Lessons from the Book of Genesis

Kameron DeVasher

Muskegon SDA Church

Of Joseph and Jesus

We've been going this quarter through a study in the book of what?

If someone would say it's Revelation, we're going to have to start all over.

We've been going through the book of Genesis, and today we'll kind of bring that to a close.

Next Sabbath, we'll be having a special guest speaker from the conference office.

Our conference treasurer, Leroy Brooke, will be here talking about stewardship specifically as it relates to the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

So we want to make sure to be there for that.

But you'd be here anyway because it's a Sabbath and that's what we do as we come together at church.

But the book of Genesis, as you recall, opens with the contiguous stories of the creation accounts and the fall of man into sin.

But in each of those stories, Jesus Christ is the active agent of the Godhead.

And in the story of the fall, he's the promised redeemer.

And today we'll see, by God's grace, that the book of Genesis closes through the life of Joseph with a fascinating foreshadowing of Jesus Christ as not only our Redeemer, but also our soon coming King.

Before we do any study of God's Word, of course, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you are our creator and our Redeemer and that you communicate with us through your Word.

Lord, help us to see that word more clearly, and more importantly than merely understanding the words or seeing the stories at face value, help us to go beyond the surface reading and help us to see that your word testifies of Jesus Christ and that he is our central hope, focus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Please turn, if you would, to the Gospel of John.

I know we've been studying the book of Genesis, and we still are, but I want to bring to your attention a pivotal principle that Jesus Christ in his ministry here on earth articulated to those around him, particularly to those who were harassing him.

Now Jesus was harassed by all kinds of people but none more spitefully and consistently than the Jewish leaders and the scribes, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, those scholars in the Word of God.

You'll find frequently as you go through a story of the life of Jesus, whichever gospel you choose, you'll find that there were people who would try to snare him and trap him and corner him and test him, tempt him, try him, all based on the Word of God.

They would say, now Which commandment is the greatest?

What about Moses said this, but what do you say?

There's all kinds of traps that they would try to put Jesus into to trip him up about his knowledge of the word of God.

But in response to 1 of these, in the book of John, chapter 5, Jesus lays out a crucial principle of Bible study.

And you might be thinking again, Why are we in the Gospel of John?

Why are we talking about Bible study when we're supposed to be learning about Joseph?

But let's start with John chapter 5, and we're going to go to verse 39.

Again, in another contention with his rivalries, Jesus says these words, starting with verse 39, you search the scriptures.

The people that Jesus was interacting, who were contending against Jesus, were scholars in the Word of God.

They were students of the scriptures, they were well-versed in the verses, if you will.

They knew their scrolls and Torahs, they were familiar with every story that we've been covering in this book, they knew better than I do.

And he says to them, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.

Do we not have eternal life from the Word of God?

Apparently in their searching of the Scripture, their raw knowledge of the Word of God, they founded their hope of eternal life.

That I know the Word of God, we've been entrusted with this story, We are familiar with these experiences in the past that God has recorded in his Word, therefore we have salvation.

But notice what Jesus says again, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but notice what he adds, and These are they which testify of whom?

Now, these were scholars in the word of God, but when the culmination of all the hopes of Scripture came to them in person, face to face, they rejected him and wanted him to die.

And Jesus says in verse 40, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life.

Apparently the scripture is not an end to itself but it is a means to the end which is Jesus Christ.

The purpose of Scripture is not just to familiarize yourself with a good solid history, which it is, or with stories of personal practical application, though they're very good for that.

The central purpose of Scripture is to uplift and clarify and point us to Jesus Christ, period.

Now, I do not wish to repeat the mistake of those enemies of Christ.

I would hate to have come to the end of this survey of the book of Genesis and leave you with the impression that it was written to teach us little life lessons from the stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.

While those individuals are obviously main characters in the book of Genesis, the record of their lives was preserved to draw people to the true central figure of all scripture, which is Jesus Christ.

So when you read through Genesis, you're not just saying, oh, that's what happened to Noah.

You're thinking, oh, that's a prefigure of Christ.

Somehow that teaches me something about Jesus, who's the central figure.

Let me give you some illustrations of this from the book of Genesis.

In the opening lines of Genesis chapter 1, hopefully we're all very well familiar with this passage where we read that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now that is a statement of fact, both theologically and I will add scientifically.

