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–Outro –
Okay. Well, we are in hour four of our Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, and we're going to
try to summarize the rest of the book of Genesis in this hour. And so we're going to take chapters
12 through 50, and we're going to read it very fast. No, seriously, unlike our usual style,
where we literally go through it verse by verse. And I might mention, by the way, we have a
commentary on the book of Genesis in which we take 24 one-hour sessions on the entire book of
Genesis, which does it far more justice. We're obviously going through just to give you a flavor
and an overview of it. But we are going to cover Abraham from chapters 12 through 20, and
verses chapter 21 through 26 Isaac 27 to 36, Jacob and 37 to 50 Joseph. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and Joseph being considered collectively the patriarchs. And so this will constitute hour four. And
again, of course, we're going now from Abraham up to the Exodus. The book of Genesis will close,
with a coffin in Egypt. And the book of Exodus will pick up from there on. So we're going to
cover a lot of ground here. Obviously, we just hit some highlights. Abraham, of course, is a key
figure to the Jews and the Christians. It's mentioned 74 times in the New Testament. And he is
venerated by all three monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity, and in a certain sense,
Islam. And he has some distinctive titles in the scripture. He is known as the father of the
faithful. There is a sense in which anyone is faithful to God is in a sense a son of Abraham.
Not necessarily just someone that's Jewish would consider himself a son of Abraham, obviously.
But also anyone's faithful can claim that title from Hebrews 11, 8, and elsewhere.
Abraham also had another title he's known as the friend of God, a friend of God that comes from
James' Epistle in chapter 2 of the Epistle of James, which happens to be the Epistle of Yachov,
by the way, but we don't think of it that way in the English, do we? But Abraham is the beneficiary
of a commitment by God that's everlasting, it's eternal, and it's unconditional. And it's very
important for you to understand the fact that it's unconditional because this covenant with Abraham
is what is being challenged in the world today in the struggle over Jerusalem and the land of Israel.
The world, not just the PLO, the European Union, the UN, whatever, are attacking this premise of the
Abrahamic covenant. Also Abraham represents a struggle between the flesh and the spirit.
And we'll talk about that as we go. That's in Abraham's personal life. It's also
embodied in his two sons, Ishmael the son of the flesh, and Isaac regarded the son of the spirit.
It's also emblematic between Sarah, his wife, and Hagar, her handmade Galatians 4,
deliberately makes that parallel in a broader metaphorical sense.
We're also, Abraham is going to encounter a very strange character by the name of Melchizedek,
who's a subject of many misconceptions, but a very interesting person because Melchizedek
is unique in the scripture as being a king and a priest. One of the things that's going to get
emphasized from Moses on is that the tribe of Judah is the royal line, the tribe of Levi, the
priestly line, and they are separate. The separation of the Levitical priesthood and the
line of David and so forth are distinctive. There are only three people that are kings and priests
together in one person. Melchizedek was the first that we see in the scripture. Jesus Christ is
distinctive in that he's a king and a priest, and that's what the writer to Hebrews emphasizes.
And the third person is the body of Christ, the church, it's promised to be kings and priests,
as exemplified by the 24 elders in Revelation and elsewhere. We're also going to talk about,
even though we're going pretty quickly here, we are going to pause and take a serious look at
Genesis 22 because it's so pivotal. The Akkadaz is called the Hebrew, where Abraham offers his
son Isaac, a very widely misunderstood passage. Abraham's father is Tara. Tara had Abraham,
Nahar, Haran, and a, through another, through another wife, had a daughter by the name of Sarahi.
So Sarahi is going to marry Abraham, but he, she is really his half-sister.
They have a common father but different mothers. So later on in several times, Abraham will pass
her off as his sister. He's not lying, but he is deceiving. You see, so Abraham, Abraham will have
two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael will be the son of, of Abraham with Sarah's handmaid,
and Isaac, his son, directly. Nahar will have a number of children that will concern us directly,
but Haran has a series of sons, one of which is Lot. So Lot is a nephew of Abraham, and that's
going to become important later on. And under Nahar we have Bethuel who has Rebecca and Laban,
and Rebecca will become important because she will end up becoming the wife of Isaac.
And so these things are interlaced, if you will. And of course from that union we have
Esau and Jacob, and we'll talk about that in great length. Under Laban, of course he has two
daughters, Leia and Rachel, and they're the ones that will marry Jacob, and they, along with their
hand, do handmaids, those four women will raise the twelve tribes that make up the nation Israel.
So that's the family, that's the family tree. So the twelve tribes will come from that issue,
and over on the other side Lot will have by incest with his daughters inadvertently while he's drunk,
they take him, and they will, they're offspring will be Moab and Ammon. The Moabites and Ammonites
have a pretty dismal heritage. But I want to draw a little bit on Genesis 12. The Lord will
set Abraham, get the out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a
land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great, and shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them, that bless thee, and curse him,
that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Verses 2 and 3 of chapter 12 are precious, precious, verses. This whole passage is of course called
regardless the call of Abraham, get the out of thy country, and so forth. But then God makes a
commitment to him. I'll make thee a great nation. I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and
shall be a blessing. Notice verse 3, because I think this is the only reason God has not judged
America. As I travel, one of the most common questions I get from audiences that are knowledgeable
is why hasn't God judged America? We become the exporter, everything God abhors,
the sin in this country, the abandonment of our heritage, etc., etc. You make a long list of things.
Why hasn't God judged? In fact, Billy Graham summarized it so eloquently years ago. He said,
God doesn't judge America. He left to apologize and saw it in Gomorrah.
Very good. That's a great sound, right? But why hasn't he? Thomas Jefferson said,
I tremble for my country whenever you call that God is just, and that his justice will not sleep
forever. Why hasn't God judged America? And many of us believe it's because of verse 3 of chapter 12.
God promised Abraham, I'll bless them, bless thee, and curse him, and curse
of thee, and thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. We suspect that the reason God
hasn't judged America is because of our support for his people Israel. That doesn't mean we have to
agree with their policies? No. But we do provide further protection. And that I think is God honoring.
And people say, Chuck, aren't you worried about Israel? No, I'm not worried about Israel,
because I know that he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber in his sleep. But they have some
tough times they have, they're history, the beginning, ups and downs and ends, all laid out in advance.
It's in the Bible. I worry about America because it's not in the Bible.
And despite what some people like to say, I think I worry about America because our only hope in
this country is for our revival, that we might get our act together. But that's the whole
other thing we'll get to sometime. There are seven I wills in this commitment of God to Abraham.
So I'll make of thee a great nation, and he did he did. I will bless thee, and he does. I will make
thy name great. Indeed, there's no great name on the planet earth greater than Abraham's.
