Romans (Session 13) Chapter 9b

well we are in session 13 of our review of the epistle of the romans and we focus primarily this is the second of three sessions on chapter nine focusing in large measure on the doctrine of election and uh as you know the book of romans the first eight chapters was doctrinal itself climaxing in the tour de force of chapter eight the next three chapters 9 10 11 you could call dispensational where we focus on israel it's past it's present it's future and we of course are in that section in fact specifically in section 9. if god is so faithful to his word as we celebrate it in romans 8 that none he has justified can be condemned that was the commitment he made in romans 8 as you recall and none in him can be separated right wasn't that the great clarion call of the climax of chapter 8 if that's true then why have the israelites who were sovereignly chosen by god and given unconditional promises how come they've completely failed and then been rejected interesting problem we bask in the assurance that we have in romans 8 and yet we can't help but ponder the fact that israel who was sovereignly chosen and had unconditional promises apparently have failed and been rejected this is an issue that's picked up in chapter 9 that first was echoed in chapter 3 back there remember romans 3 what advantage and half the jew or what prophet is there of circumcision much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of god for what if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect so their unbelief is at the root of this of course and so so what advantage does the jew have and romans 9 from the previous session summarized ten advantages of the jew who are israelites to whom pertain at the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law the service of god and the promises whose are the fathers of whom as concerning the flesh christ came and who is over all god bless forever there's actually ten benefits here that the jews in effect have they received the words of god of course as romans 3 said they're called israelites the term means princes of god you see they were adopted as sons as deuteronomy 7 echoed and of course the other the glory the shechenah has come to no other nation on the planet earth only to israel under certain conditions and then of course the covenants four key covenants we isolated they're focused on the abrahamic covenant that's the basis of all our privileges not just those of us that are jewish but all of us whatever benefits we have derived from the abrahamic covenant it's important to understand and this covenant is being challenged by the world today that's what that's what the un is all about that's what the eu is all about etc the second covenant is also unconditional is a palestinian covenant that grant the land grant to abraham and that's being challenged by the world in general and islam in particular today the whole debate everything going on that you read in the paper are echoes of either the world or islam satan attacking these covenants and it's a very few people that read their paper would have any perception to really understand how this in in cosmic terms but then we get to another covenant many people who have studied the unconditional covenants of the old testament and that's a small percentage of christians even they have overlooked in large measure the davidic covenant and that's in some respects the most important of all to you and me that becomes a surprise the davidic covenant is being challenged by most churches nine out of ten churches i suspect are a millennial they don't believe in a literal kingdom coming on the earth that christ is really going to rule they don't see the floor plan and the ezekiel that lays out the the temple etc so and then of course the everlasting covenant is also widely misunderstood especially in churches they quote jeremiah 31 31 as the everlasting covenant it was given to israel these are all four of these covenants were given directly to israel all four are unconditional very important point there are other con covenants that are conditional require uh obedience and the mosaic others these are unconditional very important for us to understand that and uh everlasting coming is with israel in spite of the fact that many churches try to twist this so it involves them ten advantages of the jews were listed though we list five of them so far the giving of the law of course the service that is the temple services the special promises of a future kingdom the fathers of the faith are another advantage that the jews have abram isaac and jacob and so on and the messiah himself the fact that jesus christ became a jew a man and is a is a man today sitting on the throne of god so on his father's throne at the moment okay so in romans 4 we went through those 10 uh examples and then went on oh and this is galatians it keep key key passage in galatians and this i say that the covenant that was confirmed before of god in christ the law which was 430 years afterwards cannot disannul in other words these commitments are prior to the giving of the law don't get confident confused that it should make the promise of non-effect for if the inheritance be of the law it is no more a promise but god gave it to abraham by promise it was given before the law 430 years before the law unconditional very key point and then anyway romans 5 continued whose are the fathers of whom as concerning the flesh christ came and who is over all blessed forever in other words the last of those 10 was christ himself well why is this all so important why do we spend so much time on this or why did paul spend so much time because of the summary of the purpose and tragedy of all human history and we find that summarized in matthew 23 the last three verses the summary the purpose of all history the tragedy of all history and the triumph is all summarized for us in the last few verses of matthew and the other reason this all ties together is because the davidic covenant impacts each of us in this room more than we can imagine the davidic covenant gene we think we'll have houses with david no no no has something new much bigger much bigger matthew's primary theme in his gospel was the kingdom of heaven only