Some Things Never Change

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 119:41-48

Psalm 119:41–48 ESV

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules. I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts. I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame, for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.

Scripture Memorization: Genesis 50:19-20

Genesis 50:19–20 ESV

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:6-11

Romans 5:6–11 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Sermon:

1

Speaker 1

00:00

Once again, and as always, good morning church. I was glad when they said to me let us go and Worship in the house of the Lord. This morning, I'm glad to be done with our Advent series and moving back into. Our series through the book. Of Genesis. But it's always hard when we come back to a series having left it for a little bit of time.

00:25

This really, only ever happens during the time of Advent, but It's hard sometimes to get our Wheels spinning again to get back into the flow of the Book of Genesis. This morning, we re-read. Bring back to our memorization, hopefully you didn't forget. That's the point of memorization, but bringing back to our memory Genesis chapter 50, what I'm looking at is one of the theme verses of the Book of Genesis.

00:56

That that what Joseph's Brothers meant for evil God meant for good, that God's the one working God's the one shaping God's the one directing Genesis is a book about what God is doing. Seeing through the lens of? Largely the individuals that God is working. Through and with. Ultimately, the individual's got is working.

01:24

We finished looking at Abraham Abraham, the first patriarch Abraham, the one that God would come in Covenant with make great promises of of land and descendants and blessing. Those are the the three words if you keep those in mind. You'll remember God's promises to Abraham. Descendants that he would have descendants that would outnumber the stars in the sky or the Sands.

01:51

On the in the deserts. Land, the land that he would look. It started with just this land, God said, but it at the scene with lot, God said. Look North, South East West. All of this land will be your descendants. And then blessing that the children that Abraham would have would grow into a nation that Nation would grow.

02:12

And become a blessing to the whole world. Its promises for descendants, land, and blessing. But Abraham has dived. That's where in Genesis chapter 26 now. And we've been looking at for a while now, his son. Isaac. Isaac had some Sons he had twin sons. And there is difficulty there, but last Sunday before we ended, so this is not last Sunday.

02:40

This is a four Sundays ago, five Sundays ago now. We looked at God coming and renewing the Covenant with Isaac. That was the beginning of Genesis chapter 26. The same promises. What we learned was the same promises that God gave to. Abraham will go through Isaac and because God's promises rely on God and God's goodness, and God is the one who upholds God's promises and God's the one who will fulfill God's promises.

03:05

And because God is The Sovereign God? The same. Descendants and land and blessing will be extended to Isaac. But what we will see today is it's not just the same blessings in the same way. The story in a lot of ways. Is the same old story? Because some things never change.

03:33

And we'll see. It'll feel like. We're just reviewing what happened in the life of Abraham over and over and over again. And so it's good and fitting probably that. This is our first sermon back to. The Book of Genesis. For those of you that have been here for a while, as we read through this, I would encourage you think back and think.

03:57

How does that apply to Abraham's life? Where do we see that in Abraham's life? For those of you that maybe weren't here for all of Abraham or have forgotten because it has been a while. I'll help you get there. But let's start by reading God's word Genesis chapter 26 back in Genesis.

04:13

That means we're back in long passages verses 6 through 35. This is the end of chapter 26.

04:23

So, Isaac settled in Gerard. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said she is my sister. For, he feared to say, my wife, thinking, lest the men of the place, should kill me because of Rebecca because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, abimelech King of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebecca, his wife.

04:49

So, abimelech called Isaac and said, behold, she is your wife. How, then, could you say she is my sister? Isaac said to him because I thought, lest I die, because of her. Abimelech said, what is this you have done to us? One of our people might easily have Lane with your wife.

05:08

And you would have brought a guilt upon us, so abimelech warned all the people saying whoever touches this man's wife shall surely be put to death. And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundred full. The Lord blessed him. And the Man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.

05:29

He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so the Philistines envied him. Now, the Philistines had stopped. And fill the Earth. All the wells that his father's servants had dung in the days of it, dug in the days of Abraham as father. And abimelech said to Isaac go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.

05:49

So, Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of garar and settled there, and Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham, his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.

06:05

But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a swell of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerard quarreled with Isaac's herdman, saying the water is ours, so he called the name of the well essec because they contended with him. Then, they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also.