Yet the Apostle Paul clarifies what is being talked about.

Go to the book of Colossians in the New Testament and notice what the Apostle Paul testifies about this God who created the heavens and the earth.

Colossians chapter 1, and in verses 16 and 17 he is explicitly writing about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that second member of the Godhead, and notice his language talking about Jesus.

It says, for by Him, again that is Jesus Christ, all things were what?

Created, that are in heaven and on the earth.

So the God who created heaven and earth was none other than Jesus Christ, our creator.

Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.

So the creation story, though it looks like it's about the earth and Adam and Eve and the plants and the trees, it's about Jesus Christ being seen through his creation.

Says in verse 17, He is before all things and in Him all things consist.

The creation story is really a story of Jesus as our creator.

Of course, just 2 chapters later in the saga of Genesis, After the creation story of Genesis 1 and 2, we find Genesis chapter 3, when man falls into sin.

But right there in the heart of that account, in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, we find what is technically known as the very first messianic prophecy, which is simply a foretelling, a prediction of the coming Savior, who of course was Jesus Christ.

But they don't refer to him by name, but they mention him as the seed that would bruise or crush the Satan's or the serpent's head, pointing forward to Jesus as a Savior.

So as soon as there was sin, there was a Savior.

Later in the book of Genesis, It was Christ, along with 2 angels, who visited Abraham and revealed to him God's plan, both for Abraham's future heir and for the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

So when Christ had a big plan about the future of Israel and the destruction of the wicked, which by the way, Sodom and Gomorrah prefigures the destruction of the wicked at the end of the world, does it not?

Multiple times in the New Testament, they serve as an example for the end days, right?

It was Jesus Christ who came down here and explained the future of Israel to Abraham and then told him about the destruction of the wicked that was gonna come under his leadership.

Think about Jacob and his flight from Esau.

It was Christ who was represented by that ladder shown him in vision.

We laid down and put the rock under his head.

He feared for his life and he was guilty.

And God opened the windows of heaven and showed him, prefigured, an image of Jesus.

By the way, how do we know that that ladder represents Jesus?

Because it was Jesus himself who in John chapter 1 and verse 51 said, you will see the Son of Man with angels descending and ascending upon him.

So yes, there are stories about Jacob and Abraham and Adam and all the other characters, but the central figure of all Scripture is Jesus Christ behind all of the stories.

Now, what I want to, I preface all of that for our study today.

Today's sermon is a little bit different than normal.

The Children of Israel

Hopefully you're well aware that we've been going through a study in the book of Genesis, looking at some of the main stories, and not just to review the history, but to learn lessons, lessons from the book of Genesis that will be applicable in our lives even today.

Last time we were together, we looked at the story of Jacob and Jacob's troubles, most of which were self-inflicted, mind you.

But the Lord worked with them, he took his time with them, and on that night of wrestling, the Lord even appeared to be his avenging enemy.

Yet Jacob's faith clung to him, and the Lord blessed him indeed.

And what's fascinating, for a little piece of trivia there, is that before that night of wrestling, when the Lord appeared to Jacob, and to anyone, he would say, I am the God of Abraham and Isaac.

But after that night of wrestling, every time the Lord addresses himself, he's like, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So the Lord truly became Jacob's own at that time, and we saw a great change in his life, and he prevailed through faith.

Now, just because you prevail by faith and you come into a new experience with God, you start all new.

In fact, Jacob even got a new name, Israel.

And the Lord set his seal on him and he was enfolded him into that covenant promise.

That does not mean that the consequences of his previous actions didn't haunt him and follow him into his new life.

And today we're going to take a look beyond Jacob's life into the lives of his children in a message entitled, The Children of Israel.

And oftentimes we hear that term, the children of Israel, and I think we think corporately.

We think of the nation of Israel and all the tribes assembled in their vast multitude But before we get there, we're going to look actually at Jacob's children themselves the actual children of Israel individually and see what the Lord did with them as recorded in God's Word.

But we always must start with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for so many things, but particularly thank you for that amazing grace that we just sang about.

Thank you that it's offered to us even today and that in your word you record for us your will to the lives of those who have gone before us.

Through your Holy Spirit's power, Lord, make us more like Jesus.

If you recall, Jacob deceived his father and won by stratagem what should have been by the Lord's leading with his birthright and inheritance.

