well we are in hour 4 of our learn the biblein 24 hours and we’re going to try to summarize the rest of the book ofgenesis in this hour, so we’re going to take chapters 12 through 50and we’re going read it very fast (laughs). no, seriously, unlike our usual style wherewe literally go through it verse by verse,
desain rumah, 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 genesiswhich does it far more justice. we’re obviously going through just to giveyou a flavor and an overview of it, but, we’re going to cover abraham - from chapters12 through 20,
and chapters 21 through 26 - isaac, 27 to 36 - jacob and 37 to 50 - joseph. abraham, isaac, jacob, and joseph being consideredcollectively the patriarchs, so this will constitute hour 4. and again, of course, we’re going now fromabraham, up to the exodus. the book of genesis will close with a coffinin egypt and the book of exodus will pick up from thereon. so we’re going to cover a lot of groundhere and obviously we’ve just hit some highlights. abraham, of course, is a key figure tothe jews and the christians. it’s mentioned 74 times in the new testamentand, he is venerated by all 3 monotheistic
religions - judaism, christianity, and, in a certain sense, islam. and, he has some distinctive titles inthe scripture. he is known as the "father of the faithful". there is a sense in which anyone who is faithfulto god is, in a sense, a son of abraham. not necessarily just someonejewish would consider himself son of abraham, obviously, but also anyone who is faithful canclaim 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 commitmentby god that is everlasting, it’s eternal, and it’s unconditional. and it’s very important for you to understandthe fact that it’s unconditional because this covenant with abrahamis what is being challenged in the world today in the struggle over jerusalem in the landof 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 betweenthe 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 betweensarah his wife and hagar her handmaid. galatians 4 deliberately makes that parallelin a broader metaphorical sense. abraham is going to encounter avery strange character by the name of melchizedek who’s a subject of many misconceptions buta very interesting person, because melchizedek is unique in the scripture as being a kingand a priest.
one of the things that’s going to get emphasizedfrom moses on is that ju-... the tribe of judah is the royal line. the tribe of levi the priestly line, and theyare separate. the separation of the levitical priesthoodand the line of david and so forth are distinctive. there are only 3 people that are kings andpriests together in 1 person. melchizedek was the first that we see in the scripture. jesus christ is distinctive in that he’sa king and a priest. that’s what the writer to hebrews emphasizesand the third person is the body of christ,
the church as promised to be kings and priestsas 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 seriouslook at genesis 22 because it’s so pivotal. the akedah as it's called in hebrew, where abrahamoffers 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 sheis really his half-sister. they had a common father but different mothers. so later on several times abramwill 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 withsarah’s handmaid, and isaac his son directly. and nahor will have a number of childrenthat 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 goingto become important later on.
and under nahor we have bethuel who has rebekah and laban. and rebekah will become important becauseshe will end up becoming the wife of isaac. and so these things are interlaced, if youwill, 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 - leahand 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 issueand, 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 andammon. the moabites and ammonites have a pretty dismal heritage. but i want to dwell a little bit on genesis12. now lord had said abram get thee out of thycountry and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that i will showthee and i will make of thee a great nation.
and i will bless thee and make thy name greatand thou shalt be a blessing. and i will bless them that bless thee andcurse them that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earthbe blessed. verses 2 and 3 of chapter 12 are precious,precious verses. this whole passage is of course regardedas 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 willbless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.
notice verse 3 - because i think this is theonly reason god has not judged america. as i travel, one of the most common questionsi 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 ofour 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 countrywhen 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 verse3 of chapter 12. god promised abram i’ll bless themthat bless thee and curse them that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of theearth be blessed. we suspect that the reason god hasn’t judgedamerica is because of our support for his people israel. that doesn’t mean we have to agree withtheir policies.
no. but we do provide for their protection andthat, i think, is god honoring and, people say, "chuck, aren’t you worried aboutisrael?" no i’m not worried about israel becausei know that he that keepeth israel will neither slumber nor sleep, but they havesome 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 inthe bible. despite what some people like to say. iworry about america because our only hope
in this country is for a revival thatwe 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 godto 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’sno great name on the planet earth greater than abraham. "thou shalt be a blessing", indeedhe is. "i will bless them that bless thee."
