Well we are in hour 4 of our learn the Bible
in 24 hours and we’re going to try to summarize the rest of the book of
Genesis in this hour, so we’re going to take chapters 12 through 50
and we’re going read it very fast (laughs). No, seriously, unlike our usual style where
we literally go through it verse by verse, and I might mention, by the way, we have a commentary on the book of Genesis in which we take 24 1 hour sessions on the entire Book of Genesis
which does it far more justice. We’re obviously going through just to give
you a flavor and an overview of it, but, we’re going to cover Abraham - from chapters
12 through 20, and chapters 21 through 26 - Isaac, 27 to 36 - Jacob and 37 to 50 - Joseph. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph being considered
collectively the patriarchs, so this will constitute hour 4. And again, of course, we’re going now from
Abraham, up to the Exodus. The book of Genesis will close with a coffin
in Egypt and the book of Exodus will pick up from thereon. So we’re going to cover a lot of ground
here and obviously we’ve just hit some highlights. Abraham, of course, is a key figure to
the Jews and the Christians. It’s mentioned 74 times in the New Testament
and, he is venerated by all 3 monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and, in a certain sense, Islam. And, he has some distinctive titles in
the scripture. He is known as the "father of the faithful". There is a sense in which anyone who is faithful
to God is, in a sense, a son of Abraham. Not necessarily just someone
Jewish would consider himself son of Abraham, obviously, but also anyone who is faithful can
claim that title from Hebrews 11:8 and elsewhere. Abraham also had another title. He’s known as the "friend of God". That comes from James’ epistle in chapter 2 … which happens to be epistle of Yacov, by the way, but we don’t think of it that way in English, do we? But, Abraham is the beneficiary of a commitment
by God that is everlasting, it’s eternal, and it’s unconditional. And it’s very important for you to understand
the fact that it’s unconditional because this covenant with Abraham
is what is being challenged in the world today in the struggle over Jerusalem in the land
of Israel. The world - not just the PLO, the European Union,
the UN, whatever - are attacking this premise of the Abrahamic covenant. Also, Abraham represents a struggle between
the flesh and the spirit. And we’ll talk about that as we go. That’s in Abraham’s personal life. It’s also embodied in his 2 sons: Ishmael - the son of the flesh - and Isaac - regarded as the son of the spirit. It’s also, emblematic between
Sarah his wife and Hagar her handmaid. Galatians 4 deliberately makes that parallel
in a broader metaphorical sense. Abraham is going to encounter a
very strange character by the name of Melchizedek who’s a subject of many misconceptions but
a very interesting person, because Melchizedek is unique in the scripture as being a king
and a priest. One of the things that’s going to get emphasized
from Moses on is that Ju-... the tribe of Judah is the royal line. The tribe of Levi the priestly line, and they
are separate. The separation of the Levitical priesthood
and the line of David and so forth are distinctive. There are only 3 people that are kings and
priests together in 1 person. Melchizedek was the first that we see in the scripture. Jesus Christ is distinctive in that He’s
a king and a priest. That’s what the writer to Hebrews emphasizes
and the third person is the body of Christ, the church as promised to be kings and priests
as exemplified by the 24 elders in Revelation and elsewhere. We’re also going to talk about, even though we’re going pretty quickly here, we are going to pause and take a serious
look at Genesis 22 because it’s so pivotal. The Akedah as it's called in Hebrew, where Abraham
offers his son Isaac - a very widely misunderstood passage. Abraham's father is Terah. Terah had Abram, Nahor, Haran and through another wife had a daughter by the name of Sarai. So, Sarai is going to marry Abram, but she
is really his half-sister. They had a common father but different mothers. So later on several times Abram
will pass her off as his sister. He’s not lying but he is deceiving, you see.
So, Abraham … Abram will have 2 sons - Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael will be the son of Abram with
Sarah’s handmaid, and Isaac his son directly. And Nahor will have a number of children
that won't concern us directly but, Haran has a series of sons - one of which is Lot. So Lot is a nephew of Abram and that’s going
to become important later on. And under Nahor we have Bethuel who has Rebekah and Laban. And Rebekah will become important because
she will end up becoming the wife of Isaac. And so these things are interlaced, if you
will, and, of course, from that union we have Esau and Jacob. And we’ll talk about that in great length. Under Laban, of course, he has 2 daughters - Leah
and Rachel. And they’re the ones that will marry Jacob. And they, along with their 2 handmaids,
those 4 women will raise the 12 tribes that make up the nation Israel. So that’s the family. That’s the family tree. So, the 12 tribes will come from that issue
and, over on the other side, Lot will have, by incest with his daughters, inadvertently,
while he’s drunk they take him and their offspring will be Moab and
Ammon. The Moabites and Ammonites have a pretty dismal heritage. But I want to dwell a little bit on Genesis
12. Now Lord had said 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 them that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. Verses 2 and 3 of chapter 12 are precious,
precious verses. This whole passage is of course regarded
as the call of Abraham. Get thee out of thy country and so forth. But then God makes a commitment to him. I’ll make of thee a great nation and I will
bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. Notice verse 3 - because I think this is the
only reason God has not judged America. As I travel, one of the most common questions
I get from audiences that are knowledgeable is, "Why hasn’t God judged America?" We've become the exporter of everything God abhors. The sin in this country, the abandonment of
our heritage etc., etc. you make a long list of things. Why hasn’t God judged? In fact, Billy Graham summarized it so eloquently
years ago. He said, "If God doesn’t judge America, He'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomora. That’s a great sound byte, but why hasn’t He (judged America)? Thomas Jefferson said, "I tremble for my country
when I recall that God is just and that His justice will not sleep forever." Why hasn’t God judged America? Many of us believe it’s because of verse
3 of chapter 12. God promised Abram I’ll bless them
that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the
earth be blessed. We suspect that the reason God hasn’t judged
America is because of our support for His people Israel. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with
their policies. No. But we do provide for their protection and
that, I think, is God honoring and, people say, "Chuck, aren’t you worried about
Israel?" No I’m not worried about Israel because
I know that he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep, but they have
some tough times ahead because their … their history. The beginnings, ups and downs, and end - all laid out in advance. It’s in the Bible. I worry about America because it’s not in
the Bible. Despite what some people like to say. I
worry about America because our only hope in this country is for a revival that
we might get our act together but that’s whole 'nother thing we’ll get to sometime. There are 7 "I wills" in this commitment of God
to Abraham - He says, "I’ll make of thee a great nation", and indeed He did. "I will bless thee", and indeed He does. "I will make thy name great", and indeed there’s
no great name on the planet earth greater than Abraham. "Thou shalt be a blessing", indeed
he is. "I will bless them that bless thee." "I will curse them that curseth thee and in
thee shall all families" - not just the Jews - all families of the earth be blessed. Key verse. There are 3 major promises in the Bible. This is the first of the 3. The covenant with Abraham - in his seed all
nations will be blessed. Key thing. God’s covenant with the
nation Israel. Now this had some conditions to it. If they faithfully served Him, they would prosper. If they forsook Him, they would be destroyed,
and indeed they were. On again, off again, again and again and again. Their whole history is a profile of that
commitment. But the third covenant was God’s covenant
with David. That his family would produce the Messiah
who would reign over God’s people forever. And that’s another commitment that God gave
