Behind me is the Temple Mount. This is the scene from many of the stories in the Old Testament, from Abraham to Zechariah. Before we begin our next flight of the Bible From 30 Thousand Feet, let's get this background.

To most visible peeks in Genesis, are creation, the fall, the flood, and the origins of Israel. You will see that Genesis, is like a head water of a great river, from here all life flows. Here we glimpse great men from a fallen race. Let's strap in and resume our flight over Genesis.

Well, last time we met, we looked at the formation of the human race and we looked at four great events: the Formation of the Universe -- that is the creation story, the Fall of mankind, the Flood of Noah, and the Fallout of man's rebellion. Those are the four events that we looked at in Genesis 1 through 11. Now tonight beginning in chapter 12, we want to look at the beginning of the human race, I mean sorry not the human race, the Hebrew race. The human race was last week, the Hebrew race begins tonight. And we're going to look at four great people, rather than four great events. We call these people the Patriarchs, principally Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And though it is historical, and a lot of the Bible is, the Bible is also biographical. It centers not just on events, but it really centers upon people. Events are important, but understand that God is all about people. In fact, when His people come to Mount Sinai, as we read Sunday in Exodus chapter 19, the Lord said to them, "You are my Own special treasure." And we understand something there - that God is always reaching out for people; getting ahold of a man named Adam and then a couple, Adam and Eve, and then eventually reaching out to an entire nation that we'll read tonight, the Hebrew nation, but always to reach the entire world - that is His view - with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

So we have seen than that Genesis marks the beginning of everything. Everything, of course, except God. He was One who had no beginning and will have no end. But it's the beginning of the Universe, the beginning of mankind, the beginning of the Sabbath, as we saw, the beginning of marriage, the beginning of family, the beginning of sacrifice, the beginning of human government, the beginning of nations -- that's chapter 10 -- and now the beginning of Israel. Now let me bring you back to the grand theme, so that you see this thread running through the Book, and that is: God's selection of a nation so that He can bring His Son, the Messiah, into the world through that nation, through Whom the world can be saved. You might say that we are beginning God's response to man's rebellion. Remember the four events: formation, fall, flood, fallout -- the fallout of man's rebellion. Now God responds to man's rebellion by doing what he said He was going to do back in chapter 3 -- produce the seed of the woman who would come and bruise the head of the serpent that is Satan. Always, that is in the mind of God.

So beginning in chapter 12 verse 1, we have Abraham. And again, we're going to be flying over, swooping down, looking at a few things, going back up to altitude, cruising quickly, and zeroing in on a few things. Three major religions will trace their roots back to Abraham. And, if you wonder, "How important is Abraham?" all you have to do is see how much of the Bible is devoted to him. Now think of this, in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we covered over 2000 years of history, in 11 chapters; 11 chapters, 2000 plus years of history. Now chapter 12 through 50 covers less than 300 years and 14 of the chapters in Genesis deal specifically with Abraham, so we know that he is important because a lot of text in the Bible is devoted to him.

In fact, after this story, we come to the New Testament even and we find that three of the great sections of the New Testament focus on Abraham: one chapter in Romans, two chapters in Galatians, and almost a whole chapter in the book of James, deal with Abraham. He is called the father of those who believe. In fact, Hebrews 11, he is in the Hall of Faith as 'Father Abraham.' The 'Friend of God', he is called three times in the Bible. In fact, even to this day, among the Arabs, they refer to him as 'Al Halelu' -- the friend of God. That is their name for Abraham.

Well, Abraham's story, though we are starting in chapter 12, begins in chapter 11 where he is in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans, over toward Babylon somewhere. And his father is a pagan worshiper. His brother dies and his nephew Lot needs a home. So Abraham, or Abram, and Sarai adopt him and bring him into their home. So, Verse 1 of chapter 12, "Now the Lord had said to Abram, 'Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you.'" And we understand that he goes up river and stops at a place called Haran and stays there until his father dies, then he fully obeys God, and not until. Verse 2, "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing." Sort of a sense of humor you might say, at least it appears that way, that God would take a man who has no child, married to an infertile wife, and they're getting pretty old, and says, "I'm going to make you a father of many nations." But that is exactly what He is going to do, no joke intended at all, that's part of the promises of God, "I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Now, all of God's program from here, all the way to the end of the book, chapter 50, flow from what you just read. "In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed." Now God's program unfolds with that. "So Abram departed," verse 4,"as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years young [it says old, but compared to how old he's going to be when he has a kid, he's a spring chicken] when he departed from Haran." Now I want you just to notice something. It would seem that the first words God spoke to Abram were pretty abrupt, "Leave, get out of town, go somewhere else." Not, "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm God, and you are?" It's just, "I want you to leave everything you're familiar with, I want you to leave your comfort zone, because, though it's going to be hard in leaving all of that behind, what I'm going to replace that with -- how I'm going to bless you -- is so incalculable, it will blow your mind. So leave all of that, leave everything that has shaped your early life, make a clean break and come and follow me to this new land." Now God calls us, if you think about it, to make the same choice; to make a clean break from our past, to start all over. Didn't Jesus say, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." Now, I believe that to the extent that we leave the old life, will be the extent to which we enjoy the new one. Whatever is in the past, let it go, make a clean break, and follow Him.

