Shalom, you grafted-in sons and daughters of Abraham, this is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program. Today is the first day of the week, January 28, 2018.
Ok, so let us pray together and get started on the teaching today
Father,
We come in Your Name and ask You to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. We pray that we will present ourselves as a bride without spot or wrinkle before You. We pray that our prayers will ascend like incense before You. Help us to live righteously before You that our prayers will not be hindered. You are a holy God. Cleanse our hearts with hyssop, cleanse us our hands from all unrighteousness.
Your name is above every name, above every situation and above every disease. You are King of the universe, over heaven and earth, and over the nations. We pray for the outpouring of Your Spirit. We pray conviction over every heart.
We pray against the principalities and powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places that hinder Your presence, the advancement of Your plans and strategies for this nation and for those that love You and are called by Your name.
I pray for those that are ill today. We pray against virus’ and bacteria that come to afflict Your people. I pray for Your people that have heart conditions, cancer, diabetes, kidney stones, kidney failures, bowel disorders; we pray against every bizarre disease that has come to steal, kill and destroy. We pray a refreshing and renewal in Your people, that You breath on this state and on Beckley new life, new vigor, new innovations, new strength; awaken this state for revival, breathe new life in this state.
We pray that You will destroy every work of the devil in this state and in the nation concerning child molestations, child murder, adultery, idolatry, drug addictions, fornication, its pursuit of self-gratification, our love of money; take out from among us anger, frustration, bitterness, hatred, fear, doubt, jealousy, pride, and arrogance. Help this nation to hate its sins, its iniquities and transgressions, and to pursue You because You have the gift of eternal life.
We pray for President Trump that You will enlighten him with Your wisdom, knowledge and understanding. We pray protection over him, over his wife, children and grandchildren.
We pray Israel will recognize Yeshua as their Messiah so they will have peace with You and with their neighbors and we pray conviction on the Muslim nations that hate You and Israel so they will have peace with each other and peace with You.
In Yeshua’s name. Amen
Ok, so several weeks we have been discussing the two seeds. I gave examples of Esau and Amalek as anti-christs. Their characters represent those being against righteousness, like Esau was against Jacob, and Amalek against Israel and each vies for dominance in the world, but the seed of the serpent will crush the heel of the church, that is persecute the church in order to discourage new people coming in to the kingdom and to discourage growth of God’s kingdom.
I had been saying for several programs that God put animosity, antagonism, that is hatred between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15. God said I will put enmity (animosity) between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
This animosity between these two seeds has never been resolved and will always remain in conflict because the hatred between them is real. Like oil does not mix with water, the words and works of the kingdom of darkness and kingdom of light will not gel.
The struggle remains today as in the ancient past; it is a war. The war didn’t end with Esau and Jacob. The Word, the Bible, is replete with stories of the hostilities between the seed of the kingdom of God and the seed of the kingdom of this world (which represents the seed of the serpent).
In the ancient past the war was hostile to the point that people died from it. Here are some examples: Elijah slayed 450 prophets of Baal, Jezebel killed the prophets of God, Isaiah was sawed in half for delivering God’s prophetic messages to his son-in-law King Manasseh, Cain killed Abel, like King Saul pursued David and Doeg the Edomite that slayed 80 temple priests, the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned—several times, the Edomite Herods rose to massacre small children, John the Baptist was beheaded, in Acts 12 Herod Agrippa harassed the church and killed James the brother of John, and ISIS has killed over 90,000 Christians in the middle east and the Coptic Christians are persecuted all the time.
In the future –Revelation 12:17 it is the same: And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So, if you don’t keep the commandments of God then You don’t have to worry about being persecuted because you will likely persecute those who practice the teachings of Gd. The teachings of God will not be relevant in your life.
President Bill Clinton was asked by a reporter in the 90’s if he thought the Bible was relevant for today. He replied it wasn’t relevant! And it wasn’t to him . . . because he was practicing adultery with Monica Lewinsky. To the world President Clinton was like an oxymoron—a victim/hero in the whole mess he made; and at the UN he received a standing ovation from the nations. He had the praise of the people, but he didn’t have praise of God because Clinton was exposed for his love of self. His defining characteristic was not to do right by God, because God’s word or teachings were not relevant to him. He was a hunter of the field like Esau, looking for sex in all the wrong places; and last year was a year of exposures, there was Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner, Matt Lauer—just naming a few. These people are driven by physical impulses to obtain the physical, or the material elements of life: sex, wealth, power, and control; they are carnal in their impulses; this lower impulse are seeds of unrighteousness—self-gratification. The future is based on their libido, their pride, ego without considering the good for all, or the kingdom of God—what is God’s vision for people.
Let’s go on to the birthright blessing
What the Word says is that Esau came in from hunting and sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. The birthright was irrelevant to him; to his flesh the material, which was the bowl of stew, became relevant. In Genesis 25:34 it says:
And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
The birthright consisted of the material inheritance. The firstborn usually received a double share from the father because he was expected to become the paterfamilias; that is, when the father would die, the firstborn would take on all the family members and the extended family (wife, or wives, unmarried sisters, underage siblings) as well. With this greater responsibility would have to come some greater resources. To mention there would be no receiving anything until the father of the family would die.
What is interesting is that somehow in this family situation the birthright could be sold, and that Esau was willing to sell it for a bowl of lintels or beans, and food will come again in Genesis 27:3-4.
Isaac is uncertain of his death and he wants to give his Patriarchal blessing to Esau. He tells Esau to bring back game, or venison to him so that he may be full and bless him before he dies. In this chapter Jacob brings food and then Esau brings food.