matthew uses that term all the other writers use kingdom of god which is everything no there's a subset of that a very specific part of that that matthew focus on he calls it the kingdom of heaven very different the purpose of all history the tragedy of all history the triumph of all history and what is he talking about in verse 37 of matthew 23 jesus says as he comes over that uh uh mountain right his donkey servant oh jerusalem jerusalem thou that kill us the ser the prophets and stones them which are sent unto thee how often would i have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings that was the purpose of all history for the messiah to come and set up his kingdom what's the tragedy of all history but you would not and then jesus pronounces upon israel their blindness behold he said you would not behold your house is left unto you desolate this is where it's announced because of their rejection but that's not the end of it we have the purpose and the tragedy fortunately there's a third aspect to this the triumph of all history because jesus for i say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till you shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the lord there is a day when christ is returning to set up that kingdom that they rejected then he's going to come and take it and set it up by force and astonishing how important that is and yet how overlooked it is until ye shall say see their conversion their national repentance is a prerequisite to that step interestingly enough and that's predicted in hosea the last verse of chapter 5 of hosea where god says i will go and return to my place how can you return if he hasn't left it he must have left this place i will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and they seek my face that's singular and specific in their affliction they shall seek me earnestly and that's of course what the tribulation all that's all about see the destiny of israel it's amazing how we as christians new testament christians miss the whole point of everything by not understanding the old testament and the role of israel the destiny it's the missing key to what people call systematic theology if you go to any pastor's study you will probably find a set of books typically a dozen volumes or so give or take on theology depending on their background the tradition he comes from it'll be by whomever is the systematic theologian of that particular tradition and the table of contents the content maybe of these books maybe a little different depending on the backgrounds and perspectives and the emphasis but the table of contents will be the same virtually in all of them there'll be a a set uh on bibliology study the bible theology property the attributes of god christology the study of the lord jesus christ pneumatology as they call the study of the holy spirit ain't geology study of angels fallen and unfallen anthropology which is the theological term for the study of man of course soteriology that's the fancy word for salvation study of salvation we've been into that quite a bit of course in the first three chapters book of romans of course ecclesiology the church this is an overlooked most people who think the church can go through the tribulation have two problems they have a problem in eschatology they also have a problem in ecclesiology they don't understand what the church is the church in israel are mutually exclusive in some strange ways but anyway ecclesiology study the church and then of course the last times the end times eschatology the fancy word there is a subject missing in each one you could any set of system systematic theology you go through you'll find a table of cons essentially looking like this and if you examine it you'll discover it's missing a topic in the list that constitutes five sixths of the bible it's a topic that is dominant in terms of its emphasis all through the scripture and it's missing and that topic is israelogy studying israel as an instrument of god's plan of redemption on the planet earth not just for israel say for all of our sakes that's the way god's chosen to do it arnold him down got his doctorate by plugging that hole if you will now it's these two topics israelogy and ecclesiology that need to be studied side by side because they are distinctive they have different origins different missions the church and israel have different origins and different destinies actually missions are a little different too the interval in daniel 9 the famous four verses that the angel gabriel gave daniel the constitute so-called 70 week thing has a interval in it and verse 26 the first verse 24 is the scope of the whole thing 25 is this incredible prediction to the very day that the messiah would present himself as king the last of the four verses is the end time so-called seventh week of annual in between the fir the 69 and the last one there's this weird interval verse 26. after seven and three scores there's seven after three scored two weeks shall the messiah be karate executed but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary in the end there shall be with the flood and at the end of the war desolations are determined executed yes the messiah will be executed it's mentioned in daniel it's mentioned in psalm 22 it's mentioned in isaiah 53 all through the old testament it's interesting that it's a kaduri arguably the most venerated rabbi in the extreme orthodox community in israel passed away over a year ago had a little handwritten message sealed for one year after his death which was just unveiled a few weeks ago in which he admits that the name of the messiah was yeshua and that the two messiahs they tradition look for are one in the same and so on interesting and the princes shall come now this is a title of course of this world leader that has 33 titles in the old testament and he's the one at the his people that destroyed the city in the sanctuary and of course that's a matter of history today so here we have the first 69 weeks in verse 25 the last week in verse 27 and this strange verse between these two which indicate to us that they're not contiguous because in this interval we have christ executed and we have the city and the sanctuary destroyed that that's 