Thou shalt be a blessing, indeed he is. I will bless them that bless thee. I will curse him
that curse of thee, and indeed he shall all families, not just the Jews, all families of the earth,
be blessed. Keepers. There are three major promises in the Bible. This is the first of the three,
the covenant with Abraham. In his seed, all nations will be blessed. Key thing.
God's covenant with the nation Israel. Now this had some conditions to it. If they faithfully
served him, they prospered. If they forsaken, they would be destroyed. And indeed they were.
On again, off again, again, and again, and again. Their whole history is a profile of that commitment.
But the third covenant was God's covenant with David, that his family would produce the
Messiah who would reign over God's people forever. And that's another commitment that God gave to
these three basic promises. In Genesis 14 we encounter the battle of nine kings, a strange story.
There are four Shemit kings, Amorfell, Ariak, Shaddar, Lamere, and the title king of nations.
And these four have a war with the five Hamite nations. Bear the king of Sodom,
Bursa the king of Gomorrah, Shannab the king of Adma, Zimabara king of Zebuim and king of Bela.
So the Hamites served the Shemites for 12 years. But then the third year,
13th year they rebelled. And Shaddar, the one on the left, this roof. And by the way, it's
interesting. You'll notice the list there, small point, but I'd like you to learn from this.
The key guy is Shaddar, but he's listed third. He's the power guy, of course, so the whole
bunch, it turns out. But it's interesting, the one that's named first is Amorfell, the king of
Shannar, which is Babylon later. It's mentioned first, I believe, because the Bible tends to
list things with an order that's editorially significant. That's the king that's going to be
important downstream. But in any case, Shaddar, Amor defeats the Hamites and takes them all captive.
But among them was Lot, Abraham's nephew. He was in Sodom as an El-Aldermen,
and we'll discover him very active in the few chapters from now. But anyway, taking Lot was a
big mistake, because Abraham finds out that his nephew's been taken. Understand that these four
kings wiped out these five kings. This was not a trivial military operation. But Abraham
with his own people will rescue Lot and take spoil of these four kings. Abraham, as text tells us,
had 318 trained soldiers in his own household. Abraham may have been one of the wealthiest
people on the planet Earth at that time. He's not some kind of tribal leader. He is a powerful
personage at this time. So we have the slaughter of the kings. Abraham's army
rescues Lot and the people of Sodom. And when he does this, he comes back to a place called Salem
that will later become Jerusalem. And there we encounter this strange character called Melchizedek,
which is a title rather than the name, King of righteousness. He's the king and priest of this
place called Salem. He receives Abraham's tithes. For reasons we have no insight into,
Abraham presents tithes of his victory to Melchizedek. And this would prod, this is just a couple
verses in chapter 14 of Genesis. It would disappear into obscurity except for the fact that it is
leaned upon in Psalm 110 and in three chapters of book Hebrews. Make a big thing of this character
of Melchizedek, making a contrast between Melchizedek and the priesthood that we all know from Moses and
Levi and all of that that comes later. So this guy is distinctive. He's a king and a priest. He's
the king of the most high God. And he does a strange thing. He administers to Abraham
bread and wine. And this bread and wine theme goes all the way through the Scripture. The bread
and wine with Melchizedek offering it to him, the bread and wine that are prominent in the dreams
of Joseph in Egypt later, and of course the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, etc. There is a theme
there that all ties together consistently. Now, so some people try to make Melchizedek an Old
Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. I don't think so. The writer of the Hebrews makes the point
that Melchizedek had no beginning and end of days, simply meaning it wasn't recorded to make a
rhetorical point. And many people misunderstand it. We know Melchizedek was a man because it says so.
And anyway, many of these theories are on frail ground. But he is used as an example for a lot of
points later on in the Scripture. But in Genesis 15, the next chapter, we have a very critical
chapter to understand. There is an unusual ritual used in those days when one wanted to make a
very sacred covenant between themselves. They would set up an offering, split in two parts,
and the two signatories to the agreement would walk together in a figure eight between these parts.
They would divide, they would cut a covenant as the term. That's where the term means barat.
And they would divide an offer in two parts. And then they would march in a figure eight between
them repeating the terms of their agreement. That was the way they did things in those days.
Well, God indulges in a rather strange version of this ritual. He has Abraham set it all up for him,
set up the thing. But before he can begin, he puts Abraham in a deep sleep, and God goes it alone
in the form of a flame through this thing. The point God is making that this is a sacred covenant,
but it is unconditional. Abraham could add nothing to it. There's no way he could violate it. He's
not a party to it except as a beneficiary. God is doing it on his own. It deals with the commitment
of the land to his descendants from the river Egypt to the Great River Euphrates. And when
somebody wants to talk about the West Bank, say, what river did you have in mind? Because the Jordan
is the eastern border. Ultimately, it will be, of course, the River Euphrates. It's very, very
strange that there are four angels bound in the River Euphrates that will be released in the book
of Revelation. So it's strange that some of these demonic or these spiritual things have territorial
aspects to them. God tells them that your descendants will be afflicted in Egypt for 400 years.
That's what Acts tells us also. Acts 12, we know they were in there 430 years. Jesus,
their discrepancy, no. They were afflicted for 400 of the 430. They were there for a while
with a pharaoh that knew Joseph, etc. Anyway, but they'll be afflicted in 400 years, but they
will return to the land. When God tells that to Abraham, Satan's listening, and he knows now
he has four centuries to lay down a minefield. And they'll return with great possession to,
and by the way, when Moses later will send the 12 spies into the land, 10 of them come back
saying they're Nephilim in the land. Same word used in Numbers 13, 33. So the terms of covenant,
they were declared eternal and unconditional despite what the PLO and the UN may think.
It was reconfirmed by an oath in Genesis 22. It was confirmed to Isaac and to Jacob in Genesis
20. So this commitment to Abraham is confirmed to Isaac and then to Jacob in Genesis 26. And by the
way, the conditions under which it was confirmed to Isaac and Jacob were conditions of disobedience.
It's not as if their obedience was a prerequisite to this covenant. It's unilateral. So despite
their acts of disobedience, it's confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. And that's what Islam is also a
challenge to, by the way. New Testament declares this covenant as immutable, unchangeable. Hebrew
6 and elsewhere. Well, Abraham becomes Abraham in Genesis 17. God changes his name to Abraham,
and I'll talk about that in a minute. He confirmed his covenant to the Father of many nations. He
instituted circumcision as a sign. This is where circumcision is instituted as a sign.
He not only changes Abraham's name to Abraham, but he changed Sarah's name to Sarah.
