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[0:00] We are looking at the subject of the origin of the extreme, actually irrational hatred that exists in the Mideast and has existed for 5,000 years.

[0:16] I must confess that as much as I have emphasized in my ministry here with you the importance of these covenants and the Abrahamic covenant, how God covenanted with this man to bless him and his descendants in a special way, no one has believed that more than yours truly.

[0:42] But I must confess that as a result of this study and as a result of this book that we are using for kind of like a base text, I have gained a new appreciation for exactly what is incorporated in that Abrahamic covenant.

[0:59] And I guess I kind of knew it, but I didn't realize the implications as much as I have come to realize them just as a result of this study.

[1:12] And we're talking about going all the way back to the book of Genesis and the situation involving Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.

[1:23] We've already discussed that somewhat in connection with their in connection with our first study. But let me just craft this in a few sentences, if I can, and see if I can highlight again the importance of this.

[1:39] This is the only promise that God has given, to my knowledge, that is designed to provide blessing, ultimately blessing or ultimately cursing, depending, for the entirety of the world's population.

[2:04] We are talking about an event that set in motion all of the future blessing and the basis for it that is to come upon the earth.

[2:18] And that includes the millennial reign of Christ. This thing is absolutely huge. It is first mentioned in Genesis chapter 12.

[2:29] We won't go there because I know how familiar you are with it. When God called Abraham, come to a land I will show you. I'll make your name great. I'll give you seed, etc. And in you, all nations of the earth, and you and in your seed, all nations of the earth will be blessed.

[2:47] This is intended to be worldwide. And when Abraham gets a handle on that, I think he is so overwhelmed that despite the fact that God has given it to him personally, he finds it hard to believe, to comprehend.

[3:10] This is why God confirms the covenant two more times to Abraham, as if he was flagging in his faith and he needs to be shored up.

[3:24] What God is telling Abraham is, you, Abraham, are going to be the key for the future blessing of the whole world.

[3:36] And the reason for that, of course, is because through Abraham, the Messiah was to come as a direct descendant. But it will not only be Jesus Christ, it will be other descendants of Abraham as well.

[3:54] It will involve the 144,000 during the tribulation period. It will involve all 12 of the tribes as they are ministering and involved in the millennial period.

[4:04] It is going to be worldwide in scope. And it all began with this one incident. This thing called the Abrahamic covenant.

[4:16] It is absolutely monumental. I know dispensationalists have a particular appreciation for this. That, for instance, historical revisionists and those who espouse replacement theology, who think the church has taken the place of Israel, etc., they do not see this as nearly as important as we do at all.

[4:44] In fact, they figure that it's pretty much passé. But we see the implications of it as being yet future in so many ways. It's already been fulfilled partially just through the coming of Christ, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the salvation that he extends.

[5:01] That is in large part a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. But that which God is yet going to do through the person of Christ and through the descendants of Abraham that will be a blessing for all of the world is just absolutely incredible.

[5:19] In Exodus 19, and I think it's around verse 7 or 8, something like that. God said through Moses, I am going to make Israel a nation of priests.

[5:36] Well, they never have been. They never have been a nation of priests. They have been a nation that had a priestly tribe, the tribe of Levi.

[5:49] But insofar as Israel being a nation of priests to all of the other nations of the world, that's never happened.

[6:00] But you may be sure that is going to happen. And it too will be part of that Abrahamic covenant. Because the Abrahamic covenant predates the covenant that God established in Exodus chapter 19, where he made that promise through Moses.

[6:19] So this thing is absolutely enormous. And it all begins with this one man. And when God told him his seed would be the basis for the blessing of all the world, Abraham was thinking, that's great.

[6:39] But I don't have any seed. I don't even have one child. And here you're talking about me being the father of a multitude and the father of nations.

[6:49] I would be thrilled to death with just one child. Just one. I don't even need a multitude. Just one. And then when Sarah continued to go childless, they came up with this scheme, which was acceptable in accordance with their culture.

[7:09] If your wife doesn't bear you a child within seven years, it is perfectly acceptable to go in to a handmaiden and impregnate her and claim the legal right to that child.

[7:26] And the mother would be able to claim legal motherhood of that child. And, you know, when God told Abraham that he was going to have a son or he was going to have a child.

