The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00 It's uh great to see all of you back uh after the long Chinese New Year break.
00:06 Uh I hope you have a nice and wonderful uh Chinese New Year celebration. I'd
00:14 like to acknowledge uh my niece from England May. Uh took a bit of persuasion
00:21 to get her here and also uh Steven and Phoebe. Haven't seen you all for some time. Anyway, once
00:28 again, it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. And over the past months,
00:34 we have been working our way through the book of Genesis. And we look at the lives of uh Adam, Noah, uh Abraham. And
00:44 uh today, we have come to another well-known uh Old Testament character, Isaac.
00:50 Actually, we will be looking more at his son Jacob. And the title given to
00:57 today's sermon is the problem of blessing which uh begs the question,
01:02 what's so problematic about blessing? Can blessing be a problem? Isn't
01:07 blessing supposed to be something positive? But through our text from Genesis 27, uh
01:13 we will be taking a practical look at how blessing can affect the very fabric of our
01:20 existence and what we can do about it and what we should do about it. The backdrop of the of the sermon is of
01:28 course the story of uh Isaac and Rebecca and their twin sons Esau and Jacob. And
01:35 as you have uh seen uh from the text on the screen from the 20 verses read to us
01:41 just now by Nathaniel, the drama revolves mostly around uh Isaac who in
01:48 his dying days wanted to bless Esau the elder son. Instead, what we see
01:53 unfolding is an act of deception by the younger Jacob uh goed by his mother
01:59 Rebecca so that he could steal and receive the blessing instead of uh his
02:05 brother. And um let me uh show you a nice uh picture here.
02:12 And this is a a painting from the 17th century. Uh and it captures dramatically
02:18 the scene that we we have here in Genesis 27. This is one of the most intriguing stories uh from the Old
02:24 Testament. We shall dive deep into the passage and see uh what practical
02:30 lessons are in store for us. Shall we commit this time to the Lord in prayer?
02:35 Our father in heaven, may your word written in our hearts and your holy in your spirit dwelling in us continue to
02:43 shape and steer the way we live even as we study this text from Genesis. cause
02:48 us to reorientate our lives to you and to guide us to rethink our priorities so
02:54 that we may live our days more purposefully and more abandonedly. And
02:59 we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
03:05 Occasionally I would show a video at the start of my sermon and this morning I
03:10 have something really nice to show you which encapsulates the uh beautifully the thrust of today's message and some
03:17 of you might have seen it already. Uh it's a Chinese New Year promotional ad
03:22 from uh Petronas which they have been airing over the past two weeks. How many have you seen this? Okay, not too many.
03:30 Good. And the title is uh Rubber Boy. Uh this won't take more than 5 minutes, but
03:36 I'm sorry the conversation is in Mandarin, but please follow the English subtitle. Can we have the video, please?
03:56 Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
04:17 Sure.
04:42 I didn't
05:28 will touch yourself. Yeah.
05:40 Aha. Aha.
05:53 Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.
06:06 foreign
06:29 speech.
06:36 Oh,
06:49 heat, heat.
06:58 Fore!
07:17 Foreign! Foreign!
07:25 She don't
07:50 ma ma Ah, come on.
08:34 Okay, we can stop the video here. I must admit that I was uh rather moved
08:41 by this video as well. And from time to time we can expect uh something as
08:46 beautiful as this from a GLC of you know although uh strictly speaking this is
08:52 not so much a creative output from Petronas as it is a production from her advertising company. So this is not
08:59 really Petronas but it's more the person behind this. You know I think it's Leo
09:04 Bernard that made this. Anyway, what's important uh is the line in the ending
09:11 scene that says, "The greatest blessing has always uh been by your side." But
09:16 let's set aside this video for a while. Uh we will come back to this uh at the end of the sermon. But before that, let
09:22 me just say that uh today happens to be Valentine's Day, a day when we are supposed to express our feelings for our
09:29 loved ones. So, I'd like to ask you uh to say at least a word of thank you to your mother. Uh I know you'll be doing a
09:36 lot for your husband or wife or girlfriend and boyfriend but uh please uh because of this video go and say a
09:43 word of thank you at least to your mother and today not tomorrow or or next week or next month. Okay
09:51 to get on with our topic. Um this morning I just want to mention that uh some of you of course many of you know
09:57 know us. My wife and I we have two children. Our daughter will be turning 21 later in May and our son uh is two
10:05 years younger. And once in a while my wife would come to me and ask me between
10:11 the two kids whom do you love more?