And he also promised him a son, a son of his own, not Ishmael, a son of his own.
So we have a commitment of land to his descendants, as I mentioned, and they'll return to the great
position. Before we get into this, I'd like to give you a little bit of lesson of Hebrew. You
might find this interesting. Most alphabets are phonetic. If you know how to pronounce,
you can pronounce the words. If you know the alphabet, be it Russian or Latin or whatever.
Hebrew is a little strange. It's not only phonetic, it is conceptual. Each letter has not only a sound,
it has a meaning. Let's take a couple of examples, show you what I mean. The first letter in the
Hebrew alphabet is an aliph. On the screen there on the right, you see it the way it's written today.
The way you see Hebrew written today is the way it was written after the Babylon, when they
returned from the Babylon captivity. The way it was written before Babylon was a little different.
The aliph was written sort of to represent like a Longhorn-Oxen head. Aliph was the first letter
of the alphabet. It also represented strength, like an ox, you see. The University of Arizona's
Hebrew department has discovered that if they teach the kids how Hebrew is written before Babylon,
they can learn the meaning of the letters. If you can know the meaning of the letters,
you can read about 80% of Hebrew. It's astonishing. So aliph means the first or strength or leader.
Okay? That's understandable. The second letter is bet. It looks like a little t.p. It represents
a house. That's not the way it's written today. It's got a different shorthand, but the original
way it looked like a little t.p. That bet turns to become our b, if you will. If you can visualize
it turning 90 degrees, it becomes our b. But it's a bet in Hebrew. The word bet means house or family.
Bethlehem, house of bread, Bethel, house of God, you see, and Bethlehem, and so forth.
If you take an aliph and bear in mind, all letters flow, all languages flow towards Jerusalem. Do you
know that? Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Sanskrit, all go from right to left. All nations west of Jerusalem
go from left to right. Latin, English, French, Russian, dada, dada, et cetera. Okay? So understand
that when we say ob, the aliph and the bet make up a word ob. Well, the aliph, of course, is
leader or strength. Bet is the house. The leader, A, B, ob is the leader of the house.
That's their name for what? Father. Ob is the name of Father. Ob is the familiar form of it.
There's another letter called a hay, which is a breath. Remember in Pygmillian, Henry Higgins
teaches his lies of duality to pronounce her in Hartford, Hartford, Hampshire, hurricanes hardly
happen to get her to pronounce her H's. H is just a breath. In the Hebrew, that breath can mean wind
or it can mean spirit. But the hay, if you put a hay, which is probably originally meant that
like a hand is lifted up or like an open window, but whatever, it means behold or revealed or
breath or wind, breeze, wind or spirit. If you take a word and put a hay in the middle of it,
you're speaking to the essence of that word. And if you put a hay between an aliph and a bet,
you have a hob, the essence of the Father. That's the word for love. In other words,
the word for love is the essence of the Father. The point I'm trying to make here
in the Hebrew alphabet, they convey not just sound, but conceptual meaning. It's a very different
kind of a language. So when you take Abraham and Sarai, God simply puts a hay in the middle of
the name. Abraham, Sarah, he gives them, inserts the Spirit of God in both of them. Circumscisions
is due to sign. It's kind of interesting if you study circumcision medically,
there's a vitamin K, which is an element required for blood clotting. It's not formed until the
fifth day and through to the seventh day. There's also a material called prothrobin,
which is also necessary for blood clotting. On the third day of an infant, it's only about 30%
of normal. On the eighth day, it's 110% of normal. Then it levels off at 100% of normal.
So if you plot these curves on a chart, the optimum time, if you're going to circumcise a child,
is on the eighth day. We know that now medically. If you do it too early or too late, you run the
risk of having a continuing hemorrhage. The question I ask you is how did Moses know that?
Did he do it by trial and error? I don't think so. Okay. So this raises something else I have to
share with you. The book of Acts tells us that Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians
before he fled from Pharaoh and all that. He was trained as the Prince of Egypt. He was trained
in all their schools. We have copies of the medical records of that time in 1332 BC.
It's called papyrus ebers. And let me tell you some of the things that he must have been taught.
Do you have an embedded splinter? You don't you do for an embedded splinter?
You apply worms, blood, and asses done. That's the way you take care of splinters. Try that sometime.
Are you losing your hair? You apply six fats, the fats of a horse, a hippopotamus, a crocodile,
a snake, and an ibex. That will take care of your losing hair, guys. Just thought I mentioned that.
Etrilling gray, anoint with the blood of a black calf which has been boiled in oil or
fat of a rattlesnake. That'll work, huh? Great. Here's what a well-stocked medicine cabinet would
have in the days of Egypt. Lizards, blood, swines, teeth, putrid meat, moisture from pig's ears,
milk goose grease, asses hooves, animal fats, excrement from animals of human donkeys,
antelope dogs, cats, and flies. That's what you would stock your medicine. Does that sound kind
of weird to you? It better. What's astonishing? What's astonishing is these quaint, bizarre
beliefs of the Egyptian culture that was inculcated in the leadership never finds its way in the Moses
writings. What's interesting is not only what's in the Bible, what's interesting is what's not in
the Bible. You will find none of these superstitions, none of these weird things. In fact,
those things which look weird in the Bible at first when we investigate turn out to be discoveries
of significant kinds. Let's get on to Abraham in chapter 18. Abraham gets, he's by the oaks of
mammer and he gets three visitors. This is a very famous incident. So we obviously can't get
all the incidents in his life because it's much there. But these three visitors show up and they're
interesting characters because first of all, Abraham hurries to them and then hurried back to the tent.
He ran to the herd to make dinner and had his servant hurried. You can tell that Abraham realizes
who these three people are. You know who they are? God and two angels posing as men. They look like
Abraham bowed low before them. He got water to wash their feet. He served them freshly baked bread,
a choice calf, curds and milk. And if you have a Jewish friend ask him how on earth did he serve
a non-coacher meal? But I'll leave that one alone. I'll just throw that out there so he can indulge
in some mischief with your Jewish friends. He also stood while they were eating. What's on earth is
going on here. And obviously these three men are the Lord and two angels. And he gives them three
measures of meal which from that day on in the Jewish and Arabic cultures is the fellowship offering.
And you need to understand that when you get to Matthew 18 to understand what the three measures
of meal are dealing with there, it'll surprise you. But these three visitors confirm to Abraham
and Sarah that a son from Sarah was confirmed. She's going to be 100 years old. She laughs when
she hears this. Am I in my old age going to have pleasure? He says. You laughed. Oh, I didn't laugh.
