6/22/25 Jesus in the Old Testament

I am so grateful to be back home here in Bly. I am very thankful for the support and prayers during my unexpected extended absence. I thank you for the opportunity to share with you today.

I have a quiz question for you today a we get started. It’s a Who am I question, so pay close attention. There may even be a prize.

There is a person called Father, who is ruler of all he can see. The Father has a son, many would say he is the only son of the Father, but many also claim to be children of the Father. Finally, there is one more person, a person who’s name is on all the who belong to the Father.

Who am I?

Many would think I am speaking of the one true God. The one who exists as three persons in one being, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And for those who guessed that guessed that, I will say that was a very good guess and it makes sense, but it’s not the right answer today.

I am thinking of three individual humans whose names are known to Christians, Jews, and non believers around the world. And while many of are aware of the Trinity, often we have a hard time understanding or explaining it. Don’t worry if that’s you, it’s one of those things that is both easy to explain and hard to understand while simultaneously being hard to explain and easy to understand, but if understanding God was easy, he wouldn’t be GOD. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I hope to show in the next 3 Sunday’s a picture of the Trinity in the 3 humans known as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or Israel.

The thing to know about pictures are that they are not the original.

Pictures look like the original, but don’t always tell the complete story.

A picture can also contain flaws.

I took some pictures this morning of some of you. If I handed you a picture please take it out and look at it now.

What do you see? Does anyone see a perfect representation of the original? What do you see?

Good.

So while Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) are a picture of the Trinity they have flaws in them that don’t make them a perfect representation of the original. However, we can learn more about Jesus, his Father, and the Holy Spirit through these three men.

Also, we are looking for Christ in the Old Testament and the next three weeks will be our final thee weeks in the book of Genesis. Therefore while looking at Abraham Isaac and Jacob as a picture of Trinity, we will also see the pre incarnate Jesus interacting with all three of these men at different stages of their lives.

Today we start with the Father and the picture, Abraham.

Back during my sabbatical I was blessed by a gentleman who spoke for five days straight at a family camp all about Abraham. It was wonderful and I learned a great deal. If I ever do a camp structure where I speak very day for 5 days I would love to dive into the life of someone and explore them in depth. Today we are going broad, but focused on the picture of Abram as the Father and the person of Jesus who met and interacted with Abraham.

Let's first look at Gen 12:1-3

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

TIME TO GO

This is the introduction of Abram and it starts with a command. Leave your comfort zone and go and do something brand new. Not something many of us like.

I remember when Kati and I first arrived in Hong Kong in 2005. Now I grew up in Bloomington, MN. I was close to skyscrapers, super busy traffic, and so many people, it would take a life time to meet everyone. Kati grew up in smaller places. More like Bly than Bloomington. But we were called to this huge place, where to see the sky you had to crane your neck straight up more often than not. The people, the language , the culture, all brand new to us.

So we have Abram moving from, let's say Portland, down to Bly, at the age of 75 on foot. Imagine the culture shock he might have gone through.

I'm curious if there's any testimony from anyone here moving from a larger city to Bly and observations on differences in culture and lifestyle.

It is strange leaving your home, where you are comfortable and used to things and changing your very core. I don’t think that’s easy at any age and Abram is 75.

But because Abram is a picture of the Father, I want to, before we explore Abrams life more, I want to paraphrase these first three verses from a new testament mindset

Now the Father said to the Son, “Go from Heaven and the perfect unity of our house, to the world that you made. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but allow those who dishonor you to curse you. And in you all those who follow you will be blessed.”

Abram was called to be the father of a people. The Israelites. And that promises holds true still today. We see that clear in Gal 3:7-9

Galatians 3:7–9 ESV

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Many often make the mistake that the gospel begins in the book of Matthew. Anyone who knows me and has sat through a few messages will know I firmly teach the gospel begins with “In the beginning...”

Abram is given a promise. He would become the father of many nations and a few thousand years later, the heavenly Father would send his son with a similar mission. To share the blessings of the Father with the world.

But to continue on with the life of Abram. We see even more evidence that he is a very poor picture of the Father. No one is going t be perfect, but Abram makes a few big blunders. Continuing in Genesis 12 we see Abram calling his wife his sister for fear of Pharaoh. Now, anyone here willing to sell their spouse for their own safety? I'm not going to ask for a show of hands because I’m afraid one or two might go up.

Going into chapter 13 we see what looks like a kind compromise when Abram notices he has a lot of property and so does his nephew Lot, so Abram seems to generously compromise and allow Lot to choose the best of the land for himself. But it wasn’t for Abram to give away. In verse 14, God reminds Abram that everything he sees, north, South, East and West is a gift to him from God. Not Lot. This is reinforced in chapter 14 when Lot is in big trouble and Abram has to bail him out.