"i will curse them that curseth thee and inthee 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 allnations will be blessed. key thing. god’s covenant with thenation 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 thatcommitment. but the third covenant was god’s covenantwith david. that his family would produce the messiahwho would reign over god’s people forever. and that’s another commitment that god gaveto these 3 … 3 basic promises. in genesis 14 we encounter the battle of 9kings - a strange story. there are 4 shemite kings. amraphel, arioch, chedorlaomer, and tidalking of nations
and these 4 will have a war with the 5 hamite nations. bera, the king of sodom, birsha, the kingof 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 lefton this group, -- by the way, it’s interesting you’ll notice the list there small pointbut 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 wholebunch it turns out.
but it’s interesting, the one who’s namedfirst is amraphel the king of shinar which is babylon later. he’s mentioned first i believe because thebible 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 thehamites and takes them all captive. but among them was lot, abram’s nephew. he was in sodom as an aldermanand 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 these5 kings. this was not a trivial, militaryoperation. but abram with his own people will rescuelot and take spoil of these 4 kings. abram as the text tells us had 318 trained soldiersin his own household. abram may have been one of the wealthiestpeople on the planet earth at that time. he’s not some kind of triballeader here. he is a powerful personage at thistime.
so we have the slaughter of the kings. abram’s army rescues lot and the peopleof sodom. and when he does this he comes back to a placecalled salem that will later become jerusalem. and there we encounter this strange charactercalled melchizedek - which is a title rather than a name - king of righteousness. he’s the king and priest of this place calledsalem. he receives abram’s tithes for reasons wehave no insight into, abram presents tithes of his victory to melchizedek. and, this ... this just a coupleof verses in chapter 14 of genesis that would
disappear into obscurity except for the factthat it is … it is leaned upon in psalm 110 and in 3 chapters of the bookof hebrews make a big thing of this character melchizedek. making a contrast between melchizedek andthe 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 administersto abram bread and wine.
and this bread and wine theme goes all the way through the scripture. the bread and wine with melchizedek offeringit to him. the bread and wine that are prominent in thedreams 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 togetherconsistently. now, some people try to make melchizedekan 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’trecorded to make a rhetorical point
and many people misunderstand that. we know melchizedek was a man because it saysso. and, many of thesetheories are on frail ground but he is used as an example for a lot ofpoints later on in the scripture. but in genesis 15 the next chapter we havea 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 agreementwould 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 theywould divide an offering in 2 parts and then they would march in a figure 8 between themrepeating the terms of their agreement. that was the way they did things in thosedays. well god indulges in a rather strange versionof this ritual. he has abram set it all up forhim. 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 flamethrough this thing.
the point god is making … this is a sacredcovenant, 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 tohis descendants from the river egypt to the great river euphrates. and when somebody wants to talk about thewest 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 angelsbound in the river euphrates that will be released in the book of revelation. it’s strange that some of these demonicor 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 pharaohthat 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 listeningand he knows now he has 4 centuries to lay down a minefield and they’ll return withgreat possession to … and, by the way, when moses later will send the 12 spies intothe 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 declaredeternal 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 ingenesis 26. this commitment to abram was confirmed to isaacand then to jacob in genesis 26. and by the way, the conditions under whichit was confirmed to isaac and jacob were conditions of disobedience. it’s not as if their obedience was aprerequisite of this covenant. it’s unilateral. so despite their acts ofdisobedience it's confirmed to isaac and jacob. that’s what islam is also a challenge toby 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 aboutthat in a minute. he confirmed his covenant to the father ofmany nations. he instituted his circumcision as a sign. this is where circumcision is instituted asa sign. he not only changes abram’s name to abrahamhe 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 descendantsas i mentioned
and they'll return with a great possession. before we get into this i’d like to giveyou a little bit of a lesson in hebrew. you might find this interesting. most alphabets are phonetic. if youknow how to pronounce, you can pronounce the words if you know the alphabet - be it russianor 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 ameaning. let’s take a couple of examples to show youwhat i mean.