I didn't laugh. Yes, you did. Anyway, a little darling. But the funny part about this is God says
is Abraham not my friend. Should I not tell him what I'm going to do? So what he does there
in John 18, he explains to God that these two angels are going to go down and destroy Sodom and
Gomorrah. For the rest of that chapter, you almost have to imagine a New York Jewish accent as you
read the text because Abraham decides to negotiate with God. Okay. Will not the God of
universe do right? What if there's 50 righteous in the land? Would you wet the land for the,
he says, if there's 50 righteous, I'll spare the land. 50. God says, no, then I won't do it.
Well, what if there's five short of 50? What if there's 45? God says, if there's 45 righteous,
I won't do it. Abraham says, well, what if there's 40? If there's 40, I won't do it. Abraham,
he has what we call what the Jews call Hutzpah. Okay. Hutzpah is a strange untranslatable word.
There are many stories to try to demonstrate Hutzpah. Hutzpah is when a guy murders his mother and
father then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan. That's Hutzpah.
He goes to God and he says, what if there's 30 righteous? If there's 30, I won't do it. I said,
well, let me, would you believe 20? God says, if there's 20, I won't do it. And then Abraham says,
he knows he's pushing his luck here. He's pretty, I'll do it just one more time. I'll just say
it's one more time. Suppose there's 10 righteous. Will you spare the city? And he says, there's 10
righteous, I won't do it. And Abraham breaks off, right? But when chapter 19 comes and the two
angels go down there to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, something very strange to notice in the text.
The angels are down there to get Lot out of town first. But what's interesting, if you read the
text carefully, it wasn't optional. The angels point out to Lot they can't do their job until
Lot is out of there. What this implies is that if Abraham had said, suppose there's one righteous,
God would spare it for the one. And I mention this because I believe this pulls the rug out from
under those that like to theorize about a partial rapture and so forth. But we'll move on. Sodom
and the chapter 19, of course, these two angels visit Lot. The homosexuals seek the visitors.
And it's interesting that the entire town is at the door trying to abuse these two visitors that
Lot has. Lot even offers the crowd this mob that are out to abuse these visitors. He offers
them his virgin daughters rather than let his guests be violated. That's choxys. I mean, we can't.
It's astonishing. It does indicate that Lot recognized he had something on his hands other than just
two visitors. The angel, of course, blind the attackers so they can't even find the door.
Lot's family is evacuated. But if you read the text carefully, it's a prerequisite condition
to the judgment that Lot be out of there. And the reason I emphasize this is Jesus himself
likened his return to those days. So you need to do a little homework and understand that.
You won't understand Luke 17 unless you really understand Genesis 19. And of course, all the way
through there, we have the theme being hit, the flesh versus spirit. Abraham was 430 years
before the law. So promises of God preceded the law. So the law cannot disenel his promises.
That's an argument Paul makes in Galatians because don't assume that the law is required for those
benefits because the benefits were committed before the law was even ordained. Ishmael versus Isaac
is contrasted also. The sons of two principles, the flesh and the spirit. Ishmael and the flesh
and also unbelief. And the son of the bond woman will not be heir, Paul declares. And Isaac,
of course, is the son of the promise in response to the faith. The ultimate triumph of faith is the
offering of Isaac, which we're going to get to in a minute here. In fact, let's just jump in and
get Genesis 22. This is one of those chapters that we're going to pause and take a little more
carefully because it's too pivotal and too widely misunderstood. God tells Abraham to offer his son
Isaac on a mountain. God is ordaining child. Sacrifice? You've got to be kidding. That's not
what it's about at all. People who think so just are just uninformed. The Bible tells us in
Hosea 12 verse 10, God says, I have also spoken by the prophets and I have multiplied visions
and used similitudes by ministry of the prophets. God indulges in what you and I would call
figures of speech or metaphors and there are many different kinds. There's a thing called a simile.
There's a thing called an allegory. There's a thing called a metaphor. There are hypocatesthes,
a type, an analogy. These are figures of speech. Do you know how many different kinds of figures
of speech are in the Bible? Over 200 different kinds of figures of speech and they are cataloged
for you in our book. We have a book called Cosmic Codes and one of the appendices is a list of these
two several hundred of these. Defines what they are and gives you examples in verses where they
are used. There are figures of speech in the Bible. That's why I don't say anymore to people who
say, you take the Bible literally. I do take the Bible literally but when I say that they don't know
what I'm talking about. When you take the Bible literally then you think God has feathers because
of Psalm 91. Under his feathers I should know that's a figure of speech obviously. So taking it
literally doesn't deny the rhetorical device of figures of speech. What I usually, what I've learned
to say when I'm on a radio interview or something, we take the Bible seriously and when that gets
the other guy mad I know I've struck gold because he doesn't want to admit he doesn't take it as
seriously we do but we take it more literally than he does. So anyway so there are figures of speech.
