September 2, 2007

 A Review of Genesis from Abraham to Jacob

This morning we will do a review of Genesis from Abraham’s time to the spot we stopped last time with the genealogy of Esau in chapter 36.

The Book of Genesis is a book of beginnings as we have repeated more times than you care to hear. And  one beginning is of the family,which became the nation of Israel .We have spent much time investigating the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the people who are tied up with them in their stories.

Recall with me how in Genesis chapter 12 we read: Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:    And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

The life of Abraham was one of ups and downs in faith. He was ,however, one who believed in the Lord and that belief, trust,  faith was accounted to him for righteousness.

We followed Abraham on his journey to the land of Canaan, where he began to grow and prosper. He was a mighty leader and had well trained servants who, as you recall, made up the rescue party for local kings whose families and goods had been taken in a raid. He was , as we said, a man of faith...almost always. There were some incidents in Abraham’s life in which he acted like us and tried to do things his own way rather than relying on God for the keeping of promises. One area was in his relationship with others about his wife. He twice lied to rulers of lands as to his relationship because he was afraid that HE would be killed to get to her.

God delivered him in spite of his little faith and we drew from that the idea that God’s faithfulness, not our faith is what matters most. But we also know that our faith is of utmost importance to God without faith there is no way to please Him. Ideally The Father of faith would have trusted even in this difficult circumstance.

We noted that God displays his people in the light of truth, not applying editorial cosmetics to make sin look nicer or faithlessness look better. He does this because this is a book of truth. And to display the real depth of His grace to fallen man kind. It is His grace that saves and keeps us and not any work of righteousness which we may do.

This is the History of a family, yes. but far more it is a history of God’s grace.

We traveled with Abraham through this test of faith and into a  greater one as he was to wait on God for an heir, a child born to his old age. we remember again how Abraham and Sara devised a plan to help God out by conceiving a child of probability with Hagar, Sarai’s maid.

Then we investigated the awful outcome of  getting ahead of God. The fact is that even though our sin is against God only, others are affected by it and suffer for our sins .

We also recall the time of sorrow and pain that resulted after the division of Lot and Abraham. Lot chose to take the best lands and pastures, leaving Abraham with the dryer lest arable soil. We remember that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom and in fact became a leader in that city, but not for God.

Then we saw the northeastern kings come and take Lot and many others from Sodom, Abraham’s daring military expedition of rescue, and His paying of a tenth to Melchizedec. We saw that this was to establish, not the law of tithing, but rather the superiority of the Melchizedec priest hood over the Levitical one.
 
This was for  showing later that Christ, a priest after the Melchizedec order was the greatest priest and over the Law .

Then recall the destruction of Sodom. Remember the glad sad day when the three men approached Abraham’s tent and delivered first the news of blessing, then the news of blasting?

After they delivered the news that God would bless Abraham and Sarah with a child of their own,the child of promise, they also delivered the news about the destruction of Sodom.

At that time we noticed a trait in Abraham that should be in all of us, that of compassion. Recall that he pled with God to spare the city for the sake of the righteous. He begged and God listened but there were not enough righteous there to worry about. The city was to be destroyed.

Then we saw the terrible doom of Sodom and its evil inhabitants. we saw that God did not count their sin as hereditary but as a deliberate choice against Him and he destroyed them. we saw that Lot’s family had to be dragged out for even THEY did not pay attention to his warnings because he was not much different than they were.

Then we saw Lot run away from the city and to the mountains by way of a smaller city, and away from the God of Abraham, the tents of Abraham should have been his destination, but instead he slept in a cave, was made drunk and seduced by his own daughters. we noted that 2 nations came from these unions, Moab and Ammon, both cursed nations before God. But in this we noted the mercy of God as well...for from a lady of Moab came a son who bore a son who bore a King, David the king, David the ancestor of the greatest king, the Messiah.

In chapters 21-23 we see Isaac, the child of promise coming to life. we see that his birth caused the final break with Hagar and Ishmael the child of probability. It was a sad time for Abraham to have to say good bye to Ishmael, the child of his old age, but God promised to care for Ishmael and make a nation of him.

Then one day came the voice of God to Abraham in words that chilled him to the very core. “Abraham ,”the voice spoke, “Abraham, take Isaac, the child of promise to the land of Moriah and offer him up to me there.”and you recall that fearful morning when they set out, Abraham trembling in horror, Isaac, blithely enjoying a journey with dad.

They arrived on the mountain and Abraham went through with God’s command...and God kept His bargain too. He intervened and provided a sacrifice in place of the promised child, a ram.

we likened that to another father on another hill. we saw that THAT father had NO one to intervene but laid down the life of his only begotten for the sins of the whole world. redemption’s plan was accomplished for all who would repent and receive the Son of God as Savior and Lord.

