Genesis: a 12-session study

1. Session 6B: 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 11-50: close up view of the nation of Israel • Terah. Abram/Abraham. Ishmael & Isaac. Esau & Jacob (Israel). Joseph.

3. REVIEW & PREVIEWPatriarchs, Parents, & Progeny • Terah: • Left for Canaan. Settled half-way. His son finishes the journey. • Abram/Abraham: • Went to Canaan faithfully. Went to Egypt fearfully. Came back to Canaan faithfully. God appears. Abram builds altars. Abram rescues Lot. Abram receives the covenant & the name Abraham. • Ishmael & Isaac: • Ishmael born first, but Isaac received the covenant. • Esau & Jacob • Joseph • “The Patriarchs”: In Jewish and Christian circles, “The Patriarchs” usually refers to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.

4. THE BIG PICTUREGenesis 17:1-22:24 • God fulfills His promises. • God hears the prayers of His people.

5. REVIEW: God Confirms His CovenantGenesis 17:1-27 • “God Almighty”: God has the power to fulfill His promise. • Unilateral covenant becomes bilateral. • Abram is to fill the earth with the image of God. (Adam) • Covenant Name: Abraham (“father of a multitude”) • Covenant Name: Sarah (“princess”) • Covenant Name: YHWH (Their names from God’s name.) • Covenant Name: Christian (We take the name of Christ.) • Covenant People: Abraham & Sarah’s offspring (Israelites) • Covenant Place: Canaan (today: Israel) • Covenant Presence: God’s presence (you & your offspring) • Covenant Sign: circumcision (today: baptism) • Covenant Child: Isaac promised (Abraham 100, Sarah 90) • Consolation: Ishmael promised descendants and rulers • Isaac means ,”He laughs”. Abraham laughed. • Abraham believed, circumcising his household. (Faith acts.)

6. REVIEW: Blessing & WrathGenesis 18:1-33 • Abraham still lives in a tent near oaks at Mamre. • 3 men appear at the tent. 1 is the LORD. • Abraham generously offers them rest, water, bread, (calf) meat, curds, and milk. • The LORD prophesies that Sarah will have a son in the next year. Sarah laughed. • The LORD reveals to Abraham that He is going to Sodom and Gomorrah because of its great sin. • 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.

7. REVIEW: Judgment of SinGenesis 19 • God is unable to find even 10 righteous people. • God has heard the outcry against Sodom. • 2 angelsrescue Lot’s family and destroy the city. (mercy & judgment) • Lot shows generous hospitality. (like Abraham) • Men of Sodom try to molest the angels. Angels blind them. • Lot’s sons-in-law refuse to believe him. • Lot’s wife looks back and turns to a pillar of salt. • Lot and his two daughters reach Zoar before destruction. • Sulfur and fire fell, foreshadowing judgment for all sinners. • Abraham looked down and saw smoke like a furnace. • Lot is afraid. He 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. • Sodom’s remains have been found: 3 feet of ash & scorched.

8. Abraham & Abimelech (Philistines)Genesis 20:1-18 • Abraham & Sarah travel south into Negev/b to Gerar. • Abimelech = “my father is king”, a common royal name. • Abraham calls Sarah “my sister”. She is taken by the king. • God appears to Abimelech in a dream and also keeps him from touching Sarah. (There was to be no doubt that Abraham was Isaac’s father.) • Abimelech is concerned about a “great sin” (adultery). • Abraham suspected the people of Gerar were godless, but their reaction (obeying the dream; returning Sarah; giving sheep, oxen, servants, 1000 pieces of silver, and his choice of land) showed otherwise. Abimelech made restitution. • Abraham is the first person identified as a prophet. His prophetic gift is interceding for others. • God had made Abimelech’s household infertile because of Sarah. • Abraham prays and Abimelech, his wife, and servants are healed. • God’s blessing through Abraham comes to the Philistines. This shows how Abraham is becoming a blessing to all nations.

9. Abraham in Egypt & Gerar ComparedGenesis 12:10-20, 20:1-18 EGYPT • Went to Egypt because of a famine. • Abram says Sarai is his “sister”. • Pharaoh takes Sarai because she is beautiful. • God afflicted Pharaoh’s household with plagues. • Pharaoh gave back Sarai and sent Abram away. • Abram offers no prayer for Pharaoh’s household. GERAR • Went to Gerar for an unknown reason. • Abraham says Sarah is his “sister”. • Abimelech takes Sarah, with no mention of beauty. • God afflicted Abimelech’s household with infertility. • Abimelech gave back Sarah plus many things in restitution. • Abraham prayed and God healed Abimelech’s household.

10. Promise Fulfilled: Isaac is Born!Genesis 21:1-7 • 1 The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. • 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. • 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. • 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. • 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. • 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” • 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” • Isaac means, “he laughs”. Abraham laughed. Sarah laughed. • Isaac is the child of the promise—the child of the covenant. • Abraham 75 when he received the promise, a 25 year wait.

