A Godly Heritage
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Every story comes to an end, and today we finally reach the end of the story of a man named Jacob. Although Jacob doesn’t die until Genesis 49, this is the end of him being the central character of the storyline of the book of Genesis. His character arch is essentially finished here. We’ve witnessed his journey from being a trickster to a man of faith, and the many ruts and problems along the way. Throughout his story, God has remained faithful to his promises given first to Abraham, then to Isaac, and then finally to Jacob on that night at Bethel when he saw the vision of a stairway to heaven, which symbolized God’s initiative to make a way for his covenant people to come and know him. This is what Jacob’s whole story has been about. While he constantly pursued his own way, God pursued him until finally he came back to Bethel and devoted himself exclusively to the worship of God and embraced his role as an image-bearer by faith.
At the end of Jacob’s story, we have the chance to look back on all that he did and look forward on all that God is going to do through him and his offspring and consider the theme of a godly heritage. One thing that we maybe don’t think about enough in how we live our lives, both as a church and as individuals, is how we are setting the stage for the future of the church. Whether it is the future of this church, the future of particular baptists, or the future of Christians in Toronto, Ontario, and Canada, it is important for us to take some time to consider how future Christians will be affected by what we said, did, and how faithful we were to our calling.
The Ending of a Story
The Ending of a Story
The way that this portion of the book of Genesis is structured is similar to the end of Abraham’s story in Genesis 25. There, we are told of the descendants of Keturah, Abraham’s third wife, and how they did not inherit the promised land and settled elsewhere. Likewise, in chapter 36 the author will detail what becomes of the descendants of Esau, who also do not inherit the promised land. In both cases a clear line in drawn between who are the people of promise and who are not. While Esau leaves a good inheritance to his offspring from a worldly perspective, he is not able to leave a godly heritage because he himself did not possess the promises of God. It is impossible to leave a legacy of faith if you do not have faith to begin with.
So what kind of legacy or heritage does Israel leave to his family? As we look back into his life, the life that his children after him would learn from, we can expect that he left a somewhat mixed message as to how life ought to be lived as the image bearers of the righteous God of the universe. Israel’s life is full of lies, deceit, self-trust, worldliness, idolatry, and a neglect of the presence of God. However, throughout all of it God’s providential hand was at work, leading Jacob to wrestle with God once, then to be called in his desperation back to Bethel where he finally settled in the faith and righteous worship of God he was intended to have. At the end of his life, Jacob now Israel knew God, but what effect did his life have on those he was called to lead to God?
Israel’s Heritage
Israel’s Heritage
Rachel’s Death
Rachel’s Death
In out text we see one birth and two deaths, two events that signal the end of an old era and the beginning of a new. The death is that of Jacob’s favourite wife Rachel and of Isaac, who lived a long life even after Jacob had fled all those years ago. Missing from this list is Rebekah, which is indeed strange since we were told of his nurses’ death in out text last week. Rachel’s death is somewhat ironic as she dies given birth to a son, the very thing she lived for as we saw in chapter 30:1 where she told Jacob, “Give me children or I die.” Now she has been given the desire of her heart, but it has also been the death of her. Now that’s not to say that her death is a judgement for her faithless character, rather it is an ironic end to her idolatry which made having children her only goal rather than praising God as her sister did after the birth of Judah.
The name’s “Ben Oni” and “Benjamin” contrast the attitude towards this child. Ben Oni means son of sorrow, but Benjamin means son of my right hand. To Rachel, although her lifelong goal was to have children, this son becomes the son of suffering and sorrow for her. Those who rely on wordly goods to satisfy themselves are always found wanting, to the point where they will curse the very thing they sought to satisfy them. There is no lasting good to be found in children, or careers, or material possessions, or even human relationships when those things are the end of what you are looking for. They are poor objects the put the stock of our joy into. However, when one is satisfied in the God of Bethel, when our faith is in the one at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11), than we can find joy in the gifts of God, even in the midst of grief or loss, when our life is in Christ, only then can we truly enjoy the good things and have hope in the midst of the bad things in life. However, so much of Jacob’s life had not been an example of this kind of faith, and so he had not led his wife to trust God in the way that he eventually learned to.
Reuben’s Immorality
Reuben’s Immorality
When we look at Jacob’s life and think about the legacy he is leaving for his children and for all the people of God, it is mixed at best.
We find out why Reuben will not be the ancestor of the chosen king of Israel, because he sleeps with his father’s concubine. This was likely not a move motivated by lustful passion, but rather a political move meant to make a statement of power and control over his father. A similar act is committed by Absalom on 2 Samuel 16. Reuben’s grab for power will actually erase any chance of him ever having it, and yet Jacob will wait until his death bed before he apparently rebukes him for it. This disqualifies Reuben, Levi, and Simeon and leaves Judah to be the one who would father the ruler of God’s people.
But Reuben’s behaviour is somewhat understandable when we think of the example he had in his father. As Reuben uses sinful means to take his father’s place as covenant head and leader of the family, so also Jacob used sinful means to take the blessing from his brother. Although Jacob learned to trust God in the end, his stubbornness which stopped him from coming to God sooner became the example that Reuben followed rather than the faith he later embraced. This was, unfortunately, the legacy he left with his oldest son.
