Skip to content Genesis 12-50 - The Bible from 30,000 Feet | Skip Heitzig Apr 25 · 1 hr 5 min ...more
Genesis 12-50 - The Bible from 30,000 Feet | Skip Heitzig
April 25, 2024 · 1 hr 5 min
This flight takes us through the biographical part of Genesis and God's response to man's rebellion. Four men are prominent in the formation of the nation of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
Series The Bible from 30,000 Feet | Skip Heitzig
Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the
April 25, 2024 · 1 hr 5 min · The Bible from 30,000 Feet | Skip Heitzig
This flight takes us through the biographical part of Genesis and God's response to man's rebellion. Four men are prominent in the formation of the nation of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. ...more Show the full description Show less This flight takes us through the biographical part of Genesis and God's response to man's rebellion. Four men are prominent in the formation of the nation of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
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In this video 0:00 The Beginnings and the Patriarchs
The Beginnings and the Patriarchs 0:02 The Bible from 30000 feet, soaring through the scripture from Genesis to Revelation.0:13 Would you turn in your bibles, please, to the book of Genesis? Let's begin in chapter 12 tonight, and let's finish the book of Genesis. Now if you were with us last week, and I think most of you were, raise your hands if0:24 you were. Awesome. So, we moved pretty fast, did we not? Yes. So we're gonna move as fast at least tonight. So I need to, have you buckle your seat belts, put your heart in the0:36 upright position, and, we have now officially taken off. We're in the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis shows to us the beginning of everything0:48 except God. The beginning of everything except God. It shows us the beginning of the universe, the beginning of mankind, the beginning of, God's plan to1:00 rescue men from sin. It gives to us the beginning of sin itself. It shows us the beginning of the Sabbath day, because God rested, the Bible says, on the seventh1:12 day. It tells us the beginning of marriage. It shows us the beginning of the family. It shows us the beginning of God's judgment. We see in the flood of chapter 6, 7, and 8. It shows us1:24 the beginning of human government, which comes in chapters 10 and 11. The beginning of nations and now, now we focus. The beginning of the1:36 nation of Israel. That's what the rest of this book, you might say, deals with. Last week, it was all about the beginning of the human race. From chapter 12 to 50,1:48
2:00 events followed by 4 great people. The 4 great events we covered last time, formation of the heavens and the earth, fall of mankind, the
2:11 flood, the great judgment that encircled the earth, and the fallout of man's rebellion against God in those last 2 chapters 10 and 11. Now we go and look at 4
2:23 great people, Abraham and his son Isaac, and then Isaac's son Jacob, and then 1 of Jacob's sons Joseph. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
2:35 Joseph. So if chapters 1 through 11 are about primeval history, then chapters 12 through 50 are patriarchal history.
2:47 Again, the first 11 chapters are about events. The last section of the book of Genesis 12 to 50 is about people. And 1 thing you will discover, that's what God is more interested
2:59 in. There's more description given to people than to events, even creation. I mean, God's whole creation is summed up in 2 short chapters. But when he wants to talk
3:10 about Abraham, he'll give you 14 chapters. When he wants to talk about Joseph, he'll give you 14 more chapters. Because that is what God is most interested in, not the events,
3:23 but in people. And that is what the book of Genesis does. It is God reaching people. He gets a hold of a man named Adam, a couple named Adam and Eve, a nation called Israel, and finally, the
3:35 whole world when we get to John 3 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So the theme of the book of Genesis, you might say, at least the theme of this portion of
3:47 the book, is God's selection of a nation so that He can bring forth His Son, the Messiah, who will fulfill the promise that he gave in Genesis chapter 3
3:58 verse 15, the seed of the woman who will come and destroy the rulership of of Satan himself. So we're gonna begin in chapter 12 with Abraham.
