20250323_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] Genesis chapter 26. So, Isaac has left Gerar and his servants dug a well.

[0:17] ! The Philistines said, hey, that's our water.! Now, they had filled up the wells before, stopped them with earth.

[0:30] But, when he found water, they wanted that. That's ours. So, he moves on. Or, we're getting to that point where he's moving on.

[0:42] So, at this point, he's at, he calls it, well, I'm not going to say that. Let's look at verses 19 through 25.

[0:57] Genesis chapter 26. Okay. In verse 22 there, he removes from, from the well they had just dug, where the servants of the Philistines contended about the water.

[1:44] Where does he go to? Another place that he means, Rehoboth. Okay.

[1:54] He calls it Rehoboth. What does that mean? Room enough or a broad place.

[2:06] And why did he call it that? Because they didn't come and contend with him there. So, he says, ah, finally I found a place that's where we're going to prosper.

[2:23] You notice what he says, this, now we can be fruitful. Now, God's already prospered this man. That's why they wanted him gone, isn't it? They, they did not really want him living among them because he was getting too, too rich.

[2:44] He had too many servants. And so, they said, leave us. Now, does he stay there?

[3:01] What? Okay. He goes up to Beersheba. Now, we've heard of this place before, haven't we? What's the, what, Beersheba is where, what do we know about it?

[3:23] I heard his name. Abraham had dwelt there for quite a while. Abraham named it.

[3:35] Now, we're going to see that Isaac names it the same name. But Abraham named it Beersheba because of what? What does that mean? The well of a covenant or the agreement.

[3:56] Now, what had occurred there? Why did Abraham name it that? You remember? It was after he had offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

[4:12] But God provided him instead. God had provided the ram instead. Now, was it not?

[4:24] So, here we are at Beersheba where Isaac, what occurs now?

[4:36] Isaac's dwelling at Beersheba. Okay. Okay. This is, is this the, how many altars has he built so far that we know of in Scripture?

[4:53] This is the first one that we know of. Okay. Who else do we remember build altars?

[5:09] Abraham. Abraham built four that we know of. Anyone else? Noah. Noah. Noah. Noah.

[5:22] Beyond that, we don't know yet. Now, when, when God gives the law at Sinai, they are going to build altars.

[5:33] and God's going to tell them how they're going to be built and how they're going to be used. Incidentally, just as a side light, when God gives the law at Mount Sinai and he tells them how to build altars, pardon me, what do you know about the way they were instructed?

[6:03] Were they to carve the stones? No. No tool was to be laid on the stones for the altar.

[6:18] Remember that? And they were not to do another thing. They were not to build steps up. Well, that's later on.

[6:30] Go ahead and read in that. You'll find that in after the law is given at Sinai. So there are, and then God will tell them why.

[6:40] At this point, we don't know that God has instructed anyone to build an altar. He has instructed one person, we know for sure, where God told him to make a sacrifice.

[7:00] Who was that? Abraham. And this was no mean sacrifice, was it? Abraham was told to make a sacrifice.

[7:13] Now, Abraham had sacrificed before, but it wasn't instructed by the Lord, as far as we know in Scripture. The one time he was instructed, what was the sacrifice?

[7:29] That's a big deal. That's a big deal. And you go back and you get it again. You see the picture in Hebrews chapter 11, where, well, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I know who I think probably wrote it, but anyway, he describes what that's all about in God's plan of redemption.

[8:07] And what do you know about Hebrews chapter 11? The recurring statement is, by faith this.

[8:24] Now, it is a pretty good picture when you read Hebrews.

[8:34] It's a pretty good picture where he says, by faith Noah, by faith, well, actually, even before then, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, and he spends some time with Abraham, but he says, he offered up his only son.

[8:59] Now, Abraham had more than one son by the flesh, didn't he? But yet, the Scripture says that Isaac was the only son.

[9:11] Why would he say that? Why would God say that? He was the son of promise. He said, through Isaac shall your descendants be named.

[9:24] And then, after he had told Abraham this, he says, Abraham, I want you to kill Isaac. That's a big deal.

[9:36] But in Hebrews, we say, we see that Abraham obeyed because he trusted in the resurrection.

[9:48] He said he saw, he believed that God was able even to raise from the dead. All being a picture of our salvation through Jesus Christ.

