Isaac and Jacob The Gospel in the Old Testament

1. Isaac and JacobThe Gospel in the Old Testament Return to Bethel Lesson 6 November 14, 2010

2. Outline • Introduction • The Path to Bethel (Gen 35) • The Gracious Initiative of God • The Call to Purity • God’s Grace is Ever New • Life After the El Bethel Experience (Gen 35) • Three Deaths • The Sin of Reuben • The Birth of Benjamin

3. Introduction Psa 71:17, 18 - “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” “There is something touching in the sight of hair whitened with the snows of many a winter: the old and faithful soldier receives consideration from his king, the venerable servant is beloved by his master. When our infirmities multiply, we may, with confidence, expect enlarged privileges in the world of grace, to make up for our narrowing range in the field of nature…He desires to continue his testimony and complete it…he longed to make them all acquainted with the power of God to support his people, that they also might be led to walk by faith. He had leaned on the almighty arm, and could speak experimentally of its all-sufficiency, and longed to do so ere life came to a close.” (“The Treasury of David”, Vol 2, by Charles Spurgeon, p. 211-212)

4. Introduction (cont) “…God does give people special graces for what we call the ‘sunset years.’ His enabling can transform the sunset into the first glimmerings of eternal day. Jacob’s final years were like that. His life had been filled with troubles, almost all of his own making. But as he entered upon the last years of his life, he returned to Bethel and his ancestral home of Hebron and experienced there a fuller measure of the presence and joy of God than at any time previously.” (“Genesis”, Vol 2, by James Montgomery Boice, p. 836)

5. The Path to BethelThe Gracious Initiative of God (1 of 2) Gen 35:1-4 - “God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.’ So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.” “The first step in spiritual renewal, as in spiritual birth, always comes from God. Left to ourselves, our hearts are cold as ice toward God. We rapidly slide into compromise and embrace the attractions of false goals and idols…We repeatedly slip away from passionately pursuing God into the pursuit of other things and are enveloped by a comfortable luke-warmness, until God intervenes through trials and failed temptations and calls us back to himself.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 149)

6. The Path to BethelThe Gracious Initiative of God (2 of 2) • Jacob has made a mess of his life again – comfortable with commercial success in Shechem and failing to lead his family • After the massacre at Shechem, God graciously calls to him – reminding him of his past relationship to God at Bethel “When Jacob looked back on his long life, he must have regarded his first experience at Bethel as the high point of everything that had happened to him…God gave him a vision of a ladder stretching from heaven to earth. It showed the immanence of God and testified to the concern God had for Jacob. Jacob knew that God had revealed himself to his father Isaac and to his grandfather Abraham years before. But God had not revealed himself to Jacob before this…it was in the strength of God’s promise that Jacob endured the years of exile.” (“Genesis”, Vol 2, by James Montgomery Boice, p. 837)

7. The Path to Bethel The Call to Purity (1 of 2) Psa 24:3-6 - “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? It is he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” • Jacob calls on his family to get rid of their false idols Exo 20:2-4 - “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” “A pure heart begins with burying your idols, all those souvenirs of our former ways of living and thinking that we have brought along on the journey, just like Rachel…A pure heart begins with true worship of the living God and cannot be separated from it…True purity of heart flows out of the life-changing power of the gospel. We are set free to serve as we recognize more fully the true nature of the God whom we serve and bury the old idolatries that have tied us down.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 150, 151)

8. The Path to Bethel The Call to Purity (2 of 2) • The family changes their clothes – a picture of the new life Eph 4:22-24 - “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and…be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” “It is not simply that they have stopped doing what they used to do, or that they have begun to do things that they did not formerly do, and are speaking in a new way. Much more fascinating and charming it is to see that the very spirit of the mind is different! The whole outlook, the very method of thinking, has now become Christian. We need to be Christianized in the whole of our being; and obviously, first and foremost in the mind itself, for ‘as a man thinks in his heart, so is he!’” (“Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17”, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, p. 166)