4:11 We have looked at the lineage of Adam. And then the lineage of Adam was very selective in that it eliminated the line of Cain and the line of Abel, and focuses on the line of
4:23 their third son, Seth. Now we're focused on the line of Shem, 1 of Noah's sons after they left the ark that we saw last time. Chapter 11 introduces us
4:35 to Abraham, or Abram, as he is called. But I'm gonna pick it up in chapter 12 verse 1. Now Abraham, that's how we know him best. Abraham is
4:47 highlighted in 3 world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He plays a major role, which indicates his importance. And for our
4:59 purpose, the amount of scriptural real estate that is devoted to Abraham is noteworthy. As I mentioned, 14 chapters. So chapters 1 through 11, I don't know if
5:11 you remember from last week, covers about how many years? 2000 years. About 2000 years. 2000 plus years. Chapters 12 through 50
5:23 cover just around 300 years or so. That's what it's limited to, but it's about people. Now Abraham is important in our
5:35 bibles. 1 chapter in the book of Romans is devoted to him. 2 chapters in the book of Galatians is devoted to him. He is called in those sections the father of those who believe. The
5:47 father of those who believe. Why? Because it will say Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness. Then we'll get to Hebrews chapter 11, where you have a whole
5:59 listing of people who believe God, and Abraham is 1 of them. By the way, 3 times in the bible, Abraham is known as the friend of God. Isn't that a great title? Isn't that a
6:11 great nickname? Who are you? Oh, I'm God's buddy. He is the friend of God. In fact, today, to this day, Arabs refer to him as Khalil, which is friend. And Al Khalil
6:23 is friend of God, and that's the name they give to Hebron because that was the place that he bought, a cave for himself and his wife to be buried. Well, as I said,
6:35 the story begins in chapter 11 in Ur of the Chaldees. That's his hometown. He is called to leave that place and go to a place God tells him. His father was a
6:47 pagan worshiper, and his wife is infertile at the time. That sets the stage for chapter 12 verse 1. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your
6:59 country and from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. So he leaves. He goes upriver to Haran until his
7:11 father dies, then continues his journey to Canaan. Verse 2, God says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you
7:22 shall be a blessing. Now can I just say at this point, I think this shows at least in part the irony of God or even the sense of humor of God?
7:34 God tells a man who has no offspring and has a wife who is completely and totally infertile says, hey, you know what? I'm gonna make you a great nation. He's thinking,
7:46 nation? I don't even have first kid yet. But God promises him a nation. Against all odds, he tells this man who has no child, with a wife
7:58 who can bear no child, that he's gonna be a great nation. I will bless you, verse 3, and I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in
8:10 you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Please notice that verse. Because everything from this verse all the way to chapter 50
8:22 flow out of this verse. All of God's program from now on will flow out of this verse. In you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. The rest of
8:34 Genesis, yea, the rest of the Bible, has this as its theme, how God will bless the world to the offspring of Abraham, namely Christ. So Abraham, or Abram, as he is
8:46 called here, which means exalted father, departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when
8:58 he departed from Haran. Now God has big blessings in store for this guy. But before he can see big blessings, he has to separate
9:10 from old relationships. He has to cut things from the past out of his life before he can go forward. And I think God calls all of us to do the same. Maybe not this, but he calls all of us
9:22 to make a clean break from our past. It's called repentance in the Bible. And to start all over. Jesus even said, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,
9:34 and follow me. So to the extent that we are willing to leave our old life, that will be the extent to which we will enjoy the new life.
