Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090104.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part VII: Explaining God's Plan To Bless Men Regardless Of Apostasy
Y. God's Edifying Direction For The Troubling Passing Of An Era
(Genesis 35:27-37:1 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    As we enter the New Year of 2009, many find it hard to hope for happiness as it seems we are passing from an era of greater stability into one of greater instability and evil (as follows):

    (1) An article in the December 29, 2008 issue of The Wall Street Journal, p. A1 titled, "The Weekend That Wall Street Died," reported that due to events of September 13th-15th, 2008, all the big Wall Street investment banks of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs ceased to be investment leaders, and either collapsed, were bought out or changed into regular banks.

    Thus, we launch into a new year with a degree of uncertainty as to what it all means for investing in the stock market in the future!

    (2) Along with that uncertainty is the pain many face from huge financial losses in their retirement portfolios! The December 29, 2008 issue of USA Today, p. 7D ran a report by Marilyn Elias, "Hard times crank up stress" where she told of the explosion of "money-related mental health problems" that are being handled by "therapists." (Ibid.)<**> "Requests for counseling increased 40% in the last six months of 2008, according to Richard Chaifetz, CEO of ComPsych, the largest U. S. employee assistance mental health provider. Financial worries caused most of the increase in calls for help, he says." (Ibid.)

    Priscilla Marotta, a psychologist in Plantation, Florida reported she has "'never seen anything like this before. There's a lot of anger, even in upper-middle-class clients. They feel they did the right thing, and now they've lost so much of their retirement money.'" (Ibid.)

    Marotta claims couples in troubled marriages often can no longer afford to divorce, so they stay in separate rooms in the same house, feeling trapped. (Ibid.)

    (3) Last Thursday, New Year's Day, local radio talk show host, Brad Davis came on his morning program live versus his usual practice of running tapes of the best of the past year. He said the very negative events of 2008 caused him to want to start off 2009 with a "positive" approach by asking callers to tell him what they liked about 2008! Obviously, people are struggling to feel hopeful about the future!

    So, we might ask, "Regardless of the hope we usually have for the New Year, circumstances make it seem we are passing into a year of greater instability and evil! Any suggestions?!"

    (We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

    Need: " I wish for a Happy New Year, but circumstances leave me concerned about happiness in the future! Any suggestions?!"