Notice five times God says, "I will." I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will bless those who bless you and curse those -- God is taking the initiative and doing the work. Now, I think a lot of people, honestly, reverse this. I've noticed a trend among Christians; I've noticed it for years. And a lot of emphasis gets put on what you can do for God. And people get into this whole hardship of works, "I'm going to work hard for God." And I remember way back when President John Kennedy, (and I was just really, really little back then! Maybe not that little) but I remember a famous inauguration speech where John F. Kennedy said, [and you'll remember it] "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." Do you remember that? A lot of people put that in their relationship with God, as if to say, "Don't ask God what He can do for you, ask what you can do for God." Now that sounds kind of beautiful, but here's the truth, you can't do anything for God unless He does something first, in and through you. He takes the initiation here and He works. First John chapter 4, "We love Him because He first loved us."

Well, he gets to Canaan and in verse 7,"The Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord." Bethel -- or "the House of God," is very important in the spiritual history of the Jews, second only to Jerusalem in the Old Testament. Ok, in chapter 12 and chapter 13, Abram comes into this land called the Promised Land. In the Promised Land, it's not so promising. A famine hits the land; there's no food. Now if you've been called from a place like the Tigris Euphrates River valley, Ur of the Chaldeans, and you make it through the desert, and you come to a parched place called Israel, and then there is a famine in the land and God says,"Welcome to the Promised Land!" You may be tempted to think, "Did I hear from God? Is this God's will for my life? Did I have a late night bagel with too many onions and I had some weird dream and I made this whole thing up?" So in that, he is tempted, he's tested really. Now you might even wonder, "Why would God do that? Why would God bring him to this land, only to have famine happen?" Here's why: faith needs to be tested. What good is your faith if you only have a trouble free life? How do you know if your faith is any good? The only way you and I ever know if it works is if it works under pressure.

So here we see that the 'Father of Faith,' is the 'Father of messing up,' because he goes all the way down to Egypt and he lies, and he endangers his life, and more than that, he endangers his wife's life because he says, "She's my sister." It's a bad witness all around. And then he returns and when he returns after that lapse of faith in chapter 14, there's a disagreement between his nephew, Lot, and their herdsman, and Abraham and his herdsman. So Abraham says, "Look Lot, buddy boy, you can have the best of the land. You pick what ever you want, I'll take the left overs." The Bible says Lot chooses to go down to the well watered plane at that time, in a place called Sodom. And in chapter 14, I love it, God takes Abram and he says, "Abram look around. Look as far as you can see to the north, south, east, west; everything your eye can see, I have given to you and to your descendents forever."

Well, in chapter 14 is an interesting war and I'm setting up one of the key passages in the Bible. There's a war between four kings and five kings, nine all together. Four kings are Shemite kings from the sons of Shem, Semitic kings. Five kings are Hamite kings and these five kings have been for 12 years, ruled by a guy named Chedorlaomer, and pay tribute to him. Thirteenth year, they had enough of the taxes and they rebelled. Chedorlaomer raises up an army, attacks those guys, wins the battle, takes the spoil, and - this is where Abraham comes in - takes Lot as a captive. Well, when Abraham finds out, "Hey, they messed with my nephew." This guy Abram, evidently, was very wealthy, because he takes 318 armed servants, born under his own roof, and he goes out to battle, and wins the battle, and releases Lot, and lets those captives go free.

Now in chapter 14, verse 17, "the King of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, (that is the king's valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him." Now watch this. "Then Melchizedek," You see that name? It comes from two words, melech -- sedech, "King of Righteousness," So watch this, "Then, the King of Righteousness, the King of Salem -- Salem, peace - so he's called King of righteousness, king of peace, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, El Elyon, and he blessed Him and he said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And he blessed God Most High who had delivered his enemies into his hand, and he gave Him a tithe of all." Tithing is an act of submission. To tithe to a person indicates that person you are tithing to is greater than you are; there's a superiority that Abraham recognizes that is in Melchizedek.

Now that's an obscure incident and we might just be tempted to brush it off and never think anything of it, except it comes up again, in Psalm 110, it says concerning Messiah, "You are a king forever after the order of Melchizedek, a priest forever." And then we get to the book of Hebrews and there are a couple of chapters and this crazy name appears again, Melchizedek, and it says in Hebrews 7 verse 3 that he is, "without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life." So after a few mentions of it in the Bible, we pause and we ask, "Who is this guy?" And there's a few guesses. Guess number one, it was Shem the son of Noah, no proof of that. Possibility number two, some Canaanite king who is monotheistic and he stood out there and that was his name; he is the king of ancient Jerusalem, Salem. Number three, it was Jesus Christ appearing in bodily form called a theophany or a Christophany, an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament.

