Abraham’s Life of Faith

Transcript

GRS 2-6
12/12/2004
Abraham’s Life of Faith
Genesis 20-24
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Genesis Chapter 20, Genesis chapter 20, each Chapters Genesis from Chapter 12 to Chapter 25 are absolutely foundational, everything else that happens in the rest of the scripture, they are absolutely essential for understanding, what is taking place in our world today, 4000 years after Abraham. Very crucial Chapters that are unfolding the life of Abraham and of course we are doing it in summary fashion. Abraham comes into the picture in Genesis Chapter 12 and he will pass from this earth in Genesis Chapter 25. And those Chapters are unfolded the matters that are foundational, that what will take place through the rest of the scripture and for understanding what is going on in the world today. In Chapter 18, you had the birth of Isaac promised again and you had a time line given. Mean descendants have been promised to Abraham back in Chapter 12 when he was 75 years old, but no time line was given. Now in Genesis Chapter 18, when Abraham is 99 years old, God tells him it will be next year at this time the promise son will be born.

In chapter 19, you have the events relating to Sodom and Gomorrah, and their destruction and you see the miserable compromise that Lot, that righteous man made with the world, and he brought his family into the city of Sodom, they became part of that city. The New Testament tells us he vexed his soul there day after day with that wickedness, but it had a corrupting influence on his family, his own wife is turned to a pillar of salt as her affections were not for the Lord, but for the world of Sodom, and when she turned and looked back, she was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his two daughters escaped ultimately to the mountains and as a result of an incestuous relationship with both of those daughters, you have two different nations produced in verses 37 and 38, the Moabites and the Ammonites. Look at the Chapter 20, we pick up with Abraham again and in Chapter 18, you have a spiritual high as Abraham talked with the Lord, had an intermit time of relationship and conversation, God reiterated his promises to Abraham, confirmed the covenants by the promise of a child born to him and Sarah. Then God said in light of the fact I have chosen Abraham and his descendants. Should I not tell him what I am going to do to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? And that gives Abraham the opportunity to intercede so passionately with God on behalf of Lot and his family. He does it with the righteous generally, but obviously in mind, in Abraham’s mind are Lot and his family. There are not even ten righteous people in all these cities. The God doesn’t destroy the righteous with the wicked even if there is only a couple. So Lot and his two daughters are the ultimate ones who escaped by the grace of God.

When you come to Chapter 20, it’s a downer, you think Abraham has grown beyond doing what he does in Chapter 20 and the significance of this is magnified when you realized that God has promised Abraham in Chapter 18, verse 10, next year at this time Sarah will bear you a son and that will be fulfilled in Chapter 21. So the events of Chapters 18 to 21 take place in a year’s period of time and what Abraham is going to do in Chapter 20 is lie again about his wife Sarah so that she ends up in the harem of another man. You are on the brink of the fulfillment of the promises, the go back 24 years and Abraham is on the brink of blowing at all by turning his wife over to another man. You just don’t expect this at this stage from the man of faith, the man who is speaking on such intermit terms with God in Chapter 18. Now he will lie again about his wife because he doesn’t think God can protect him. So where in Chapter 20 opens up Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, settled between Kadesh and Shur. Then he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said of his wife, she is my sister, so Abimelech, king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. I mean, how can you do this? This is a repeat of what happened back in Chapter 12 remember, when Pharaoh went down into Egypt, lied about his sister there, his wife, saying she is my sister. Now he does it again and you would think one thing I have to do is protect my wife because in this next year she is going to bear the son, upon which all the promises depend, but no...she is my sister. So they come and take her to the harem of Abimelech. Abraham, you think a godly man willing to give his life for his wife? No, he is more concerned about his own skin. On this, and lies about his wife and puts her at risk for such a relationship that even the unbelievers are dump founded about it. Abraham was who he was by God’s grace reminder for all of us. He had feet of clay too and the provisions of the covenant promise to Abraham will be fulfilled because God is a faithful God. And wasn’t forgot faithfulness, the whole plan would have collapsed before it got off the ground. There would have been no Isaac, but in verse 3, but God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him, behold, you are a dead man. God gets you right to the point, you are a dead man, why? Because of the woman whom you have taken for, she is married, literally married to her husband. Though here God appears to a pagan person in a dream to tell him I am going to kill you because you are not going to have the woman you have taken, and I am going to take your life, so it doesn’t happen. Abimelech’s response is immediate repentance. Good for him, give him some credit. He is not going to oppose God. God could have preserved Sarah, struck Abimelech dead, never woke up in the morning, Sarah’s purity is preserved. He chooses to do it a different way. Abimelech had not had any relationship with Sarah. He had not come near her and he appeals Lord, will slay a nation even though blameless, did he not himself say to me, she is my sister. She said, he is my brother. Sarah joined Abraham in the lie. Abraham said she is my sister, Sarah said yes, I am his sister. In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this. It doesn’t mean that Abimelech was a sinless person, but on this occasion, he didn’t. It wasn’t his guilt. He didn’t take Sarah knowing she was a married woman. So what he knew would indicate that, you know we could act here.