the first letter in the hebrew alphabet isan aleph. on the screen there on the right you see the way it’swritten today. the way you see hebrew written today is theway it was written after the babylon ... when they returned from the babylonian captivity. the way it was written before babylon wasa little different. the aleph was written to represent a long horn oxen head. aleph was the first letter of the alphabet. it alsorepresented strength like an ox. the university of arizona’s hebrew department has discovered if they show the kids how hebrew was writtenbefore 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 leaderor strength. bet is the house. the leader. a-b ab is the leader of the house. that’sthe 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 whichis 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 herh’s. h is just a breath. in the hebrew that breath that can mean wind or it can mean spiritbut the heh if you put a heh which is probably originally meant it was like hands liftedup or like an open window but whatever, it means behold or revealed or breathor wind, breeze, wind or spirit. if you take a word and you put a heh inthe 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 wordfor love. in other words the word for love is the essence of the father. the point i’mtrying 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 abramand 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 requiredfor blood clotting. it’s not formed until the 5th day through to the7th 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 plotthese 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 runthe risk of having a continuing hemorrhage. the question i ask you is, "howdid 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 thattime. in 1332 bc. it’s called papyrus ebers. and let me tell you some of the things thathe 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 6fats. 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 rattlesnake. 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, moisturefrom 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 yourmedicine. 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’snot 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 outto 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 visitorsshow up and they’re interesting characters because first of all abraham hurries to themand then hurried back to the tent. he ran to the herd to make dinner and had his servanthurried. 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 onearth did he serve a non-kosher meal? but i’ll leave that (laughs) one alone. i just threwit out there so you can indulge in some mischief
with your jewish friends. he also stoodwhile 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 understandthat when you get matthew 18 to understand what the 3 measures of meal are dealing withthere it will surprise you. but, these 3 visitors confirm to abrahamand sarah that a son from sarah will be … was confirmed. she’s going to be 100 yearsold. she laughs when she hears this. am i in my old age going to have pleasureshe 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 haveto imagine a new york jewish accent as you read the text, because abraham decidesto 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 … theni won't do it. "well, what if there’s 5 short of 50, what if there's 45?" god says, "if there’s45 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 fatherthen 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’s20 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 onemore 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 gomorrahsomething very strange to notice in the text. the angels are down there to get lot out oftown 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. whatthis implies is that if abraham had said, "suppose there’s one righteous?" god wouldspare 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 townis 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’sastonishing. 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 thosedays. so you need to do a little homework and understand it or you won't understandluke 17 unless you really understand genesis 19. and of course all the way through therewe have the theme being hit the flesh versus spirit. abraham was 430 years before thelaw so promises of god preceded the law. so the law cannot disannul his promises. that’san argument paul makes in galatians. don’t assume that the law is required forthose 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 andthe spirit. ishmael is son of the flesh. isaac son of the spirit. ishmael is the flesh andalso of unbelief, and the son of the bondwoman
will not be heir paul declares. and isaacof course is the son of the promise in response to the faith in the ultimate triumphof faith is the offering of isaac which we’re going to get to in a minute here. in factlet’s just jump in and get genesis 22. this … this is one of those chapters that we’regoing 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 justare just uninformed. the bible tells us in hosea 12 verse 10 godsays, "i have also spoken by the prophets and i have multiplied visions and used similitudesby 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 differentkinds 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 theseand 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 anymoreto people who are saying, "you take the bible literally."
i do take the bible literally, butwhen 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’velearned to say when i’m on a radio interview or something we take the bible seriously, andwhen that gets the other guy mad, i know i've struck gold, because he doesn’t want to admithe 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’scalled 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 dimensionalmodel of it. if you have … if you’re designing an airplane wing you make a mathematical modelof the airplane wing to see how it’s going behave under buffeting and so forth. we make modelsof 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 modelin the bible called genesis 22. it has a hebrew name called the akida. and it came to passafter these things that god did tempt abraham and said unto him abraham said unto him behold heream i. he said take not thy son thine only
son isaac whom thou lovest and get thee intothe land of moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountainswhich 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 … theson, isaac. there’s another principle in the scriptureyou 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: "takenow thine only son lsaac whom thou lovest."
this is the place in the bible that the wordlove 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 onlybegotten 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 themountains which i will tell thee of." by the time you get to genesis 22, abraham has reallylearned 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 offeryour 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 hisyoung 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 godhad told him." he just takes off early the next morning no messing around. gee, i'll prayabout it? no, no. he obeys. and they go from beersheba which is a 3 day journey south ofjerusalem 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 3days in the tomb by the way. we’ll go on here. abraham said unto his young men, "abideye 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 calledmt. 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 thatisaac 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 godwants 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 understandit’s not just that he … not just that he did what god said. that’s part ofit of course, but he also understood that god keeps his promises. god finds a differentway 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 hisson and took fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them in agreement, saystogether 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 tobelieve that isaac was probably 30 years old here. he wasn’t some kid that doesn’tknow what’s going on. "isaac spake unto abraham his father said, my father: he said, here ami 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’sgoing on here, dad? where’s the lamb? and when we get to verse 8 i always usedto think this was just a stall.
