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Have you ever dreamed of visiting Israel? Leni and I want to invite you to join us for a life-changing journey through the land of the Bible in April of 2027. You can walk where Jesus walked. You can worship on the Sea of Galilee. You can celebrate baptisms at the Jordan River, and we're going to share communion at the Empty Tomb.
You'll also have the option to attend the Epicenter Summit in Jerusalem, where I'll be speaking alongside of Joel Rosenberg, Greg Laurie, and Graham Lotts, Jack. And more.
So, join us April fifth through April sixteenth. You can learn more today at connectwithSkip dot com slash israel.
Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
So, by this time, if you are reading through the Book of Genesis, by this time you are ready for a break. You need a little laughter. And that's good because chapter twenty one kicks in, and the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. You're going to have a baby, Sarah. I'm ninety.
I'm going to laugh about that. That is so funny. What a good joke. No, it's not. It's really going to happen.
I didn't laugh. Yeah, you did.
So time elapses, and it happens. She ends up pregnant. She has a child. You know, God is never late. God is always exactly on time.
He's always punctual. You say punctual. Why did God then make this couple wait twenty five years? From making the promise to fulfilling the promise, why did they have to wait so long?
Well, wouldn't you agree that would make the fulfillment all that much more dramatic? Because as the years go by, God is stacking the odds against Himself that that could ever happen. You say, well, you know, a ninety-year-old man can't have a child.
Well, what about a hundred-year-old man?
Well, you know, a seventy-year-old woman can't have a baby.
Well, what about a ninety-year-old woman? See, God just makes it harder and harder, so that when it happens, you go, "Whoa, I guess God can do anything." It makes the fulfillment more dramatic.
So, verse two of chapter twenty-one: For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Verse five.
Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him, and Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." She also said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age." God basically turned a retirement home into a maternity home, and made this couple so happy they're laughing, but they're not laughing a laughter of unbelief. This is a laughter of sheer joy that God pulled it off. They're rejoicing. Chapter twenty-two is a pivotal chapter.
Verse one.
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. Hardest test he's ever had so far, by the way, and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. And he said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. When Abraham heard this, his first thought must have been, "That doesn't make sense. That's counterintuitive.
God promised me a son. It took 25 years for that son to come. He was born miraculously, according to God's promise. Why would God want to kill the kid He promised and gave so miraculously?" I want you to notice the wording here. Take now your son, your only son.
By this time, he had two sons, not one. He had Ishmael; that was his son. That was his firstborn through Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid. This is his second son, but God calls him his only son. It's the only son God is recognizing because this is the son of promise, not the son of the flesh, not the son of trying to help God out.
But this is the son of promise.
So the wording is interesting. Take your only son, or your only begotten son, if I can add a word, whom you love. Does that mean he didn't love Ishmael? Of course, he loved Ishmael. But again, the wording is remarkable.
Take your only son, whom you love. The very first time the word "love" is used in the Bible is here, and it's the love of a father giving his only begotten son in a sacrifice. That's noteworthy. What also is noteworthy is he says, "Go to the land of Moriah." Now, Moriah is a ridge system of mountains in Jerusalem. I'm going to throw up a couple slides and let you look at them.
First of all, is a shot of modern day Jerusalem. That is the little section of where Jerusalem started. That's Salem, where Melchizedek lived. It became the city of David. That's the very beginnings of Jerusalem.
But then look at how the mountain goes up, and this is the Temple Mount area, right? See how it rises in elevation from down here. This is the ridge of Moriah.
Now, notice in the distance, this area is actually topographically taller than this area. This is modern Jerusalem. Let me take you to slide number two.
Okay, I showed you David's Jerusalem, Salem. That's right here. See that little tongue, mark two and below, and then above it, you see that area, the Temple Mount. Today, there's a mosque on it. That's where the temple stood.
Okay, so this is the ridge of Moriah. It goes from the city of David, goes up to the Temple Mount, but then it rises further north of the city. The elevation here is taller than that.
Now, go to the next slide. I'm showing it to you again. City of David. That's that little tongue I showed you. Temple Mount, Solomon's Temple.
The peak of Mount Moriah is further north.
So think about it in Abraham's day. Abraham didn't see a temple, didn't see a mosque, didn't see the Hilton Hotel or the Sheraton Hotel or the bus stops. It was all just mountain ridge. For him to go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice his son on top of Mount Moriah, he would have gone north of today the city of Jerusalem because that's the tallest point. Makes sense.
What's interesting is that that is the region north of that Temple Mount area where it rises up. Where we find Golgotha, the place of the skull.
So take now your son, your only son, whom you love, to the mountains of Moriah, and on that place where Abraham almost sacrificed his only begotten son, God Himself sacrificed, indeed, not almost, but indeed, His only begotten son, probably in the same spot or area. Or Abraham, so that's a significant chapter. It's a foreshadowing of things to come.
So, verse three: Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. Split the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place which God told him. Then on the third day. Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. What that means is his son Isaac was dead to him in his mind for three days.
For three days, he said, "I'm going to kill my son. I'm going to kill my son. I'm going to kill my sons." For three days, he had to live with that. My son is going to die. And Abraham said to the young man, "Stay here with the donkey.
The lad and I will go yonder and worship.
Now, watch this, and we will." Come back. He didn't say we're going to go and worship, and I'm coming back alone.
So we're going, but we're coming back again. This is why the book of Hebrews says, by faith Abraham went to offer or sacrifice his son. Hebrews eleven. Listen to what he says, concluding that God is able to raise the dead. Concluding or reasoning in his mind and his heart that God is God is able to raise the dead, so he brings his son to Mount Moriah, and as he's bringing him up there, he's thinking God is not a liar.