Now here is something interesting: priests were not kings and kings were not priests. Later on the tribe of Judah will be the royal tribe and the kings come from that. Levi is the tribe that brings forth the priest and they never mix. This guy is a mixture of king and priest. So it is a very interesting person. He comes out of nowhere and yet Abraham recognizes him as superior and pays tithes to him. So, I'm not going to really answer the question as to who it is because there have been a lot of books written about it and there is a lot of debate about it so let the debates rage on, I have my opinion, but let's go to chapter 15.

In chapter 15, this is one of the chapters I said was a key chapter on Sunday that you ought to read in advance. Chapter 15 elaborates on and remember this term, an unconditional covenant. It's a weird chapter. It's sort of like a twilight zone episode in the Old Testament. And I sort of think Rod Sterling is in the background saying, "Picture if you will, Abraham alone..." and this whole weird scene unfolds. Now Abram is nearing 90 years old in this chapter. God is making promises to him all along. He's going to give to Abram and Sarai, his wife, what they wanted, and even more. Not only Ishmael, which is the son of the flesh, but miraculously Isaac and then after Isaac, they're going to have grandkids and then great-grandkids and eventually an entire nation and several nations will come out of the loins of Abraham.

Remember that old saying that says be careful what you wish for? You might just get what you ask for? I heard about a guy and his wife, they were celebrating their 60th wedding, well they were 60 years old and they were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. That was it. They got married when they were 20. It seems that at their party, a little fairy appeared and she had a magic wand. The fairy said, "You have been such a stellar, exemplary couple, I'll give you anything you wish for, you only get one wish." The lady got all blushed and she said, "I know what I want, I've always wanted to travel around the world." The fairy sweeps the wand across, tickets appear in hand, cash appears in hand, she can go anywhere in the world. She thought, "That's cool!" Then the fairy says to the man, "Okay, you get one wish, what do you want?" And the man looked around, paused, and looked very shy and he said,"I'd like to have a wife 30 years younger than me." So the fairy said, "No problem," waived the wand, poof! And he was 90 years old instantly, just like that! [Laughter] Why did I share that with you? I have no idea!

No, it actually does phase into this first question in chapter 15 verse 1, look "After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying,'Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.' But Abram said, 'Lord God, what will you give me, seeing that I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?'" That is so typical. God appears to him, speaks to him audibly and says, "Don't worry about anything, I am your shield, I am your reward," What are you gonna give me, Abram says?" "'Look, you have given me no offspring, indeed, one born in my house is my heir.' Behold the word of the Lord came to him saying, 'This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." Then he brought him outside and he said, 'Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to number them.' And he said to him 'So shall your descendants be.'" Now watch this, "And he believed." The Hebrew word is a-main -- he said "Amen!" to what the Lord promised him. And the Lord accounted it to him for righteousness. It's one of the pivotal teachings on faith in the entire Bible. He believed God, and from that moment on God said, "You're righteous. I'm taking your faith and imputing it to you, calling you righteous because of your faith."

I can imagine the scene. It was one of those clear, dry, middle eastern nights when the moon was probably just a little waning crescent or waxing crescent, so that the stars were like really bright, and He said, "Abram, come here. Look up there. Check it out, look at those stars. Start counting them! So shall your descendants be, like the stars of the heavens." I mentioned it last week, and I'll challenge you again this week: When you feel overwhelmed and you're waiting for God's promises, stop, put it on pause, and if it's night time especially, (or wait until it is night), go outside and look up, and just meditate on what you see. The Bible says, "Who can hold the oceans in the palm of His hand or measure the heavens with the span of His hand?" So whatever you are dealing with, whatever problem is like huge in your life, just think of the God that you're dealing with; go outside and look at those stars and just think of the vastness of your backyard -- the Milky Way Galaxy.

You know, your backyard, the Milky Way Galaxy is 10,000 light years by 100,000 light years long. A little perspective here -- let's say we could strap you on a ray of light and you could travel through space, unharmed, at the speed of light -- 186,000 miles per second -- that's fast. You could go around the earth seven and a half times in a single second going that fast. If you went out toward the moon, in one and a half seconds, you would sail past the moon. In two minutes and 18 seconds you would go past Venus. In four and a half minutes you would go past Mercury. In seven and a half minutes you would sail past the Sun, bye, bye. But going 186,000 miles per second it would take you 100,000 years to get from one end to the other end of the Milky Way Galaxy and they say that's one of billions of galaxies out there. So next time you're worried and you go, "Oh God!" just remember He is going like this, "Yes, you have a problem? Well, you came to the right One then, didn't you?" "Abram, look at the stars, and that's what I'm going to do for you."

Well, there's some weird instructions coming up here now and I want to kind of go through this. I said it is a weird chapter, I said it's a twilight zone thing. It's called the cutting of a covenant. In those days when you wanted to make a formal covenant, well, let's backup. If you want to do a formal covenant today, what do you do? You sign your name on documents. And if you buy a house, there's like, you know, there's reams of documents. It's like you're there for four hours just sign papers, sign them all, sign lawyers who don't like other lawyers and you just sign stuff. That formalizes the agreement -- your signature.

