Genesis 25 & 26 Discussion Guide
Sermon Date: June 4, 2023
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Here are important events that you should be aware of and praying over:
-Westview Highschool - We are moving to Westview Highschool, in Bennington, on Sunday, June 25th
-Westview Preview Night -Thursday, June 1st @ Westview High School 6:30pm
Join us for SEEK night at our future home. This is a great opportunity to worship and pray into our future at the school
-Bennington Daze - Friday, June 2nd @ Bennington Elementary 5-9pm
(Please click here if you’re interested in volunteering with us!)
WHY CITY GROUPS?
The point of a City Group is to help us apply God’s Word to our everyday lives through the power of the Holy Spirit, and to multiply faithful disciples of Jesus who make more disciples of Jesus. So we gather regularly to give ourselves to three basic Christian practices: sharing stories, reading the Bible, and praying.
PRAY
Ask if anyone would like to open up in prayer and ask God to bless your time together
STORY
Break the ice with a testimony..
Who has prepared their 5-7 minute story?
Who can give testimony of God’s goodness right now? (i.e. answered prayer, provision, transformation, etc.)
VISION FOR THIS DISCUSSION
Abraham has just died. God’s Covenant promises, of land and becoming a great nation, that He made to Abraham, are now passed onto His son, Isaac. Isaac, and his bride, Rebekah, have just had their 1st kids, Esau and Jacob, who happen to be twins. Esau is the 1st born. Culturally, this meant that he had a birthright that contained a material and spiritual blessing (see Deut. 21:17 & 1 Chron. 5:1-2 for details). In Esau’s case, the birthright determined who would inherit the covenant God made with Abraham, once Isaac passed.
Remember, this is the promise of a land, a nation, and the future Messiah. This birthright is a huge blessing! But we will read about how Esau throws it away. And this matters because we have received a birthright as born-again christians, and it comes with huge blessings, as well!
For example: God, via the Holy Spirit is within us; we have God as a father, a friend; we have access to him through prayer; we have the fruit of the spirit as we obey God; we have spiritual gifts that satisfy us when we serve; we have supernatural power for our resting and our doing; God has given us mantles of influence such as father, mother, grandparents, and occupations in order to make disciples. And that is just the cliff notes of blessings. But as great as our blessings are, when we are in compromising postitions, like Esau was, it becomes easy to see our blessings as insignificant, and then fall into sin. The questions below reflect on the blessings of being a child of God and how we are tempted to “sell them” for lies from the enemy.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PASSAGE
Read Genesis 25:27-34. What are some initial observations that caught your attention?
In Verse 32, Esau doubts the blessing of the birthright. Why? What does say about human nature?
In verse 34, Esau has just finished the trade of his birthright for a bowl of soup. After eating his soup, the text says that he hated ever having the birthright. Why does Esau hate that he ever had the birthright? Why did he feel this after he ate the soup?
APPLICATION
Esau trades his unseen- eternally significant blessings for a temporary and insignificant bowl of soup.
In what ways are you tempted to compromise your character-in-Christ, for temporary-sinful satisfaction?
In what ways are you tempted to throw away the blessings of obedience, for temporary-sinful satisfaction?
We are more susceptible to sin when we are in compromising situations. Jacob uses Esau’s physical exhaustion and hunger to tempt Esau into trading away his birthright. The enemy and our old sin nature, will also tempt us when we are in compromising situations, such as physical exhaustion, hunger, coming home after a hard days work, the uncomfortable part of a menstrual cycle, or going to the gym.
What internal conditions of the heart or external situations, in life, compromise your resolve to obey God?
In those compromising situations, what are ways you can guard your heart from falling into sin? Give a proactive and/or reactive way
After Esau trades his birthright away, we read of him showing contempt for it. In other words, he hated that he ever had the birthright and it’s blessings. In a similar way, after we sin, the enemy will follow it up with a heavy dose of shame. We can be tempted to have disdain for God; we will question His character; we will begin to hate that He commands us to obey Him, even when we have experienced freedom in it.
In what ways have you experienced “contempt” for choosing to follow Jesus? In what ways have you “disliked” being a born-again christian?
PRAYER
Feel free to ask the group for any pressing prayer requests that would be good to pray over together.
Use the TACOS acronym to let the text you studied pray for you:
Thanksgiving - “Father, thank you…”
Adoration - “Father, You are…”
Confession - “Father, I confess…”
Others - “Father, I pray for…”
Self - “Father, please help me…”
*If size or group dynamics seem to hinder prayer, consider dividing into groups of men/women or groups of 3-4 to reduce barriers to praying out loud.