10:18 It's a trick question no less. I don't know why women like to ask this
10:24 kind of loaded questions. My standard answer is of course I love
10:30 both of them equally because it's a politically correct answer.
10:37 And the next question is much harder. Between me and the kids, whom do you
10:42 love more? Now this is not a trick question. This
10:47 is a trap question. Very difficult answer and I won't tell
10:54 you my answer. If you're a husband, I will leave you to think of a really good answer. Okay? You
10:59 have to be very creative. Now, that's not all.
11:04 I was once confronted with the real, really, really difficult question. And this is from my son.
11:11 There was once when he was in his early teens, he suddenly asked me, "Why is it
11:17 that my sister gets to travel to more countries than me?" Now I must explain that by the time our
11:24 daughter finished six she has already been to uh USA, Korea, Finland,
11:33 Austria, many other places. As for our son, there was just this once when he was in
11:40 standard one when I took him on a father and son trip to Tokyo. That was in 2004
11:46 and we were both together for a really one really enjoyable week. He was a little boy and the highlight was a full
11:53 day uh in Tokyo Disneyland. And this is a picture uh we took back then
12:00 with none other than Mickey Mouse. If you look carefully, he was so excited
12:06 about this that he insisted on wearing his Mickey Mouse t-shirt.
12:11 But that was about all the all the overseas travel he had. So when he later asked me about the
12:18 unfair treatment as far as uh traveling was concerned, I was caught. Why was it
12:24 that the sister gets to travel to more places than him? And I had to think of a good answer in double quick time. And so
12:31 I finally said, you know, that day we spent in Disneyland, it cost me so much money that it was worth more than all
12:38 your sister's trips put together.
12:44 Well, he was pretty satisfied with the answer. After all, he was barely in his teens
12:51 because it was quite easy to convince him. Of course, now he's much smarter and not so easy to fool him.
12:59 But sometime after that conversation, uh, and 7 years after that trip to Tokyo, I took him on another father and
13:06 son trip to this time to Europe. And perhaps I did it out of guilt.
13:12 you might say. Okay. So, we this time we spent two wonderful weeks uh in in Berlin and in Amsterdam. And I would
13:19 really like to recommend this kind of father and son trip or mother and daughter trip uh for that matter if you
13:26 have if especially if you have a teenage son and daughter or daughter because the bonding time was really great. Of
13:33 course, it doesn't have to be Tokyo. It could be Taiping, you know, not necessarily Berlin, could be Benongo.
13:40 Okay. Now this was taken in Pottsdam Psdam on the outskirt of uh the German
13:47 capital in 2011 and 7 years between these two photos my hair had become much
13:53 whiter. You can imagine how much stress the children had given me over the years and
13:59 they still do. And seven years later I had also put on some weight uh while my
14:05 son had grown so much taller. He was informed too back then.
14:10 Now I guess my point is do we practice favoritism at home while raising our
14:16 kids? Uh do we favor one child over another
14:22 officially? No. That was that's our intention to bless
14:28 both of them equally because favoritism can get into the way of good parenting. It can destroy or diminish the sense of
14:35 worth in the child who is not favored. But what we have here in Genesis 27 is a
14:41 case of excessive favoritism. Earlier in Genesis 25:28, it says that
14:48 Isaac loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Esau, the elder brother, was
14:55 Isaac's favorite, while the younger Jacob was Rebecca's favorite. And their practice of favoritism led to disastrous
15:02 result within the family. It led to a to that deceitful plot by Rebecca and Jacob. U and when Esau later found out
15:10 he was so enraged that he wanted to kill his brother and Jacob had to flee for his life and not return home for many
15:16 many years. You can read more about it in in the later part of Genesis 27.
15:22 But this is really just the backdrop to the sermon, not the main point because this talk is not about parenting. To get
15:28 on with the topic, I would like to uh uh divide the sermon into four parts. Firstly, uh the biblical understanding
15:35 of blessing and two, our latent need for blessing. Three, our constant quest for
15:41 blessing. And lastly, the ultimate kind of blessing that we ought to be seeking. To begin with, we we really need a
15:48 proper understanding of a key word in Genesis 27, which is the word blessing.
