Voddie Baucham - The Rest of Abraham’s Legacy
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Speaker 1: Well, we've come to chapter 25 in the book of
Genesis as we've come back and rejoined Genesis to look
at the life of the patriarchs and particularly to look
here at the life of Isaac. And as we said before,
we started in what could be considered an unusual place
to look at the life of Isaac going back and
beginning with chapter 23. which is really sort of the
culmination of the life of Sarah and now the culmination
of the life of Abraham. But hopefully, as we've done this,
things have begun to sort of meld together for you
and you realize why it's important to go here in
order to understand who Isaac is. It's interesting. If you
want to understand who a person is, there are varying approaches.
And those approaches varied throughout history. Those approaches also vary,
for example, from person to person. Men and women, for example,
get to know people differently. If a man wants to
get to know another man, there's just a few things
a man wants to know. What do you do? Who
do you do it for? Are you any good at it?
Man gets answers to those questions and he feels like
he knows the other guy. He can know the guy
for years and never go beyond those questions. That's it.
What do you do? Well, I'm a whatever. That's great.
I know you pretty well now. Who do you do
it for? Well, I work for thus and such or
I'm self-employed. It's wonderful. Now I really know you. You
any good at it? In other words, you make a
lot of money. You know, I do all right. That's great.
You and I best buds. You are my brother from
another mother. We know each other now, okay? And your
wife's going, I don't get that. I don't understand that.
Is he married? I don't know. Never asked him. How
could you not ask him that? I figured if he
wanted me to know, he'd tell me, you know? We're going,
why do I need to know that? Do you have
any kids? I don't know. The guy has kids. But
you know him. Yeah, I know what he does. I
know who he does it for. And I know how
successful he is at it. I know him. Women, on
the other hand, are sitting there going, you don't know
him at all. Because the man wants to know, what
do you do? Who do you do it for? Are
you successful? Women want to know, where do you come
from and who are you connected to? That's their questions.
If I know where you come from and who you're
connected to, then I know you. That's why I'll go
places and I'll, you know, preach somewhere and I'll be
introduced and some man will stand up and tell stuff
about me. And the man will stand up and tell
stuff about, you know, what I do, who I do
it for, and whether or not I'm successful. He'll give
stuff like where I went to school and all this
kind of stuff and he'll give that stuff and the
men in the audience are going, that's great, we know him.
Go for it, brother. And I finish and women come
up to me and they go, so are you married?
Got any kids? Because the guy who introduced me felt like, whatever,
you don't need to know that. You know, we do
ourselves a disservice if we try to get to know
people the way most men try to get to know people.
And we do ourselves a disservice because if we tried
to get to know Isaac by just asking, what do
you do? Who do you do it for? And are
you successful? Bible introduces Isaac to us by introducing Abraham
to us. In 23, 24, 25, we get to know Isaac. Why?
Because we see him at the death of his mother
We see him in his marriage, and now we see
him in the death of his father. You want to
know who Isaac is for the rest of Isaac's life.
Here's what you need to know. You need to know
who raised him, how they raised him, who he's married to,
and what springs forth from that marriage. You know that,
you know Isaac. You don't know that, and I don't
care how much you know about what he does or
who he does it for, and how successful he is,
you don't know Isaac or anyone for that matter. You
do not have a deep and abiding relationship with another
human being if all you know is what they do,
who they do it for, and how successful they are
at doing it. You know nothing. You know window dressing.
You want to know somebody. Find out where they come from.
Find out who raised them. Find out how they were raised.
Find out about their relationship with those who raised them.
Then find out about who they're connected to now. Find
out about the offspring that comes forth from that union.
That'll give you a picture that is far more accurate
than anything a man does or whomever he does it
for or how successful he is at doing it. But unfortunately,
in the era in which we live, we've got this
completely backwards. We think the measure of a man is
what he does. Sort of like, you know, in England
in the 13th century, nearly a third of everybody in England,
all the men in England were named John, Richard, or William.
Nearly a third of the entire population. That was a
bit problematic. Had to figure out who these guys are.
