Genesis: a 12-session study

1. Session 6A: Promises Fulfilled Genesis 17:1 – 22:24 Genesis: a 12-session study

2. SUMMARYGenesis Structure • Genesis 1: wide angle view of creation • Creation is ordered: first formed and then filled. God works 6 days, then rests the 7th day. Rest is a gift from God. • Genesis 2-4: close up view of Adam’s generation • Adam & Eve made in the image of God as rulers and priests. The Fall brings inherited sin. Cain kills Abel. Seth appointed. • Genesis 5-11: wide angle view of the nations • Noah & The Flood. Shem, Ham, & Japheth. Tower of Babel. Languages confused and people diffused across the world. • Genesis 12-50: close up view of the patriarchs of the nation of Israel, focusing on 4 generations: • Terah. Abram/Abraham. Ishmael & Isaac. Esau & Jacob.

3. REVIEW & PREVIEWGenesis Patriarchs • Terah:Left for Canaan. Settled half-way in Harran. His son Abram finishes the journey. • Abram/Abraham:Went to Canaan. Went to Egypt fearfully. Came back to Canaan faithfully. God appears. Abram builds altars. Lot is rescued. • Ishmael & Isaac:Ishmael is the first born, but Isaac receives the covenant promise of God. • Esau & Jacob

4. REVIEW: Melchizedek, CovenantGenesis 14:17-24, 15:1-6 • Melchizedek • Abram tithes to the king-priest, Melchizedek (Righteousness), king of Salem (Peace), and priest of God Most High, a type of Christ. • Melchizedek brings bread and wine and blesses Abram. • God’s Covenant with Abram • God visits Abram in a vision. God is Abram’s shield and mentions a very great reward. • The LORD counts Abram’s belief as righteousness. • God offers his presence/protection (shield), provision (reward/land), and population (offspring).

5. Review: God Confirms His CovenantGenesis 15:7-21 • Covenant Ceremony • The covenant ceremony is like a “signature on the contract.” • Covenant offering: a heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, and pigeon. (sealed in blood) • God Prophesies Abram’s descendants will be afflicted for 400 years, and that God would bring them out with great possessions. • After sundown, God appears as a smoking firepot and a flaming torch and passes between the animal pieces. • “May what happened to these animals happen to me if I should break this covenant.” (Jer 34:18-20) • God alone passes between the pieces. (Gen 15:17) • God is saying that He would rather die than to break His promise. • Marriage is a covenant. By passing between the two families we are saying to our spouse, “I would rather die than to break my wedding promise to you.”

6. REVIEW: Sarai & Hagar, Angel & IshmaelGenesis 16:1-16 • Sarai & Hagar • Sarai gives Hagar to Abram to bear children for her. • Once Hagar is expecting, Hagar dishonors Sarai. • Sarai blames Abram and is harsh to Hagar. • Hagar flees into the wilderness. • Angel & Ishmael • Hagar is to return to Sarai. (submission to authority) • Ishmael will be wild and against everyone. • Hagar calls the Angel “You are the God who sees me”. • The Angel’s promise has elements similar to God’s promise to Abram. • The Angel’s words are taken as God’s words. • Some believe the Angel this to be the pre-incarnate Christ. • Ishmael is the first born son, but not the heir to the promise. • God has his own culture • As we read the Bible, we are reading to find out what God’s expectations are. We are not trying to view the Bible through the eyes of our own culture, but through the eyes of God.

7. The Big PictureGenesis 17:1-22:24 • God fulfills His promises and hears the prayers of His people.

8. God Confirms His CovenantGenesis 17:1-2 • Gen 17:1–2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” • The use of El Shaddai (God Almighty) indicates that God has the power to fulfill His promise, including a son through Sarai. • walk before me: Abram has an ongoing relationship with God which he is expected to continue. • be blameless: The word for “blameless” is also used of animal sacrifices offered to God. In a sense, we are our own offering to God. Noah is also described as “blameless” before God made a covenant with him. • may make/confirm my covenant: Previously, God made a unilateral (one-way) unconditional covenant with Abram. Now, God is about to make a bilateral (two-way) conditional covenant with Abram. To keep this new covenant, Abram is to continue in faith and to do certain things. • multiply you greatly: With Adam & Eve, with Noah, and with Abram, God affirms that his plan is to make people fruitful and multiply, filling the earth with the image of God. How well do we represent the image of God?

9. Covenant Name: Abram  AbrahamGenesis 17:3-5 • COVENANT NAME • Gen 17:3–6. Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. • Abram = “exalted father” • Abraham = “father of a multitude” • Abraham is the father of the Israeli and Arab peoples, literally multiple nations in the present day Middle East.

10. Covenant of People, Presence, & PlaceGenesis 17:6-8 • COVENANT PEOPLE: • 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. • COVENANT PRESENCE: • 7 And 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. • COVENANT PLACE/POSSESSION: • 8 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.”