God said to him in a dream, yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. Note this. I also kept you from sinning against me. A reminder, Psalms 51, verse 4, After David’s sin with Bathsheba, he prayed to God and said, against you and you only have I sinned. We have talked about this before. The sin is so ugly because ultimately every sin is a sin against God directly and personally. The reason that Abimelech had not acted in an immoral way with Sarah is because God had acted to prevent it from occurring. So he doesn’t give Abimelech credit here, but it is God’s grace that is intervened to spare Sarah and to spare Abimelech because God would have killed Abimelech if necessary, humanly speaking to prevent any violation of Sarah. Abraham didn’t know that. Amazing how on some occasions Abraham can be a giant of faith. We are going to see the pinnacle of his faith shortly. But at other times he seems like a pigmy, and here sadly is a low point. Now therefore, note what God tells to Abimelech, therefore restore the man’s wife for he is a prophet. Now here is pagan Abimelech being instructed that Abraham the liar is my servant, is a prophet, he will pray for you, and your life will be spared. He will pray for you, you will live, but if you don’t restore her, you dead. I mean here is your alternative. Again sad, but nothing changes. Abraham is still God’s chosen servant. We would say he falls on his faith here. There are no excuses offered, but God has chosen Abraham. The gifts of calling of God are irrevocable. Doesn’t mean Abraham will be a perfect man, but he is the man of God’s chosen. He is the man of God’s appointment. He sins, he is still God’s prophet. He is still the man with the relationship with God, not Abimelech. And so Abimelech needs Abraham to intercede on his on his behalf, so his own life will be spared, even though it’s Abraham’s action, his sin that is put Sarah at risk. Its Abimelech’s life that is on the line, not Abraham’s, not Sarah’s.

So Abimelech rose early in the morning. He can’t wait to get out of bed and get this taken care of, called all his servants, told them everything that had happened and everybody is afraid. Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, why have you done this to us? How have I sinned against you that you brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? you have done things that are not to be done. You know here lot of debates and discussions about marriage and the sanctity of marriage and so on. You know there has been a recognition of the sanctity of marriage, if I can use that expression from the beginning even among the pagans and so Abimelech recognizes that his servants do. Abimelech asked again, in verse 10, what have you been encountered that you have done this thing? Basically what Abimelech is saying what would have happened to make you do such a thing? This is a sad reversal. Pagan Abimelech confronting Abraham, the prophet, why would you do such a terrible thing? I mean what motivated you to do that? Who said? Sometimes the world is the rebuke even to the people of God, Abraham said, because I thought surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. I did it to save my own skin, I will put my wife into an immoral situation, turn her over to a Godless pagan to save my own skin. If you were there at that time, you think, boy this is not a very admirable man, how do you like to have been Sarah, they had to go through this ride, twice that is recorded that Abraham offers further explanation, besides she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, not the daughter of my mother. She became my wife, she is my half-sister, so with the half-truth, which was a complete lie. It came out when God calls me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, this is the kindness which you will show me everywhere we go, say of me, he is my brother. This was the constant pattern of life that Abraham asks Sarah to tell, no matter what it meant for her. Abimelech gives significant gifts to Abraham and Sarah, because Abraham has to intercede for him and to declare to all that Sarah is a just woman. And no wrong has been done here to her. So the gifts clears the error if you will on that.

