God's Perfect Character- Genesis 25-26

Outline:

Scripture: Genesis 25-26

Doctrine: Election

Big Idea: God’s Perfect Character

Aim: God’s perfect character can be trusted.

Introduction

God’s Character/Perfection

incommunicable vs communicable attributes—> today talking about His perfect faithfulness, his perfect wisdom, and his perfect __________

God’s perfect faithfulness to His promises Genesis 25: 1-18

25:1-11- Abraham’s Obituary and Will

Abraham Honored in death

Abraham died old age (175)

Describes death and then who is left

Promises fulfilled

25:12- 18- Ishmael’s family line (God made a nation out of Ishmael and provided as promised)

12 sons (not a coincidence- remember the number 12- Jacob will have 12 sons which will be the 12 tribes of Israel)

Promises fulfilled

God’s perfect wisdom

25:19-21- God’s perfect wisdom in timing of birth of Jacob and Esau

25:22-26- God reveal’s his plan to Rebekah—> Perfect wisdom in who He chooses

God chooses Jacob over Esau

Election:

Adoption illustration

25:27-34- Esau sells his birthright to Jacob —> Perfect wisdom in how he

Promises fulfilled:

Isaac would be a nation (needed sons)

The older would serve the younger—> selling of birthright

PRINCIPLE: God is perfectly faithful to fulfill all His promises.

God’s perfect plan of Redemption OR God perfectly equips Genesis 26 GODS PERFECT IS OMNIPRESENT

26: 1-6- God tells Isaac to NOT to go to Egypt—> redeems Abraham’s story

26:7-11- Isaac repeats sin of Abraham-> God provides a way out

26:12-25- Isaac pursues peace -> God provides a home

26:26-33- Isaac makes treaty with Abimelek -> God provides water

26:34-35-

PRINCIPLE: God perfectly equips His people for fulfilling His purposes.

4. Conclusion

1. God's Perfect Character Guarantees His promises (25:1-18) Principle: In all of life's seasons, God is perfectly faithful to fulfill all His promises.

2. God's Perfect Character Governs His Choices (25:19-34)

Principle: With all of our questions, God is perfectly trustworthy because we know He is merciful and just.

3. God's Perfect Character Guides His Children (26:1-34) Principle: In all of life's challenges, God is perfectly present and provides all that we need. ANNOUNCMENTS:

Prayer group

Read your notes - **Please read the notes- there are lots of details in this scripture we don’t have time to cover when we lecture. When we write lectures we try not to repeat the notes to you. This week in particular I am going to skip over some details that are important to overall understanding of the passage and the notes do a great job of outlining those things. You can listen to the notes by going to mybsf.org if that is easier for you than reading!

PRAY

INTRODUCTION

When I was a kid, I remember participating in a bonding ritual where you stand on a chair and fall backwards, trusting that the people behind you will catch you.

It was supposed to bring us together and build trust between us. I remember being the first to volunteer and falling backwards with no problem into a group of kids I didn’t know.

When I was younger it felt easier to trust people. Honestly, as I’ve gotten older- I have become more skeptical.

If you asked me to fall backwards off a chair today- you better believe I would be analyzing who was going to be catching me- are these people trustworthy- can they actually catch me? Do I trust them?

Sometimes even the most responsible and trustworthy people let us down. They stand there, arms open, saying I will catch you and the next thing you know, bamb, your on the floor.

But we serve a perfect God. A God who will always catch us-who always comes through. Who is completely trustworthy because he never misses the mark.

This idea of a God who is perfect in every way can seem daunting. Our finite minds struggle to comprehend ultimate perfection

God is perfect in all of His ways- all the time- his character always measures up- it is never contradictory, even when our minds can’t comprehend what is happening.

We live in a world where trust and truth seems impossible to find.

I see articles and posts all over the internet claiming that what they have is THE TRUTH…

only to see an article with the same title 2 minutes later completely contradicting the one I had just read.

It feels confusing and exhausting.

I have good news. When we open up the scripture- our Bibles- we can rest. This is truth. And while we may not always understand what we are reading- we can rest assured that we serve a perfect God who has stood the test of time.

Our God- who reveals himself to us through his Word- is perfectly faithful, perfectly just, perfectly gracious, perfectly loving, perfectly wise, and perfectly good. I could keep going, but don’t have the time to list out all of God’s character traits- this is only the surface. But as we go through today’s scripture I want you remind yourself of God’s absolute perfection in all that he does- regardless of whether our minds fully comprehend it or not.

