20250914_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] I ask that as we look into your word this morning together that we would be encouraged to realize that your plan works out.

[0:17] ! And this is your story. And that you have, well, most of all, that because we trust Jesus Christ, we can look back here and see your faithfulness, and we know that we are secure in Christ because you are the God who gives his word and does not turn it around.

[0:43] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, last week, we got to Bethel.

[0:58] Anointed a pillar, and Deborah died. Was that her name? Okay. Now, Deborah was Jacob's mother's nurse.

[1:12] So, she's come a long way. We don't know. God doesn't tell us when she moved from Isaac's household, where she had been, into Jacob's household.

[1:29] We don't know that. We aren't told that. We just know that at Bethel, she dies, and they bury and mourn her there. Now, we're ready for chapter 35, and at least we'll begin with verse 9.

[1:48] Verse 9 and 10 sound to you like what?

[2:11] I'm sorry? Okay, it's a name change. It's the birth of naming the people Israel.

[2:24] This is where they're going to get their name. What else? He changed Abram's name.

[2:35] He changed Sarai's name. He's changing Jacob's name. Now, Jacob's going to be called Jacob elsewhere, but nevertheless, God says your name's Israel.

[2:52] And what else? Well, he blesses him. Now, turn back a little bit to 3228.

[3:06] Don't lose this chapter, but turn back to 3228. Somebody read that, if you would, please.

[3:22] Then he said, your name shall no longer be Jacob. Okay. Okay.

[3:34] Now, this is back at the wrestling match before he meets Esau. So, this is a while ago. So, I don't know whether this is a reiteration of what God had already said, or if he, if it's a rehearsal.

[3:56] I don't know if God's saying it again, or if it's a rehearsal of what God has already said. Nevertheless, he's making the statement to Jacob that his name is going to be Israel.

[4:11] Now, just for a moment, pardon me. Just for a moment, let's run very quickly through this.

[4:25] Jacob is a direct descendant of whom? His name's already been mentioned. Well, okay, he's the son of Isaac.

[4:38] Who is the son of? Abraham. Abraham. Who's the first one that God calls for this nation?

[4:50] Abraham. Was Abraham, Abraham is a descendant of Heber. Long ago, and way back in our study.

[5:01] But, he's a son, or he's a descendant of Heber, from which the word Hebrew comes. So, when Abraham is called the Hebrew, that's where it came from.

[5:17] Because he was descended from Heber. Now, Heber's a descendant of Seth, who is the son of Adam.

[5:34] When did God make this plan? See, it isn't like God's reacting, is it?

[5:46] Oh, no, everybody else but Seth was all ungodly. In fact, we're going to get to that in a minute, in this study. We've already seen some of it.

[6:01] Oh, everyone but Seth is ungodly. So, I'm going to make a line through Seth. Oh, everyone but Heber. Oh, everyone but Abraham. Wait a minute.

[6:13] Abraham was worshiping what? He was worshiping idols. He wasn't worshiping God when he was called. By the way, was Saul of Tarsus going to a tent meeting when Jesus confronted him?

[6:39] Okay, you're not familiar with tent meetings. Okay, in certain traditions, revival meetings, tent meetings, okay, camp meetings, in some of our traditions, those are backgrounds.

[6:56] Was he going to a revival meeting? An evangelistic service.

[7:08] One of his friends invited him to go hear the gospel. No, he was going to kill people. Arrest them, send them back to Jerusalem, and hopefully get them killed.

[7:20] So, anyway, God chose Abraham, and he says, through your line, I'm going to establish this covenant.

[7:35] And Abraham had lots of children from whom to choose. No, he said, it's going to be through your son, Isaac.

[7:48] Now, Sarah had an idea. I'm old. You're really old, and I'm old.

[7:59] We're long past this children thing. So, I'll tell you what. You take my handmaiden as a second wife and go into her, and she'll bear the child for me.

[8:19] That was kind of a common thing in those days, apparently. And so, Hagar bears whom?

[8:32] Ishmael. Now, Abraham says to God, O that Ishmael may live before you. Continue this.

[8:44] Give us your covenant through Ishmael. And God said, Eh, that's not a bad idea. Is that what he said?

[8:55] No. He said, it's going to be through Isaac. So, Isaac has, they have twins.

[9:09] The eldest is Esau. The youngest is Jacob. And Esau gets the blessing and the birthright and the covenant.

[9:26] Right? Jacob did. In fact, the apostle Paul is going to say, look, God gets his job done.

[9:40] Now, that's a rough, rough paraphrase. But, but God chooses. He said, before the twins were born, God said, Jacob, it's a hard saying for us, but we're going to say it.

[10:00] Jacob, I loved and Esau, I hated. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that he wanted to do evil to Esau. He still made Esau wealthy and prosperous.