to these 3 … 3 basic promises. In Genesis 14 we encounter the battle of 9
kings - a strange story. There are 4 Shemite kings. Amraphel, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Tidal
king of nations and these 4 will have a war with the 5 Hamite nations. Bera, the king of Sodom, Birsha, the king
of Gomorrah, Shinab, the king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zebeoiim, and king of Bela. So, the Hamites served the Shemites for 12 years but then the 13th year they rebelled. And Chedorlaomer, the one on the left
on this group, -- by the way, it’s interesting you’ll notice the list there small point
but you like will learn from this, the key guy is Chedorlaomer but he’s listed third. He’s the power guy, of course, of the whole
bunch it turns out. But it’s interesting, the one who’s named
first is Amraphel the king of Shinar which is Babylon later. He’s mentioned first I believe because the
Bible tends to list things with an order that’s editorially significant. That’s the king that’s going to be important downstream. But any case, Chedorlaomer defeats the
Hamites and takes them all captive. But among them was Lot, Abram’s nephew. He was in Sodom as an alderman
and we’ll discover him very active in chapter 19 a few chapters from now. But, taking Lot was a big mistake, because Abram finds out that his nephew has been taken. Understand that these 4 kings wiped out these
5 kings. This was not a trivial, military
operation. But Abram with his own people will rescue
Lot and take spoil of these 4 kings. Abram as the text tells us had 318 trained soldiers
in his own household. Abram may have been one of the wealthiest
people on the planet earth at that time. He’s not some kind of tribal
leader here. He is a powerful personage at this
time. So we have the slaughter of the kings. Abram’s army rescues Lot and the people
of Sodom. And when he does this he comes back to a place
called Salem that will later become Jerusalem. And there we encounter this strange character
called Melchizedek - which is a title rather than a name - king of righteousness. He’s the king and priest of this place called
Salem. He receives Abram’s tithes for reasons we
have no insight into, Abram presents tithes of his victory to Melchizedek. And, this ... this just a couple
of verses in chapter 14 of Genesis that would disappear into obscurity except for the fact
that it is … it is leaned upon in Psalm 110 and in 3 chapters of the book
of Hebrews make a big thing of this character Melchizedek. Making a contrast between Melchizedek and
the priesthood that we all know from Moses to Levi and all of that comes later. So this guy is distinctive. He’s a king and a priest. He’s a king of the most high God. And, he does a strange thing - he administers
to Abram bread and wine. And this bread and wine theme goes all the way through the scripture. The bread and wine with Melchizedek offering
it to him. The bread and wine that are prominent in the
dreams of Joseph in Egypt later and, of course, the bread and wine of the Lord's supper, etc. There is a theme there that all ties together
consistently. Now, some people try to make Melchizedek
an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. I don’t think so. The writer to Hebrews makes the point that Melchizedek had no beginning and end of days simply meaning it wasn’t
recorded to make a rhetorical point and many people misunderstand that. We know Melchizedek was a man because it says
so. And, many of these
theories are on frail ground but he is used as an example for a lot of
points later on in the scripture. But in Genesis 15 the next chapter we have
a very critical chapter to understand. There is an usual ritual used in those days when one wanted to make a very sacred covenant between themselves. They would set up an offering, split it in 2 parts, and the 2 signatories to the agreement
would walk together in a figure 8 between these parts. They would divide … they would "cut a covenant"
is the term. That’s were the term means barath and they
would divide an offering in 2 parts and then they would march in a figure 8 between them
repeating the terms of their agreement. That was the way they did things in those
days. Well God indulges in a rather strange version
of this ritual. He has Abram set it all up for
Him. Set up the thing but before He can begin, He puts Abram in a deep sleep and God goes it alone in the form of a flame
through this thing. The point God is making … this is a sacred
covenant, but it is unconditional. Abram could add nothing to it. There’s no way he could violate it. He’s not a party to it except as a beneficiary. God is doing it on His own. It deals with the commitment of the land to
his descendants from the river Egypt to the great river Euphrates. And when somebody wants to talk about the
west bank, say "what river did you have in mind", because the Jordan isn't the eastern border,
ultimately, it will be, of course, the river Euphrates. It’s very, very strange that there are 4 angels
bound in the river Euphrates that will be released in the book of Revelation. It’s strange that some of these demonic
or these spiritual things have territorial aspects to them. God tells them your descendants will be afflicted in Egypt for 400 years that’s what Acts tells us also. Exodus 12 we know they were in there 430 years. Is there a discrepancy? No. They were afflicted for 400 of the 430. They were there for a while where the pharaoh
that knew Joseph etc. but they’ll be afflicted in 400 years, but they will return to the land. When God tells that to Abram, Satan is listening
and he knows now he has 4 centuries to lay down a minefield and they’ll return with
great possession to … and, by the way, when Moses later will send the 12 spies into
the land, 10 of them come back saying there are nephilim in the land. Same word used in Numbers 13:33. The terms of covenant - they were declared
eternal and unconditional despite what the PLO and the UN may think. It was reconfirmed by an oath in Genesis 22. It was confirmed to Isaac and to Jacob in
Genesis 26. This commitment to Abram was confirmed to Isaac
and then to Jacob in Genesis 26. And by the way, the conditions under which
it was confirmed to Isaac and Jacob were conditions of disobedience. It’s not as if their obedience was a
prerequisite of this covenant. It’s unilateral. So despite their acts of
disobedience it's confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. That’s what Islam is also a challenge to
by the way. New Testament declares this covenant as immutable,
unchangeable Hebrew 6 and elsewhere. Well Abram becomes Abraham in Genesis 17. God changes his name to Abraham - I’ll talk about
that in a minute. He confirmed his covenant to the father of
many nations. He instituted his circumcision as a sign. This is where circumcision is instituted as
a sign. He not only changes Abram’s name to Abraham
He changed Sarai's name to Sarah and He also promised him a son. A son of his own - not Ishmael - a son of his own. So we have a commitment of land to his descendants
as I mentioned and they'll return with a great possession. Before we get into this I’d like to give
you a little bit of a lesson in Hebrew. You might find this interesting. Most alphabets are phonetic. If you
know how to pronounce, you can pronounce the words if you know the alphabet - be it Russian
or Latin or whatever. Hebrew is a little strange. It’s not only phonetic it is conceptual. Each letter has not only a sound it has a
meaning. Let’s take a couple of examples to show you
what I mean. The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is
an aleph. On the screen there on the right you see the way it’s
written today. The way you see Hebrew written today is the
way it was written after the Babylon ... when they returned from the Babylonian captivity. The way it was written before Babylon was
a little different. The aleph was written to represent a long horn oxen head. Aleph was the first letter of the alphabet. It also
represented strength like an ox. The University of Arizona’s Hebrew department has discovered if they show the kids how Hebrew was written
before Babylon they can learn the meaning of the letters. If you know the meaning of the letters can read about 80% of Hebrew. That’s astonishing. So aleph means the first or strength or leader. Okay? That’s easy. That’s understandable. The second letter is bet. It looks like a little teepee. Bet means it represents a house. That’s not the way it’s written today. It’s got a different shorthand but the original way it looked like a little tepee. That bet turns to become our B if you will. If you can visualize it turning 90 degrees it becomes our B but it’s a bet in Hebrew. The word bet means house or family. Beth Lehem house of bread. Beth-El house of God you see. and Bethlehem bel and so forth.