But for all of Abrams faults he is the one chosen by the Father to be the Father of many nations. Which is made evident by a meeting with a guy named Melchizedek. From a New Testament perspective, Melchizedek is a picture of Jesus. A king, who is also a priest. Not much is known of Melchizedek, but some scholars do argue that he was Noah’s son Shem, who did outlive Abraham by a number of years.

Okay, now we are going to focus on chapter 15 for a bit. A fair warning. I love Genesis 15. It’s one of those I could talk about for a long time without notes. I could spend weeks dissecting this chapter, but I'm just going to focus on one really important part of this chapter.

The first 6 verses of the chapter are all about Abram complaining. Now, I'm not advocating complaining here, but if you ever feel like you complain to God too much, just open up to anywhere in the Old Testament and you’ll find that you're not that bad.

But he saying to God, “You moved me out here and promised some stuff, now I've got no kids to pass this land down to, what’s up?” Let’s check out how God responds.

Genesis 15:7–11 ESV

And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

NOT A BBQ

Now, that seems pretty gruesome. Cutting up a whole bunch of animals and there’s not even a BBQ.

Oddly enough, this is a practice still done today and even right here in America. Even right here in Bly. In fact, I was just a part something just like this last week.

And some of you are now wondering just what I was doing in my extra week in Minnesota.

Well, as most of you know, my step dad, Rod, passed away and I stayed behind to help my mom out for a few days.

Well, last Monday, my mom, my uncle and I met in a room with another person to see the results of a covenant my step dad made.

Can anyone tell me what we were doing?

Reading a will, right.

A will is a promise made by a person to offer what they have to someone else in the event of their death. It is unconditional and the offeree does not have to do anything, in most cases, to earn the contents of the will.

For example, when my step dad’s will was read, it said everything that belonged to him, not belongs to my mom. Done. She doesn’t have to do anything. She just has to accept the contents.

Then one day in the future. My sister, two step brothers and I, will receive the contents of my mother’s will. No conditions. We could treat each other like garbage. We could be complete angels, doesn’t matter. It is an unconditional promise.

We don’t cut up animals to make this promise any more, wee now sit with a lawyer and sign our names a bunch of times. And I know some of you are thinking that cutting up the animals seems more fun than sitting with a lawyer and signing paper’s. And you’d be right.

But how do we know that Abram’s promise with God was unconditional? Especially since we don’t practice like they did any more?

Let’s read on and see what happens after Abram cut up the animals.

Someone please read. And I give permission when you to the names at the end of the passage to say, a bunch of names.

Genesis 15:12–21 ESV

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

CUTTING COVENANT

So this procedure is called a cutting covenant. They cut up animals and all the blood is pooled and the two making the covenant get together and walk between the cut up animals while they make their promise.

The first person says, “If I don’t keep my promise, you can do to me what was done to these animals.”

The second person does the same thing, and makes the same promise.

Help me out here What does God do in this passage?

The LORD showed up as a smoking fire pot and passed between the pieces. He completed the covenant.

What was Abram doing?

He was laying down. He saw it all happen, but he did not participate in the covenant promise. This is how we can know it is an unconditional promise.

You see the LORD said to Abram. If I break the promise, then you can do to me what was done to these animals. We know the God will never break his word, so there is no reason to ever believe that God would forfeit his life by breaking his promise.

However, since Abram did not participate in the covenant promise, but God did.

God was saying, If you, or anyone else breaks the promises you make to me, then you can do to me what was done to these animals.

This is God acting in Grace and Mercy. He’s promising to take onto himself, what we deserve.

Who can tell me from memory

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Just like a Father’s will for his children, we don’t have to do anything to receive the promise. We only have to accept it.

Now, just like a will. We seem to want to contest the conditions of the promise. Anyone who has siblings and has lost a parent may know what I’m speaking of.

“Well, Jenny didn’t visit Mom as much as I did, so I should get more.”

“Bob didn’t even bother to show up to the funeral, we shouldn’t give him a dime.”

If you have a Jenny or Bob in your family, I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose.

But we as humans sometimes really want unconditional things to be something we earn.

Same with God. We want to know what we can do to earn his love and approval.

If you really read how God interacts with his creation, you will see that is not even close to how God works.

But we do the same thing with Christian’s.

I’ve witnessed these phrases personally, but I will say none of the phrases were said by anyone here or in this community.

“If the pastor knew how much money I gave, he’d treat me better.”

“After all I’ve done for the church, why am I still poor?”

“I showed up to church, isn’t that worth 20 bucks?”

