The Book of Genesis (Part 2)

0:11 We are in our second week of reading through the Bible in a year, so we've got two down and 50 to go in the book of Genesis. and I know by now you're probably already starting to feel like, wow, this is difficult. It's a lot of work. It's a hard, for some of us, we're waking up earlier than we're used to because we want to get this time with the Lord. And just understand, I mean, first of all, like when you wake up, man, you're awake because this God is allowing you to wake up and giving you life. but it's not just that it's about this is an act of worship it's an act of saying God I just want to be with you in the beginning of the day and you're worth you're worth that that hour less of sleep or half hour less of sleep I I remember when I was first dating my wife 20 something years ago and I remember you know her her living about half an hour away and working early in the morning And I would drive out to her work every once in a while, just for a few minutes early in the morning, make the effort as she's going to work, just to say something cheesy like, you know, I just want to see your face before I started the day.

1:33 And it was that desire in me that was probably the greatest gift I could give her. So that's what this is about. This is about you coming before your creator and saying, God, I just want to see your face before I start the day. I know you're with me all day long, but I just wanted some time to just stare at you. To just read your word and learn more about you because you are so, so worth it. And so as we read through the Bible, it's our time to learn about what he is like to stare at him, look at the things he's done throughout history. You know, and as we're reading through the book of Genesis, there were a couple of words that came to my mind that kept coming back to me. The two words are sovereign and personal.

2:30 You know, there's a sense in which God is sovereign, and you see that all through these stories in Genesis, where he's in control. And so you've got this all-powerful being who's in control. And you see how he orchestrates these events. But at the same time, this powerful sovereign God is also personal. And you see how he speaks to the people as he orchestrates his plan. He kind of walks beside the people as he works out his plan for his good. When you look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, all the kids, all the situations, all the events.

3:20 The thought came to me this week, it's almost like a game of chess, don't you? Where God is the only one that's really playing right now. and he's orchestrating, he's moving people in different places. And it's actually a great picture to have in your mind to realize that this is not about you. Just like it wasn't just about Abraham, it wasn't about Isaac, it wasn't about Jacob, it wasn't about his sons, but you see that there's a much bigger plan. Like in the game of chess, it's not about one piece, some rogue knight going off on his own. thinking about his own plan, but he's a part of this. And there's a giant strategy and a giant taking down of the enemy, and we all get to be a part of that. And so I see this sovereignty, and obviously there's a lot more than that because there's this personal side too. It's not a game, and I'm not just a pawn. I'm not just a castle that he puts in this place or that place, but he also walks alongside of me.

4:33 And there's a real intimacy about all of this. And so those two words just kept coming back, sovereign and personal. In Genesis 24, here's God controlling things, orchestrating things for his glory. And yet it's personal because you have Abraham's servant in chapter 24, verse 12 saying, Oh, Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. And he goes on and he prays and he says, look, I'm standing by this spring of water and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. let the young woman to whom I say, please let down your jar that I may drink, and who shall say, drink, and I will water your camels, let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac.

5:31 By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master. And then in verse 15, before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebecca. You know, so here's this servant of Abraham who's sent to go find a wife, you know, amongst my people for my son Isaac. And so he prays. He prays this personal prayer to God. God, here I am. I'm standing right here. And could you do this? And this is before he even finished speaking, Rebecca walks up. And exactly what he prayed for. see none of this is coincidental god orchestrates this and he he has abraham tell his servant this you know and he says hey go get a daughter for my son isaac and and so then you pray and that the woman's going to be there you see this over and over and over again in in chapter 25 um after Isaac and Rebecca are married.

6:37 Rebecca's pregnant and there are twins inside of her. And you see in chapter 25, verse 23, the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. Here you have the birth of Esau and Jacob. And God already determined ahead of time. This is what I mean by sovereignty. You see his plan. And when you see this, you begin to, I guess, take yourself less seriously. At least I do. God, there was nothing that Jacob did here. God already determined when he was in his mother's womb that you know you're actually going to rule over your brother and actually you too are going to become nations and here's Jacob who later you know he changes his name God changes his name to Israel you know who's going to have sons and those are going to be the tribes it's all orchestrated by God he's sovereign he's in control um you you see in uh in in chapter 26 he makes this promise to Isaac. Here's God in chapter 26 verse 2. Here's the personal side where the Lord appears to him. So it's not just a voice. It's God himself appearing to Isaac and saying to him, don't go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land i'll be with you and i will bless you for to you and to your offspring i'll give all these lands i'll establish the oath i swore to to abraham your father i'll multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and i'll give your offspring all these lands and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because abraham obeyed my voice and

8:45 kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. So here you have God saying, look here, I've already determined this. So I'm coming down to tell you, don't go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land that I tell you to dwell in, because I'm fulfilling a promise that I made to Abraham. And your offspring, you're going to have so many kids, they're going to be like the stars of the sky and it's through your offspring that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed again here is God's sovereignty and so many people live life without thinking about God's control how he is sovereign man just take some time to recognize this otherwise you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to control everything yourself you go on and the same thing happens when um jacob uh jacob meets rachel i mean same type of thing where he's you know god sets it all up for the reunion of Jacob and Rachel and the way that God blesses him. Later on, you get into chapter 35, you know, where God blesses and renames Jacob and says, look, I'm going to call you Israel, because, you know, this is where this nation comes from. But it's interesting, even before that, you know as Jacob is journeying through this land verse 5 I love this verse as they journeyed a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob you see that here's here's Jacob in this foreign land and yet God God because of his plan he's going to protect Jacob. And so as he gets near this land, as he's journeying through this

