Sovereignty

Joseph was favored.  Out of his 11 brothers, Joseph was the favorite of his father Jacob.  He was also favored of God.  This is not the same thing as saying He was God’s favorite.  Rather, God chose Joseph for a special role or purpose.  His grace or favor was evident in Joseph’s life.

Genesis 37 begins with the story of Joseph as a young man.  It starts by telling us about two dreams Joseph had.  It also tells us that his brothers hated him.  They hated him.  They hated him.  Three times in only a few verses, we read that Joseph’s brothers hated him.  They were jealous because of their father’s favoritism and enraged by the implications of Joseph’s dreams.  

First, Joseph dreamed that they were all out in the field tying up bundles of grain.  Suddenly his bundle stood up and his brothers’ bundles all gathered around and bowed low before Joseph’s.  Without any education in dream interpretation, his brothers immediately caught the significance.  They said, “Do you actually think you will reign over us?”

Next, Joseph dreamed that the sun, moon and eleven stars all bowed low before him.  Again, his brothers immediately understood the significance.  This time his father rebuked him.  His father said, “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?”

God gave these dreams to Joseph.  Joseph understood this, but his family did not.  His brothers, in their jealousy saw only an arrogant, spoiled brat.  

It did not help their opinion of Joseph when they saw Joseph wearing a special, “this is my favorite son,” robe that his father had given him.

It did not help that Joseph told their father when the brothers did bad things.

Finally, the brothers decided on the ultimate solution.  They would kill Joseph.  They threw Joseph into an empty cistern, and were going to leave him to die.  Then a band of traders happened to pass by.  Seeing an opportunity to turn a profit rather than commit murder, the brothers sold Joseph as a slave.

As a slave, Joseph worked hard.  He also enjoyed God’s blessings so he rose quickly to being in charge of the household where he was enslaved.  Then disaster struck.  Falsely accused of a wrong he had refused to commit, he spent years in prison.  Genesis 39 through 41 tells of Joseph’s time in Egypt.  

God has taken the time to tell us many details of Joseph’s life.  I urge you to read it on your own.

In prison, Joseph quickly rose to a position of leadership.  He took care of all of the other prisoners.  In the course of his duties, he helped two prisoners by interpreting their dreams.  He asked them to help him also, but when they got out, they forgot about Joseph.

Sold as a slave, wrongly thrown into jail, forgotten by friends Joseph had reason to be angry.

His brothers who were supposed to be his friends and protectors hated him and would have killed him had it not been for a chance meeting with some traders.

Many of us have been filled with anger over lesser things.  Others of us have experienced things that some would count as worse.  Some have been beaten and abused by their own parents.  Others have been sexually abused by those who should have been their protectors.  Each person knows inside the list of hurts, insults and injuries that he or she has experienced.  Each one of us could fill pages.  God records for all humanity to read some of the wrongs done to Joseph.  In these pages in Genesis, we read only the major ones.  We can be certain that there were many, many daily little jabs and stabs taken at Joseph by his hateful brothers.

A particularly pointed revelation is what the brothers said more than 20 years later.  They said, “We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn’t listen.”  In this statement, we see the cold-hearted malice with which his brothers treated Joseph.

Seeing and experiencing such cold-hearted malice, has caused many to reject God.  A man named Vladimir told me that seeing his little brother killed by a German soldier convinced him there is no God.  Some spend their whole lives bitter and angry at God, at society, at family or at those who hurt them.  

The problem is we all have elements of Joseph’s story in our life.  We all have been wronged to one degree or another.

Today I want to look at how Joseph responded, and learn how we can find healing in his words.  Turn with me to Genesis 45 verses 3 through 8.  

3“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers.  “Is my father still alive?”  But his brothers were speechless!  They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them.  4“Please, come closer,” he said to them.  So they came closer.  In addition, he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt.  5But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place.  It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.  6This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.  7God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.  8So it was God who sent me here, not you!  And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.”