15:53 and together with its corresponding word bless. This word appears uh more than
15:59 about 20 times in the chapter about 10 times in this passage and it's an important word in our attempt to
16:05 understand the text but I submit to you that our un our understanding of blessing as it appears in this text is
16:12 so shallow so limited that it can be hard for us to understand or to appreciate what is going on here. First
16:19 of all, what does it mean to to bless? To make things more complicated, the dictionary actually offers many many
16:25 meanings for this word. We don't have time to go through all of them, but I like to cite just three of them which we
16:31 can find in the Bible. The first one uh for example is in uh numbers 6:24-26,
16:38 which is a popular text used for uh benedictions. It says, "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face
16:45 shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Here the word bless means to
16:52 confer some sort of favor on someone which may include uh help and
16:58 protection, general welfare or even uh uh prosperity. And hence when we say God
17:05 bless you, what it means is may God favor you. May God grant his favors upon
17:11 you. May God give you all these good things. And it's a really a nice thing to say to someone. And this is by far
17:18 the most popular or the most common meaning of the word uh bless in the Bible. For the second meaning, let's
17:25 take for example uh uh Psalm 103:1 reading from the New King James Version.
17:30 It says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name." Here the to bless simply means to
17:38 praise or to glorify. As for the third meaning, uh we can find it only in a
17:43 couple of places in the Bible. For example, in Matthew uh 26:26, again reading from the uh the New King James
17:50 Version, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples. And the NIV
17:57 interestingly translates this verse as Jesus took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. And so the meaning
18:04 uh for bless means to give thanks. Now when it comes to the word blessing which
18:09 is the noun of the verb to bless it can be taken to mean therefore a favor. Okay
18:15 just the word favor based on the first meaning earlier and since the best blessings comes from God the word
18:21 blessing in the Bible uh would mean divine favor but when we study Genesis
18:26 27 we find that it goes much much deeper than just uh divine favor. For one
18:32 thing, in the earlier part of the text, we read that Rebecca and and Jacob, they
18:37 thought that this blessing was something they could steal. And equally and equally baffling is the fact that later
18:44 in the in the text, we find that after Isaac had given the blessing to Jacob, he couldn't retract or to cancel it. He
18:51 couldn't say to Jacob, "Oh, you're such a crook. I'm taking back what I said." He couldn't do that. And that's why
18:57 after Isaac had blessed Jacob and then Esau came in, we find Isaac saying in
19:03 verse 33, who was it then that the hunter came and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed
19:09 him and indeed he will be blessed. Indeed, he will be blessed. It is done.
19:15 It couldn't be taken back. And so what is this blessing in the text that couldn't be taken back? The key to this
19:22 is the word firstborn uh which appears twice in the text in verses 19 and 32.
19:28 The blessing that Jacob gave to Isaac gave to Jacob although that was not his
19:33 intention is like a last will and testament.
19:38 There's a pronouncement okay that the person who is blessed would be the successor or would succeed the person
19:45 who is giving the blessing. In the old in old testament times back then when societies were more uh hierarchical and
19:53 patriarchal uh the the successor was almost the always almost almost always the firstborn or the elder son and
20:00 before the patriarch dies he would bless his firstborn and then to pass the mantle of leadership to his elder son
20:07 and not to an elder daughter who may be older than the elder son because gender equality wasn't uh their custom. uh
20:15 because gender equality is really a very recent concept. And not only that, the blessing included not only the
20:22 leadership of the clan and the respect of course and the respect and honor that that came with it, it also meant a
20:28 double portion of the family estate. And so, Esau was supposed to get twice the
20:34 inheritance uh from Isaac compared to his brother Jacob. And hence the
20:39 blessing to the firstborn, the elder son also came with it much uh wealth and
20:44 influence. But still that doesn't answer the question why Isaac couldn't take back
20:50 the blessing. You see the meaning of blessing in this chapter goes even
20:56 deeper than just the last will and testament of the dying patriarch. When
21:01 Isaac gave his blessing to Jacob, actually he was also reaffirming God's
21:06 sovereign will uh that I Jacob but not Esau would be the successor through whom
21:13 he will carry out his earlier covenant with Abraham. God's choice was Jacob and
21:19 not Esau just like uh Isaac himself uh was not uh was God's choice and not
21:25 Ishmael. So when the Isaac blessed is his uh Jacob, he was actually just
21:31 reaffirming God's will. We must take note that earlier in Genesis 25 when Rebecca was pregnant with the twins, God
21:39 had already made his uh meaning told her that it would be it is his sovereign
21:44 will that Jacob, the younger of the two, would be the the heir of the promise.