Then you have told in verse 17, Abraham prayed to God, God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children, for the Lord had closed all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah. Everybody was made barren in Abimelech’s house, that would indicate that there has been sometime, this just didn’t happen overnight, it was long enough for the household of Abimelech to recognize that there no body have any children. Sarah may have stayed part in that harem for months. Like I said, he didn’t allow Abimelech to touch her. It was the supernatural intervention of God that protected her there. He could protect Sarah in that harem. Don’t you think he could protect Abraham, any chance that Abraham is going to get killed before the promise son’s born? Now little bit later Abraham will have the faith of God to raise Isaac from the dead, if necessary to enable the covenant he has with God to be fulfilled. He believes the God could raise his child from the dead of necessary, but on this occasion he doesn’t believe the God will protect him and Sarah to have the child. One thing these Old Testament sayings are laid before us is I believe this is all of # patenting works in all and we get the low points and the high points and it is a blessing to know that we are not dealing with people who are perfect and we are here struggling, that does not excuse my sin, but it does reveal the grace of God even in sinful situations. It does reveal that the covenant and promises of God depend upon God, not man. And the failures of man will not cancel the covenant promises of God. A lesson that some believers haven’t understood and so they don’t appreciate the fact the Abrahamic covenant is in force even today for God’s people. With that account behind this and it is good that is behind as you come to Chapter 21 and finally after all these years, the promise son will be born, so you can really go from Chapter 18, verse 10, and he said, God’s speaking to Abraham, I will surely return to you at this time next year and behold Sarah, your wife will have a son. Chapter 21 verse1, then the Lord took notice Sarah as he had said and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. It’s a year later. So the events of Chapters 19 and 20 take place in that year.

Now we are going to have the child that basically was promised back in Chapter 12, 25 years earlier. We sometimes get tired of waiting, but we need to place our faith in the promises of God, they are sure, they are settle and say lord and we all have gone through it we despaired, aren’t you going to do anything, yes he is. He will honor his word; he will be faith full to his promises on his schedule, not ours. So you have the birth of Isaac in the first 7 verses, you are going to have the departure of Ishmael in verses 8 to 21, and then you are going to have the covenant made with Abimelech at the close of the Chapter. Sarah conceived, bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God spoke to him and the name given to the son is Isaac. Isaac means laughter and both Abraham and Sarah had laughed when God gave the promise that a son will be born and now verse 6 Sarah said God has made me laughter for me and everyone who hears will laugh with me. I mean this will be a cause of joy, Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90 and they have a baby together, Amazing, a miracle, verse 5 tells us Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. He had been 86 when Ishmael was born. So Ishmael is 14 years old now when Isaac is born, so a lot of times has gone by. The tension in the house, remember back when Hagar was pregnant with Ishmael that she ran away from Sarah because Sarah treated her so harshly because of the tension between them. 14 years go by, 15 years, 16 years, things don’t get any better. The scripture doesn’t fill in all the details for us, but we will see the tension here in a few moments. So there is great joy, but conflict surfaces. Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham mocking. This is verse 8 tells us when Isaac is weaned, and be somewhere 2 to 3 years old when he would have been in this society, so Ishmael now is 16 or 17 years old, and he is making fun, he is mocking, that word mocking comes from the same basic word as Isaac’s name is, laughter, making fun of him, laughing at him, mocking him. Sara’s response is harsh and firm. Therefore she said to Abraham, drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be heir with my son Isaac. You see the tension hasn’t gone away in this home and it is not a matter Sarah corrects Ishmael or but tells Abraham to put a stop this, Hagar and Ishmael have to go, drive her out , send her away. I am done with it. You get some sense of how things have gone over the last 15, 16, 17 years in this house, things haven’t gotten any closure between Hagar and Sarah, as you can imagine Abraham is greatly distressed about the matter. God said to Abraham, don’t be distressed because of the lad you made, whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. We sometimes emphasis that when Abraham had a relationship with Hagar at the advice of his wife, he shouldn’t listen to his wife, where the key in being husband is not listening to your wife. The solution is never listen to your wife, the solution is listen to her when she is right, now you figure that out your wife, I am still working on it. And this is God’s speaking, Sarah is God’s mouthpiece. She will be repeated verbatim basically in the New Testament, in the book of Romans and in the Book of Galatians, as what she is saying is God’s word on the issue, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