We know that we should forgive those who trespass against us.  We know that to do so is good for ourselves.  We remain the prisoner of the one we refuse to forgive.  So many of us are enslaved by the hurts that we just cannot forgive.  Look at what Joseph says.  “It was God who sent me here.”

Not forgiving others and forgiving others is a major issue in our relationship with God.  Jesus said, “14If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  15But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  (Matthew 6: 14-15)

Do not hear me saying, “Forgive or else.”  I am trying to get at something deeper.  We all know God is sovereign.  By “sovereign,” I mean that He is free to do whatever He wants with what is His.  The universe is His.  Nothing happens without His knowledge.  He also has the power to control.  Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls to the ground but God is fully aware of the situation.

As proof of what I am saying, I will give you a few verses from the Bible.

3Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.  (Psalm 115:3)

35All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him.  He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’  (Daniel 4:35)

9“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.  Does a clay pot argue with its maker?  Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’  Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’  (Isaiah 45:9)

These and many such passages of Scripture tell us of the sovereignty of God.  This is why the deeper issue in forgiveness is our relationship with God.  There is a truth expressed by Joseph to his brothers that needs to be communicated.  

When Jacob passed away, Joseph’s brothers thought the other shoe was going to fall.  Now that their father was gone, they feared that Joseph would try to get even for what they had done.  Turn to Genesis 50:19-20 and see what Joseph said?  

19But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me.  Am I God, that I can punish you?  20You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

There are three things in this passage we all need to take with us.

First, we are not God.  We cannot punish those who wrong us.  We must leave that to God.

Second, call it like it is.  They intended harm.  Joseph’s brothers were not good old boys just having some fun. They intended to harm Joseph and he did not sugar coat it.  It is not our place to punish, and neither is it our place to excuse, downplay or take responsibility for the malice or wrongdoing of others.

Third, God intended it for good.  This is probably the toughest point.  We can see the good that came out of Joseph’s life, but it is difficult to see what good can come out of some horrible stuff that happens.  Be careful here.  Joseph did not say that what his brothers did was good.  It was horrible.  The bad things that people do are just that – they are bad.  However, God can use the bad things for good.  God is good.  When horrible things happen, it is hard to believe that God is good.  It is hard for us to trust that God will make something good of this bad thing.  However, this is precisely what made the difference in Joseph’s life.

He rose above every bad thing thrown at him because he believed with all his heart that God is good and God is Sovereign.  In the New Testament, we are encouraged to have this same faith.  In Romans 8:28 we find it written:  28And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

This is why forgiveness is first an issue between God and us.  He is sovereign.  Do we believe He is good?  

Read the story of Joseph.  He trusted God.  But, he did not trust his brothers.  Before he revealed himself to them, he tested them in a number of ways.  He forgave them, but he also knew what they had done.  He provided for them, but he did not entrust himself to them.  He trusted God completely and fully.  He knew that God was in control and that even the bad things that happened only served to accomplish God’s purposes.

Get right with God.  First, realize that He is willing to forgive you for anything and everything you may have done wrong.  He sent His only Son to die in your place for the bad things you have done.  All you need to do is ask him to forgive you.

Second, realizing all that He has forgiven you for, let Him set you free from any unforgiveness in your heart.  He is good.  He wants to bless you beyond anything any of us can imagine, but we have to trust Him.

A Family Divided

Genesis 25:27-34; 27:1-40

God chose Abraham, and promised to bless him and through Abraham to bless the whole earth.  After Abraham, the blessing passed to Isaac and then to Jacob.  The blessing then was passed down through the descendants of Jacob through David until the birth of the promised Messiah.  Jesus is the promise personified.  It is through Jesus that all the nations on earth are blessed.  It is Jesus that Abraham accepted and looked forward to by faith.

The story of the fulfilling of the promise is one of incredible miracles, providence and provision.  It is also one of sorrow and heartache.