One of these figures of speech is what's called in scholarship a type. You and I would use the term
in our vocabulary as a model. If you build a house of complicated vertical aspects you'll make a
three-dimensional model of it. If you're designing an airplane wing you'll make a mathematical model
of the airplane wing to see how it's going to behave under buffeting and so forth. We make models of
things sometimes mathematical sometimes physical whatever those are models. Well a model in the
scripture we use the term type. It's a figure and example of something in the future. We're going
to look at the classic model in the Bible called the Genesis 22. It has a Hebrew name called the
Akida. It came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said Abraham he said
here behold here am I. He said take now thy son and only son Isaac whom thou love us and get the
end of the land of Mariah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which
I will tell the of. Now this is a pretty interesting he says notice he says thine only son Isaac. See
ishmael is not an issue he's the son of the flesh not the spirit. So far as God's concern he has
one son the son of the promised son of the son Isaac. There's another principle in the scripture
you want to be sensitive to it's called by the scholars the law of first mention. When a thing is
mentioned the first time in the Bible it usually is profoundly significant it's usually definitive
for some reason. You'll notice here in this passage take now thy only son Isaac whom thou
love us. This is the place in the Bible that the word love first appears and it's significant
because what this should echo to you because we have a father and a son he loves. God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoevilly than should not perish but have everlasting
life. John 3 16 should echo in effect from this verse as you'll see before we're finished and get
the end of the land of Mariah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which
I will tell the of. By the time you get to Genesis 22 Abraham has really learned his lessons he's had
a lot of fallbacks he's had a lot of lapses a lot of problems he's learned from these when you get
to Genesis 22 God says offer your son the next morning he takes off to do it he doesn't mess around
Abraham rose up early in the morning saddle is asked and took notice he took two of his young men with
him and Isaac his son so there's four guys Abraham Isaac two young men and they're donkey
claved the wood the burnt offering rose up and went onto the place of which God had told him he
just takes off early next morning no messing around. G.L. Pray about it no no he obeys and they go
from Barshava which is a three day journey south of Jerusalem to that region Jerusalem isn't there
it Salem is but Melchizedek and all that we saw a few chapters earlier but I put Jerusalem on the
map so you'll recognize the geography here and on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw
the place so far off in the New Testament we'll learn that as far as Abraham's concerned Isaac was
dead to Abraham when the commandment came when God says offer your son as far as anyone's he's
his good's dead on the third day after the trip Isaac will be returned to Abraham so how long was
I Abraham that was Isaac gone three days that's prophetic of the three days in the tomb by the way
we'll go on here Abraham sent into his young man a by D here with the ass I and the land will go
younger worship and come again to you and watch and notice that phrase these two guys that have
counted him you stay here at the bottom of the hill he's about 600 meters above sea level he's
going to go up this ridge system called Mount Moriah and it's going to go up about 177 meters
to offer Isaac but he says we're going to come and he's going to come in Abraham believed that
Isaac would be resurrected see his guy he's got an interesting mindset here God wants Abraham to
offer Isaac Abraham's point of view is God's got a problem I don't have a problem God promised
me that Isaac's going to have children so if God wants me to offer Isaac God's going to have to
raise him for the dead because God's promise me is going to end oh God's going to keep his promises
do you understand the faith here you understand it's not just that he faith not just that he did
what God said that's part of it of course but he also understood that God keeps his promises
God finds a different way every day to ask each of us do you trust me different ways that's what he's doing here
Abraham took the young with what are the burnt offerings laid upon Isaac a son and took fire in his hand
and the knife and they went both of them in agreement says together in the you were both them together
in the English Hebrew implies they went in agreement by the way don't be victims of your Sunday school
coloring books there is reason to believe that Isaac was probably 30 years old here
he wasn't some kid that doesn't know what's going on
Isaac's begging to Abraham's father said my father he said here am I said
he said behold the fire in the wood but where is the lamb for the burnt offering
Isaac Abraham going up the hill and you know he's just gonna be offering what's going on here dad
where is the lamb and when you get to verse eight I always used to think this was just a stall
you know Abraham said Abraham said my son God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering
so they both went of them together our first brother both you know he hasn't told the kid
what's really up here you know no notice what Abraham said to Isaac my son God will provide who
himself a lamb for the burnt offering I believe Abraham knew he was acting out prophecy
and I prove that to you before we're through the next few verses here provide himself and lamb
they came to the place where God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there and laid
the wood and order and bound Isaac his son laid him on the altar upon the wood and Abraham stretched
forth his hand to tick to tick and took the knife to slay the son he's ready to do the deed
and of course an angel stops him last minute where are they
Mount Moriah is a ridge system between two valleys a valley of the terropian valley to the west
on the other side of which is Mount Zion technically Mount Zion is used connotatively for the whole
region of course and the Kedrin Valley which separates Mount Moriah from Mount of Olives so
you've got a ridge of Mount of Olives to the east Mount Zion to the west and you've got this ridge
between the two at the base of of course along the south you have the the hinom valley and at the
bottom is a place called Salem or Othel the city of David it was a town back then because
Melchizedek was a king and priest there I don't think that Abraham offered Isaac in town
I think he went north to the peak as you go north from about 600 meters about this is a top
of graphic man when you go from 600 meters above sea level to about the 641 meters
sea level there's a saddleback that is that will later become the thrashing floor of Aruna that
David will buy for to in order to have a site for the temple but they don't stop there that's still
not the peak you keep going further north you get to about 777 meters above sea level and you get
to a place that's called Golgotha now Abraham may not have realized the detail to which he was
enacting this but 2000 years later on that very spot another father will offer his son as an
offering for sin you and I are beneficiaries of a love letter that was written in blood written
on a wooden cross erected in Judaism 2000 years ago of course the angel stops his Abraham Abraham
he's a Lord called and said Abraham Abraham you notice the girl jogs have to tell men twice
that's that's scriptural Eli Eli Abraham Abraham yeah he said am I he said lay not
thine hand upon the lad and neither do anything unto him for now I know that thou fears God
seeing thou has not withheld thy son than only son from me and Paul in Romans 8 makes capital of
this he says he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things speaking of course none other than Jesus Christ
it's interesting in Leviticus when it talks about the key offerings here he says he shall
kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord and the priest there in son shall sprinkle
his blood run upon the altar notice that northward it's north of the camp north of the city that this
takes place and that's where Golgotha is of course relative to Jerusalem Abraham lifted up his eyes
and look behold there was a ram caught to think it by the horns Abraham went and took the ram
offered him up for burn offering in the stead of his son substitutionary ram that would be
codified in the law of Moses later Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jairah or Yay Yavai
Yairah but anyway it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen that's the name
that Abraham gives this spot that name is prophetic in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen he
realizes that this is prophetic at least in some how much he knew his hardest second guess but clearly