06:20

So, he called its name sitna. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So we called its name rehaboth, saying, for now, the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful. In the land. From there, he went up to bersheba and the Lord appeared to him on the same night and said, I am the god of Abraham, your father.

06:41

Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there and there. Isaac's servants dug a well. When a biblik went to him from garar with Azutha, his advisor and fickle, the commander of his army, Isaac, said to them.

07:03

Why have you come to me saying that you hate me and have sent me away from you? They said. We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So, we said, let there be a sworn pact between us between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you.

07:21

That you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. So now, the Blessed you are now the Blessed of the Lord. So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning, they Rose early and exchanged.

07:37

Oaths and Isaacs sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. That same day, Isaac's servants came and told him about the, well, that they had dug and said to him, we have found water. And he called it Sheba. Therefore, the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

07:54

When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of beary, the Hittite to be his wife and base math, the daughter of Eli and the Hitta Elon, the hittite, and they made life bitter. For Isaac. And Rebecca. These are the words of the Lord for us this morning.

08:12

Let's open our time together with the word of prayer. Dear Lord, we do thank you for your goodness and Grace for your provision for your protection for your steadfast love. We thank you that you are the God who does not change with you. There is no Shadow or variation due to change.

08:32

And so we can trust in your promises. We can trust in your goodness. We can trust in your word. May you speak to us according to your word. I asked this morning that you would speak through your servant. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen and amen. Some things it seems.

08:51

Just never change. They're the same. People are going to act the same when we went through the Book of Ecclesiastes. We heard this over and over again. There's nothing new Under the Sun. What has been, is what will be, what will be is the same as what has been, and all of that's the same as what's going on here?

09:11

And here in the Book of Genesis, it feels that way.

09:16

In a global Universal level, we know that that's not true. Some things are changing. We just celebrated Advent. The King has come, and the King will return. But we can definitely feel like we're stuck in these cycle. And here in Genesis, we feel the same cycle. And we start with.

09:37

The same mistakes. You might have thought well, Abraham's dead. So this whole, my wife's actually, my sister nonsense, that foolishness that's going to die with Abraham. Nope. It turns out Abraham's son. Has the same hair brained idea. Now, did he? Learn this from his father. Not directly in that he didn't see it.

10:07

Because both times it happened in Abraham's life, it was before the birth. Of his son. The story there was the promise would be in Jeopardy. But maybe his father said, you know, if you're in a tight spot, this is worked in the past. Maybe it'll work again? Your wife is very attractive.

10:28

Isaac thinks so. The people around, obviously, think so, too. So, just be careful. When you're around, people who don't fear the lord when you're around people who don't know what's going on. Just say she's my wife. The same mistakes are being made here. And it's interesting that, as the same mistakes are being made, God uses the same way to correct the mistakes, which is, by speaking through the Pagan quote unquote Pagan quote unquote Godless, they kind of prove they are this later in this story, but Through the people.

11:03

Who shouldn't know better? God speaks to the ones who should know better. Abimelech, another character that we've seen before abimelech dealt a lot with Abraham. As a bit of historical trivia. Some people think that abimelech was not a person's name, but rather a person's title. You see this a lot in the ancient near East Pharaoh, right?

11:26

Everyone's just called Pharaoh, but they're all different, but you'll read, like, oh well, he talked to Pharaoh when he talked to Pharaoh. They're talking to different pharaohs. Abimelech. The king. It could just be a title that all the kings were abimelech. Another one we have in history. We look back to Caesar, right?

11:47

Cesar Augustus, Julius Caesar, rendered Caesar. What is Caesar's that was not a person, but rather the title for the position. Abimelech could be the same thing. Could be the same person. We don't really know. Either way, abimelech comes and confronts Isaac. What is it you have done with us?

12:06

He looks out his window, and he sees Isaac and Rebecca laughing. He sees them. Talking. He sees them interacting the word for laughing is rather vague, and it probably just. It signifies. Something you just see and know? There's something deeper going on in that relationship. It could be physical.

12:33

It could be some sort of PDA. It could just be. We've all seen this. You see two people. You're, like, oh, they're definitely married. And if they're not, we have problems, right? That's the sort of thought you might have sometimes.

