The Outpost Church
Genesis Part 2
- No Longer Slaves
- Here I Am To Worship
- Big Idea:Check in on them with their Bible reading plan…should be starting Exodus Chapter 1 tomorrow morning. - Totally fine to just start there if you are either already behind or if you are just starting new with it. Trust me, there will be plenty of time to catch up.I want to do something I normally won’t do (explain each book as its own self-contained unit)…each week we get a fresh start…but, we split Genesis into two parts.I told you guys that I want to do three main things each week or else we will get lost in the enormous story of the Bible chasing after things that don’t add to our understanding of the big picture.And so, I am going to quickly recap last week as I reintroduce you to those three things we are going to do each week:Story overview - what is the main story of this book trying to communicate through its various narratives, characters, commands, or images?I showed you Genesis 1 & 2 and the different ways the Bible tells the same creation story.We looked at how chapter three begins the long descent of mankind into sin and results in our being kicked out of God’s kingdom paradise.We saw how chapters four through eleven is the story of mankind spiraling out of control and the eventual judgment of all mankind through the flood narrative.We talked about the different toledots…anybody remember what a toledot is? Explain...Finally, we saw the tower of Babel and the table of nations narrative.NEXT:Study Concepts - the reading, study, and interpretation tools needed to read the Bible for yourself in a way the remains faithful to the text and connects you to the truth that can change your life.I gave you a single sentence bit...The Bible cannot mean something for us today that it did not mean to the original intended audience.Explain material origins of the universe not being it...They were more interested in what the creation narrative told them about who God was and who we are in relationship to him. That’s the overall story of the Bible anyways and we know that and yet, we still go into Genesis one and two treating it like a science book…IT ISN’T!!! The Bible may have some things that inform our view of science but it isn’t trying to communicate scientific facts and if you go into it looking for that, (listen to me really closely…)you will ALWAYS be disappointed!The Bible also isn’t a history book. Although it will inform the way you view history, its goal is not to give you an in-depth history lesson. If you go into it looking for those things you will always be disappointed.We have to see it the way they did. And the way they saw it was a story about the creator God of the universe revealing himself to mankind. When we find ourselves in relation to that, that is when it begins to affect our life.And speaking of that, it leads us to the final thing we talked about last week and the thing we will talk about every week:Pictures of Christ and the Gospel - The portions of the Gospel and images of Christ that are foreshadowed or played out in the events of other stories in the Bible.Do Mt. Rainer in the background image that we often fail to focus on bit...And we looked at over half a dozen of those last week. You’ll just have to go back and check those out as you have time.Alright…so that’s Genesis 1-11 recapped. Let’s get into the rest of the story:Story OverviewAsk for some stories out of Genesis 12-50 from the audience…If you are in my shoes, how do you pick the stories you tell during this sermon?Talk about how we typically like to arrange the story on concrete sequential steps...Abraham and SarahLotIsaacJacob and EsauJacob in HaranJacobs SonsJoseph...If you arrange the story that way, you are not being faithful to the way the author intended to tell it and you will inevitably miss things or be confused by things:Give Judah and Tamar story in Gen 38...Instead, let’s arrange the story the way the author has written it and I think it’ll make a lot more sense.Remember last time I told you that Genesis is basically two different books…well, broken down, it looks a little like this:INSERT PICTURE NUMBER ONE AND TALK THROUGH IT:I also told you that Genesis acts sort of like the key on a map last weekExplain map key bit…this is what a mountain looks like etc…if you don’t know what is what you will end up lost.And so, Genesis 11 ends with one of the genealogies that we typically skip but we definitely shouldn’t because in this genealogy, we meet a man named Terah who has three sons; Abram, Nahor, and Haran. We meet their wives and then get this weird little detail that is different than any of the other genealogies in Genesis 11:30
Genesis 11:30 NASB95 30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.And then chapter eleven finishes the genealogy the way they are all completed and then chapter 12 begins and something really neat happens. Honestly, I cant stress the importance of the beginning of chapter twelve. Let’s go back to the chart and look at it:INSERT PICTURE NUMBER 2 HERE...Verses 1-3 of chapter twelve act as the link between the two separate parts of the book of Genesis. These three verses are like the key to the map of understanding the book of Genesis and if Genesis is the key to understanding the entire rest of the Bible then you can understand why I can’t stress their importance enough. So lets read them:Explain God speaking up to this point in the story has been a radically bad thing for mankind. Give examples of telling Noah to build an ark, arbitrating a murder trial, and cursing humanity and the earth...Explain family importance bit as you go through.Genesis 12:1–3 NASB95 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”If you want to understand how the overview and message of the book of Genesis, you need to look no further than 12:1-3.Let’s go to our chart one more time and see how the entire book is arranged:INSERT PICTURE THREE HERE...The book of Genesis is arranged around the three concepts of Covenant, Seed, and Land.Explain…its not arranged concrete sequentially. It is arranged around these three concepts. Explain that the Bible will build onto this covenant over time but it will never be less than the three elements seen here in verses 1-3.So instead of