What's Passed Down?
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
I’ve got a little metal train on my desk. Well, It’s parts of a train…
Our lives are like that train. We might have some pieces in place, but the pieces don’t know what the train looks like. We need a finished image, and the right steps to get us there.
Pray
Overview.
Today: Gen 25:19 through 29:30
The Big Story
The Big Story
From Isaacs marriage to Rebekah and the birth of the twins - Esau and Jacob, to the marriage of Jacob to Leah and Rachel.
From the beginning, God informs Rebekah and Isaac that the younger twin would rise above his brother.
21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
And from the beginning, both Isaac and Rebekah have their favorite child.
As they grow, there’s struggle in the family.
Isaac sells his birthright for a bowl of soup.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
In Ch 26, God reaffirms His covenant with Abraham. That covenant is to posses the land that they are guests in, and that their offspring would be uncountably numerous. But also that there would be a descendant among their offspring who would bless all the nations of the earth.
But then, just after this reaffirmation of the blessing, Isaac falls right back into the pattern of sin that Abraham his father had. They were both staying in the area of a king named Abimelech (title), both passed their wives off as sisters because of fear, both were found out, both showed to be less upright than the people of the land, both are shown to be selected by God despite their failings.
It’s like the movie Groundhog’s Day. The alarm rings, and it’s the SAME day, again! For Abraham, who ran this movie twice, and then a third time for Isaac, who played it again!
This is one set of three that I think we can identify with: Man! Why am I doing the same dumb thing again? Why can’t I think clearer instead of making assumptions and messing up relationships? Why do I keep wanting what does me (and others) harm? Why can’t I follow God’s plan?
I think this passage has the direct answer for us. It’s in the form of another set of three. Stay tuned for that answer.
The passage continues with the twins, now grown, and Isaac is an old man near death. The normal process for that time and culture was for a father to give a blessing to His children. But remember how he favored the older, Esau? Well, he had a quite a blessing lined up for him. Unfortunately for Esau, his mom Rebekah hear that Isaac was going to bless Esau - and she wanted Jacob to receive it.
Not on blessings. What was happening in those times was about as far from what we hear when we hear the word bless today.
When I sneeze, you might say “God bless you”. When we have a casual interaction, we might say “Have a blessed day!” Were sincere, but hand them out more freely than toothpicks at the front counter of a restaurant.
What Isaac was doing was intentional, binding, and believed to have real effect in the one being blessed. There’s something to be said for that. We are created in God’s image. We were assigned the task of having dominion over the earth. And, we were tasked with reproducing. Literally, to have children in OUR image just like we are made in God’s image. What we do and say is far more impactful that we realize. If we think they were superstitious and thought too much of these types of blessings, let me ask you to think if we don’t think too little of them.
So Jacob, with the help of his mother, tricked his dad Isaac into giving the blessing to the ‘wrong’ son. Can you imagine? Esau is now a little miffed! He threatens to kill his ever-so-younger brother as soon as his dad dies and the funeral is over.
So, Rebekah schemes again. She convinces Isaac to send Jacob to get a bride from his family clan instead of from the surrounding peoples. He does, and off goes Jacob. He’ll be gone for over 14 years. But before he leaves, Isaac comes to understand that the promise given to his father Abraham, and reaffirmed in him, would pass through Jacob instead of Esau. He blesses Jacob now with this promise from God.
On the way, Jacob encounters a vision of God. He lays his head on a rock and has a dream of a ladder stretching to heaven, connecting the place of God with the place of people. The nations all around the world have been trying to do this. Think of temples, pyramids, ziggurats. This is what was going on in Babel when God scattered the nations. But this stair is God’s stair, not man’s. It’s God reaching out to people, not people trying to control God.
In this dream, God reaffirms the covenant, the promise, and the blessing God has given to Abraham and his descendants.
He wakes up, and memorializes this spot by setting up a pile of stones. If your keeping count, that’s two references to stones.
Then, as he got to his destination, he encountered some shepherds at a well.
1 Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. 2 As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3 and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
A third stone, a security device to guard the life-giving water from the well.
The rest of our passage tells how Jacob worked for, and then married two sisters. I suggest reading Dales devotion he emails out every week for more insight into this section. I thought it was very insightful!
The Big Themes
The Big Themes
God uses who He chooses, not who start out set out.
God uses who He chooses, not who start out set out.
We’ve seen again and again how God selects people who are unworthy to be the means He uses to impact the world, then transforms them along the way.
Generational sin is real, but it’s not terminal.
Generational sin is real, but it’s not terminal.
Isaac falls into many of the same sinful patterns as his father, and his son Jacob dose too.
But just because they cloud our path, doesn’t mean we can’t overcome them. God CAN and DOES change the world through broken people, and changes broken people through following Him.
God’s plan from the beginning is to restore a broken, rebellious world to Himself.
God’s plan from the beginning is to restore a broken, rebellious world to Himself.