If you take an aleph and bear in mind all languages flow towards Jerusalem. Did you know that? Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Sanskrit, all go from right to left. All nations west of Jerusalem go from left to right. Latin, English, French, Russian, etc. Okay? So understand that the aleph and the bet make up a word Ab. Well the aleph of course is leader
or strength. Bet is the house. The leader. A-B ab is the leader of the house. That’s
the name for what? Father. Ab is the name of the father. Abba is the … is the familiar form of it. There’s another letter called the heh which
is a breath. Remember in Pygmalion Henry Higgins teaches Eliza Doolittle to pronounce in Hartford,
Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly happen to get her to … to ... to pronounce her
H’s. H is just a breath. In the Hebrew that breath that can mean wind or it can mean spirit
but the heh if you put a heh which is probably originally meant it was like hands lifted
up or like an open window but whatever, it means behold or revealed or breath
or wind, breeze, wind or spirit. if you take a word and you put a heh in
the middle of it you’re … you’re speaking to the essence of that word. And if you put a heh between aleph and bet you have Ahab the essence of the father that’s the word
for love. In other words the word for love is the essence of the father. The point I’m
trying to make here in the Hebrew alphabet it conveys not just sound but the conceptual meaning. It’s a very different kind of a language. So when you take Abram
and Sarai God simply puts a heh in the middle of the name. Abraham, Sarah. He gives them … He inserts the spirit of God in both of them.
Circumcision is to the sign. It's kind of interesting. If you study circumcision medically, there's a vitamin K which is an element required
for blood clotting. It’s not formed until the 5th day through to the
7th day. There’s also a material called prothrombin which is also necessary for blood clotting. On the 3rd day of an infant, it’s only about 30% of normal. On the 8th day it’s 110% of normal. Then it levels off at 100% of normal. So if you plot
these curves on a chart, the optimum time if you’re going to circumcise a child, is on the 8th day. We know that now medically. If you do it too early or too late you run
the risk of having a continuing hemorrhage. The question I ask you is, "how
did Moses know that?" Did they do it by trial or error? (Laughs) I don’t think so.
Okay. So this raises something else I have to share with you. The Book of Acts tells us that Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians before he fled from pharaoh, he was trained as the prince of Egypt. He was trained in all their schools. We have copies of the medical records of that
time. In 1332 BC. It’s called Papyrus Ebers. And let me tell you some of the things that
he must have been taught. Do you have an embedded splinter? Do you know what to do for an embedded splinter? You apply worm’s blood and ass’s dung. That’s the way you take care of splinters. Try that some time. Are you losing your hair? You apply 6
fats. The fats of a horse, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, a cat, a snake and an ibex. That will take care of your losing hair, guys. Just thought I’d mentioned that. Turning gray?
Anoint with the blood of a black calf which has been boiled in oil or, fat of a rattle
snake. That will work, huh? Great. Here’s what a well-stocked medicine cabinet would have in the days of Egypt. Lizard’s blood, swine’s teeth, putrid meat, moisture
from pig’s ears, milk goose grease, asses’ hooves, animal fats, excrement from animals of human, donkeys, antelopes, dogs, cats and flies. That’s what you would stock your
medicine. Does that sound kinda weird to you? It better. (Laughs) What’s astonishing is these quaint bizarre beliefs of the Egyptian culture that was inculcated in the leadership never finds its way into Moses’ writings. What’s interesting is not only what’s in the Bible what’s interesting is what’s
not in the Bible. You will find none of these superstitions, none of these weird things.
In fact those things which look weird in the Bible at first when we investigate turn out
to be discoveries of significant kinds. Well lets’ get on to Abraham in chapter 18. Abraham gets these 3 visitors. This is a very famous incident so, we obviously can’t get all of the instances of his life because there’s so much there but these 3 visitors
show up and they’re interesting characters because first of all Abraham hurries to them
and then hurried back to the tent. He ran to the herd to make dinner and had his servant
hurried. You can tell that Abraham realizes who these 3 people are. You know who they are? God and 2 angels posing as men. They look like men.
Abraham bowed low before them. He got water to wash their feet. He served them freshly baked bread, a choice calf, curds and milk. And if you have a Jewish friend ask him how on
earth did he serve a non-kosher meal? But I’ll leave that (laughs) one alone. I just threw
it out there so you can indulge in some mischief with your Jewish friends. He also stood
while they were eating. What on earth is going on here? And obviously these 3 men are the Lord and 2 angels. And he gives them 3 measures of meal which from that day on in the Jewish and Arabic cultures is the fellowship offering. You need to understand
that when you get Matthew 18 to understand what the 3 measures of meal are dealing with
there it will surprise you. But, these 3 visitors confirm to Abraham
and Sarah that a son from Sarah will be … was confirmed. She’s going to be 100 years
old. She laughs when she hears this. Am I in my old age going to have pleasure
she says? You laughed. Oh I didn’t laugh. I didn’t laugh. Yes you did they said.
But the funny part about this is God says, "Is Abraham not my friend? Should I not tell him what I’m going to do?" So what he does there in Genesis 18 - He explains to Abraham that these 2 angels are going to go down and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. For the rest of that chapter you almost have
to imagine a New York Jewish accent as you read the text, because Abraham decides
to negotiate with God. Okay? "Will not the God of the universe do right? What if there’s 50 righteous in the land?" "Will you spare … will you save the land for the … " "He said if there’s 50 righteous, I’ll spare the land." 50 God says no … then
I won't do it. "Well, what if there’s 5 short of 50, what if there's 45?" God says, "If there’s
45 righteous, I won't do it." Abraham says, "Well, what if there’s 40?" "If there’s 40 I won't do it." Abraham, you know, he has what we call … what the Jews call hutzpah.