All the way back verse 10, we won’t go there by, but you can write down Galatians Chapter 4, verses 21 and following and Romans Chapter 9 verse 7, quote verse 10 and the following. “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.” And Paul there uses Ishmael and Hagar and the child born of the flesh is that which is fleshly and under law in contrast to the child of promise and the promises that come through Christ here allowed what the promise comes to rise. So Sarah is God’s spokesperson here and God is speaking through her to Abraham. God counseled Abraham, listen to Sarah, she is right, so here even the tension, the unpleasantness and the grief that this would have brought to Abraham as the father of this child is part of God’s ultimate plan because nothing’s changed. Through Isaac, your descendants shall be named, of the son of the maid, I will make a nation also because he is your descendant. So there will be blessings on Ishmael because you. Ishmael is a descendant, a direct descendant of Abraham. But the promises of the covenant I have given centered in Isaac. So Abraham got up early in the morning, appreciate what Abraham does here, you see he is a man of faith, God speaks, and it’s done. He gets on immediately and that will come out clear in the next Chapter as well. He sends Hagar and her son away. Now you would think a man of Abraham’s stature, the wealth he has accumulated and so on, he would have sent them away with servants, with abundance, but the indication is he sends Hagar and Ishmael away with provisions for them. Their water has used up, they don’t have anything left, they are ready to die, and you are familiar with the story that God hears the cry of Ishmael and Hagar, and again speaks verse 17, God heard the lad was crying, the angel of God, the preincarnate Christ called Hagar from heaven and said, what’s the matter with you Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Remember Ishmael means, God hears. Now God’ has heard again, so she opened her eyes, she saw a well of water, they revived, they go and live in the wilderness of Paran, and she gets away for him from Egypt. Over to Haran where in what would have Saudi Arabia today, it is the region where they are.

Then the covenant has made with Abimelech, they come, they say, we recognize you are a great man, there is battle over water rights over the well because water is key when you are in these desert regions and there are disagreements and so it ends up, they make covenant, settle the matter over this disagreement. What this does is remind us that Abraham is still a stranger, a pilgrim, in this land traveling through the Philistines. Verse 34 Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days. This is the land God promised to Abraham, but none of it is. He is a wanderer here. God has blessed him with wealth and richness, but he doesn’t really have anything, the first thing he will purchase here will be a grave site and when Abraham dies the only thing he owns as his own in the land that God has promised to him is a grave site. It is used as a testimony of his faith in the Book of Hebrews Chapter 11, that he wandered as a stranger or a pilgrim in the land that God promised to him, but he believed the promises. Chapter 22, you know, years go by, God speaks to Abraham again, God tested Abraham in Chapter 22 verse 1, Abraham, he said, here am I, we don’t know, probably years have gone by since God has had occasion to speak to Abraham, but he has nothing to record of it. Remember we are just picking out the points that are important for us to see how God’s hand has worked to give us an appreciation of the place of the Abrahamic covenant in the plan of God, in the place of Israel, in the fulfillment of that covenant.