"abraham said my son, god willprovide 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, youknow. no, notice what abraham said to isaac. "my son, god will provide" - who? "himself a lambfor the burnt offering." i believe abraham knew he was acting out prophecy and i'll provethat 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 slayhis 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 gotthis ridge between the two. along the south you have the… hinom valley. and at the bottom is a place called salem or ophel the cityof david. it was a town back then because melchidezek was a king and priest there. idon’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 from600 meters above sea level to about the 741 meters sea level, there’sa saddle back. that will later become the threshing floor of arunah thatdavid 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 metersabove 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 yearslater on that very spot, another father will offer his son as an offering for sin. youand 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 fornow i know that thou fearest god seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only sonfrom 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 himalso freely give us all things?" speaking of course none other than jesus christ. it’sinteresting in leviticus where it talks about
the key offerings here he says "he shall kill himon the side of the altar northward before the lord and the priests, aaron’s sons shallsprinkle his blood round about upon the altar." notice that northward. it’s north of thecamp, 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 beholdthere’s a ram caught in a thicket by the horns. abraham went and took the ram, offeredhim up for a brunt offering in the stead of his son." substitutionary ram that willbe codified in the law of moses later. "abraham called the name of that place jehovahjirehor yahveh-jirah - but anyway "it is said to this day in the mount of the lordit shall be seen". that’s the name that abraham
gives this spot. that name is prophetic inthe mount of the lord it shall be seen. he realizes that this is prophetic in at leastin 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 isaacand then he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom itwas said that in isaac shall thy seed be called. accounting that god was able to raise himup 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 himto be saved. it’s our belief in the resurrection
of jesus christ that we’re saved. that’swhat the gospel's all about. paul defines the gospel in first corinthians 15 first4 verses. you get to the book of revelation it’s allechoed again. book of revelation "i saw in the right hand of him that sat on the thronea book written within and on the backside, sealed with 7 seals. and i saw a strong angelproclaiming 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 bookneither to look thereon. and john says i sobbed convulsively because no man was found worthyto open and to read the book neither to look thereon." wow! we don’t understand what’sgoing 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 rootof david, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals - the 7 seals thereof. and ibeheld 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 bookout of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne." and we have the closing of thebiggest escrow in the universe where jesus christ takes possession of that which he purchasedwith his blood on the cross 2000 years ago. back to genesis 22 "and the angel of the lord calledunto abraham a second time and said by myself
have i sworn saith the lord for because thou hastdone this thing and hast not withheld thy son thine only son that in blessing i will blessthee and in multiplying i will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sandwhich is upon the sea shore and they seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. andin thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hastobeyed my voice. then we get to verse 19. i want you to makea note of this in your bible. so abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up and wenttogether to beersheba and abraham dwelt in beersheba. remember that verse. i’m goingto 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 businesspartner to do. he commissions eleazar to gather a bride for isaac … to go backto 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 qualifiesher by a well. she agrees to marry the bridegroom she has never met. on the way back he givesher gifts and he finally comes when he gets back to our … to where we areback to beersheba he joins her bridegroom at the well of the lahai-roi. what’s goingon 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, thebridegroom. okay? eleazar is in the role of the holy spirit sent to gather a bride forthe son. and, the by the way, the word eleazar do you know what it means in hebrew? thecomforter. yeah, isn't that fun? i want to come back now to genesis 22 verse19. remember they’re up around the hill they’ve done the deed, they’re ready togo home. verse 19 says "abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up and went togetherto beersheba and abraham dwelt in beersheba." they’re up on the hill abrahamand isaac go up on the hill. they have the
deal up there. angel intervenes. great. abrahamcomes down the hill to these 2 young men they’ve left at the bottom of the hill, right? andthey 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 andi’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’sisaac? the person of isaac is personally edited out of the record from the time that he’soffered 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 thetext in such a way it doesn’t destroy the meaning of the text as we read it. we understandthat abraham and isaac came down. the 4 guys took their donkey and went home. butthat’s not what it says. isaac is … the reference to him is removed becauseby doing so it fits the type. it fits the type. there are many places in the scripturewhere the narrative - what actually happened - is adjusted just a little bit to fit alarger purpose that god has in communicating this. one integrated design the new testament is in the old testament concealed. the old testamentis in the new testament revealed. augustine first noticed that. well, the descendants ofabraham 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 restof these guys. the jokshan descendants become the saudi arabians, if youwill. 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 ofthe flesh. let’s talk about jacob a little bit. ya’ aqob means god protect. aqebmeans heal or the word really means, it's very close to, aqob the deceitful or slyor insidious one. so there’s a pun involved here.