9:46 So he is called to leave and he is called to be blessed in a new place. In this section 5 times, God says, I will. This is what I will do. This is what I will do. This is what I will
9:58 do. The emphasis in the early part of chapter 12 is what God is going to accomplish. Why is this important? Because sometimes, brothers and sisters, we get a little bit
10:10 cocky, do we not, in our Christian walk? And we think, I'm gonna do something great for God. Well, good on you with that attitude. But can I just say, you can't do nothing for God until you realize what
10:21 God has done for you and what God can do through you? God does not choose exalted people. He chooses foolish people, weak people, insignificant ones. He's on the
10:33 lookout for those who will admit their deficit and their need of him. Well, he gets to Canaan, the new land. Verse 7, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants,
10:46 I will give this land. Please mark that. This land, what today we call Israel, that land of Canaan, God is gonna make a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
10:58 and the 12 tribes of Israel for that piece of real estate. It is a land covenant. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountains east
11:10 of Bethel. He pitched his tent with, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. Now when you see
11:22 that little word Ai, I've heard people pronounce it Ai, but it's pronounced Ai. Think Ai. Ai or or pirate. Ai, matey. That's how you
11:34 pronounce it. That's the city of Ai, a little bit in that area in the center portion of the land. With Ai on the east, and he built an altar to the Lord and called on
11:46 the name of the Lord. He called on the name of the Lord. Now in chapters 12 and 13, we have a problem. He's in the land, and the land is called the land
11:58 of promise or the promised land. He gets to the promised land, and you know what he finds? A famine. A famine in the promised
12:09 land? I thought it was supposed to be a land flowing with milk and honey. It's a land of promise. He gets there and he finds a famine in the land. You know, if I were Abraham, what I'd be thinking about now?
12:21 Did I hear God right? Was this was I following the GPS coordinates the right way? Should I have taken a left at Haran or a right or somewhere else kept that Tigris Euphrates River thing going on?
12:34 Because why is there a famine in the land of promise? Why would God allow this? Folks, this is called faith 1 0 1. Your physical muscles
12:46 will never develop unless they meet resistance, unless you add pressure to those muscles. When you lift weights and you are tearing down a muscle, you are adding pressure and resistance
12:58 because in tearing it down, it leaves it now open to be built back up. So when it comes to faith, our faith muscles will never grow on a steady diet of
13:09 blessing after blessing after blessing. That's how we like it. I don't wanna go through the valley of the shadow of death. I like to be airlifted from mountain peak to mountain peak. Thank you very much, God. But your
13:21 faith won't grow unless you find famine in the land because that's where your faith kicks in. That's where you have to trust the Lord that he has called you here. So
13:33 there's a famine. He decides to go to Egypt to figure this thing out and to get some food. He lies about his wife saying she is my sister.
13:44 In so doing, he endangers his wife. God resolves it. He gets her back, and he returns back to the land of Canaan. Also, Abraham,
13:57 or Abram as he is called still, and his nephew Lot get into a little bit of an argument, a little bit of a tiff. They say, we don't have enough land for our growing families and livestock. So Abraham says, look, Lot. You
14:08 can just pick whatever place you want, and I'll take what you don't want. So he looks at the well watered plain of the Jordan, and he goes towards Sodom. But wouldn't you know it?
14:21 God is so good to Abram. After Lot leaves and gets the best portion of the land, so to speak, God says, hey, I want you to look north, and I want you to look south, and I want you to look east, and I
14:33 want you to look west. Every single place you can see with your eyes in all directions, I've given you as a covenant with you and your offspring forever. When we get to
14:45 chapter 14, we smell war. We have 9 kings, 5 and 4, who are battling against each other. 4 are Shemite kings against 5
14:56 Hamite kings. You You know what I mean when I say Shemite? Descendants of Shem, descendants of Ham. Those kings are fighting each other. We are told that 5 kings
15:09 made a coalition with a guy named Chedorlaomer. He's mentioned in this bible text. Chedorlaomer is the head king to whom these other
15:21 nations are paying taxes or tribute. So he is controlling them for 12 years. In year 13, they decide to rebel. When they rebel, a battle
15:33 breaks out. Chedorlaomer and his contingency win the battle. He takes the spoils of war with him. But and the reason this is in the bible, he takes Lot with
15:44 him, Abram's nephew. Abram hears that his nephew has been taken captive in this battle, so he gets 318 of his
15:56 trained servants. He had a he had quite a household. He had on his payroll a militia. 318 paid, trained servants who were people of
16:08 war who could fight this battle, and he wins the battle. So he beats the 4 kings, and we come to chapter 14 verse 17. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him
16:20 at the valley of Shaveh, that is the King's Valley, after his return from the defeat of Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. Then, watch this name, Melchizedek.