21:50 Because if you read uh Genesis 25:23, the Lord said to her to to Rebecca, "Two
21:55 nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other.
22:01 The older will serve the younger. Jacob will serve the uh will Esau would serve
22:08 Jacob. Jacob will be the favorite one." Hence, when Isaac was blessing Jacob,
22:14 even though that even though he wanted to bless Esau, he was actually carrying out God's will even though that was not
22:21 his intention. And here is one crucial lesson for us, uh, sight lesson for us.
22:26 We can plan and act in whatever way or however way we want, but God will still
22:32 have his way regardless. His sovereign will will stand no matter what. And the
22:38 well-known phrase uh uh for this is man proposes
22:44 God disposes which is based on proverbs 16:9 in their hearts human plan their
22:51 cause but the Lord establishes their steps. Whatever has happened whatever is
22:57 happening whatever will happen it was and is and will be accord in accordance
23:04 to God's plan. The plans of God Almighty can never be thwarted or disrupted. He's
23:10 always in control in absolute control. So for whatever for whatever uh uh it is
23:17 we can actually take this as a source of much uh comfort and assurance because
23:23 whatever setbacks you might have gone through, whatever disappointments you might have uh experienced, God's
23:29 wonderful and perfect plan for you will prevail in the end. And this assurance
23:35 is actually reflected in the in the in Philippians 1 1 vers6 uh in the words of
23:41 Paul. He who began a good work in you will carry it onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Which means that
23:48 you can place your trust in God because he is in control. You can have faith in
23:53 God because he's in control and he knows what is happening. Someone once said that because God is in control, because
24:00 of our knowledge that God is in full control, everything will be okay in the
24:06 end. Can you believe in that? Everything will be okay in the end. If it is not
24:12 okay, then it's not yet the end. Okay. So, but to take this a little bit further, God's sovereignty is in fact so
24:20 total that he even works through man's folly and evil in order to achieve his
24:26 purpose. And we see that happened in the account of the crucifixion of Jesus where we see the Pharisees and the
24:32 Sadducees with their wicked plan to kill an innocent man, Jesus. But annoying to
24:38 them, their actions only serve to advance and fulfill God's salvation plan
24:44 for mankind. But here in our text today, we see an act of deception by Jacob to
24:50 steal the father's blessing, prompted, of course, by his mother. And God allowed this wrong to be done in order
24:58 that his sovereign will would prevail. God even God would allow this wrong to
25:04 be done. And that is the key. God works even through the folly and foolishness of men. And this also means that
25:10 whatever your mistake, whatever wrong you might have done, God's perfect purpose in you will still be served
25:17 provided that you you allow him to do so and you stay the cause. And this is another sight lesson for us. Now Isaac
25:25 learned this lesson in a shocking way. He found when he found out about the deception in verse 33, uh he reacted
25:33 with trembling. As we read just now, Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who
25:38 was it then that hunted game and brought it to me?" Because all his life he had favored Esau. He had wanted Esau to be
25:46 his successor. And this was despite the fact that God had want God had wanted Jacob instead. As we saw earlier, even
25:53 before the twins were born, God had already made his choice clear. But we can almost imagine Isaac thinking when
26:00 the twins were growing up, oh, I think God might have miscalculated because I
26:07 mean, look at Jacob. He's he's so weak. He stays at home all the time and his
26:12 morals are a bit questionable. But look at my Esau. He goes out hunting. He's so
26:19 strong, you know. He's a man's man. God, I must have God must have overlooked something. And so, I'm going to stick
26:25 with my favorite uh Esau. So, do you see the rebellious streak in in Isaac here?
26:33 And that's why he trembled with shock in verse 33 here when he realized that God didn't miscalculate
26:39 and that he he had been betting on the wrong horse all along. Now, this is a depressing story that ended badly. It
26:46 ended with a family divided with Jacob having to flee to escape from Esau's roth. But thankfully, there is a
26:53 positive twist to this story because we find Isaac realizing later that it will
26:59 be better for him to go along with God's plan. Now, how do we know that? Because in the next chapter, Genesis 28, in the
27:06 first verse, in the first four verses, which is outside our text today, we find Isaac coming to repentance when you find
27:13 him realizing his mistake and he reaffirmed his blessing to Jacob in that
27:20 chapter. He blessed Jacob the second time as he set off to flee from Esau.