Hutzpah is a strange untranslatable word, There are many stories that try to demonstrate hutzpah is. Hutzpah is when a guy murders his mother and father
then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan. That’s hutzpah.
(Crowd laughs) He says, "What if there’s 30 righteous?" God says, "If there's 30 I won't do it." I said, "well, let me … would you believe 20?" (Laughs) God says, "If there’s
20 I won't do it." And then Abraham says - he knows he’s pushing his luck here - he … he’s pretty... "I’ll just do it one more time. I’ll just say this one
more time. Supposed there’s 10 righteous. Will you spare the city?" And He says, "If there’s 10 righteous I won't do it." And … and Abraham breaks off, right?
But when chapter 19 comes and the 2 angels go down there to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah
something very strange to notice in the text. The angels are down there to get Lot out of
town first. But what’s interesting, if you read the text carefully, it wasn’t optional.
The angels point out to Lot they can’t do their job until Lot is out of there. What
this implies is that if Abraham had said, "Suppose there’s one righteous?" God would
spare it for the one. I mention this because I believe this pulls the rug out from under those that like to theorize about a partial rapture and so forth, but we’ll move on. Sodom … chapter 19, of course. These 2 angels visit Lot. The homosexuals seek the visitors. And it’s interesting that the entire town
is at the door trying to abuse these 2 visitors that Lot has. Lot even offers the crowd - this mob that are out to abuse these visitors - he offers them his virgin daughters rather than let his guests be violated. That shocks us. I mean we can’t … it’s
astonishing. It does indicate that Lot recognized he had something on his hands other than just 2 visitors. The angels of course blind the attackers so they can’t even find the door. Lot’s family is evacuated, but, if you read the text carefully, it's a prerequisite condition to the judgment that Lot be out of there.
And it’s ... the reason I emphasize this is Jesus Himself likened His return to those
days. So you need to do a little homework and understand it or you won't understand
Luke 17 unless you really understand Genesis 19. And of course all the way through there
we have the theme being hit the flesh versus spirit. Abraham was 430 years before the
law so promises of God preceded the law. So the law cannot disannul His promises. That’s
an argument Paul makes in Galatians. Don’t assume that the law is required for
those benefits because the benefits were committed before the law was even ordained.
Ishmael versus Isaac is contrasted also. The 2 sons … sons of 2 principles - the flesh and
the spirit. Ishmael is son of the flesh. Isaac son of the spirit. Ishmael is the flesh and
also of unbelief, and the son of the bondwoman will not be heir Paul declares. And Isaac
of course is the son of the promise in response to the faith in the ultimate triumph
of faith is the offering of Isaac which we’re going to get to in a minute here. In fact
let’s just jump in and get Genesis 22. This … this is one of those chapters that we’re
going to pause and take a little more carefully cause it’s too pivotal and too widely misunderstood.
God tells Abraham to offer his son Isaac on the mountain. God is ordaining child sacrifice -
you’ve got to be kidding. That’s not what its about at all. People who think so just
are just uninformed. The Bible tells us in Hosea 12 verse 10 God
says, "I have also spoken by the prophets and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes
by ministry of the prophets." God indulges in what you and I would call figures of speech or metaphors, and there are many different kinds. There’s a thing called a simile. There’s a thing called an allegory. There’s a thing called a metaphor. There are hypocatastasis, a type, analogy. These are figures of speech.
Do you know how many different kinds of figures of speech are in the Bible? Over 200 different
kinds of figures of speech and they are catalogued for you in our book. We have a book called "Cosmic Codes" and one of the appendices is a list of several hundred of these
and defines what they are and gives you examples and verses where they are used.
There are figures of speech in the Bible. That’s why I don’t … I don’t say anymore
to people who are saying, "you take the Bible literally." I do take the bible literally, but
when I say that they don’t know what I’m talking about. "You take the bible literally. Then you think God has feathers because of Psalm 91 - Under His feathers thou shalt… - no, that’s a figure of speech obviously. So, taking it literally doesn’t deny the rhetorical device of figures of speech. What I usually … what I’ve
learned to say when I’m on a radio interview or something we take the Bible seriously, and
when that gets the other guy mad, I know I've struck gold, because he doesn’t want to admit
he doesn’t take it seriously as we do. But we take it more literally than he does.
So anyway. So there are figures of speech. One of these figures of speech is what’s
called in scholarship a type. You and I would use the term in our vocabulary as a model.
If you build a house a complicated vertical, aspects - you’ll make a 3 dimensional
model of it. If you have … if you’re designing an airplane wing you make a mathematical model
of the airplane wing to see how it’s going behave under buffeting and so forth. We make models
of things. Sometimes mathematical, sometimes physical, whatever, those are models. Well,
… a model in the scripture we use the term type. It said … a figure,
an example of something in the future. We’re going to look at the classic model
in the Bible called Genesis 22. It has a Hebrew name called the akida. And it came to pass
after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him Abraham said unto him behold here
am I. He said take not thy son thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into
the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains
which I will tell thee of. Now this is a pretty interesting thing to say- notice He says "thine only son, Isaac." See Ishmael is not an issue. He's a son of the flesh not the spirit. So as far as God is concerned, he has one son - the son of the promise … the
son, Isaac. There’s another principle in the scripture
you want to be sensitive to. It’s called by the scholars the law of first mention.
When a thing is mentioned the first time in the Bible it usually is profoundly significant.
It’s usually definitive for some reason. You’ll notice here in this passage: "take
now thine only son lsaac whom thou lovest." This is the place in the Bible that the word
love first appears and it's significant because what this should echo to you - because we have a Father and a Son He loves. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 should echo in effect from this verse as you’ll see before we're finished.
"And get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon of the
mountains which I will tell thee of." By the time you get to Genesis 22, Abraham has really
learned his lessons. He’s had a lot of fall backs. He’s had a lot of lapses,
a lot of problems. He’s learned from these. When you get to Genesis 22 God says offer
your son, the next morning he takes off to do it. He doesn’t mess around.
"Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass and took" … notice he took 2 of his
young men with him and Isaac his son. So there’s 4 guys. Abraham, Isaac, 2 young men and their donkey "and clave the wood, the burnt offering, rose up and went unto the place of which God
had told him." He just takes off early the next morning no messing around. Gee, I'll pray
about it? No, no. He obeys. And they go from Beersheba which is a 3 day journey south of
Jerusalem to that region. Jerusalem isn’t there. Salem is but Melchizedek and all that we saw a few chapters earlier but I put Jerusalem on the map so you’ll recognize the geography here. "Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes,
and saw the place afar off." In the New Testament we’ll learn that as far as Abraham is concerned, Isaac was dead to Abraham when the commandment came. When God says offer your son as far a Abraham knows he’s as good as dead. On the 3rd day after the trip Isaac will be returned to Abraham. So how long was Isaac gone? 3 days. That’s prophetic of the 3
days in the tomb by the way. We’ll go on here. Abraham said unto his young men, "abide
ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder worship, and come again to you."