it is real in the book of Hebrews capitalized on this in Hebrews chapter 11 New Testament
by faith Abraham when he was tried to offer up Isaac the he that had received the promises offered
up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting that
God was able to raise him up even from the dead and what's also received him in a figure in a
type see it was Abraham's belief in the resurrection of Isaac that caused him to be saved
it's our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we're saved that's what the gospel is
all about Paul defines the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 4 verses get to the book of Revelation
it's all echoed again book of Revelation I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a
book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals and I saw a strong angel proclaiming
of the loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to lose the seals thereof and no man in heaven
or an earth neither end of the earth was able to open the book and neither look there on and John
says I sobbed convulsively because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book neither to
look there on wow we don't understand what's going on but John did he wasn't sobbed yet wept much
or sob convulsively and one of the elders said I mean we'd not behold the lion of the tribe of Judah
the root of David half prevailed to open the book and to lose the seven seals thereof
and I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and the four beasts and the midst of the elders
stood not not not not a lion stood the lamb as it had been slain having seven hundred seven eyes
which are the seven spirits of gods sent forth the all the earth he came and took the book out of
the right hand of him that sat upon the throne and we have the closing of the biggest escrow in the
universe where Jesus Christ takes possession of that which he purchased with his blood on across
two thousand years ago but let's get back to the lamb has it had been slain all echoing in
you know in advance the offering of the Akita but we're not through there back to justice 22 the
angel lord called Abraham a second time said by myself have I sworn said the lord for because
thou has done this thing and has not withheld thy son not only son that in blessing of a blessed
thee and multiplying our mobile eye that I see it as the stars of heaven and as the sandwiches
of on the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of their enemies and in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou has to obey my voice then we get to verse 19 I
want you to make a notice in your Bible so Abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up
and went together to bear Shiva and Abraham dwelt in bear Shiva remember that verse I'm going to
come back to that in a minute two chapters later next chapter in chapter 23 Sarah dies his whole
business there then in Genesis 24 Abraham has another errand that he wants his business partner
to to do he commissions Eliezer to gather a bride for Isaac to go back to their home country and get
a bride for Isaac and Eliezer agrees to do this he quality by the way Eliezer is yes he's a servant
but he's actually his business partner if Abraham had died without issue Eliezer would have inherited
his estate Eliezer qualifies her by a well she agrees to marry the bridegroom she has never met
on the way back he gives her gifts and he finally comes when he gets back to where we are back to
bear Shiva he joins her bridegroom at the well of lahai roi what's going on here understand
that Rebecca is picked by this elder servant to be the bride of Isaac okay and now Abraham is in
the role of what the father remember just 22 Abraham's role the father Isaac was in the role
of the son offered right here again Abraham's role the father Isaac again is a son or in this
case the bridegroom okay Eliezer is in the role of the Holy Spirit sent together a bride for the
son and by the way the word Eliezer do you know what it means in Hebrew the comforter
yeah isn't it fun I want to come back now to justice 22 verse 19 remember they're up on the
hill they've done the deed they're ready to go home verse 19 says Abraham returned unto his young
men and they rose up and went together to bear Shiva and Abraham dwelt and bear Shiva
they're up on the hill Abraham Isaac go up on the hill they have the deal up there angel
intervenes great Abraham comes down the hill to these two young men they've left at the bottom
the hill right and they rose up and went together to bear Shiva who's going home according to this
verse Abraham and two young men right understand when we read this we take for granted and I'm sure
it's true that Isaac was there too right but I want you to notice the Holy Spirit editing this
text a little bit where's Isaac where's Isaac the person of Isaac is personally
edited out of the record from the time that he's offered until he is united by this bride
at the well of living water two chapters later the well of the highroids the well of the living
one who sees me is what it technically says I think this is fascinating because I see the Holy
Spirit diddling with the text in such a way doesn't destroy the meaning of the text as we read
it we understand that Abraham and Isaac came down the four guys took their donkey went home
that's not what it says Isaac is the reference to him is removed because by doing so it fits the
type it fits the type there are many places in the scripture where the narrative what actually
happened is adjusted just a little bit to fit a larger purpose that God has in communicating
with us one integrated design the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed the Old Testament
is in the New Testament revealed Augustin first noticed that well the sense of Abraham we talk
about Sarah Haggai and Katura Sarah had of course Isaac Hagar had Ishmael Katura had a whole bunch
of characters that become the sons of Katura and we have the what what generally called the Arabs
uh median median and the rest of these guys the uh jocchan descendants become the Saudi
Arabians if you will the sons of Midian were the Bedouins pretty much and so we'll go on here
under Ishmael they had 12 princes under Ishmael and when Isaac marries Rebecca they have two sons
Esau and Jacob Jacob be the son of the the spirit Esau the son of the flesh let's talk about
Jacob a little bit Yakov means God protect uh Akav means heal the word really means
it's very close to Akav the deceitful or sly or insidious one so there's a pun involved here
so you can you can translate the word Yakov or Jacob as the one who grabs the heal which is
what he did when he was born he grabbed the heal of his older brother and uh or one who trips up
Jacob will be a heal catcher he's going to be the conniver he's going to be the con artist
if God can justify Jacob being in justify any of us
in Romans chapter 9 Paul points out that for the children being not yet born referring to these
two kids neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might
stand not of works but of him that called he was said and heard the elder shall serve the
younger and is written Jacob have loved and Esau have I hated and God sees this coming because
Esau will have disdain for his birthright Jacob will have coveted so it's interesting that Esau
after being rejected by us will marry the Ishmaelites so the descendants of Ishmael and Esau and also
the descendants of Katura will commingle and they commingle to become what we generically call
Arabs today the word Arabs is unfortunately a misnomer it's not a geographic term it can be
but it's generally a ethnic term it's interesting there is no Arab today that can trace his lineage
back to Ishmael he can't because none of these tribes maintain distinctiveness they cross married
so whether it's Esau or Esau or Esau you're dealing with then the enemies of the people of God
the enemies of Isaac and Jacob and their descendants and have been throughout history so when we're
dealing with tensions in the Middle East you're dealing with things that are several thousand years
old enmities that began between Esau and Jacob in fact maybe even earlier with Ishmael and the rest
so the Lord told her that the Lord Senator two nations are in their womb two manner of people
shall be separated from thy bowels and one people shall be stronger than the other and the elder
shall serve the younger Esau was the firstborn and Jacob purchased his birthright from Esau
comes back from a hunting trip and he's very famished so he agrees he didn't care for his birthright so
he sold it to Jacob and then there's the formal endorsement of that in effect by the father that
Jacob obtains by deceit and Jacob's going to learn a lesson about deceit before it's all over too
because his sons are going to deceive him about the death of Joseph and so forth there are many
ways to study your Bible as you probably gathered already obviously you can go archaeological or
historically what actually happened from history or from archaeological finds and that's one way
that's one level of understanding you can look at the theological or doctrinal issues what does