Then afterwards they give you the pen, which is now out of ink, and they shake your hand and you go home. Not in those days. Do you know how they would formalize a covenant? They would take an animal, cut it in pieces, lay bits of the carcass on the ground, and the two parties would walk in a figure eight between the pieces of the bloody carcass, reciting the terms of the covenant. That's weird. But that's what is going on here.

Verse 12, chapter 15, "Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: 'Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. [Boy, he's pushing 90 already!] But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it shall come to pass or and it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces."

And then God spelled out the borders of the land in the next couple of verses. This is what I want you to see: in making this covenant, God is making the covenant by Himself. Abram was snoozing through this thing, he's fallen asleep. It does not say he walked through the carcass with God. But God appeared in this burning torch and it alone passed through the parts of the animal. God is saying, "I'm going to make an unconditional, unilateral covenant. This is what I am going to do; I'm giving you this land. It's not based upon you. I alone, unilaterally, unconditionally, am giving this land to you." Now listen, failure to understand the terms of this covenant gets people weirded out today when it comes to the church and Israel, and this whole idea that the church has become the new Israel and all of the promises God made to Israel are now defunct and outdated, and they don't apply any more, they apply to the church - is nonsense. This is God's unilateral, unconditional covenant that that land is going to Abraham and then to Isaac and then to Jacob and to their descendants. Well, it's such a wonderful promise.

In chapter 16 Sarai thinks, "I'm going to help God out. I'm going to help God fulfill his promise. God is so sweet to make that promise, but you know, God's busy. He needs a little help. So, Abram, tell you what, I don't think God meant that literally! Like I'm gonna have a kid or something! So you take my handmaiden, from Egypt, named Hagar. You go in, and you guys have a child, and we'll call that our child." It was an ancient custom that was permitted. So a child was born by the name of Ishmael. Have you ever heard the saying, "God helps those who help themselves?" How many of you have heard that before? I've heard it, I've heard it all my life. I don't know if you've heard this but I'll ask this. How many of you, at one time in your life, now be honest; ever thought that was in the Bible? I'm raising my hand now because that's what I thought. My dad said, "It's in the Bible!" Then I read the Bible [laughter] and it wasn't in there. In fact, the Bible says God helps the helpless, not those who help themselves. By the way, Ben Franklin was the one who came up with that.

Chapter 17, Abram is even more helpless because he is 99 years old, still has no kid, and God renames him from Abram, "exalted father," to Abraham, "father of a multitude." That's harsh! He has to live with that! He has to tell people, "God changed my name; I'm now 'father of a multitude.'" "'Father of a multitude'? You weren't even a dad at all and your name was 'Exalted father'!" "I know, but you have to call me that now." Why? Well, it's in the Bible. Ok, we will do that. His wife's name, Sarai, was changed to Sarah, which means Princess. That's a good change. Now, notice it's just a 'huh' that changes everything. You're Abraham instead of Abram. Not Sarai, you're Sarah. It's just a breath and the breath changes everything. You know what I think? I think that's a little indication since in Hebrew the word "spirit/ruach" means "breath," that God is indicating, "Abram this is impossible, but for me, just a 'huh' breath, the power of my Holy Spirit, can do that which is impossible and make this come to pass.

Chapter 17, verse 9, "God said to Abraham," notice the change, "as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between Me and you, your descendants after you; every male child among you shall be circumcised." This now is the "berith melah," the sign of the covenant; the symbol of the covenant -- circumcision. So he believed God, it was accounted unto him for righteousness, but now the sign, outward sign of the inward covenant was circumcision. I bet Abraham kind of thought, "Um, well, Noah got a rainbow! [Laughter] But okay, you're God; I'm not going to argue with you here." Now, question, why the eighth day, why is a boy child circumcised on the eighth day? Let me tell you why. The clotting agents inside an infant's body are not optimal until the eighth day. Vitamin K is not produced in the infant's body until between the fifth and the seventh day. Prothrombin is below normal until the eighth day it climbs up to 110 percent. Now, Abraham didn't know that. God knew that. God knew what was best. That information he didn't have, Abraham didn't have. So Abraham had to do this by faith. Now, do you see that principle? There's a lot of things that you face in your life and you think, "This is odd, strange, I don't get it." You're called to walk by faith because you're dealing with information you don't have; God knows why this is happening, why He's allowing it. You don't know, we have to walk by faith, not by sight. And I always say, create in your mind a little file that says, "Waiting for further information." And sometimes you just have to live in that file, "I don't get it, I don't understand, I'm going to go for it because that is part of my faith experience."

Chapters 18 and 19 are fascinating in that there are three visitors that come and visit Abraham's tent in the heat of the day. It's strange because one of them is called 'The Lord'. He is giving the title 'The Lord'. He is identified and addressed, as Lord. Two of them go off to Sodom and Gomorrah and are the angels that judge Sodom and Gomorrah. So here's the scene: The Lord, in some form, and two angels, in some form, come to Abraham's tent for dinner. What do you feed an angel for dinner? Ok, I hear angel food cake, [Laughter] angel hair pasta. You wouldn't do devil food cake or deviled eggs. You would stay away from that. He served them dinner, these three visitors.