so you can translatethe word ya’qob or jacob as the one who grabs the heel which is what he did when hewas 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 thecon artist, if god can justify jacob he can justify any of us. in romanschapter 9, paul points out that for the children being not yet born referring to these 2 kidsneither having done any good or evil that the purpose of god according to election mightstand not of works but of him that calleth. it was said unto her the elder shall serverthe younger as it is written jacob have i loved and esau have i hated. and god seesthis 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 marrythe ishmaelites. so the descendants of ishmael and esau and also the descendants of keturahwill 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 arabtoday that can trace his lineage back to ishmael. he can’t becausenone of these tribes maintained distinctiveness. they cross married, intermarried, so whetherit’s esau or ishmael you’re dealing with then the enemies of the people of god. theenemies 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 thingsthat 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 thybowels 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 ahunting trip and is very famished, so he agrees … he didn’t care for his birthright, sohe sold it to jacob. and then there’s the formal endorsement of that in the fact by thefather 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 … deathof joseph and so forth. there are many ways to study your bible. asyou probably gathered already, obviously, you can archeological historically what actuallyhappened from history or from archeological finds and that’s one way … that’s onelevel of understanding. you can look at the theological or doctrinal issues. what doesthis tell us about our relationship with god and his requirements. there’salso comparative studies. you can compare verses with yourold and new testaments and you’ll … that will always be beneficial. and thenthere’s a whole another form of study you
might call devotional very personal whereyou just bathe in the word of god itself and see what god speaks to you about it and thoseall intermarry with each other. there’s … they’re not distinctive.and devotional activity starts with observation. who did what, where, andwhen and then, the the interpretation is the why. the primary implicationsof what you see. and then of course after all that there’s an application. you haveto answer the "so what" question. how does this affect me? so that’s whatthe summary. all participants in this narrative were at fault. isaac attempted to thwart god’splan by blessing esau. esau broke the oath he had made with jacob. rebekah and jacobtried 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 withher. 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 thewhole role of deception. jacob’s only hesitancy was his fear they would be cursed insteadof blessed that’s the reason he … he hesitated not for any deeper reason. he would laterlearn that blessings are given by god and not gained by deceit. so there’s lots oflessons 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 … heliterally will wrestle until he gets to the end of himself when he acknowledges whohe 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’tget 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 throughsarah 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 shegets 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 prettygood idea i’ll do the same thing. so she gives him her handmaid, zilpah, through whomhe 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 especiallyendeared 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 youdon’t get confused, there are more than 12 tribes. there are actually 13, in a sense, becausejoseph, when he’s down in egypt, will have 2 sons, manasseh and ephraim, and jacob willadopt 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 marchingorder, knowing that levi is a priest and doesn’t participate in the military, you leave leviout, you still can get 12 tribes, because, by leaving levi out, instead of joseph you havemanasseh 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 timethere’s somebody different that’s left out, but you’ll always still have 12. forvarious 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 asa pair. do you follow me? so, if you have 13, you can leave 1 out and still havea dozen, if you will. the tribe of dan is conspicuous in his ownmission 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’sinferred with the back of the hand. and because manasseh is mentioned and thenthe 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 thatbecause 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 disavowedbecause he had illicit relationships with his father’s concubine. and simeon and leviwere, sort of out of running because of their extremes at shechem. there’san 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. notalways 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 howoften 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 ofaaron. aaron was …was older than moses. david ahead of all his brothers. so firstborn is a basic rule but god is very sovereign to get around it when he feels like it, andit’s very interesting. there’s a strange chapter in chapter 38that will be skipped by most commentators.