38 years there's actually even more than that almost 2 000 in this interval but it's about over and the most documented period time in the entire bible is the 70th week and that's in front of us not far away now even the rabbis have confirmed this interestingly enough that the this this passage is messianic and it would occur prior to the temple being destroyed and uh the messiah to exit prior to 33 a.d and that's the midrash better sheet in the in the midrash and i'm indebted to yakov prash to point this out to me that was exciting to know in any case blindness was declared upon israel these things now your house has left you desolate right in luke 19 jesus as he's riding that donkey into jerusalem he weeps over jerusalem saying because if thou has known even thou at least in this thy day the very day that the very day that gabriel told daniel it says the things which belong to their peace but now they are hid from thine eyes permanently no paul is going to tell us in romans chapter 11 exactly how long that's going to take israel is blinded we notice that they're astonishingly blind to the realities that we see in the in their own texts and yet that blindness is about to be relieved according to daniel 11 we'll take a look at that when we get there they're hidden from their eyes when we get to romans chapter 11 paul will say i would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery lest he should be wise your own conceits that blindness in part has happened to israel for how long until the fullness of the gentiles become in two interesting words there until whenever you see the word until that implies a milestone that happened it is until the fullness of the gentiles not the times the gentiles the of gentiles different different terms we come in come in where the gentiles will be caught up indeed indeed well israel and the church they have different origins missions and destinies and this the teaching of the church that somehow the church has replaced israel is a tragic form of teaching because it denies israel its place in god's program and that's what romans chapter 9 10 11 hammers away on that's why we're dealing with this and the other thing is it offends many people for me to say it this way but to hold a replace to teach a replacement view becoming pretty close to calling god a liar i don't know how else to say it more gently and it certainly has laid the basis for christian anti-semitism because the the holocaust in israel in germany was laid at the feet of the churches in europe that didn't preach against it in fact encouraged it and hal lindsey wrote a book called the the the uh the next holocaust in fact he wrote it in our apartment in those days but he uh that points out that the same view that led to the holocaust in germany is going to lead to the next one and anyway the 70-week prophecy deals specifically with israel and paul all through his epistles divides the world into three parts the jews the gentiles and the church as a third distinctive you're in the church you're neither jew nor gentile you're in the church in the body of christ first corinthians 10 32 is your reference these distinctives uh reappear after revelation 4. and right now those distinctives were all in one but after and we see the church disappears after revelation 4 and the jews re-emerge as a major player from revelation 5 to the end this interval is implied interestingly enough in 24 locations in the scripture i think that number is very interesting the interval is defined as from from luke 9 42 jesus declaration of their blindness till it's relieved in romans 11 25. this is the period of the church and this is an eric that was kept secret in the old testament jesus says so in matthew 13 and paul amplifies this in ephesians 3 and that's all background i encourage you to study out on your own the church had some prerequisites the atonement the resurrection and the ascension were prerequisites to the church being born the spiritual gifts of the holy spirit were gifted only after the ascension very distinctly jesus said that he had to go so that could happen now so the church in effect was born at pentecost israel was born in exodus four they're born in they went down to egypt as a family came out as a nation and god speaks of them as his firstborn coming out of egypt but the church was born at pentecost okay now the church has a mystery character there's the body concept in ephesians 3. the idea of the holy spirit indwells every believer is a distinctive that paul is just flabbergasted at as a pharisee he understands the significance of that and we have out of the church comes the bride of christ ephesians 5. and that we the church is subject to the harbats all those dead in christ both dead and alive will be gathered together very distinctive unique miracle and it was born in a miracle it ends in a miracle as one new man in both the ephesians 2 and then also so characterized in revelation 12 the fifth verse and uh so the chur the church is distinguished from both jews and gentiles if you're in the church you're distinct first corinthians 10 32. okay we can go on and on about that i encourage you as you study come to those insights as you go but we have the nation israel the diaspora occurs of course at the fall of the temple in 70 a.d and we have the the the the the the wandering jew characterize the planet earth up until may 14th of 48 when israel is reborn if you will the church was established um obviously in in pentecost that's a few decades prior to the temple coming down and the diaspora beginning the church continues of course and it's continued beyond israel being restored but there's a point coming where the davidic kingdom is going to be established and that's why suddenly these unconditional covenants in the old testament becoming of paramount importance to all of us and we should get a clue from that from in matthew because he he uses a term only he uses this term the kingdom of heaven as distinctive of the kingdom of god many of the same things that the luke and mark talk about he calls king of god he calls the kingdom of heaven and yet is it just a choice of terms because he prefers it no 33 times he uses kingdom of heaven five times he uses kingdom of god