[10:13] But, what he's saying is, I chose Jacob. Now, it wasn't necessarily because Jacob was such a nice guy. But, God chose him.

[10:29] So, Jacob, now, Jacob goes back to Haran. All these Abraham married Sarah, who was his half-sister.

[10:43] So, they're both descendants of Heber. Isaac, his son, Abraham sends his servant back to Haran to find a relative for Isaac to marry.

[11:05] So, Isaac and Rebekah are both descendants of Heber. So far, we're both lineage, or both parents are same lineage.

[11:21] So, it is with Jacob. He's going to go back and he's going to get Rachel and Leah. So far, the bloodline's there.

[11:33] it's going to change now. It's going to change. Now, all that is just prefatory to understanding that this is God's plan and it marches through.

[11:56] Because it wasn't because they were so nice, and it wasn't because they were so good. it was because God chose to. Now, we'll just move on.

[12:12] So, we're at verse 11 by this time. So, read there for a few verses and we'll continue.

[12:23] continue. Now, what does God do?

[12:50] He reiterates the covenant. God and the covenant was given to Abraham originally and the covenant was very one-sided.

[13:05] God went through the covenant alone, he says. God God will God and the promise that was given to Abraham cannot be set aside because of the law that was given 400 and some years later.

[13:27] The covenant that God gave was made by promise and that's where the apostle Paul will use that as an illustration that our salvation is based upon God's grace through faith apart from the law.

[13:50] So, we move on. This, he reiterates the promise he had made to Abraham and, yes, sir?

[14:14] Do I know it now or could we find it? Yes. I don't know how many times, I never counted.

[14:27] I don't know how many times. Well, he reiterates it, he reiterated it, what did he give it to Abraham, three or four times maybe, that he told Abraham this is the promise, this is the promise, this is the promise, and I didn't count.

[14:54] I don't know how many times he says that. Now, when you say we, if you mean broader, somebody does know the answer.

[15:06] I'm sure somebody has researched that and counted, but I didn't. Does anyone else know? Okay. Right.

[15:20] It doesn't seem necessary for him to be here today. Right. And Paul doesn't necessarily speak about his promises given to Isaac and Jacob and whoever else.

[15:41] That's going to be too weird to promise to speak directly to the promise of the name. Right. It seems to be that once promised, always promised.

[15:54] That's why I'm like to say that he speaks to you. Once promised, always promised. However, as I look, well, it's not a however.

[16:08] It's more of a, I kind of see it this way. I may read something in God's word and I know it to be true.

[16:19] Will it ever? I'm going back up. So.

[16:32] Sherry comes to me and she asked me. You haven't said you love me. I said, well, I told you when we were married. Isn't that enough? I'm human, right?

[16:48] She's human. These men are human. It's true that his promise never changed. It's never changed. But maybe the people need to be reminded.

[17:01] Because he said to Jacob, he said to Jacob, when Jacob was going north to Laban, he said to Jacob, I will be with you and I will keep everything I've said until I accomplish all that I've told you.

[17:24] Not a word's going to fail until I've accomplished it all. But he doesn't stop there. He tells him a couple more times.

[17:36] Because sometimes my faith may waver. And that, I think it's a condescension of God, if you will, to recognize he knows my frame that I'm but dust.

[17:51] That's the way I see it. The promise never changed. I think it's a condescension to mankind, myself.

[18:04] But I can't. There's no scripture that says this is the reason he did it. He just does it. He just does it. He just does it. And there's no idea.

[18:15] and go through the covenant alone.

[18:57] Right. I don't know if that's Abraham's faith wavering. God spoke to him.

[19:08] And like Gideon, maybe, maybe, like Gideon, when God came to Gideon, the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and he said, Hey, great warrior.

[19:28] Gideon's hiding in a wine press, threshing wheat. And he says, Why are you saying that to me? And Gideon, Gideon's father has an idol set up on the hill.

[19:49] And the angel comes to him and Gideon says, Yeah, I think it's God telling me this, but I want to really be sure. So what's he do?

[20:00] He asks for a sign. Now, how to tie it all in because they did not have the revelation we have.

[20:13] So later on, Jesus is going to remind them. He's going to quote from the Old Testament prophets, and he's going to say he's going to remind the Pharisees, I think it is.

[20:24] It's a wicked and a perverse generation that asks for a sign. You remember that statement? And Jesus said it because the Holy Spirit had already witnessed to them about who he was.

[20:47] What was the Holy Spirit's witness to Israel? And when Jesus walked the earth, it was the miracles. He said, If you don't believe my words, believe what you see.