[10:00] And we're about to celebrate that pretty soon, aren't we? About the whole business of the sacrifice and the hinge pin of our faith is, yeah, the resurrection.

[10:16] That was the authentication. Jesus told the naysayers when they asked for another sign, he said it's, he quotes from the Old Testament, and he said it's a perverse generation that asked for a sign.

[10:33] not because that by itself would be so wrong, but because they couldn't be given enough signs for belief.

[10:47] But Jesus says there shall no sign be given you except the one of Jonah. Now, one person can't be answering them all.

[11:03] No. What? Why? Jonah was, as Jonah was in, oh, come on now, folks, you know this.

[11:19] As Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so the Son of Man is going to be in the belly of the earth, if you will, for three days.

[11:30] And as Jonah as it were raised from the dead picturesquely, so the Son of Man will be raised.

[11:45] And he said that's going to be your sign. By the way, will they believe that sign? No. Most won't.

[12:00] Most won't. In fact, they are going to try to say, remember when Jesus casts out the demon and they say it's by the power of Satan that you cast out the demon?

[12:13] They're going to try to say, well, the resurrection didn't happen, his disciples stole it. I'm going to go, I'm going to make an advertisement here.

[12:25] Does anybody, has anybody ever watched a little YouTube blurb from people called the Babylon Bee?

[12:38] Okay. They're satirical, not everything you'll like, but they did a good one on the resurrection. The disciples gather around and they say, I'll tell you what, we're going to preach, we're going to steal the body and then we're, you know, we're going to, what's in it for us?

[13:03] Well, death, torture, you know, it's possible, it's possible because we know of folks who will, who can be deceived and firmly believe in something that's not true.

[13:31] Is that not so? well, but it seems implausible to me in this case twelve men, but there were many more.

[13:47] If they knew it wasn't true and all they had to do was say he didn't raise from the dead and they wouldn't be killed, they're not going to attest to the resurrection because they're going to suffer.

[14:08] So, our faith is planted in the witness of people who saw the resurrection.

[14:22] It's a legitimate answer. Faith is not believing in something that God has not said. Faith is believing in something that God has said.

[14:37] Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. That's an aside. Well, one more aside with it I have to say. Charles Coulson, you remember, especially, the old enough ones remember Charles Coulson.

[14:56] he was the main counsel for President Nixon and he was one who was sent to prison for the Watergate conspiracy.

[15:13] Okay. Which, by the way, was a small potato compared to what we've seen lately. you know, is a second rate burglary compared to what we see that, well, anyway, I didn't mean to go there.

[15:29] Charles Coulson said, because he became a Christian, he was a skeptic, he became a Christian, he said, I know, I know the resurrection has to be true, because if those guys were lying, he said, 12 men kept a secret for 60 years, he said, he said, six of us couldn't keep a secret for six weeks.

[16:06] Okay. I am going back to Genesis. So, here we are at Beersheba. What happens there?

[16:24] So, God speaks to Isaac, and what does he, what does he say?

[16:38] I'm the God of your father, what? Keep going. Don't fear, I'm with you, I will bless you, and, right, he reiterates the Abrahamic promise, essentially.

[16:59] Now, he, he, I think this is the second, I think in 26, 2, let's look at 26, 2, just, the Lord appeared to him.

[17:15] Okay, so, this is the second time God appears to Isaac, that we know. So, God appears to Isaac here, at Beersheba, and he says, he reiterates the promise.

[17:31] all right. Now, so, Isaac builds an altar, he calls upon the name of the Lord, and they dig another well.

[17:48] we're ready to move on to at least verse 26 through 35, please.

[18:01] Because so, what happens now?

[18:27] He gets visitors, who are they? Yeah, Abimelech, the general, Feichel, and another guy.

[18:44] A counselor to Abimelech. Okay. Now, Isaac says something to them.

[18:59] Okay. And you can understand a bit why. He said, well, I'm not going to do it.

[19:09] What does he say to them? Yeah, why are you coming? You kicked me out, you don't like me.

[19:23] So, what's their response? Alright. Alright. Their response is, we know that you're blessed of the Lord.

[19:42] Now, it's interesting to note, their response is not, we know you're blessed of the Lord, how can we get in on this?

[19:56] They're not interested in that part. What are they interested in? they want to make sure he doesn't come back on them because they know that God's expanding his power.