However, this isn’t the only legacy that he left. His son Joseph, the oldest son of Rachel, would go on to live a life of faith and obedience in the midst of suffering at the hands of his brothers. Through this he relied on God. Not just any god, the God of his Fathers, the God of Bethel, the God of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and his father Jacob. Where did he learn such faith? From his father. Joseph was one of the younger sons of Jacob, so it makes sense that his upbringing witnessed more of his fathers faithfulness to God, whereas his oldest son Reuben saw more of his faithless life before his two encounters with God. This may have influenced how these boys imitated their father’s character over the years, Joseph growing up seeing more of his father as a man who had left his wandering ways to serve the living God, while Reuben grew up being shaped by his father’s lack of faith. Regardless, this shows to contradictory legacies left by Jacob on his sons, one of faith and one of immorality and unbelief. His inconsistency bore the fruit of an inconsistent heritage and his goal to teach his children righteousness and justice only met with a fraction of the success that was intended by God.
The Death of Isaac
The Death of Isaac
With the death of Isaac comes the closing of an age in the community of God’s people. We are given a list of the 12 sons of Jacob right before we are told of the death of Isaac, which parallels the death of Abraham in Gen 25:7-9. Isaac lived 5 years longer than his father, both are said to have lived a long life full of years and are gathered to their people, and both are buried by one son of the promise and one son of the flesh. Just as Abraham died and was buried, Isaac has gone the same way and soon so will Jacob. Now the emphasis will turn to the next generation of God’s people. Will they walk in the faith of Abraham, the faith that was counted to him as righteousness, or will they mimic the mistakes he, Isaac, and Jacob all made, the times when they fell into sin, unfaithfulness, and a lack of trust in God? Will they finally learn to walk by faith and in obedience, delighting in the Lord with all their heart? Or will they repeat the mistakes of their fathers? Far too often, the latter would be true. Far too often the sins of the father are adopted but their faith is neglected The faith of David was never matched by his descendants all the way until the birth of Christ. However, his mistakes and sins were readily copied. Nevertheless his faith did define what it meant to be a good king of Israel for a time until Christ himself would become that definition.
From the dawn of history, people have been influenced by their fathers and mothers, their mentors who shaped their lives for good or evil. Many of the unspeakable evils that we, as a society rightly abhor were at one time or place readily acceptable and if our generation were to switch places with them, it would be they condemning us. So also years from now who knows what people will think of the weaknesses and evils that today are taken as normal and acceptable. Perhaps years from now people will look back on that barbaric time when abortion was viewed as healthcare, or given a child gender reassignment was considered loving, while they will of course have their own set of normalized sins.
This problem stems back long before Jacob or Isaac or even Abraham, right back to the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve made a conscious decision to disobey God for the sake of their own lusts and power fantasy. It is unlikely that they knew that they were not only making a decision that would influence themselves, but one that would come to define humanity for hundreds of generations after them. Such is true for many who choose a path not realizing those they influence after them. But it as unique for Adam and Eve, for they not only influenced their descendants, they brought the curse of a sinful nature into the human experience. Romans 5:19 tells us that by Adam’s sin we were all made sinners. He was the first man given the job and purpose to reflect God’s character to all of creation, to be fruitful and multiply not just giving birth to more children, but teaching them to be image-bearers like they were created to be. They were meant to show the world and their children what God was like and to fill the world with others who would represent the righteous character of God. Instead they left us nothing but sin and the wages of that sin: death.
But praise be to God that this is not where Romans 5:19 ends.
English Standard Version Chapter 5
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Who was this one man whose obedience can make many righteous? Who is this one man whose life is the only pure and perfect example of how we should live? Who was able to leave a godly legacy after them for the people of God, those who would be called by his name? The legacy that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, and every other leader of God’s people failed to leave for them finally came in the life of Jesus Christ. His perfect righteousness became the perfect standard of image-bearing, and that righteousness comes to his people by faith. By his obedience, many are made righteous who believe upon his name. By the Spirit who is sent to those who are made righteous by faith in the work of Christ, we to are being made day by day into the perfect image of Christ. Only from Christ, our covenant head, do we experience a perfect godly heritage and legacy.
Leaving a Godly Legacy
Leaving a Godly Legacy
And so, as the people of God in the church age, it is fitting for us to think about the kind of legacy we are leaving for the future of Christianity. How will what we believe, what we say, and how we act influence the church going forward? Many have a progressive view of the church, believing that it must evolve with the times, even when it comes to Christian ethics and the very definition of the Gospel itself. The legacy that leaves is not one that draws people closer to God, but rather one that draws people closer to the world and it’s rebellion against God and his Word. Some put all their focus on keeping church tradition, even when that tradition is not backed up with Scripture. What legacy does this leave? A message for the next generation of Christians that the traditions of man are more important than the Word of God or the ministry of the Gospel. If we fail to deal with issues of sin or false teaching that sprout up in our churches, those weeds will overtake that outpost of the New Creation until Christ will spit it out of his mouth. However, if we overreact and become militant Christians, calling secondary issues heresy and making a big deal out of things that are not really Gospel issues, we will leave a legacy of division, strife, and a lack of spiritual fellowship.
