Introduction

Today’s passage picks up the story after the consequences of the spiritual darkness in Isaac and his family. At the same time, we saw the grace of God that is committed and faithful to His chosen people. You may remember from Isaac’s life that God never condones sin, however, God can still use the messiness of our brokenness to accomplish His perfect will and sometimes He will allow us to make those mistakes and sins so that we may know there is no true solution without God.

This is a truth that follows as the story transitions over to Jacob. In Chapter 28, we begin to see Isaac truly coming around after God broke his spiritual darkness. Things are off to a good start with Isaac calling Jacob and blessing him. Isaac doesn’t scold Jacob but properly blesses Jacob as Jacob, and we see Isaac sending Jacob away to Rebekah’s hometown and instructing him to find a wife from their kin, just as Abraham had done for Isaac all those years ago. Isaac did stumble, but now he is realigned with God’s Will and His Word. Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife from among Rebekah’s family (Genesis 28:1–5).

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what our lives may have been like if the Fall never happened? I find myself asking this question often whenever I go through the OT because there are so many cases where the Bible shows us that “this is not the way things were supposed to be.” Our passage today in Genesis 27 is one of those places. Today, as we look into the life of Isaac and his family, we will see something that plagues us as a result of the Fall.

The first two verses begin by saying: “When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see... He said, ‘Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.’” (Genesis 27:1–2) In light of the following context of chapter 27, Isaac’s physical blindness introduces us to the spiritual blindness of Isaac’s family.

Introduction

There was a famine, and it seems Isaac planned to go down to Egypt because Egypt was more plentiful since it surrounds the Nile River while Canaan depends on its seasonal rainfall. However, that’s not God’s plan. When Isaac stops in Gerar, the land of Abimelech, King of the Philistines, God commands Isaac not to go to Egypt. Furthermore, in verses 3–4, God re-establishes the covenant that He made with Abraham, but now with Isaac. It is a reminder that God is with him.

Introduction

Today’s passage in Genesis 25 is often preached as a sermon on good parenting. While that is a valid application of the text, there’s something the text shows us before even getting into the topic of parenting. The most important question when we engage with Scripture is: what does the text tell us about God?

Reading through today’s passage reminded me of a jingle from a sitcom from the 90s and early 2000s. Some of you in your early 20s may not know it, but the jingle went like this:

“No one told me life was gonna be this way~”

And our walk with the Lord can sometimes feel exactly like that.

Introduction

Genesis 25 is not about missions; the interpretation of this chapter is about God’s covenant and His faithfulness to His people as His covenant people. Genesis 25 begins with a bit of a surprise. Abraham takes another woman as his wife named Keturah. We know that she used to be one of his concubines, but other than that we don’t know much else. We actually don’t even know whether or not this was before or after Sarah’s death. Although Genesis is for the most part written chronologically, there are places like genealogies where it is written thematically and not chronologically.

Introduction

When you look at the Greek language, the Greek language is satisfied with the concept and idea of things. Hebrew is slightly different in that, while concept and idea is very important, those concepts and ideas needed to be tangible and experiential in life. This is why we see a lot of stuff happening and people doing things in the stories. These are not simply stories; they are messages that God has placed within the stories. However, many Christians look at what people in the Bible do prescriptively, as though God is telling us to do exactly the same thing. While there may be some truth to that, these stories function descriptively, and we have to ask what the Lord is revealing about Himself through the events as they unfold.

What this means for Genesis 24 is that although we see prayer, discernment, marriage, and finding a spouse, this chapter is not ultimately about any of those things. If we make it about them, we risk making ourselves the main character. The main character of Scripture is always God. Genesis 24 continues to reveal God's faithfulness to His covenant, His commitment to His promises, and His sovereign work of preparing the way for His people.

Introduction

At first glance, Genesis 23 may not seem particularly significant. It serves as a transition between Abraham's story and Isaac's. Sarah dies, Abraham mourns for her, and the rest of the chapter appears to describe nothing more than the purchase of a burial site. Yet within this seemingly ordinary event, God gives us one final and important picture of Abraham's faith.

