Genesis 12-50 | Covenant Cooperation

INTRODUCTION

We aim to equip you in appreciating and understanding the collective Biblical Story.

We do this by studying † Biblical Theology: Follows the development of core concepts in the Story of Scripture.

We trace how the start in Genesis, crescendo in Jesus, and are then applied through the end of the Bible, all the way to Revelation.

For 2021 we are studying †WORK & REST

Something which we all are well acquainted with! And would like to do better.

We all would like WORK to feel more fulfilling!

We all would like REST to feel more… restful!

So we’re on mission to:

Have a PASSION for work and rest

Se a PURPOSE in our work and rest

Be HEALTHIER individuals in work and rest

RECAP.

God is the first worker and humans are the first coworkers

Humans have been given everything they need for success in this cooperative work “Eden Initiative”

Fill the earth with more humans and rule over it.

Steward the animals and the resources that are given, for the sake of God’s glory.

Humans don’t cooperate and they introduce pain and frustration/futility by bringing death into the world.

God continues to push forward His redemptive plan for the sake of humans

BUT humans can’t stay on board… generation after generation go by.

Until finally we get some potent cooperation… but it’s the bad kind.

Instead of cooperating with God, humans cooperate AGAINST God with the construction of Babylon, the Tower of Babel

Now we’re looking to see genuine, lasting, cooperative work with God.

And we pick that up in the next chapter of Genesis...

†TITLE: Genesis 12-50 | Covenant Cooperation

Genesis 12-50 is about the Patriarchs and God’s Covenantal Cooperation with them. Today we’ll be briefly covering Work & Rest elements in the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.

†Last time we learned 8 foundational concepts the Bible makes clear as it talks about Work & Rest. This time I’ll simply be highlighting how the theme is continued and add various key notes the Bible wants us to pick up along the way.

This is often how a Biblical Theology theme is presented to us:

Foundation in opening pages (Genesis)

Key notes, and sometimes mind blowing adjustments, to pick up along the way

All the notes and foundational principles tied together in Jesus Christ (Gospel)

The benefit or application of that theme then presented in the Church

Looking forward to the completion of everything at the Day of the Lord (Revelation)

†ABRAHAM

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.”

Previously, the architects of Babylon said, “Let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4), here, that honor that was assumed for themselves, God gives freely, in promise, to Abram/Abraham.

What non-cooperative, anti-God work would try to acquire for itself, God gives to the least and the unassuming.

†When we compete against God and work for our own glory, we get nothing… We reap destruction... †When we cooperate with God and work for his glory, by proxy we gain benefit and blessing.

Notice as well, that this blessing isn’t just for Abram, it’s for “all the families of the earth,” God still has a global Eden Initiative in mind, redemptive work for the sake of His creation, ALL CREATION, for us, you and me.

†ABRAHAM: Covenant

In Genesis 15 God reaffirms the promise that he gave to Abraham in chapter 12.

While God reaffirms His promise, Abram asks how he’s supposed to know that what God promises will happen.

God immediately responds with a grocery list of animals that Abram needs to grab. Abram acquires them and prepares them, cutting them in half and laying them opposite side one another along a path.

Abram knows what is going on here, this was a culturally common commitment. In a typical ANE covenant, these animal parts would be set out, and the committing parties would state the terms of the covenant and walk through the pieces together, being this symbolic gesture of faith.

That if the covenant was ever to be broken, the guilty party would end up like the sacrifices that line the path.

Interestingly enough in Genesis 15:12, Abram is put to sleep. He’s supposed to walk through the ceremony with God. But God walks through it alone and confirms His promises to Abraham.

†Biblical Covenant is the promise of cooperation between God and man, on the basis of God’s OWN WORK!

He’s doing exactly what He’s been doing since Genesis 1:1, WORKING for the sake of humanity.

No amount of Abraham’s mess ups will thwart God’s work! The only Covenant party that is ultimately liable is God Himself, and His nature is faithful, eternally faithful.

This is particularly great news given the track record we’ve seen with humanity in Genesis 1-11… and this news is particularly relieving as we see Abram’s story unfold.