For example, Abraham’s firstborn son was actually Ishmael.  Abraham pleaded with God to bless Ishmael and God told Abraham that He would bless Ishmael, but the promise would be through Isaac.  The story of Ishmael reflects the sorrow and heartache of which I speak.  From a strictly human point of view, this might be explained because the boys had different mothers.

However, the story of Esau and Jacob also reflects sorrow and heartache.  Isaac wanted to bless Esau with all his heart.  He loved Esau.  But, the sorrow and heartache came through Esau.  It is a complicated story filled with family intrigue and betrayal.  It is a very human story.  Isaac and Rebecca, husband and wife, are not on the same page.  Esau despises his birthright and Jacob steals the blessing meant for Esau.

Behind and above it all are the sovereign purposes of God.  The story of Esau and Jacob is a story of Divine sovereignty and human choice. It is beyond us to unravel all the mysteries, but there are some valuable lessons we can learn by examining the story of Esau and Jacob found in Genesis 25 and 27.

The story  begins at the birth of the twins.  Genesis 25 tells us:

²¹Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The LORD answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. ²²But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.

²³And the LORD told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”

If we focus on verse 23, we see that it is God’s purpose that the older will serve the younger.  This is confirmed in Malachi 1:2&3 and in Romans 9.  Let’s look at Romans 9 verses 11-12:

¹¹But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God.  (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; ¹²he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.)  She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”[i]

For His own reasons God chose Jacob.

However, Isaac loved Esau.  Let’s look at part of the blessing that Isaac gave.

²⁹May many nations become your servants,

and may they bow down to you.

May you be the master over your brothers,

and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.  Genesis 27:29

You will notice he says, “may your mother’s sons bow down to you.”  It is important to note that Isaac thinks he is blessing Esau.  His purpose then in this blessing is contrary to the direct word of God.  Isaac’s love for his son set him at cross-purposes with God.

The same situation had existed with Abraham, but Abraham had submitted to the will of God.  Scripture tells us it distressed him greatly (Genesis 21:11), but he obeyed and sent his son Ishmael away.

This does not justify what Rebecca and Jacob did.  Rather than taking things in their own hands and lying, they should have waited on the Lord. Their lies and deceit bore terrible consequences and added to the sorrow and heartache in the family.

Jesus, our example, prayed, “Not my will but Thine be done.”  (Luke 22:42)  He also taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Both sides in this family took action that was contrary to God’s revealed will.  Isaac set himself at cross purposes with God by trying to give to the older what God said belonged to the younger.  Rebecca and Jacob violated God’s standards by lying and deceiving to gain what God said He would give.

The most common place this scenario is carried out in today’s world is in regards to salvation.  We have loved ones and friends who do not know Christ or accept that salvation comes by trusting in Jesus alone.  The very thought of someone we love being condemned to hell is too horrific to contemplate.  The thought fills us with horror.

It is this thought that caused the Apostle Paul to write:

¹With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness.  My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.  ²My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief ³for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.  I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.  (Romans 9:1-3)

I am sure Isaac and Abraham would have felt the same way about the children they loved.  We all do.  When faced by the bitter sorrow and unending grief caused by the loss of someone we love, we can pray like Abraham and Jesus, “Not my will but thine be done.  Or, like Isaac we can set ourselves at cross purposes with God, and/or lie, steal and deceive like Jacob and Rebecca.

In Romans 9 the Apostle Paul addresses a few of the issues.  One thing he says is:  

¹⁴Are we saying, then, that God was unfair?  Of course not!  ¹⁵For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,

and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

This whole idea of God being fair is behind the teaching that God will save everyone.  This is a teaching that requires us to reject large portions of the Word of God, including the example of Jacob and Esau.

The Apostle Paul says:

¹⁸So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

¹⁹Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding?  Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

²⁰No, don’t say that.  Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God?  Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”  ²¹When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?  ²²In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.

Let’s consider the patience of God.

