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THANKS
Rondel Ramsey
HCC Minister
Every family has some crazy in it, am I right? I know mine does. Maybe you've even looked at your own family & thought, “Wow…we're a mess.” [••] We all know that there are some pretty crazy families out there. But, if you think your family is complicated, wait until you really get to know the family that God chose to carry his promise forward.
Deception. Favoritism. Sibling rivalry. Jealousy. Manipulation. Multiple wives. Sheesh. What’s even crazier is that the Bible doesn't hide the horrific details.
In fact, if you or I were choosing a family through whom we were going to rescue and restore the world, I guarantee that we wouldn't choose the one we find in Genesis. But that's what makes this part of the Storyline so remarkable: their dysfunction doesn't derail God's faithfulness to keep his promises to humanity.
I’m so glad that you are here (whether online or in person) [••] to be a part of this learning community at HCC as we journey through our sermon series: Storyline: Making Sense of Our Reality.
Remember, one of the reasons we're walking through the storyline of the Bible in this series is to give everyone a framework of the Bible (the key events, the important people, and the major movements of the Story) so that when you read the Bible on your own (which I encourage you to do), you can understand where you are in the story, how what you're reading fits into the bigger Story, and how to better interpret it and make application to your own life.
If you need to catch up on the series, please use the QR code to access past sermon material and other study resources.
As usual, I need to briefly recap where we’ve been for anyone who has missed a sermon or two.
Open to the first page of the Bible and you will discover… [••]
God creating an ordered and TOV (or good) world, and human beings were created in his image—with incredible worth, dignity, identity, and purpose. Humanity was created to live in relationship with God, themselves, with one another, and with his creation.
We are NOT products of a chance universe!
Creation:
from disorder to order
Mankind: �in the image of God
However, humanity distrusted the Creator and chose to determine good and evil—TOV and not-TOV—for themselves by eating of the fruit of the only tree in the Garden of Eden God told told them not to eat from.
As a result, [••] somehow sin entered our Storyline, fracturing everything: our relationship with God, ourselves, one another, and creation.
And that fracturing spread quickly [••] —from Cain and Abel, to violence filling the earth, to the flood, and finally to Babel.
Make a name for ourselves
Wickedness all the time
Adam
& Eve
Cain
& Abel
Noah’s Ark
Tower of Babel
Jealousy & Murder
Trusting ourselves
But God did not abandon his creation.
And so last week, [••] the writer of Genesis moves his narrative from focusing on “God and the whole world” in Gen 1-11 TO focusing on one family for the rest of Genesis with a Promised Restoration or rescue plan for humanity. This is a huge shift in Genesis. Out of all the families of the earth, God called an ordinary man named Abram. Here are the key people that we will get to know:
GENESIS
God & the Whole World (1-11)
Creation
Adam & Eve
Cain & Abel
Noah & the Flood
The Tower of Babel
God & Abraham’s Family (12-50)
Abraham (& Sarah)
Isaac (& Rebecca)
Jacob (Leah, Rachel, etc)
The 12 Sons of Jacob
Joseph in Egypt
[••] And God made covenant (a special relationship) with an extraordinary promise to childless Abraham and Sarah: A promise that consisted of 3 things: Land. Descendants. And a Blessing. In fact, all of the nations of the earth will be able to receive the Blessings of God through this one man.
God had started his Promised Restoration and plan to restore humanity back to the TOV of the Garden and God’s intentions for all of humanity.
That promise becomes one of the great threads running through the rest of the Bible that we will trace. However, almost immediately, we see the pattern of disobedience and fracture of Eden and not TOV repeated in the life of Abraham’s crazy and messed up family.
Right out of the gate, instead of fully trusting God’s promise, Abram and Sarai also rely on their own wisdom, trying to produce an heir through Sarai’s servant, Hagar. Yet despite their failure, God remained faithful to his covenant and continued moving his promise of restoration forward.
And that brings us to where we are today. And what a mess this family really is!!! The question is: Can God's promise survive the fractured humans through whom he has chosen to fulfill it? And yes… [••]
God remains faithful to his promise despite the dysfunction, deception, impatience, rivalry, and failure of Abraham's family.
Let hop in the story as we witness… [••]
Promises Kept, In Spite of a Mess
Gen 21-36
Remember where we left off. Abraham is old. Sarah is barren. And humanly speaking, this promise restoration that we discussed last week simply cannot happen. It’s impossible.
But then this crazy thing happened to this elderly couple: [••]
Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Gen 21:1-7
Now, recall that because Abraham trusted God and his promise of the land, descendants, and blessing, God counted him as righteous or being right with God—not perfect, but in right relationship with him.
But that didn't mean Abraham and Sarah never struggled to believe all of the detail of the promise. Far from it.