[7:40] He didn't say, you and Sarah are going to have a child. He said, you are going to be the father of a great nation.

[7:53] He didn't say anything about Sarah. He does later. But originally he didn't in chapter 12. So, Abraham, I would think, would have automatically been living along the lines that eventually Sarah is going to become pregnant.

[8:13] But as time went on and she didn't, Sarah came up with the idea of his going into Hagar. Now, I just want to point out something to you here because this is very, very subtle.

[8:25] And to me, it is really interesting that God did not prohibit Abraham from doing that.

[8:38] I would have thought, now this is just a Wiseman opinion and this is looking at it from a human standpoint. I, if I had been God, you know what I would have done?

[8:51] When Abraham was preparing to go into Hagar's tent, I would have said, uh-uh. Cool it, Abraham. This is not what I had in mind. You just stay faithful to Sarah and eventually, in my good time, she will bear a son.

[9:07] But God didn't do that. Why do you suppose he didn't? I'm dying to hear your answer. Because I don't have one.

[9:19] Why do you suppose he didn't? You don't know either, do you? I'm sorry, I can't hear you.

[9:32] I said, I think when we're impatient and we decide to, you know, control our destiny, you let us do that. Yeah. Well, that's as good an answer as any I've got.

[9:46] I've made much of the point in the past that God has bestowed volition upon us. And very often, he does not preclude our use of it.

[10:02] He does not prohibit our use of it. He allows us to exercise that volition, sometimes in ways that's detrimental, even to our own well-being.

[10:13] And that was the case here with Abraham. And when Abraham and Hagar got together and produced this child, Ishmael, I want you to look at the text here.

[10:28] In Genesis chapter 20.

[10:46] Well, where are we? Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee.

[10:58] Where is that? And God said nothing to him. Well, come on.

[11:12] Come on. Thank you.

[11:29] I didn't think it was back that far. It isn't back that far in my other Bible. Yeah. 17 and verse 18.

[11:43] Yeah. Abraham said, look at verse 17. Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Will a child be born to a man a hundred years old?

[11:53] And will Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. Now, do you know how old Ishmael is at this time?

[12:07] He's about 12. And do you know what Abraham is telling God? Hey, forget it.

[12:18] I'm satisfied with Ishmael. That's okay. That's okay. Because Ishmael was still his son.

[12:30] But I want you to note, What is God saying in an indirect way when he tells him, No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him.

[12:57] This is the same covenant that he had with Abraham. What he's saying is, The covenant will be perpetuated. It was merely begun with you.

[13:08] It isn't going to end with you. It is going to continue with all of your progeny. And as I gave this covenant to you, I am going to extend it and confirm it with your offspring.

[13:22] But, he will be an offspring of yours and your wife's. This is an indirect, subtle way to me that God is saying, One man for one woman, one husband, one wife, it makes a big difference who the partners are.

[13:48] God could have said, Well, that's okay. A baby is a baby. A child by Hagar will be just the same and will serve the purpose just as well as a child by Sarah.

[13:58] No, it wouldn't. Because God would have been sanctioning going outside that bond. For this cause, a man leaves his mother and father and cleaves to his wife, and those two become one flesh.

[14:18] I think that is just hearkening all the way back to the Genesis 3 thing. And now, Abraham is telling God, You don't have to do this. I don't have to have another.

[14:31] Ishmael will do fine. He'll do fine. Oh, that Ishmael might live before. God said, No. My original plan is still in place. And you just need to get with the program.

[14:42] And each time Abraham messes up like this, God brings him right back again to the same point and gives him another occasion to trust him all over again.

[14:55] And out of this incident, now here we've got, I trust I'm not just reading between the lines here, but I think that this is really, really valid.

[15:08] Let me ask you a couple of questions, and you think about this. Do you not agree that Sarah knew about this covenant that God made with her husband?

[15:22] The promise of a child? And how this would turn out, that their seed would be a blessing to all of humanity.

[15:33] Do you think Sarah knew that? Or do you think Abraham just kept it to himself and never told her? She had this moment.

[15:44] Of course. She made this arrangement. Yeah, of course. Of course she knew it. I'm sure that Abraham and Sarah talked about it. They probably talked about it often. Because God had made no such commitment with any other human being, ever.