Now while they're there in the tent, the Lord speaks to Abraham and says, "Abraham, I'm going to come back in a year and your wife, Sarah, is going to have a son." Sarah is behind the tent flap and she starts, she starts laughing to herself, she thinks nobody can hear me. The Lord, this person outside, goes, "Why did Sarah laugh?" She pokes her head through, "I didn't laugh!" The Lord said, "Ah, but you did laugh. Is anything too hard for the Lord? It says, mark my word, you are going to have a son." Well, after this conversation, the three visitors leave, Abraham follows them, to go to Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord and Abraham, on some promontory point looking over the Dead Sea where Sodom and Gomorrah are, have a conversation.

And it's that famous conversation where Abraham says, "You wouldn't destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose you could find 50 people that were good people in Sodom. Would you spare the city for 50 people?" God said, "You find me 50 -- done deal." "Oh, well, maybe 50 is a little much. Ok, what if there are 40 righteous?" "Find me 40 -- done deal." "Hey listen, don't get bummed out God, but if I find 30 people, would you spare the city for 30?" "You find 30 people, I will not judge Sodom for 30." He works Him all the way down to 10. God says, "You find 10 people who are righteous," and he knew he couldn't find 10 people because there was only Lot and his family, and they weren't quite 10 and they were barely [laughter] good enough, but they were saved by faith, so God would spare them. Well the cities were destroyed in the coming chapters and as you know, there was a public condoning of homosexual behavior, a very graphic description of their doom. In fact the next few chapters are pretty grim. Chapter 18, the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah is proclaimed. In chapter 19, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is enacted and there's this weird incestuous relationship that is described with Lot and his daughters. Chapter 20, Abraham relapses back into unbelief, goes back down toward Egypt and this time he meets with a guy named Abimelech, and lies again about his wife second time, it happened. So, he is the father of messing up.

So after all of these chapters of lying and doom, we're ready for a break; we're ready for a good laugh. So we come to chapter 21, "The Lord visited Sarah just as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken." Ladies and gentlemen, God is never late. God is always punctual; He is always on time. You say, "But, why did God wait 25 years before fulfilling the promise that they would have a child?" Think about it, because once it is fulfilled, it makes the fulfillment even more dramatic.

Okay, granted Abraham is 75 years old and has a kid -- that's happened before -- unusual but it's happened before. But when you're over 100 and your wife is in her 90's upper 90's, pushing 100, and she's pregnant -- now that's a miracle. That's dramatic and God wanted that to be seen. "For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him." Verse 5, "Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him and Sarah said, 'God has made me laugh and all who hear will laugh with me.' She also said, 'Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?' For I have borne him a son in his old age." Don't you love that! God turns a retirement home into a maternity ward [laughter]. That's cool! It's so outlandish, you can only laugh -- it's that cool. God made me laugh. Can I just ask you, does God make you laugh? You know what? The typical young child laughs on average up to 150 times per day. You know what the average is for an adult? Fifteen chuckles per day. Some of you need to lighten up; laugh a little more, enjoy the Lord's presence a little more, see the humor and the irony in how your life unfolds.

Genesis 22 a pivotal chapter: "Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham." This is, by the way, the hardest test ever. "He said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' Then He said, 'Take now 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.'" That doesn't make sense does it? Don't you think Abraham immediately in his mind thought, "Wait a minute, I waited 25 years so the situation was utterly impossible, I'm an old dude over 100, my wife's old, we have a kid because God promised we would have a kid and it's miraculous, and now kill him? Now end his life?" Now, notice the wording here, "Take your son, your ONLY son," wait a minute, he's not the only son, the first born was Ishmael, this is the second son. But this is the only son that God is recognizing right now because he's the son of God's promise; the son by faith. Notice, "the son whom you love." Now I do think it's important that in the Bible, whenever a certain word, especially an important word, is first mentioned, that you take notice of it. The first time ever in the Bible the word 'love' is mentioned is right here and I want you to notice how it is used. The first time love is ever written in the Bible, it's written about a father loving his only begotten son and about to give him in sacrifice, - notice where - on Mount Moriah.

Now, in Jerusalem at the time of Abraham, Jerusalem is some 1800 to 2200 feet above sea level. In meters that would be 600 plus meters to 700 meters above sea level and the Temple Mount is elevated above sea level, 741 meters. Now, the Temple Mount, where the temple was built, was originally a threshing floor of a guy named Araunah, (we'll read about him in couple of months), but it's not the top of the mountain. In Abraham's day, think of it, the top of the mountain would have been further to the north because from the Temple Mount, the topography ascends another 90 feet high to 770 meters. The peak of Mount Moriah is a place we call Golgotha. So, where would Abram have brought his son? To the top of Mount Moriah which is the ancient place of Golgotha. "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love [first time it's mentioned] and offer him on that mountain." All of this, you can see, is a preview of another Father who would sacrifice His Son on that very mountain. It's very, very important.