Then God , pleased with the faith of Abraham, reiterates his promise, the promise that Abraham’s offspring shall outnumber the sand of the sea and the stars of the heavens.

We noted next the death of Sarah. she had been a good faithful wife and Abraham honored her in her death.

In chapters 24-26 we focused on a new couple, Isaac and Rebecca.We saw the search for a bride as a picture of the Heavenly Father’s search for us as a  bride for Christ. The servant wooed the bride much as the Spirit woos us to Christ.

Then Isaac makes the same error as his father in trying to pass off his wife as his sister to save his skin. We noted that though Abraham had undoubtedly tried to teach Isaac faith, his example taught much more. children learn some by what we say, more by what we do and most by what we are. Parents, if you want honest children the first step is to be an honest parent. Children are sinners too and need all the help they can get in being directed to the right way.

There is only a little about Isaac in the book but we can see him as very human in light of events.

We see his favoritism toward his burly, son Esau, one of the twin sins born to the couple in late life. And note also that Mommy favors the namby pamby son,Jacob. There is a struggle between these two from before birth and The couple is told by God that “Two nations strive within your womb,and the elder shall serve the younger.”

Yet the heel grabber,as Jacob is named,the supplanter,uses craft and guile to obtain the promised preeminence. He uses the weakness of Esau, his hunger, to trick him out of his birthright, and a disguise and deceit maneuver planned by his mommy to rob Esau of the blessing of elder son. This sort of blows up in his face and soon Jacob finds himself putting it in B for boogie out across the desert to hide out at uncle Laban’s house until Esau’s anger cools and the death threat is removed.

Now it is on the way to uncle Laban’s ranch that Jacob stops by a motel 6...and though the pillows are hard,there is a light left on. He is wakened by a vision of angels climbing up and down the stairway to heaven.

We jumped ahead at that point you may recall,and we noted several things: we said?”We are living in an age which is the age of the greatest skepticism ever of man’s ability to know about anything beyond this earthly realm. We are told that what really matters is the here and now..secularism means that “Now” ism..it comes from a Latin word seculum which means “the now.” we are told that there is no way to really know about this God thing..if there is a God it is impossible to know him because he is utterly unknowable. There is no way that we can bridge the gap from earth to heaven.

Now here in this passage of scripture we see that is not true...there is a stairway to heaven.Do you remember the song about that from Sunday school? we are climbing Jacob’s ladder???remember the trend of thought of our day?

They say “you pass this way but the one time better live it while you’re here and celebrate with schooner its your kind of beer...That's it...now and here is all there is...

Yet we read the polls and 95% of the people in America believe in a God of some sort...a nameless God in some cases, a supreme being or higher power greater than yourself. But life is lived on this planet as if there is no God.  People are not in tune to the everyday awareness of God’s presence. He is remote, distantly removed as far as people are concerned...and we are frustrated .Because as we read the Bible we read a compression of history..we forget that hundreds and hundreds of years passed between Abraham and Moses and between Moses and David and David and Amos and Amos and Jesus...and we get the idea that God was popping up every third Tuesday and ancient man had a better view of God, more psyching up..and had a sharp sense of the presence of God.

But that's not the case. Sure Jacob had sat around the camp fire at night and heard tales of God,Heard the stories from Dad and Grandpa, but Jacob had never seen God, no burning bush, no pillar of cloud, no voices from heaven...He had a profound sense of the absence of God..he knew the stories, the history, but had no personal knowledge of God. That is why this encounter was so devastating to this man.

Jacob had come here as he journeyed and decided to stop at his place for the night. And he lays down to sleep. But it is not a dreamless sleep. In his dream he sees heaven open and a ladder, or stairway to heaven is lowered. And going up and down this stairway that reaches from earth to heaven, the material to the ethereal, are angels .

Recall in the gospel of John how the disciples meet Jesus and the great excitement as they come to believe that they have found the Messiah?  And these guys gather together at the first and you recall that Philip goes and looks for his friend whose name is Nathaniel. recall that incident?

Philip runs and says “Nathaniel, we’ve found him..the Messiah.” And Nathaniel says “Oh yeah? where did you find him?” Well, um...well he’s from Nazareth.” And remember what Nathaniel said? “Nazareth? Yuh right babe, Can any good thing come from Nazareth? Don’t tell me you found the messiah in Nazareth”...so Philip says “come and see.”
And as Nathaniel nears Jesus, Jesus sees Him for the first time and he says “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

There is no deceitfulness in this man, a man of total integrity.

This floors Nathaniel. “How do you know me?” Oh Nathaniel, I saw you when you were seated under that sycamore tree..and Nathaniel is overwhelmed by the power of Jesus to penetrate his own personality.