27:26 Indeed, this is yet another sight lesson for us that is far better to go along with God's sovereign will and not to
27:33 resist it. Psalm 128:es 1 and 2 says, "Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who
27:39 walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor. Blessings and prosperity will be yours." Now, what
27:46 about Rebecca? Did she fare any better? She knew that Jacob was God's choice. So
27:52 why did she hatch the plan for Jacob to deceive Isaac?
27:57 Because she was a little like her mother-in-law Sarah. If you remember Sarah, she thought she was helping God
28:03 by offering her maidervant Hagar to Abraham. Here we have Rebecca thinking,
28:08 she must be thinking this way. Oh no, Isaac is about to bless uh uh Esau, you
28:14 know, not my favorite Jacob. Uh so what shall I what shall I do? Maybe God has
28:20 forgotten, you know, uh that his choice was Jacob. Maybe he's even asleep. So, I'm going to help God to achieve his
28:26 plan with this brilliant idea. And hence, we see in the first uh three verses her elaborate scheme uh to cover
28:35 Jacob with good skin and dressing uh Jacob up with Esau's clothes so that
28:40 Isaac would think that he was Esau. And also he cooked she cooked the meal that Isaac was expecting from Esau. So that
28:48 Isaac uh would be sure that the person coming in was Esau. What she lacked was
28:53 the trust in God's sovereign plan and the faith that God would carry out his promise. And she paid a price for that
29:00 because she never got to see her favorite son Jacob ever again after she
29:06 left after he left to escape from uh Esau. Before we move on, let's summarize
29:11 the these site lessons. Number one, man proposes, but God disposes. We may plan
29:17 all we want, but God's plan will ultimately prevail. Number two, God is so sovereign that even works through the
29:24 sin and folly of man, he is always in total control. And number three, is far
29:30 better for us to go along with God's plan and to trust him. Something which Rebecca failed to do, but which Isaac
29:36 eventually realized. Now moving on to the second part of the sermon uh which is our latent need for
29:43 blessing uh after which we will quickly go move on to the third part our constant quest
29:48 for blessing. Now it's often been said that Jacob is the most contemporary of
29:54 all old testament characters. It is said that we can identify with Jacob the most
29:60 out of all these Old Testament figures because we see a reflection of ourselves in the person of Jacob. How so? Now
30:08 there are many heroes in Old Testament and Jacob has been described as the most unheroic of them all because as I
30:14 mentioned earlier he was the weaker one compared to his brother. He harbored a
30:19 sense of vulnerability because he wasn't favored by his father and because of
30:24 that he had to struggle to gain approval and respect and the struggle for
30:29 blessing was the theme of his life. If we also feel we are weak, if we also
30:36 feel vulnerable, if we are also struggling physically or otherwise, then
30:41 we are like Jacob or Jacob is like us. On a personal note, my sense of
30:47 identification with Jacob actually has grown over the years. When I was younger, at the prime of my life, I felt
30:54 as if I was invincible. I could achieve almost anything I set my mind to do. But
30:59 now that I turned 56, actually 3 months ago, I have begun to feel more and more
31:04 vulnerable. They say that we mellow as we age. But that's because the truth is we feel
31:11 weaker and weaker, more and more vulnerable as we age. The bones start to
31:17 ache, the wrinkles start to form, the hair starts to gray or turn white in my
31:23 case. And that's why I showed you the 2011 photo taken at Posdom and comparing
31:29 it with the earlier picture from Tokyo. The effects of the passage of time is
31:35 clear on all of us. And I think that's why whenever I go out with my daughter,
31:41 she would hold my tent tight, hold my hands tightly. I think because she was afraid I will fall.
31:50 She didn't do that earlier. Recently she holds my hand very tight when we walk.
31:56 If you feel weak and vulnerable, then Genesis 27 is the chapter for you.
32:03 Jacob is the person you should look at. Now, to be sure, there's nothing wrong in Jacob feeling weak or vulnerable.
32:09 There are times in our lives when we feel the same way physically or psychologically or even spiritually. The
32:16 problem was the way he went about overcoming his weakness and vulnerability. He was willing to compromise his values and his principles
32:23 in order to achieve his goals. Deception was the was his trademark. Now, if you
32:28 look carefully at at at at our text for today, half the verses,
32:34 half the p the text describes his conversation with Isaac as he desperately tried to steal the blessing.