[16:00] And here he singled out Abraham. Can you not imagine how Abraham must have felt about that? Can you not imagine how many times Abraham must have said, Why me?

[16:15] How did I get picked for this? This all started back in Ur of the Chaldeans, when he was moon worshipping, like all of his kinfolk. And God called him out of that culture, and away from those people, so he wouldn't be influenced by them anymore, into a land that I will show you.

[16:34] I am confident that Abraham and Sarah knew about it very well, and very thoroughly. Now let me ask you another question. Do you think Hagar knew?

[16:47] Do you think Hagar knew? Do you think Hagar knew? Do you think Hagar knew? Do you think Hagar knew? Do you think Hagar knew? And, let me follow that question with another question.

[17:05] If Hagar didn't know, what do you suppose she thought about Abraham and Sarah's insistence that a child be produced?

[17:21] Why would that have been such a big deal? I think she did know. I think she knew full well. I think Abraham may have told several people.

[17:36] We are not told that he did. But neither are we told that it was some kind of a big secret that he kept. I mean, this would give you bragging rights that wouldn't quit. This would be incredible.

[17:48] God had singled this man out for this kind of honor, this kind of blessing, and he includes his wife in it, and now all they have to do to activate this covenant and get the ball rolling is to have a baby.

[18:02] But they can't. So, enter Hagar and Ishmael. Now, another question.

[18:12] Do you think Ishmael knew? Hagar knew, Ishmael knew.

[18:26] Ah! If Hagar knew, Ishmael knew. Mother, son. She would see the importance of this, and do you know what she's thinking?

[18:45] My boy, Ishmael, is going to be part of that. But he wasn't going to be part of that.

[19:01] God never said that he was going to be part of that. God said the offspring of you and Sarah going to be part of that.

[19:16] And remember, when Hagar produced a child, how did her attitude toward her mistress, Sarah, change?

[19:27] The text says, she was despised in her sight. Hagar, the word despised, literally means to look down your nose at.

[19:41] It's exactly what it means. It means to hold in contempt or disdain or disrespect. And here, she is perched in the catbird seat.

[19:55] And here is poor, old, barren Sarah with nothing to show but an embarrassed face. And Hagar is saying, I gave Abraham a son.

[20:13] What have you given him? The rivalry set in. She started backtalking her mistress, being disobedient to her mistress, almost as if she was sliding into the number one position and was going to displace the woman of the house.

[20:31] And Sarah didn't take very kindly to that. They had a big row over it. And she goes to Abraham and says, ever since that boy has been born, Hagar has been impossible to deal with or to get along with.

[20:49] I don't know what I'm going to do. Abraham, you've got to do something about her. And Abraham says, Honey, the ball's in your court.

[21:01] She's your servant. You do with her as you please. Well, you know, sending her away. And then God came to her and told her after she had left, after she had run away from her mistress, God said, go back to Sarah and establish yourself there again.

[21:19] I am going to make a mighty nation of Ishmael. And this, of course, will be the Ishmaelites.

[21:31] Guess who the Ishmaelites are today. And Arabs in particular? Saudi Arabia.

[21:43] where the Saud family is the royal name. And this is, these people are the descendants, the direct descendants of Ishmael.

[21:57] and they are also known as Midianites because Midianites, not all Midianites, all Midianites were Ishmaelites, but not all Ishmaelites were Midianites, that kind of thing.

[22:09] So, this is a very ancient people. Now, we've got a situation where a bitter kind of resentment starts welling up 4,000 years ago in the mind and heart of Hagar and Ishmael toward Abraham and Sarah and Isaac.

[22:35] And when Isaac is born, by this time, Ishmael is 14 years old when Isaac is born. Now, that's quite a distance. And we are told that Ishmael is going to make a scene when Isaac is weaned.

[22:54] How old are babies today when they are weaned? About a year?

[23:06] Roughly? Well, they weren't weaned in this culture until they were sometimes as old as five and six years of age.

[23:19] Still at their mother's breast. And when it came time for Isaac to be weaned, we are told that Ishmael ridiculed him.

[23:30] Ishmael made fun of him. Ishmael insulted him. Ishmael, you know, a typical big brother thing, only this was not a normal big brother, little brother kind of rivalry that ordinarily exists in most households and everybody just figures it's part of the territory and you kind of overlook it and it's part of growing up.