Jesus says “Nathaniel, you  are impressed because of what I said and perceived? Babe you ain' t seen nothing yet.” I tell you that the day will come when you will see the heavens open and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

What was Jesus saying? He was saying “You are going to see in person the incarnation of Jacob’s ladder.” ME Nathaniel, you see before you the bridge, the link between heaven and earth. Heaven has come down, the gap has been bridged not because man lifted himself toward heaven, but because heaven came down to earth and here I am.

The bridge, the path the ladder. You want to go to heaven you climb ME. That's my mission.

That's what modern man lacks, an understanding of God incarnate, heaven, God come down to our midst and living among us.

How is he introduced in the New Testament?  Emmanuel, God with us.

So Jacob reeling from this encounter makes some promises regarding this spot,vowing to return if God will do as he said, and runs right into a snag in his plans.  

Jacob’s plan really goes awry as he meets uncle Laban and finds out which side of the family he got his sneaky deceitful nature from. You remember the love story, how Jacob fell for sweet Rachel,promised to work 7 years to get her as his bride, then after that work was over he is deceived and wakes up the morning after the wedding night to find he was tricked. His uncle and his new wife Leah, have conspired together to trick him into a marriage with leah.

He storms out of the tent,demands to know what Laban is up to, and agrees to keep this wife and serve another 7 years if he can have the one he wanted to start with. He gets his way and soon the baby battle begins.

God sees how things lie and gives the unfavored wife first children,then Rachel counters with her maids,having children through them for her Jacob, Leah ups the ante with her maid and also adds some more of her own to the ante. Finally God gives Rachel a sweet baby boy,Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob.

Meanwhile Jacob has served his seven years and now gets a wage deal from Laban..the problem is its a sliding scale of wages. Laban changes his wages 10 times during the next few years and whatever he changes them to, God ups the ante, God makes Jacob prosper .Finally Laban’s sons are becoming irritable and causing stress and so Jacob,wandering outside has another encounter with the Holy God.

God had promised to care for him and he just wanted things to go smoothly. The air was slightly cool that night and it was a good night for sleeping, but he had walked outside and looked up at those stars, recalling that night 20 years or more gone now when he had laid out under those stars and God had appeared to him. Ah if only God would hear me now, he breathed a silent prayer. “Jacob”, he was startled from his reverie, had he heard someone call is name? “Jacob it is I and I have heard your cry. Jacob my chosen one, it IS time go home son, go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives and Jacob, ..... I will be with you.”

Now Jacob had the confirmation of a word from God, decisions are difficult enough but with confirmation from the Father, a Word from God, then who can doubt. Now he knew, those other indications were valid when coupled with this directive.

But it wasn’t always this way, he had wanted to be cautious and he was glad he had waited.He knew that  a definite conviction of the heart is a good indication of God’s will, and often outward circumstances which make it humanly possible or prudent help in that decision. Then, he thought the final test is what does God say. Ah how glad he was that he’d waited on God. Jacob heard and obeyed. He packed up that night and was out of there. Yes, there was one more conflict with Laban and Jacob stood up and defended his position well and then in chapter 32 he crosses the river into Canaan and home country.

You may remember how out of the still desert night strong hands grasped Jacob and before he knew what was happening he was in the fight of his life. wrestling for His life with a God he had thought of as safe. In that struggle with God, that all night wrestle, Jacob turns from trusting his own self to a new relationship with God, a son relationship. In this night Jacob becomes Israel, a prince with God .

On that night Jocob, the supplanter,is given a name that will ring through history both proud and strong as the name of God’s chosen nation.

After the all night wrestle with God , Jacob then has to face Esau, the brother he had robbed and cheated. and we saw that he who was to be Lord to Esau was first made to bow to Esau. We saw that all his worries of the encounter were vain as God had prepared the heart of his brother.

Then the family of Israel settled near Shechem and you remember the terrible seduction and the consequent deceit and treachery by Simeon and Levi taking horrible revenge on the Shechemites. But in the end we see the children of Israel returning to Bethel, to  a truer relationship with the God of Abraham Isaac and now the God of Jacob.

One family, a family torn by lying and strife, yet a family drawn together at last by the hand of the One God. Kept by grace so that God’s plan would be fulfilled . Yes God is the prime mover in these lives and He alone is the one for whom and by whom it all comes together.

It is as each member of this family, each piece in this game come by faith to the Father that God’s plan is fulfilled. For it is only by faith that God can be approached, and pleased.

Listen please and really open your heart today. Is God YOUR reason for living? Is your life honestly a life lived for Him? Do you have faith, trust in God? faith that says “Yes I believe what you say and I acknowledge that I am a sinner according to your word. I acknowledge that the wages for sin is death as you have said, and I accept your death as my payment. Have you received Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior? Have you been forgiven of your sins?

If not, and if the spirit of God is pulling you,pulling your heart strings today please come and let one of the leaders deal with you and show you how you can know for sure you are a child of God.