-standing strife and enmity--the Moabites and Ammonites were at war with Israel all along. It’s fascinating that Abraham’s descendants are literally surrounded by nations of people who are, to one degree or another, relatives and they all hate them with a perpetual hatred that goes all the way back to the Book of Genesis.

“This isn’t anything new and that’s why Israel in the land has always been hated by the people around them. It’s really a family feud. It’s jealously over the fact God selected Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes and that’s the seed line.”

*****

Here’s an explanation of the seed line:

“In Genesis, God says the Messiah’s going to be ‘the seed of the woman.’ Right there He eliminated half of the human race because of male and female. Then He says He’s going to be the seed of Abraham. One nation out of all the nations in the earth. See how He narrows it?

“But then when He says it’s going to be the seed of Abraham, it’s not going to be just any seed of Abraham. Abraham had a whole bunch of kids. Remember that? First he had Ismael, then Isaac. After Sarah died he got married again and had a bunch more kids. A lot of folks forget that.

“Well, God said it’s not going to Ismael and that other clan; it’s going to be Isaac. He narrowed it down again. Isaac’s got two kids, Esau and Jacob. He said of those two it will only be Jacob’s. Then Jacob has 12 tribes that come out of him, and God said of those 12 it’s only going to be the tribe of Judah.

“Then He says out of that tribe of Judah, it’s not going to be just anybody. As Isaiah 11:1 says, ‘And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.’

“Jesse is a descendant of Judah but now it’s going to be not just anybody out of Judah, it’s going to have to be somebody who descends from the family of Jesse. Jesse had a whole bunch of boys and it was only David who got chosen out of them.

“That’s why Matthew 1:1 says, ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.’

“If you look at Psalm 132:11, it says, ‘The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.’

“The Messiah is going to sit upon the throne, but when He does, it’s going to be the fruit of David’s body that He sits in. That’s why He’s called ‘the lion of the tribe of Judah,’ because that’s what David is.”

(new article tomorrow)