"So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. And on the..." notice this, what day? The third day. That means in Abraham's mind, he was going to go through with it, his son was dead to him for three days, in his mind. "Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey; now watch, the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.'" That's a statement of faith. "What do you mean you'll come back? Didn't God say, 'kill him, sacrifice him'? That means you're gonna leave his dead body on that mountain." No, "We're going to go worship and we'll come back to you." That's why in Hebrews, chapter 11 verse 19, it says, "By faith, Abraham offered up his son Isaac, concluding that God was able to raise him from the dead."

Now I'm going to tell you something that will help you. That word, "concluding" used in Hebrews 11, is a Greek word, "logizomai." It means to logically think through a process. So he's faced with a dilemma. "God wants me to kill him, yet God gave me him after 25 years -- this is miraculous. So, as I think about who God is and what God has said to me and I understand the nature and character of God, He can only mean one of two things, logically: either I'm not going to have to go through with it, or I'm gonna kill him and God will raise him from the dead. That has to happen. I am logically, ' logizomai' processing this in my mind." And I am going to suggest when you face a hardship, stop, and if it's night look up at the stars, remember but then logically go through the process. "If God is my God, and I am His child and He's made these promises, and this is what I know to be true about Him, then logically, this must happen or that must happen. But either way, I am in good hands with God." You carefully reason through according to God's character and ability.

Now, we're going to quickly finish out the last three of these patriarchs. Abraham is clearly the guy that takes the bulk of it. Chapter 24 we get to Isaac. Now, let me feel you in. Chapter 23, Sarah dies and is buried. In chapter 25 Abram marries again, second wife named Keturah, and has more children. But now, chapter 24, Abraham commissions his servant, who we found out in chapter 15, is named Eliezer of Damascus, to go out and find his son Isaac a wife, go get a bride for Isaac. So verse 61 of chapter 24, "Then Rebekah and her maids arose, and they rode on the camels and followed the man [that is the servant]. So the servant took Rebekah and departed. Now Isaac came from the way of Beer Lahai Roi, for he dwelt in the south. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field [I love this] in the evening; and lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming."

I just want you to notice this young men: this young man was out in the field meditating and waiting on the Lord for the wife the Lord was going to bring him. He wasn't out beating the pavement, looking at every woman around thinking, "Maybe she's, she waived at me, she smiled at me. It must be the Lords will but I'm going to marry her. No, no, I found somebody else!" He's out focused on the Lord and the Lord brings her. I'm not saying that somebody's going to ride in with your bride-to-be on a camel, but it could happen, but in probable won't! "Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel; for she had said to the servant, 'Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?' The servant said, 'It is my master.' So she took a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."

Let me throw this in, I see Eliezer, let me paint this picture: Eliezer is an unnamed servant in this chapter, his name isn't mentioned here, it's mentioned in chapter 15, but his an unnamed servant. The name Eliezer means "the comforter," so you have the father sending the comforter who is unnamed to go get a Gentile bride for his only son. It's a very interesting type of the Holy Spirit who doesn't draw attention to himself, Jesus said, but focuses on Jesus Christ and is all about bringing the bride of Christ, the Church, to the Son. A beautiful thumbprint in the scripture. Well, I wish I could say, "And they lived happily ever after," but they didn't.

Um, what happens is chapter 27 through 36, I'm going to do a quick summery. Rebekah is barren, his wife, can't have children. Isaac prays that she would get pregnant, she does get pregnant but it's a very hard pregnancy and she doesn't know why. Now back, in chapter 25, verse 23, just have to fill you in, "And the Lord said to her, here is the reason: 'Two nations are in your womb.'" [Well no wonder! [Laughter] That would explain the hard pregnancy -- there are two nations in there!] "Two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger."

Now you know, scientists tell us, some, that a child's personality is actually formed long before birth. Some believe even in the womb; that children can be born and you just see the difference between one child and the next right off the bat, immediately. Just like there is physical DNA, there's personality differences that are seen from birth. Well, the first born was named Harry -- Esau - because he came out harry and red, and they said, "Look, he's Harry! Let's call him Harry!" Good, very original. And then the next one came out grabbing the heel of Harry and they called him "Heel Catcher"- Jacob, "Heel Catcher". So Harry and Heel Catcher grow up.

Now Harry loves the outdoors, loves to hunt. Heel Catcher is sort of a docile type, loves to be in the tents and cook and sew and that kind of thing. Harry comes home one day famished and he goes, "You know, you're such a good cook and you make that cool red stew. If you made some of that, I'd love that." Now, Jacob said, "I'll tell you what, you don't care about you're spiritual heritage, you give me your birthright as firstborn, I'll give you a bowl of stew." Esau says, "Done deal!" He didn't care about the spiritual stuff. So he gives him, his birthright. That's the informal giving of the birthright. Years go by, they get a little bit older, now their father, Isaac is really old and he can't see and so mom coaches Jacob to go dress up with fur on his skin and bones, arms and walk up to his dad, smelling real gnarly like the field, so that he thinks it's his other brother, and confers the blessing of the firstborn not on Esau but on Jacob. That's the formal giving of it, which makes Esau mad and swears that he's going to kill him.