[20:16] Okay. God is blessing him. We know you're blessed of the Lord. Let's make peace. After all, we've done what?

[20:26] What? What? What? What? What? They want to make sure he doesn't come back on them because they know that God's expanding his power. Okay. God is blessing him. We know you're blessed of the Lord. Let's make peace. After all, we've done what? nothing to you but good. Now, it's not recorded here.

[20:40] If I'm Isaac, I'd say, well, what about the wells? You know, what about the wells you filled up? I had water and you tried to starve me out of water.

[20:53] But he doesn't say that. He doesn't say that, does he? So, what do they do? Well, why did they make a feast?

[21:10] Right. They're going to make a covenant. They're going to make the agreement. It's not just a parlay. They're going to actually make the treaty. So, he feasts them.

[21:23] And what do they do?

[21:41] Right. They made the guarantee. We won't, we're not going to hurt you. You are not going to, and Isaac says, I'm not going to hurt you.

[21:53] Okay. What? Any, I'm sorry. Yep. See ya. In peace. Right. Okay.

[22:05] So, they make the covenant. Now, verse 32. the same day they leave, what happens?

[22:27] Yeah, there's water in the well. We found water, and he called it Sheba. Now, here's, here's, here's the Beersheba, but Abraham had already called it Beersheba.

[22:42] Beersheba. Now, Isaac is calling it Beersheba. Okay? And, um, the last two verses in this chapter are about whom?

[23:03] Esau. That's kind of an abrupt change, but, it's a display of Esau's character, isn't it?

[23:19] So, what does it say about Esau? Esau? Oh, yeah, well, okay, he's a grown man, but he's still in the family business.

[23:42] So, what does he do? He marries a couple Hittite women. And, it's pretty descriptive.

[23:54] What does the scripture say? This was a grief to Isaac and Rebecca. All right.

[24:08] but as we, as we will see, it's not so much grief that the, remember, I forget how long ago it was, it was, it was in the chapter, but, when it, when they talked about Isaac and Esau, remember the family dynamic, what did this, what did God say about it?

[24:46] Isaac loved Esau, no favoritism, Isaac loved, or Rebecca loved, Rebecca loved Jacob, Jacob, and Isaac loved Esau.

[25:09] Okay, so here, Esau's behavior is a grief to his father, but it's not going to be so much grief that Isaac still doesn't continue this, as we see as we move into the next chapter.

[25:26] Anything else before we move on? Yes, Pam? Yes, I doubt, my personal view is that I doubt this is the same Abimelech, I kind of think this is a title, because you notice back in Abraham, Fico was also, and now we're many, many years past, because Abraham's dead and gone, and Isaac's over, I forget how old Isaac is, and I, in fact, I didn't forget, I never studied it up to try to even find out, but, but we know that this is a number of years after Abraham, Abraham.

[26:23] So, I'm thinking that probably Abimelech is a title for the king of the Philistine group here at Gerar, and I think so is Philco, because Philco was there, and here he is, and they're both the generals of the army.

[26:46] Yes. Yes.

[27:03] We are not actually told explicitly, except that we do know that Esau was a profane man.

[27:14] That part we do know, because we read that in Hebrews much later. In this part of Genesis, it's not revealed, but it is revealed later.

[27:26] Now, as far as Isaac was concerned, I know what my tendency is. Does anybody want to chime in before I I believe Isaac did trust God.

[27:43] God did know, the reason I would say that is, it was Isaac that climbed on that altar. It was Isaac that carried that wood.

[27:57] It was Isaac that saw the redemption that God provided. Now, that doesn't prove it, but I tend to believe that Isaac trusted God.

[28:14] And he does pray and he does build the altar. So, yes, right.

[28:30] Right. which Paul will later say this is to show that it is by God's choice and not by man's choice.

[28:49] That is, if God chooses to provide mercy based upon faith, it's not an affront. It doesn't depend upon the person who attends to the law of Moses that will be deemed righteous.

[29:14] And he said that God made the choice beforehand so that his plan might stand. And our faith is based upon God's plan for righteousness.

[29:30] Salvation by grace through faith. Yes. Yes.

[29:44] Yes. Yes. But not Esau. And we're going to get into some of that here in chapter 27 because the ramifications are heavy.

[30:07] The first child born to Abraham is Ishmael. And God says it is not through Ishmael that I'm going to give you this promise.

