Obedience in response to Grace

Review

Israel is going into the land, will they choose to walk with God in the promise being a blessing to the entire world… or not, and bring devastation to creation?

This is going to seem dark, but stay with me it’s good.

Part one: Jacob and Esau

Isaac gets to be an old man and has 2 sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau sells his blessing to Jacob. Then Jacob deceives his father into giving it to him.

Esau wants to kill Jacob so he flees to his relative Laben. Laben then deceives Jacob and tricks him into servitude for 20 years.

Jacob deceives Laben, his wife steals her father’s false gods, his wives hate each other, there’s some sort of perverted war over who can win Jacob’s love by having the most kids, and finally the wife Jacob really loves has a son. His wives resent him and each other. Now Jacob loves this son more than the rest and creates a terrible rivalry between his sons.

Along the way he meets with his brother Esau and is met with love, even though he expected war, but lies about where he’s going to get away from him.

Then Jacob wrestles with God -is crippled by God- and is given a new name, Israel, which means wrestles with God.

Part two: Joseph

Joseph is one of 12 sons of Jacob

He chooses God. He follows God. Is faithful. Everything we know about Joseph he was living righteously in faith.

And his reward is that his brothers want to kill him. They are jealous of him and decide to sell him into slavery.

Joseph stays faithful. He’s faithful in Potifer’s house when his wife tries to seduce him. He’s faithful in the jail in which he’s falsely imprisoned. He’s faithful to seek God when interpreting dreams for Pharaoh. And he’s faithful to save his murderous brothers when they come seeking food for their nation.

Joseph is awesome!

Part three: Israel’s name sake

But most of Israel is not from the line of Joseph, their fathers are the murderers who tried to kill their own savior.

Genesis 49 (NIV)

1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. 2 “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. 3

“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.

5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords are weapons of violence. 6 Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. 7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.

8 “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. 11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

13 “Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon.

14 “Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down among the sheep pens. 15 When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.

16 “Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward. 18 “I look for your deliverance, Lord.

19 “Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.

20 “Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

21 “Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

22 “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. 23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. 24 But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25 because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. 26 Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

Israel you want to know where you come from. Murderers, dirt bags, liers, and deceivers… God is answering the question - Why Israel - What is it about them - Why do they deserve the land?

Part 4: They don’t

We get a twisted idea that the God of the old testament was brutal and harsh and that you had to earn his love. That’s not true.

In the same way that we are called to obey the law of freedom, to present our bodies as living sacrifices, to walk worthy of our calling - ALL in response to the grace of God- Israel was to follow the law because of His grace, mercy, and love. You are saved so act like your saved, You are my people so act like my people.

Sounds nice, but show me the money, show me the scripture: where do I get this.

Romans 9:6–33 (NIV)

6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” 10 Not only that, but 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.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? 22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ” 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” 30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

It’s always been grace. You know why God picked Jacob GRACE, you know why he used Judah instead of Joseph GRACE, do you know why he rose again and reached out to us in our darkest hour ITS GRACE NOW, IT’S GRACE TOMORROW, AND IT WAS GRACE YESTERDAY.

YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN GRACE - RESPOND

Respond Israel - you don’t deserve this land. But He’s giving it to you out of mercy. Please follow Him.

Respond Faithbridge - you don’t deserve eternal life. But He’s given it to you out of mercy. Please follow Him.