In fact… [••]
Earlier, when God promised them a son in their old age, they both laughed at different times. So God told them to name that impossible son Isaac, which means “laughter,” so that every time they called his name, they were reminded of the promise they once laughed at…and the God who faithfully kept it.
So, Isaac was the child they had waited decades for, the son through whom God said his promise would continue. The promise finally had a name and a face.
And then, just when it seemed God's promise was finally secure, Genesis 22 happens.
God asks Abraham to do the unthinkable: Take the son of the promise and give him back. Starting in Gen 22:1 [••]
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Gen 22:1-14
WHAT? The narrator tells us from the beginning that this is a test, like in Eden. God isn't suddenly reversing his character or abandoning the covenant. However, Abraham doesn't know how this request will end.
And the test isn't merely, “Does Abraham love God enough to sacrifice Isaac?” The deeper Storyline question is: Will Abraham trust God when God's command seems to contradict God's promise?
Now this is the first occurrence of the word “love” in the Bible: a father loving his son. That theme will definitely show up later.
In addition, Isaac wasn't literally Abraham's only biological son, remember Ishmael is 13 years older. The point is that Isaac is Abraham's unique covenant son, the one he loves, the son through whom God said the promise would continue. [••]
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Gen 22:1-14
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Gen 22:1-14
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
Gen 22:1-14
Now, we have to remember that Abraham lived in a very different world from ours—a culture in which sacrificing a child to a god was not an unheard-of idea. Abraham has been walking with Yahweh for years, but he is still discovering what kind of God this is. Is Yahweh like the gods of the nations? Does he also require a child sacrifice?
But there's an even bigger problem. Isaac isn't just Abraham's son. Isaac is THE promise. God has already said that the family he promised Abraham will come THROUGH Isaac. So how can Abraham obey this command and still believe the promise?
Abraham doesn't know. But this time, instead of trying to make God's promise work through his own wisdom, like Sarah and he did earlier w/ Hagar or like Adam and Eve, Abraham actually trusts God with the promise itself. Finally, someone is trusting God. Let’s continue and cue the ominous music!!!!! [••]
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
Gen 22:1-14
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Gen 22:1-14
And God provides. The son lives. And the promise moves forward. Whew… that was close!
—-----------
Eventually Sarah dies. Abraham dies.
And now there's an important question hanging over the Storyline: Was God's promise just to Abraham, or will it really continue after Abraham is dead and gone?
And the answer comes through the boy named “laughter” or Isaac. God then appears to Isaac and essentially repeats the same promise he had made to his father in Gen 26 [••]
The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”
Gen 26:2-5
So Isaac marries Rebekah. But once again, there's a problem. Isaac's wife Rebekah can't have children.
The promise is threatened again.
Isaac prays. God answers. Finally, Rebekah becomes pregnant—not with one son, but twins: Esau and Jacob.
Then the Lord says to Rebecca: [••]
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
Gen 25:19-28
In their ancient patriarchal culture, that would have sounded upside down. Normally, Esau, the firstborn, should have been the important one. The firstborn ordinarily held the privileged position in the family, including greater (more) inheritance and eventually leadership within the household. Jacob, as the younger son, should have occupied the lesser position.
But God says before their births that the promise he made to Abraham will advance through the younger one, Jacob.
In fact, [••]
Throughout the storyline, God repeatedly works through the younger sons:
It's almost an anti-status theme: God's purposes aren't controlled by human systems of rank, privilege, or entitlement.
“the older will serve the younger”
And so, God chooses Jacob before all of the crazy scheming and manipulation that follows.
This is how the narrator tells it. [••]
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
Gen 25:24-26
Jacob's name is associated with grabbing the heel, and that's basically what he spends the first part of his life doing —grasping for what he wants.
[••] One day Esau came in from the countryside exhausted and starving and found Jacob cooking a pot of stew. Jacob offered him the meal, but only in exchange for his birthright, the special privileges and inheritance that belonged to him as the firstborn son.
Esau, focused on satisfying his immediate hunger, foolishly traded something incredibly valuable (his birthright) for something incredibly temporary (a bowl of soup).
“So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob” (Gen 25:33).
Then later, with the help of his mother Rebekah, the manipulating Jacob disguises himself as his brother Esau (hairy and all) and deceives his elderly, blind, father Isaac in order to receive the blessing that was to be passed down through the eldest son.
What a kid! Who does that? The heel graber does!!!
Esau is furious and wants to kill him. So like any good manipulator does, Jacob runs!!!!!
And then the writer describes how messed up this family really was: [••]
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Gen 25:27-28
And once again, we get a look at the family God has chosen to bring restoration through.
Favoritism. Deception. Manipulation. Anger. Broken relationships.
[••] The fracturing of Genesis 3 is still everywhere and yet, God is keeping his promise to Abraham.
human brokenness isn't stopping God's promise; God will do what he says he will do. You can bank on it.
