Up to This Point
Exodus: Journey to Freedom • Sermon • Submitted
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· 11 viewsAn overview of the history of Genesis to provide context for book of Exodus.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Genesis is Greek for beginnings. The Hebrew title for Genesis is “beersheet” which means “In the beginning,”. That’s what Genesis is all about… the beginning of… everything!
We are beginning a new series on Exodus but before we can start Exodus we have to know what the context is in the great history of God’s People. You see the Old Testament (or covenant) is about how God dealt with God’s people and pointing us to the Promised One (the Messiah). These two topics of God’s People and God Person are so closely knitted together. Judah and Jesus.
So let’s take a look at what Genesis is all about:
Creation:
Creation:
The story of creation is where Genesis begins. Like all good stories it begins at the beginning. You have deep darkness and in that darkness, that nothingness you have God. God is the uncreated Creator. He exists outside of and alongside of creation. Look at . This summarizes what God has done in six literal 24-hour days and what He does on the seventh day.
In creation we see what God’s purpose and plan is for mankind. God created mankind in His image, “male and female He created them,” (). We see God’s plan for sex, gender, and identity. We understand what our role is on earth and how we are to care for it.
We see that man is the special creation of God and He gave us tasks as the crowning jewel of His creation. We are more favored than the rest of creation yet our power is not angelic. We are lower than the angels in power yet higher in grace from God because we were created in His image.
In order for us to function as the people of God we must… listen… we must get Genesis right! We can’t say “Well, yeah the Bible says this but science says this other thing!” You can’t serve two masters! You and I must submit to the authority of God’s Word over every part of our lives and Genesis is the foundation and if the foundation is off the building will fall.
PASSAGE READING: Genesis 2:18-25
Corruption:
Corruption:
The next great event we see is the Corruption, the Fall of Man. It began with Satan questioning the authority of God (). Satan, sin, this world, will always try to challenge the authority of God. Did God really say that Jesus is the only way to be saved? Did God really say that you must repent and believe in order to be saved? You can just believe, right? Salvation doesn’t require life-change does it?
It is from Adam’s sin that sin passed to us. Our wills became slaves to sin at that moment and death entered the world. Not only death but pain, sickness, shame, and suffering. All that is bad like hunger, war, plagues, thirst, homelessness, children without parents, sex trafficking, and a host of other things came into the world at this moment and it changed us forever.
But it didn’t catch God off guard. He didn’t go “You blew it! Your one shot at perfection!” No… God’s plan of redemption was just beginning.
PASSAGE READING: Genesis 3:6-15
But it would continue to get worse. You see man didn’t get better and better as humanists want you to think, man gets worse and worse. It wasn’t long until Cain killed His brother Abel and mankind spread over the earth like some sort of wicked plague.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
Catastrophe:
Catastrophe:
It is at this moment that we see something that should bother us.
And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
It is here that Lamech’s hope in comes to fruition that through Noah there would be relief from wickedness and sin. And so God revealed His all-wise, all-good, all-loving, all-sovereign plan to Noah on how he was going to deliver mankind through destroying it by water. So God calls Noah to build this ark which is a massive boat with three levels and it takes years for Noah to do this.
God then tells Noah to get into the ark and take two of each kind of unclean animal and seven of each clean animal. You see, the Bible goes to great lengths to teach us that this is a real, historical event and how the animals survived the global flood.
PASSAGE READING:
This is the justice and wrath of God on full display with the grace and mercy of God. Don’t miss the principle of the story. There is only one way to be saved from the wrath to come! It is only by trusting in Jesus Christ alone, repenting and believing on His finished work on the cross that you or I can be saved!
After the flood subsided humanity began repopulating the earth. There was one language and they traveled all together.
Confusion:
Confusion:
PASSAGE READING: .
From this point in history we get all the languages and cultures. They couldn’t work or build because of the massive change in tongues so they found people that spoke their own language and dispersed around the globe. We know this took place in the Middle East and we know they migrated to Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. They went all around establishing new families, cultures, arts, and skills.
From Aboriginese people to Malawai. From the Celtic Isles to the Amazon rainforest the stories of creation, the flood, and God circled the world. Sin gave way in cultures and people started worshipping the sun or moon, idols and demons. Satan and his minions deceived humanity around the globe and he would have then stay in darkness. But God still had His plan from .
Abram, a Middle Eastern man from Ur was called by God to go the land of Canaan.
Covenant: 7
Covenant: 7
Abram did as God had told him to he walked the country that God was giving him.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3
Through a series of events Abram was shown the favor of God. God remembered His promise to Abram and made a covenant. A covenant is a promise, and this is very important for our study of the book of Exodus and even for us as Christians. A covenant is a formal, legal contract between two parties. Abram was told by God to bring a three year old female cow, a female goat that was three years old as well, a three year old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram was commanded to cut the cow, goat and ram in half and stack them on either side, one on top of the other, and the birds, killed and put on top.