12:49

This is what's going on in this text here. Something about the way Isaac and Rebecca are interacting shows. Intimacy, their connectedness that they should have. But they shouldn't have if their brother and sister. So, a bit like your friends, why have you done this? One of my people could have easily messed this all up.

13:06

One of my people could have easily slept with your wife. There's a hint of him condemning Isaac for not protecting his wife the way he should. You are putting her in Jeopardy. One of my people could have easily done this. Not only would that harm you, and not only would that harm her that would have brought guilt upon us.

13:27

So, abimelech does what Isaac should have. He forbids anyone from touching Isaac's wife. So, abimelech verse 11 warned all the people, whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death. Isaac is playing games. Abimelech means business. These are the same mistakes. The same mistakes Abraham was making the same Folly the same sort of.

13:50

Taking for granted, God's promises, and God's provision and God's protection.

13:58

And yet, it's still in the same mistakes. We still see the same result. Abimelech is still going to be the one who confronts him and God's still going to use this to bless him. Verse 12, Isaac, so that land and reaped in the same year 100 fold. For every seed he planted, he grew 100 heads of wheat of corn.

14:19

Whatever it is, he's planting. He reaped a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him. He became Rich, gained more and more until he becomes wealthy. So wealthy, so powerful. He has so much Goods that abimelech the king looks at eyes, and like, this is a problem. He's more powerful, richer, and more important than I am.

14:44

You'll miss the same mistakes. God's still faithful. And God's still using this to bless the people that God will bless.

14:55

Abraham made these same mistakes. God blessed him. Isaac makes these same mistakes. God still bless us.

15:03

If. Last sermon five weeks ago was God coming and recapitulating the Covenant, saying I will do all these things. As with Abraham, so with Isaac. Turns out in the way they live their lives. As with Abraham. So, with Isaac. The same mistakes are being made. Then we continue. As Isaac continues his life.

15:32

He runs into the same troubles. The mistakes would be the Troubles of his own making. That's his whole, my wife's, my sister, nonsense. But then the story unfolds and we again have another scene where there's this difficulty with Wells. And Moses. As he writes, this is intentional to point out it all stems back to the same Wells that Abraham done.

15:57

We went back if we were to go back in Genesis. There was a scene with abimelech where there was almost War because of a well that was being dug and the end result of it was that Abraham got the water rights. To this well. So, if Abraham, they should have gone to his son, but something has happened.

16:18

The well has been filled in. The Philistines have come. They've refilled in the well. So now, Isaac and his servants have to go out because of all of his hundredfold receiving of his crop because of all of the land and servants because of everything he needs water. He had many.

16:37

Verse 14 tells his possessions of flocks and herds and many servants. The Philistines envy him. And. Is it because I am and or they just done this? We don't really know, but the Philistines had also verse 15 stopped and filled all the Earth with the wells that his father servants had done.

16:54

Doug, so the wells at Abraham Doug that he had water rights to have been filled in. And so Isaac then has to start dinging Wells and he digs it well. But what happens? The herdsmen come and say this is our land. This is our well. So he has to go away.

17:08

He digs another. Well, this is our land. This is our well, and he goes away. And then verse 22, he moves from there and digs another. Well, they did not qual quarrel over it, so he called its name rehaboth.

17:24

Saying, for now, the Lord has made room for us. We shall be fruitful. There's the same troubles with with Wells and land, and what we have enough to provide for what God has blessed us with. God blessed us, but will God keep us? The same trouble. In many ways, the trouble of this abundance.

17:48

Isaac is dealing with. I don't have a light. We don't have the wells. We don't. We don't have what we need. We need water for our sheep for our people. What are we going to do and we dig one and it's taken and we dig one and it's taken. It's gonna happen.

18:07

It's the same troubles.

18:13

So, yeah, God makes room.

18:17

God still cares for him. We go from. If you look at the names of the Wells, we go from contention. Fighting. Enmity. Hatred. Broad places. Or room. Hey, I'm gonna call this well room because God made a room for us is ultimately what Isaac says here.