[23:51] But this had an extra special dimension to it because all the while there was in the background this promised blessing that had been, they thought, that had been snatched away from Ishmael.

[24:06] It wasn't snatched away from Ishmael because it was never given to him. But that's not the way they interpreted it. Now, how would have been the best way for them to have handled that situation?

[24:21] Think about that. Abraham, Sarah, get together, they sit down with Hagar, and they say, we owe you an apology.

[24:37] And the reason we owe you an apology is because we thought God would honor Abraham coming in to you and you producing a child, and the child being our legal heir, but that wasn't what God had in mind all along.

[24:54] And you know, it is our fault because we jumped the gun on this. And instead of being patient and waiting for God to fulfill his promise, we took matters into our own hands, and you were impregnated by Abraham, and you have a son, and I'm sure that you're very happy with your son, but he was not the intended heir.

[25:17] Isaac is. I don't know that such a situation ever took place. It probably didn't, but it probably should have because, in point of fact, they did owe her an apology, but one was not forthcoming.

[25:36] And had they done so, Hagar may have been able to swallow her pride and say, well, you know, we all make mistakes and do dumb things, and I understand that your intention was good, and you didn't mean anything malicious, and you were just trying to accommodate the situation in the best way you can, and it's okay.

[26:01] I have a son out of this. I love Ishmael very much, and we will make a life for ourselves, and we will go on. Thank you very much. But that didn't happen either.

[26:15] Is there anything reminiscent here about her attitude and about the attitude of Ishmael that goes back even further that you can think of, maybe with some other siblings?

[26:33] Pardon? Cain and Abel. First two siblings in the world. And what was the problem there? Jealousy.

[26:46] Because Abel's sacrifice, Abel's offering, was accepted of God, and Cain's was not. Now, we can debate about the blood offering or the blood sacrifice as opposed to the vegetation or whatever it was he brought from the fruit of the ground.

[27:11] But there's a lot bigger problem than that, I think. And that is this. Cain simply disregarded the requirement that God made for the sacrifice and in doing so, he cast aspersions on the sovereignty of God.

[27:35] God's sovereignty means that he not only has the power, but he has the right to rule over all that is his. And they cast aspersion on the wisdom of God.

[27:49] Because Cain obviously was of the opinion that he ought to be able to bring the sacrifice that he wanted to bring, and God should accept it and look upon it with favor, just as he did Abel's.

[28:02] But he didn't. Now all this is, is nothing more than an occasion of a human being super imposing his will upon the will of the Almighty and saying, God should be reasonable and do it my way.

[28:18] There is a kind of built-in arrogance there, and a resentment. So he lashed out at his brother. Envy, bitterness, anger, hatred, jealousy, all of those things wrapped up, led to murder.

[28:41] Now we've got the same kind of attitude that is being fostered in Hagar and Ishmael, and they are going to telegraph that to each succeeding generation.

[28:58] And as the generations come, and the generations go, everyone is going to be made very, very familiar with the low-down, rotten, dirty deal that Ishmael got.

[29:15] But it wasn't that at all. That was just their spin. That's the way they interpreted it. And this venomous hatred is going to set in and be perpetuated.

[29:27] it's going to show its ugly face in the next generation because Isaac is going to marry Rebecca.

[29:40] And Rebecca is going to have twins. Two nations, God said, are in your womb.

[29:53] And, and listen, this is really important. God said, two nations are in your womb. Of course, he's talking about Jacob and Esau.

[30:04] And then he says, and the older will be subservient to the younger. father. What does that mean?

[30:17] In that culture, it means this. It means the second son is going to have the position of the first son. And the first son is going to come in second.

[30:33] God told Rebecca that. Do you suppose Rebecca told Isaac? I'm quite sure she did.

[30:48] I mean, it would be hard to believe that she didn't. Then these boys grew up, and by the way, Esau, you know, was the firstborn.

[31:00] And I would have liked to have seen that. I am convinced based on what the text says and the name that he's given. I think he came out with a big mop of red hair.

[31:13] Big thatch of thick red hair. He's going to have the nickname all through his life, Esau, which means red.

[31:28] He's going to be called Edom also, and he's going to settle in the land of Edom, which today is southern Jordan, down where Petra is.