32:41 Of course, aided by his accomplice, his mother who who couldn't trust God to to deliver on his promise. If you were to
32:48 examine and look at these 10 verses closely, it is really sad, even pathetic
32:54 as he desperately tried to get Isaac to bless him. Now, after addressing his father, Jacob said in the in verse 19,
33:02 "I'm Esau, your firstborn." Jacob said that we could almost hear his heart
33:09 crying out, "Dad, I should be the one you favor. I should be the special one
33:15 in your eyes. I should be the head of the family and not my brother Esau. Recognize me, love me, smile on me,
33:24 bless me, please. And for this, Jacob was willing to cheat and to lie.
33:29 Firstly, putting on the good skin to deceive uh Isaac's sense of touch and
33:35 wearing Esau's clothes to deceive Isaac's sense of smell and also serving
33:40 Isaac's favorite meal to deceive his sense of taste.
33:46 and he succeeded in winning Isaac's blessing which is described for us in
33:51 the next two verses in verses 28 and 29 but we don't have time to examine uh this in detail
33:59 uh Isaac as I said just now later affirm or he repeated this blessing to uh Jacob
34:04 in the next chapter but as I said just now the struggle for blessing is the
34:09 theme of Jacob's life now as if to reiterate his struggle for blessing There is a bizarre episode in
34:17 Genesis chapter 32 uh five chapters down where we find Jacob wrestling with a
34:23 mysterious being who turned out to be God himself or more accurately the
34:28 incarnation of God and they wrestled all night and by daybreak somehow uh Jacob
34:34 had the upper hand and he wouldn't let the other person go unless the person blessed him and to that extent he wanted
34:42 blessing and this time But this time in chapter 34, chapter 32, he wanted it from God himself, which we will talk
34:48 about it in a short while. If we are not unlike Jacob because of our sense of weakness or vulnerability,
34:55 we're even more like him when it comes to the struggle for blessing. And in in
35:01 modern terms, the this blessing that we're talking about comes in various
35:06 forms. approval, acceptance, recognition, appreciation,
35:13 admiration and many more uh such things. And I believe this need for approval,
35:20 for acceptance, etc. is hardwired in us. It's basic human nature.
35:26 Uh William James, an American philosopher put this across plainly. The deepest principle of human nature is the
35:33 craving for craving to be appreciated to be approved by others. And I like to
35:39 believe that he was referring to all of us. But you might say, "No, oh, I don't need approval from others. I I can do
35:46 without their approval. I I I do what I do. I am what I am." And that's why I use the term latent or hidden need for
35:53 blessing. Our need for approval is not quite so explicit. It's hidden beneath
35:59 the surface. Say what you like, but we are driven by this need mostly at the
36:04 subconscious level. Our actions are mostly dictated by this latent need for approval, for
36:10 acceptance, etc. Which brings me to the to the third part of the sermon, our constant quest for blessing, this
36:17 constant endless seeking of approval and acceptance. Going back to the first two verses of
36:22 our text, we find Rebecca putting uh Esau's clothes on Jacob and covering his
36:29 hands and neck with goat skin in order to fool Isaac. Now I submit to you that
36:34 for us today, Esau's clothes and the goat skin, they are significant because
36:41 I submit to you that these have become metaphor for our quest for approval.
36:47 Because like Jacob, we cover ourselves with pretends. We put on a charade so
36:56 that others will not see us as who we really are. So that we can gain the acceptance like Jacob trying to gain
37:03 Isaac's acceptance. And I further submit to you that we do this all the time. We
37:09 put on our best appearance and behavior in front of others, but back in the privacy of our homes, we are back to our
37:16 real selves. So, we are a bit unreal in front of people.
37:22 For example, ladies like to wear makeup and sometimes when they take off their
37:27 makeup, we cannot recognize them. Oh, I have nothing against ladies
37:33 wearing makeup. It's so nice to see all of you ladies looking so beautiful, even if it's enhanced beauty.
37:41 It's just that this is really a part of our culture of putting on a charade.
37:48 The men while they don't wear makeup, they always wear a mask
37:54 or so of course so do the ladies because behind the smiles and the presentries
37:59 and and the big talk is really someone else. What you see is not what you get.
