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[0:00] We continue with Hebrews chapter 11. It's a very lengthy chapter, but a very, very important one. And be reminded that it provides numerous examples from history as to why this God who created and sustained all things is worthy of our trust, worthy of our faith. And what is laid out here in Hebrews chapter 11 is a lengthy list that simply sets forth God's track record.

[0:38] And what we've got in Hebrews chapter 11, in beginning with verse 17, is a continuation actually of Abraham, and in connection with his having this one son, and we are told in verse 17, that by faith, that is, and I suggested, guys, each time you read the phrase here in Hebrews 11, by faith, by faith, by faith, and all these examples given, if you would just think in terms of rendering those two words, by faith, because he believed God. That's exactly what's involved. And that's just rendered in those two words, by faith. And in each case, these individuals who were called upon to take some action, in every case, it was because God revealed himself to them, gave them that instructions. And because they believed God, they simply did what God said. And I do not think, as you search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, there is nothing that pleases God more than simply believing Him. In fact, the Apostle Paul opens Romans chapter 1 and closes Romans with, I think, verse 15, and he talks about the obedience of faith. Paul says that God raised him up to bring the Gentiles to the obedience of faith. And that indicates right there what a tremendous priority is put on that subject. Because here is this one, Saul of Tarsus, raised up for the specific purpose of bringing the Gentiles to the obedience of faith. So that puts it on a very, very high note.

[2:39] By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

[2:58] So, if Isaac is the one in whom the seed is called, and Isaac is to be the son of promise, what in the world does God want him to kill him for? Why is he wanting to offer him up? It just seems completely contradictory. And on the surface, it is contradictory. But here is just one more example of the fact that God knows what he's doing, and he doesn't make any demands that are unreasonable.

[3:24] They may seem unreasonable to us, but they always make a lot of sense to him. So, in Isaac shall thy seed be called, according that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.

[3:38] And this was his reasoning. Abraham had a faith that had grown and matured to this place. And when you go back to the beginning of this man's life, as it is revealed, his obedience of faith was quite incomplete. I mean, Abraham, you could almost say, rendered some kind of half-hearted obedience.

[4:02] But by the time he gets to this test, and this is the ultimate test for him, his faith has matured and developed to the place of where he reasoned this way.

[4:13] God has asked me to offer up my only son. This is the son of promise. This is the son in whom the seed is to continue. My seed is to continue. And if I kill him, offer him in sacrifice, that's it.

[4:29] Seed stops. Because Isaac isn't going to produce any children if he's dead. But do you know what? God is so worthy of being trusted that even if in obedience to his command, I slay Isaac, God will take the necessary steps of raising him from the dead so that that seed can be preserved.

[4:58] That's the way he was thinking. And the only thing that kept him from performing the act as he put the sacrificial knife to his son's throat was the voice saying, harm not the lad. And he looked over there and there was a ram. A ram with its horns caught in the thicket, unable to escape. And that ram became the sacrifice in place of Isaac, which of course is a beautiful type, the picture of Christ. So according that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from thence also he received him in a figure. And then he goes on for the next example. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. And here, which one was the son of promise? It was not Esau. It was Jacob. And yet,

[6:01] Esau was the firstborn. Ordinarily, it would be the firstborn who would continue the line. But here, God made an exception. And he is going to elevate Jacob into that position. And by the way, you all recall that story, I'm sure, about Esau's deception and how that came about. That Esau was out hunting and Rebecca fixed her son up with fur on his arms and everything and made him hairy. And old Isaac was blind, couldn't see. And it was Jacob who went in to his father posing as Esau. And you know, most people, and I'm sorry to say, probably most preachers and most Bible teachers, charged Rebecca and Jacob with being deceitful and tricking that poor old man into thinking that it was Esau.

[7:10] So he gave the blessing to him. And by the way, I don't want to get sidetracked here, but this blessing thing that Isaac bestowed upon Jacob thinking that it was Esau, that culturally speaking was a very, very big deal. And we're not into that aspect of passing the blessing on. That's just not part of our culture. But it was very deeply ingrained in them as part of their culture. And most fault Rebekah and Jacob for entering into a conspiracy and fooling this poor old man, Isaac, into thinking that it was Esau. But truth be told, it was Isaac who was at fault. It was not Rebekah and Jacob.