this tell us about our relationship with God and his his his requirements there's also comparative
studies you can compare verses with with your old old new testaments and you'll that'll always be
beneficial and then there's a whole another form of study you might call devotional very personal
where you just bathe in the word of God itself and see what God speaks to you about it and those
all intermarry with each other there's they're they're not distinctive and devotional thing to
be it starts as observation who did what where and when and why and then the interpretation is the
why the primary implications of what you see and then of course after all that there's an
application you have to answer this so what question you how does this affect me so that's what in
summary all participants in this narrative were at fault Isaac attempted to thwart God's plan by
blessing Esau Esau broke the oath he had made with Jacob Rebecca and Jacob tried to achieve
God's blessing by deception their victory would heap hatred and separation Rebecca would never
see Jacob again after he splits from from that deception with her and Jacob alone did not destroy
the family parental preference did and so and lots of lessons there parental favoritism is part of
it which tore their family apart spiritual insensitivity the reliance on the senses rather than spiritual
discernment and the whole role of deception Jacob's only hesitancy was his fear that he would be
cursed instead of blessed that's the reason he hesitated not for any deeper reason he would
later learn that blessings are given by God and not gained by deceit so there's lots of lessons here
if you take the time to really wrestle and much of this is just wrestling to the end of self
Jacob's cheated by his uncle Laban the 12 tribes are born to the two two brides he has plus their
two handmaids we'll get into that a little bit he'll return to the land he'll wrestle he literally
will wrestle till he gets to the end of himself when he acknowledged who really is he will limp for
the rest of his life then Jacob is rec finally reconciled Esau there sit in the family when
Dona is revenge don't get in all that here and he returns to Bethel and then Benjamin is born but
Rachel dies in childbirth so Benjamin is a very special child to Jacob so we have the patriarchs
Abraham through Sarah through Hagar Hasishmail but through Sarah has Isaac and then through Rebecca
he has Jacob and Esau but under Jacob he he has two wives Rachel and Leia Leia has Reuben,
Simeon, Levi, and Judah the first four children of Jacob and Leia Rachel is barren so she's upset
by that so she gets the idea which was the practice in those days she could have a substitute wife
her hand to give her give her husband her handmaid to be a proxy wife so to speak so Bilha then has
Dan and Naftali Leia sees that going on so that's a pretty good idea I'll do the same thing so
she gives him her handmaid Zopa through whom he has Gad and Asher and by this time
Rachel finally has a child Joseph and because Jacob loved Rachel more than life itself and so
Joseph her firstborn becomes especially endeared to Jacob and we'll get into all that shortly
Leia meanwhile has Isakar and Zebulun and then finally Rachel has one more child Benjamin but
dies in that child there you have the 12 tribes but I should mention here probably so you don't
get confused there are more than 12 tribes they're actually 13 in a sense because Joseph when he's
down in Egypt will have two sons Manasseh and Ephraim and Jacob will adopt them as his own
so if you want to have 12 tribes you can use the 12 I just mentioned but if you want to leave one
out for some reason for example if you want the marching order knowing that Levi is a priest and
doesn't participate in the military you leave Levi out you still can get 12 tribes because by
leaving Levi out instead of Joseph you have Manasseh and Ephraim so you've got an alphabet of 13 to
pick 12 from so to speak when you get to the book of Revelation you want to leave the tribe of Dan
out and they say the tribes are listed 20 times in the Bible each time in a different order and
each time there's somebody different that's left out but you always still have 12 for various
reasons one or the other may be left out but you make up the difference by jockeying between Joseph
whether it's Joseph as a singular or Manasseh and Ephraim as a pair do you follow me so if you have
13 you can leave one out and still have a dozen if you will the tribe of Dan is conspicuous in his
omission several places in the scripture not the least of which is the book of Revelation 7
chapter 7 and Dan's left out Ephraim isn't mentioned either but it's inferred with the back of the
hand because Manasseh is mentioned and then the tribe of Joseph is subsequently mentioned which
it obviously would be left would be from Dan is not mentioned you still have the 12 tribes so
you want to watch that because there's lessons in each one just be sensitive to it at this point
in succession Reuben was the firstborn he would be the natural heir but he was disavowed because
he had illicit relationships with his father's concubine and Simeon Levi were sort of out of the
running because they of their extremes in at Shechem there's an incident where they get
unusually violent that means Judah was next in line so Judah is the royal line and Judah is very
key for the rest of the scripture not always right makes mistakes but nevertheless the royal line
and Joseph is the favorite is firstborn from Rachel Jacob's favorite and he of course has his
adventures in Egypt as we'll see shortly it's interesting to notice how often God bypasses the
firstborn you know Seth overcame Shem over Jeffeth Isaac over Ishmael Jacob over Esau Judah and Joseph
ahead of Reuben Moses the head of Aaron Aaron was it was older than Moses David ahead of all his
brothers so firstborn is a basic rule but God is very sovereign to get around it when he feels
like it and it's very interesting there's a strange chapter in chapter 38 that will be skipped by
most commentators it's sort of a sort of event that you sort of wonder what on earth is it here
for and that's Judah's sin with Tamar it's kind of complicated but I'll try to simplify it we're
now going to look at the period of just before the Exodus Judah marries a Galba named Mashua
and has three sons God been able to err onan and Shela for err there is Tamar as his wife
but err displeases God so God takes him out of the picture that leaves Tamar without a husband
there is a law of levereite marriage what is supposed to happen if a husband dies without
leaving issue it's the implied obligation of a brother to raise up issue to the widow
and so Judah instructs onan to take Tamar to raise up issue and onan declines to do that
he has sexual intercourse with her but he spills he with thraws and spills the seed on the ground
and that offends God so God takes him out of the picture so Tamar now has got that twice
Judah is looking this over and he's not too excited about giving Shela to Tamar he's just lost two of
his three sons so but he but he tells Tamar to in effect set aside when Shela's old enough you'll
have Shela but he doesn't doesn't follow through on it as time goes on Tamar realizes that she's been
you know put on the back burner so to speak so she does a strange thing
she poses as a prostitute apparently was in those times the prostitute would wear a veil
she she she both dresses and sets herself up on a hilltop as a prostitute knowing that Judah would
come by there and entices Judah into having relations he doesn't realize it's his his daughter-in-law
you follow me and he he he leaves some pledges that he would pay or he give her a kid from the flock
until he can get the flock he gives her his signet and his staff and and as a as a pledge
and then later on he gets he gets his best buddy to take this kid back there to give to retrieve
his his things by then she's shut down gone back home and put on her normal dress and so the guy
can't find her there's no prostitute on this hilltop anymore there's nobody here he goes back to
Judah's puzzled by the whole thing but doesn't quite what to do about it then he finds out if
you must later that Tamar is pregnant and as he live it she's going to be burnt and she comes up
this is fine who's signet is this and who staff is this and he realizes what's happened and he
blames himself not her because he recognizes that the reason this happened was because he didn't
keep his promise and give her Sheila as a husband he says my sin is greater than hers
so it's a very sordid strange story but the reason it's important she has twins
Zara and Faraz and Zara gets born first but his hand comes out first they put a red thing on it
and then the other one comes out first so he's a breach birth birth in effect but Faraz is regarded
as the heir and he is then in the genealogy of Jesus Christ because of Judah through Tamar
Faraz is in the royal line that's why it's here at all okay Zara by the way by some non-biblical
sources I understand may have been the one that succeeded Joseph when Joseph died in Egypt and