so they must be somehow distinct and from that that key unlocks a whole bunch bunch of insights so um nan and i are going to try to develop that in the book that we're coming out with to find i hope that be useful why is all this so important because it all ties to the primary purpose tragedy and triumph of history that we just went through and that's one of the reasons we touch upon to put this in perspective we need to refresh our memory on the eschatological heresies that we're uh confronted with and most of this will be reviewed to you if you've been through learning the bible 24 hours or a background are here you know that we're trying to talk about amillennialism and post-millennialism and pray millennialism as the three main eschatological perspectives that are in the church today a millennial amillennialism is a is the church's traditional denial of a literal kingdom on the planet earth they tried to make this just some big complex allegory and that's non-scriptural frankly and it it's it it violates the unconditional covenants that god has laid out post millennialism says well gee there's some ima right we're already in it or it's behind it's behind us well that's that was a popular view up until the 20th century the 20th century the bloodiest century in the history of man has pretty well shredded that point of view the way somebody else puts it is that uh if if we're in the millennium then satan's chain is too long and most of us would be categorized in this in this structure as premillennial we believe in a literal millennium for lots of reasons it's the only thing that rationalizes all the different uh scriptures together in a package now the early church had its report cards written in seven letters by jesus christ himself seven report cards by our lord who lays out the all of them were surprised that's interesting you read those seven letters that represent collectively all churches they were all surprised those who thought they were doing well were not those that were thought they were doing poorly were doing better than they thought two had nothing good said about them to him had nothing bad said about it interesting profile you need to do that homework to really understand god's perspective of the church because all churches have elements of all seven in them but looking at historically the key guy in the early days back in the second century third century origen and also known as origins and he was a surnamed adamantius he was born in alexandria student of clement of alexandria and he becomes a leading teacher of theology in the most influential catechetical school in the early in that early ancient world and he was so intent on trying to harmonize the new testament with with that uh the teachings of philo and others the the hellenist the greek philosophers that he very effectively introduced and then spread a way of interpreting the scriptures allegorically these things didn't really happen there are instructional allegories for our learning as the basically the flavor of it it became very influential so influential influential that led to this replacement theology church theologians began to develop the idea that israel the israelites had permanently forfeited all the covenants by rejecting their messiah and those benefits then fall upon the church and so that the church is now the true israel this is a concept that emerged from the teachings of origin and this also taught that the jews will never again have any future as divinely chosen people and that the messiah will never establish a little messianic kingdom on the earth that was promised to them that's basically what comes out of this so it's a form of denying god's word strangely enough so this pervades to up until the fourth century with augustine who is a very powerful influential leader in those days and wrote marvelous things nailing a number of serious heresies to the wall he did a good job but and he became he's the famous bishop of hippo and if you don't know where hippo is that's where in a place today it's called algeria anaba algeria incidentally but in any case it was a very powerful church in those days and he adopted origen's method of hermeneutics and that was a tragedy he wrote 22 influential books 10 of them were polemics against pantheism 12 traced the theological philosophy of history and he was the one that systematized this allegorically based hermeneutics of origin and that dominated the church for over a thousand years that led to the dark ages and all the rest in effect and so even the reformation when it comes along fails to challenge origins allegorically based eschatology now you need to understand that the early church became very anti-semitic and astonishingly so was the reformation you'd be many lutherans are shocked to discover some of the papers that luther wrote and the church in general had adopted a very anti-semitic attitude in the first place but they really embraced and taught this idea that the church has replaced israel israel is no longer relevant and that's not biblical that leads to a view that's called no millennialism in a millennial the homilies does not believe that christ will personally reign on the earth for liberal thousand years we do that's what the scripture says they define an allegorical millennium extending from his resurrection to the time of the second coming on the clouds at the end of this age the rescue is very simple it's going to be just he's going to come back there'd be one general erection that then it's over we all go to heaven and the earth's over that's sort of i'm not being fair but that's roughly the perspective and that there'll be a final one last judgment of all mankind at one time and so forth that's not what the bible says there are seven different judgments there's judgments of israel there's judgment of the gentiles there's judgment of this there's judgment there's all kinds and they're all detailed and it's all spelled out post millennium is it means after the millennium and it says christ will only come after the spirit empowered church has established god's kingdom on the earth a number of leaders today pat robertson and others believe it's the church's job to prepare the world for the messiah to return they