16:32 He'll be important in other portions of the Bible. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. That
16:45 name, Melchizedek, comes from 2 Hebrew words put together. The first is Melech, which means king. And the second is Tzedek, which is righteousness.
16:57 So his name, Melech Sadegh, is king of righteousness or lord of righteousness. That's what his name means. Notice what he is the king of, Salem.
17:08 Salem means peace. Salem was the name given to a city before it was called Jerusalam or city of peace. That's ancient Jerusalem.
17:21 So king of righteousness, who is called king of peace, brought out bread and wine. That's interesting in and of itself. He was the priest of God most
17:33 high. In Hebrew, El Elyon or the sovereign Lord. So whoever Melchizedek was, he was a monotheistic worshiper. He believed in 1 god,
17:45 not many gods like the Canaanites believed in, but 1 god. He was a monotheistic monarch who lived in that region. Verse 19, he blessed him and
17:56 said, blessed be Abraham of El Elyon, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high who has delivered your
18:08 enemies into your hand, and he gave him a tithe of all. Now this is an obscure incident, and everybody asks the question. Who was Melchizedek? And the reason
18:20 they asked who Melchizedek was because this isn't the end of them. We read in Psalm 110, you are a priest forever according to the order
18:32 of Melchizedek. It's a reference to the Messiah who would come, that the Messiah would both be like Melchizedek, a priest and a king. Now, you know, in ancient times,
18:44 priests were never kings and kings were never priests. They were always separated, even in Judaism. The tribe of Judah, the royal line, that's where the kings came from. The tribe of Levi, that's where the
18:56 priests came from. You did never mix them. Melchizedek was both a king and a priest. And so the Psalms say you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
19:08 looking forward to Jesus Christ, who will not follow the line of Aaron. He's of the tribe of Judah. But he is also a king and a priest, our great high priest. In Hebrews chapter
19:20 7, Melchizedek shows up again. And there the author says that he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither
19:32 beginning of days nor end of life. So who was he exactly? Well, again, I'm gonna let you take your pick. Some say,
19:44 number 1, he was Shem, the son of Noah. How they come up with that, I still really have no clue. But I've read it, so I share it with you.
19:56 So let's just dismiss that because I just think that's wacky. But you may not, so you may wanna believe that. Number 2, he was simply some monotheistic Canaanite
20:08 king. He was a guy, a real guy, who lived there in that town, and he believed in 1 God. That's a possibility. The third, because of the way
20:20 Psalms and Hebrews treat Melchizedek, some have speculated, oh, he's much more. If he has no father or mother, no genealogy, if he has neither beginning of days nor end of days, this must
20:32 be, third explanation, a theophany. Theophany, an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament, a preincarnate representation of Christ, a theophany,
20:44 or or more directly, a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament, our great high priest and King of kings. When we get to chapter 15, we have the elaboration of
20:55 an unconditional covenant. Now you're gonna hear us talk about covenants as we go through the Bible. They're big in the Bible. You need to know what they are. Basically, there were 2 kinds. I
21:07 say basically. I don't wanna get into too much detail. There were unconditional covenants and conditional covenants. An unconditional covenant, let's call it a unilateral covenant, that is 1 party makes a promise and
21:19 will fulfill it. A bilateral covenant, that is a conditional covenant. There's conditions on both sides. Both parties have to do things for that covenant to stay intact. This is an
21:31 unconditional covenant that we're reading about here. Now in chapter 15, Abraham is about 90 years old when God makes his covenant with him. Basically,
21:43 he makes a promise to Abram that he's gonna have what he always wanted and more. He's gonna have a son. That's what he wanted. Oh, but he's gonna have much
21:55 more. He's gonna have a heritage of offspring. A nation will come out of him. Nations will come out of him. And with that will come many hardships
22:08 to this family of Abraham. I know you've heard the saying, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Or be careful what you wish for. You might get more than you bargained
22:20 for. I heard about a couple. They had been married 60 they were in their sixties. They had been married for 40 years. They were having their anniversary party, and, people were there. And while they were
22:32 celebrating, the good fairy appeared to this couple. And the good fairy said, you have been such a loving and wonderful couple all these years. I'm gonna grant you each
22:43 1 wish. And so the wife thought about it. She goes, well, I've always wanted to see the world. I'd like to travel the world. So the good fairy
22:55 waved her little wand and poof, tickets appeared and ready cash for world travel. And then the good fairy said to the man, the husband, time for your wish.