And that deception and all the train of things that followed after, you know, he had to flee and he ran into Laban.

That's where he met Rachel, but Rachel wasn't the 1 that Laban gave him.

He gave him Leah and there was this big compromise.

And lo and behold, Jacob's life turned in quite a mess because of this the action leads to another action and by the time it was all said and done he didn't have 1 wife he didn't have 2 wives he ended up with 4 wives in 1 household with some 13 children that are recorded by name.

And in case you haven't kept score, here's how that shakes out.

Leah was the first to bear children for Jacob.

Leah had Reuben and then Simeon, then Levi, and then Judah.

Those first 4 children came from Leah in that order, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

Then Rachel, of course, was jealous and envious, and you recall, of course, that Rachel was the 1 that he loved the most and so she was envious and she perhaps taking a page from Abraham's wife Sarah offered up her maidservant this time it wasn't Hagar this time It was Bilhah to Jacob and of course Jacob being the man that he is, refused to.

Well apparently Leah thought, well 2 can play at this maidservant game.

She's like, I'll see you, your Bilhah, and raise you a zilpah.

To which Jacob consents again bearing 2 more sons, Gad and Asher, numbers 7 and 8.

Well apparently, Leah at this point comes back in herself in the game and she conceives 3 more times.

Issachar, Zebulon, and the daughter, Dinah.

And finally, Rachel, the 1 he had served the longest for and had wanted forever and it was the most loved, his most prized wife, as you should only have only 1 wife, but finally she conceives and bears Joseph and his younger brother, Benjamin, who would of course come later on her deathbed as she's giving birth.

And that, Though Jacob himself gets into right relation with the Lord, he's got a mess at home to deal with.

And you can imagine the character of the young people that would come out of that situation.

And 1 of the most beautiful things about scripture is it doesn't just skip over the unsavory parts.

You know, there's always the black sheep of the family that nobody really talks about.

The Lord puts on full display the black sheep in his family.

We're going to start our study there, here.

Genesis chapter 34, when these children have been born, at least all of them except for Benjamin so far, apparently.

It records what my Bible simply has the heading of as the Dinah incident.

Now we're going to look at several different stories today.

We're not going to take the time to exhaustively read each 1, but enough sampling of each to see the character of the individuals involved.

Genesis chapter 34 begins, as they all do, with verse 1.

Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

Now associating with the locals was not something that people were supposed to be doing in the household, even in familiar situations, but especially not in intimate situations.

And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and violated her.

Now there is a great discussion to be had about whether this was mutual in their affections, but it does not seem that it's a random violent act as we keep reading.

It says in verse 3, His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman.

So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this young woman as a wife.

But they had violated the covenant relationship that she was supposed to have with her God.

Verse 5 says, And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter.

Now his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.

Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done." Now, we'll pause right here for a second.

They are upset at what has occurred, rightly so, for doing a thing which ought not be done.

And if the story stopped right there, you would think these were very righteous gentlemen who had a very high standard for moral living, except we see in their lives very similar behavior.

In fact, as the story unfolds, we read what they did in response.

But Hagar, verse 8, spoke with him, saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter Please give her to him as a wife and make marriages with us marriages plural now Let's just not just have this 1.

Let's let everybody choose whom they will marry let's intermarry between the 2 groups and Give us your daughters to us and take our daughters to yourselves.

So you shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you.

Dwell and trade in it and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.

And as the story unfolds, you find out that 2 of the children of Israel in particular, Reuben, I'm sorry, Simeon and Levi, decide to take their anger and instead of letting vengeance be the Lord's, they take it into their own hands.

And they don't just get even, they go above and beyond the call of justice.

And they strike a deal with this group of people.

And they say, well, we can't, of course, intermarry with you.

In so doing, you must be circumcised as we are." And believe it or not, this man and his father both agree to the terms, and they do the same thing for all the men of the city.

They get all the men together, say, this is the commitment, this is the deal we have to make.

And so every 1 of those men goes and has themselves circumcised together.

Because the Bible records it on the third day, while they were still in pain, which I can only imagine, they're not up to active duty and certainly not in fighting shape, that Simeon and Levi take swords and go kill Shechem and Hamar and all the other men of the city in 1 day.