got it backwards where the words can get worse and worse until the messiah takes it over and but that's this is this is what sometimes called kingdom now or uh dominionness it's all derivative examples by progressively subduing the world and taking dominion over that's what they believe that's what that's that's the justification for christians to get active in politics and other kinds of things and a variation of this view is that we're already in the millennium things are getting better and better every day well all you have to do is i get tired of listening to the news it's depressing and it's astonishing to compare our childhood with kids today you know i won't start on that that's again from augustine to auschwitz is a is a perspective of that history from millennialism replacement theology denies the specificity and durability of a davidic covenant and makes god's explicit promises suspect to be put up politely this has historically the anti-semitism and will again which is the reason i'm hitting this so hard and helen's road to holocaust is a classic in this band of books you can get it in any it's a classic and he uh happened to pick it up the other day to check something i noticed he'd endorsed the flyleaf because he he wrote in nana and in our apartment in those days where we were that's kind of fun anyway why is all this important because of the summary of the purpose tragedy and triumph of all history and because the davidic covenant impacts every one of us in this room and you'll by the end of next session you'll see one of the reasons why our personal destinies yours and mine are all wrapped up with what's going to occur in the davidic kingdom now at this point in the book of romans paul is now going to delve into one of the thorniest briar patches of all of these issues the issue of divine election predestination versus free will if we're predestined do we really have free choice that has been a classic conflict or paradox in philosophy in in in the memory of man philosophers that's beside from theology have argued about that faith versus free will they sound like they're contradictions they're contradictions only if viewed from within the time dimension because when the time dimension we either can choose or not choose and if somebody knows that we've chosen then we apparently didn't have real choice well that's not true if the one that knows what we're going to choose is outside time who knows the end from the beginning there's no conflict yes you have free choice he just happens to know what you're going to do because one of the things god can't do he can't learn you can't surprise him okay so it's a con it's a paradox only when viewed with an inadequate sense of physics if you understand that time is a physical property and god is outside time it changes everything anyway i'll spare you my long view of that i think most of you have heard me develop that a number of a number of other occasions we'll keep moving here in luke chapter four jesus opens his his uh ministry by quoting from isaiah 61 verse 1 and 2 we often comment about that his mandate he announces this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears and so forth at that same occasion in the synagogue at nazareth a few verses later it continues says verily i say unto you no prophet is accepted in his own country but i tell you for truth many widows were in israel in the days of elias but when the heaven was shut up with three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land but none of them unto none of them was elijah sent save unto set up to the city of sidon unto a woman that was a widow he's giving a giving a little sermon here he says okay there are a lot of widows around there's only one that elijah took care of the scale up in near up near sidon then he goes on he says and many lepers were in israel at the time of elisa's i don't confuse elijah the first one with the elisha as we would say the prophet different guy a successor many lepers weren't in israel time by license but not but none of them was cleansed saving name and the syrian so jesus mentions two examples of two people that were benefited by israel's most famous prophets the two of the most famous prophets in the next verse it says on all day in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust them out of the city and led them onto the brava hill whereupon their city was built that they might cast them down headlong you know that's kind of a violent reaction to when someone doesn't like a sermon i probably have given messages up here that have offended a number of people never enough to pick me up and try to find a hill to throw me off of what's going on fortunately it says the last line by and by and he passing through the midst of him went about his way somehow he slipped away no surprise i mean he's god after all okay but uh what on earth is why are they so upset because of the two examples he chose to understand this you've got to look behind the scenes here and understand what the text is saying to there are many widows but only to a gentile in sidon was elijah said there were many lepers in israel but only unto naaman the syrian the general of the same the enemy of israel did elisha heal in effect see what jesus is alluding to here is the doctrine of election and the the the thing he's talking about god and the sovereignty can choose who he likes but the two examples he chose are non-jewish that did not go over to that jewish crowd okay because they thought they were the chosen people so so paul's jumping right into one of the thorniest things at all he's also going to deal with another issue if we have assurance of these unconditional covenants what about israel has god kept his word to them there's these two lurking things that deal with the sovereignty of god that's what we're getting into here so now we're at verse 6 not as though the word of god hath taken none of the sex for they are not all israel which are of israel in other words everybody's of israel is not necessarily spiritual israel that's really what he's saying in fact okay and uh so he doesn't say that they're not not all he doesn't say that there were not any saying not all of them were they were within israel there were