23:07 Well, he paused a while and he thought about it and he said, I think I'd like a wife 30 years younger. So the good fairy said,
23:19 you sure? Said, yes, that's what I want. So waved the wand, poof. Instantly, he was 90 years old. Be careful what you wish for.
23:33 Abraham will get what he wished for, but much more than that. Chapter 15 verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your
23:44 shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, lord god, what will you give me? Seeing that I go childless and the heir of my house is
23:56 Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, 1 born in my house is
24:08 my heir. Speaking of that eldest servant. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this 1 shall not be your heir, but 1 who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Now
24:20 he's how old at this point? He's 90. That's the promise. Then he brought him outside. Verse 5. I love this. And he said, look toward heaven and count the stars
24:32 if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Verse 6. And he believed in the
24:44 Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. See that little word believed? You know what it is in the Hebrew? Amen. That's the Hebrew word for
24:55 believe, amen. So God gave him a promise, and he said, amen. He believed it. That's where we get the idea of amen. It's so be it. I believe it. He believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for
25:07 righteousness. So on some clear, dry Middle Eastern night, God took Abram outside and said, look up. That's what I can do. And if I can do that, I just want you to count
25:19 the stars. See how many you can count, because I'm gonna make you have not just 1 son, but a whole host of progeny that will become a nation. And let me just encourage
25:31 you. When you feel down, when you feel despairing, when life seems overwhelming, go outside at night and look up and
25:43 just realize, my dad did that. He just spoke that into existence and he holds all of that at play so simply, so effortlessly.
25:56 Isaiah put it this way. Isaiah 40, who else has held the oceans in his hand, and who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? I often like to think of this, especially when I'm out
26:08 camping and I look up at those stars and I realize I'm looking at a portion of the Milky Way galaxy, just a portion of it. But that that galaxy, our home, the Milky Way, is 10000 light years wide by a hundred
26:19 thousand light years long. A light year is the time or the distance it takes light to travel in a year. Light travels at a hundred and 86000 miles per second. So get this.
26:31 If you could go that fast, a hundred and 86000 miles per second, you could circle your Earth, this Earth, which has a circumference of, what, 25000 or or 24900 and some miles in circumference, you
26:43 could circle the Earth 7 and a half times in a second. That's the speed of light. 7 and a half times in a second. If you went out to the moon, which is a quarter of a million miles away, you would get to the moon
26:55 in 1 and a half seconds. Keep going. You're gonna get to Venus in 2 minutes 18 seconds. You're gonna sail past Mercury in 4 and a half minutes. You're gonna get to the sun in 7 and a half minutes.
27:08 But for you to go from 1 end of your galaxy to the other is gonna take you a hundred thousand years traveling at a hundred and 86000 miles per second. You know what God does with that? He just says, yeah, it's only about
27:20 that big. Small stuff. Easy for me. So here's God saying, Abram, look at that. So shall your offspring be. This is the God you serve. This is what I can
27:32 do. I can handle it. Well, in this chapter is a weird set of instructions. I'm just gonna cut to the chase. It's a ritual that makes no sense to us in
27:44 modern society. But in ancient times, it was known as cutting a covenant. There are 2 words in Hebrew at play in this chapter, berith and karath,
27:56 which means covenant and cut. It means to cut a covenant. And in those days, when you would make a deal with somebody, you would often cut an animal, lay the pieces on either side, and
28:08 walk between them. You go, that is so gross. What's the purpose of that? The idea is that's what's gonna happen to you if you break this covenant. That was the idea in ancient times. So
28:21 the cutting of the covenant is highlighted here. God is basically saying, this is how much emphasis I place on my promise. When I make a promise, I'm serious
28:33 about it. So a covenant is cut. Verse 12, chapter 15. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. Behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
28:44 And he, the Lord, said to Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and afflict them 400 years. Also, verse
28:56 14, the nation whom they serve, that is Egypt, I will judge, and afterward they will come up or come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you will go to your fathers in peace. You will
29:08 be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass, when the sun was going down
29:20 and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. So those are the pieces of the animal. So Abraham is, like, sleeping,
29:32 opens his eyes, sees this kind of torch going through these pieces of cut up animals, and a dread comes upon him. After he sees that, God tells him the borders
29:44 of the land that he promises for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to inherit. Now God is making a covenant by himself.