So we have this interesting thing that comes forth called
surnames or last names, as we would call them. Interestingly enough,
a lot of these last names go directly to the
issue of what do you do? For example, Baker, Weaver, Miller, Brewer, driver, butler, singer, cook, washer, hunter, fisher, rider, gardener, carpenter, shepherd,
and smith. All names directly related to what do you do?
There's some others that are related to what you do,
you may not even think of them this way. Leech.
By the way, that's the name given to doctors. Leech, Daly,
Daly is a name given to individuals who were day laborers. Bailey,
given to bailiffs. Carver, given to sculptors. Kellogg, given to
those who killed hogs. Sawyer, a sawyer of wood. Ward,
a watchman. Fletcher, one who made arrows. Hooper, Hooper was
a man who fitted hoops on top of barrels. And Chandler,
was a candle maker. Again, all of these are very
familiar surnames, are they not? And they go directly to
the issue of, what do you do? But there was
another group of surnames that were far more meaningful, far
more important during a different period. And they were names
like Richard Sun, Robin Sun, William Sun. Those names meant
who you connected to. I am the son of William.
I am the son of Robert. I am the son
of John. How do you get to know a person?
By what they do? Or to whom they're connected? Well,
the Bible gives us a picture of Isaac. And it's
not based on what he does. The Bible gives us
a picture of Isaac. And it's based on to whom
he's connected. We've seen in 23 his connection to this
great woman, Sarah. We saw in 24 his connection to
the right woman in his marriage. His father says, my
son's not going to marry just anybody. This is important
because no matter what he does in life, if this
is about a multi-generational vision, it's very important that he's
connected to the right person. Do not let my son
marry someone from one of these pagan nations around here.
I'll tell you where to go. I'll tell you what
to look for. Because his connection is of extreme importance.
And now we see the death of his father. which
I can attest to personally as a formative moment in
the life of any man. As we look at the
death of Abraham, I want to give you this picture
of Isaac based on seven promises. Seven promises that shaped
Isaac's life and Isaac's character. Seven promises from God that
we see here in the first 18 verses of chapter 25.
that absolutely shaped who Isaac is and who Isaac became.
Look with me, if you will, these first 18 verses.
Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah. Now, as
we read this, just pause here for a moment. There's
some degree of controversy about that first phrase. There are
some who argue that Abraham had taken Keturah as a
wife during the life of Sarah. Therefore, these are their
offspring that we're about to read about. Nothing in the
text that says that. People who make that argument base
it on Abraham's age. The text couldn't mean that after
Sarah died that Abraham took another wife as old as
he was, and then had six more sons. Just the
sons with her. Of course, those on the other side argue, well,
if God has rejuvenated Abraham for the purpose of bringing
forth Isaac, nobody says that there was just momentary rejuvenation.
Could have taken another wife in his old age. We
don't know. This is complicated further by the fact that
in 1 Chronicles chapter 1 and verse 32, Keturah is
not referred to as a wife, but as a concubine.
So that complicates things. That's a discussion for another time.
What's important here is that there's another woman in the
picture and there are other children in the picture. Look
with me if you will. Verse 2, she bore him Zimram, Jokshan, Midan, Midian,
that name ought to sound familiar, Ishbak, and Shua. Jokshan
fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asherim, Ledishim,
and Leumim. Those of you out there looking for names
for your upcoming children. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephur, Hanak, Abedah,
and Eldah. All these were the children of Keturah. Abraham
gave all he had to Isaac, but to those sons
of the concubines, Abraham gave gifts. There's that name used interchangeably.
She's called wife, and then there's a reference to concubines.
So again, 1 Chronicles 1 refers to her as concubine,
but that doesn't preclude the idea that he actually married
this woman, and we don't know when the marriage took place.
That's not what this passage is about. Complicated, and it's
great for discussion. Don't get bogged down there. While he
was still living, he sent them away from his son
Isaac eastward to the east country. That's also very important.
They're going eastward to the east country. These are the
days of the years of Abraham's life. 175 years. Abraham
breathed his last and died in a good old age.
