Genesis 25

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Bi-Vocational Pastoring.

Looking Back and Moving Forward

1. The Lord is faithful to his promises.

25:1-11

The death of Abraham here is placed outside of chronological order to emphasize the ending of the Abraham story and to inform the reader to look forward.

Eschatology. Looking forward to the future promises of God. He will redeem the earth completely through Christ who is the see of Abraham.

7-8—not the normal formula. 100 years in Canaan. A belief in the afterlife. While sin may cause the body to fail, the Spirit of the Lord awakens our souls to live forever.

Billy Graham

“Some day you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

East—Eden…away from the presence of the Lord. Now all of these nations…Ishmael included, could have acknowledged the Lord being with Abraham and Isaac and they could have submitted to their place in the Lord’s kingdom...

But we find out the bitter rivals they become to Israel and the tension that lasts for centuries…and we are reminded of the promise to Eve in the garden.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

2. The Lord is concerned with the details.

25:12-18

Notice that there is no mention of heartache and infertility. The same was true of Cain’s family. To the world: Ishmael was blessed not Isaac…but we must not look at things like the world does. We must see things through the Word of God.

Parallels with Cain/Abel; Ishmael/Isaac; Esau/Jacob

Looks back to these verses as fulfilled.

Genesis 16:12 CSB

This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will settle near all his relatives.”

Genesis 17:20 CSB

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him; I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father twelve tribal leaders, and I will make him into a great nation.

Genesis 17:

If the Lord is faithful is these minor details…surely he can be trusted for his much greater promises.

3. The Lord is working in ways we do not understand.

25:19-34

Understanding this story is foundational for the rest of Genesis.

Rebekah is childless. Isaac intercedes. One of the rare positive things about Isaac. He intercedes…same word used for removing the plagues of Egypt.

Hebrews 11:20 CSB

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

Rebekah thinks she is going to die. The pregnancy is so severe.

Romans 9 CSB

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen. Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Neither are all of Abraham’s children his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac. For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand—not from works but from the one who calls—she was told, The older will serve the younger. As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau. What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory—on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not my People, my People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth. And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.

Rom9

Does she go to Isaac of another prophet?

Rom9

This section looks back to the Abraham call and parallels and looks forward to the nation of Israel forming through Jacob.

Esau essentially did not believe in he promises of God and in the importance of a savior.

Jacob while being deceitful and shrewd will be changed by the presence of the Lord.

Hebrews 12:15–17 CSB

Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many. And make sure that there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for a single meal. For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, even though he sought it with tears, because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance.

Esau is driven by his appetites