God gave Pharaoh 10 chances to soften his heart and let the Israelites go, but he would not.

Esau was born with the birthright and had his father’s favor, and yet Genesis 25 tells us that he despised his birthright and was willing to sell it for a bowl of stew.

2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think.  No, he is being patient for your sake.  He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”  God wants everyone to repent.  He invites everyone to believe in His Son.  He invites everyone to come, and yet many, many refuse to come that they can have life.

The purposes of God, the blessing of God and the passing of that blessing to the next generation divided Isaac’s family.

It still divides today.  The blessing of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ is at the center of what divides us.  The Islamists say that Jesus was a prophet but not the Son of God.  They are at cross-purposes with God.  The Jews say the Messiah is yet to come.  They also are at cross-purposes with God.  The atheists say there is no God.  They too are at cross-purposes with God.  Many that call themselves Christian say we have to live by the law.  They are not at cross-purposes.  Rather, they are like Rebecca and Jacob who would lie and deceive to try to gain the promise on their own terms.

Salvation and God’s blessings are free and available to all who will accept them.  However, they do not come on our terms.  They come on God’s terms.  God’s terms are:

⁹If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  ¹⁰For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  ¹¹As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”  ¹²Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect.  They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.  ¹³For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Blessings

God chose Abraham.

From Genesis 12 we understand the purpose for which God chose him.  Genesis 12:2&3 say:

“²I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.  ³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.  All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”[i]

According to this, the purpose for which God chose Abraham was to bless him, and through him all the families on earth.

The story of Abraham, his life and his blessings unfolds in Scripture as the story of redemption.  All the families on earth are blessed through Abraham because it is through Abraham and his descendants that the Messiah, our Savior, is given.

For Abraham, the journey was not easy, and the way was not certain.

He had to let go of everything that he was relying on.  He left his homeland, his relatives and even his father’s family.  At one point, he even offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God.

Genesis 24 is a transition point.  The blessings that God promised to Abraham are to be passed on to Isaac and then continue through Isaac’s descendants.

Genesis 24 starts out, “¹Abraham was now a very old man, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.”

“Abraham was now a very old man.”  These were the sunset years of his life.  He was 140 years old.  Isaac, the son he loved, was now 40.  (cf Genesis 25:20)  Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old, and in spite of his advanced years, Abraham was able to watch Isaac grow to adulthood.

Genesis 24:1 also points out that the “Lord had blessed him in every way.” Abraham was blessed materially.  He had servants and property.  He did not lack for money.  He shared his life with Sarah and Isaac whom he loved.  He was at peace with his neighbors.

Full of years and blessings, chapter 24 comes to the point where the continuing story is going to change from Abraham’s story to Isaac’s story.

The blessing is to be passed on through succeeding generations, but Isaac is not married.  The story of how Abraham finds a wife for his son is also the story of how the blessing is passed on to Isaac.

First, we see how Abraham held fast to the promise of God.

We see this in two things.

1)    He would not allow his son to marry one of the Canaanite women

2)    He would not allow his son to go back to where he came from.

By avoiding marriage to a Canaanite woman, Abraham hoped to keep his son from being led away from the worship of the One True God.  The Canaanites were descendants of Canaan, who was cursed by Noah.  They led the way in idolatry and occult practices to the point that the Lord eventually destroyed them.

God’s covenant with Abraham was to be Abraham’s God.  In order for the covenant to be passed on, this aspect was critical.  It was essential that God be Isaac’s God. 

The same continues to this day.  2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Don't team up with those who are unbelievers.  How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?  How can light live with darkness?” 

Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived.  However, he ignored God’s warnings about not taking many wives and especially about not taking wives from among the idolaters around him.  The results were disastrous.  

The principle here is one that Abraham learned the hard way.  The influence of a mother on a child was a problem in the relationships in Abraham’s family as seen in the story of Ishmael.  In finding a partner, the heart toward God is more important than any other consideration.  How can a person be a soulmate if both are not serving the same God?  This is true in every endeavor of life and especially in affairs of the heart.

