God Sets a Plan in Motion

1. God Sets a Plan in Motion Genesis 12-50

2. Objectives To help you grasp the basic storyline of the Old Testament as it develops in Genesis 12-50 To introduce God’s mysterious plan for fixing the crisis of sin through the family of Abraham To encourage you to trust God with their lives God can be trusted to keep his promises, even when it seems impossible.

3. Introduction Welcoming of Visitors Announcements Prayers Requests Beginning Prayer

4. Review At the end of Gen 2, what’s the status of creation? “It was very good.” At the end of Gen 11, how’s the world getting along? Terrible! Why? What has gone wrong? The problem of sin! To summarize: Last week, we saw that human sinfulness corrupted God’s “good” creation. Nonetheless, God was determined to fix the problems caused by sin and restore his relationship to humans. God didn’t walk away from his rebellious creation, but involved himself in the problems. However, at the end of Gen 11, it’s not clear if God can or will ultimately fix the crisis created by sin.

5. Previewing Today’s Lesson In Gen 12, God sets a plan into motion that will ultimately resolve the problem of sin and its consequences. God puts a plan into action by selecting a family, the family of Abram, and making certain promises to them.

6. Promises ^^^1st column title^^^

7. Let’s Read Gen 12:1-3, 7 1 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. 2 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. 3 I will blessing those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8. What are the three major promises that God made to Abram? Make a Great Nation (many descendants) Gift of Land Through you all the nations of the earth will blessed: The gift of land and descendants weren’t given to Abram for selfish purposes, but for the ultimate goal of blessing the world through Abram. How Abram and his family will be a blessing isn’t yet stated, but it does seem clear that this blessing is in response to the crisis of sin in Gen 1-11.

9. This promises keep reoccurring... Let’s read at least 2 examples and see what the promises in each text are. Gen 13:14-17 Gen 15:1-6, 17-20 Gen 17:1-8, 9-14 Gen 22:15-18

10. Genesis 13:14-17 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” Scripture Slide Family Tree

11. Genesis 15:1-6, 17-20 1 After these things word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 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?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you’re able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt. 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and Kadmonites 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, Scipture Slide Family Tree

12. Scripture Slide Gen 17:1-8, 9-14 Family Tree 1 When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. 3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations: 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” 9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You’re to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner - those who aren’t your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who hasn’t been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

13. Gen 22:15-18 15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, you only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. Scripture Slide Family Tree

14. Promises through the Family Tree and the future These promises are passed on to Abram’s family. To Abram’s son Isaac To Abram’s grandson Jacob At the forefront of these promises is that God is setting into motion a plan to resolve the sin problem by calling one family into his service. God will bless the world, somehow, through the family of Abraham and Sarah

15. But this is only the beginning of the Story. Problems for the Promises ^^^2nd column title^^^

16. Problems for the Promises From the very beginning of God’s promises to the family of Abraham, the promises under threat. The Promise of a Great Nation and Many Descendants The women of the family struggle with infertility. Sarah and Rebekah are barren. The family is small and unimportant The Promise of a Land Presently the Canaanites live in the land and they have no intention of moving. The Promise of Being a Blessing to the Nations It ain’t happening The family of Abram is hardly a blessing to anyone they encounter, much less the world! Summary: We have the story of promises and counter theme of threats to the promises

17. Often, even in the face of all problems and challenges, Abram and his family respond with great faith God. Acts of Faith ^^^3rd column title^^^

18. Acts of Faith When God tells Abram to leave his homeland and go to Canaan - he goes! (Gen 12:40) When God tells Abram he will have many descendants - he believes! (Gen 15:6) When God tells Abram to circumcise all the males of his household - he does it! (Gen 17:23)

19. But frequently, the greatest threat to God’s promises is, in fact, Abram and his family. Acts of Unfaith ^^^4th column title^^^

20. Acts of Unfaith Frequently, Abram and his family do not trust God to do what he’s promised to do. Consequently, they take things into their own hands. For example: Twice Abraham pawns of his wife Sarah as his sister. Why would Abraham do this? Fear (lack of trust in God’s help) and possibly to get rid of an infertile wife and take a new and fertile wife Sarah gets Abraham to use Hagar as a surrogate mother, against God’s plan that Sarah will give birth to a son Both Abraham and Sarah laugh at God’s promise of a child These same types of problems are also found in Abraham’s son and grandchildren Isaac’s family is completely dysfunctional. Parents play favorites and the brothers scheme against each other Jacob’s family is also dysfunctional. Jacob tricks his brother Esau out of his birthright as firstborn. He tricks Laban out of his flocks. He has 12 sons as the result of “reproduction contest” for Jacob’s love between his two wives Rachel and Leah. Jacob plays favorites with his wives and his sons One has to wonder how God could ever work through this family to “bless the world” - but God is determined and in every act of unfaith continues to work his plan. (It’s a source of hope to us all that God selects and uses imperfect people for his purposes)

21. Finally, at the end of Genesis, there are several key developments in the story. Conclusion ^^^Last column...YAY!!!^^^

22. At the end of Genesis, The family has begun to grow and is now beginning to multiply like rabbits. (Refer to the first promise) The family has relocated from the “Promised Land” to Egypt due to a famine. How family will receive the “promised land” when they don’t even live there anymore is a mystery. The family is beginning to work a blessing to the rest of the world. Joseph blesses Egypt and all the land through his government of the Egyptian resources during the famine Jacob blesses Pharaoh But this blessing, isn’t yet reversing all the problems created by sin in Gen 3-11 Summary: At the end of Genesis, it’s clear that God is working on a plan, but that plan is only starting. Further, from a human P.O.V., one wonders how God’s plan will ever overcome all the obstacles.

23. Applications Let’s discuss 1 of these 3 topics: The one thing, above all else, that God asked of Abraham was trust: Trust me to do what I promise for you. Why do you think Abraham and his family found it so difficult to trust God? Why do you think we have such a difficult time trusting God with our lives? Why do you think God selected the family of Abraham and Sarah? There weren’t “super righteous” people who never did wrong, so why them? How does this make you feel about the possibility of God using your life in his service. What do you learn about God in these chapters?

24. Assignment and Wrap-Up Read Exodus 1-2 and 11 Prayer that Thanks God for putting a plan into motion to save us from sin. Acknowledges our own difficulty in trusting God with our lives. Asks God to help us trust him fully.

25. Keep Spreading Positivity It can go a long way...