Exile (Part 3)

Sunday Morning, We Ended with Looking at the Tower of Babel

All the People of the World Were Gathered Together in One Place

Genesis 11:4 (NASB95)

4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

They Wanted a City and a Tower

Nothing is Inherently Wrong with Either of These Desires

Unless, of Course, the Tower They Wanted was a Ziggurat

Ziggurats Were These Large Pyramid-Like Towers…

That Were Used as Temples of Worship to the Gods

(Read Top Right Corner of Picture)

High Places Weren’t Just a Pagan Idea

Eden was a High Place (Rivers Flow Out of it)

Many Key Characters Came into Contact with God on Mountains

Many Key Places Were Built on Mountains

Even Jesus Often Went on Top of Mountains to Pray

We See These Ziggurats in Many Different Cultures

This Makes Perfect Sense of What We See Happen at the Tower of Babel

God Gives Them Different Languages and Causes Them to Spread Throughout the World

It’s Only Natural that They Would Bring with Them the Knowledge and Form…

Of the Tower into All Other Parts of the World

But They Didn’t Just Want a City and a Tower

(Put Verse Back Up)

They Also Wanted a Name/Reputation/Fame for Themselves…

And They Didn’t Want to Be Scattered Across the World

These 2 Desires are Inherently Wrong

There is Something Inherently Wrong with These 2 Desires

What’s Wrong with Not Wanting to Be Scattered Throughout the World?

It Goes Against God’s Desire for Humanity to “Fill the Earth”

What’s Wrong with Wanting to Make a Name/Reputation/Fame for Themselves?

It’s Self-Centered

The Purpose of Humanity as God’s Image Bearers…

Was to Make a Name/Reputation/Fame for God, Not Ourselves

This Transitions Perfectly to Our Next Character in the Study of Exile

The First 11 Chapters of Genesis Set Up the Rest of the OT

They Show Us How Everything Came to Be the Way it is

Creation

The Fall

God’s Worldwide Judgment of Evil

The Origin of Israel’s Enemies

The Beginning of Different Languages, Nations, and Cultures

The Point of These First 11 Chapters isn’t to Focus on Any One Person

They are Simply to Set Up the Rest of the Story

But as Soon as We Get to Chapter 12…

One Exiled Man Becomes the Focus

And From this One Exiled Man, One Exiled Family Becomes the Focus

And From this One Exiled Family, One Exiled Nation Becomes the Focus

And From this One Exiled Nation, One Man Who Leaves Him Home in Heaven Becomes the Focus

And this One Man Who Willingly Becomes an Earthly Exile Remains the Focus

And He will Continue to Remain the Focus of the Story…

Until He Returns to Permanently End the Exile of God’s People

But this Story Begins with a Man Named Abram (Abraham)

Genesis 12:1–3 (NASB95)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Abraham was Told to Leave His Home and Travel to Another Land

Notice What God Said:

“I Will Make You a Great Nation”

“I Will Bless You”

“I Will Make Your Name Great”

The People of Babel Wanted to Make Themselves a Name

But God Promises to Give Abraham a Great Name

There are 2 Commands in this Passage for Abram

“Go”

“Be a Blessing”

As God Blessed Abraham, He was Expected to Bless All the Families of the Earth

That is, Through Abraham, All People Would Come to Know, Love, and Serve the One True God

I Think It’s Important to Recognize that…

God’s Commands to the First Individual of the Story…

Are Essentially the Same Commands that We are Given Today

To “Go” and to “Be a Blessing” (Make Disciples of Jesus)

The Bible is a Unified Story

If We Don’t Recognize that, Then We Miss So Much…

Of What Makes this Story So Interesting, Exciting, and Meaningful to Us

Genesis 12:5 (NASB95)

5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.