DIVISIONS:

DIVISION 1: God’s Promises Genesis 25:1-18

Way back in chapter 12 we started with a geneology and were introduced to the family of Terah, Abraham’s Father,

Line of Terrah-> closed. Isaac will continue covenant lineage (only Isaac is blessed by God)

25: 1-11: Abraham’s Obituary and Will

OBITUARY

We start by learning about Abraham’s other wife Keturah and her 6 sons

Died 175 years—> “good old age”—> 15:15 (PROMISE FULFILLED)

“Full of years”—> suggests quality of life- Abraham lived a good life—> walking and talking with God faithfully for many years.

Buried with Sarah in the field he had purchased from Hittites, in the land God had promised

PROMISE FULFILLED: The Sons of Keturah and the 12 sons of Ishmael would later on be trouble nations to the nation of Israel, but God’s promise to make Abraham the Father of many nations was fulfilled to Abraham through them. God is faithful to keep his promises.

WILL- where did all his material wealth go?

ILLUSTRATION: My Grandfather died about 2 years ago, his inheritance was to be split between 9 children and things were not super organized as to who got what. You can imagine between 9 kids and an unorganized/unclear will there was some serious sibling tension.

I love Abraham’s example here- before he died he took care of everything and made it very clear who got what.

Before his death, Abraham gave his other sons gifts- spreading his wealth so that they were not forgotten and made sure they were taken care of- but nothing more was given to them after he passed.

He also sent them away- so that only Isaac was left in the land- he removed potential obstacles, such as sibling rivalry- and set Isaac up for success

Abraham made it clear that everything that was left was to go to Isaac

God, Abraham’s good and perfect Father, set Abraham up for success first by removing him from his homeland- knowing that would be an obstacle for Abraham if he had stayed… God blessed Abraham with material wealth allowing him to live as a sojourner in a foreign land.

So, following God’s example of a good Father—> Abraham sets Isaac up for success to complete God’s plan—> Abraham removed obstacles to help Isaac follow God’s plan for his life- not to set him up with worldly success, wealth, or power. But to live a life walking in God’s promises to Him.

Abraham did his part to protect that promise, WHY?:

Because he knew God would faithfully AND perfectly complete His end of the deal- God would fulfill his promises to Abraham through Isaac, just like he promised.

12-18- This section ends with one last promise being fulfilled. God promised Abraham that he would take care of Ishmael. That he would be a great nation and that he would be blessed. This section of scripture shows that God’s promise to Ishmael was fulfilled. He had 12 sons, who became known as the Arab nation today.

PRINCIPLE: God perfect character assures fulfillment of all His promises.(2x)

APPLICATION:

God is going to fulfill all his promises to you. Do you know the promises of God? The Bible is full of God’s promises to us, if you cant think of any I would encourage you to take some time to look up them up.

Not every promise God made in the Bible applies to us directly. For example this promise to Abraham that he would have many descendents and land does not apply to you and I.

That promise was for Abraham.

But all throughout scripture God makes promises to you.

Look them up in your Bible and take a highlighter in a color you don’t normally use and make it your promise highlighter. Highlight those scriptures in that color so they stick out to you when you are reading.

What promise do you need to cling to today?

Does your life reflect someone who trusts and rests in God’s promises?

Or do you look like the world? Our country is in turmoil because everyone is desperately looking for someone they can trust- for someone who they think is going to come through on their promises. People put all their eggs in one basket only to find that that person failed them.

Whether its a celebrity, politician, pastor, boss, parent, or friend.

If we put our hope and trust in in our perfect God then we won’t live in fear or constant disappointment. We follow a God who always comes through and will never let us down- put your trust in him. 6 minutesish

2 DIVISION: God’s Choice (25:19-34)

25:19-21-Dig deeper into Isaac’s life.

Just as Isaac’s mother, Sarah, was unable to have children until God opened her womb in her old age, here we see Isaac and Rebekah also struggling to have a child.

read vs 21.

Context is important here. Isaac was married at 40 years old and if you jump to verse 26, you will see that Isaac was 60 when the twins were born.

That means, that they were married for 20 years before God answered their prayer to have a child.

I think sometimes we can read into scripture and say “Look, he prayed and eventually got what he wanted, if I pray enough or like Isaac, eventually God will give me what I want.” or we get discouraged when we feel like our prayers go unanswered and think that our faith isn’t big enough, that God doesn’t want to give us good things.

In those moments when our prayers aren’t answered in the way that we hoped. We have to take a step back and remember who we are talking to. We are talking to the God of the universe who is creator and perfectly sovereign over all things.

He hears our prayers. He loves our prayers.

Sometimes we pray and get an emphatic YES.

Sometimes, like Isaac, we get a wait.

and sometimes, God says I hear you- keep praying- this is not in my plan for you- trust me- my plan is better.

Remember, Isaac knows the promise- that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. In this culture, Men were encouraged to sleep with a concubine or take on another wife just so they could continue their family line. That was the path Isaac’s Father Abraham chose.

But, Isaac waited on God.

Here we see Isaac trusting in God’s timing to provide his offspring.