I said we saw Abraham holding fast to the promise of God in two areas.  The first was his care not to let Isaac marry a Canaanite woman.  The second was in his command that Isaac never be taken back to where he came from.

The promise of God was clear.  God promised to give Abraham and his descendants the land where Abraham was sojourning.  Abraham had offered Isaac up on an altar on Mount Moriah.  This was the area where the future temple would be built, and it was not far away from the place where the Son of God Himself would die on a cross.  Abraham did not know these facts, but he had learned the hard way that when God calls a person to a location it is important to stay there.

Abraham had tried traveling in the land of the Philistines and that ended badly.  He also tried traveling in the land of Egypt.  That also ended badly.  Through these experiences, God had taught Abraham the importance of holding on to the promises of God.  God’s promise was specific as to the land that Abraham was to inherit.  It was important that Isaac not leave the land that God had promised.

If the principle behind not marrying a Canaanite is keeping God first, the principle behind not leaving the land is staying true to our calling.  This is not as mysterious as it may sound.  Abraham knew God wanted him in Canaan.  If we are sure to put God first, we can be sure that God will make our calling clear.  We can trust Him.  Difficulties and obstacles will come, but we are not to be shaken by such things.

Holding fast to the promise of God, Abraham next took action.

Since he was too old to travel, he had his most senior and trusted servant go to take care of finding Isaac a wife.  In both Abraham’s sending of the servant and the servant’s approach to solving the problem, we see principles to help us in laying hold of the blessings of God. 

The promise was there.  Abraham had been living it.  Now it needed to be passed on to his son.  This meant that his son would need a wife.

So Abraham sent the servant in the general direction of his family.  Abraham had been away for 65 years.  He did not know if and where his family was.

The servant had to travel 1,000 miles.  Probably two months journey to find these people.  He did not even know how he would find them.

It had all started the same way.  God had told Abraham to go to a land that God would show him.  Abraham left not knowing where he was going.  Now Abraham was sending out his servant on a long journey and neither of them knew if he would find anything.

It often is like this when God calls us.  We cannot see the end, but He calls us to move out and trust Him.  Rarely does God show us the end of where we are going.  He requires us to boldly step out of the boat if we would walk on water.

The servant tracked down the town where Abraham’s brother Nahor had settled.  As he approaches the town, he asks God to intervene.  He seeks God’s help.  I cannot help but speculate that he has been asking God for guidance all along the way.  After all, he has had a couple of months on the road to think about this.  He has probably had to ask along the way if anyone knew where Nahor had moved.

He fully expects God’s help and praises God when he gets just what he asked for.  This is an amazing story of faith, answered prayer and God’s guidance.  It all started by stepping out boldly in obedience to what God had called them to do.

We have seen Abraham’s determination to hold fast to God’s promises, and then move out boldly, trusting and seeking the Lord’s direction.  In closing, I want us to consider the results.

Faith bears fruit.  James 1:4 says, “So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

We find this in Abraham.  He had traveled through many trials and now in the final years of his life he was perfect and complete, needing nothing.  We also see this passed on to his son Isaac.

As the servant returns from his successful journey, the caravan meets Isaac out meditating, walking in the field.  We are told, “⁶⁷And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife.  He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.”  (Genesis 24:67)

How blessed this was!  See the words here!  “He loved her deeply.” The words and the ending leave us with the impression that God’s blessing to Abraham has been passed to his son.

I want us to consider something in the story that is significant in this respect.  As the author is telling us about Isaac waiting, it gives us some significant details.  It says he is meditating.  He has a relationship with God.  His father’s practice of intimacy with God has been passed on to the son.  Genesis 24:62 says, “Isaac, whose home was in the Negev, had returned from Beer-lahai-roi.”   The author points out this important detail to remind us of who God is.  Beer-lahai-roi means, “the well of Him that lives and sees me.”  It is this fact that is behind all of God’s blessings.