Now, chapter 27 verse 18: "So he went to his father and said, 'My father.' And he said, 'Here I am. Who are you, my son?' Jacob said to his father, [now he had to disguise his voice] 'I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.'" Verse 21, "Isaac said to Jacob, 'Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.'" Uh-oh, well, somehow, the Lord was in this, and Isaac thought Jacob was Esau so he gives him the blessing. Jacob runs away from his home to Uncle Laban, back toward where Abraham came from in a place called Padan-aram, toward Syria up north runs away, and Esau comes later to hunt him down.

Now God is sovereign in all of this. Chapter 28, let me just fill in the blanks and we'll read a couple verses. Chapter 28, as Jacob is on the run, he sees a vision at night of a ladder, a stairway into heaven, and the angels of God are coming down and going up. He wakes up the next day and says, "The Lord is in this place and I knew it not." Because the night before in a dream that he saw, with that ladder and angels. The Lord said, "My hand is on you young man, and this land I am giving to you Jacob, the blessing does go to you and to your descendants after you. This is the land as part of the covenant I swore to Abraham and to Isaac and now I am giving to you." Chapter 28, verse 13, "Behold, the Lord stood above it and said: 'I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.'"

Ok, Jacob makes it to Haran and comes up to a well. There are some guys out there and he goes hay, "Do you guys know a man by the name of Laban?" They say, "Yeah, we know Laban pretty well. In fact, lift up your eyes and look, there is his daughter coming." Sure enough, it was Rachel. The Bible says she was a knockout. She was gorgeous, she was beautiful. Verse 11 of chapter 29,"Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept." Now that's weird. Imagine a first date, or imagine a fifth date, or five years into the relationship; whenever they kissed the first time, and the guy turns around and cries. She would think, "What is it? The garlic? This is horrible!" [Laughter] Anyway, she went and told her dad, I just wanted to point that out, he cried. She went and told her dad. Her dad brings him in and says, "Look, I want you to stay with me a while, I want you to work for me. You name your wages." He says, "Okay, I'll tell you what, I'll work seven years if I can marry this girl." Laban says, "Done deal!"

Seven years later, after working, he switches the daughter he wanted to marry, Rachel, with a girl named Leah, the firstborn. So he wakes up the next day thinking he had married Rachel and he looks, it's the older daughter, Leah. And he didn't really like the way she looked, the Bible says that. So he's bummed out and he says, "You tricked me!" He's the guy who tricked his brother and now he's being tricked, so it's kind of pay back. Laban says, "Don't worry about it, it's our custom here. I'll tell you what, work another seven years, that's 14 years total, and you can have the other daughter too." You know what the Bible says, "Those years seemed but a day to him because of the love that he had for her." Isn't that romantic? So he marries these two gals.

The family grows, they have 12 sons, at least one daughter, he goes back home, chapter 32 verse 24, "Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. When He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip and He said, 'Let Me go, for the day breaks.' But he said, 'I won't let you go unless You bless me!'" So here you have Jacob who once said to his father, "Bless me, give me the blessing," and to his brother, "Bless me, give me the blessing." Now he's saying it to God, "God, bless me, give me the blessing. I will not let you go until You bless me." "So he said, 'What is your name.' And he said, 'Heel Catcher.' He said, 'Your name will no longer will be called Jacob -- [one who strives or connives, or heel catcher] but Israel -- one who fights with God, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.' Jacob asked, saying, 'Tell me Your name, I pray.' And He said, 'Why is it that you ask about My name?' And He blessed him there. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel:'For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.' Just as he crossed over to Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank."

So this is like the first WWE wrestling match of Canaanite sports you might say. Jacob was a scrapper all of his life, now he surrenders to God. The best day of your life is when you quit fighting against God and you fight with God; you surrender and you get on God's team. And don't ask, "I hope God's on my side, are you?" The question isn't, is God on my side; you are on His side. Are you following Him?

Now in chapters 37 through 50, we are going to finish it in two and a half minutes, trust me, well maybe 3 minutes. Joseph is the central figure, from chapter 37 through chapter 50. You know the story. He's hated by his brothers, he's sold into Egypt, and he's the guy who had two dreams. And where I think he erred, perhaps, is in the manner of revealing his dreams because he goes up to his 11 brothers and says, "Hey! I had a dream last night! There were 12 sheaves and 11 sheaves in the field all bowed down to my sheaf." Well, the 11 brothers heard that and said, "You little punk! That dream is about us. You think we're gonna bow down to you? Forget about it!" Then he has another dream and he tells his mom and dad and brothers. He says, "I had a dream and there were 12 stars and the sun and the moon. And 11 stars and the Sun and the Moon all bowed down to my star!" Then Jacob got upset because Jacob knew that that meant the whole family bowing down to him.