9. The Path to Bethel God’s Grace is Ever New Lam 3:22, 23 - “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” • God protects Jacob on his journey to Bethel • Jacob and his family worship at Bethel – because of God’s great faithfulness • God renews His covenant with Jacob “Earlier, when God first appeared to Jacob in the vision of the ladder stretching from heaven to earth, Jacob had called the place Bethel (the house of God). He was very much impressed with the place. He said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place…How awesome is this place!’ (Gen 28:16, 17)…However, by Genesis 35, Jacob has grown a bit, and now, though he returns to the place, his emphasis is not upon the place, but upon the God he met there. He called it El Bethel, that is, ‘God of the house of God’. His focus has shifted. His perception has been elevated. This should happen to you in your later years…In old age you do not need new truth about God. You need to be reminded of the things in Scripture. God has said more than enough for us. The Bible is filled with teaching that not one of us can exhaust. So your later years should be years of continued feeding on this Book.” (“Genesis”, Vol 2, by James Montgomery Boice, p. 838, 839)

10. Life After the El Bethel Experience Three Deaths (1 of 2) “Death, the result of he curse of Adam and Eve’s sin, is our constant companion in Genesis.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 156) • Deborah, Rebekah’s servant, dies after 150 years of service to the family • Rachel, who said ‘Give me sons or I die!’, dies giving birth • Isaac, Jacob’s father, dies at 180 years of age and is buried in the family cemetery at Hebron

11. Life After the El Bethel Experience Three Deaths (2 of 2) “Our text (‘If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end!’--Deut 32:29) tells us that we should be wise, if we would consider our latter end. And certainly we should be, for the practical effect of a true meditation upon death would be exceedingly healthful to our spirits. It would cool that ardor of covetousness, that fever of avarice, always longing after, and accumulating wealth, if we did but remember that we should have to leave our stores…It would certainly help us to set loose by the things that we here possess. Perhaps, it might lead us to set our affections upon things above, and not upon the moldering things below. At any rate, thoughts of death might often check us when we are about to sin. If we look at sin by the light of that death's lantern…we might see more of the hollowness of sinful pleasure, and of the emptiness of worldly vanity…Surely we should be kept back from many an evil act if we remembered that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And, perhaps too, these thoughts of death might be blessed to us in even a higher sense, for we might hear an angel speaking to us from the grave, "Prepare to meet your God," and we might be led to go home and set our house in order, because we must die and not live.” (“Momento Mori (Remember Your Mortality)”, by Charles Spurgeon, delivered Sunday morning, March 18, 1860)

12. Life After the El Bethel Experience The Sin of Reuben • Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, disgraces himself by taking his father’s concubine Bilhah “This was probably not a moment of passion but rather a political act, an attempt by the eldest son to usurp his father’s role and take over the leadership position…Once again we are clearly being shown in the earliest recorded acts of Jacob’s children that God’s purposes will not be earned through their wonderful merits but bestowed as a gift of God’s grace.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 156)

13. Life After the El Bethel ExperienceThe Birth of Benjamin (1 of 2) • Rachel wanted to call him Ben-Oni, or son of my affliction • But Jacob called him Benjamin, or son of my right hand “The right side was the specially favored side (Psa 110:1) and suggests that Jacob saw this son, the only one born in the land of promise, as of special significance. Benjamin was, in fact, born in a territory that would later be allocated to his descendants (1 Sam 10:2).” (“The Book of Origins: Genesis Simply Explained”, by Philip Eveson, p. 453)

14. Life After the El Bethel ExperienceThe Birth of Benjamin (2 of 2) “This is the wonderful truth of relentless grace. God’s plan does not depend on him finding suitably willing and holy implements to employ. He is able to accomplish his purposes even with the most deeply flawed individuals. Even sinners cannot stand in his way and frustrate him. Where is that more vividly seen than on the cross? There, though Satan did his worst, though God’s people and the Gentiles allied themselves against him, all they were able to do was what God had planned all along. God’s work of redemption was accomplished…By that act, we are saved. Jacob and all of his spiritual children are redeemed by sovereign, relentless grace.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 158)