Later Jacob is on the run from his brother… He's alone. He sleeps with a stone for a pillow. He dreams of the stairway connecting heaven and earth.
And God repeats the promise again to Abraham’s grandson in Gen 28 [••]
“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you….” He called that place Bethel.
Gen 28:13-15, 19
God makes this promise to Jacob while Jacob is running away from the consequences of his own deception. Sin will catch up with you , Jacob.
We have to see: God's faithfulness isn't based on Jacob deserving it.
And then the story gets even crazier. (I know, how can it?) Oh just wait.
Jacob eventually arrives at the home of his uncle Laban, and … [••]
Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Gen 29:16-18
In that culture, marriages were arranged between families and normally involved a bride-price paid to the bride’s family. Jacob had no wealth to offer, so he offered Laban something he did have, his labor: so seven years of work for Rachel.
And 7 years later, Jacob is finally able to consummate the marriage with Rachel on the first night of a week long family wedding celebration. But Jacob wakes up the next morning…and discovers he consummate the marriage with Leah, Laban’s eldest daughter.
It would have been at nighttime, without modern lighting. And when it was time to consummate the marriage, Laban switched daughters. And Leah was probably heavily veiled.
And the deceiver who stole his brother’s birthright just got deceived himself. But it gets even crazier.
Jacob is mad and confronts his uncle… [••]
“What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
Gen 29:25-30
And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Gen 29:25-30
Told you. Crazy. Jacob completed the week-long wedding celebration with Leah, and then Laban gave him Rachel as his second wife. Jacob consummated his marriage to Rachel after that week and then he owed Laban another seven years of work.
And then what follows is an incredibly messy family: two wives (who are sisters) and eventually their two female servants are also given to Jacob to produce more children. Just like Abraham and Sarah with Hagar, jealousy, competition, and favoritism consume this family. Oh my! It's Eden all over again, but times ten.
In fact, I found this advertisement of the hit show that was on during this period of the Bible. [••]
It was crazy town.
But underneath all of this dysfunction and sin, something important is happening. God is still keeping his promise.
In spite of all of the mess, what God told Abraham that he would make him into a great nation is beginning to take shape.
Because through this incredibly fractured family, [••] Jacob has sons with all four of the wives, and those 12 sons are going to become very important to the rest of the Story.
Whew. What a mess.
But we're seeing a pattern that began all the way back with Adam and Eve. When humans stop trusting God's wisdom and rely on our own, we create dysfunction, broken relationships, even deeper fractures, or simply sin. [••]
Abraham and Sarah do it. Isaac and Rebekah do it. Jacob does it. Laban does it. Rachel and Leah do it. The fracturing of Genesis 3 keeps showing up in every generation.
And yet, running alongside all that human unfaithfulness is another pattern: God remains faithful.
the fracturing continues
They scheme. God remains faithful.
They deceive. God remains faithful.
They manipulate. God remains faithful.
They fracture relationships. God remains faithful.
God promised a childless man that he would make him into a great nation. [••] from Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and Jacob to his twelve sons. But what happens is: One man is becoming a family. And God's promise is moving forward—not because this family is faithful, but because God is.
Human brokenness keeps complicating the Story but God's faithfulness keeps working through them and in spite of them.
Abraham
and Isaac
Jacob
Jacob’s
12 sons
These 3 Patriarchs would have lived around 2000 BC
Oh, and I have one more crazy story about Jacob that I have to quickly tell.
Years have passed, Jacob has a large family, and now he's heading back home. There's just one problem: Esau is still there.
Remember, Jacob fled because Esau wanted to kill him. And now Jacob hears that Esau is coming to meet him—with 400 men.
Jacob is terrified. He sends his family and possessions across the Jabbok River, and that night Jacob is left completely alone.
And then Genesis gets weird again. Genesis 32 picks it up here [••]
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Gen 32:22-28).
In fact, God gives Jacob a new name: Israel, connected to struggling or wrestling with God. Jacob has spent his whole life wrestling and grasping… with his brother, his father, his uncle Laban, and now even with God. Now his new name will become the name of an entire people or nation, “the people of Israel.”
And eventually those twelve sons will become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel, with Judah being the tribe through whom Jesus is born some 2000 years later.
Wow. that is alot. I had to move the story along to set us up for next week. But with all of this crazy, dysfunctional family drama, there is one sure thing that we all can bank on… and it’s a simple take away… [••]
God Keeps His Promises
Despite us… And thank goodness.
And maybe, just maybe, that is something you need to hear and hold on to this week as you navigate the drama and dysfunction in your crazy family and life.
May we listen to the wisdom of God instead of relying on our own, which only leads to more hurt and dysfunction. Blessings on your week.
Here are some questions. [••]
If you have a decision to make that change, come forward as we sing. I’ll be up here.
Pray
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