[31:39] and this boy took to the physical, he took to the hunt, he was good at it, he became his father's favorite, and Jacob became his mother's favorite.

[31:56] Already we have got a formula for disaster, because when parents play favorites, everybody loses, and that's exactly what's going to happen here.

[32:10] Isaac is going to favor this boy, and no doubt, he's going to dote on him so much that this automatically throws Rebecca into more interest for Jacob, because she probably sees Jacob as being slighted by the father who is doting on Esau, so she's trying to even things up a little bit for Jacob, and Jacob becomes the mama's boy, and Esau is the hunter, physical, viral, energetic, I wouldn't be surprised if Isaac didn't punch him on the shoulder and say, hey, how's it going, big red?

[32:56] He was his guy, and he would go out and hunt the game and bring home the kind of game that his father really liked, and he could almost count on him bagging whatever he went after and bringing it home for the dinner table, and I can just hear Isaac beaming or see him beaming and bragging on his son Esau, he's got all of these capabilities, and we all know the story about the pottage and the stew when he came in from the field one day.

[33:28] Jacob, the mama's boy, was in the kitchen. Probably had some chef characteristics about him, and he was stewing up this pot of pottage, and it was called red stew, and he smelled that and said, give me some of that, and I'm famished, I'm starved, haven't eaten for two days, I've been out in the field, blah, blah, blah, and Jacob says, well, what's it worth to you?

[34:03] What do you mean what's it worth to me? I'm hungry, give me something. Sell me your birthright. What? Your birthright. Now, what was his birthright?

[34:15] His birthright, culturally, was that of the firstborn, because he was born first. He automatically became the heir apparent to the father and to the father's estate, so that if anything happened to the father and there were other children, the number one son always got a double portion of everything before anybody else got anything, and he was the one who carried on the family name, he became the new patriarch, he had all the responsibilities, the privileges, the honor, and everything else.

[34:52] That was his birthright. Jacob said, would you be willing to relinquish your birthright for this delightful aroma?

[35:11] This thing has been cooking for six hours and I've just brought it to perfection. Esau says, you know, I don't really care about this birthright business.

[35:26] Give me a dish of that food. Yes, you can have the crummy birthright. And that was it. What does that say about Esau?

[35:39] It says he was a man who was completely given over to appetite. He was a man who operated with misplaced values.

[35:53] He was a man who had little or no respect for spiritual realities. Do you think that Isaac and Jacob had any knowledge of the Abrahamic covenant?

[36:10] I'll bet you they were steeped in it. I'll bet you they heard of their father talking about it and telling about it and how God appeared to their grandfather Abraham or the Chaldees promised them Hagar came along and then Ishmael and then God made good on his promise when I was born Isaac says.

[36:31] And he's recounted all of that to them. This whole business was front and center. I am confident that it was as big as any family emblem could possibly be.

[36:44] and Esau completely discounted it. No big deal. He may not have even believed it.

[36:58] He was willing to arter it away for this mess of pottage. And we are told in Hebrews 11 that Esau and here also in Genesis that Esau despised his birthright.

[37:14] That means he looked down on it with contempt disregarded it. No big deal. And he was willing to hand it over. And all that indicates is that he had no spiritual value at all.

[37:28] And no respect for the birthright and the privilege that was passed on to his father. No respect for his grandfather having received this.

[37:38] And no respect for the God who was behind it all. So, I must confess that in connection with reading this book by Joe Salas that we're dealing with with Israel Stein, I never, I never saw the connection of anything good about the deception with Rebecca and Jacob how Isaac was blind and feeble and about to die and he calls his son Esau in and he says, I do not know the day of my death.

[38:27] Well, what does that mean? None of us usually knows the day of our death. But what he really meant and what he was saying is this, Esau, I could die any day.

[38:39] That's what he meant. I could be gone any day now. And he was 180 years old. Abraham lived to be 175. Esau says, I could die any day.

[38:52] And you know what I would really, really like? And Esau said, just name it, dad. What is it? He said, man, if you could go out and kill a deer and bring me a dish of the venison the way you always fix it that I've enjoyed all through these years.

[39:21] You know, son, it just might be my last meal. Well, Esau is eager to please and he goes out in the field and he is successful and, but something is stirring and Rebecca is listening and hears all of this conversation and she is determined to intervene.