some that were spiritual israel most of them were fleshly israel if you want to put it that way so what is an israelite okay this is a key question today in israel the big issue defining what is a jew the majority in israel of course are agnostic humanists they're not believers at all i was once traveling on a plane with a very prominent jewish attorney we're heading to washington to meet with the head of the sec for some issue but the point is as we're on the plane we talk about things he knew about my biblical background and i and he was pointing out that he's trying to raise his kids to be more aware of his jewish background not for the theology but for the just for the tradition and i said you got that backwards he said no i'm an agnostic jew says chuck do you know what an agnostic jew is i knew something was coming and said oh what's an agnostic too is that's a jew who knows what the god he doesn't believe requires of him isn't that great i love that anyway in galatians there's a verse that many people misunderstand because the the name israel is used 75 times in 73 verses in the new testament and every one of them it refers to national israel and some will say well not what about galatians 6 16. galatians says for in christ jesus neither circumcision avail of anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature for as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the israel of god and they use this expression to say there's an israel of god that's you know that israel is of god or it's not of god no what is missing is there is a in the in the greek it it refers to uh the mutual exclusiveness there's a kai there where it's translated and but in the greek it means it includes yet distinguishes an israel of god that means the israel of god is still within the national israel but it's a subset you follow me it's the same sense that the body of christ is within the body of christ but it's not one the two aren't necessarily equal romans 9 7 neither because they are the seed of abraham are they all children oh man that's a shocking statement if you're a midianite an ishmaelite or an enamite because you're all sons of abraham and proud of it no no it says this but in isaac shall thy seed be called is what he's telling us here if you look at the descendants of abraham of course he had three wives that we know of sarah of course that's isaac right hagar her handmaid that gave birth to ishmael and he had 12 tribes also not the 12 tribes of later come from jacob of course but then he also remarries katura and has a handful under him the midianites the midianites those are different in others and from jakshan one of those six comes sheba and didan which we normally associate with saudi arabia and under midian you have about five other tribes that are known today as the bedouins okay now the point of all of this is isaac has uh uh uh he saw and jake uh asan jacob the twins we're gonna talk about that a little bit he saw us a big study for us tonight but esau who gets who forfeits his inheritance he deliberately to offend his parents marries canaanites and subsequently ishmaelites and so descendants of edom in the sense of ishmael are commingled there isn't anyone today that can really traces his lineage back to ishmael why because those tribes did not maintain separate separate records you know separation that was something that was uh not distinctive in their culture we collectively in the media at least use the term arabs for this group of people they're not arabs in the in in the geographic sense necessarily but uh they they're what they are what they do have in common is islam but they do have his income they're muslims anyway so not because they are so we're going to take first case of three cases one is isaac not ishmael is the emphasis isaac but not ishmael in isaac shall i see it be called and isaac was the intentional product of a miracle that he had nothing to do with the point paul's going to imply here or make is that isaac it wasn't anything he did that made him special he was deemed special declared special before he's born and he's drawing an analogy for you and me okay this is this is he's talking about the sovereignty of god and uh so isaac was an intentional product of a miracle so was the nation israel that's what the exodus was all about and so is the church that's what acts 2 is all about that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of god but the children of the promise are counted for the seed so neither ishmael nor the sons of hagar couture are involved here none of them inherited the promises we're talking about they did have some promises but not these and only the as only isaac was on the promise to inherit and in john 3 the midnight visit of nicolas christ he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is what spirit you bet you so that's the word of god failure spiritual israel has never included all of physical israel you find that in several places and this is a staggering blow to those that like to talk about the brotherhood of man there's a theme in our secular literature that we're all brothers you know and the universal fatherhood of god that sort of thing that's not scriptural it's not in fact it's anti-scriptural jesus by the way clarified fatherhood a little bit and some passages that i'd love to take a look at here in john chapter 8 one of my favorite passages i'm resisting the attempt to the temptation go through the chapter jesus i am the one that bear witness of myself and the father had sent me beareth witness of me then they the pharisees around him said where is thy father ooh you understand what the slur is there see psalm 69 tells you that when jesus grew up in nazareth those 30 years were not pleasant years the drunkards down the bar made up songs about he and his mother his own bro his own half brothers made were upset because they didn't know his father was they anyway they throw that up to him here where's thy father jesus said you know you neither know me nor my father if you'd known me you should have known my father also he do the deeds of your father so he's going to explain who their father is then to them we were not born a fornication don't let the plight king james translation throw