Watch and notice that phrase. These 2 guys that have come - you stay here at the bottom of the hill. He’s about 600 meters above sea level. He’s going to go up this ridge system called
Mt. Moriah and it’s going to go up about 177 meters, to offer Isaac but he says,
"we’re going to come and he’s going to come in". Abraham believed that
Isaac would be resurrected. He’s got an interesting mindset here. God wants Abraham to offer Isaac. Abraham’s point of view is God’s got a problem. I don’t have a problem. God promised me that Isaac is going to have children. So if God
wants me to offer Isaac, God’s going to have to raise him from the dead because God’s promised me … I know God's going to keep his promises. Do you understand the faith here? You understand
it’s not just that he … not just that he did what God said. That’s part of
it of course, but he also understood that God keeps his promises. God finds a different
way everyday to ask each of us, "do you trust Me?" Different ways. That’s what He’s doing here. Abraham took the young … wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his
son and took fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them in agreement, says
together in the … both of them together in English. Hebrew implies they went in agreement.
By the way don’t be victims of your Sunday school coloring books. There is reason to
believe that Isaac was probably 30 years old here. He wasn’t some kid that doesn’t
know what’s going on. "Isaac spake unto Abraham his father said, my father: he said, here am
I son. He said, behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
Isaac and Abraham going up the hill and he knows there’s going to be offering. What’s
going on here, dad? Where’s the lamb? And when we get to verse 8 I always used
to think this was just a stall. "Abraham said my son, God will
provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering so they went both of them together."
I first read that they’re both … he hasn’t told the kid what’s really up here, you
know. No, notice what Abraham said to Isaac. "My son, God will provide" - who? "Himself a lamb
for the burnt offering." I believe Abraham knew he was acting out prophecy and I'll prove
that to you before … in the next few verses. "Provide himself a lamb."
"They came to the place where God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son, laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take ... and took the knife to slay
his son." He’s ready to do the deed. And of course an angel stops him at the last minute.
Now where are they? Mt. Moriah is a ridge system between 2 valleys. The Tyropean valley to the west on the other side of which is Mt. Zion. Technically, Mt. Zion is used connotatively for the whole region of course. The Kidron Valley which separates Mt. Moriah from Mt. of Olives. So you’ve got a ridge Mt. of Olives to the east, Mt. Zion to the west and you’ve got
this ridge between the two. Along the south you have the
… Hinom Valley. And at the bottom is a place called Salem or Ophel the city
of David. It was a town back then because Melchidezek was a king and priest there. I
don’t think that Abraham offered Isaac in town. I think he went north to the peak. As you go north from … from about 600 meters above sea level this is a topographic map - when you go from
600 meters above sea level to about the 741 meters sea level, there’s
a saddle back. That will later become the threshing floor of Arunah that
David will buy to have a site for the temple, but they don’t stop there, that's still not the peak. You keep going further north, you get to about 777 meters
above sea level and you get to a place that’s called Golgotha.
Now Abraham may not have realized the detail to which he was enacting this, but 2000 years
later on that very spot, another Father will offer His Son as an offering for sin. You
and I beneficiaries of a love letter that was written in blood, written on a wooden cross erected in Judea some 2000 years ago. Of course the angel stops as … "Abraham,
Abraham. And the angel of the Lord called unto said Abraham, Abraham. You notice girls you always have to tell men twice. That’s scriptural. Eli, Eli, Abraham, Abraham, yeah.
He said -- "Where am I? He said lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do anything unto him for
now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son
from me." And Paul in Romans 8 makes capital of this.
"He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things?" Speaking of course none other than Jesus Christ. It’s
interesting in Leviticus where it talks about the key offerings here he says "he shall kill him
on the side of the altar northward before the Lord and the priests, Aaron’s sons shall
sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar." Notice that northward. It’s north of the
camp, north of the city that this takes place and that’s where Golgotha is, of course,
relative to Jerusalem. "Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked behold
there’s a ram caught in a thicket by the horns. Abraham went and took the ram, offered
him up for a brunt offering in the stead of his son." Substitutionary ram that will
be codified in the law of Moses later. "Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh
or yahveh-jirah - but anyway "it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord
it shall be seen". That’s the name that Abraham gives this spot. That name is prophetic in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. He realizes that this is prophetic in at least
in some … how much he knew is ... … is hard to second guess but clearly,
... The Book of Hebrews capitalizes on this.
In Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament "by faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac
and then he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it
was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him
up even from the dead and whence also be received him in a figure." In a figure or in a type.
See it was Abraham’s belief in the resurrection of Isaac that caused him
to be saved. It’s our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we’re saved. That’s
what the gospel's all about. Paul defines the gospel in first Corinthians 15 first
4 verses. You get to the book of Revelation it’s all
echoed again. Book of Revelation "I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne
a book written within and on the backside, sealed with 7 seals. And I saw a strong angel
proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?
And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth was able to open the book
neither to look thereon. And John says I sobbed convulsively because no man was found worthy
to open and to read the book neither to look thereon." Wow! we don’t understand what’s
going on but John did. He wept … sobbed … wept much or sobbed convulsively.
"And one of the elders saith weep not behold the Lion of the tribe of the Judah, the Root
of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals - the 7 seals thereof. And I
beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and the 4 beasts in the midst of the elders, stood" -
not a lion - "stood the lamb as it had been slain having 7 horns,
7 eyes which are the 7 spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. He came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne." And we have the closing of the
biggest escrow in the universe where Jesus Christ takes possession of that which He purchased
with His blood on the cross 2000 years ago. Back to Genesis 22 "And the angel of the Lord called
unto Abraham a second time and said by myself have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou hast
done this thing and hast not withheld thy son thine only son that in blessing I will bless
thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand
which is upon the sea shore and they seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast
obeyed my voice. Then we get to verse 19. I want you to make
a note of this in your Bible. So Abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up and went
together to Beersheba and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba. Remember that verse. I’m going
to come back to that in a minute. Two chapters later, next chapter, in chapter 23 Sarah dies there's a whole business there, then in Genesis 24 Abraham has another errand that he wants his business
partner to do. He commissions Eleazar to gather a bride for Isaac … to go back
to their home country and get a bride for Isaac. And Eleazar agrees to do this. He qua-
by the way, Eleazar, yes he’s a servant, but he’s actually his business partner.
If Abraham had died without issue Eleazar would have inherited his estate. Eleazar qualifies
her by a well. She agrees to marry the bridegroom she has never met. On the way back he gives
her gifts and he finally comes when he gets back to our … to where we are
back to Beersheba he joins her bridegroom at the well of the Lahai-Roi. What’s going
on here? Understand that Rebekah is picked by this eldest servant to be the bride of Isaac.