[39:46] And before, I had always looked upon these two. Rebecca, and Jacob as real deceivers.

[39:58] Well, we know Jacob was a deceiver. He's going to turn out to be one too. And I thought, man, his mother is teaching this boy a bad thing.

[40:09] They're going to deceive poor old Isaac. Here's this old man infirm and blind and on his deathbed and just about to cash in his chips and here they're taking advantage of him and tricking him and sending in this other son and trying to make him believe that it's Esau and it's really Jacob.

[40:29] And they make up this cock and bull story and put the lamb skin on his arms because Esau was hairy and Jacob wasn't. And I was pretty disgusted with that pair.

[40:47] But believe it or not, I've come to completely reverse my position. Rebecca was doing the right thing. And Isaac was doing the wrong thing.

[41:03] Isaac was determined to pass this blessing on to his favorite son. And that was not the son that God had chosen.

[41:15] That God said, God said the younger, the older shall serve the younger. Now, here's where this plot thickens and this is where it gets difficult for us to put a handle on.

[41:26] What's the big deal about this blessing? So, he gives the blessing that he intended for Esau, he gives it to Jacob. But what's the big deal about the blessing?

[41:40] All the old man did was lay his hands on the head of his son, thinking that it was Esau, and really it was Jacob, and he pronounces a few words of blessing over him, and they are in the text.

[41:59] And Jacob leaves with the blessing, and in from the field comes Esau. And Esau comes up to his father and says, here I am, dad, got the game, got it all fixed and ready.

[42:20] Esau? Is that you? Well, well, what, who, what's, what's going on here?

[42:32] Are you, are you Esau? Well, if you're Esau, who, what? And he is distressed. He is beside himself. he thinks he has made a major blunder.

[42:46] Now, given our practicality in the western world, we would treat that by saying, hey, Isaac, no big deal.

[42:58] Your heart and your intention was to give the blessing to Esau. You just go ahead and give it to Esau. Forget about what you did with Jacob. Doesn't matter anyway.

[43:09] It won't count for anything. because you were tricked. That's the way we would look at it. And I think it would probably seem pretty justifiable. But there's a big problem here.

[43:22] And that is the mid-eastern culture was not formulated in the United States. It was formulated over there. And their way of doing things and their methodology and the value and the meaning of it is completely different from what we would assign to it.

[43:40] And when he put his hands on Jacob and gave him that blessing in the language of heaven and in the Mideast culture and the way these people regarded that thing, that was a done deal.

[43:56] And the fact that it was dispensed on the wrong head and the wrong son was no difference. It stays. It is fixed.

[44:08] It cannot be changed. And Esau is distraught and he is angry. And one of the reasons I think he is angry is because he saw Jacob as having already tricked him into selling his birthright, but did he?

[44:32] No! Who was to blame for the surrender of the birthright? It was Esau. He didn't have to give it up. And this business about, oh, if I don't have something to eat, I'm going to die.

[44:47] Sheer nonsense. He wasn't going to die. All Jacob did was take advantage of his brother's impetuous weakness.

[45:01] And Esau caved. Esau is one of the most unprincipled men in all of the Bible.

[45:12] He was your original secularist. Esau was a classic materialist. And a materialist has no value for the spiritual.

[45:26] That was the difference. Jacob put great value on the birthright. That's why he wanted it. He put great value on the perpetuation of the Abrahamic covenant.

[45:40] That's why he went after it. And when Rebekah told him, and do you think Rebekah didn't tell Jacob? Jacob, God told me when you boys were in my womb that the older would serve the younger.

[45:58] You're the younger Jacob. That means that God has destined Esau to be your servant. Wow. Now this is real family intrigue stuff.

[46:11] I mean this really strikes right at the heart of envy and jealousy and all of these things are coming down in this family situation. Now there are a couple of other verses here. I just want to share this with you before I let you go.

[46:24] The first one is in Genesis 20 26 verse 34 when Esau was 40 years old he married Judith the daughter of Berai the Hittite and Bessemeth the daughter of Elan the Hittite and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

[47:15] Who were these girls? Who were these two daughters in law? They were Canaanites. These are the people dwelling in the land 450 years later when Joshua is bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt back to the land and Joshua is told you are not to intermingle with the Canaanites.