38:06 It's part of our culture because we hide our flaws and weaknesses. We conceal our
38:13 vulnerability and insecurity. We project ourselves as stronger, better person so
38:18 that those around us would have a better impression of us. And Jonathan Ree
38:24 Meyers, an Irish actor, speak for all of us when he said, "If I wasn't so insecure about myself, I wouldn't work
38:30 as hard as I do. I'm constantly seeking approval. I'm constantly seeking approval. And I
38:38 believe this constant quest for blessing, this constant seeking of approval is largely driven by our
38:43 longing for a sense of worth or a feeling of importance because life can be scary if it's without a foundation.
38:51 And to many people, the foundation can be their job or family or even the church. But when you zoom into what's
38:58 really fundamental is really all about self-worth or selfesteem.
39:04 So we put on a show so that others so that when people say nice things about us about to us we feel really good
39:11 inside because it enhances our sense of worth or importance. And this is the
39:16 story of Jacob's life. As we conclude this part I guess what I'm saying trying to say is that we are all Jacobs in one
39:23 way or another. We dress up we dress up like someone we are not. And maybe
39:28 that's why William Shakespeare wrote in wrote that all the world's a stage and
39:34 all the men and women merely players unquote. And there is surely some truth
39:39 in that. Are we not mere actors and actresses on the stage of life?
39:44 You know sometimes it can be very tiring, very exhausting with all the pretending and all the masculating.
39:52 If you are tired of all this play acting, putting on a show, I have good news for you because there is actually a
39:59 more excellent way. Which brings me to the final part, the ultimate kind of blessings.
40:05 The Bible teaches us that God is the ultimate source of the ultimate kind of blessings. If you want blessings that
40:13 really matter, then go to the one who can bestow them to you in ways you
40:19 cannot even imagine. And you can go to God just as you are without the pretense because God deals
40:25 with us just as we are without the mask. Now if you think about it in our constant quest for blessings when we
40:33 subconsciously look uh seek approval from others we don't just seek from anyone
40:39 we tend to seek approval from people who matter. Because if you think about it, if you
40:47 think you are smart, you would want someone smarter than you to tell you that you're smart. No point hearing it
40:54 from a stupid person, right? Similarly, if the receptionist tells you
41:00 that you've been working hard, it doesn't help you much because you needed to hear from the boss
41:07 because the boss is the one who matters. Now along this line of thinking, it
41:12 puzzles me to think that while we are so caught up with with seeking approval from people who matter, we are not so
41:19 eager to go to our creator, the one who matters the most to ask him for the
41:25 ultimate kind of blessings. Cuz it seems strange to me that when the almighty God is willing to bestow these blessings to
41:32 those who seek him, people prefer to look elsewhere for things that are far
41:37 less in value. And this is why I referred to Genesis 32 earlier on. Remember the bizarre episode
41:45 of of wrestling match between Jacob and God. And now we shall piece everything together. You see, it is necessary to
41:51 pair up uh Genesis 32 with Genesis 27 because in chapter 27, the ending is
41:58 rather depressing. But in chapter 32, we see a wonderful conclusion to this phase
42:03 of Jacob's life. In Genesis 32, uh we find Jacob on his way back from 20 years
42:09 of exile, but he was at a low point of his life because it during the early
42:14 part of his life, he struggled for blessings from his father and and that ended up very badly as we've discussed.
42:19 And for the next 20 years while he was living with his uncle Laban, he also struggled to please him, his uncle. But
42:26 that didn't end up well either because his life has been a life of
42:31 futile pursuit of blessings and approvals. But then in Genesis 32, Jacob
42:37 had a face-to-face encounter with God. And he was determined to get God's
42:42 blessing because he finally learned that it is God who gives the ultimate kind of blessing. He finally realized that he
42:49 had been looking for blessings from the wrong people. And this, my fellow believers, is the main lesson for us
42:56 today. One question, how do we approach God for his blessings? Earlier when we discussed
43:02 the idea of man proposes, God disposes, we saw how God is in full control and therefore we can trust him and have
43:09 faith in him. So the right way to approach God for his blessing is to have faith and trust and uh uh the prophet uh
43:17 Jeremiah put this across very poetically which Wong read to us now from Jeremiah 17 to8. But blessed is the man who
43:23 trusts in the Lord who whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out his
43:29 roots uh by the stream and so on. Another question as we uh conclude, what
43:37 kind of blessings can we expect from God? Now there are many answer to this question from the many pages of the
43:43 Bible. In fact, there are so many answers to this question. My favorite is from John 14:27
43:49 where Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your
43:54 hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. So if your heart is troubled, if you are
44:01 filled with fear, Jesus offers you his blessing of peace.