An old man full of years and was gathered to
his people. What an incredible statement. By the way, that's
the fulfillment of a promise. that God made in Genesis
chapter 15 and verse 5. The exact same phrase, that
he would die filled with years and be gathered to
his people. That's a blessing, folks. That's a blessing. We
don't think of it as a blessing because we want
to live forever. Don't believe me? Look at all the
commercials that say you don't have to get old. If
you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. All
the commercials, take this and you won't have to get old. Newsflash.
You're going to get old. You can dye your hair
all you want to. It's gray. No, it's not. Yes,
it is. You got something on top of it, but
it's gray. We get old. We can't do what we
used to do. Men, please keep that in mind when
we have activities with our sons. But he was full
of years. He was an old man. He lived a
long time. Then he breathed his last, and he was
gathered to his people. That's glorious, folks. That's glorious. Then
we read, Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in
the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the
son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre. the field
that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried
with Sarah, his wife. After the death of Abraham, God
blessed Isaac, his son, and Isaac settled at Be'er Lahairoi.
That name ought to sound familiar, and you'll see why
in just a moment. Be'er Lahairoi. Verse 12. These are
the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian,
Sarah's servant, bore to Abraham. These are the names of
the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth. Nebaioth,
the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, Abdeel, Midsum, Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad, Tema, Jator, Naphish,
and Kedema. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these
are their names by their villages and by their encampments.
12 princes according to their tribes. These are the years
of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. He breathed his
last and died and was gathered to his people. They
settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in
the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen. Amen.
There it is. What do you mean? I didn't see
seven promises in there. We didn't look hard enough. There
are seven promises in there that shape the life of
young Isaac. I also want you to notice this. Notice
that there is a frame that's created. The first paragraph,
really the first half of the first paragraph, those first
four verses, it's about whom? Keturah and her descendants. The
last paragraph, 12 through 18, that's about whom? Ishmael and
his descendants. sandwiched in the middle of that, the little
old Isaac. That's an important piece to the puzzle. Here
are those seven promises. Number one, God promised to give
barren Abraham offspring. Turn back with me and look at
chapter 15. Look at the first six verses. After these things,
the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall
be great. But Abram said, O Lord God, what will
you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir
of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold,
you have given me no offspring, and a member of
my household will be my heir. And behold, the word
of the Lord came to him. This man shall not
be your heir. Your very own son shall be heir.
And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven
and number the stars if you are able to number them.
Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.
And he delivered, I'm sorry, and he believed the Lord
and he counted it to him as righteousness. Got no child, God.
How's all this stuff gonna come to pass? And I've
got no child. I have no heir. I have no son.
Eleazar of Damascus, evidently the son of one of his servants.
That's the firstborn male of my whole clan, of my
whole household. I have no son. I'm barren. I'm old,
very old. Paul says in Romans that his body was
basically dead He didn't function in that way. God says,
I'm going to give you an offspring. This is how
Isaac came to be because of this very promise. So
we see here in the birth of these children to Keturah,
even here in these first four verses, he takes another wife.
There are six other sons. God has made a promise
to Abraham. Abraham is able to bring forth children. But
how does this shape the character and the life of Isaac?
This makes Isaac a miracle baby. It seals his place
in history. Forever shapes his self-perception. Can you imagine that?
Everywhere you go, people whisper, there he is. Who, him? Yeah, him.
You know Abraham, right? Yeah, Abraham, 100 and something years old. Yes,
that's his baby. For the rest of his life, he's
shaped by that. His self-perception is shaped by that. And
I know we often use the word miracle when referring
to the birth. of children, but trust me, this is different.
Children are born every day, which by definition is not miraculous.
It can be explained in great detail how they get here,
which is by definition not miraculous. It's awe-inspiring, but it's
not miraculous. Abraham and Sarah, that's a miracle baby. Amen?
That's a miracle baby. And that promise is the reason
that Isaac came to be. And that promise would have
shaped Isaac's self-perception for his entire life. He would have
been known as that promised son to Abraham, doted over
by his ancient parents. Not great grandparents, they were old
enough to be his great, great grandparents, but they were
his parents. The second promise, God makes a promise to
Abraham that he will be the father of many nations.