Okay? And, now Abraham is in the role of what? The Father. Remember Genesis 22?
Abraham is in the role of Father. Isaac was in the role of the Son, offered, right?
Here again, Abraham is …in the role of the Father. Isaac again as the Son or, in this case, the
bridegroom. Okay? Eleazar is in the role of the Holy Spirit sent to gather a bride for
the Son. And, the by the way, the word Eleazar do you know what it means in Hebrew? The
comforter. Yeah, isn't that fun? I want to come back now to Genesis 22 verse
19. Remember they’re up around the hill they’ve done the deed, they’re ready to
go home. Verse 19 says "Abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up and went together
to Beersheba and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba." They’re up on the hill Abraham
and Isaac go up on the hill. They have the deal up there. Angel intervenes. Great. Abraham
comes down the hill to these 2 young men they’ve left at the bottom of the hill, right? And
they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Who’s going home according to this verse?
Abraham and 2 young men, right? You understand? When we read this we take for granted and
I’m sure it’s true, that Isaac was there, too, right? But I want you to notice the Holy Spirit editing this text a little bit. Where’s Isaac? Where’s
Isaac? The person of Isaac is personally edited out of the record from the time that he’s
offered until he’s united with his bride at the well living water 2 chapters later.
The well of LaHai Roi is the well of the living one who sees me as what technically says.
I think this is fascinating because I see the Holy Spirit diddling with the
text in such a way it doesn’t destroy the meaning of the text as we read it. We understand
that Abraham and Isaac came down. The 4 guys took their donkey and went home. But
that’s not what it says. Isaac is … the reference to him is removed because
by doing so it fits the type. It fits the type. There are many places in the scripture
where the narrative - what actually happened - is adjusted just a little bit to fit a
larger purpose that God has in communicating this. One integrated design the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed. The Old Testament
is in the New Testament revealed. Augustine first noticed that. Well, the descendants of
Abraham we talked about Sarah, Hagar and Keturah. Sarah had, of course, Isaac. Hagar had Ishmael.
Katurah had a whole bunch of characters that become the sons of Katurah and we have what generally are called the Arabs. Midian … and the rest
of these guys. The Jokshan descendants become the Saudi Arabians, if you
will. The sons of Midian were the Bedouins pretty much. So we’ll go on here.
Under Ishmael - they had 12 princes under Ishmael, and, when Isaac marries Rebekah,
they have 2 sons Esau and Jacob. Jacob will be the son of the spirit. Esau the son of
the flesh. Let’s talk about Jacob a little bit. Ya’ Aqob means God protect. Aqeb
means heal or the word really means, it's very close to, aqob the deceitful or sly
or insidious one. So there’s a pun involved here. So you can translate
the word ya’qob or Jacob as the one who grabs the heel which is what he did when he
was born. He grabbed the heel of his older brother, or one who trips up.
Jacob will be a heel catcher. He’s going to be the conniver. He’s going to be the
con artist, if God can justify Jacob he can justify any of us. In Romans
chapter 9, Paul points out that for the children being not yet born referring to these 2 kids
neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might
stand not of works but of him that calleth. It was said unto her the elder shall server
the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. And God sees
this coming because Esau will have the stain for his birthright. Jacob will covet it.
So it’s interesting that Esau, after being rejected by all this, will marry
the Ishmaelites. So the descendants of Ishmael and Esau and also the descendants of Keturah
will comingle and they comingled to become what would generically call Arabs today.
The word Arabs are unfortunately a misnomer. It’s not a geographic term, or, it can be,
but it’s generally, an ethnic term. It’s interesting, there is no Arab
today that can trace his lineage back to Ishmael. He can’t because
none of these tribes maintained distinctiveness. They cross married, intermarried, so whether
it’s Esau or Ishmael you’re dealing with then the enemies of the people of God. The
enemies of Isaac and Jacob and their descendants and have been throughout history.
So when we’re dealing with tensions in the Middle East, you’re dealing with things
that are several thousand years old. Enmities that began between Esau and Jacob, in fact,
maybe even earlier, with Ishmael and the rest. So, the Lord said unto her that two nations are in thy womb and 2 manner of people shall be separated from thy
bowels and one people shall be stronger than the other and the elder shall serve the younger.
Esau was the first born and Jacob purchases his birthright from Esau - comes back from a
hunting trip and is very famished, so he agrees … he didn’t care for his birthright, so
he sold it to Jacob. And then there’s the formal endorsement of that in the fact by the
father that Jacob obtains by deceit and Jacob’s going to learn a lesson about deceit,
before it’s all over, too, because his sons are going to deceive him about this … death
of joseph and so forth. There are many ways to study your Bible. As
you probably gathered already, obviously, you can archeological historically what actually
happened from history or from archeological finds and that’s one way … that’s one
level of understanding. You can look at the theological or doctrinal issues. What does
this tell us about our relationship with God and His requirements. There’s
also comparative studies. You can compare verses with your
Old and New Testaments and you’ll … that will always be beneficial. And then
there’s a whole another form of study you might call devotional very personal where
you just bathe in the word of God itself and see what God speaks to you about it and those
all intermarry with each other. There’s … they’re not distinctive.
And devotional activity starts with observation. Who did what, where, and
when and then, the the interpretation is the why. the primary implications
of what you see. And then of course after all that there’s an application. You have
to answer the "so what" question. How does this affect me? So that’s what
the summary. All participants in this narrative were at fault. Isaac attempted to thwart God’s
plan by blessing Esau. Esau broke the oath he had made with Jacob. Rebekah and Jacob
tried to achieve God’s blessing by deception. Their victory would reap hated and separation.
Rebekah would never see Jacob again after he splits from that deception with
her. And Jacob alone did not destroy the family. Parental preference did. So there’s lots of lessons here. Parental favoritism is part of it which tore their family apart.
Spiritual insensitivity, the reliance on the senses rather spiritual discernment and the
whole role of deception. Jacob’s only hesitancy was his fear they would be cursed instead
of blessed that’s the reason he … he hesitated not for any deeper reason. He would later
learn that blessings are given by God and not gained by deceit. So there’s lots of
lessons here, if you take the time to really listen. And much of this is just wrestling with the end of self. Jacob’s cheated by his Uncle Laban. The 12 tribes are born to the 2 brides he has plus 2 handmaids. We’ll get into that a little bit. He will return to the land. He will wrestle … he
literally will wrestle until he gets to the end of himself when he acknowledges who
he really is, he will limp for the rest of his life. Then Jacob is finally reconciled to Esau. There's sin in the family when Dinah is revenged. I won’t
get into all that here and he returns to Bethel and then Benjamin is born but Rachel dies in childbirth. So, Benjamin is a very special child to Jacob. So we have the patriarchs. Abraham through Sarah, through Hagar has Ishmael but through
Sarah has Isaac. And then through Rebekah he has Jacob and Esau but under Jacob he has 2 wives Rachel and Leah. Leah has Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.