PASSAGE READING:
This wasn’t the only covenant God made with Abram, when He was 99 years old God once again affirmed His promise that Abram (which God changes to Abraham) that will make an everlasting covenant to God to Abraham and his offspring. They symbol for this, the symbol for being a part of the chosen people of God was circumcision.
This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
Genesis 17:10
Now there is a lot that happens here where we learn more about Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca but the next big thing that happens is that there is a
Conflict:
Conflict:
It tells the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob deceives his brother into giving him his birthright, the family blessing, his inheritance per se for a bowl of soup. Now before we think this is unreasonable let’s just admit that we’ve all made rash agreements especially ones that seem ludicrous.
Esau was hungry and asked his brother for a bowl of stew, Jacob says sure! For your birthright! Esau complained but probably figured that his brother was kidding. He agreed and life went on.
Jacob was a deceiver and liar. He lied to his father even! Isaac was blind and nearing death and called Esau to go and hunt game, make some food and bring it to him to eat. Then he would give Esau the family blessing.
Jacob and Rebekah (Esau’s brother and mother) hatched a plan. She would make food that Isaac liked and Jacob would put goat skin on his arms and neck because his brother was a big hairy dude. I’m telling you, if you were writing a story you wouldn’t make characters so so so flawed, especially key characters, right?
Well, the food is done, and Jacob is ready.
PASSAGE READING:
This is huge! Jacob has now been blessed by his father with the family blessing. The promise from God to Abraham is now Jacob’s! Esau is furious. Furious enough to kill so Jacob flees. Over the years Jacob matures and builds a family of his own with 11 children and at a place call Penuel Jacob wrestles with God. God could have taken him down in a moment, but God knew what He was doing. He struck Jacob’s hip and gave him a limp, changed Jacob’s name to Israel which means “struggles against the will of God”.
Concern:
Concern:
Now Jacob had 12 sons from two wives: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. His favorite son was named Joseph and God had given Joseph the gift of dreams and interpreting dreams. One dream was where he and his brothers were binding stalks of wheat together and Joseph’s stood up and all of his brothers stalks bowed down to him.
It was these kinds of dreams that caused Joseph to fall out of favor with his brothers but not out of favor with God. Now Joseph was the favorite son and Jacob showed it. Note the caution to us parents: don’t show favoritism to your children. It can lead to bitterness and fighting among your kids. Well, it was so bad that Joseph’s older brothers were in a field and they saw him coming in the distance and decided to kill him. Joseph’s older brother shows concern for his little brother’s life and says “Let’s just put him in this pit, give him time and teach him a lesson!” His plan was to get him out later. Reuben’s younger brothers all agree and they take off his coat and throw him in the pit. Reuben leaves to go and do something and then they see some merchants and slave traders and they decide to sell their brother as a slave.
By the time Reuben comes back his brother is long gone and his other brothers lie and say he’s been attacked and killed by a wild animal. But even now we see God’s loving, sovereign and kind hand using Joseph as an instrument of deliverance. Joseph is sold to a guy named Potiphar and Joseph is continually blessed with management skills, leadership skills, financial skills and Potiphar’s wife takes notice.
She decides that she is going to have Joseph and so she sends all the other slaves out of the house, and tries to seduce Joseph. Joseph refuses, honors Potiphar, but Potiphar’s wife is wicked she tries to grab him and force him he escapes out of his robe and flees the house naked.
When she sees she won’t get her way, she may feel anger, humiliated, ashamed and instead of fessing up to it she lies and says he tried to force himself onto me. So Joseph is put in prison.
Even here we see God’s loving, sovereign, kind hand that is filled with concern for His people. But we haven’t seen how is all this going to work out for Joseph?
Well… even in prison Joseph succeeds. The warden actually puts Joseph in charge of the prisoners. God’s favor is on Joseph and Joseph meets two men who have dreams. One was the chief cupbearer and the other the chief baker and Joseph was their prison guard. So they have these dreams and the cupbearer dreams that there are three branches and he takes the grapes off the branches and squeezes them into Pharaoh’s cup. Joseph says “The interpretation is that in 3 days you will be out and restored to your position.”
The chief baker, seeing a good interpretation tells Joseph his dream, “I dreamed of three cakes baked for Pharaoh, but birds were eating it while i carried my basket on my head!” Joseph’s interpretation wasn’t a kind, “In three days Pharaoh will hang you and the birds will eat your flesh.”
Both of the dreams happen just like Joseph says they will and as the cupbearer is leaving to be restored Joseph says, “Remember to tell Pharaoh about me!”
Well the cupbearer forgets, the baker dies and Joseph is forgotten for two years!
Through all this we will see God’s concern but it’s hard during those seasons to see the loving, sovereign, grace-filled, kind hand of God.