Verses one through four and also 12 through 18 here
in this passage. In one through four, we see Keturah
and we see some names that are very familiar to us.
For example, we see the name Midian. That name Midian
automatically makes us think about whom? Well, first of all,
it makes us think about Moses. Moses goes to Midian,
and that's where he finds his wife. His father-in-law is
a priest of Midian. Now, interestingly enough, I was watching,
we were watching the Ten Commandments not long ago. You know,
the old movie, the Ten Commandments, watching Ten Commandments long ago.
And here is Moses in the tent of Jethro, the Midianite.
And interestingly enough, Cecil B. DeMille misses it completely. He
misses it completely because he has the father-in-law of Moses
identify himself as a descendant of Ishmael, which he's not.
He's his descendant of Midian. Completely different clan, completely different tribe,
completely different nation. All connected to Abraham, but different nations altogether.
By the way, this gives Isaac a vision that impacts
his future. His self-perception is shaped by the fact that
he's a miracle child, but he's got a vision for
his future. Why? Because God has told my father that
he is going to be great, his name is going
to be great, and that he's going to be the
father of many nations for his entire life. Isaac thinks
about himself, not just as a man, but as the
progenitor of a great nation. Talk about vision. I am
the progenitor of a great nation. There's going to be
a great nation to come forth from me. But do
you think maybe that was difficult for Isaac to believe? Probably.
But whenever Isaac found it hard to believe that God says,
I'm going to be the progenitor of a great nation,
all he had to do was look at his hundred
and something year old mother and father. I believe that
would have taken away his doubt. Amen? Is this too
hard for God? Just look at his parents. No, I
think not. That would have shaped his life. Look with me,
if you will, at Genesis chapter 37, beginning in verse 18.
Genesis 37, verse 18. Remember, that second promise that shapes Isaac,
shapes who Isaac is, shapes Isaac's life, shapes Isaac's destiny,
is this promise that God made to Abraham that you're
going to be the father of many nations. We're going
to see two of them right here in Genesis chapter
37 that shaped the life of Isaac and his descendants.
Beginning at verse 18. They saw him from afar. This
is Joseph and his 11 brothers. Joseph's being told to
go check on his brothers. They saw him from afar.
He came near to them and they conspired against him
to kill him. They said to one another, here comes
this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw
him into one of the pits. You think they didn't
like him? Here comes our brother. Really? Let's kill him
and throw him in that hole right there. Then we
will say that fierce animals devoured him and we will
see what will become of his dreams. But when Reuben
heard it, he rescued him out of their hands saying,
let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them,
shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in
the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him
that he might be rescued. or that he might rescue
him out of their hands and restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him
of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore,
and they took him and threw him into a pit.
The pit was empty. There was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat, and looking up, they
saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming. Wonder who they're descendants of.
Ishmael from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and
myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
Then Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it
if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come,
let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not
our hand be upon him. For he is our brother,
our own flesh. He's our own flesh. Let's don't kill him.
Let's sell him into slavery. What a great group. His
brothers listened to him. Then Midianite trailers. Well, will you
look at that? Wonder who the Midianites are descendants of.
They're descendants of Midian. Midianite traders passed by and they
drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit
and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver.
They took Joseph to Egypt. You think Isaac's future was
not shaped by this promise that God made to his
father Abraham to make him many nations? There in one
paragraph and in one event, we see three of those
nations interacting with one another. Number one, the nation that
is Israel. and the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12
sons who would eventually become the 12 tribes of Israel,
selling one of their own into slavery. That's one nation
that came forth from Abraham. Another one is the Midianites
who eventually get Joseph out of the pit. The other
one is the Ishmaelites to whom the Midianites sell Joseph
so that the Ishmaelites then sell him to Egypt. By
the way, Ishmael's mother was from where? Egypt. Egypt. This
is a promise God made to Abraham that ultimately shaped
the life and the future of Isaac. Thirdly, God promised
to give Abraham the promised land. Chapter 17, verses 7
and 8. I will establish my covenant between me and
you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for
an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to
your offspring after you. And I will give to you
and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings,
all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and
I will be their God. God says, I'm going to
give you this land. This promise shapes the life of Isaac. Why?