it’s sort of a sordid event that you sortof wonder what on earth is it here for? and that’s judah's sin with tamar. it’s kindof complicated but i’ll try to simplify it. we’re now going to look at the periodof 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 displeasesgod, 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 dieswithout 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 throughon 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, inthose times the prostitute would wear a veil. she both dresses andsets herself up on a hilltop as a prostitute,
knowing that judah would come by there, andentices 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, andput 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 thewhole 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 recognizesthat the reason this happened was because he didn’t keep his promise and give hershelah as a husband. he says my sin is greater than hers. so it's a very sordid, strangestory, 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 thenthe other one comes out first. so, he’s a breech birth in effect. but pharezis regarded as the heir, and he is then in the genealogy of jesus christ because of judahthrough 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 succeededjoseph 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 reasoni’m getting into this, is because, there’s ... i want you to understand this conceptof 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 withthe role of the goel - the kinsman redeemer. jesus christ is going to play that role we’lltalk abbot that when we get to the book of
ruth in great depth where jesus, ourkinsman 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 peoplemiss in the text of genesis 38. they say what is this weird story during right the middleof this really neat story coming with joseph and all that. well, it turns out that at 49letter 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 letterintervals, you have the name of david. what’s interesting about this is, you haveboaz, 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 monarchyaltogether. 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. thencomes leviticus. then comes numbers, then deuteronomy, moses dies, then joshua and they conquer the land. after that generation you have the book ofjudges and after the book of judges you’ve got samuel which finally gets to the houseof david. the house of david the family tree of course, is the family tree of the king ofthe universe, jesus christ. but how astonishing it is to find this anticipated in the verystructure of the text in genesis 38.
see the truth is in the details. didyou get all these it’s kind of boring. no, stand back, and realize what’sgoing on here. god’s fingerprints are all over this thing. there is no way that mosescould know in advance the genealogy of david. samuel didn’t know about it until the timecame. 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 youwill, 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 thesestrange dreams of ascendancy. the sheaves, the sun, the moon, the starsbow to him and so forth, and he’s sold into slavery by his brothers. they’re going tokill him, but they got talked out of that. when he gets to egypt, he’s imprisoned bypotiphar, because his wife tried to put the make on him and … and he wouldn’t do itso she spread the lies. i think potiphar knew she was lying or he would have had him killed, buthe nevertheless had to do something to save face so he was imprisoned. while imprisoned he interpretsdreams 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 guyin prison that knows how to do that - and he, of course, interprets the famous dreams ofpharaoh. the 7 fat cows, the 7 lean cows, the 7 plump heads of grain, and the 7 thin headsof 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’spleasure, 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 duringthe plump days to get ready for the famine. then when the famine does hit, it brings thebrothers 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 simeonas a hostage to get benjamin to come. on the second visit benjamin is with him. andone of the most touching scenes in the entire literature is when joseph finally revealsto 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, butgod meant it for good. he recognizes all this was to preserve the family for god’spurposes. and jacob and the rest of the family migrate to egypt and that’s how they getinto until egypt, until joseph dies and that sets the stage, of course, for the bookof exodus. before the book closes, in genesis 49,
jacob, as he’s dying, prophesies overeach of the 12 tribes. little enigmatic riddles that you want to study. i’ll just give youone of them to give you an example. he speaks of judah. he says the scepter shallnot depart from judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until shiloh come the messiahcomes. and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. it’s very interesting toknow, that the scepter refers to the tribal identity, and the right to apply and enforcemosaic laws - namely capital punishment. shiloh is a term meaning belongsto the messiah. it turns out herod the great dies, antipaterwas 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 thatjosephus talks about. it’s interesting that caponius takes away their ability to administercapital crimes. that’s why when jesus is going to be crucified the have to go to pilateto get permission. they don’t have the right for capital punishment. it was taken awayby caponius between 6 and 7 ad. what’s interesting is that jerusalemtalmud records that when that happened the priests … the high priest and the restput on sack cloth and ashes and marched around jerusalem because they said "woe untous, 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 hadpredicted that the scepter would not depart from judah until the messiah comes. the scepterdeparted woe unto us the word of god is broken. that’s their view. what they didn’t knowwas, 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. theywere also born into the sons of aaron which were the priests. not all levitesare priests. the sons of aaron were priests. they were teachers of the law and they werealso 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 forthe king’s safety in his house. so, anyway, that sets the stage for thenext time. in the next 1 hour session, we’re going to try to put in broad perspective therest 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. leviticusthe law of the nation. numbers the wilderness wanderings before they get to the land, andin deuteronomy which is basically 3 sermons by moses, the laws are reviewed and it’swrapped up. so that will be our challenge for hour number 5.let’s stand for a closing word of prayer. well father we justpraise 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 allhere right now by your divine appointment. so father we would just claim that commitmentof yours that you would teach us all things. we pray father that you would just reignitein each of us a new hunger, a new passion for your word that we each might grow andgrace in the knowledge of our lord and savior that we each might become more fruitful stewardsof the opportunities that you place before us that we might be more pleasing in yoursight. so father, we do just commit not just thisevening but ourselves into your hands. we just ask you, father, that you would make ever moreclear what you would have of us in the days that remain
as we commit ourselves into yourhands without any reservation in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christamen.
