We’re back in Genesis today. We’ll be making our way to chapter 12 but I want to lay a bit of foundation by starting in the book of Joshua chapter 24 verse 2. There we read: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River.
I wanted to start there because I want you to understand how deep rebellion abides in our hearts and the hearts of the human race. The passage in Joshua clearly tells us that Abram and his brothers who were more than likely triplets as well as their father all served other Gods. What blows me away about that is the fact that Noah was alive until Abraham was 58. They probably all had been able to hear firsthand knowledge of the flood and the consequences for not humbling themselves before God but they still refused to stop their rebellion.
Abraham didn’t deserve what God was about to do. He wasn’t a righteous man at this point. The same thing could be said about both Noah and Job. We are not told of their salvation experience we are only told that they found grace in the eyes of Lord and that because of that they were declared by God to be righteous in their day.
I want you to understand that their calls and the call of Abraham were not religious calls. They were not told to do religious things they were called to do everyday ordinary things for God. Their calls were not to be religious but to be obedient. In Genesis 12 verse 1 we read: Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
God spoke to Abram. He didn’t say repent. He didn’t say you’re a sinner. He simply said leave your family and move. He didn’t even tell him where to move to at this point. He said I’ll show you where later. Notice it doesn’t say that God appeared to Abram; he only spoke to him. This is grace in action. While Abram is worshiping false Gods the one true God speaks to him. I know we’re used hearing Romans 10 How can they hear without a preacher. But there is nothing in that passage that says the preacher has to be human. God can and does speak to anyone he wants to; at any time he wants to and he doesn’t need you or me to do it. He speaks to us all and says ‘obey me’. We have to decide if we are going to or not.
God says move and Abram has to choose to obey or not to obey. Verse 4 tells us that Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot his nephew went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. I want you to be aware that Abram didn’t even begin his journey of faith until he was 75. And that first step of faith was nothing more than moving away from his family in an act of obedience. We are told that Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.
Now these people in the land were his relatives. He was a descendant of Shem. The people in the land were the descendants of Ham. If you remember the people in the land were under the curse of God because of the sin of their great great great grandpa. God had promised that these people, the descendants of ham would serve the people of Shem. It is not just about them but it is a consequence of ideas and actions from 300 years before. Life is linear. The plan of God unfolds in a single direction though I won’t say that it is a straight line. It moves forward in starts and stops one minute at a time to the destination that God has set before the creation even was. But that doesn’t mean that your choices make no difference in the world. God has planned your choices and you have to decide. I spent many a year in churches that didn’t believe that choices mattered; That the sovereignty of God was the same thing as fate. Well, I’m here to tell you that God is not that small. He is sovereign there’s no doubt about it. The scriptures clearly tell us that but they also tell us that his sovereignty is so huge that it includes the freedom of your choices and the freedom to receive the consequences of those choices whether good or bad. The plan of God is being manifest in front of us every day. It is a plan filled with the choices of over 6 billion people and every one of those choices matter to the plan. And because of that the plan of God is filled with the secret things of God most of which we will never see nor could we understand them if we did see them. Our God is a huge God: With a huge plan. A glorious plan that will cause us to bow down before him when we see it unfolded in its fullness.
According to his promised curse God takes Abram, Shem’s descendant, into the land of Ham’s descendants and he says: “To your descendants I will give this land.” God begins to unfold his promises and the response of Abram is to bow before God. So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. 8 Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.
I want you to remember the context of the world at this point in time. Satan is king of the world. Mankind is in almost total unity against God. The only thing that keeps them from that unity is the fact that God had confused language and people couldn’t speak to one another. At the most there were three or four people who were following after God at this point in time Abram, Sarai, and Lot. The new testament tells us that all three of them had faith and were righteous in God’s sight.
But this is about it on the entire face of the planet. None of them had received the Holy Spirit. None of them had received forgiveness of sins yet, they had only received the promise that it would come. These people died believing in something that hadn’t even happened yet. They did not receive the promise on this side of the grave. And yet they endured to the end.