He IS able to work with the tools he has
He establishes times and seasons. That’s the case for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It’s the case for nations and peoples. And it’s the case for you and me.
The key is, as we’ve been talking about for two weeks, that when God calls us to His purpose, we can’t follow our plan to get there. We’ve got to follow His agenda.
Example of metal train.
The Big Point
The Big Point
At points of Genesis, it seems like reading Groundhog’s Day. Sometimes, my life feels like Groundhog’s Day. It might be generational sin, generational patterns of attitudes or thoughts, or maybe it’s our own sin that keeps blowing up in our face. But somehow, we decide to pick up that grenade again and see what happens when we pull the pin.
This pattern is there throughout Genesis. But God works through these people, healing them up, shoring them up, maturing them up along the way.
But the big point is this. God’s plan for humanity isn’t incremental change. It’s a single transformative event. Remember the problem - three times we read about the same bad decision from Abraham and Isaac, lying about their wives. Three times it blows up in their face.
But three times, there are these stones. Can I tell you they point to the solution?
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
When Jesus was calling disciples to Him, what did he point to? Jacob and the ladder FROM heaven. The connection, sent FROM God, to bring His place to the place of humanity.
A stone under Jacobs head to show us that we must rest on this promise. That there can be peace and certainty in the promises of God.
Stones set as memorial that we might remember what God has promised, what He has done, and where He is calling us to.
And a stone over the well to show us the way to living water. Not just the water from a well in the desert, but water that will refresh us forever.
Jesus is claiming that the Promise of inheriting the land, the Covenant of being a people set apart for God, and Blessing to all nations is from and for Himself. And He is claiming that the restored connection to God is through Him. Look back at John 1.
51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Clearly pointing to Jacob’s dream, but now it’s not a ladder, but the Son of Man. That’s how Jesus often referred to Himself. It’s a prophetic fulfillment from Daniel and Ezekiel.
But then what about the well of water that is closed until the right time?
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
We read this last week, but it’s worth seeing again. Repeated references to the wells of water in these chapters of Genesis, but Jesus shows us they point to Him.
So what is the one big point? That Jesus is the Promise, the Covenant, and the Blessing.
So how do we receive that Promised inheritance of the Land that is God’s abode? How do we partake in the Covenant to be God’s chosen people? How do we walk now, and forever, in the blessing among all nations of the earth in reunion with God?
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John addressed a Bible expert of the day. “How can a person be born twice?” he asked.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Our spirits, broken, corrupt, and rebellious in sin are dead - that means separated from God. Our spirit needs a new birth. The answer to that problem is the most important thing we will determine in our life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
For all the promises and faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All what God did and spoke to them about. It’s belief in the Promised One of God - Jesus - and his death on a cross for our sin that matters.
If you are a follower of Christ, it matters. The well is open now, drink of that living water.
If you are not committed to following Jesus, today is the day to get up from your land of sin, and commit to following where God leads. He is a good Lord, worthy of trust, honor, and praise.
And in return, new life, healing from hurt and brokenness. God’s solution to our scattered pieces is in the image of the perfect person - Jesus - and in the directions to assembly - His word. These are life, if we choose them.
Pray
Notes
Notes
From the promise…
One man, Abraham
Through one son - Isaac
The blessing is for the chosen - Jacob over Esau
Who will overcome sin - twelve tribes
And bless the whole earth - Joseph
Rebekah sought the Lord early (25:22-23) who directed her to favor Jacob later. She’s not playing favorites to ‘mama’s boy’ but following God’s directive.
Jacob means to grasp the heal. Gen. 3???
25:23… “one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
Did Isaac have a greater connection to Esau partly due to his bringing home game? “Father, look at this ram I killed. It was stuck in the thicket.” Did his hunting remind Him of God’s deliverance?
Isaac:
Isaac:
Prefers Esau over Jacob.
Encounters some of the same dangers and blessings as his father (drought, Abimelech)
Sometimes he obeyed (staying in the land)
But fell into some of the same sins (sister-wife version 3 - 26:6-11) Abimelek means ‘My Father is King’.
Contention and then peace with Abimelech
Same region as with Abraham, Same title, same commander, after the same previous dispute, both associated with a well
The promise and covenant are re-established
(26:1-5)
26:23-25
Is deceived into blessing Isaac instead of Esau.
Rebekah:
Rebekah:
Hears God’s purpose… 25:22-23
… but tries to achieve it in her plans, not God’s. (27:1-47)
Esau:
Esau:
Valued the wrong thing 25:29-34 (personal comfort rather than the promise of God)
So lost what would have been his.
Married the wrong people (culture, religion, purpose, etc.) ‘made life bitter’
Was swindled from his fathers blessing.
Chose life paths without seeking guidance and wisdom. Esp. from his parents.
The Three Stones
The Three Stones
28:10-29:3
That Jacob slept on
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
That Jacob piled up
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” 18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
That covered the well for three flocks.
1 Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. 2 As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3 and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
Jesus points us here. In the context of those who He call. Those who will follow Him.
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”