Salvation is free and blessing is free to any who will receive them because God is a God who sees.

Salvation is free.  Blessings are free and abundant.  However, a God who says, “You are to have no other gods besides me,” gives them. Are you willing to let go of all you are holding onto in favor of holding onto the promises of God?  Are you willing to step out boldly holding onto those promises and trust that God will take you to where you need to be?

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Faith is Tested

When we meet Abraham in Genesis, he is called Abram.  He is living in Mesopotamia with his father’s family.  God spoke to Abram while he was living in Mesopotamia and told him to get up, leave his home and father’s family and travel to a land that God would show him.

Abram moved from what is now Iraq to an area that is Syria in the present day.  It was there, in a city called Haran that God appeared to Abram a second time and said:

Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.  ²I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.  ³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.  All the families on earth will be blessed through you.  Genesis 12:1-3[i]

Abram moved away from Haran, leaving all behind except his nephew Lot.  Lot apparently was Abram’s heir.  Abram held on to this family connection until Lot and Abram’s combined possessions became too great for the land to support. 

Abram and Lot parted ways, and then God appeared to Abram again.

¹⁴After Lot had gone, the LORD said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west.  ¹⁵I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession.  ¹⁶And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!  ¹⁷Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”  Genesis 13:14-17

We do not know what Abram looked like.  We do not know how tall he was, or any of his physical characteristics.  Like Jesus, he had no form or beauty that we should be drawn to him.  The thing that sets Abram apart is the call of God on his life.  There are two unique characteristics to this call that we can observe in what we have just covered.

First, there is a promise of blessing.  God called Abram for the purpose of blessing him.

Second, in order to receive the blessing Abram had to let go of everything he might have been relying on.  First, it was his homeland.  A few generations of Abram’s family lived in Mesopotamia.  Next, it was his family.  He left his brothers and relatives.  Finally, he left his only living male heir, Lot.

All this leaving makes me think of Romans 12:1 where it says, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”  ESV

Genesis 22:1 & 2 say:

¹Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith.  “Abraham!”  God called.

“Yes,” he replied.  “Here I am.”

²“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah.  Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

Of all the things God has asked Abram, now Abraham, to give up, this is the hardest.  “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much . . .” 

The call of God is first a call for the purpose of blessing.

If God was willing to give up His One and Only Son to save us, can we imagine anything He would be unwilling to give for our sake?  Romans 8:32 says, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” 

The call of God is also a call to leave all else and follow Him.  God calls on each of us to let go of everything we might be relying on.  This is consistent with the first commandment.  “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Jesus said:

³⁷“If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.  ³⁸If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.  ³⁹If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.  Mathew 10:37-39

Abraham has become our example because he was willing to rely completely on God.  Is there anything that we have or hold besides God that we will not lose anyway?  All our possessions will grow old and spoil.  All our family will eventually pass on.  Everything we have is temporary at best.  Is there anything we have that we did not receive from God?

In his willingness to rely on God alone, Abraham experienced the provision of God.  As he lifted the knife to kill his son, God stopped him.  God provided a Ram as a substitute for Isaac.  Hebrews 11 says this about this incident:

¹⁷It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him.  Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, ¹⁸even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”  ¹⁹Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again.  And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

Genesis 22:1 starts out, “Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith.”  The testing of faith is hard to understand.  We cannot know what God knows or see what God sees.  Because of this James 1 gives good advice when it says:

²Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  ³For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  ⁴So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

If Abraham had held on instead of relying on God, he would never have known God’s provision.  His faith would not have grown.  His experience of God would have remained shallow at best.  He would not have become what James calls “perfect and complete.”

Is there something you are holding on to?  Is there something that God is asking you to let go?

Abraham experienced God’s call and then because of faith he experienced God’s provision, and finally he experienced the fullness of God’s blessing.