  1. After Jacob returned to Canaan to be reunited with his father, Isaac, an era of special spiritual blessing passed when Isaac died:
    1. Genesis 35:27 reports that Jacob returned to Hebron where his aged, widowed father, Isaac still lived, and Jacob was reunited with him for the first time since he had fled for his life from Esau, Gen. 27:43-28:5.
    2. However, following this reunion, Isaac died (Genesis 35:28-29b), and with him passed a special era of God's spiritual blessing (as follows):
      1. Isaac had been the "miracle" son God had caused Abraham and Sarah to produce in their old age, cf. Genesis 17:15-17; 21:1-3.
      2. We before learned that the Abrahamic Covenant had been based in Isaac (Gen. 17:18-21), which covenant God would use to overcome the worldwide pagan apostasy begun at Babel, Gen. 12:1-3; 11:1-9.
      3. Thus, Isaac's death marked the end of an era of special blessing!
  2. Along with Isaac's passing, troubling circumstances arose for Jacob's family, making the future look bleak particularly for them:
    1. Jacob and Esau together buried their father, Isaac (Genesis 35:29c), but this apparent unity was short-lived by Esau's escalating sinfulness:
      1. Genesis 36:1-2 with 26:34-35 and 27:46 note Esau married Canaanite women, a grief to his parents, Isaac and Rebekkah, and a violation of what his grandfather Abraham had taught, Gen. 24:1-3.
      2. When Esau saw his parents objected to his choice of Canaanite wives, he married an Ishmaelite woman, Gen. 28:6, 8-9. [The names of Esau's wives in Genesis 36:2-3 differ from the Genesis 26:34; 28:9 account, a difference explained by concluding he had 4 wives: (a) 3 of Esau's wives were Canaanites, 1 was an Ishmaelite, and his wife, Judith was not named in Genesis 36 lineage chapter since she had no sons. (b) Two of his wives had the same name, Basemath, a common occurrence in that era, so one of the wives is identified by her other name, Adah, in Genesis 36:2; cf. Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, When Critics Ask, 1994, p. 56.]
      3. However, by adding yet another wife to expand his polygamous union as had the pre-flood despots (Genesis 6:1-2), and that by marrying a woman from the contentious line of Ishmael (cf. Gen. 16:11-12), Esau only exposed his growing spiritual darkness!
    2. When Esau's herds expanded, making it hard for him and Jacob to use the same land, he resettled in Edom, Genesis 36:6-8.
    3. After that, Esau's offspring produced overlords as had the pre-flood despots (Gen. 36:9-43; 6:1-4) so that powerful, ungodly kings arose from Esau well before Israel had its own monarchy, Genesis 36:31.
    4. Yet, while Esau's apostate line was expanding in influence, Jacob was merely sojourning in Canaan, Genesis 37:1! Thus, from the human viewpoint, the promised seed seemed it would be swallowed up by Esau's line like the pre-flood despots had overrun the pre-flood world!
  3. However, amid this troubling shift from one era to the next, God's ETERNAL PLAN was STILL at WORK for Jacob and his family:
    1. Though Esau's line, the Edomites, seemed poised to overwhelm Jacob's line, due to the sin in that line, it was eventually judged to vanish as a people (Obadiah 18b), and Israel would come to rule the land of Edom in the messianic kingdom of Jesus Christ, Obadiah 21.
    2. Jacob's seed would initially go into Egyptian bondage in line with God's Genesis 15:13 prophecy to Abraham, but they would return in the exodus to conquer Canaan (Genesis 15:14-21), and much later rule the world under Messiah Jesus Christ Himself, cf. Amos 9:11-12.
  4. Thus, Jacob was not to be dismayed, but to KEEP trusting God's covenant promises and KEEP obediently sojourning in Canaan:
    1. When Jacob first returned to the Promised Land, at Bethel, God renewed His Abrahamic Covenant to him, promising to bless Jacob, to produce a nation and a company of nations and kings from him, and to give him and his seed the land of Canaan, Genesis 35:9-13.
    2. Jacob was thus not to be dismayed over sinful Esau's expansion, but to keep trusting God's promises; thus, he kept living as a sojourner in the land of promise in faith in God and His Word, 35:14-15; 37:1.
Application: If concerned over the passing of a special spiritual era and the rising tide of apostasy in the new year, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to obtain eternal life and God's future promises, John 3:16; Romans 8:32. (2) Then, may we NOT be DISMAYED, but KEEP hoping in God's Word for future blessings, and KEEP obeying His ASSIGNMENTS in hope of His eventual blessings!

Lesson: In the troubling passing of an era, God led Jacob NOT to be DISMAYED as sinful Esau's expansionism, BUT to CONTINUE trusting His Word's promises of FUTURE blessing, and so obeying His CALLING to CONTINU E SOJOURNING in the Promised Land of Canaan!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

The Lord provided an illustration relative to this message last Monday morning, December 29th, 2008, the same day the newspapers that ran the stories of concern to which we alluded in our introduction.

My wife was listening before breakfast to a radio talk show host lament a report in that day's issue of The Wall Street Journal, p. A3. An article there titled, "Murders of Black Teens Are Up 39% Since 2000-01" by Gary Fields was disturbing to the talk show host, so he was voicing his concern about the problem when several calls came in from African-American adults who live in urban areas of the State. They were all too familiar with the rise in crime among blacks aged 14-17 years in their own communities, and how this increase is five times greater than the overall rate (Ibid.), but it was noteworthy to learn just what these callers suggested toward a solution!

Several of them claimed that what their communities most needed was for LOCAL PASTORS to TEACH the TRUTH!

People on the "front lines" in the black urban community are aware of a spiritual vacuum in their troubled youths. With inadequate adult supervision, high rates of single-parent homes, inferior schools and gang activity that gives unguided teens a distorted sense of belonging to fill that vacuum (Ibid.), there is a vacuum in the lives of these teens of an exposure to the truths of God!

I then recalled a fact I had read in an article years ago by a syndicated columnist, that the social evils occurring today in the black community only reflect what will occur in all other communities in our nation in the near future!

Thus, what Jacob was to do in his era of transition at the loss of his father Isaac, and at the escalation of apostasy in Esau, we as a nation need today! In place of dismay, we need the preaching of the Word of God, and we need to trust, heed and hope in God's Word!



May we then face the New Year not with dismay, but by optimistically CONTINUING to PROCLAIM and HOLD to the TRUTHS of GOD in His WORD. May we BELIEVE in Christ for salvation, may we TRUST His Word's truths, and may we HOPE in what Scripture PROMISES by way of BLESSING! May we then "sojourn", or CONTINUE in the ASSIGNMENTS God has given each of us like Jacob CONTINUED to sojourn in Canaan!