His mother dies. And it's in his mother's death that
they get the first fruits of the land. Secondly, his
father dies. And what do he and Ishmael do with
their father? They take him to the same cave and
they lay him there in the first fruits of the
promised land right next to Isaac's mother. That promise that
God made to Abraham shaped Isaac's life. gave him boundaries,
and it also gave him direction and purpose. Not only
does Isaac know, I'm going to be a great nation,
but Isaac also knows all of this land is going
to be possessed by the great nation that I am
to become. This gives him great vision. Number four, God
promised to make Ishmael the father of a great nation.
We see this in verses 12 through 18. It doesn't
make any sense. This is about the life of Isaac, right?
Why is this paragraph in 12 through 18 devoted to Ishmael?
In chapter 17 and verse 20, as for Ishmael, I
have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him. By the way,
this is before Isaac is born. Abraham goes off. He
takes Hagar. Ishmael is born. Abraham says, come on, God,
just use this one. I got one, right? A son
is a son is a son. I got a son.
And I'm old. This was, this was. big stuff here.
This may never happen again. Use this one. And God
says to him, I have blessed him and will make
him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father 12
princes and I will make him into a great nation.
How about that? Ishmael will be the father of 12 princes.
We just read their names in chapter 25. And I'm
going to make him a great nation. How does that
impact Isaac? Gives Isaac an example of unfaithfulness and the
price that you pay for sin. We read in Galatians
chapter 4, for example, that Ishmael persecuted Isaac from the
time the boy was born. Isaac's entire life was marked
by his father's sin and this other kid who didn't
get to be the promise, who despised him because he
was the promised seed. And he saw, because of his
father's faithlessness toward God, And see, oftentimes we got to
be real careful because you look at this and you say, well,
of course, you know, I mean, I mean, you know, absolutely.
God does this and Ishmael needed to be born because
God says he's going to be the father of many nations.
And how do you get to be the father of
many nations unless there are many women? Newsflash. Isaac gets
to be the father of multiple nations. Same woman, same birth.
Jacob and Esau formed two separate nations and they're twins.
Abraham did not have to sin in order for multiple
nations to come forth. God is not the author of sin.
But because God works with sinful human beings, everything that
he does in using secondary causes ends up being a
process of taking the sinful actions of men and providentially
using them for his purposes. That does not justify the actions.
Ishmael came forth in sin. And that shaped Isaac's life
and it also shaped Isaac's character. Some of you are
part of families where there are illegitimate children who are
siblings of yours. Some of you are part of families
where there are Mothers and stepmothers and stepfathers and what
do I call this person and what do I call
that person? That shapes the way you think about yourself.
That shapes the way you think about marriage. That shapes
the way you think about your future. And you better
believe that it shaped Isaac. Promise number five. God promised
to set Ishmael against Isaac. Look at Genesis chapter 16.
Look at verse 11. Hagar has been sent away. Hagar
and her child have been sent away. God tells Abraham,
send them away. The angel of the Lord meets her.
She's come to the end of herself in the desert.
She thinks she's about to die. God meets her. Look
at verse 11. The angel of the Lord said to her, behold,
you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall
call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to
your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and
he shall dwell over against his kinsmen. What do we
have in chapter 25? Ishmael settles near Egypt toward Assyria,
which is to the north, kind of to the northwest
of Egypt, encamped. right between Egypt and Israel. And we've
already seen in chapter 37 how the Ishmaelites become a
thoroughfare for Israel to eventually get into Egypt by way
of Joseph. All in a fulfillment that God made to
Abraham in Genesis chapter 16. This makes Isaac's life difficult
from the beginning. And that shapes him as a man.
That shapes who he is. Promise number six. God promised
to make Abraham the father of a great nation through
Isaac and not through Ishmael. Look at chapter 25 again.
Look at verses 5, 6, and 11. Look at verse 5.
Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. But to the
sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts. And while he
was still living, he sent them away from his son
Isaac eastward to the east country. Now look at verse 11.