Genesis 22:15-18 says:

¹⁵Then the angel of the LORD called again to Abraham from heaven.  ¹⁶“This is what the LORD says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that ¹⁷I will certainly bless you.  I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.  Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.  ¹⁸And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

Look at this again, “I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you.” 

God is certainly a help in time of trouble.  He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.  In addition, He is so much more.

He wants to bless us.  He longs to bless us.

Lamenting over Jerusalem, Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers!  How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”  (Luke 13:34)

God shows He wants to bless us when He says, “For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt.  Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.”  (Psalm 81:10)

Think of the position that God has given us because of Jesus Christ.  He provided a substitute to die in our place and pay the price for our sins.  1 John 3:2 tells us:

Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.  But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

We see in Genesis 22:1-18 how Abraham experienced God’s call, provision and blessing.  In closing, I would like to reconsider Romans 12.  However, this time I would like to read all of verses 1 and 2.

¹And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  ²Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Do we want to know how good and pleasing and perfect God’s will is?  It starts with letting our bodies be a living and holy sacrifice.

If you are like me, we need to spend less time telling God what we think needs to happen and more time praying for His will to be done.

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Pentecost

Pentecost, otherwise known as “The Feast of Weeks,” is the second of the three major Jewish festivals (the other two are Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles).  The Hebrew word for the festival is “Shavuot,” and it means weeks.

Passover was in early spring and included first fruits offerings from the early harvest of barley.  Shavuot was in late spring and included first fruits offerings from the wheat harvest.  The Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, was in the fall, was the final harvest and included first fruits of olives and grapes.

All three of these festivals involved a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  It was required of all Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem to observe these three festivals.

Exodus 34:22-24  ²²“You must celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first crop of the wheat harvest, and celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season. ²³Three times each year every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the LORD, the God of Israel. ²⁴I will drive out the other nations ahead of you and expand your territory, so no one will covet and conquer your land while you appear before the LORD your God three times each year.[i]

The Passover celebrated God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt. Seven weeks after the 2^nd day of Passover was the Feast of Weeks.  Jewish tradition holds that the law, or Torah, was given to Moses at that time.  It is also tradition that David was born and died on that day.

Here is a list of the Holiday traditions surrounding Shavuot.

1.    The Ten Commandments are read to commemorate the giving of the Law.

2.    Some Jewish people stay up all night studying the Torah (Law) to "re-live" the revelation at Mount Sinai.

3.    Book of Ruth is read, tying in with the theme of harvest as well as the theme of community.  This also ties in with the belief that King David was born on Shavuot, since the last verse of the book shows that Ruth was one of his ancestors.

4.    A 12th century Aramaic poem, Akdamut, which heralds the Messianic future, is read.

5.    Jewish people traditionally decorate their homes and synagogues with flowers and greens.

6.    An older tradition prescribes that two loaves of leavened bread be baked; some say they represent all of humanity (one loaf is the Jewish people, the other Gentiles), while others see them as representing the two tablets Moses brought down from Sinai.

7.    It is traditional to eat milk products, because the rabbis say that when our people received the Law they were as newborn babies.[ii]

Here is a link to an entertaining video about Shavuot:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFG_2iT-Lm4

In Jesus’s day, Jerusalem was crowded at the time of Shavuot, or Pentecost.  It was at this feast time that the Holy Spirit was poured out.  Acts 2:2-4 says:

“Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.  Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.  And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”

 This was an astounding event.  While all Israel was gathered together to celebrate God’s provision for them, God provided something even more momentous than the Law.  If they had been like newborn babies at the giving of the Law, this was to be even more transforming and powerful.  This was not the doing away with the Law, but the fulfilling of it.  Now what the prophet Jeremiah said about the law of God being written on the hearts of His people would be fulfilled.  “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day," says the LORD.  "I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  (Jeremiah 31:33)

Look at verse one of Acts chapter 2.  It says, “On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.”  Notice that it says, “All the believers.”  Acts 1:15 speaks of 120 believers gathered together in one place.  All the believers gathered together in Acts 2 must be at least 120 believers.