Verse 2, you had a big shocking ,take now your son , your only son whom you love, Isaac and you will note how attention is stressed on how precious this son, you take your son. I am talking about your only son. The son whom you love. I am talking about Isaac. You take him to the land of Moriah, and you offer him there as a burnt-offering on the mountain that I will tell you about. You think there place that Abraham would plant his feet, say no, I can’t do this, and besides Lord this makes no sense because this would be contrary to everything you promised, I can’t do it, I won’t do it. But remember back in Chapter 21, verse 14 when God told him what to do with Ishmael, Abraham rose early in the morning and did it. Chapter 22, verse 3, so Abraham rose early in the morning and he did it. He got everything ready, made the journey. You know sometimes think we will delay, God will change his mind. Best thing to do is it get on and do what God says, needs to be done and do it as soon and quickly as possible. You talk to people claimed to be believers, oh yes, I am going to, oh yes, I am going to get my library, oh yes, I am going to get into the word, oh yes I am going to. Abraham was not a perfect man, but he is a model in many areas of his life, one of the areas he does, when God says something, he immediately gets on and does it. Rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, he split wood for the burnt-offering, rose, went to the place which God told him, What do you think he told Sarah? You know, there are so many thinks you would wonder about. When Sarah said where are you going? Out. What is the wood for? Camping. When will you be back? Soon. Why he couldn’t tell her I am on my way to offer the son that we waited so long for, how do I put this, a burnt-offering, I am going to slice his throat, light a fire into him and burn his body to ashes, I don’t think he told, I assume he just did it. 3-day journey to get to Moriah, it is about 50 miles. Moriah is the site of Jerusalem, the future Jerusalem, the future temple, second Chronicles Chapter 3 verse 1, we find out that’s where Solomon built the temple. Jerusalem was on mount Moriah and the temple was built on that mount in Jerusalem. So very much significance to what is taking place here. Their journey, verse 5, they get into the site, Abraham tells the servants to stay behind, me and Isaac go on. Isaac has to carry the wood, Isaac is not a young man here. Isaac would be a teenager himself now older teenager, amazing. What did Abraham have to tell him? I mean Abraham is an old man, how he is going to wrestle this. you know, most of us, our kids to be you know 17, 18 years old, they are strong enough, and you know we get the idea here this little 4 year old or 5 year old walking along with his father Abraham and Abraham ties him up and lays him in altar, you’ve got a young adult here at this point that Abraham is going to offer. They walk on together, Isaac has a question. Abraham has told him we are going to make a sacrifice. Isaac’s getting curious. Verse 7, behold the fire and the wood, what about the lamb? We forgot something very important. Abraham had to tell him, well, God will provide the lamb. They get to the place which God ad told him, Abraham built the altar there, arranged the wood, bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar. Imagine the discussion they had were not told. Isaac, I have to tie you up, you understand God has told me you are the sacrifice, so I have to bind you with these ropes and I am going to lay you on this wood and I am going to take this knife and I am going to kill you. Then I am going to light the fire, burn you up to ashes, and then God is going to raise you from the dead. Now we know that that was on Abraham’s mind because Hebrews Chapter 11 verses 17 to 19 indicate that Abraham had the faith that God would raise Isaac from the dead, if necessary to fulfill the promises given to him through Isaac. So I say this is probably the pinnacle of Abraham’s faith. Some believe this is the pinnacle of the Old Testament, for that reason the action of Abraham here. So he really believed in his heart that at the end of verse 5, when he told the servants to wait there and we will worship and return to you, that we will go and we will come back because God will have to raise Isaac because all the promises sent to her and him. Amazing! And you wonder that Abraham is the example of faith in the New Testament even with his failures, it doesn’t mean you can be a mighty servant of the God even when you stumble, Abraham being that example, just in the nick of time, well how close.