Maybe it doesn’t seem so different to you but I want you to understand that things are different in our lifetimes much, much different. King Jesus has defeated Satan and thrown him from the throne. Jesus is King of Kings and lord of lords over earth and heaven. Your sins have been paid for and your covenant debt has been paid in full. You are holy and righteous in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ it doesn’t make any difference what you feel or what you act like you ARE holy and blameless in Christ Jesus. You will cross the finish line victorious. You will hear well done good and faithful servant because he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
In the midst of enemy territory Abraham chooses to rebel against the status quo because he believed at the age of 75 that God could and would keep his promise of redemption. That promise of a seed that would crush the serpent’s head and bring redemption would now be fulfilled through Abraham. It is narrowed down to a single generational line, a line that has no children.
Maybe there are 12 or so years of moving took place from Mesopotamia, to Canaan, to Egypt and back to Canaan again. Abraham is not perfect. He sins along the way. He hasn’t been told anything about having kids; only that in him all the nations of the world would be blessed. And after these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” 2 Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8 He said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” 9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. 11 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” 17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
Now those promises are all well and good but time keeps going. Maybe Sarai is starting to get hot flashes. She’s at least 77 by now. She’s feeling the change starting to come on her and she’s getting a little nervous. She knows God’s promise but she also lives in the real world where women can only have children for so long. So she gives Abram her maid to father the promise child. I’m sure she had the best of intentions. I’m sure she was broken hearted when she did it because she was sure that God had bypassed her. She knew she obviously wasn’t good enough for God to use her. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Who was Abram to complain? He did what his wife asked him to do. The child is born and Abram loves him so much. Sarai is content because she did what was necessary to bring about God’s will. Her womb was barren. It was impossible for her to have children now. She had done the only possible thing. She had done the right thing.
Then God shows up again and he says nice try with Ishmael but the promised son will come from Sarah. At the age of 99 Abraham once again demonstrates his faith through the obedience of circumcision. It is the sign of his covenant with God. It is a picture of the promised seed that would be cut off to produce a new covenant people. It is an identifying mark on the lineage of that seed. It was narrowed down now. The serpent crusher would come from this linage.
Time goes by and the Lord comes by for a visit. He asks “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing. 12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’ 14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Sarah laughs. She laugh’s because she knows it is impossible. She laughs because surely it will be Ishmael. She laughs because her concept of God is too small. She may not have much faith, her God may be to small but guess what: she makes love with her husband that night. It’s hard to think of sex as an act of faith isn’t it? But it was in this case. What does Hebrews 11 tell us: By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.
And God was faithful. Sarah got pregnant – at 90. She had a child – a boy named Issac. You’d think that faith would just make you the most wonderful person in the world but after receiving the promise of God Sarah begins to get Jealous. One day she catches Ishmael mocking her and Isaac and she turns into a female dog. She starts trying to get rid of that blankity blanken maid and her little brat. Abraham didn’t know what to do. It was her idea after all what’s the big deal? But Sarah is relentless on this. It gets so bad that God has to intervene. He said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named. 13 And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.”
It sounded like a good idea at the time but the consequences of Sarah trying to out think God are with us today. The descendants of Ishmael are filling the earth just like God promised; they are a great nation. They are just as much of the plan of God as the descendants of Isaac. That being said, I don’t know why God does things the way he does. It seems like a lot of extra hassle to me to let consequences of actions have effects so far into the future. But that is the way of the plan of God. Ham’s sin will have consequences for his descendants 5 or 6 hundred years later. The consequences of Sarah’s trying to use her wisdom to bring about the plan of God are still being felt today some 2500 years after it happened. The world we live in is not just about us. Our lives are affected by all those who have come before us. We are affecting the lives of all those who come after us.
Jesus sits on the throne ruling and reigning: King of all of creation but our response to that is to let his enemies rule and reign on the planet. We are too scared of the enemy to take a stand for righteousness. Too afraid of what might happen to try to actually do something to reverse the tide. Our God is too small to do anything but unlike Sarah we sit back and watch the world go down the toilet knowing that is what God wants us to do: absolutely nothing. How much greater will the consequences for our inaction be for future generations than Sarah’s action has been? How far into the future will the consequences of our unbelief and inaction affect our descendants? May God give us the grace to rise up in our latter years and make a stand against the enemies of the great king.
I think that’s it for today, any questions?
Let’s pray. Father, have mercy on us. Give us both the will and the power to do. Give us wisdom to know what to do and how to act in our remaining years. In Jesus’ authority I ask these things amen.
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