10:55 land, it says, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. This is God. This is God being in control. Like the psalmist says, that's why the psalmist says in Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. It's like everything's in control. You can't make something happen unless God wants it to happen, allows it to happen. And then there are situations like this where God is just executing his plan and nothing's going to stop it. They couldn't attack Jacob because God laid such a terror upon them. And so you see his sovereignty over one of my, the story that hit me in such a strange way, just because it's such an odd story. I don't know this story ever ministered to me before. And you'll notice this as you read through the Bible over and over, you know, every once in a while, there's a story where you go, wow, that one was always just weird to me. I never really got any from anything from it but it actually amazed me is when you you get into chapter 38 you have that really strange story of judah and his sons and tamar who was the the wife of his firstborn and then the second born and and and then you know promises her to the third born and you know no kids and then she dresses up as a prostitute and pretend she's this prostitute Judah doesn't recognize that that's his daughter-in-law.

12:40 And he ends up, you know, verse 15, when Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute for she had covered her face. You know, and it's just a gross story where he says, OK, come, let me come into you. He didn't know it was his daughter-in-law. She ends up pregnant. and word gets back to him that there's this gal who's pregnant and she's a prostitute out of wedlock and he's like, okay, stone her to death and then he finds out, oh, I'm the one that got her pregnant. And anyways, they have a kid named Perez and it just hit me. Wait a second. This is Judah. This is Judah. You know, when we talk about Jesus, we call him the Lion of Judah. We remember that his lineage was from Judah. And if you read Matthew 1 verse 3 or Luke 3 verse 33 and you read the genealogy of Jesus, guess who's there? Judah and this child, Perez, who came from the union of Judah and his daughter-in-law when she dressed up like a prostitute.

13:56 And so again, you just see this mess of humanity, and yet somehow God orchestrates these events, and even so much so that this son who was born is in the genealogy of Jesus and mentioned in the New Testament. Again, it's all this orchestration. And there's probably, I don't know if there's a story where you see the sovereignty of God more clearly than the story of Joseph. And the crazy thing about the story of Joseph is it's not one of these, oh, God blessed his life all the way. And that means that it was easy. It was fun. It was comfortable. No, remember, this is Joseph who was hated by his brothers. His brothers plot to kill him, then decide, no, let's sell him to slavery. You know, he's sent to a foreign land by himself as a slave. But then God orchestrates that in chapter 39, where he's placed in this guy Potiphar's house. And I love the words in chapter 39 verse 2 when it says the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man and he was in the house of his Egyptian master his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands and so man this this is what it's all about. The Lord was with Joseph. Now remember, this is a miserable situation. You're away from your family. Your dad thinks you're dead. Your brothers wanted you dead, and they just got rid of you. And you're a slave. You work yourself up. You're away with this master, and the Lord blesses you. The Lord is with you, even in this difficult situation. But as you read on in the

16:05 story, then he's accused of raping, you know, Potiphar's wife, which he's completely innocent. And now he's thrown into prison. Okay, again, remember these things. Is God in control? Yes. But then why is Joseph suffering like this? Well, there's a bigger story going on. There's a bigger plan. But even while he's thrown into prison, again, if you look at chapter 39 verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. Okay, so now he's in prison, but even then God is with him. So was this an easy life? Of course not, but God's presence was with him and God caused him to succeed even in that prison cell. It goes on and there's these prisoners that are thrown in there with him, you know, and they have dreams. And again, this isn't coincidence that Joseph is there interpreting these dreams. God, playing chess, puts this player here, this player here, and suddenly one of these guys is released just like Joseph said he would be. But it isn't until two years later that Pharaoh has this dream. And then this guy's like, oh shoot, I forgot there was this guy I was in prison with. I was supposed to tell you about him. I just forgot about it for the last two years he's been down there. But he can interpret your dreams. And then here he brings him out of prison after at least two years down there. And sure enough, Joseph is able to

18:11 interpret the dreams of Pharaoh and then in verse 39 of chapter 41, Pharaoh says to Joseph, since God has shown you all this, there's none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. So now you've got Joseph rising to power. He's second in command, second only to Pharaoh himself. But God orchestrated all this. He moved all of this in his sovereignty. And yet there was this personal side where he was with Joseph. see we have to understand that things are no different right now there is a God who is still carrying out his plan he's told us what he's going to do Christ is going to return but right now he's building his church and he's orchestrating and putting us in these different places and so every morning we come before this God and say God I recognize all things are in your control. You are sovereign, and yet you're with me. You're a personal God, and there's no place that I'd rather be. And so that's why we're going through the Bible in a year.

19:42 It's because we want to stare at him and learn about him every day. We want to start our day just saying, Jesus, you are so worth it. God, you are so worth it. I see how you worked in history, and I believe that you're working in the same way as you did back then. I also see how you spoke to the people back then and you were a personal God and you heard their prayers and so we come before him and we pray to him and say, God, listen to me now.