trying to pick out which stories to highlight, let’s just try and see all of the stories in light of these three concepts.All right, first up is:CovenantA covenant is a promised agreement made to be unbreakable.A covenant is not just a promise and it is also more than a contract. A contract can be broken and may even have stated terms that allow it to be broken. We honestly don’t really even have concept in our modern culture that comes close to what a covenant is.Marriage is supposed to be a covenant but because there are legal precedents for divorce in our culture it doesn’t really get the picture across. But the language of marriage is really meant to convey that idea of covenant. When a man and women leave their fathers and mothers and come together in marriage, we say that they are becoming what? One flesh.Do tearing someone in half bit...That’s even the picture God uses to convey this promise to Abraham just a few chapters later. Check this out from chapter 15.Genesis 15:7–10 NASB95 7 And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8 He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?” 9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.See if you can pick out the themes of land and seed in the covenant language in this next part:Genesis 15:17–18 NASB95 17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:What a weird thing to do right?!? In Abrahams culture this was how you would signify a covenant. That is to say, may we be like these animals if we break the covenant. Did you notice that Abraham didn’t walk through the animals?God knew we wouldn’t be faithful to the terms of His covenant promise and so He is upholding it based on His own faithfulness.That covenant has two parts to it: Land and Seed.Let’s Start with:SeedBy seed, the author of Genesis is meaning descendents.Genesis 12:2 (NASB95)2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;Abraham was just one man and he and his wife were well beyond child bearing years. In fact, chapter eleven tells us the reason they didn’t have any children was because Sarah was incapable of having children. Two people don’t make up a nation.That second part about making your name great…well, the greatness of your name was tied to the number of children you had. Remember, in their culture, a big family was everything. Even though Abraham had done very well for himself materially, because he didn’t have any children, he probably felt like a failure. The inability to have children is an incredibly touchy subject even in our culture today, so can you imagine what it would’ve been like in a culture where your success and the view others had of you was based off the size of your family.God knew this. God knew the feelings of Abraham about himself. God knew the culture that Abraham was living in and yet God still promises to make his name great.But is it just children for the sake of children? Like is God just promising Abraham a bunch of kids so that he won’t feel like a failure or look like a failure? NO!!!Somehow through this seed of promise, God is going to bless all the people of the earth.What is blessing? Is it just riches…bit?NO! Do the linkeage between Genesis 1-11 & 12-50 and the curse...Somehow the seed of promise is going to bless all the people of the earth as He breaks the curse.And so we begin to read Genesis in light of that seed of promise tracking its progression through the narrative and when you do that…ya’ll the story jumps to life!What was Abrahams story about?Eliazar?Lot? His story flames out…literally…ends with seed but in a bad messed up way.Abraham tries shortcircuiting Gods plan by defining good and evil for himself and taking the situation into his own hands and sleeping with his wifes servant…that blows up in his face.Then he has a kid but only because God does it. Remember who walked through the animals? Who is responsible for the covenant? Not Abraham that’s who.Isaac?Red headed hairy mans man and a smooth skinned mommas boy...Esau the red head…his story goes nowhere...Jacob…what defines his story? Ya’ll he’s literally got women trading spices out of their garden for a chance to have his babies.Then he has these twelve sons…maybe this is it! Maybe this is the birth of the nation we’ve been waiting on! Maybe one of these guys are the seed of promise but story after story proves that all of them are duds.Except one...Joseph…he is a picture of the seed of promise…he is undoing the curse by providing bread freely when everyone else was dying because the ground was against them in a famine.He’s definitely a picture of the seed of promise but he’s not the seed of promise.Remember that weird story from Gen 38 with Judah and Tamar…seed is a big part...The end of the Joseph story and the big reveal that Judah is the one who the seed of promise will continue through…make it dramatic!!!So that’s seed but let’s talk about:LandGenesis 12:1 (NASB95)1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;The idea of this promised land develops later on to be called many things and is described as a land flowing with milk and honey that is to say “abundance.” Its described as a land with houses they did not build, wells they did not dig, and vineyards that they did not cultivate. The land just gives freely of itself to it’s inhabitants. Whats more is that this land is where God is going to dwell with his people.Now, remembering that these verses link the two parts of Genesis…what does that sound like from the story up to this point?IT SOUNDS LIKE EDEN! It’s Gods home…his kingdom...that He is inviting people back into.And if you keep this idea in the front of your mind as you read Genesis…muck like seed…the story jumps to life. You see the characters moving in an out of this land. Even as successful as they all are, they don’t come to possess more than a field. In fact, at the end of the story, they are farther from the promised land than they have ever been.Alright, so that’s land, seed, and covenant. That’s how the story is broken down and if you read it based off of that overview, the whole story comes into focus. Now is probably a good time to talk about:Study ConceptsI don’t wanna give you a new concept this week. Instead, I want to further explore what I introduced last week. Remember...The Bible