Introduction

Last week we saw how God shaped Abraham into a man of faith who, in his darkest hour, was able to respond to God with trust, obedience, and the words, “Here I am.” The testing of Abraham in Genesis 22 was not simply about whether he would sacrifice Isaac. It was the culmination of a lifetime of God transforming him from the fearful, self-reliant man he once was into a man who trusted the Lord completely. God challenged us to ask ourselves, “Will you trust God with your Isaac?”

Today, we go back one chapter because before Abraham could trust God with Isaac, there was another lesson he first needed to learn. Before Abraham could become the man of faith we see in Genesis 22, God first called him to let go of Ishmael.

Introduction

Today’s passage is one of my favourite stories in the Bible because when I was an enemy of God, this was one of the places I would look to in order to prove that God is not good. Later, after becoming a follower of Christ, this became one of the stories I almost wished was not in the Bible because I wrestled with the question: Did God go too far? Even though I knew it was only a test, it still felt too cruel. Yet the more I studied this passage, the more I came to see that God did not go too far. Instead, this passage reveals just how good our God truly is.

The story begins with the words in verse 1, "After these things." These words point back to everything God had been doing in Abraham's life. God had fulfilled His promise by giving Abraham and Sarah Isaac. The troubles surrounding Hagar and Ishmael had largely been resolved. Abraham had also matured greatly in his faith. At the end of Genesis 21, Abraham worships the everlasting God, acknowledging His faithfulness and His promises. Earlier in his life, Abraham feared kings and powerful men so much that he twice gave up his own wife to save himself. But now he had become a different man. He was no longer ruled by fear or doubt because he trusted in God. It is precisely after this season of spiritual growth that God tests Abraham.

The Bible tells us immediately why God does this: to test him. Abraham does not know this, but we as the readers do. This is important because it tells us that Isaac was never actually in danger. God never intended for Abraham to kill his son. Yet the command itself creates tremendous tension because Abraham must now wrestle with what appears to contradict everything God had promised and his life is turned upside down.

Introduction

Genesis 18 cannot be understood apart from the promises God had already made to Abraham. Back in Genesis 12:2, when Abraham was seventy-five years old, God promised: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."

In Genesis 13, God promised that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. Then in Genesis 15, God made it clear that Abraham would have a son of his own. At that point Abraham was eighty-five years old. After ten years had passed without a child, Abraham began to struggle to understand how God's promise would come about. He did not stop believing God's word, but he began to reinterpret God's plan. Perhaps one of his servants would become his heir and God would fulfill His promise through him. God corrected Abraham's thinking and explicitly told him that he would have his own child. It was also in Genesis 15 that God expanded the promise and declared that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Fourteen more years passed. By Genesis 17 Abraham was ninety-nine years old and Sarah was eighty-nine. God said: "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her." (Gen. 17:15-16)

Abraham's response was: "Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, 'Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?'" (Gen. 17:17)

Abraham had walked with God for decades. He had seen God's faithfulness over and over again. Yet after twenty-four years of waiting, the promise now seemed impossible. His laughter reveals the astonishment of someone who can no longer see a way for God's promise to become reality. It is into this context that Genesis 18 unfolds.

Introduction

I wonder if you’ve heard of the word miser before? A miser is a person who possesses enormous wealth but lives in poverty to avoid spending any of it. One example is Hetty Green, who died in 1916 despite having an estate worth about $100 million at the time—roughly $3 billion today. Yet she was known for extreme frugality, even eating cold oatmeal to save money.

The book of Ephesians is written to people who are spiritually malnourished despite possessing immense spiritual riches in Christ. It is like standing at a buffet and saying, “I’m hungry because there is nothing to eat.”

Many believers know they are saved and forgiven, yet continue to live burdened by guilt, shame, fear, loneliness, and defeat. This is not because spiritual resources are absent, but because we are still growing in our faith and learning to rest in the riches we have in Christ.

Two Sundays ago we looked at Zephaniah 3 and found a God who rejoices over us. Last Sunday, Dr. Tan showed us from 1 John 4 that God truly loves us. Today’s passage teaches us to find spiritual nourishment in our identity in Christ by understanding how valuable we are to God.

Introduction

Do we really know that God really loves us, that God likes us? While we know that God loves us because He tells us through His Word, we struggle with the reality of life and who we are and our sins. It is hard for us to believe that God actually likes us.

Zephaniah 3:17 reveals an amazing truth that God rejoices and celebrates over us. He quiets us with His love instead of condemning us. He sings joyfully over us.