becomes the leader of the Hixos the shepherd kings that later migrate away before all the rest of
it but anyway but the reason I'm getting into this is because there's I want you to understand this
concept of the Levite marriage is very important later in the scripture it comes from the we're not
not from Levitical liver from the liveer a husband's brother it's codified in the Torah in Deuteronomy
25 it also deals with the role of the goel the kinsman redeemer Jesus Christ is going to play
that role we'll talk about that we get to the book of Ruth in great depth where Jesus our
kinsman redeemer in this role and it'll deal with the ultimate redemption which was occur in
Revelation 5 but I want to show you something that people miss in the text of Genesis 38
you say what is this weird story doing right in the middle of this really neat story coming
with Joseph and all that well it turns out that at 49 letter intervals we have the name of Boaz
that's kind of curious at 49 letter intervals you also have the name of Ruth at 49 letter intervals
again you have the name of Obed and at 49 letter intervals you have Yisheh which is we would say
Jesse and then at 49 letter intervals you have the name of David what's interesting about this is
you have Boaz, Ruth, Obed, Jesse and David that is the family tree of David in 49 letter intervals
they're in chronological order centuries before the book of Samuel and the whole glimonarchy all
together this is in the book this is in the Torah this is in the five books of Moses you need
to understand this is in Genesis after that comes Exodus and all of that then comes Leviticus then
comes numbers then Deuteronomy Moses dies then Joshua and they conquer the land after that generation
you have the book of the judges and after the book of judges you've got Samuel which finally
gets to the house of David the house of David the family tree of course is the family tree
of the king of the universe Jesus Christ but how astonishing it is to find this anticipated
in the very structure of the text in Genesis 38 see the truth is in the detail you're getting
all these details it's kind of boring now stand back and realize what's going on here God's fingerprints
are all over this thing there is no way that Moses could know in advance the genealogy of David
Samuel didn't know about it till the time came he got the youngest brother and when he goes out
to the selection and so forth and you'll find this family tree here we'll also discover it's
hidden tucked away if you will in the book of Ruth but kind of fun stuff well then we get to the
career of Joseph and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because you can just sit there
and read it it's very readable Joseph of course is favored he's the firstborn of Rachel has the
code of many colors as it's often called he dreams of us he has these strange dreams of
ascendancy the sheaves the sun the moon the stars bow to him and so forth and he's sold in the
slavery by his brothers they're going to kill him but they got talked out of that when he gets to
Egypt he's imprisoned by Potiphar because his wife tried to put the make on him and he wouldn't
do it so she spread the lies I think Potiphar knew she was longer he would have him killed but
he never let's say I do something to say face so he's imprisoned while in prison he interprets
dreams of the baker and the wine steward again you got the bread and wine theme there the butler
and the baker and he of course then when fair years later when Pharaoh has some dreams that he can't
interpret they remember oh there's a sky in prison that knows how to do that and he of course
interprets the famous dreams of Pharaoh the seven fat cows seven lean cows the seven plump heads
of green and the seventh in heads of green pointing out those could be seven good years and seven
famine years so Joseph of course is called to interpret this and because he interprets it to
Pharaoh's pleasure Pharaoh puts him in charge he becomes the prime minister of the world
Pharaoh ruled the world in those days Joseph is the prime minister to administer this during the
pump days to get ready for the famine that when the famine does hit it brings the brothers there
to beg for food and he doesn't they don't know who he is incredible drama you just read it you
have to add to it he keeps him in his hostage to get Benjamin to come on their second visit
Benjamin is with him and one of the most touching scenes in the entire literature is when Joseph
finally reveals to his brothers that the one that they sold in the slavery they they thought was dead
is now the prime minister of the world you got to be kidding what and he loves them and he
he says you meant it for evil but god meant it for good and he recognizes all this was to
preserve the family for God's purposes and Jacob and the rest of the family migrate to Egypt that's
how they get into Egypt until Joseph dies and that sets the stage of course for the book of Exodus
before the book closes in jesus 49 Jacob as he's dying prophesies over each of the 12 tribes
little enigmatic riddles that you want to study i'll just give you one of them to give you an
example he speaks of jude he says the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor in lawgiver from
between his feet until Shiloh comes the mazaya comes and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be it's very interesting to know that the scepter refers to the tribal identity and the right
to apply and enforce mosaic laws name a capital punishment shiloh is a term meaning it belongs
to the mazaya it turns out Herod the great dies and an antepter was murdered and Herod
acalaeus is appointed by Caesar Augustus he's dethroned and banished kaponius is appointed
procurator in about six to seven a.d there's a transfer of power that Joseph Zosifus talks about
it's interesting that kaponius takes away the ability to administer capital crimes that's why
when jesus is going to be crucified they have to go to pylate to get permission they don't
have the right for capital punishment it was taken away by kaponius in between six and seven a.d
what's interesting is that Jerusalem Talmud records that when that happened the priests the
high priests and the rest put on sackcloth and ashes and marched around Jerusalem because it
would want to us for the scepter is departed from Judah and the mazaya has not yet come
they knew that since the scepter departed by their definition that the word of they felt that
the word of god had been broken they recalled in jesus 4.9 that Jacob had predicted that the scepter
would not depart from Judah until the mazaya comes the scepter is departed woe unto us the word of
god is broken that's their view what they didn't know was while they were doing that up in nesserith
there's a young kid in the carpenter shop and there were some that did recognize that simian
and anah and some others the book of the levi's also important one to understand he is uh he is
it was his zeal for the cause of uh he gets the dollar tree was was one reason they were appointed
as priests they were exempt from military duty they were also born into the sons of erin which
you're the priest law not all the vice their priests the sons of erin were priests they were
teachers of the law and they were also the judges and they guarded the king's person they're sort of
like the patory they're not military but yet they were the patorean guard for the king's
safety in his house so anyway that sets the stage for the next time in the next one hour session
we're going to try to put in broad perspective the rest of the Torah we've spent the first four
on jennises because it's basically a foundation but we'll talk about exodus levi's nebitticus
numbers neuteronomy next time and try to summarize the the rest of the Torah
Exodus will deal with the birth of the nation levi's the law of the nation numbers the wilderness
wanderings before they get to the land and in deuteronomy which is basically three sermons by
Moses the laws are reviewed and it's wrapped up so that's that will be our challenge for our
number five let's stand for a closing word of prayer let's bow our hearts
Father we just praise you for who you are we thank you for this opportunity you've provided for us
we recognize that there are no accidents or coincidences in your kingdom that we're all here
right now by your divine appointment so Father we would just claim that commitment of yours
that you would teach us all things we pray Father that you would just reignite
in each of us a new hunger a new passion for your word that we each might grow in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior that we each might become more fruitful stewards
of the opportunities that you've placed before us that we might be more pleasing in your sight
so Father we do just commit not just this evening but ourselves into your hands
we just ask you Father you would make ever more clear what you would have of us in the days that
remain as we commit ourselves into your hands without any reservation
in the name of Yeshua our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen
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