18:46

God has blessed. God has given the blessings. And God has blessed. That will maintain this blessing. Because at the center of this, and this really is the center of the story in many ways. Is the same God? Isaac's making the same mistakes he's dealing with, the same troubles. But what in the background is holding all of these things together the same God? From there, Isaac goes up to Beersheba, verse 23, 12 says, and the Lord appeared to him the same night. And says, I am the god of your father, Abraham. Fear not frying with you.

19:29

God's saying, I'm the same God, the same God, the god of your father, Abraham, the god that blessed Abraham, the god that kept Abraham, the god that covenanted with Abraham, the god that that. Was over. Every aspect and moment of Abraham's life, that same God, fear not for I am with you as well.

19:47

God, Riri, says the same promises. This is much like Abraham Abraham heard God's promises over and over and over and over again. God would say, I'll do this, and he would have another ceremony. I'll do this another kind of story. I'll do this. Here, God comes again. Fear not, I am with you. I will bless you blessing. I will multiply your Offspring offspring for my servant Abraham's sake. And so the same God receives the same worship as well. Verse 25, so he built an altar there. And called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there.

20:22

And their Isaac's servants dug a well. Well, we got an altar. Above all of this is God? The same God that blessed Abraham is the same God that's blessing Isaac. And this blessing continues again. We have a bimelech coming this time with a who'saf and fickle, the commander of his army last time. There was a well and abimelech and fickle. Abraham was there?

20:55

But the commander of abimelek's Army fickle and abimelech. There they see that God had blessed Abraham. Well, they look around and they see Isaac and they realize. He blessed him too.

21:11

Abimelech is sort of from the outside looking in. And he's. The same mistakes. This is my wife. This is my sister. What's going on here? He's witnessed this whole well thing as king of the land. He's at oversight over this.

21:32

But he sees eyes, and he sees God's blessing. So he comes back. Isaac's not having it credit to Isaac for seeing a snake when he like for recognizing a snake when he sees it. Excuse me. Verse 27 why have you come seeing that you hate me and set me away from you? I've been like, we already played this game. Right, there was this whole thing I was doing well in your land. God had blessed me. I was doing great, and you kicked me out. Verse 16 go away from us. But now you come back. Why are you here?

22:06

You hate me, you sent me away? Why are you back? It's a good question. Abimelak's answer. Because God's blessed you? Because we see God's blessing in your life because we see that the same God who blessed Abraham is the same God who's blessing you. They said, verse 28, we see plainly. The Lord has been with you, so we said let there be a pact between us. Let us make a covenant with you. We saw Gods on your side, and we're not about to mess with anyone who God is on their side.

22:41

Abimelech knows this God means business. Maybe abimelech remembers. If it's the same abimelech, he remembers when Abraham went and defeated the nation, the armies of five nations. And he saw when God helped Abraham. He defeated a coalition of armies that destroyed Sodom. Maybe he remembers that the same God that Abraham served that Isaac is now blessed by is the same God that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Because we don't want to mess with that guy. Whatever reason it is, they said, we need to make peace. We need to have a deal we. Abimelech is saying cannot be at odds with.

23:19

Isaac, because in particular, we cannot be at odds with the god of Isaac. You are blessed of the Lord. Make a covenant that you will do us. No harm, just as see, this is again. We see a snake when a snake. Just as? We have not touched you and have done to you. Nothing but good. And we sent you away in peace. Is that what really happened? I mean, we just read it. Go away. You are much mightier than. We don't want you here. Uproot everything. Get out of my land. Is that doing no harm? Is that sending them away in peace?

24:04

It's not how I would read the situation. Isaac now shows them some Grace.

24:12

You are blessed with the Lord. Abimelech says, and Isaac makes them a feast. They eat and drink in the morning. They arose early in exchange adults, okay? There will be peace between abimelech. Fickle. Isaac, ultimately. Between these men and God, that's the point of this story. That because God is with Isaac, he is offering the same protection, the same covering that covered Abraham, and kept him. When the world was raging all around when there were these Coalition of five armies, and there was all this stuff happening in Sodomomorra being destroyed, and all of these things are happening. God protected Abraham.

24:52

And that same God is protecting Isaac. That's the point.