[8:02] Because Rebekah knew. And Isaac knew that Jacob was the son of promise. But Esau was his favorite.

[8:18] Now this just goes to show you the kind of conflict that can come in families when moms and dad choose favorites among the kids. Because Rebekah favored was Jacob. And Isaac's favorite was Esau.

[8:35] And neither of them should have had a favorite. They should have treated their sons alike. But that's another issue. So actually, it was Rebekah who was overriding the disobedience of her blind husband, who insisted on giving the blessing to Esau. And he was not the child of promise and was not supposed to have it. Rebekah knew that. And she fixed it so that it was Jacob who received the blessing.

[9:06] And of course, they get a lot of flack and a lot of blame. And they're, you know, accused of treachery and all the rest of it. Larry? Larry? One of the dads, further on, I thought, it's in Rebekah's family because her brother then does deceitful things to...

[9:25] Laban, yeah. Laban, yeah. And so I thought, you know, that's a family tree. Well, it was. And Jacob, Jacob too. He wasn't lily-whited. I mean, he was not the deceiver in this thing because he was actually doing what he was prophesied to do. But I think it was old Dr. J. Vernon McGee who said that Jacob was so crooked that when he died, they had to screw him in the ground.

[9:56] But he matured. And he developed too later in life. And he turned out to be a pretty decent guy. But you're right. There was a lot of duplicity and a lot of chicanery going on.

[10:07] And Laban, he said, you changed my wages all these times. In the first place, he snookered him. And he thought he was getting Leah or thought he was getting Rachel. And he sneaked in Leah. And that was because, you know, it was nighttime and they were wearing the burka and everything and the wedding.

[10:22] And he thought he thought he was getting one sister and he was getting the other. And then he had to serve another seven years. What a mess. That's just the kind of duplicity that you find among humanity, unfortunately, in just about every generation. So, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

[10:40] And by faith, Jacob, and this, of course, is many years later, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning upon the top of his staff.

[10:55] And this is a picture of Genesis chapter 49. We won't go back there. But Jacob was on his deathbed. And he called in all of his sons.

[11:09] And all 12 of these boys are surrounding his deathbed there in Genesis chapter 49. And he begins with uttering a prophecy for each of those sons and what is going to happen to them and their posterity.

[11:26] And the first one he comes to is Reuben. He said, Reuben, you are my firstborn. Unstable as water.

[11:39] It's not exactly a compliment. Unstable as water. Unstable as water. And he's going to bypass him. Because, you see, the father, the patriarch, had the responsibility and the privilege of assigning to his heirs who was going to be the next in charge.

[11:59] Ordinarily, ordinarily, it was the firstborn. And the firstborn would receive a double portion of the inheritance that all of the children would get.

[12:13] But the firstborn had special responsibilities for becoming the new patriarch. And it was assumed that he would probably have additional financial responsibilities and outlay and so on.

[12:29] So he would be given a double portion. But he's going to bypass him. And it will not be Reuben. And then he comes to the next two sons. And they are Simeon and Levi. And they were the ones who set up the...

[12:42] What were their names? I can't think of their names now. But it was in the city in Genesis when they wanted to marry his daughter. And actually, they had raped Dinah.

[12:54] And then he wanted to marry him. And they set up this situation where they convinced all of these men to be circumcised.

[13:05] So that they could throw in all of their loot and everything with the Jews. And they would all have a common pot. And we shared. And then he said the third day when they were sore from the circumcision, they went in and butchered them.

[13:17] Murdered a whole bunch of them. And that was these two men, Simeon and Levi, the second and third born. And they were doing that to avenge their daughter. I mean, their sister. Who was not a half-sister but a whole sister.

[13:29] And that was Dinah. And he bypassed them. And then he came to Judah. And he said, Judah is a lion's whelp. The scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes.

[13:42] And that prophecy is amazing. Because it was Judah that would be the royal line. And through the line of Judah, a thousand years later, David the king would be born.