†ABRAHAM: Sort’a Cooperative

So Abraham starts the cooperative work with God, and leaves Babylon… but...

Genesis 12:4a is an immediate note that this cooperation isn’t completely cooperative. Abram takes Lot… even though he was specifically asked in verse 1 to leave with just his immediate family, he was told to leave his extended family, those of his father’s house behind.

In Abraham’s story we see SHAKEY cooperation with God… it’s not quite firing-on-all-cylinders...

This partial cooperation gets Abram into trouble in more than once instance: Kings of the East and Sodom and Gomorrah.

We see this partial cooperation more as Abram waits for an heir, a son that would continue this promise of blessing to the nations.

He’s supposed to wait on God… but instead he does his OWN WORK… and like we’ve seen already... when humans cease to cooperate and do their own work, it makes a MESS of things.

Genesis 16 has WORK words peppered throughout.

Slave Worker (Several Times)

Children = To Build

Interesting, where else in the Bible do we see Israelites, Egyptians, Slaves, and slaves being used for building… The Exodus event.

We need to see the narrative thread, that the heroes within the Bible are not the actual hero. YHWH God, the God of Israel alone, is the protagonist of Scripture.

REMEMBER COVENANT. PROMISE ON THE BASIS OF GOD’S ACTION - HIS CHARACTER

He is faithful to work and deliver rest from futility, even the futility that we create through bad decisions and choosing to fail cooperative work with God.

This speaks to the person that might think that they are doomed to deal with a futile life, the person that thinks they get what they deserve. Our God is in the business of giving us grace and mercy, redeeming us from what we deserve and giving us life.

†ABRAHAM: Eden Worker

Last month I made the claim that when we’re looking for the theme of Work & Rest in the Bible we ought to pay attention to language that looks like priestly work or temple language.

Work begins in Genesis in the Garden of Eden… and the Temple/Tabernacle are fashioned after the Garden of Eden.

Adam is described as working and keeping the Garden. A Hebrew phrase that is seen again in Numbers 3:7-8 in connection to the Levitical, priestly work.

The Bible wants to highlight for us, the fact that Abraham is working in the same vein as Adam. He’s an Eden Worker outside the Garden of Eden.

There are several examples we could run through, but instead let me give you a short list that you can review yourself later:

TWO CATEGORIES

†GARDEN LANGUAGE (Tree Language)

12:6 / 13:18 / 14:13 / 18:1

†PRIEST/OFFERING/ALTAR LANGUAGE

12:7-8 / 13:4,18 / 14:18-20 / 18:4-8

This framework keeps the theme of Work & Rest top of our mind as we move through Scripture. Handy reminders to keep you on track, and show that Abraham isn’t a total doofus. Being called out by God he is doing cooperative Eden Work.

†JACOB: Serpent Figure transformed into Eden Worker

In the middle of Genesis 25 we pick up Jacob’s story, and within the opening chapters we know that he’s trouble even though he’s our new Abraham, the character in the middle of the Biblical Story that we are focused on. †

Name means Deceiver

He cheats, lies, and exploits

He’s described in Hebrew as been smooth and slippery

Interestingly enough he’s clutching his brother’s heel… and the last time we saw any promise of heel striking it was descriptive of the Serpent in Genesis 3:15

In the midst of Jacob’s exploits we get little reminders that God is still doing something in Jacob’s story.

Genesis 28:3-4 we see Jacob commissioned to the Eden Initiative: “God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you” AND He’s connected with the Abrahamic blessing immediately afterwards!

Next is the event of Jacob’s Dream “Jacob’s Ladder” Genesis 28:10-22

In this Story there are curious ties to Abraham and his Eden Work

Presence of God

The building of Altars

Tree Language (Luz = Almond Tree)

There are also curious ties back to the Tower of Babel

The gathering of stone

The building of towers

The connection between Heaven and Earth

Which really is just an awesome Bible-Burn on the Tower of Babel. Humanity invents a new type of stone (bricks) and their giant tower doesn’t reach to the heaven. But Jacob stacks a pillar of pebbles and it commemorates an actual access point to the Heavens.