By the way, you'll be thankful for that in Revelation 12 when we get there in one year, because, because we will unlock the mystery of Revelation 12 where you see the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the 12 stars. We will automatically know, "That must mean Israel, because that's what it meant here"; it's the same image. So, he's sold into Egypt, he works for a guy named Potiphar, Potiphar's wife is like the first "Desperate Housewife", [Laughter] I don't think they lived on Wisteria Lane, but they lived in Egypt and she made a come-on to Joseph and wanted to have relations with him and he wouldn't do it. He fled the house, he became a prisoner in jail, and there he was forgotten about.

One night the baker and the butler had a dream; they told Joseph what it is. He interpreted the dreams; one would live and have his station back, the other would get his head chopped off. He said to the guy he knew would live, say "Look, when you get out of here, don't forget about me, buddy boy." The guy got out, forgot about Joseph, until Pharaoh had a dream. Pharaoh's dream was, you remember, seven fat cows and seven emaciated cows and the seven emaciated cows ate, the good cows, the fat cows and yet they didn't grow, they stayed ugly and gnarly and scant. And then there were seven blighted grains of wheat and seven fat grains of wheat were consumed by the seven, yet they didn't grow. So he interprets them, chapter 41 verse 25, Joseph said to Pharaoh, "'The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do: The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years; the dreams are one. And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine." So he tells him to prepare for the famine by storing up grain.

Verse 37,"The advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, 'Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?'" Okay, a famine hits the ancient Middle East. Jacob, up in Canaan, says to his boys, "Go to Egypt and buy grain." They go to Egypt. Joseph recognizes his brothers. They don't recognize him because he has had an extreme make-over; remember, he's a Prime Minister of Egypt, he looks royal, and with all his regalia, they don't understand who he is. So, he sells grain, he says, tell you what "Let me keep one of your brothers, Simeon, with me and you bring back the whole family. I understand you have a younger brother named Benjamin. Bring him back. So they reported to Jacob. Jacob is all upset, "How could you do this?! I already lost one son, Joseph, and now you leave Simeon, and that guy says to bring Benjamin back, the other son that I love more than you creeps [I'm paraphrasing a little bit]. The famine gets so bad, they all go down to Egypt to be saved.

In chapter 45, verse 1, Joseph reveals himself. "Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, 'Make everyone go out from me!' So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph; does my father still live?' But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence." Chapter 50, verse 19, "Joseph said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Now keep this thought because next week we find the children of Israel in Egypt about to be delivered. It was in Egypt that they were allowed to grow and become a great nation. It was in Egypt that they thrived and God blessed them before they went across the wilderness into the land of Canaan. So Jacob and 70 of his family move, they become a great nation, they're there 400 years. Eventually they become oppressed, that is where we're going to pick it up next week.

I wanted to give you two snapshots but I don't have enough time. I want to end in chapter 49, two verses and we close the book. Now, chapter 49, I'm having you turn there last because 12 tribes are listed and at the end of Jacob's life, he's an old guy now, and he gives a blessing and a prophecy on all of his kids. Look at this 49 verse 9, "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people."

Notice the word scepter. It means 'the staff of tribal identity' and it includes the authority to self-govern. That's the scepter, the right to self-govern. Look at the word 'Shiloh,' it's a word that means, 'to whom it belongs.' The ancient Rabbis said this referred to the Messiah and they interpreted this to mean, 'the national identity of Judah as a tribe to govern itself'. That scepter will not depart from that tribe or that country until the Messiah comes. So when the Romans occupied Judah and eventually took away their right for capital punishment to impose their own law by capital punishment, there's a passage in the Talmud that says that the Sanhedrin put ashes and sackcloth on their heads, marched around Jerusalem and said, listen "Woe to us for the scepter has departed from Judah, but the Messiah has not come."

They were quoting this, this is what they didn't know that while they were having their little 'Woe is me dance' in Jerusalem, over in Nazareth was a young boy about ready to lay down his hammer and chisel in a carpenters shop and present Himself as the Messiah of the nation; Shiloh had come, even as the prophecy said. I end here because notice: four great events, four great people, all pointing to one person; that's the message of the Bible. One person, two events -- His first coming, His second coming. And we'll follow that thread of redemption into Exodus. Next week, Exodus 1 through 18. This weekend I'll give you the key chapters to read in advance.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight for a large meal, spiritually speaking. I thank You once again for these Your people, so faithful and hungry to sit through this long and this broad of a service. But Father, each week as You build upon our knowledge and we see just some of the key points and highlights and how it fits together, strengthen our faith, strengthen our walk, as we fly through this book. Lord, I pray if anyone doesn't know the forgiveness that comes from Shiloh, from Messiah, the One to Whom it belongs, that they would come to meet you by faith. And as You give them Your promise of salvation, that they would say, 'amen' to it and you'd justify them, just like You have all the rest of us. In Jesus name, Amen.