Abraham raises the knife, but before he can bring it down, the Lord calls him from heaven. The angel of the Lord, verse 11 called out to him from heaven and said Abraham, Abraham. He said, here I am. Don’t stretch out your hand against the lad. Aren’t you glad God is always on time, I mean, Oh, I didn’t think Abraham will go through with it, stopped him, well part of God’s plan for Abraham to demonstrate his faith, his commitment was to God above all else, how you think Isaac felt lay there, Now here is his dad just tied him up, put him on the altar, cleared that he is the sacrifice, he’s got the knife, dead serious. You think the fourth kid will be traumatized for life, think of the counseling he would need, my own dad was on the verge of killing me. No problem, I guess, all part of the plan of God. Isaac wants to trust God through this too. That are commitments to God and obedience to God supersedes even our family relationship here. If God says I have to do it, I have to do it, we follow his word and let God solve his problems. God’s provision is to intervene.

Abraham’s famous statement of verse 8, God will provide for himself, the lamb for burnt-offering, my son is fulfilled when they see a ram caught in a thicket. They take the ram and offer it in verse 14 in place of Isaac and Abraham called the place to Yehova Jira, the God will provide, so it said to this day in the mount of the Lord, it will be provided. God now reconfirms his covenant with Abraham. You have these constant reconfirmations because, you know, we go back to the word of God, we read the promises Christ is coming because what happens, with the passing of time, sometime to seems our tension is focused on that, then other things intervene difficulties, tragedies, heartbreak comes into our life, we begin to forget. This is all about the coming of the Lord. His hand is upon me, his purposes are being accomplished, I walk with him, but we need to be reminded. Abraham wasn’t privileged to carry a completed revelation under his arm like we are that God graciously continually reaffirms and reconfirms to Abraham the importance of the covenant. So verse 16, by myself I have sworn declares the Lord, this is the key matter in Hebrews Chapter 6 verses 13 to 18 because God puts swear by no other , he swore by himself. You know, you swear by the greater, God is, I swear by myself to fulfill this covenant by myself I have sworn. You know, I emphasis this, but this is the serious matter. There are people today claimed to be believers in Jesus Christ, believers in the Bible, who don’t think there is a future for Israel. What does that say about the covenant oath of God? All are agreed Israel has been unfaithful, but God says by myself I have sworn declares the Lord. This stands or falls with God in and God alone. Indeed, I will greatly bless you, I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, as the sand on the seashore and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies that cleared. I have sworn this, so happened. But Israel was unfaithful and the church now is the new Israel. That is a lie from hell that is a denial of the veracity of the God who has sworn by himself. Furthermore, he includes the gentiles in the next verse and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed and we will familiar with the use of this promise in the New Testament. The seed singular being Christ, Galatians 3, there is provision for us gentiles, provision for the creation of the church as the people of God, they do not replace Israel as the people of God. You will note both promises are part of what God has sworn by himself because there is no greater to swear by. Oh, if there is one thing that the church of Jesus Christ are to be cleared is the covenant promises given to Abraham cannot be altered, and the New Testament repeats them. Once the covenant is in force, it cannot be changed, you can’t add two, you can’t take away from it, so you can’t take Israel out of it, you can’t take this specific promises to Israel away, no excuse for confusion on this. So god has reconfirmed again and we saw on our previous studies, how many times he has done this, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 15, Chapter 17, here we go. Let’s say it again.

And there are people to say, you know, there is no future for the nation Israel. I am not telling about unbelievers, I am telling about people who claim those who hold to reform theology and covenant theology, as soon as you hear that you have to shut down and I don’t want to hear anymore. You are so confused that we have nothing to talk about. Alright, so that settled, you have now introduced something that might seem strange, why we bring this up now? Verse 20, now came about after these things, it was told Abraham, behold Milcah has born children to your brother Nahor. Well, who cares? I mean, he was left behind, but it is important because you get into now these descendants, and you come to verse, 23 Bethuel became the father of Rebecca and so when we get to Chapter 24 we are going to have to find a bride for Isaac and so now we know something of the preparatory line of where Rebecca will come from, so even that introduced there is key to understanding where the story is going.