you we're not bastards is the way we'd put it in our english probably we have one father even god you said if god were your father you would love me before i proceeded forth and came from god neither came i of myself but he sent me why do ye not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my word ye are of your father who that was very tactful and the lust of your father you will do he was a murderer from the beginning and about not in the truth because there is no truth in him see the first murder was not cain and abel first murder was by satan calling adam and eve to die when he speak of the lie he's speaking of his own for he is a liar and the father of it who anyway your father abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad now that threw them of course that said the jews on them thou art not yet 50 years old and thou seen abraham jesus said verily verily i said to you before abraham was i am and they would recognize the linguistics because he's claiming to be the voice in the burning bush before moses and anytime that you might miss something like that they come to your rescue when you and i as gentiles miss a point the pharisees always underline it for you by they took up stones to cast at him but jesus hit himself went out of the temple and going through the midst of them and so passed by so i am the i am that i am back to romans 9 for this is the word of promise at this time will i come and sarah shall have a son that's the promise of course to abraham and he's quoted in genesis 17 and 18 and so on noticed that she and abraham this happened when they received their new names remember this heck this breath we talked about this when we talked about alphabet a little while ago and uh heck the abbreviation abraham the god just added a hey in the middle of the name the spirit the abbreviation of the holy spirit sarah sarai became sarah the only difference in the spelling is the addition of the hay the infusion if you will of the holy spirit knew the situation now only this when rebecca also had conceived by one even by our father isaac for the children not there's a parenthesis in verse 11 that's very important it's a parenthesis but notice what it says for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the person of god according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth they are selected before they're born we need to understand that not to understand them but to understand god that's the point that paul is making same conception different destinies the war started in the womb they are fighting before they're born isaac was 40 years old when he took rebecca to wife i mentioned he was about 60 years old they've been married about 20 years old i believe he was 33 when he was offered by abraham interestingly enough not a young kid like you see in the sculptures and in the in the artist surrendering you know he was there's a whole thing studied the akidah the isaac was 40 years old when he took rebecca the wife the daughter of bethuel the syrian of baranaram and a sister to laban the syrian and isaac entreated the lord for his wife because she was barren and the lord was entreated of him and rebecca his wife conceived the children struggled together within her they're fighting already she said if it be so why am i this and she went to inquire of the lord the lord said to her he explains it to her two nations are in thy womb and two men or people shall be separated from thy bowels the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the elder shall serve the younger very famous genesis 25 verse 23 very key verse and when her days to be delivered they were fulfilled behold there were twins in her room the first came out red he's the firstborn okay all over like a hairy garment and they called his name harry that's what he saw means harry i'm just wild about harry okay all right and after that came his brother out second born and his hand took hold on esau's teal and his name was called heel catcher okay and isaac was three score years old when she bear them jacob as we would call it or yakov means may god he got protect but by pronouncing it just a little different it means heal or deceitful sly and insidious would you buy a used car from jacob is the question okay thus from this he is identified as the one who grabs the heel that's in a literal sense but what it also tends to imply he's the one that trips others up and he did that with laban and he certainly did it with his brother esau okay he's a he's a chicanery artist if you will doctor of election we have rebecca's twins in front of us here the paradox of election dissolves and recognizing god is outside the physical dimension called time that bothers you could say gee you could look ahead and knew what the history is going to be that's the way i look at it but that's too simple for some god alone knows the end from the beginning isaiah 56 10 and 55 8 says the same thing the second comes before the first again and again and again the rights of the firstborn are reversed not cain but abel remember not japheth but shem not ishmael but isaac not esau but jacob not manasseh but ephraim not aaron but moses aaron was moses older brother not elia but david he was the youngest of the gang not the old covenant but the new okay each one the second before the first okay not the first adam but another title of christ is what the last adam the two that we're going to paul is going to focus on is ishmael and isaac and esau and jacob because there are lessons there for us far beyond our interest in in old testament history i said to her the elder shall serve the younger this is a prophecy from genesis 25 23 the circumstances connected with his birth foreshadowed the enmity which afterwards continued between the brothers and the nations they founded you need to understand the whole what happens to esau later the process of time jacob following his natural bent became a shepherd that was his thing esau became a man of the field son of the desert and a perilous toilsome huntsman and you all know the story one time because he came he was very hungry so he sold his birthright for a measure of porridge and which shows you this disdain or the disregard he had for his birthright the birthright