God's Faithfulness Backwards and Forwards

Creation/De-creation, Chaos/Order

When man abided by God’s rule there was blessing, when they chose to reject God creation started to go back to chaos.

What structure will we see?

God will call a people to obey Him

Those who confirm God’s call and leave all else behind to God’s “place” for them and receive His blessing by faith

They follow

They worship

They have faith in God’s Word

Those who reject God’s call follow their own desires into their own “place” and receive their own “blessing”

They follow their own path

They worship themselves or some other thing

They reject God’s Word

People, Place, Promise

People

Are they God’s people? Do they obey and worship God?

Place

Is it the right place and do they go to the place God calls them to go to?

Promise

Whose promises do they believe?

The Beginning

First People

Adam and Eve

First Place

The Garden

First Promise

That they can enjoy the Garden as long as they don’t eat from the tree

The Fall

First People

Adam and Eve

Second Place

Outside of the Garden where they had to work the ground but God still provided for them

First Promise

Your offspring will crush the head of the serpent

The Flood

People

Noah and his family

Place

The whole earth

Promise

"I will establish my covenant with you” - Genesis 6:18 “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.”

God established this covenant in Genesis 9:1

Genesis 9:1 CSB

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 9:7–11 CSB

But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.” Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, “Understand that I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

The Rest of Humanity

Human wickedness leads to wickedness

Cain

Lamech

Genesis 4:23–24 “Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words. For I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is to be avenged seven times over, then for Lamech it will be seventy-seven times!”

The sons of Seth lived long lives while the sons of Cain lived short lives

Wickedness of those before the flood

Genesis 6:5–8 “When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.”

Ham is cursed

Genesis 9:24–27 CSB

When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said: Canaan is cursed. He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. He also said: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; Let Canaan be Shem’s slave. Let God extend Japheth; let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem; let Canaan be Shem’s slave.

Chaos from Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:9 “Therefore it is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.”

God “formalizes” the blessing with Abram

People

Abram and his family

Place

"the land that I will show you”

Promise

Genesis 12:2–3 “I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God gives three blessings

“I will make you a great nation”

“I will bless you”

“I will make your name great and you will be a blessing”

This includes a place that Abraham would become a nation, children that would bless his “line”, and that God would be with Him and give Him wealth and possessions.

God’s blessings can’t be dissassociated from a relationship with God.

-Abraham now has a knowledge of God that God tells him to share with the nations.

-In fact, God’s promise to Abraham will not be fully fulfilled until “all the families of the earth” know the name of God.

-If we notice too, previously those at the Tower of Babel tried to “make their name great”, but God says that HE will make Abram’s name great.

What does it mean for God’s people to follow Him “by faith”?

Hebrews 11:8–10 “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

They follow

Genesis 12:4–5 “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,”

Abram was told by God to leave 3 things: his land, relatives, and his “fathers household” to a land that he didn’t know.

Tribe - Largest section, like saying you are from the USA

Relatives - a clan, an identity within a geographic region. Like Brunswick County

Family - Those closest to you and your identity as a person.

-Abraham had to lose previous allegiances, things that he held important to him in order to receive something better.

-This is more significant then we even understand. The actions of a child would have implications for an entire family.

-He was also leaving economic security and security for his family.

-Abram turned away from pagan idols and followed the One, True God

They trust God with the unknown.

-Abram went “as the Lord had told him”. Sometimes we will take advice from God but do it in our own way. “I’ll leave here but I’ll go to the place I want to go”.

-He was also trusting that he would receive a reward he couldn’t see.

“Into the Unknown” in Frozen 2

I can hear you but I won't Some look for trouble while others don't

There's a thousand reasons I should go about my day And ignore your whispers, which I wish would go away, oh (Oh) oh (oh)

You're not a voice, you're just a ringing in my ear And if I heard you, which I don't, I'm spoken for I fear Everyone I've ever loved is here within these walls I'm sorry, secret siren but I'm blocking out your calls I've had my adventure, I don't need something new I'm afraid of what I'm risking if I follow you

Sometimes we “hear” God but we don’t want to hear Him.

They worship

Genesis 12:7–9 “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.”

Why is this important? It tells us in v. 6 that they had passed the “site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh”. Moreh means “Teacher”, so this is most likely some kind of shrine for instruction in idol worship. Maybe even a place of sacrifice. There is pagan worship in this new land of Canaan. In fact, we will continue to see in the OT these Canaanites that seem “harmless”, they aren’t trying to start war with Israel many times. But they will try and influence them to worship of their idols.

-Shechem would become, throughout Israel’s history, a place of decision. A place to choose between blessing and cursing.

Deuteronomy 11:29–30“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. Aren’t these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?”

-Joshua would give his final charge to the people here to follow God.

-The kingdom of Solomon would break in two here.

So what does Abram do? He builds an altar for his own God in several places. He proclaims with His actions who he follows.

-He doesn’t put something that identifies himself, his own wealth, his own name, only that of HIs God.

They worship God

And in this they believe God will bring blessing to all people.

They have faith in God’s Word

God then speaks to Abram in v. 7, “to your offspring, I will give this land”. Abram now received the direct word from God that this is where him and his descendents belonged. Abram received this word and he believed him. Later God will give Abram another word and it will tell us something important.

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

We also receive a word from God, a Word about God’s Son that died for us. We are called to believe this Word.

They obey God

What we can overlook is that v. 5 says that Abram took his wife, Lot, his possessions, and “the people they had acquired in Haran”. This isn’t slaves, this is people who Abram took with him to the land God had called him to. Abram had shared with others what God said he was going to do and they had faith because of Abram’s faith.