The first 4 children of Jacob and Leah. Rachel is barren so she’s upset by that. So she
gets the idea which was the practice in those days. She could have a substitute wife. Give her husband her handmaid to be a proxy wife so to speak. So Bilhah then has Dan and Napthali. Leah sees that going on so that’s a pretty
good idea I’ll do the same thing. So she gives him her handmaid, Zilpah, through whom
he has Gad and Asher. And by this time, Rachel finally has a child, Joseph. And because Jacob loved Rachel more than life itself, and so, Joseph, her firstborn, becomes especially
endeared to Jacob and we’ll get into all that shortly. Leah meanwhile has Issachar and Zebulan, and then, finally, Rachel has one more child, Benjamin, but dies in that childbirth. There you have the 12 tribes. But I should mention here probably so you
don’t get confused, there are more than 12 tribes. There are actually 13, in a sense, because
Joseph, when he’s down in Egypt, will have 2 sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and Jacob will
adopt them as his own. So if you want to have 12 tribes you can use the 12 I just mentioned,
but if you want to leave one out for some reason. For example, if you want the marching
order, knowing that Levi is a priest and doesn’t participate in the military, you leave Levi
out, you still can get 12 tribes, because, by leaving Levi out, instead of Joseph you have
Manasseh and Ephraim. So, you’ve got an alphabet of 13 to pick 12 from, so to speak.
When you get to the book of Revelation, you want to leave the tribe of Dan out.
The tribes are listed 20 times in the Bible. Each time in a different order, and each time
there’s somebody different that’s left out, but you’ll always still have 12. For
various reasons one or the other may be left out, but you make up the difference by
jockeying between Joseph whether it’s Joseph as the singular or Manasseh and Ephraim as
a pair. Do you follow me? So, if you have 13, you can leave 1 out and still have
a dozen, if you will. The tribe of Dan is conspicuous in his own
mission several places in the scripture, not the least of which is book of Revelation 7
… chapter 7 and Dan is left out. Ephraim isn’t mentioned either, but it’s
inferred with the back of the hand. And because Manasseh is mentioned and then
the tribe of Joseph is subsequently mentioned which is obviously, would be left - would be Ephraim. Dan is not mentioned. You still have the 12 tribes. So, you want to watch that
because there’s lessons in each one. Just be sensitive to it at this point.
In succession, Reuben was the first born. He would be the natural heir, but he was disavowed
because he had illicit relationships with his father’s concubine. And Simeon and Levi
were, sort of out of running because of their extremes at Shechem. There’s
an incident where they get unusually violent. That means Judah was next in line.
So, Judah is the royal line, and Judah is very key through the rest of the scripture. Not
always right, makes mistakes, but nevertheless, the royal line.
And Joseph is the favorite as firstborn from Rachel. Jacob’s favorite, and he, of course,
has his adventures in Egypt, as we'll see shortly. It’s interesting to notice how
often God bypasses the first born. Seth over Cain. Shem over Japheth.
Isaac over Ishmael. Jacob over Esau. Judah and Joseph ahead of Reuben. Moses ahead of
Aaron. Aaron was …was older than Moses. David ahead of all his brothers. So first
born is a basic rule but God is very sovereign to get around it when He feels like it, and
it’s very interesting. There’s a strange chapter in chapter 38
that will be skipped by most commentators. It’s sort of a sordid event that you sort
of wonder what on earth is it here for? And that’s Judah's sin with Tamar. It’s kind
of complicated but I’ll try to simplify it. We’re now going to look at the period
of just before the Exodus. Judah marries a gal by name of Shuah and has 3 sons.
A guy by the name of Er, Onan and Shelah. For Er, there is Tamar as his wife, but Er displeases
God, so God takes him out of the picture. That leaves Tamar without a husband.
There is a law of leverite marriage. What is supposed to happen if a husband dies
without leaving issue, it’s the implied obligation of a brother to raise up issue to the widow. And so, Judah instructs Onan to take Tamar to raise up issue, and, Onan declines to do that. He has sexual intercourse with her, but he spills the seed on he ground and that offends God. So, God takes him out of the picture. So, Tamar now has got that twice. Judah is looking this over and he’s not too excited about giving Shelah to Tamar. He’s just lost 2 of his 3 sons. So he tells Tamar to, in effect, set aside,
when Shelah is old enough, he will have Shelah, but he doesn’t … doesn’t follow through
on it. As time goes on, Tamar realizes that she’s been put on the back burner,
so to speak. So, she does a strange thing. She poses a prostitute. Apparently, in
those times the prostitute would wear a veil. She both dresses and
sets herself up on a hilltop as a prostitute, knowing that Judah would come by there, and
entices Judah into having relations. He doesn’t realize it’s his daughter-in-law. You follow me? And, he leaves some pledges that he would pay her - he’d give her a kid from the flock. Until he can get the flock he gives her signet and a staff as a pledge. And then later on, he gets his best buddy to take this kid back there to retrieve his things. By then she’s shut down, gone back home, and
put on her normal dress. And, so the guy can’t find her. There’s no prostitute on this hilltop anymore. There’s nobody here. He goes back. Judah is puzzled by the
whole thing, but doesn’t know quite what to do about it. Then he finds out, a few months later, that Tamar is pregnant, and is he livid. She’s going to be burnt. And she comes up, this is fine. Whose signet is this? And who’s staff is this? He realizes what’s happened, and he blames himself not her, because he recognizes
that the reason this happened was because he didn’t keep his promise and give her
Shelah as a husband. He says my sin is greater than hers. So it's a very sordid, strange
story, but the reason it’s important - she has twins, Zarah and Pharez.
And Zarah gets born first but his hand comes out first. They put a red thing on it, and then
the other one comes out first. So, he’s a breech birth in effect. But Pharez
is regarded as the heir, and he is then in the genealogy of Jesus Christ because of Judah
through Tamar and Pharez is in the royal line. That’s why it’s here at all. Okay?
Zarah, by the way, by some non-biblical sources I understand, may have been the one that succeeded
Joseph when Joseph died in Egypt, and becomes the leader of the Hyksos - the shepherd kings -
that later migrate away before all the rest of it, but anyway, the reason
I’m getting into this, is because, there’s ... I want you to understand this concept
of the Levirite marriage. It's very important later in the scripture.
It comes from the word, not … not the levitical levir from the levir - husband’s brother.