44:06 Another favorite of mine, Matthew 11:28. Come to me all you who are weary and and
44:12 burdened and I will give you rest. So if you feel weary or if you're overloaded with burdens, Jesus offers you his
44:19 blessings of rest. Now, but I want to say this.
44:25 If you want to understand the true nature of God's blessing, go to Ephesians chapter 1. Now, but it's too
44:31 long for us to to digest today. But in this passage, this long passage, the
44:37 apostle Paul describes all kinds of blessings from God. There are these are all spiritual blessings.
44:44 And what we can gather here is that God's blessings are eternal in nature. They are everlasting.
44:50 Because against God's blessing, all other blessings that people can offer will pale in comparison. In fact, there
44:56 is no comparison. Seek not what is temporary and worthless. Rather, pursue earnestly what
45:03 is eternal and valuable.
45:08 I'll skip this slide. So, we have come to uh
45:15 I'll come to this uh in a short while. We have come we have seen how uh we should approach God for his blessing in
45:21 faith and in in in in trust and we also seen how and the kind of blessings that he offers. Now lastly let us take a
45:29 brief look at who are most likely to receive this his blessings
45:35 and I'll answer this question with another question with a very tough question and that is why did God choose
45:42 Jacob over Esau? Now, Esau was the firstborn. It was customary that he should be Isaac's heir. But strangely,
45:49 God's choice was Jacob instead. Now, we started today by talking about favoritism within my family and also
45:56 favoritism within Isaac's family. And we noted how f how favoring one child over
46:02 another can lead to disastrous result. But then, isn't God practicing favoritism here in Genesis 27? He
46:09 favored Isaac over uh Jacob over Esau. And this may be one question lurking in
46:15 your mind. And we need to answer this puzzle as we close. It's even more puzzling when you consider that Jacob
46:20 had questionable morals. He lived a life of deception. Even his name means
46:25 deceiver. But that's where the answer lies. You see, God tends to favor the sinners, the
46:33 weak, and those who are vulnerable. Because these are very people who have a
46:38 greater need for his mercy and grace. If you think you're very good or you're
46:43 very strong or very clever, then there is less room in your heart for God. It's as simple as that. So, let's be careful
46:50 the next time we point our fingers at someone and say, "He's a liar. He's lying." Because remember, J uh God chose
46:57 Jacob the liar. Now, to conclude the sermon, let's go back to the Petronus promotional act. As
47:03 we saw at the beginning, we saw in the ending scene a a what do you call a line
47:11 that says the great the greatest blessing has always been by your side. So it's really a video about blessings.
47:17 And there was a quick scene if you notice at the beginning showing the the mother performing a quick prayer at the
47:24 altar. She was seeking blessings from the gods or or the god in whom she
47:29 believed. Now if you look carefully at the end you
47:34 will see or you will notice also pasted on the doors the Chinese word uh Chinese
47:39 character for for blessing which is f there are two of them on the door which seems to represent their desire for a
47:45 better life but more importantly it's about the boy the protagonist this
47:51 so-called rubber boy who wanted and even demanded blessings of the material kind
47:57 because he didn't want to be poor But later when he saw his mother sacrificing so much for him, he learned
48:04 that they were blessings much greater than what he was looking for. And so do we when we think of how Jesus sacrificed
48:11 for us, we will learn that they are blessings far more precious than what we've been seeking. So what kind of
48:17 blessings are you seeking in this season of Chinese New Year? We see the Chinese
48:23 word of blessing everywhere in all sorts of design. We find them pasted in our
48:28 homes, in the malls, in restaurants, etc. They seem to say to me that we are
48:34 spoiled for choices when it comes to worldly blessing which come in myriad forms and flavors.
48:40 But what kind of blessings should we be seeking? Amidst the festivities of Chinese New Year, let us meditate on the
48:46 one true living God from whom all blessings flow. Let us go to him and seek the ultimate kind of blessing,
48:53 blessings of the eternal kind. Shall we close in prayer? Our father in heaven, there is a Jacob
49:00 in all of us seeking blessings and approval from the wrong people in the wrong places. But you are the ultimate
49:07 source of true blessings that we really need. Cause us to fix our eyes on you,
49:12 oh Lord, our creator and our sustainer. Turn your face toward us and bless us. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
