In Isaac we find that place that all Christians find themselves; always hovering between faith and sin. By faith, Isaac gave his blessing at the same time he was sinning in trying to bless Esau and not Jacob like God had said. Paul describes this in Romans 7, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand…I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members…Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” This is the daily battle between our flesh and our saved souls. The soul longs and delights in doing what God has said but our flesh still desires sin. When we are confronted with sin we respond as Isaac did and tremble at our sin and foolishness. We repent and place ourselves back into obedience to the sovereign Lord. We may have to pay the consequence here, but in the end, our guilt and shame and eternal consequence of our sins are removed from us. Let’s consider Jacob before we conclude. The buying of the birthright and the stealing of the blessing will set the trajectory of Jacob’s life. God has a lot of work to do in Jacob before he calls him home. We will many times, and rightly so, wonder why is Jacob the recipient of God’s favor? Why is he allowed to be the God-wrestler? Listen to what AW Pink says about Jacob. “God took Jacob as the one through whom he could best show forth His grace and power. What more suited for the display of His grace than the chief of sinners! Whom shall He take up to exhibit His power but the one who by nature was the most intractable! And the God of Jacob is our refuge. He is the God of Sovereign election, the God of matchless grace, the God of infinite patience, the God of transforming power! This is the One “with whom we have to do.” Those of us who have already “passed from death unto life” already know something of His wondrous grace and marvelous forbearance. May we experience more and more of His might transforming power!” We sing the song And Can It Be by Charles Wesley but when was the last time that you stopped and thought about the words. He opens with a set of questions. Can I gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Can I receive a share of what Jesus did on the cross? Would he die for me the one that caused his pain and death? My sin drove him to the cross and he would die for me? Since I’m the cause of his death why would he die for me? Amazing love! Then Wesley explains the gospel. All that Jesus did was to show the depth of God’s love. Jesus left the throne above and emptied himself and took on a human body. He died for Adam’s helpless race. It as all about his immense and free mercy. And that mercy came to me because I was in the prison of my sin. But then the light of the gospel shown in that dungeon and the chains of sin fell off, and my heart was set free. Then I got up and followed Jesus. Now that I am saved, I don’t fear God’s condemnation. Jesus is mine and everything is in him. I’m alive in Jesus who is the Head of all things and the church and me. I am clothed in the righteousness of Jesus and so I can boldly approach the throne of grace. I claim the crown of life, through Christ who is my own.