Whenever Jacob, their father, found out about what they had done, he was aghast, he was shocked.

Patriarchs and Prophets, page 204 says, The treacherous cruelty of Simeon and Levi was not unprovoked, yet in their course towards the Shechemites, they committed a grievous sin.

They had carefully concealed from Jacob their intentions, and the tidings of their revenge filled him with horror.

How in the world could sons of mine have done something like that?

Of course, Genesis 34 is followed naturally by Genesis 35, and if you turn the page, you see that apparently the Lord sees and Jacob himself realizes that there needs to be a revival and reformation in his household.

There needs to be a spiritual recommitment, a renewal of the religious life.

And it says in chapter 35 and verse 1, Then God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make an altar there to God, whom appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.

And you recall what happened when Jacob was fleeing from Esau.

He laid down that night after 2 days journey, and He put a stone under his head as a pillow, and the Lord gave him a vision, and what was the vision of?

Jacob’s Troubles

We've been going through a study of the book of Genesis, not exhaustive of course, because there's many things that we could go into deeper, but looking at some of the lessons we can pull out from the stories in Genesis and looking for the application in our lives today.

We've seen recently the development of the face of Abraham who would become the father of the faithful in years to come and that it wasn't immediate it took time it grew until he was the man that we know of him now we've seen the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca and how the Lord brought that together in a beautiful way.

And now we turn our attention to Isaac's children and specifically his child, Jacob, in a message entitled, Jacob's Troubles.

We'll be studying, by the way, Genesis 25 through 32.

And again, we will not be able to Exhaustively wring out from this every drop of meaning possible.

But as you go home and study it Not if but when you go home and study it.

I would encourage you also to correspondingly read chapters 16 through 18 in Patriarchs and Prophets, the inspired commentary on those chapters.

So Genesis 25 to 32 with the added line of the chapter 16 through 18 in Patriarchs and Prophets.

But before we get started studying today, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you again for the sunshine outside, but most importantly for the sun shining inside today.

Thank you for the fellowship that it gives us the opportunity to have.

Thank you for the freedom for having a Sabbath worship at all.

Lord help us to never take that for granted, but Help us in these times, in these moments, right here today even, to be attuned to your Word, to be sensitive to the leading of your Holy Spirit.

And Lord, let us be changed as we too become like Jesus.

If you would, go with me to Genesis chapter 25, starting with verse 19.

Genesis chapter 25, starting with verse 19, gives a nice transition from the messages we've seen previously in our last several Sabbaths and brings us to where we are today.

Again, Genesis 25 starting with verse 19.

This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son.

Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah's wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Paddan-Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian.

Now, if you've been following along, that name Laban has come up several times.

It's just kind of giving us the context for where we're headed here.

But going back to Isaac and Rebecca, we read in verse 21, Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren.

And the Lord granted his plea and Rebecca, his wife, conceived.

But the children struggled together within her.

Notice it just said she conceived, but that then mentions children, plural.

Struggling together within her and she said, if all is well, why am I like this?

Now having just had a child again, it's a unique experience to be able to see and feel inside that child that's soon to be on the outside, right?

But you can imagine Rebekah's situation here.

She has been barren and now she finally has a child and not just a child but 2 children inside of her and she's never had the experience of having even 1 inside of her.

Now she's got 2 and those 2 are fighting.

And her prayer is simply this, why am I like this?

And notice carefully the Lord said to her, The Lord does not come to Isaac in this, this is a prayer of her heart and he answers her directly and it kind of sets up an interesting intrigue within the family.

And the Lord said to her, 2 nations are in your womb.

Obviously the heads of 2 nations, not the nations themselves, But 2 nations are in your womb.

2 people shall be separated from your body.

1 people shall be stronger than the other.

Now that is strikingly contrary to the custom of the time.

It is even popular now that the eldest, especially the eldest son, is the heir, is the birthright inheritor.

He's the 1 who's going to be the progenitor of the family name.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Of Joseph and Jesus

34m

The Children of Israel

48m

Jacob’s Troubles

46m

Isaac & Rebekah

34m

The Faith of Abraham

50m

From Babel to Abram

42m

The Flood

43m

The Fallen Family

46m

The Eden Family

49m

Are You Bleeding?

1h

Are You Breathing?

54m

Draw Your Swords

45m

Sound Doctrine