[47:44] Don't give them your sons and daughters and don't take their sons and daughters because they will turn your people away from serving me to strange gods. Well that's exactly what happened.

[47:55] And these Canaanite girls brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah and I'll tell you exactly why. They had a different value system. This is why believers are not to be married with unbelievers because they come from two different worlds.

[48:11] They have different value systems. And look if you will at chapter 27 and verse 46 the plot continues to thicken. I tell you we've got some real family intrigue going on here.

[48:23] This thing would make a great soap opera. Imagine what Hollywood could do with this. 27 and 46 Rebekah says to Isaac now this is after Esau has already taken these two Canaanite daughters.

[48:45] These Philistines is what they are. They're Philistines. These are the ones that David is going to go into battle against and that Israel is going to be battling against.

[48:57] And we read in verse 46 the last verse and Rebekah said to Isaac and this is after Esau is married. I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth.

[49:11] If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these from the daughters of the land what good will my life be to me? She's saying if my other son Jacob marries the kind of girls that Esau married I'd just as soon be dead.

[49:31] It's exactly what she's saying. I'd just as soon be dead. And they are daughters not only are they Canaanites but they are Hamidic.

[49:44] They are not from the line of Shem they are from the line of Ham. They've got a different ancestry and a different mindset entirely. And what we're talking about here is oil and water.

[49:58] And they are simply not going to mix. So this kind of animosity and bitterness is going to be ongoing and we haven't even talked about what is going to happen between Esau and Jacob but Jacob is scared to death because he knows that Esau wants to kill him.

[50:17] And when Isaac died when Isaac died we are told that Esau comforted himself with this thought.

[50:31] Think of this. The text says that he comforted himself. It means that he dwelled on this and it made him feel better.

[50:44] You know what it was? it was the intention that he had in his mind when he says we're going to have a period of mourning for my father and when it's over I'm going to kill that Esau B.

[51:08] That was his intent. I'm going to kill him. this is Cain and Abel all over again. This is Isaac and Ishmael all over again.

[51:22] And mother Rebecca gets wind of it. She goes to Jacob and she says listen your brother has evil intent for you.

[51:36] He intends to take your life and if you don't get out of here and leave he will do it and then he will have to forfeit his life and I'm going to be deprived of both of my sons.

[51:53] Now she's already lost her husband. Isaac is dead and she talks Jacob into fleeing and you go back to the land from which your grandfather came.

[52:07] she's sending him all the way back to the land that Abraham originally came from Ur of the Chaldees and said try to find a nice girl back there because the girls around here are not for you.

[52:27] And you know something? That's exactly what he does and he ends up burying a cousin which was quite acceptable in that day and the beat goes on so this thing is just really getting underway.

[52:43] It is a soap opera is it not? I tell you it's just amazing the intrigue that goes on and you can just see the foment and the differences and the animosity that exists between these people and you know what?

[53:00] When they start having children and grandchildren they are going to transfer all of this attitude to them it is going to be instilled it listen the Hatfields and the McCoys it's a Sunday school picnic compared to these people it is it is incredible we'll pursue this a little bit more yes Barb I just came upon in Genesis 28 9 it says Esau went to Ishmael and Mary so it was Ishmael's descendants that he married into yes uncle Ishmael yeah and you almost wonder you almost wonder if it wasn't an intentional dig at his mom because he knew you can be sure he knew how much she disapproved of those daughters and he's saying well I'm and remember he is all the while thinking that she was in on this thing that caused the blessing to be to bypass me and go to her favorite son and so if she is really upset because of the daughters from Canaan and

[54:17]  Ishmael marrying them guess where I'm going to go looking for a wife right back to the same place and he dropped in on Uncle Ishmael and said hey Unc is there any really cute chicks around here or something like that maybe it lost a little in translation but that's precisely what he ended up doing and and boy he really got himself into a bad way too well let's close with a word of prayer father we see these things in scripture that sometimes completely escape us in just a casual reading we just don't understand what's involved we don't see the intrigue that's developing and yet when you look behind the scenes you can see human nature is the same everywhere and the responses are predictable we are grateful for this time to share it together and we pray that you'll use this to extend our knowledge and our understanding of these ancient people and how the conflict continues even to this day in Christ's name we pray amen