Week 3
Monday 09/05/22
The Patriarchs - Genesis 12-50
- Abraham
- Isaac
- Jacob
- Joseph
Reading the Bible Morally or Theologically?
- Morally: Looking at the bible as a moral compass (wrong)
- Theologically: Not as a rule book
Judgement and Grace in Genesis
- Humanity messes up
- Deserving of judgement
- God responding with grace
- Punishes our sins, but he provides for us
- Adam and Eve
- Cain murdering Abel
- The flood and Noah
- Judgement upon the tower of Babel\
Abraham: Calling and Promise
- When Abraham is called, he knows nothing of God and is from a family that worships
idols
- Joshua 24:2
- Moon worship
- Genesis 12:1-3 - The Abrahamic Promise
- Land
- Nation
- Blessing
- For the nations
- Through a mediator
- God specifies that someone from Abraham’s family will be the source of blessing
for the world in Genesis 22:17-18
Two Quesitons
- Who will break the curse?
- How will we be blessed through Abraham?
Are these related?
- Galatians 3:8
- Galatians 3:16
The Abrahamic Covenant
- Genesis 15:9-10
- With the cutting of the animals, there is a visual proclamation of “I will keep my
word and if i dont you may do the same to me as we have done to this animal”
- God walks through the carcasses because it is God’s own promise
- The covenant is not a transaction, it is a one-sided gift
- God promises to bless Abraham
- The “blessing of nations” will come through one descendant
- One-Sided covenant
- Blessing is Jesus Christ
- God’s one sided love for us is seen in Jesus Christ and his death
Abraham’s Fragile Faith: Abraham’s Actions
- Flees to Egypt during a famine
- Lies about Sarah and calls her his sister
- Agrees to lie with Sarah’s servant to have a son when Sarah could not
- Wants to make Ishmael, the son he has with Sarah’s servant, his heir
God’s Response
- God responds with covenant faithfulness
- Faithfullness is represented visually: Stars, covenant sign, and a name change (Abram
to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah)
Abraham and Isaac
- 25 Years after Genesis 12
- Ishmael treats Isaac poorly. Sarah has Abraha send him and his mother away
- Abraham’s faith is tested when God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
- Test of Faith
- How will God provide?
- Test of Hope
- How will Abraham become a great nation if Isaac dies?
- Test of Love
- Abraham loves his son, but he loves God more
God, Abraham, You, and I
- God’s love flows from his character. God loved Abraham because of himself, not
because of anything Abraham did
- God loves us all because of his character. There is nothing we can do to earn his love
Isaac and Rebekah
Background
- Sarah has died, Abraham is old, Isaac is unmarried
- Canaanites are idolatrous and immoral. God would disapprove of a wife from this people
- Leaving the land would be leaving the land God promised to Abraham and his
descendants
God at Work
- Abraham sends a servant to his relatives to find a wife for Isaac
- Abraham and his servant pray for God to send someone
- God leads the servant to Rebekah, who agrees to go back and become Isaac’s wife
From Isaac to Jacob
- Isaac and Rebekah have two children
- Esau and Jacob
- Esau becomes a “skillful hunter”
- Jacob has a “quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home”
- Isaac loved Esau for the wild game he brought home. Rebekah loved Jacob
The Birthright and the Blessing
- Birthright
- Leadership in the family
- Blessing
- Double the portion of the inheritance
Jacob:
The Hustler
- Jacob hustles his brother out of his birthright
- Jacob hustles his father for the blessing
- Jacob may even be trying to hustle God into being his God
- Genesis 25:27-28:21
- What is Faith?
- “Faith is living life without scheming”
- While Jacob is faithless, God remains faithful to him and his promise
The Hustled
- Tricked by Laban into marrying two of his daughters
- Jacob is called to go home and reveal the success that God has given him. God
continues to be gracious to Jacob
The Grabber
- Jacob is headed home when he learns that Esau and 400 men are coming to meet him.
Jacob fears that Esau plans to kill him
- Jacob wrestles with God until his character is broken and replaced. He is now israel
- Brokenness precedes usefulness - Jacob is now completely dependant on God
- It is through our weakness that we are most useable
- Jacob meets Esau
- Jacob does not go with Esau because he is afraid
- Jacob moves outside of the town of Shechem, one of the worst towns in Canaan
- God calls Jacob out of Shechem and tells him to return to Bethel
- Jacob tells his family to put away their idols. They are buried and they move to Bethel
- Jacob is “grabbed” by God and his name is changed to Israel
Wednesday 09/07/22
From Jacob to Joseph (and Judah)
- Jacob favored Joseph over his other children. He was given a coat of many colors
(Genesis 37)
- Joseph’s brothers plot to kill him, however they sell him into slavery instead (suggested
by Judah)
A Genealogy of Grace
- Judah’s story interrupts Joseph’s so we can see contrast. Joseph flees lust, Judah
pursues it.
- Judah’s line is selected by God to bring about the salvation of the world
- God moulds Judah’s mess into a conduit of grace
- No mess or failure can prevent God from using us. His grace pursues, transforms, and
moulds into objects of his delight
Joseph
Life in Egypt
- Joseph is sold to Potiphar, an official of Pharoah
- Joseph went to prison after a false claim against him
- Joseph succeeded because the Lord was with him
- Released from prison by interpretting Pharoah’s dream
- Put in charge of the whole land of Egypt
- Stored up food for seven years
- Saved Egypt from a famine that lasted seven years
- Joseph’s brothers bowed before him to ask for food
- Joseph’s family is reunited in Egypt and given land appropriate for shepherds and
farmers
- Jacob is buried in Canaan
Conclusion
- The good purposes of God to restore his good creation cannot be prevented by our
failures and sins
- His good purposes for your life. Nothing is wasted.
Exodus - Exit from Egypt
- Divided into two parts:
- 1-18 Exodus from Egypt
- 19-40 God’s covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai
The Story
- A pharoah who doesn’t know Joseph
- Israelites as slaves of the Egyptians
- A command to kill all Israelite male babies
- God calling a man named Moses to rescue his people
- Paroah and the Egyptians are trying to stop God from fulfilling his promise to make
Abraham/israel a mighty nation