Sadly in chapter 23, Sarah will die. Sarah lived 127 years. Now remember she was 90 when Isaac was born. She is now 127 years old, so Isaac is a 37 year old man when his mother dies. She dies in Hebron, Kiriath Arba which is later known as Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20 to 25 years have elapsed since Chapter 22, the offering of Isaac. So you see we are getting the highlights here where Isaac would have been a teenager, now is a 37 year old man, so a number of years go by, we don’t fill it in because God’s intention is not to fill in all the detail of Abraham’s life. There God’s intention is to give us the major points so that we can understand how the accounts moves alone. Verse 2 were told that Abraham went to mourn, he wept for Sarah, first mention of weeping in the Bible, and its Abraham weeping for Sarah. He goes and purchases a field and that there is the discussion of over the cost of the field and so on, getting the cave of Machpelah as a burial place for Sarah and it is the place for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be buried as well as Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah, all will be buried in the same burial plot, Canaan is Abraham’s promised land, he now owns a portion of it, a grave site, that’s the only part of the land that he will possess as his own during his lifetime. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they all diy without really having the possession of the land that God promised and ultimately it won’t be until they come up out of the Egyptian bondage after 400 years and bondage that they have come in and truly take possession of the land that had been promised, that promises can take a long time to be fulfilled. But nothing can alter the promises of God, not 1 year, not 10 years, not 25 years, not 400 years, not 40000 years, not 10000 years, the promises of God are sure for eternity.

Genesis 24, you get a bride for Isaac and we will just do that and we will stop, get Isaac married and happy again. It is the longest Chapter in Genesis, and you can jump ahead 67 verses, and we are going to spend the least amount of time perhaps on it. You can read this story itself explanatory. Abraham is concerned to get a wife for his son Isaac, but he doesn’t want to get a Canaanite, he wants it from his own family. What others have observed that Isaac seems somewhat a passive person, he doesn’t play a very prominent role, he is a key person, he is one of the patriarchs, but there is not much attention given to Isaac in the Book of Genesis. He is almost like a transition to get from Abraham to Jacob and the 12 sons of Jacob, all that time building up to Isaac and Isaac has to be born and through all the promises will come to Isaac, but there is not much attention given to Isaac. Compared Abraham his father and Jacob his son, he plays a relatively minor role and the account is unfolded. Again a major row because the promises hind upon his birth and then the son that he would have. Some believe that his importance was diminished by the fact he had a clever masterful wife and Rebecca in many ways is more prominent than her husband Isaac. Well, Abraham takes a select trusted servant and tells him I want you to go back to my relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac. Verse 3, you have to swear that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, but you go to my country, to my relatives, take a wife for my son Isaac and the servant says what if the woman is not willing to come back with me? Then you are free from the oaths, but don’t take my son back there, Now interestingly Abraham doesn’t want Isaac to go back there, but later will find the key son going back later in the development of the story. So the servant goes back to Abraham’s home land and where he prays how I am going to find this woman, well Lord, that be the woman who comes out to the well, and I ask for a drink and she says I will get you drink and I also water your camels, like that be the one and behold it happens according to his request.

Look at verse10, when the servant takes out, this would be a trip of about 500 miles. So this is a long journey to get back to Abraham’s home land and he gets back there and then his request in verse 27, Abraham is, Rebecca has told him who she is. She has asked in verse 24, I am the daughter of Bethuel, now carries his back. Remember we saw that genealogy tacked on in the end of that Chapter, the son of Milcah whom she bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother , she is a second cousin to Isaac. Verse 26, the servant bows and worships the Lord, bless would be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken, his loving kindness is truth toward my master, as for me the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brother. The girl runs to tell her family that she has met one of her long distant relatives, remember we are in that part of world where hospitality is so key and here is a family member, they haven’t heard from the family, met members of the family like this, in how any years. So Rebecca’s brother is Laban. She goes out and meets that man, they come in, arrangements are made for the marriage, Rebecca agrees to go and after they go. Not the way we do marriages today, it’s consisting with biblical times. Rebecca is taking a leap of faith here. Now Laban realizes, you know, he is got a good payment here because the servant brought many gifts for him as well as for Rebecca, the wife to be. When they ask for Rebecca to be able to stay for a while, he says no, I have to go and don’t hold me back, Rebecca says, I am willing to go, so they sent her along.