29:57 Typically, both parties or whoever is involved in making and keeping the covenant would walk between these pieces of animal. But Abraham looks up and sees this
30:08 torch. This is the Lord represented that is moving through these pieces. Abram didn't walk through those pieces. He's he's out. He's sleeping. This is a unilateral covenant, a one-sided covenant,
30:21 an unconditional covenant. God is making a promise, and he's saying, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna fulfill what I said. If you fail to understand the nature of this covenant, this unilateral
30:32 covenant that God makes with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for that land, you will fail to understand the place of Israel in God's plan. It won't make sense to you. God is
30:44 saying, I'm gonna give you, not based upon how good you are, but based upon my nature forever, this land for you and your progeny to inherit. Well,
30:56 it's such a wonderful promise that in the next chapter, chapter 16, Sarah, called Sarai at this point, It's such a wonderful
31:08 promise that Sarai wants to help God fulfill his promise. It's almost as if, well, you know, it's such a wonderful promise. God can't really do this on his own. He needs me to get involved, me to help him out.
31:19 So her plan is, look, I can't get pregnant. I'm infertile. Right? But I have a handmaiden named Hagar, an Egyptian handmaid. Abram, sleep with her and
31:31 she will conceive. And and that child that is born, that we'll call that God's fulfillment. I remember when I was a boy, my dad would always say God helps those who help
31:43 themselves. And and I remember because he would always say, you know, the Bible says that God helps those who help themselves. So I grew up thinking that's what the Bible says. Then I got saved and I started
31:55 reading the Bible. And, I said, dad, I can't find it. He goes, it's in there somewhere. And then I remember the day when I found out it was it was not in the Bible.
32:07 It it was Benjamin Franklin that said that. I said, you know, I know Benjamin's in the Bible, but but that 1 isn't. And that that's not in the Bible. And I discovered that God helps the
32:19 helpless. Not those who help themselves. God helps those who can't help themselves. And so this man is growing older and older and older. And by chapter 17,
32:31 he is 99 years old. He cannot help himself, nor can Sarah. What's funny about chapter 17 is
32:43 in this hopeless condition, his name is what by this time? It's not Abraham yet. It's what? Abraham. Abraham, which means what? Exalted father. Exalted father. Chapter 17, God gives him a
32:55 new name. Abraham, which means father of a whole bunch of people. Father of a multitude. Can I just say, how
33:07 embarrassing for Abraham? Look, I can't have a kid. I don't have a kid. You said I'm gonna have a nation. My name is exalted father. That's bad enough. But now you're
33:19 calling me father of a whole bunch? I gotta tell people, hey, I changed my name to father of a multitude. It's not gonna go over well. Also, God
33:30 changes Sarai's name to Sarah. Sarai means she strives. Sarah means princess. And it's
33:42 just a small voice inflection to change it, right, from Sarai to Sarah. But that's how effortless it is for the Holy Spirit of God to change a life.