[13:56] And then a thousand years after that, Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah, would come as the lion of the tribe of Judah. And he's described that way in the book of Revelation too.

[14:07] It's a fascinating, fascinating passage. So, we read that by faith Joseph, when he died, verse 22, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel.

[14:20] And that's talking about their going into the land of Egypt. And he gave commandment concerning his bones. And this is looking back to the time when Joseph had died in the land of Egypt.

[14:43] And his relatives had lived on for a couple of hundred years. And remember, they were there in Egypt for 400 years. And now the time has come to leave Egypt.

[14:54] And they're going to leave on the Passover night. And Joseph, who had long since been dead, had given instructions concerning his bones. And what he had told them is, make sure that you carry my bones up out of the land of Egypt, back to the land of promise.

[15:14] I want to be buried in Israel. So, they had obviously made note of that. And they've got a coffin or a sarcophagus or whatever to take his bones back.

[15:26] And you can still, you know, you find these in different places throughout Israel. We were quite fascinated. There are numerous limestone caves in Israel.

[15:41] And many of these, they're just carved right out of the side of a rock or a mountain. Because the limestone is pretty easy to work with chisels. It's a soft stone.

[15:52] And in some places, it's even dolomite. And it's even softer than that. And it just makes it like a huge, huge cave cut right out of the side of the mountain. And they go in and they fashion ledges along the side.

[16:08] Along three sides. And on those ledges, they lay the freshest body that had deceased. And then they go back a year later.

[16:21] And they take the skeleton. Because by then, the flesh is gone. There's nothing left but the skeleton. And they put the skeleton in an ossuary. An ossuary is a bone box.

[16:35] And it, too, is made out of limestone. And it's just a coffin with a lid on it. And on the lid, they would inscribe the names of the people who were in there.

[16:49] And they would take the bones from the ledge, which would then be free for the insertion of another body. And they did it that way. And they would take the bones, put them in the ossuary or in the bone box, and then put the lid on it.

[17:06] And on top of the lid, they would inscribe the names of the persons who was in the bone box. And by the way, no more than probably 30 years ago, they found the bone box in Jerusalem, in the environs of Jerusalem.

[17:22] And it said, the family of Annas. A-N-N-A-S. And Annas was the high priest, along with Caiaphas, when Jesus was tried before Pontius Pilate in the first century.

[17:39] And they surmised that it was probably the family of Annas, that his bones. And so, all of these bones would be put in the same box.

[17:50] And these people's bones would... And there's an expression that is used in the Bible a number of times, and it kind of gives a new meaning to it. It says, thou shalt die in a good old age, and be gathered unto thy fathers.

[18:03] And nobody was thinking in terms of literality, but that's actually what it meant. It meant your bones are going to be placed with the bones of your father. All these bones are going to be gathered unto your fathers.

[18:14] It gave kind of a new meaning to it. So, Joseph made it very clear that he wanted to be buried in the land of Israel. And he gave commandment concerning his bones.

[18:26] And by the way, when they engage in the Exodus, in Exodus chapter 12, I believe it is, when they leave on the night of the Passover, the text mentions, in fact, that they took the bone box that had Joseph's bones in it and carried it all the way back to the land of Egypt, where it would be... I mean, the land of Israel, where it would be buried there.

[18:51] And then verse 23, by faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents. Now, it didn't have anything to do with the faith of Moses, but it wasn't Moses' faith that caused him to be born.

[19:09] And the one whose faith it was, was Jochebed, the mother of Moses. Because the Pharaoh had already issued an edict that all of the baby boys were to be sacrificed to the gods of the Nile River.

[19:28] And the gods of the Nile River were the crocodiles. Can you imagine taking these baby boys and throwing them into the Nile River and the crocodiles feasting on them?

[19:41] And you know something? This just points out a very, very important principle that surfaces as early as the book of Genesis.

[19:54] And that is that one of the major consequences of the fall is the totality of the fall.

[20:10] Our first parents not only fell in their body, in their physical body, and took unto them the disease thing, or the terminal disease, if you will, called sin, but they took unto them an intellectual disease as well, a mental disease as well.

[20:39] And I hope you'll always remember this, because it explains a lot. That humanity in its fallenness suffers not only from a physical body fall, but from a thinking intellectual fall as well.