11. Sarah (covenant) & Hagar (slave/flesh)Genesis 21:8-21 • Isaac (2-3) was weaned. Abraham made a feast. • Hagar laughed. Sarah asked Abraham to cast her out. Sarah doesn’t want Ishmael (15-16) to share the inheritance. • Abraham loves his son Ishmael. God consoles Abraham: his offspring will be through Isaac, and Ishmael will be a nation. • Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away with bread and water. They wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. • Out of water, Hagar doesn’t want to see her son die. Hagar puts Ishmael under a bush, walks away, and weeps. • God hears Ishmael. The angel of God calls Hagar. Ishmael will be a great nation. God opens Hagar’s eyes to see a well. • God was with Ishmael.

12. Abraham’s Treaty with AbimelechGenesis 21:21-34 • “God is with you in all that you do.” • Abimelech makes a treaty with Abraham “not to deal falsely” with each other. Abraham agrees. • Abraham confronts Abimelech about the previously existing issue of a well taken by his servants prior to the treaty. Abimelech denies any knowledge of the incident. • Abraham gives sheep and oxen to make a covenant with Abimelech. • Abraham set apart 7 ewe lambs as a witness that he dug the well, hence the name Beersheba (“well of seven” or “well of the oath”). • Abimelech and commander Phicol, returned to the Philistines’ land. • Abraham plants a tree and calls upon the name of the LORD (YHWH), the Everlasting God (El-Olam). Abraham remembers God. • Traditionally, Beersheba (in northern Negev/b) marked the southern boundary of Israel. Today, it’s located in southern Israel where Beersheba is the 7th largest city. It is the “national chess capital” with more chess grandmasters per capital than any city in the world.

13. Abraham’s Testing, God’s ProvidingGenesis 22:1-14 • V. 2 “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” • Abraham and Isaac go with only wood and fire. Isaac carries the wood. • Abraham told 2 young men they will worship and come back. • V. 8 “God will provide for himself the lamb” • Abraham built an altar, place the wood on it, and bound and placed Isaac on that. • Abraham took the knife to sacrifice his son. • The Angel of the LORD calls out to Abraham. • V. 12 “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” • A ram caught by the horns nearby became the substitute sacrifice. • Abraham called the place “The LORD will provide” (lit. “will see”). (JHWH Jireh meant that God provided the sacrifice for sin.) • “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided” may have referred to the temple mount in Jerusalem.

14. The Angel of the LORD PromisesGenesis 22:15-24 • Gen 22:15–18. 15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven • 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, • 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, • 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” • What angel can give an oath on God’s behalf? • Is this “angel” actually the pre-incarnate Jesus? • Abraham returns to Beersheba. He receives news that his brother has had many children. This genealogy, like others in Genesis, signals a new section. After this are several smaller narratives near the end of Abraham’s life.

15. Abraham in “Faith’s Hall of Fame”Hebrews 11 • Heb 11:17–19. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” • 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. • When God tests you, He expects you to pass.When Satan tempts you, he expects you to fail. • Abraham passed the test by faith in God.

16. Isaac & Jesus compared • Isaac is Abraham’s son. • Jesus is God’s son. • Abraham didn’t withhold his only son from sacrifice. • God didn’t withhold his only son from sacrifice. • Isaac carries the wood. • Jesus carries the Cross. • Abraham’s obedience placed Isaac on the altar on a mountain in Moriah. • Our sins placed Jesus on the Cross on a hill in Jerusalem. • Isaac is nearly pierced by a knife, rescued by “The Angel of the LORD”. • After death, Jesus is pierced by a spear. Many believe Jesus to be “The Angel of the LORD.” • With Isaac, the Angel of the LORD called out to earth. • On the cross, Jesus called out to heaven. • With Isaac, a ram was the substitute sacrifice. • With Jesus, He was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus himself was the substitute sacrificial lamb for our sins. • Could it be that Jesus was “The Angel of the LORD” who stopped Isaac’s sacrifice, knowing that Jesus himself was the future sacrifice?

17. 2 Fathers & 2 SonsGenesis 22:22, John 3:16-17 • Genesis 22:22 [God said to Abraham], “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” • John 3:16–17.16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” • God commends Abraham, because “you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen. 22:12). • God “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). • Abraham’s sacrifice is meant to demonstrate what a sacrificial father that God himself is.

18. DISCUSSIONGenesis 20-22 • How does Abraham’s faithlessness with Sarah in Egypt repeat itself in Gerar? • What does this tell us about the nature of sin? • Why does Abimelech make a treaty with Abraham? • Why does Abraham build altars and plant trees? • What does this tell us about why we build churches? • How long did Abraham wait for the birth of Isaac? • What’s the difference between testing and tempting? • In what ways do we need to we need to put God first and then our family? (JOY = Jesus, Others, Yourself) • At Moriah, how does Abraham remind us of God? • At Moriah, how does Isaac remind us of Jesus?