[30:21] It's going to be through Isaac that I give you this promise. So it is that Esau though they were twins Esau came from the womb first yet Jacob is going to be the one that God has chosen.

[30:49] So having said that here we go because remember the birthright belonged to Esau and Esau he sold it.

[31:02] Right. Right. Okay. So chapter 27 the first few verses there if we look at those.

[31:16] Isaac's old and his eyes are dim. What does he plan to do? Bless him. who's him? He plans to bless Esau.

[31:30] He wants to give him the first blessing. And he calls him Esau says here am I and he says now look at verse somebody quote verse 2 please.

[32:00] Okay. One's obvious. Well both are obvious. I don't know that I'm old and I don't know when I'm going to die.

[32:16] Therefore go kill me a deer or an antelope there probably. Go kill me an antelope fix me the kind of meat that I really love to eat so that I can what?

[32:37] I can bless you before I die. Isaac's going to live another 15 years after this occasion.

[32:52] He's going to live about 15 more years. But he doesn't know when he's going to die. Okay. Yeah.

[33:40] Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, at least 15, maybe 45.

[34:01] It's a big difference to us, but if you've lived 130 years, it might not seem, you know. So, nevertheless, he doesn't know.

[34:19] Somebody pull up Psalms, please. One of you, pull up Psalms chapter 39, verse 4. Someone else, pull up Psalm 90, verse 12.

[34:38] Why? Because this is an appropriate thing to think. Isaac doesn't know when he's going to die.

[34:48] Do I know when I'm going to die? No. No. Well, notwithstanding the guy that I used to work with that was causing grief to his supervisor, and his supervisor said, you need to shut up is what he said to him in a little more flowery language.

[35:24] And the guy said, well, you know, he kind of threatened him. And the guy said, well, you never know when you're going to die.

[35:35] And for some reason, I chimed in and I said, no, but he knows when you are. But that's not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about here is, do I know the time of my death?

[35:51] And I don't know if we're going to touch on that, those verses in Proverbs. Proverbs, but Proverbs speaks to the idea of do this while you're young, before things get old.

[36:10] But Psalm 90, verse 12. Please, David. God, this is a prayer.

[36:26] God, teach me to number. Now, when he says number my days, it doesn't mean I intend to live to 98.3. It means make me recognize that life comes to an end.

[36:45] It's going to come to an end. Teach me to number my days so that I can do what? So I can gain a heart of wisdom. He doesn't say do that when I'm taking my last breath, by the way.

[37:03] This is for everyone. Okay. And Psalm 39.4.

[37:14] Who looked that one up? Lord, help me to remember that this life, this physical life, is not going to go on.

[37:36] Now, let's come to us, to the day of grace and mercy of God. Does he say you're never, because he does say you're never going to die?

[37:55] Which death is that? That's the second death. Your body's going to stop, he says, but you're not going to die.

[38:11] Now, here's where we do need to be careful with the resurrection. There will be a resurrection of the unrighteous. Their bodies will be raised.

[38:24] And they will go where? To the judgment throne. This is the great white throne. It says, all will be there whose names are not in the book of life.

[38:42] So, those who have not been saved by God are going to go to the great white throne judgment. And there they will be judged according.

[38:53] Now, here's for the people who, this is for me when I think I'm a pretty good guy. They will be judged according to their works.

[39:07] Well, I'm a pretty good guy. But everybody that's at the white throne judgment is going to go to one judgment, aren't they? None are going to eternal life.

[39:21] I'm thankful that Jesus Christ paid that for me. He went to the judgment for me.

[39:35] For you. I don't have to go to that judgment. So, teach me to number my days.

[39:45] This physical life is going to come to an end. Why do we get sick and why do we die? Physically.

[39:59] Yeah. It was Adam's fault. Of course, he blamed Eve. But, okay. Because of sin.

[40:11] He said the body, the outward, is decaying because of sin. But, the spirit is being renewed day by day.

[40:28] Whether I feel like it or not. Thank you, Lord. See, our faith is not dependent upon how I feel at the moment.

[40:41] My faith is dependent upon the word of God. How faithful is God? It's not how faithful are you. Or, we'd all be in trouble.

[40:57] And that, that is a, that's not even a fair statement. In trouble does not describe it. And I have to quit there.

[41:07] I'm sorry. I've gone over. Have a great day. A great week. Thank you.