cannot mean something for us today that it did not mean to the original audience.We believe with great certainty that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.Explain editors bit...Explain the when…after going to Egypt to free God’s people but before Mt. Sinai…you can see me later if you are interested in how they came up with that...And so we believe that:Moses wrote the book of Genesis for the Exodus generation.Put them in their shoes bit...Grown up inWatch the crazy plagues…don’t know whats going onPassoveretc...Someone from your family hands you a scroll because they know you can read...In the beginning…you see God as the God who makes good on his promises.Who they were…the promised nation…you could look up from the page and see that promise come true.You see a seed of promise who has come to undo the curse. They were working by the sweat of their brows in slavery and he came to free them. Although Moses wasn’t the seed of promise he was a picture of the seed of promise.You hear that you are marching towards the promised land flowing with milk and honey. The land promised to Abraham.You see...Moses wrote the book of Genesis to give the Exodus generation the framework to possess the promised land.I know you don’t see any water out here but do you trust God to provide what you can’t?I know you don’t see food but do you trust God to meet your needs?I know the people of the land look like giants and we are an untrained group of former slaves but do you trust God to fight for you?Well if all you had to go off of was what you had seen so far and the story of Genesis, can God be trusted? Yes…did they? We will get to that next week...We aren’t the Exodus generation though…we aren’t marching out of literal slavery. We aren’t looking to move to a land flowing with milk and honey....for many of you, I can already see the wheels turning but…what does this story of land, seed, and covenant have to do with us?In order to see that, we have to look at the:Pictures of Christ & the GospelAs much as I love Joseph and all the pictures there…we just looked at those in a series about two months ago. So…turn to Genesis chapter 22 to what may be my most favorite picture of Christ and the Gospel in the entire Old Testament.Set the scene with Abraham being old and coasting now that Isaac was born.Isaac was maybe in his early 20’s.And then God speaks to Abraham again but this time he says this:Genesis 22:1–2 NASB95 1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”Ya’ll! What?!?!?Dude Abraham was good. He had it made in the shade. He could die knowing that God could still be faithful to his covenant promise. And then he’s asked to do this. There are so many things wrong with this. Not only would it completely destroy all that God was doing but it went against everything Abraham knew to be true of God. God doesn’t do human sacrifices. The other nations do…not God!So…here is what he does:Genesis 22:3–6 NASB95 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.He’s actually going through with it. But Isaac is old enough to gather that they are missing a critical element of the whole sacrifice thing and asks a very astute question...Genesis 22:7 NASB95 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”Get this…Abraham trusted God.Genesis 22:8 NASB95 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.Even if the offering was truly to be Isaac who had provided him? Abraham had learned to remove himself from the equation. He now knows why God knocked him out and passed through the animals to seal the covenant by himself.Abraham was just a recipient of Gods blessing. He did nothing to earn it and has only served to mess things up anytime he’s involved himself in the process.And in the greatest climactic buildup in the story so far we see this next:Genesis 22:9–10 NASB95 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.Abraham takes a breath closes his eyes and raises his hand and then...Begin with Abraham, Abraham! Gen 22:11-14Genesis 22:11–14 NASB95 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. 14 Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”Did you see it? The Picture of Jesus? The beautiful story of the Gospel unfolded before your eyes just now. And if the significance missed you then perhaps this detail from the story will strike you. We know where Mt. Moriah is. A few hundred years later, Solomon would build the temple on one of the mountains of Moriah. But God showed Abraham a specific location that many scholars believe to be the very hill where Jesus was crucified.Perhaps another detail…there is only one type of shrub capable of snagging an animal by its horns in the region…the thorn tree.We see Jesus as the sacrificial lamb with a crown of thorns.We see Jesus as the son of promise whom God did not withhold from us.Give the Gospel relating to covenant, seed, land, and the undoing of the curse (blessing).Overall in the book of Genesis we see Jesus as:The seed of promise who would undo the curse and lead his people back into Eden.We are faced with the same thing Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the sons of Israel were:Will you trust God in his promise of hope for a return to Eden?That’s how the new creation is pictured…a renewed Eden. Will we trust God to define good and evil for us or will we do that ourselves? We are all looking for a savior.A better you, relationships, your marriage, your finances, your children, politics, social problems, injustice. And when we seek a savior that isn’t God…often times it is us…we break this creation just a little more.Maybe you are here and have never heard that message…invitation to the lost...But just in case you heard that as only being for people who don’t know Jesus…just know that even if you do, your heart is constantly seeking lesser saviors...Better politiciansSchool reformSocial justiceA better youA better marriage…none of those things satisfy. Only God can uphold the blessing and bring salvation in those areas.Pray and closeDon’t forget to mention ordination again. Genesis 11:30KJV1900
Genesis 12:1–3KJV1900
Genesis 15:7–10KJV1900
Genesis 15:17–18KJV1900
Genesis 22:1–2KJV1900
Genesis 22:3–6KJV1900
Genesis 22:7KJV1900
Genesis 22:8KJV1900
Genesis 22:9–10KJV1900
Genesis 22:11–14KJV1900