Care:
Care:
So Joseph is in prison and Pharaoh has a dream that bothers him:
Seven healthy, fat cows come up out of the Nile River and ate grass. Then seven skinny, sick cows came out of Nile and ate the healthy ones. Weird, right? Pharaoh wakes up and dreams again, this time seven ears of grain are plump and good on one stalk and then on another stalk, seven thin diseased ears. Pharaoh wakes up again and is just bothered by it. The philosophers and wise men can’t tell him what his dream is and then the cupbearer overhearing smack his head. AH! I forgot!
The cupbearer proceeds to tell Pharaoh about the dreams he and the baker had and the prisoner Joseph, who is an Israelite, interpreted the dreams correctly! Next thing you know Joseph is interpreting the dreams for Pharaoh, the seven healthy cows and the seven plump grains represent seven years of great plenty in Egypt! The seven sick cows and withered grain represents seven years of great famine.
Then
PASSAGE READING:
Wow! What a change! From Prison to Prime Minister! And so Joseph handled business and got Egypt prepared for famine by storing grain. For seven years they kept storing it up and up and up. Then the famine strikes and all the people from the surrounding region begin to suffer. They hear that there’s bread in Egypt! So entire families and nations begin to deal with Egypt and it becomes an economic powerhouse.
The famine is all the way up near Joseph’s family too. They hear that there’s bread in Egypt so they travel to trade their goods and gold for bread. Joseph was the leader and anyone that wanted to buy came through him. So here is Joseph sitting on the throne and his brothers dont recognize him. He’s been gone for decades at this point. He’s in Egyptian garb but Joseph recognizes these 10 brothers. They bow and he immediately thinks of the grain in his dream standing while the others bow. Joseph accuses them of being spies! He has a younger brother, Benjamin, that Joseph says must come to prove their innocence. Joseph changes his judgment and says that all but one brother may go. They use their language (Hebrew) to communicate in front of Joseph whom they think can’t understand them.
Joseph takes one of the brothers, Simeon, and gets his brothers grain sacks filled, returns their money by secretly putting it back in the sack and gives them provisions for the journey back to Canaan. Now, the brothers are traveling and they check the grain and they see the money still in the sack!
When they get home they tell Jacob, their dad all about Egypt. How Simeon had to stay behind as a prisoner and how they have to go back and get them. Jacob is terrified to lose another son, how could he send Benjamin down to Egypt when two of his sons are gone? The brothers stay until all the grain is used up and Jacob asks them to go back to Egypt. Back and forth they go and finally all the brothers go down to Egypt.
Once again, all the brothers are there and Joseph allows them to eat at one table while he sits with the Egyptians at another table. All seems right in the world to the brothers. This Egyptian is dealing well with them and they are happy to be on their way back to their families and father in Canaan. Well the next day comes and they load up all the sacks full of grain and they pay the money (twice as much!) for the grain but Joseph secretly puts silver plates and gold items in the sacks.
The brothers are on their way home when they see Egyptian guards riding up quickly! They’re confused. The deal was done. They were honest! Everything was fine! Well, the guards checked the sacks and sure enough there was gold and silver that was stolen! The brothers are brought back to Joseph and the brothers are scared for their lives.
Joseph sends everyone out of the room. It’s just Joseph and his brothers.
And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 45:2-
The rest of the book is about the wonderful family reunion of Joseph and Jacob and his brothers. It’s about Israel settling in the land of Goshen. But then in chapter 50 Jacob dies and the brothers are grieving. Jacob’s final resting place would be in Canaan and Joseph travels there with his brothers. They mourned and grieved over the loss of their father and then they feared their brother Joseph. Would he now betray them? Would he now take vengeance?
Joseph is hurt by this. He has never really wronged his brothers. But he says to them
Genesis 50:18-
His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Then there is peace among the brothers of Israel and their families and God blesses them. They are fruitful and multiply and toward the end of Joseph’s life he is nearing death and he makes his while family swear to take his bones to Canaan to be buried with the bones of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So what do we learn about all this?
Head:
God is the creator of the world and He protects and provides for all creation. We see, constantly His hand of grace being extended to many who don’t deserve it. That’s what grace is… God’s love being extended to us even when we don’t deserve it.
God is a God of covenant promises. He made promises with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob… we see God always fulfilling His promises and we know that His promises are faithful to us. For you and I we can know that we can have the promise of freedom and forgiveness by the blood of Christ because it is the New Covenant of grace for all who would believe.
God is a God of justice. He will pour out His wrath on those deserving of it preserving those within the covenant promise.
Today I would like to take time and thank God that His Word is true, His promises are sure, and that He invites sinners such as you and I to be a part of the promises. Maybe you find yourself outside of the promises of God. Maybe you know that you’re not a part of the people of God but you know that you would like to know more. We’re going to move into a time of invitation where you can come up and ask for prayer and ask any questions. The Bible says that today is the day of salvation!
Why don’t we take time to respond to God through song, prayer, and thanksgiving now?
PRAY