It was the middle eastern, or semitic custom to eat a meal together after a covenant, or treaty, a contract was established between individuals. That is why Isaac sends Esau to fetch some venison, a meal is the final consummation of the agreement. You see this at Mt. Sinai when the 70 elders go to the mountain and eat a meal with God in Exodus 24:11. This is after the Teachings of God, or the covenant, is given to the nation.
Again we see a communal meal in Genesis 31 between Laban and Jacob. Laban is upset that Jacob left Haran without telling him and accused him of taking the household idols. Jacob responds with the list of grievances he had against Laban. Laban then proposes they make a covenant. They make a heap of stones as a witness and it would double as a boundary marker and they sat atop the heap of stones and ate together to consummate the covenant.
So I do digress, but all this is food to me; so back to the Patriarchal blessing
The Patriarch blessing is crucial because the decision about which son (or which seed if you will) was to receive the Patriarchal blessings would determine who would beget God’s Chosen people—namely Israel.
So the Patriarchal blessing would naturally go to the firstborn, but wait! Esau had already sold his birthright, he conferred it to Jacob who is now considered the firstborn. Esau despised the birthright and now he would lose the Patriarchal blessing as well. The prophecy is about to be fulfilled that was given to Rebekah that the older would serve the younger in Genesis 25:23. Who had God chosen to be the progenitor of Israel—Jacob.
This blessing is one that transfers the leadership of the clan to the next generation. If the inheritance remained undivided for some time (which was common), the privileged son was designated the administrator of the estate.
The administrator had significant control of the estate. His roles included presiding at sacrificial meals celebrated by the family, supervising burials and funerary rites, and serving as kinsman-redeemer.
Now, Jacob, and Rebekah on his behalf, would desire this because it was also in the administrator’s hand to approve the timing for the division of the inheritance. If Esau were the administrator, he could presumably delay the division indefinitely and thus deprive Jacob of the advantage of the double share of the inheritance, if indeed that was how it was conducted before the Torah or the Teachings of God were implemented concerning the firstborn in the families
Let us go over the blessing given to Jacob by Isaac in Genesis 27:28
Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven (the dew represents the spiritual kingdom: manna in the wilderness, and it represents resurrection to life, having the incorruptible body; and anything spiritual represents the breath of God—for God breathed on Adam His breath of life)
Of the fatness of the earth (this is the material, to do with food substances, sacrifices used for the service of God, man is material formed from the dust of the earth)
And plenty of grain and wine (this represents the abundance of the material to give away to others. Grain is material and wine can represent the spiritual in the doctrines and teachings of God, and represents material as well, since wine represents joy)
Peoples will serve you (including Esau and Edom) and nations bow down to you, be a master (lord) over your brethren (Esau, the unrighteous seed) and your mother’s sons will prostrate themselves to you; cursed be they that curse you and blessed be they who bless you. When I read this passage I see that Jacob is symbolic of Yeshua. Yeshua was the firstfruit of the resurrection, raised to an incorruptible body, He possessed the material realm of this world and enough so that He took the five loaves and two fishes and fed and 5000 men (excluding women and children) in Matthew 14, and He fed 4000 men (with the exclusion of women and children in Matthew 15. Peoples serve Yeshua today; those that do not are cursed and those that do are blessed.
So back to the firstborn.
God says something interesting about the whole of Israel as being His firstborn son in Exodus. Who is the firstborn according to God, Esau or Jacob?
In Genesis 28 Jacob leaves to Haran at the request of his mother Rebecca, because Esau had intentions to kill Jacob as soon as the days of mourning were over from Isaac’s death.
For twenty years Jacob lived with his uncle Laban and had wives, concubines, and at that time eleven children for Benjamin had not yet been born.
Eventually disputes and had a dream and was told to leave Laban, his uncle’s land. He quickly went about preparation to leave and on his way he has to pass Mt. Seir where Esau lived. He became distressed when he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 of his men. He prepared presents of sheep, goats, camels, cows and donkeys for Esau. Jacob camped at the brook Jabbok and is pronounced in Hebrew Ya-bok. There he wrestled with an entity at the brook and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel.
Today these Semitic people are called Israel after the patriarch Jacob, and not after Esau.
Esau was the physical firstborn son of Isaac, but Jacob was the firstborn spiritual son.
Something interesting that God says to Moses concerning Israel and I am going to point it out.
Exodus 4
And the Ld said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Ld: Israel is My son, My firstborn
So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.
God’s nation was named after Jacob, so all the nation of Israel was considered God’s firstborn from the spiritual firstborn seed of Jacob.
Okay, I am at the end of the program.
Let me add something that it won’t be misunderstood. I am not against material wealth in any way, nor is God against material wealth. Power is not wrong if used wisely to bring righteousness and justice in the earth. These two elements, the material and power, should be used benefit others, and not to subdue the world for the gratification of lust, that is to acquire and dominate to selfish ends.
Esau’s might, his strength, his prowess could have complimented Jacob’s spiritual pursuits, his spiritual strengths (bringing the divine to the physical world). In the beginning the body was made from dust (it was material only, it was empty and void of life or function), but when God breathed His spiritual breath in the formed dust then the dust took on a new life—a new being. The physical and spiritual were meant to be one entity. The spiritual was to be the inspiration and the physical “doing” the inspiration. The motive of everyone should be the prayer of Yeshua: Let Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Alright, if God wills it I will have another teaching next week: so have a good week, remember to walk by faith and not by sight; keep your spiritual garments clean from spots and wrinkles, ask God to cleanse you of all unrighteousness every day, remain in His service, Love God and love your neighbor.