[20:59] So that mankind thinks and reasons with a fallen intellect. His thinking is all messed up.

[21:13] He doesn't think straight. His reasoning powers are skewed. That's how he is able to come up with such stupid ideas that we see all through history.

[21:28] Like feeding these baby boys to the crocodile. Like bowing down to a stone idol and worshiping it as a deity.

[21:40] Something made by man's hands. And this is spelled out in Romans chapter 1 in great clarity. How that men, even when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God.

[21:53] They did not recognize him or acknowledge him as God. But they became futile in their imaginations. And it says, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[22:07] That means their thinking apparatus was skewed, was impaired. And this is how we get such harebrained ideas that humanity comes up with.

[22:20] Everything from atheism and there is no God, to worshiping the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever.

[22:31] And this started with Adam and Eve. And you know, I never thought of this before. I guess I always just kind of considered it general Gentiles that I was talking about in Romans 1.

[22:43] But I think it has a very profound reference to our first parents, Adam and Eve. Because it says that even though they knew God, and Adam and Eve did in a special way, they did not glorify him or acknowledge him as God, but became vain in their imaginations.

[23:08] Their foolish heart was dark. And they worshipped and served the creature more than the creator. Now let me ask you a question. Who was the creature that they worshipped and served?

[23:24] It was Satan. The serpent. Yeah. Whether it was a serpent or whether it was Satan, still a creature, a created being. And worship, worship always involves that to which you ascribe the greatest worth.

[23:47] That's what worship is. It is actually worth. W-O-R-T-H. It is worth-ship. And you worth-ship that to which you ascribe great value.

[24:02] And that is why for the Christian, for the believer, there is but one individual who qualifies for worship. And that's the creator.

[24:13] And when you look in the Revelation, and also I think in the book of Daniel, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's in Daniel, but I know it's in Revelation at least twice. For John is so overcome with what he sees, he is ready to fall down and worship before this being who is actually an angel.

[24:37] And the angel said, See thou do it not. For, in essence, for I also am a creature. Worship God and him alone.

[24:49] And it's really significant that when men worship Jesus Christ, he never turned away their worship.

[25:00] He never said he was not worthy of worship. He never said, Don't worship me. Worship God. He was God. He was eligible. And he was deserving of man's worship.

[25:14] And that's a really, really important point. So, when Jochebed obviously exercised faith, which is the name of Moses' mother, and we are told that she just refused to submit to the dictates of Pharaoh because she knew the value and the priority of human life, and she was not going to take her baby boy, and we don't know how old he was, but he may have been very much, very close to a newborn, and she put him in that little ark.

[25:55] It's like a little cradle. Probably sealed it with pitch or slime so that it would float and put him there in the Nile River. And you know the story as well as I am.

[26:05] We won't turn to it, but it was the daughter of Pharaoh that came along and we can only surmise that she was doing this in disobedience to her dad. You know, but the daughter of Pharaoh was obviously we don't know we don't know what her situation was.

[26:28] Who knows? You know, God uses all kinds of things. Let me just throw out a couple possibilities. And this is just pure speculation. I don't know this at all.

[26:38] The scriptures don't say this. But what do you think would have been the daughter of Pharaoh's attitude toward this little baby boy that she found in the bulrushes if she had if she had already had a couple of miscarriages?

[26:55] You know, granted, it's just speculation. But I'm saying, hey, almost anything is possible and God uses all kinds of things. But in the event of something like that, can you imagine how that would have warmed her heart to this little baby boy if she had tried to give birth and was unsuccessful?

[27:15] Or or if maybe maybe she hadn't been able to get pregnant. You know, I mean, some women have a medical or a physical problem and and they're unable to get pregnant and carry a child and that's not all that uncommon.

[27:28] And she may have she may have longed for a baby. And here she saw this ready made. And and she's saying, well, you know, dad doesn't need to know.

[27:39] And she takes this little baby boy and raises him as her own. And you know the story how that Moses spent one third of his life in the courts of Pharaoh being trained in Egyptian art and philosophy and government and everything probably received the premier education for those 40 years.