[21:01] Remember that comment. So, to the Pharisees, when he cast out, when Jesus cast the demon out of the man, and they said it's by Satan's power that he cast him out, they attributed God's witness to Satan.

[21:25] And Jesus said, because of that, then you have no forgiveness, not in this age nor the age to come.

[21:42] Because you have, you have called God a liar. That's essentially what Jesus told them. Now, it's a little far field from where we're going, but, back to the, why did he reiterate it?

[21:58] I don't know. As far as, as evidentially, I can only say that it seems to me that he reiterates it the same way he reiterates to me.

[22:11] I have to read the same verses regularly to to remind myself. Because as I go through life, if I can start forgetting things, and my own head gets in the way.

[22:35] And, we know from God through the, through Peter's writing, that no prophecy, that is, word of God, no prophecy given among men is of any private interpretation.

[22:54] I don't have the right to say this is what it means, apart from what God says. So, I think it's a reiteration as a bolster to him.

[23:11] because they don't have an indwelling Holy Spirit. This is pre- incarnate Christ. They, they, they aren't going to get a Holy Spirit.

[23:25] The apostles and disciples did not get a Holy Spirit until Acts chapter 2. And, that was still under the law, but it was, and that giving of the Holy Spirit was a sign that was prophesied by Joel.

[23:42] And, Peter says, look, this is a fulfillment of the prophecy. By men of other tongues, I will speak to this generation. So, it was a sign to the Jews.

[23:53] That's why it's not a sign for us. It was a sign to Israel that this is a, hey, Messiah. Okay. With your leave, we'll get back here.

[24:07] So, he says something in verse 11 that's interesting.

[24:19] And, it's something worth remembering. Although, as, as you read Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, well, I skimmed through some of those.

[24:35] But, as you read through those and through the judges and through Ruth and into Samuel, which, God willing, we'll get to a little bit in this morning, but we won't mention this necessarily.

[24:50] But, you notice what he says is going to come from your loins. Who does he say is going to come from there? Kings. I'll just leave it at this.

[25:04] Remember that as you read further down the line. Remember that. So, God's prophesying to them right now.

[25:17] He's telling him in prophecy there will be kings although, okay, I can't resist it, can I? Although, he's going to say I'm supposed to be your king.

[25:31] You're not supposed to be getting a king. So, then he's going to give them Saul to show what it's going to be like. But, that's way ahead of where we are.

[25:45] So, kings will come out of thy loins and the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac to thee I give it and to thy seed after thee I will give the land and then God did what?

[26:02] He went up from him. I read that that he ascended. This, by the way, is why everyone apparently who faces an angel that they know is an angel or God in the angel of the Lord is always scared.

[26:31] This is not a normal phenomenon. But, nevertheless, God goes up from him. So, does Jacob do then?

[26:47] It says in 14 and 15. Okay, he set up a pillar and sanctified it or anointed it and then and he named it Bethel.

[27:07] He's already done that once when he was going the other direction. So, I don't know again whether this is a reiteration of what he had already done or whether it's a rehearsal of what he had already done.

[27:26] Nevertheless, either it's a first, either it's a retelling of the first occasion or he set up a second pillar.

[27:38] I don't know which. And the scripture doesn't say this is the second pillar. Scripture doesn't say that.

[27:50] And that's really not too important. We know that the name of it previously was Luz. Now, when they say cities, by the way, where we are in Genesis, these could be encampments.

[28:06] Okay? They could be tent encampments like what he's living in.

[28:17] not necessarily. There may have been a walled town there. I don't know. Anyway, the area was previously Luz. Now, it's being renamed.

[28:28] This is written specifically for Israel. So, Moses is writing for Israel what the name of these places is to get it in their mind.

[28:41] friends of ours live right up beside what used to be in a village in New Coral between here and New Coral on Route 40.

[28:59] Right before you would get, if you're traveling west, it's right before you get to Tecumseh. It's Lamb's Lane. There was a burg there called Alconee.

[29:10] Or not Alconee. That's not Alconee. It was called Forgy. Forgy, Ohio. If somebody said to you, Forgy, Ohio, now, would you know where it is?

[29:24] No. Well, I do because a friend of ours, his grandfather had a mill in Forgy. But nevertheless, it's kind of like that, I think.

[29:39] He's reminding them, this is the point of the map. But, the name is Bethel. Bethel means house of God, right? Okay.

[29:50] So, they leave Bethel. Now, just as a reminder to myself, it was at Bethel that Deborah dies.

[30:10] It was at Bethel that he had, he saw the vision of the ladder. These aren't in order, are they?

[30:22] And, it's at Bethel that he's come now. the house of God.

[30:34] So, they leave Bethel, where do they head? Ephrath, that's another name for almost Bethlehem.