Do you see Isaac redeeming his Father’s story…there is no concubine, no manipulating to try and get a child in case God doesn’t pull through on his end of the deal.

Isaac trusted that God would perfectly fulfill his promise at the perfect time- and so he waited....for 20 years.

Isaac’s parents waited for his birth as well- no doubt Isaac knew the story of how his mother miraculously gave birth to him in her old age. His parents passed down that story to him to teach him about God’s perfect faithfulness and God’s perfect timing.

We don’t know why God chose to make them wait for an heir. We can speculate- but, God’s perfect character tells us that we can trust his timing.

Stories of God’s faithfulness in our lives and in scripture are there to encourage us and make our faith stronger. Each week in your lesson, question 1 asks how God was active in your life. Share your stories of God’s faithfulness with your group and those in your life. You have know idea whose faith will be strengthened by hearing about how God showed up for you.

25:22-26- Birth of Jacob and Esau

read vs 22

Rebekah is having a difficult pregnancy- the word “jostle” here in Hebrew means to “crush or oppress”- what she was feeling was not normal.

I love that her response is to go to the Lord and ask Him what in the world is going on?

God responds with a prophecy (READ vs 23)

I don’t know if Rebekah understood what God had just told her.

Did she know that she was having twins? Did she understand that they would have a difficult relationship and be at odds with each other their whole lives.

Here is what I do know. Rebekah prayed. God answered. We don’t always fully grasp or understand God’s answers to our prayers. But

He hears

He listens

He responds in his time and in his way.

Today is no different. God still speaks to us. We know that God speaks to us through scripture, he speaks through his Holy Spirit and through other people. Sometimes we need to just stop. and Listen for his voice instead of being so busy trying to control everything around us.

In verse 24-26-the twins are born and given names. Esau and Jacob. POTENTIALLY REMOVE

Esau

oldest

came out red and hairy—> like an animal

Jacob- means heel—> implies grasping

Their birth and their names are carefully chosen and fortelling of who they would be as they grew

Esau- would be a crass impulsive man

Jacob- would be civilized yet devious and manipulative.

Verses 27-34 jump to when the boys are older and gives us a glimpse into their life.

Esau grew up to be a hunter and Jacob was a homebody

We are told in verse 28 that Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob. Hold on to that thought because this is an important point that we are going to unpack the implications of next week.

vs 29 begins to tell us a story…

Jacob was at home working on his latest soup creation

Esau comes in and is convinced he is going to die if he doesnt eat right away.

As a mom, I laughed at Esau’s comment. My children are very much convinced that if they dont have 3 meals a day and at least 15 snacks they will also in fact die.

Jacob, the deceiver, sees his opportunity to snag the birthright from Esau.

He tells Esau he can have some soup if he simply sells him his birthright. And Esau, just like that, throws his birthright away for a bowl of soup.

We don’t know if they knew about the prophecy or if they even understood it. However, both Esau and Jacob would have been very aware of the importance of the family birthright.

The patriarchal society of that time meant that inheritances were passed through the male line to the firstborn son.

So, the firstborn son was given special privileges and responsibility.

This was considered an honor- it represented his Father and was something not to be taken lightly, and certainly not traded away for a bowl of soup.

Your notes do a great job giving specific details about what this birthright entailed this so for sake of time I am not going to go into all the specifics.

But- in this moment- neither Jacob nor Esau are shiny examples who seem fit to continue God’s chosen people.

Jacob- takes advantage of his brother’s weakness- and in a calculated move he swipes the birthright

Esau- doesn’t care about the birthright at all, he is impulsive and goes for immediate gratification and takes a cheap substitute for a cherished honor.

the end of vs 34 says “Esau despised his birthright” which also means to “reckon as worthless”

So where is God in this story?

Remember the prophecy to Rebekah? The prophecy tells us that before Jacob and Esau were born, long before Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, God had chosen Jacob to continue the family line over Esau.

Romans 9:10-12: Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

And just like God chose Jacob, before the world began God in his perfect sovereignty planned each and every single person’s trajectory in life. Before we could choose God- he had to choose us first. This is known as the doctrine of election.

Several years ago my neighbor told us that he was planning on adopting. We had the privilege of getting to walk alongside him as he he went through this process. This adoption was different than most I had been apart of in the past.

Typically, my friends adopted very young children or babies. But in this case, my neighbor was adopting 3 older boys, the youngest was at the time in elementary school and the oldest was in junior high.

On the day of the adoption ceremony, I remember the judge asking my neighbor to confirm that he did indeed wish to adopt all 3 boys. And then, each boy one by one stood up chose my neighbor, to be their Father.

While this is an imperfect example- it is similar to how our God chooses us. See, unless our God first chooses us we cannot choose Him. Because of our sin, we are unable to choose him. If my neighbor had not chosen those boys first and invited them in—> then it didn’t matter what they did or said they could not be apart of his family.