11. Covenant Sign: CircumcisionGenesis 17:9-14 • In history, circumcision was used prior this as an act of ritual purity even for pagan temple workers. • God uses circumcision as a covenant sign. • It’s not about racial purity, since all males of Abraham’s household are circumcised, including non-descendants. • It’s not about social status, since both the natural born members and those acquired are circumcised. • Circumcising baby boys on the 8th day ensures the covenant continues into future generations. • Circumcision indicates putting off the flesh and sin and putting on God’s holiness. • Romans 2:29 …circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. • Have we “circumcised our heart” of all the sin that is in it? • May God do “heart surgery” on us, cutting away everything that is not from Him.

12. New Covenant Sign: BaptismColossians 2:11-14 • Col 2:11–14. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. • 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. • Old Covenant Sign: Circumcision • New Covenant Sign: Baptism • In crucifixion, a notice was nailed to the Cross, declaring the crime for the execution. • Paul is saying that our sin debt to God was also nailed to the Cross. • The crime of our sins is why Christ was crucified. • Our sin debt to God is paid in full through Christ’s supreme sacrifice.

13. Covenant Name: Sarai  SarahGenesis 17:15-16 • Gen 17:15–16. And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” • Sarai = “princess” • Sarah = “princess” • What’s the difference? • Both Abram and Sarah receive a letter from God’s covenant name YHWH. • Abram becomes AbraHam. • Sarai becomes SaraH. • God puts part of His covenant name into their covenant names. • We take on the name of Christ as part of the new covenant, hence the name Christian. • Our covenant name is Christian. • Our covenant sign is baptism. • Our circumcision is done around our heart.

14. God Confirms His Covenant…Again!Genesis 17:17-27 • God promises Abraham a son in the next year when Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90. • Abraham laughs. His son’s name, Isaac, means “he laughs.” • God promises to bless Ishmael as well with many descendants and rulers. • God confirms His covenant will continue with Isaac (the child by faith), not Ishmael (the child by the flesh). • As a covenant sign, Abraham (99) circumcised his son Ishmael (13), himself, and all the men in his household. • Even though God’s promise seemed laughable at the time, Abraham followed through on his part of the covenant.

15. Appearance of BlessingGenesis 18:1-15 • Abraham still lives in a tent near oaks at Mamre. • 3 men appear at the tent. • Abraham generously offers them rest, water, bread, (calf) meat, curds, and milk. • One of the men is identified as the LORD. • God and 2 angels? • An Old Testament appearance of the Trinity? • The LORD prophesies that Sarah will have a son in the next year. • Sarah laughs. She denies laughing. Remember that Abraham also laughed. And Isaac means “he laughs.” This family is filled with laughs.

16. Appearance of Wrath & MercyGenesis 18:16-33 • The LORD reveals that He is on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah because of its great sin. • Genesis 13 mentioned the men of Sodom were “great sinners against the LORD.” God already knows the sin of these cities. This knowledge reveals that God’s judgment isn’t sudden but He is slow to anger. • Abraham pleads that the LORD not destroy the righteous with the wicked. • God indicates that He won’t destroy the city for the sake of 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, or 10 righteous people. • Ten people is estimated to be a fraction of 1% of the population.

17. Destruction of Sin, Sodom, & the Cities of the Plain (Genesis 19) • Unfortunately, God is unable to find even 10 righteous people. • Only 4 are selected for rescue: Lot’s family. • The 2 angels go to Sodom to rescue Lot’s family and to destroy the city. (mercy & judgment) • Lot shows generous hospitality to the angels. (righteous like Abraham) • The men of Sodom try to molest the angels. • The angels strike the men with blindness so they can’t find the door. • The angels tell Lot that God has heard the outcry against the sinfulness of Sodom, and they are there to destroy it. (Who cried out? Lot?) • Lot’s sons-in-law refuse to believe him. They are destroyed. • Lot’s wife looks back at the destruction and turns to a pillar of salt. • Lot and his two daughters reach Zoar (“little”) before the destruction. • After sunrise, God rained sulfur and fire from heaven on the cities—a foreshadowing of judgment to come for all the ungodly. • Abraham looked down and saw smoke like a furnace over the cities. • Lot is afraid and leaves Zoar for the hills to live in a cave. • Lot’s daughters have no husbands now. • Daughters get Lot drunk and have sons through him. • One son is Moab (“from father”), father of the Moabites. • One son is Ben-ammi (“son of my people”), father of the Ammonites.

18. Sodom’s RemainsDiscovered • Sodom’s remains are believed to be at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan. • Scorched foundations • 3 feet of ash • Pottery shards with a glassy melted surface indicates brief exposure to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit (like volcanic magma) • Archeological evidence suggests destruction by a large sudden fire of some kind • Zoar, Moab and Ammon

19. DISCUSSIONGenesis 17-19 • What did God promise Abram? (3 things) • What people(s)is Abram the father of? • What place is Abram given as an “everlasting possession”? • What covenant sign is Abram given? • What does it symbolize? • What covenant sign does the New Testament have? • What covenant names are Abram & Sarai given? • How does this relate to God’s covenant name? • What covenant name do New Testament believers have? • Why do Abraham & Sarah laugh? • What does Isaac’s name mean? • What should we do when faced with an incredible promise? • How is God’s mercy shown in the judgment of the cities? • What is Abraham’s reaction? • What is Lot’s reaction? • What is the reaction of the people of Sodom?

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