33:54 Amen. Just a single breath. The Holy Spirit means the holy breath or the holy wind. It's just God goes a life change happens. From
34:06 Sarai to Sarah. Now in chapter 17 verse 9, God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their
34:17 generations. It's going to happen. I'm doing it. But it's extended now to them. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every
34:29 male child among you shall be circumcised. So this is the covenant I'm going to do to signify that you're a part of it, that you believe in it, because you're really not gonna do it. It's
34:41 unilateral. You just have to indicate that you agree with it by just having those babies of yours, those male children, circumcised. And when, verse 12, he that is
34:52 8 days old. Because of this, every Jewish boy who has ever been born in Judaism to keep the Jewish covenant is circumcised on the eighth day. Why the eighth
35:04 day? Well, I'm glad you asked. The blood clotting in the human body does not reach optimal levels until the eighth day.
35:16 Vitamin k in the human body kicks in between day 5 and day 7. And, another element called prothrombin is below normal levels,
35:29 but it peaks at a hundred and 10 percent on, guess which day? The eighth. The eighth day. Now Abraham didn't know that, but God did.
35:41 So God initiates this on the eighth day. And so he did it. It was an act of faith. Can I just say something that when God gives you an order or a promise or he tells you to do something,
35:53 and because Abraham just said, I don't eighth day? Why? Why the eighth day? I'm gonna write that into the pastor next week. Why the eighth day? When God gives you a command, you need to create a file in
36:05 your heart and you label it waiting for further instructions or waiting for further information. And you just file that. You don't know the answer now, but later
36:17 on, as we develop science, we can look back and go, oh, that's why the eighth day was so important. But at this point, it was an act of faith. Well, in chapter 18
36:29 and 19, 3 visitors come to Abraham and Sarah in their tent in the heat of the day. These 3 visitors look like normal people, but it turns out 1 of them is the Lord and 2 of them are
36:41 angels, which to me is just an a wonderful thought. God comes to your house. Angels come to your house. What are you serving for dinner?
36:53 You can just heat up any old thing? You're gonna make them a feast? Angel hair pasta maybe? What would you give them for dessert? Angel food cake. You said it. Angel food cake or
37:05 or or devil's food cake just to have a little fun with it maybe? I I I don't know. Well, in in this chapter, chapter 18, God promises
37:18 Sarah that she will have a son birthed from her womb. That it won't be Abraham and Hagar. It won't be a surrogate that she herself,
37:29 this old woman, is gonna birth a son. Now she is on the other side of the tent flap, and she hears this, and she snickers a little bit. She laughs. And so the Lord, the visitor who is the
37:41 Lord said, why did Sarah laugh? And she said, I didn't laugh. And God said, yeah, you did. I heard it. She's 90 years old
37:53 at the time. She gets this promise. The visitors get up and they go toward the Dead Sea to that region where they can overlook the area. And they overlook the
38:05 area of Sodom. Now Abraham is concerned because they announced that judgment is coming to these cities of the plain. Abraham is concerned because somebody
38:17 he knows lives there by the name of Lot. So Abraham sort of enters into Middle Eastern negotiations. Hey, God. If you found 50 people who are righteous in this city, would you spare them? God said, I'll spare them. If
38:29 you can find me 50 people, I'll spare the city. Abraham thinks about that. He goes, not Sodom. You won't find 50 righteous people there. Would you do it for 40? Sure. You find 40 people, I'll I'll spare the city. He
38:39 thinks about that and goes, hey, 30. Would you do it for 30? Works the Lord all the way down to 10 people. Tell you what, God. If I can find 10 people, would you spare the city for 10? God
38:51 says yes. Guess what God did to that city? He destroyed it because 10 righteous were not found. Only Lot was found, and he was only relatively righteous. So God destroys
39:03 Sodom and Gomorrah. And why does he destroy them? For what sin? For what sins? You see, I ask that question because we typically
39:15 glibly answer that by saying, it was homosexuality. It was sexual immorality. All of that is true. But you would be shortsighted if that's all you said God judged them for. In
39:27 Ezekiel 16, he said that he would judge them for pride, laziness, gluttony, and because they mistreated the poor and the needy. Along with sexual perversion
39:39 was pride, laziness, gluttony, and indifference. Well, the next few chapters are grim. Chapter 18, Sodom's doom is pronounced. ChapterShow more
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