So we’re already getting clued into the movement of Jacob from Serpent Figure to Eden Worker!

Eventually the deceiver is deceived himself, and being on the run from the chaos he has caused, Jacob wrestles with God in the wilderness, where his name is changed from Jacob to Israel.

Think about this. The people that God chooses to extend the blessing of redemption through… are named after this guy…

Jacob is a scheming, anti-cooperator who initially looks more like the most notorious bad-guy in the Bible (Serpent) than a priestly Eden Worker… and HE is ISRAEL

Abraham wasn’t a perfect guy, but you would think his track record deserved naming the nation after HIM, more than Jacob the deceiver. Why don’t we get the Abrahamites instead of Israelites?

†Because Israel/Jacob is a symbol of all redemptive history!

†No one is naturally a cooperative co-worker with God. Like Jacob we all are rebellious, we want our way. And like Jacob, by God’s grace alone, we are transformed.

Once again, the protagonist of the Bible is the God of Israel. And this God who has revealed himself perfectly in the person and work of Jesus Christ, lives to transform rebels into cooperative co-workers that experience His life and Glory.

Isn’t that awesome! We’re in chapter 32 of the first book of the Bible, and for over a thousand chapters more the Bible echoes over and over and over and over again how much God pursues His people. That anyone who turns to Jesus and trusts in Him would be saved.

Remember the whole Covenant thing?

God WORKING, on the basis of His consistency alone, in order to bring mankind back into life giving cooperation with Him. And we see that beautifully on display in the life of Jacob.

†JOSEPH: Eden Worker in Exile

Israel’s favorite son, Joseph takes centerstage in Scripture starting Genesis 37†

Most have a fairly good understanding of Joseph’s story, either you’ve overviewed it, or watched the Dreamwork’s movie… or seen the Technicolor Dream Coat

Whereas Jacob was a punk and still got pepper-ings of Edenic promises scattered throughout his life. Joseph continuously got the short-end of the stick.

Remember that the Bible is not just showing us what good cooperative Eden work looks like… it’s also showing us that because sin and death have been introduced into the world… there is futility that jacks it up all along the way.

Hated by his brothers

Beaten and sold into slavery

Works as an Egyptian slave

Blamed for a crime he doesn’t commit

Locked in prison indefinitely

Forgotten by the ones he helps

BUT IN THE MIDST OF THIS

He hustles for the sake of representing God. Nailing every job/role that he’s ever given. And after finally being remembered and vindicated he’s promoted to the highest position in all the land, practically co-equal with Pharaoh!

And it’s because of Joseph’s Eden Work, in the exact space we never would expect Eden, in Exile, that we see God provide for the nation of Israel and the world.

Joseph is a rare biblical character. A prototype image of Jesus, we don’t get any records of sins Joseph commits. According to the narrative he seems spotless… we don’t see this until Daniel… and then finally Jesus.

Joseph is an inspirational figure as we follow the theme of Work & Rest.

†No work is too mundane, or too futile. True, God glorifying work can be done anywhere and in any circumstance.

This is an immediately applicational component of this theme study.

We experience futility. Some of us don’t want to go to work tomorrow.

Some of us enjoy work, but are experiencing really hard seasons. Or even a hard season of waiting for work…

And Joseph is an encouragement for us

JAMES HAMILTON

Work and Our Labor in the Lord Good Examples: Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah, and Ruth

The narrative of Joseph’s life is a narrative of faithful work while suffering for doing good and experiencing inaugurations of God’s blessing in the midst of affliction. The pattern of Joseph’s life is a pattern fulfilled in Jesus, a pattern that informs the identity and expectations of those who follow Jesus.

Moses presents a Joseph who does not know everything that God is doing but who nevertheless fears God, flees temptation, loves God and neighbor in his work, forgives those who wronged him, and experiences God’s presence in the midst of his difficulties.

†Now is the time to work hard as unto the Lord. Join in on Cooperative Eden Work wherever you would be found… even if it feels a lot like Exile today.