[28:03] And then he spent 40 years on the backside of the desert with Jethro, his brother his father-in-law and the flock. And then he spent third 40 years leading the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt there in the wilderness.

[28:21] And it says that he died when he was 120 years old and his his scripture says his eye was not dim. Could that mean that he didn't even have didn't even have cataracts or didn't need glasses?

[28:37] His eyes were not dim nor his natural force abated. Well, I don't mind telling you I'm not close to 120 but my natural force has been abated.

[28:50] I can't do a lot of the things that I used to do and when I find something that I can still do it takes longer and it's harder because my natural force is abated but his wasn't and this is the only man the only man in all the Bible that says that God buried him.

[29:13] That would be quite an honor to be buried by God on Mount Nebo and because he smoked the rock when he was supposed to just speak to the rock and God said Moses you oughtn't have done that.

[29:29] You destroyed the type and that rock was Christ and Christ was to be spitting but once and that was on the cross and he was establishing that in the Old Testament that rock that Moses smoked the second time God said just speak to the rock Moses first time he hit it with a rod and he was supposed to but the second time God said speak to the rock and Moses was so angry with the stubbornness of the children of Israel he took his rod and smacked that rock second time God said you just disqualified yourself from entering into the land you're not going to see the land and I'm going to bring Joshua and Caleb into the land they're the only ones for this generation that's going into the land everybody else is going to die off here in the wilderness a new generation came up but you know

[30:40] I can't help but see a little bit of the grace of God maybe some relenting on the part of God because Moses Moses did see the promised land after all when Jesus went into the mount of transfiguration recorded in Matthew Mark and Luke he took with him Peter James and John left the other nine down below went up the mountain and he was transfigured before them and lo and behold who showed up but Moses and Elijah wouldn't that have been something can you imagine a reunion like that here Jesus is being transfigured and I take it that that means that that he just somehow pulled back the veil of his humanity and allowed something of his deity to shine through and and the scripture says that his countenance that our

[31:53] Lord's countenance was as bright as the noonday sun and it had a radiance and a light to it that was whiter than any fuller soap could whiten anything must have really been something and there appeared with him Moses and Elijah and you wonder Moses representing the law Elijah representing the prophets and we aren't told about what went on but they did speak they did speak of our Lord's coming death and that would be sometime after the transfiguration when he would be on that cross but obviously Moses and Elijah knew what was coming and they talked about that and Peter James and John were there and they heard it too but it just didn't register with them and wouldn't until after the fact any comments or questions anybody as before we almost time for food we're just about out of our sheet here but anyway we've got

[33:03] Mother's Day coming up was there a question coming there was a message on a sign in a church in Florida that Moses was once a basket cake yeah yeah he was Moses Moses was a basket cake okay okay but you know his mother Jochebed she she defied she defied the edict that had been issued by Pharaoh and she just put her confidence and trust in God and Jochebed well what can you say fellas I'm sure you know this already but there is nothing on the planet that can compare with a mother's heart there is something really really special about a mother's heart and I know we dads have hearts too but and I suspect and I suspect that it is probably related to not just the fact that there is femininity there which is different than masculinity but I would assume that it's related to the fact that that it is the mother that has this baby as part of her body for nine months and that is something that no mere man can begin to understand or appreciate but it creates creates a kind of a mother bond that we men just are not able to understand we're grateful for it but it's just different and it's something that is really really special really outstanding and my oh my aren't we glad for our mothers

[35:03] God bless them so they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment and the reason is quite simple because they feared the commandment of God a lot more than they feared the commandment of Pharaoh and when you realize that man in his fallenness thinks with that warped intellect that explains a lot of the really stupid demands that he makes and things that he does but and what what have we been provided by way of a corrective to get us out of that mode of skewed illogical thinking and bring us into reality so that we can think the thoughts of God after him the only thing is the scriptures the Bible is the only thing fellas this book this book is the only thing on the planet that gives us the real scoop it's the only thing there isn't anything else that's it and that's enough that's adequate

[36:13]  God has provided it and we are grateful so I appreciate you being here today thank you for your presence and enjoy enjoy your breakfast in the day ahead хорошо thank you