After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son,
and Isaac settled at Be'er Lahairoi. There's that familiar name.
Where's that? That's that place in the desert where God
met Hagar. It's the very same place. where God made
that promise to her. And that's where he settles. Here's
what's interesting. Abraham was a man of little faith who
didn't get it. But now he gets it. He doesn't
hedge his bets anymore. Isaac is the promised seed, not Ishmael.
So he gives everything to Isaac. Chapter 17, go there again.
Look beginning at 18. And Abraham said to God, Oh,
that Ishmael might live before you. God said, No, but
Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you
shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant
with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and behold, I
have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful and
multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I
will make him into a great nation. But, verse 21,
I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall
bear to you at this time next year. Yes, Isaac
will be your son. Ishmael, rather, will be your son. Yes,
Ishmael will be a great nation. But let me make
one thing clear. The covenant that I made with you
back in chapter 12, that runs through Isaac and Isaac alone,
not through Ishmael. Ishmael is not the son of covenant.
I will use Ishmael. I will bless Ishmael. But he
is not the promised seed, nor will he ever be.
It is Isaac. It is only Isaac. That shapes Isaac forever.
His father is coming toward the end of his life.
And there are these eight sons, the six sons of Keturah,
the one son of Hagar, and the one promised seed, Isaac.
And Abraham, an extremely wealthy man, says, sons, I love
you all. Here, this is for you, sons of Keturah, one, two, three, four, five, six,
generous gifts. Now please go to the east. This is
for you, Ishmael. Now please go to the east. Isaac,
everything I have is yours. You are the covenant child.
You are the fulfillment of the promise. You are that
future great nation that God promised that he would make me.
You better believe that shaped the man Isaac. That forged
something in him. That mantle that was on his shoulders
changed who he was forever. And finally, God promised to
bless all nations through Abraham. Listen to chapter 12, verse 3.
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. Genesis 22, 18.
And in your offspring shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. This
is right after He comes to sacrifice Isaac. Go with
me to Acts chapter 3. 24 to 26. This is
Peter's great sermon at Pentecost. This is the first time
that we see this gospel being preached after the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And listen to what Peter says, beginning
in verse 24. And all the prophets who have spoken
from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed
these days. You are the sons of the prophets and
of the covenant that God made with your father, saying
to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servant,
sent him to you first to bless you by turning
every one of you from your wickedness. Who's the him
referred to there? The him referred to there is the
promised seed of Abraham, who ultimately is the person of
Jesus Christ. That's who. That's who. See, Isaac is not
significant because he's better than Ishmael. Jacob is not significant
because he's better than Esau. Judah is not significant because
he's better than Joseph or any of his other brothers.
Nor is David significant because he's better than any of
his other brothers. All of these individuals find their significance
when we finally read in Matthew, in the introduction, the
genealogy of Jesus Christ. These individuals are significant because God
is pointing like a laser beam through history to one
place and one place only. He's not looking for a
good man. He's not looking for a strong man. He's
looking for the God man who will be born to
one line and one line only. He knows exactly what
that line is. No man was worthy of being in
that line. None. None. And it is only because of
the promise that is fulfilled in the person of Jesus
Christ that the sins of all of those who came
before him can be washed away and the sins of
those of us who come after him can be paid for.
It's Christ. It's Christ. So when Abraham is squeamish and
wanting to grab onto Isaac because one son's as good
as the next, isn't he? He doesn't get it. You
don't get to Jesus that way. Next week, when Isaac
gets squeamish over the next couple of weeks, and there's
this Jacob and Esau thing, the one who's supposed to
get the blessing is not the one who's supposed to
get the blessing. It's supposed to go to the firstborn.
Isaac ought to get that, right? No, Isaac doesn't get that.
And he's squeamish. He's squeamish. This is not about who's
born first. Even when it comes down to Jacob's boys.
We talked about this before. Here's the wife that I
love so much. Oh, I want her so badly. Seven years, okay.