24:58

And so, again, we diggle well. Really, the in thread through all of this. Is these Wells being dug and each well means something there was enmity? There was hostility and contention. Then there was room. And here. This well after the Covenant is called Sheba. It sounds like the Hebrew for oath. And therefore, the city is called Beersheba. The city of the oath to this very day. Because God's covenants stand? And so what Moses writing when he writes this. He's, like, look, we can see God's faithfulness to us over and over and over again. We see it in these Wells. Look, we see it even in this city. It still stands when Moses writes. It still stands to this day.

25:47

Beersheba, the city of the oath. There was an oath sworn. Why? Because God made sure that happened. The same mistakes are being recapitulated, God's still good. The same struggles are still around God's still good because the same God, The God Who covenants, who protects who covers, who cares for Isaac, is still ruling and reigning.

26:12

But sin still exists. We end with just this little note on the same struggle. It's the last two verses almost feels like a throwaway. When Esau and we're back to Esau Abraham, Isaac Jacob Jacob has two sons or sorry. Jacob has a brother Abraham Isaac. Isaac has two sons. They're twins Jacob. The younger he saw the Elder. God's blessing goes to the younger. The promises will go through the younger, the the blessing will go to the younger. Esau has already sold his Birthright. The blessing is going to be stolen next week as we come to it.

26:51

There's Esau. What's Esau do? Well, he turns 40. And he takes. Judith, the daughter. Beary, the hittite to be his wife. It's a problem. That's a foreign wife. And base math, the daughter of Eli and the hittite. That's a double problem. That's a second wife. Who's also a foreign wife? And they make life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca. What's being said here? Why do we have this?

27:28

Because since the beginning of Genesis. Since Genesis 3, we'll say. There's been this idea. That has been. Throughout all of Genesis. God, and after Adam and Eve has sinned. He calls out Emmy, but then he sits down. And he begins speaking to all of the parties involved in the fall. Starting with the serpent. In Genesis, chapter 3. God looks to the serpent, and he says, verse 14 of Genesis 3 because you have done this curse. Are you above all livestock? Verse 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman between your Offspring and her Offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

28:19

And since God made this promise, we have been looking at the Book of Genesis and realizing, is this a seed of woman, or is this the seed of the serpent? Is this the seed of the Fallen serpent, the one who will try to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, or is this the seed of the woman who will finally crush the head of the seed of the serpent? And. Battle between the seeds has raged. And the struggle has been between the sinful Fallen man. And God's Plan of Redemption to lay it out plainly.

28:59

The same struggles going on. Esau shows. Why Jacob? Should be the the favored son. Why the older will serve the younger? He shows that he's a seed of the serpent. For him does not take the care in choosing his wife, and he has multiple wives. And in doing so, he makes life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca. It's the same struggle. Will we serve the Lord? Will we follow the lord? Will we do the right thing or? Will everyone do what is right in their own eyes? Will every intention of the thought of man, the only evil continually?

29:52

It's the same struggle. Over all of this is still the same God. He's still moving and working and orchestrating all things according to his good plan and his good pleasure. While even the seed of the woman Isaac the promised child, the one through whom God's promises will flow while he's making the same mistakes and having the same troubles and the same struggle is raging. All around God is Sovereign over all of it.

30:22

That's the point. We have in this text a perfect summary of what we're supposed to learn through the whole book of Genesis. Look. The Lord. Don't look to yourself. You make the same mistakes. Don't look to your situation and your circumstances. They will only bring the same troubles. Realize the problem we have is the same struggle that has plagued mankind for all time. It's sin. And so look to the God who saves and delivers. He promised in Genesis 3. One who would crush the head of the snake, he promised in Genesis 15 to Abraham, he promised in Genesis 26 to Isaac. He promises to us throughout all of scripture, culminating in Jesus Christ that he will save and deliver is the same God.

31:24

The same God that protects Isaac is the same God who protects us the same God who covers. Isaac is the same God who covers us the same God. Because of his great love for us would send his son the same God. In the person of Jesus Christ would pay the price the same God. Would seal us and save us. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it. It's the same. And so, as we read this in wonder of The God Who would work through the life of Isaac, may we also wonder The God Who would work in our own lives too. Some things never change God's goodness, his faithfulness, his mercy, and his grace are some of the things that never change. Praise the Lord for his constant goodness.

32:17

Let's pray.