Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 12-17

 

! Introduction

Some of you play soccer and some don’t, but I doubt if anyone watching the game would have trouble understanding it.

You kick a ball and try to get it in the opposite net.

The same is not true for cricket, rugby and football.

You have to watch it many times and have it explained before you understand it.

It is clear that there is some kind of a plan to these games, but it is pretty fuzzy exactly what that plan is.

Some books you read are like that.

Some have a simple clear story line, but I have read books that are very obscure and you really can’t figure out if they are going anywhere.

I usually stop reading books like that.

When we read the Bible, we may wonder if there is a plan.

I suspect that there are many people who stop reading the Bible because they just don’t get what it is all about.

We may have thought about that during the last two messages on Genesis.

Three weeks ago we studied Genesis 3 which talks about sin and we examined how sin permeates our world.

Last Sunday, we looked at the story of the flood and saw how God hates sin and destroys evil.

It was not very encouraging to read about sin and God’s wrath on sin.

However, in both of these messages we have already noted the hint of a message of hope.

Today, as we look further, we will magnify the hope which is contained in these early chapters of the Bible.

We will be encouraged to know that it is not all bad news.

We will discover the wonder that what is happening in the world is not random acts which make no sense, but that God has a plan, a plan that gives hope and a future.

It was present already back in those ancient days and is still present with us today.

!

I.

The Direction Of The Genealogical Record

            How far back can you trace your genealogy?

Because of war and being refugees and a lot of moves, I can’t go back much more than the late 1700’s in some family lines and less in others.

For example, I know very little about my Toews side of the family.

Some of you are very interested in genealogies, but I wonder how many of you have studied the ones in the Bible.

We used to call them the “begats” from the KJV translation which always talks about one person who begat another person.

We don’t talk like that any more, but changing the language has not helped us actually read the genealogies.

We still avoid them, skim over or even skip over them.

That is OK most of the time, but sometime, I would encourage you to study the genealogies, because there is a very important lesson to be learned in them.

Let me show you.

There are 5 lines of genealogy in the early chapters of Genesis.

There are lines for the two sons of Adam - Cain and Seth and then there are lines for the three sons of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japheth.

As you can see from the chart of the line of Cain, it is traced perhaps one or two generations down and then we know nothing more.

On the other hand, the line of Seth is traced from one generation to another until we get to Noah.

It is going somewhere.

After Noah, as we examine the descendants of Ham and Japheth, we see the same kind of thing which happened with Cain.

The line is traced for one or two generations and then it is dropped.

The line of Shem, however, is traced from one generation to another until we get to Abram.

Why are the lines of Seth and Shem traced so far?

Because they are going somewhere.

Where are they going?

It is clear that the line of Seth goes to Noah - a significant person in God’s plan.

It is also clear that the line of Shem goes to Abram - another significant person in God’s plan.

Why this direction?

Because already in these early Biblical records, we are made aware through the way the genealogies are displayed that God has a plan.

As we follow the rest of the descendants of Abram throughout the Bible, we come finally to the most important person in God’s plan and that is Jesus Christ.

The New Testament, clarifies this when it says in Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham…”

            Although we avoid the genealogies they serve this significant function.

The genealogies tell us that God has a plan.

The New Testament clarifies the plan when we notice that it involves Jesus.

!

II.

God’s Promises To Abraham

After Noah, the next significant person is Abram and in his life we discover more about the plan of God.

How is God’s plan developed in the life of Abram?

Listen to what God says to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3

            After so many verses that give us the bad news, we now begin to hear words that sound a little more like good news.

God chose Abram to carry his plan forward and He made some pretty powerful promises to Him.

There are three main promises that God made to Abraham here, which reveal His plan.

!! A. Promise Of Descendants

            The first promise, is included in the statement, “I will make you into a great nation.”

How do you become a great nation?

Through descendants.

At this point in his life, Abram was 75 years old.

He and his wife had no children.

How would he become a great nation?

The promise is expanded in 12:7 after Abram had entered the land of Canaan.

There God made a promise “to your offspring.”

At this time, Abram had no offspring, but it didn’t seem to be a great problem to him.

In the next chapter, after Lot and Abram separated because there wasn’t room for them to care for all of their herds and flocks, God once again promised in 13:16, “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.”

Somewhere within the next eleven years, we are not exactly sure, Abram still had no children, no descendants and he began to wonder how God was going to fulfill this promise.

In Genesis 15:2, Abram began to ask God about this.

He said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”

“You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

But God kept making the same promise and responded to Abram’s question by saying in the next verse, “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir...Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.”

Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

In Genesis 16:1 we are again reminded that Sarai still had no children.

At this point both Abram and Sarai were getting worried and so they hatched a scheme to have offspring.

The scheme they hatched was not unusual in that culture and it worked.

When Abram was 86 years old, he had a son by his wife’s maid and they name him Ishmael.

Abram thought that God’s will has begun to be fulfilled and God let him think that for another 13 years.

When Abram was 99, he had only one child and that one not from his wife.

At this point, God appeared to Abram again and gave him the promise once again.

So powerful was the promise this time that he gave him a new name and instead of Abram, he would be called Abraham, which means “father of many nations.”

When Abram suggested that he was happy with Ishmael being his descendent, God responded that he would have a son whose name would be Isaac and who would be the son of promise and at age 100 years, Isaac was born.

God made a promise to him that he would become a great nation.

How was that promise fulfilled?

Ishmael was born to him and 17:18-20 promised that he would become the father of 12 tribes.

Isaac was born to Abraham and becomes the father of 2 sons - Esau who became the father of the Edomites and Jacob who became the father of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Then we read in Genesis 25:1-4 that after Sarah died, Abraham married again and that he had other children with his second wife who also became a number of nations.

God made a promise to Abram that he would make him a great nation.

As we read on we are amazed to see how God did it, even though his wife was barren, eventually God gave a child through her who become the line of promise, but also gave many other children to Abram who became nations.

God keeps His promises!

God carries out His plan!

!! B. Promise Of A Land

            The second aspect of promise that is included in the phrase in Genesis 12:3 that “I will make you into a great nation” is the promise of a land.

Abram was told to leave his home land and go to the land of promise and when he had obeyed God and gotten to the land of promise, God reiterated the promise in 12:7, “to your descendants, I will give this land.”

The promise was repeated in 13:14-17 after Abram had allowed Lot to take whatever land he wanted.

God brought him to a high mountain and showed him all the land around and said, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.