Genesis 12:7 (NASB95)

7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Even While Living in Canaan, it was Not Yet His Land/Home

Hebrews 11:8–10 (NASB95)

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

The Author of Hebrews Called Abraham an Alien in the Promised Land

He Lived as a Foreigner and an Exile There

And So Did His Son and Grandson

Hebrews 11:13 (NASB95)

13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

In Obedience to God, Abraham Lived the Life of an Exile

But Not Just in the Promised Land of Canaan

Genesis 12:10 (NASB95)

10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

During the Famine in Canaan, Abraham Lived as a Sojourner in Egypt

He Lived in a Place that was Not His Home

Pharoah Eventually Made Him Leave and Go Back to Canaan

But He Would Later Be Told:

Genesis 15:13 (NASB95)

13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.

After Abraham’s Death, His Descendants Would Return to Egypt

They Would Live There of Their Own Choosing as Strangers & Exiles

But Eventually it Wouldn’t Be of Their Own Choosing

Sometime After Abraham Leaves Egypt…

We Find Out that He and Sarah Brought Something with Them From Egypt

Genesis 16:1 (NASB95)

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

They have a Slave-Girl Named Hagar

We Don’t Know How They Obtained Her

But We Do Know that They Removed Her From Her Home in Egypt

Hagar was Living as an Exile with Abraham and Sarah

Because Sarah was Barren, Abraham Took Hagar as His Wife and She Became Pregnant

This Made Sarah Angry, Even Though it was Her Idea…

So She Started Treating Hagar Harshly, So Hagar Ran Away

This is When We Meet a Mysterious but Highly Important Figure in the OT for the First Time

Genesis 16:7–13 (NASB95)

7 Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.”10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”

13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”

She was Away From Home Before, But Now She’s Alone and Afraid

But God, in the Form of “The Angel/Messenger of the Lord”, Saw Her

God Cares for the Exile

This is One of the First Times Where that Fact is Made Clear

And We See it Again in the Very Emotional Passage of Genesis 21:14-19

Sarah Wanted Hagar and Ishmael Gone…

And God Told Abraham to Send Them Away

Genesis 21:14–19 (NASB95)

14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

15 When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.16 Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me see the boy die.” And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.

17 God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.18 “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.

Hagar and Ishmael Were Exiled in the Wilderness

But God Heard Hagar’s and Little Ishmael’s Crying and Saved Them

This Will Be Far From the Last Time We See an Exiled People Calling Out to God…

And God Coming to the Rescue

As You Continue Through the Chapters of Genesis…

You Continue to See Abraham and His Descendants Living as Exiles

The Only Bit of Land Abraham Would Own of the Promised Land was His and Sarah’s Tomb

Sunday, We Start with Joseph and His Experience with Exile…

And How that Sets the Stage for the Children of Israel’s Exile

Invitation

Even Though Abraham Lived as an Exile, God Continued to Take Care of Him

Abraham Didn’t have a Place to Call Home, But He was Always Provided for

God Kept His Promises to Abraham Because Abraham was Faithful

Notice What God Said to Isaac:

Genesis 26:3–5 (NASB95)

3 “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.4 “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

Because Abraham Lived By Faith in God, God was Going to Continue to Bless His Descendants

We are Sojourners in this Present Age…

And We have Been Given Wonderful Promises as Well

If We Remain Faithful, God will Keep His Promises to Us as Well

Israel was Exiled in Egypt

Judah was exiled east to Babylon

Talk about what it is like to live as an exile

(Jeremiah 29:4-20)

Live your life in this life

God will one day return us to our home

And He will punish those who didn’t live in exile with us

One of the difficult parts of living as an exile is having to live differently than those around us

“Being in the world but not of the world”

Talk about some of the beliefs/standards of our culture and how we must react to these things:

Relationships in a culture where 50% of marriages end in divorce

Fornication & Adultery

LGBTQ

Abortion

Pornography

Are there some things that we have turned into major issues that aren’t?

Dancing

We are Even Exiles in Our Own Body

2 Cor 5:1-10

We Currently Live in a Tent (Temporary Housing)

We Look Forward to Living in a Building (Permanent Home)