[30:51] Bethlehem. Ephrath is a name for Bethlehem, or what will become Bethlehem. What's the verse in, I didn't look it up.

[31:06] We sometimes use it, if we use it, we usually use it around Christmas time. Yeah, Bethlehem, Ephrath, in Judea, right?

[31:24] So, Ephrath will later become Bethlehem. Something happens here.

[31:35] What is it? Rachel goes into labor, and it's a severe labor. In fact, it's going to be a mortal labor.

[31:50] So, who what happens a little way from Bethlehem?

[32:09] Ben Ani, which means what? Son of my sorrow. Pharaoh. Okay?

[32:20] And she's naming him as she's dying. As her soul is departing, it says. how was that? As her soul was departing.

[32:32] She's dying. She names him Ben Ani, but his father renames him, and he's all, and he will ever after be known by his father's naming, which is what?

[32:48] Benjamin. He's going to be the last of the, what do I want to say, tribal names for Israel.

[33:00] So, Benjamin is the youngest, and that is son of my son of my right hand. Okay, so, now, Rachel died.

[33:17] Verse 19, she is the one who is not buried in the cave that Abraham purchased from the Hittites.

[33:39] she will be the one who is not buried there because they aren't close to it. She is buried on the way.

[33:51] So, yeah, yeah, so, he journeys on, verse 21, he journeys on and sets up his tent by the tower of Edar, and Reuben, the firstborn, here we go, what's Reuben do?

[34:38] Yeah, nobody else wants to say it either, do you? Right, with his dad's concubine, with his father's secondary wife.

[34:53] And Israel heard it, or Jacob heard it. okay, now, verses 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, tell us the sons of Israel according to their mothers.

[35:29] They're not listed in order of birth necessarily, they're listed by who their mothers are. all right? So, this completes the complement of the sons that are born.

[35:47] children. And, of course, the last one, we kind of know, we kind of know, we've already been thinking about, okay, I know what's going to happen to Rachel's sons.

[36:12] So, or not Rachel's. Yeah, Rachel's. To Rachel's sons. Who are Rachel's sons?

[36:27] Joseph and Benjamin. Right. They'll be the two youngest. Now, we come, we get to Isaac.

[36:44] So, by the way, the scripture here will say all these were born to him in Paddan in Haran, right?

[36:56] So, but one of them wasn't actually born there. He was born in Canaan.

[37:08] Who was that? Benjamin. He was just now born, right? We just read that.

[37:20] So, he wasn't actually born while they were still with Laban. All the others were. He was just now born in near Bethlehem.

[37:34] Now, yes, as far as we can see.

[37:51] The first five are written by Moses, even though it may have been at the end of Exodus, somebody may have filled it in because it records the death and burial of Moses.

[38:11] But either he wrote prophetically or somebody filled that last few verses in.

[38:23] But yes, these are penned by Moses. it does seem strange that way.

[38:56] Accepting that, that's going to be used a number of times. And even Jesus, who was the one who changed the name to Israel, is going to say, he is not the God, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[39:20] And this is going to be a lot later. God and the one who changed it probably remembers that he changed it. He created everything.

[39:33] He didn't miss it. By the way, it makes some of the signs really step out to you when you realize the creator is doing this.

[39:49] The creator is doing this. So, when he gets up in the boat and he tells the wind, stop it. What does the wind do? It stops.

[40:01] When he told the waves to stop, what did the waves do? Now, physically, physically that can't happen, can it?

[40:15] Because the motion of the waves have a residual energy in them. And this molecule is pushing on this molecule and this one and that's why you get the waves.

[40:33] But when the creator says, stop, what does it do? It stops. It can't do it, but it does because the creator told it to.

[40:46] Israel. So, I don't know why he uses two names right together other than remind the children of Israel because he's writing this at the time when Exodus is happening.

[41:07] So, he's writing it long after this period. And God is giving him the information because he wasn't there when in the beginning.

[41:22] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, no one else was there.

[41:34] No human was there. So, yes.

[42:02] Yeah, he's using that as an analogy for our salvation. He's not necessarily using that for historicity. That is, he's not saying, okay, because God renamed Abraham, he's no longer Abram ever again.

[42:19] That's not really the point of what he uses it for. Where he's speaking that, the apostle Paul is telling us that we have a promise in Christ Jesus that is apart from the law.

[42:38] And our salvation is not dependent upon works, it's dependent upon faith. In any faith?

[42:49] No, faith in Christ Jesus and what he has done. That's why it's so important. That's why it's so important to remind ourselves regularly and that's part of what the worship of the church involves is to remind ourselves of substitutionary atonement.

[43:14] It's what Christ has done that is so important. And I'm sorry, we're going to have to end now and God willing will pick us up here next week.

[43:28] Have a wonderful week.