Many people, even in the Church, want a works based salvation. People like a good pat on the back and a reward for what they do. And I do like to recognize good works. I like to give a good pat on the back or a trophy, a little pin or a gold watch.

But I can’t give eternal life. And no amount of good will get it for you either. The only thing that will is that perfect offering that God promised here in Genesis 15.

While much of the world works like that. You work, you get paid. Christianity works backwards. We are offered pay, we accept the pay, then we get to work. Not to earn what we were paid. It’s not advanced earnings. It’s paid earnings from someone else that you get the benefit of.

And work, maybe will rewarded with blessings. I’ve heard many stories of blessings for those who work hard for the Lord. But the blessings come here. You will not get into heaven because you went to church on Sunday, or gave a 20 in the plate as it passed.

You get into heaven by accepting Jesus gift. And that promise is pictured here in Genesis 15. It’s not by anything you do. But by what he did. Unconditional.

But, I will give this. One could say. I believe, so I’m good. I don’t need to do anything. Please look at the example Abram gives.

Genesis 16-17. Show a teeter totter of obedience for Abram. He tries to fulfill God’s promise through his own power by sleeping with his wife’s maid and producing A child but not the promised child. And that mess up is still producing problems today.

But then Abram obeys God’s command to be set apart and circumcised. This is also where God changes Abram’s name, which means father, to Abraham, which means Father of multitudes.

Abraham doesn’t just take the gift and hide it. He takes the gift and declares it, so others too might receive the gift of eternal life.

The LORD, the Father on heaven. gave us this picture of Abraham as a Father of many nations. Those who were born to Abraham were called God’s chosen people. With many promised blessings. But others have been brought into the promise. We are children of Abraham. we are adopted in. Much like Rahab, who risked her life to save the people of Israel. Or Ruth, who left her homeland and followed God instead of her people. So if you’ve chosen to accept God’s gift of eternal life, and you aren’t sharing it. The Bible does question your salvation. But if you are a follower of Jesus and you want to tell others. If you want to serve the Church and serve God in whatever way he has for you. Then you will be blessed. Perhaps not in the way YOU desire, but you will be.

The final part of the life of Abraham I want to show you today is from Chapter 18. This is by no means the end of his life, actually before Isaac is born, one year to be exact. It’s here in chapter 18 we see Jesus show up. And not for the first time. He showed up to Adam and Even in Genesis 3, to Hagar in Genesis 16, and now to Abraham, who has been waiting on a promise for almost 25 years.

Whenever you are reading your Bible you might see the phrase “Angel of the Lord.” The word Angel means messenger, and what does a messenger do but give the Word. So one might translate the phrase “Angel of the Lord” to “The WORD of the Lord” which is how Jesus is identified in John 1.

SO keep that in mind when you read the Bible and see “The Angel of the LORD.”

However, the Lord shows up differently in Genesis 18. He shows up in a group of men, but is identified as the LORD. Abraham knows it, Sarah knows it. But things still don’t go perfectly.

Let’s check out Gen 18:9-15

Genesis 18:9–15 ESV

9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

THE PROMISE REMAINS

What I really like about this interaction is that it emphasizes the unconditional nature of the promise.

Notice how Sarah laughs. And we can tell from her denial, that her laugh was in unbelief. Her laugh is a kin to that person in your life who has told you for the millionth time that things will be different. You might laugh, because to you, it’s unbelievable.

God has just told Sarah that she will have a child. At the age of 90, after a life of being barren. She knows that this is impossible, so she laughs.

Genesis 15:6 ESV

6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Abraham was rewarded for his faith. He beleived he was rewarded.

Sarah did not believe. God did not say. Well, then that means I’m not going to do it. Forget you, you don’t believe? No reward for you.

Instead, he confronts her. She still denies, but instead of bashing her down. “No, but you did laugh.” That’s the end of it. A year later she has a baby, t the age of 90, after being barren all her life. And the son’s name is Isaac.

He is the second person in our Trinity of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

We will explore him next week. Until then I want to give you this encouragement.

Abraham was an imperfect picture of the Father in Heaven. Look at those pictures again for a moment. There are flaws in them, even without me changing them. A picture is an imperfect image of you. To truly know you, people have to be involved in your life, beyond the picture. Same with God. We can look at his imperfect images, Abraham But, Isaac, and Jacob, other people from the Bible, or just look in the mirror and you will see an imperfect image of God.

Yes, you are an imperfect image. And what yu can do to know the perfect image is to read your Bible.Talk to him, and listen. And when you listen, you will learn that he loves you deeply. He wants to know you. And he has something planned for you that you may not be able to imagine today, but the more you accept his gift, the more you will be opened to his will and his blessings.

Let’s Pray