Verse 60, they blessed Rebecca and said to her, you our sister become thousands of ten thousands and your descendants possess the gate of those hate them. So even the godless people and some of the godless people say Laban will not be a man of admirable character, who will appear later in the story. But God uses them to speak what will be a true prophecy. They go, they meet, and they are married. And verse 67, Isaac brought her into his mother, Sarah’s tent, he took Rebecca, she became his wife, he loved her, Thus Isaac was confronted after his mother’s death. Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca. You don’t find that out. Down to Chapter 25 verse 20, Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca, that would give you an idea, 3 years after his mother ‘s death, Abraham was 140, this stage and he has got a few good years left in him, as chapter 25, we will make clear, where you the faithfulness of God and moving Abraham along, we just get the highlights of his life, number of years between these Chapters and events, but all indicating that God is faithful to his promises. Promises first unfolded to us in chapter 25, now after 25 years after the original promises the son of promises born, Abraham is stumbled on a couple of occasions, put his wife on risk, her purity at risk, the woman through whom the promise son must be born at risk, but God is sovereign and faithful and even when Abraham stumbles God’s hand is there to see him through. Abraham demonstrates great faith, amazing faith on occasions and the New Testament reveals what was in his heart on some of these occasions that even the Old Testament doesn’t. God is faithful, God has chosen Abraham and his descendants, Ishmael is now in the picture, Ishmael will be a great man, we will get into that in Chapter 25. So his descendants, they multiply and the problems go on, the tension that was in household of Abraham, in the 2 lines, continues down to today, only gets worse. Here we are today that God’s promises hold, what is happening in the events and shaping of the world, God has to fulfill the promises to Abraham, the land of Canaan will belong to Jews, the seed singular of Abraham Christ will be the one and whom all the blessings will be realized, Israel will receive all their promises, salvation promises and all the other promises including the land through Jesus Christ and the gentiles. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through the seed of Abraham. And the covenant promises to Abraham are very precious to us. They explain the turmoil in the world as the devil and his followers fight against, the fulfillment of the promises of God, but we take comfort from what? The promises of God are irrevocable here. Aren’t you glad you are secured? If it depended on your faith fullness, you would make it, if it depended on my faithfulness, I would make it, but God is a faithful God. It doesn’t mean I am not obligated. But I don’t to walk a faithful life, but I am quite when I stumble, that it depends upon God’s faithfulness and not mine.

Let’s pray together, thank you Lord that you are faithful God, you are a covenant making God and covenant keeping God. It is good for our hearts and minds to have settled and cleared that the covenant that you established with Abraham is based upon your own faithfulness, you swore by yourself and no one else. You will fulfill each and every one of those promises, the promises to Israel are secured and ensured through all their trials, through all their misery, through all their hard ship and hard ache because of their unbelief, you are faithful and you will bring that nation to its knees into salvation and their messiah and to realization of each and every one of their promise s including their land. Oh. Lord we thank to praise you that we gentiles experience the salvation blessings that you also provided for in the covenant you established with Abraham and we rejoice that you are a covenant keeping God and those promises made through Abraham and confirmed in the new covenant are sure and in Jesus Christ we have found salvation and we are protected by your power and your promises, and we at times are unfaithful people, we stumble, we fall, we sin, but the promise is depend upon your faithfulness, your grace, and we rejoice in that. These days be days of encouragement to our hearts, we see events in the world taking place, they are all part of your plan and bringing to completion the promises made so long ago, we praise you in Christ’s name. Amen.