It’s codified in the Torah and Deuteronomy 25. It also deals with
the role of the Goel - the kinsman redeemer. Jesus Christ is going to play that role we’ll
talk abbot that when we get to the book of Ruth in great depth where Jesus, our
kinsman redeemer, in this role. And it’ll deal with the ultimate redemption which was
… occur in Revelation 5. But I want to show you something that people
miss in the text of Genesis 38. They say what is this weird story during right the middle
of this really neat story coming with Joseph and all that. Well, it turns out that at 49
letter intervals we have the name of Boaz, that’s kind of curious. At 49 letter intervals,
you also have the name of Ruth. At 49 letter intervals, again you have the name of Obed,
and at 49 letter intervals, you have Yishay which we would say Jesse. And then at 49 letter
intervals, you have the name of David. What’s interesting about this is, you have
Boaz, Ruth, Obed, Jesse and David - that is the family tree of David in 49 letter intervals.
They’re in chronological order centuries before the book of Samuel and the whole monarchy
altogether. This is in the Torah. This is in the 5 books of Moses. You need to understand this is in Genesis. After that comes Exodus and all of that. Then
comes Leviticus. Then comes Numbers, then Deuteronomy, Moses dies, then Joshua and they conquer the land. After that generation you have the book of
Judges and after the book of Judges you’ve got Samuel which finally gets to the house
of David. The house of David the family tree of course, is the family tree of the king of
the universe, Jesus Christ. But how astonishing it is to find this anticipated in the very
structure of the text in Genesis 38. See the truth is in the details. Did
you get all these it’s kind of boring. No, stand back, and realize what’s
going on here. God’s fingerprints are all over this thing. There is no way that Moses
could know in advance the genealogy of David. Samuel didn’t know about it until the time
came. He got the youngest brother and when he goes out to selection and so forth. And,
you’ll find this family tree here. We’ll discover it’s hidden, tucked away, if you
will, in the book of Ruth. But, kind of fun stuff. Well then we get to the career of Joseph.
I’m not going to spend a lot time in this because you can just sit there and read it.
It’s very readable. Joseph of course is favored. He’s the first born of Rachel,
has the coat of many colors as it’s often called. He dreams of … he has these
strange dreams of ascendancy. The sheaves, the sun, the moon, the stars
bow to him and so forth, and he’s sold into slavery by his brothers. They’re going to
kill him, but they got talked out of that. When he gets to Egypt, he’s imprisoned by
Potiphar, because his wife tried to put the make on him and … and he wouldn’t do it
so she spread the lies. I think Potiphar knew she was lying or he would have had him killed, but
he nevertheless had to do something to save face so he was imprisoned. While imprisoned he interprets
dreams of the baker and the wine steward. Again, he got the bread and wine theme there,
the butler and the baker. And he, of course, then when pharaoh has some dreams that he can’t interpret they remember - oh there’s a guy
in prison that knows how to do that - and he, of course, interprets the famous dreams of
pharaoh. The 7 fat cows, the 7 lean cows, the 7 plump heads of grain, and the 7 thin heads
of grain - pointing out there’s going to be 7 good years then 7 famine years. So, Joseph, of course, is called to interpret this. And because he interprets this to pharaoh’s
pleasure, pharaoh puts him in charge. He becomes the prime minster of the world.
Pharaoh ruled the world in those days. Joseph is the prime minister to administer this during
the plump days to get ready for the famine. Then when the famine does hit, it brings the
brothers there to beg for food. And he doesn’t … they don’t know who it is. Incredible drama. You just read it. You don’t have to add to it. He keeps Simeon
as a hostage to get Benjamin to come. On the second visit Benjamin is with him. And
one of the most touching scenes in the entire literature is when Joseph finally reveals
to his brothers, that the one that they sold into slavery they … they thought was dead,
is now the prime minister of the world. You've got to be kidding!
What … and he loves them and he … he says you meant it for evil, but
God meant it for good. He recognizes all this was to preserve the family for God’s
purposes. And Jacob and the rest of the family migrate to Egypt and that’s how they get
into until Egypt, until Joseph dies and that sets the stage, of course, for the Book
of Exodus. Before the Book closes, in Genesis 49, Jacob, as he’s dying, prophesies over
each of the 12 tribes. Little enigmatic riddles that you want to study. I’ll just give you
one of them to give you an example. He speaks of Judah. He says the scepter shall
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come the messiah
comes. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. It’s very interesting to
know, that the scepter refers to the tribal identity, and the right to apply and enforce
mosaic laws - namely capital punishment. Shiloh is a term meaning belongs
to the messiah. It turns out Herod the great dies, Antipater
was murdered, and Herod Archelaus is appointed by Caesar Augustus. He’s dethroned and banished.
Caponius is appointed procurator in about 6 to 7 AD. There’s a transfer of power that
Josephus talks about. It’s interesting that Caponius takes away their ability to administer
capital crimes. That’s why when Jesus is going to be crucified the have to go to Pilate
to get permission. They don’t have the right for capital punishment. It was taken away
by Caponius between 6 and 7 AD. What’s interesting is that Jerusalem
Talmud records that when that happened the priests … the high priest and the rest
put on sack cloth and ashes and marched around Jerusalem because they said "woe unto
us, for the scepter has departed from Judah and the messiah has not yet come."
They knew that since the scepter departed by their definition that the … they felt that the word of God had been broken. They recalled in Genesis 49 that Jacob had
predicted that the scepter would not depart from Judah until the messiah comes. The scepter
departed woe unto us the word of God is broken. that’s their view. What they didn’t know
was, while they were doing that, up in Nazareth there’s a young kid in a carpenter shop.
And there were some that did recognize that. Simeon and Ana and some others.
Levi is also important one to understand They were exempt from military duty. They
were also born into the sons of Aaron which were the priests. Not all Levites
are priests. The sons of Aaron were priests. They were teachers of the law and they were
also the judges. And they guarded the king’s person. They’re sort of like the Pretorian Guard. They’re not military, but yet they were the Pretorian Guard for
the king’s safety in his house. So, anyway, that sets the stage for the
next time. In the next 1 hour session, we’re going to try to put in broad perspective the
rest of the Torah. We spent the first 4 on Genesis because it’s basically a foundation. Exodus will deal with the birth of the nation. Leviticus
the law of the nation. Numbers the wilderness wanderings before they get to the land, and
in Deuteronomy which is basically 3 sermons by Moses, the laws are reviewed and it’s
wrapped up. So that will be our challenge for hour number 5.
Let’s stand for a closing word of prayer. Well Father we just
praise You for who You are. We thank You for this opportunity You provided for us.
We recognize that there are no accidents or coincidences in Your kingdom that we're all
here right now by Your divine appointment. So Father we would just claim that commitment
of Yours that You would teach us all things. We pray Father that You would just reignite
in each of us a new hunger, a new passion for Your word that we each might grow and
grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior that we each might become more fruitful stewards
of the opportunities that You place before us that we might be more pleasing in Your
sight. So Father, we do just commit not just this
evening but ourselves into Your hands. We just ask you, Father, that You would make ever more
clear what You would have of us in the days that remain as we commit ourselves into Your
hands without any reservation in the name of Yeshua our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Amen.