Next, look at verse 41.  It says, “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.”   Romans 8:29 speaks of Jesus being the first born among many brethren.  The resurrection took place at Passover.  Jesus then would be the first harvest.  These 3,000 then would be the first fruits of the second harvest.  I do not have any Biblical support for this statement, and it is just my imagination at work, but I do find it significant that God chose to pour out His Spirit on this particular feast day.

Jesus said, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come.  If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”  (John 16:7)  This passage in Acts 2 is an example of what Jesus was talking about.

As far as I know, there has never been another day in history when 3,000 people gathered in one place made a decision to accept Christ as Savior at the same time.  In 2012, the number of people in the world that called themselves Christians stood at 2.2 Billion.  There is a great difference between being Christian in name and professing Christ.  However, there is no way to account for the billions of people throughout history that have called themselves Christian apart from the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is still working.  “On average, around the world, 178,000 people convert to Christianity every day.”[iii]

In Acts 2:7 it says, “They were completely amazed. “  How can this be?” they exclaimed.”  Next in verse 12 it says, “They stood there amazed and perplexed. “  What can this mean?” they asked each other.”  In two places closely connected, the text emphasizes how amazed and perplexed the people were.

When the sound of the mighty rushing wind was heard, people went running to see what it was.  They knew something was happening and they wanted to see.

When they saw, they were even more amazed.  Galileans were speaking languages from all corners of the Empire. 

What they saw needed explaining. 

This is true of many of the works of the Holy Spirit.  How does one explain the growth of the Church from 120 people to billions?

How do you explain what He has done in your life?  The Lord leads and opens doors.  He provides for us and makes a way for us.  Everyday people are delivered from all kinds of bondage.  I used to listen to the radio program “Unshackled.”  Every week there would be the story of a person who was saved from drug addiction, alcohol or a life of crime.  The Holy Spirit is still at work today.

On that Day of Pentecost, people did not understand what was happening so they made their own explanation. “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”  (Acts 2:13)

Peter got up and explained.  He says, ““Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem!  Make no mistake about this.  These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming.  Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.  (Acts 2:14-15)

He then explains that this is what the Prophet Joel foretold:

‘In the last days,’ God says,

‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions,

and your old men will dream dreams.

¹⁸In those days I will pour out my Spirit

even on my servants—men and women alike—

and they will prophesy.

¹⁹And I will cause wonders in the heavens above

and signs on the earth below—

blood and fire and clouds of smoke.

²⁰The sun will become dark,

and the moon will turn blood red

before that great and glorious day of the LORD arrives.

²¹But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD

will be saved.  Acts 2:17-21

Certainly, verses 17 and 18 were fulfilled that day with people proclaiming the great things the Lord had accomplished.  However, the sun becoming dark and the moon turning to blood are things that are yet to be fulfilled.  These things are foretold in Revelation.  Peter is talking about the Church age, the time from Pentecost until the Church is taken up to meet Jesus in the air.  The Spirit has been poured out and is being poured out.  The work that the Spirit started that day is continuing to this.  Everyday people are turning to the Lord and are being baptized. 

Peter gives the inaugural address for the Church.  In it he says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”  This is the same message Paul repeats twice in Romans 10.  Peter summarizes the core of this message when he says, “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”  (Acts 2:36)

This is the same message that we preach today.  Jesus is both Lord and Messiah. 

There is another feast.  It is the feast of Tabernacles.  It is the final harvest. 

There is also another day coming.  Jesus will return.  The sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red like blood.  This will be the final harvest of the Church age as our Lord and Messiah ushers in His 1,000 year reign on earth.  Until that time, the call that Peter made is still our call and invitation today.  It goes like this:

Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.  Acts 2:38-39

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

[ii] http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/newsletter/june-2005/shavuot

[iii] http://www.worldhopperministry.com/why.html