consisted of a double portion of the inheritance and the right to be a priest of the family and he later regretted that and tried to regain what he had recklessly parted with but it was useless he was defeated again and again by the stealth of his brother seen at the age of 40 after all of that you know the story he the great group's parents he married the canaanites maidens and then when jacob sent away to pattern around he tried to reconciliate with his parents by marrying his cousin the daughter of ishmael she was still a son of abraham but not of isaac at the point and this led him to cast his lot with the ishmaelites from that point on he drove the higher the horites out of mount sir which is the area of petra which comes very important later and after 30 years in pateron jacob returns to canaan was reconciled to esau they did make a peace presumably a very strained peace in genesis 33. and after 20 years the isaac dies the two brothers met probably for the last time at his grave and now he saw permanently dwelt in canaan established himself as a very powerful chief in the land called edom which means red partly because the soil is red but also it's identified with him as being read that edom is also known as idioma it's another way of saying saying edomite if you will the land of edom was mountainous and extended from the head of the gulf of aqaba to the foot of the dead sea herod was an idiot man not a jew king herod was in hated by the jews he tried to be popular by doing a lot of building and stuff expanding the temple and these grandiose building programs leaders are never shy about spending your tax money to get for them to be popular yeah and uh he was a descendant of esau who was a traditional enemy of the jews that's one thing i want to get across remember when the magi visits herod they say where is he that was born king of the jews that's a slur they're there with armed escorts or herod is nervous because it's a buffer state he doesn't know that the parthian empire isn't about to cause some kind of instability but that there's a lot behind that i encourage you to check out the whole what really happened at christmas we we try to develop that background for you but anyway at the time of the exodus the cheerlessly refused permission for the israelites to pass through the land the israel won take a shortcut they wouldn't let him and that forever is a a slur on them if you will and from that day on they maintain an attitude of hostility towards them towards each other they were conquered finally by david afterwards by amaziah subsequent king but they eventually regained their independence and the and and during the decline of the jewish kingdom then they made war against israel in fact when the babylonians are capturing the southern kingdom the are cheering them on cheering them on dash their brains of their children against the stones what they're yelling it's in the psalms they took part with the chaldeans when nebuchadnezzar captured jerusalem that doesn't say the half of it and afterwards they invaded and held the possession of of the south palestine as far as hebron and at length edom fell under the growing chaldean power and the many prophecies about the future of edom they disappear from history as as as as a principality and they after an existence of a pe as a people over 1700 years they've utterly disappeared their language is even forgotten and the present desolate condition of the land today if you go visit there is a standing testimony inspiration of these prophecies the whole book of obadiah focuses on these there's a handful joel amos malachi all talk about the the destitution of edom as an enemy of israel this includes the rock city of basra that's in the hebrew or petra in the greek that's why it's very worth visiting because it has a key role in the future as a refuge for the remnant to flee when jerusalem is under attack by the antichrist and uh so you can find a review of these in our briefing package called the next holocaust and the refuge in edom malachi i loved you say the lord yet you see where and have you loved us was not esau jacob's brother saith the lord god yet i love jacob and i hated esau everybody says gee why did god hate esau that's not the mystery the mystery is why did he love jacob and laid his mountains a heritage of waste for the dragons of the wilderness and so forth whereas edom saith we are impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places thus saith the lord of hosts they shall build but i will throw down. they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the lord hath indignation for quite a little while know what it says forever yes yeah okay we're down to verse 13 it's written jacob i have i love beast he's hated that's a quote of course from the malachi and also genesis 25. esau disparaged his birthright as a spiritual father of a pride a substantive progeny you can you can look at him in a sense as the islam derivative and the mystery of course is not why god hated esau the remission of why god loved jacob the first place the alternative sons isaac and ishmael and jacob and esau are used idiomatically in the scripture to contrast or portray or typify the tension or conflict between faith and works law and grace or grace and law to keep them in the same parallel okay to be true israel one needs to hold to the faith of abraham there are two fatherhoods we've looked at one and uh well we keep moving we keep moving here it's gonna get late okay we've seen isaac and then rebecca there's two there's a third case coming moses and pharaoh and we're going to take that up in the next session in our next session we're going to complete our study of romans 9. but it's going to include some other fascinating issues esau and the others lost their inheritance of course can you lose yours is the implied question esau had an inheritance he never lost his sonship but he lost his inheritance if israel had assurances how come they failed can we if israel failed with unconditional promises can we we better find that out that's for our next session

Channel: Bible Study

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Length: 54min 8sec (3248 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020