Our sin keeps us from choosing God.

So while Jacob may not seem like the best candidate in our minds to be the one God chose to continue his promise to Abraham—> God knew exactly what he was doing from the beginning.

Remember- he is perfect in all of his ways. He chose Jacob long before he was born. I can assure you that the boys my neighbor adopted came with some baggage- each had spent years in the foster care system-> but my neighbor didn’t choose them because they had a perfect resume and looked like they would be the easiest kids to care for…these boys were far from perfect, but he chose them in love, despite their imperfections.

Our God is no different. He uses and chooses imperfect people with imperfect motives to carry out his perfect plan. God doesn’t choose those that makes the most “logical” sense.

If you think that you are too much of a failure and that God would never choose you…hear this- No one is too big of a failure and no one is too far gone. God saves people of all races, all income levels, all backgrounds.

and for those of you who think that you are better and more deserving than some one else- God saves you too, but not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

God says….its by grace alone so no one can boast- your works wont get you there cuz you will never measure up. I choose. I redeem. I give grace. I give mercy. In my way. and I do it perfectly.

We all need the redeeming grace of God offered through His son Jesus on the cross. If we chose God without him choosing us- then we would have something to boast about.

I know that some of you are sitting there thinking “but that’s not fair.”

We are wired to make decisions based on logic, based on elimination, merit and performance in this world. So when God makes His choice, we often struggle to understand it because our methods and the world’s thinking is so different to God’s. Remember what I said when we started. We can trust God because we know character is perfect in every way- even when we don’t understand.

This doctrine is HARD. And there is a level of mystery that our minds cannot comprehend. But- if we trust that God is who he says he is- that his character is always perfect- then we can trust that he knows what he is doing. That his election is good and wise and sovereign- that he hasn’t made a mistake and that he isn’t unfair because mistakes are not in his nature- only perfection.

PRINCIPLE: God’s choices can be trusted because his character is perfect. (2x)

APPLICATION:

Who in your life do you think is too far gone for God to save? Write their name down and start praying, on your knees, to the perfect God of the universe to save them.

Are you living trying

If you have been chosen to be apart of God’s family- how are you showing your overwhelming gratitude to God- thanking him for choosing you, for bringing you into his eternal family. Do you worship him? Do you come to him in humility, recognizing that you would not have chosen him on your own?

3 DIVISION: God’s ______________ Genesis 26

As we move into chapter 26- we read a familiar story.

Famine- similar to the one his Father had experienced. Isaac now has to provide food for himself and his entire family- servants and all.

God- knowing Isaac needed some DIRECT encouragement and direction

shows up and tells him not to go to Egypt.

He then encourages him by reminding him of the promise that was his Father Abrahams, and is now his.

Don’t you love it when God shows up and offers up direct encouragement or direction

When you are struggling and out of no where a friend calls to see how you are doing

When the sermon at church matches perfectly with your situation

When you are reading scripture and a verse you have read 100x’s suddenly has a whole new meaning

There is no such thing as luck or random chance- these moments are ordained by God- look for Him, recognize His voice, and give Him the glory for speaking directly to you.

God tell’s Isaac- not to go to Egypt. So Isaac goes to Gerar

Gerar- capital of Philistines; still in promised land, and would have been a city, with food.

Isaac- just like his Father, becomes afraid and lies saying that Rebekah is his sister.

Just like his Father Abraham- Isaac had every reason to be afraid. Remember, Rebekah was beautiful and husbands were often killed so that the wife was available.

But where is the Isaac who prayed that his wife would have children? Where is the Isaac who willingly got on an altar to be sacrificed?

Instead of trusting God, the God who had just spoken to him, in his fear he panics, forgets about God —> and he follows the sin pattern of his Father and lies, in an attempt to protect himself.

Let’s pick up in verse 8 (READ VS. 8 AND 9)

Now, Abimelek was a name for kings of the Philistines, just like Pharoah is a name for the king of Egypt. This is most likely a different Abimilek than the one Abraham would have lied to. But his response is similar.

He gets angry- asks why on earth he did that- and commands everyone to leave Isaac and his wife alone.

READ vs 12-13

And the Lord blessed him, just like he promised.

You know what I love about this...

God shows up-> Isaac and God have this moment- they are on the same page->Isaac veers off and does his own thing—> and then where is God…right there, blessing Isaac, protecting Isaac and Rebekah.

As we journey through life we all take twists and turns. One moment we are walking in God’s will, doing things His way and the next we are back in the driver seat, swerving all over the road.

Our perfect God remains faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to Him.

As we move on,

26:12-33-

26:34-35

PRINCIPLE

APPLICATION

CONCLUSION