He gets the wrong one, right? No. Judah comes forth
from Leah. Not Rachel. Wasn't about what Jacob wanted. It's
about what God had promised. This shapes Isaac because it
gives Isaac his place in redemptive history. Isaac doesn't know
this now. But I ask you, what is significant about
this man that we should be talking about him thousands
of years later? What did Isaac invent? Nothing. Nothing. What
was Isaac the master of? Nothing. What was he so
great at that he's revered down to this day? Nothing
that we know of. What is it? It's real simple.
He's Abraham and Sarah's boy. And he's Jacob's daddy. That's it.
But newsflash, that's enough. Why? Because God didn't put Isaac
on this earth to be a great inventor. God didn't
put Isaac on this earth to be a great performer.
God didn't put Isaac on this earth to be memorable
in a variety of different ways. If that's why God
had put Isaac on this earth, then Isaac would have
been memorable for all of those things. In fact, what
we're going to see in Isaac's life is that it's
pretty raggedy. A lot of the same sins from his
father's life. Nothing special about this guy. Because Isaac wasn't
put here so that we could walk around saying, oh, Isaac, Isaac, Isaac.
Thank you, Isaac. No, he was put here so we
could walk around saying, oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus. That's why. And that's it. And that's
why for all their flaws and foibles, these men about
whom we learn here in Genesis were exactly, exactly what
God intended them to be. He redeemed them from their sin.
He rescued them from themselves. He used them in spite
of themselves. And then his providence brought forth the promised seed,
the God-man, Jesus Christ. Born of a woman. Born under
the law. But born nonetheless in this very line and
for the very purpose of fulfilling these promises. And it's
these promises, would shape Isaac's life. See, you go ahead
and you ask that of Isaac if you want to.
What do you do? Who do you do it for?
Are you successful? Because none of that, none of that
gets us to redemption. Whatever Isaac did, whomever he did
it for, and whether or not he was successful at
doing what he did, doesn't get us to redemptive history.
But who are you connected to? Who's your daddy? Who's
your mother? Oh, you're Abraham and Sarah's boy. I know
something about you. Who are your kids? Oh, Jacob and Esau.
I know even more about you. And I know all
I need to know. Don't care what you do. Don't
really care who you do it for. Really not worried
about whether or not you're successful at it. I know
all that I need to know by knowing about your connections.
It's these seven promises that we see shadows of in
Genesis chapter 25 that shape the man who would become Isaac,
the next link in the chain. And if you want
to understand the things that we're going to read about
Isaac in the coming chapters, just come back to chapter 25.
Just come back to these seven promises. And just come
back to the big picture of you and I in
desperate need of a redeemer. And you'll get it. And
we'll know all we need to know about this man
Isaac who doesn't even have a last name. Let's pray. Father,
how grateful we are for your goodness toward us. Making
provision for our greatest need, which is to be redeemed
from our sin. Abraham was a sinful man who desperately
needed a redeemer. Isaac was a sinful man who desperately
needed a redeemer. I am a sinful man who desperately
needs a redeemer. And by your grace and through your providence,
you brought forth a redeemer. You brought him through this
line of sinful men and yet protected him from this
line of sinful men. Being born of a virgin. Recognizing
that no one Born from this line, the way that
these men were born, would be qualified to redeem your people.
But the God man, born miraculously, born of a virgin,
born outside of the curse of the first Adam, was
the exact and only answer. that our sin problem needed.
And it is in the person and work of Jesus
Christ that we find our connection, where Abraham is our father,
where we are the fulfillment of the promise that you
made to him and the great gift that you gave
to your son, Jesus. As we bow before you, would
you crush in us all desires to be redeemed by
the flesh? Would you crush in us all desires to
be identified and distinguished by what we do and for
whom we do it and how well we do it?
And would you once and for all cause us to
realize that when we stand before you at the end
of our days, the only question that will matter is,
are you connected to my son? Remind us that it
is that connection and that connection alone, apart from anything
that we have ever done or will ever do, that
that connection alone can make us right with God. Thank
you for reminding us of this truth. Keep it ever
before us, we pray. We ask these things because we
believe they're in accordance with the will and the nature
and the authority of Jesus, who is the Christ, the
promised seed of Abraham, the Savior of the world. In
his name, amen.