If we emphasize spirituality but not right doctrine, we risk leaving a legacy of putting God’s Word second to our own subjective feelings and experiences. If we emphasize doctrine but not prayer and closeness with Christ, we risk leaving a legacy of cold dogmatism that has no power to bring us to Christ. If we hold to doctrine and spirituality but live a hypocritical and disobedient life, we leave a flawed and dangerous legacy as well. When we consider our faith and how it should be practiced and lived, we should not only be thinking about ourselves and the particular time we live in right now, we should be thinking about our children, future converts, those who will look back on us 50 or 100 years or more from now and consider how we may influence those generations of Christians biblically.
Think about the Christians that have gone before us that have built up the church for hundreds of years to come. We can’t fully appreciate how blessed we are by our heritage in church history. Figures like Augustine, Athanasius, John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Bunyan, and the authors of documents like the 1644 an 1689 London have left us a long history of theology that helps us understand the Scriptures better. People like Saint Patrick and William Carey leave a powerful legacy of missionary work, and thinkers like Jonathan Edwards help us understand the relationship between theology, spirituality, and obedience in the Christian life. In the 21st century we have the great privilege of 2000 years of Christians to learn from, to mentor us and guide us through the issues we face today. Hebrews 11-12 call the Saints of the OT a great cloud of witnesses who waited for heritage that we should receive through the coming of Christ, and because we have recieved such an inheritance we should run eagerly the race set before us; a race for the glory of God in the presence of Jesus Christ. With the amazing legacy we have recieved, first through Christ, and also through the saints that have gone before us, we have all the more a responsibility to pave the way for a future generation of Christian brothers and sisters.
But how can this be done when our flesh pulls us so often away from Christ like it did with Jacob? Even in church history, it is impossible to bring up a great Christian hero without mentioning some of his or her flaws. When you study church history, you begin to find that some of the greatest and most influential saints had some shocking shortcomings, shortcomings that often were disastrous in the long run. For example, some of Luther’s comments about Jews at the end of his life where used by Germany’s greatest and fiercest dictator as an excuse for his atrocious acts. If Luther, one of the most influential Christians that ever lived, could make such a blunder what hope is there for us and the future of our children, our church, and the entire Christian faith? How can we be sure that our sin won’t destroy the godly heritage that we are called to impart to the future of the church?
I want to close by considering two answers to that question.
First, Christ is the one who ultimately leaves us a godly heritage. Yes, there is much to learn from the Christians that have gone before us and we should study them often and thoroughly, but their mistakes remind us that they were only men saved by the same grace that saves us. Hebrews 6:12 says
so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Imitate those who inherit the promises by faith. Not the perfect, not the righteous, but those who stand in the faith despite their sin and hold onto the promises of God. Imitate the Apostle Paul, and Calvin, and Luther, and Carey, and MacArthur, and Pedro, and any other Christian only so far as Christ is imitated in them. Remember that the Gospel is not for the righteous, but for sinners. Don’t look to the reformers as good men, for they themselves would tell you they are not. Don’t look to the Puritans as the ultimate examples of righteousness, for they would shun such a dishonourable intention. Look instead to their Lord, the one who forgave their sins, and learn what they learned from God. And teach the next generation to do the same. Parents, be quick to admit to your children when you have sinned and tell them about the one who forgave your sins and gave you his Spirit to overcome it. Evangelists, be quick to admit your own failures and point your listeners to the one who never fails. Church members, be quick to repent of your sins to each others and pray together to the one who has cleansed your and sealed you for his Kingdom. He is the great image-bearer, he is the one who did what no OT patriarch could. He is our Godly Heritage, and our faith in his work is what we want to pass on to the future generations of the church.
Second, if you want to set a good example for future Christians to follow, and I hope your do, you cannot do it by moralism. Pretending to be a perfect Christian is not going to do it because you aren’t a perfect Christian. You cannot do it by putting on a fake Christian show to look like what Christians should look like while in your secret life you are living in hypocrisy. How can you pass on a godly heritage? Well, how did Jacob finally show righteousness to his children? It wasn’t by acting perfect, it wasn’t by proclaiming his own righteousness, it was simply by repenting of his idolatry and returning to the presence of God at Bethel. It was a humble, sincere desire for the presence of God and trust in his provision that ultimately showed his family what true faith really is.
It is so important that we give the next generation of Christians and churches examples to follow, and those examples must be the examples of sinners who trust wholeheartedly in a great and perfect saviour. It is those who, though still weak and at times falling into sin, are in continual repentance seeking to lay aside every weight and sin that keeps them from a closer walk with Christ. Be an example of someone who, more than anything else, desires to love Jesus more and more and to tell his Gospel of love to all who will hear. Someone who reads their bible because they delight in the Words of life, someone who prays because they desire the closeness of their God, and someone who obeys because they are full of the Spirit of righteousness by faith in Christ.