God told me I'm going to have a son. Here is my son. He has to live through this, or else he's going to die, and God's going to raise him up. That's the faith he lived with. That's the reasoning Abraham went through.
As he brought his son.
So I want you to apply that to your hardships in life. When you are facing insurmountable obstacles, I want you to think logically about it. Think like this: I'm going to reason here. God is able to do anything. I'm going to reason based on God's character.
I'm going to reason based on God's ability and what God has promised. I'm going to bring God into the equation. And then that will raise your faith to a higher level when you start calculating your hardships, like Abraham calculated when he was about to sacrifice almost his son.
Now, chapter twenty-three, we come to the story of Isaac, and we're going to sum this up very quickly. Chapter twenty-three, Sarah dies. Chapter 24. Abraham knows his son Isaac needs a wife. Sends his servant Eleazar to go back to his hometown to find the right wife to bring a bride for his son Isaac.
Turns out to be Rebecca. Let me have a little fun with this. We have Abraham sending out his servant to find a Gentile bride for his son. Ring any bells? The church, Gentile church, the bride of Christ.
Moreover, the word Eleazar means the helper or the comforter.
So the comforter, the helper, is sent out to go to a country to bring a Gentile bride back for his son Isaac. I just think the Holy Spirit has a lot of fun putting this text together. Chapter twenty four, verse sixty four. She's coming back. Her name is Rebecca.
It says Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from her camel. I'm glad that this is the translation. The Old King James says she lit off her camel. That's old English. She lit off her camel.
And when I read that as a young kid, who used to smoke, I think, wow. Rebecca let off her camel. She was smoking unfiltered at the time, I guess. Modern translation: She dismounted from her camel, where she said to her servant, "Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?" The servant said, "It is my master." She took a veil and covered herself, and the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig.
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Now here's more from Pastor Skip. Then Isaac brought her to. His mother Sarah's tent, and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Did they live happily ever after? Nope.
They had kids. They had Esau and Jacob, and that takes us to chapter twenty-seven through thirty-six.
Now Rebecca is also barren. She cannot have children. Isaac prays, she gets pregnant, but it's a very difficult pregnancy. And now we find out why. Chapter twenty-five, verse twenty-three: The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb." Well, that explains it.
Two nations in there. Come on, no wonder I have a hard pregnancy. That's a lot. Two people shall be separated from your body. One will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.
Now, the firstborn, Esau, he's named that because his his name means red or hairy, so he came out all hairy, and so they said we're going to call him hairy. Makes sense. The secondborn came out grabbing the heel of his brother, so they called him heel catcher, Yaakov, Jacob.
So Harry and Heelcatcher are born. Harry was an outdoorsman, liked to hunt, fish. Jacob liked to cook soup with mom in the kitchen.
So he waited till his dad got really old and couldn't see because he wants to take the blessing, which he does, chapter twenty-seven, verse eighteen.
So he went to his father and he said, "My father," and he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" And Jacob said to his father, and he probably had to lower his voice, "I am Esau, your firstborn, because he probably didn't naturally sound like that." I have done just as you told me. Please arise, sit, and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me. Verse twenty-one. Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come near, that I may feel you or touch you, my son, whether you really are hairy, you know, like Esau, or not." So he steals the blessing.
He goes east to Laban land, where his uncle Laban lives, to find a wife for himself. Esau runs after him. They'll be joined and reconciled later on. But God is still up to fulfilling His promise that the older Esau will serve the younger. That's what this chapter is about.
On his way to Laban land, he lays his head down. On a rock at night, and he has a dream. He has a vision of angels going from heaven to earth and earth to heaven. It wasn't a stairway to heaven. It was a stairway to earth from heaven.
It was God invading the scene, and he woke up and he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I didn't know it, but I know it now." It was a confirmation to him. Genesis twenty-eight verse thirteen. Behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give you and your descendants." So he goes to where Laban lives, meets the gentleman at the whale at the well. Out comes this beautiful knockout girl named Rachel.
Look at chapter twenty nine, verse eleven. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, lifted up his voice, and wept. One of the funniest verses in all the Bible, because she's thinking, "What was it? The garlic I ate? I mean, this is a weird date." He ends up working for her father for fourteen years.
The labor it says seemed but a day to him because of the love he had for her.
So now he gets married. The family grows. He has two wives by this point, Leah and Rachel, two handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah, and twelve sons and at least one daughter.
So a large family. Chapter thirty-two, verse twenty-four. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till the breaking of day. And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip. The socket of hip, his hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him.
And he said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And that's what Jacob said to his dad. "I want the blessing." Now he's saying it to God. "I want the blessing." God changes his name from heel catcher, Jacob. One who fights against God, one who tries to grab something on his own, to Israel. One who fights with God, victoriously fights along with God.
Chapters thirty-seven through fifty ends the book. It is the story of Joseph. It is fourteen chapters of Joseph's story. He's the central figure. He was a dreamer of dreams.
Remember, he had a dream, and he said, "I was out in the field." You guys says to his brothers, "And there were twelve sheaves, and eleven of them bowed down to my sheaf, and they hated him because of that." He had another dream, and he said, "Well, I had another dream of the sun and the moon and twelve stars, and the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me, my star." Why is that significant? By the time we get to Revelation, we're going to understand that metaphor is used again, and people say, "Who is the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars?" We now know from Genesis it's the nation of Israel, because that is how Jacob interprets the dream to his son. It's a representation of all of us, the twelve tribes of Israel, your mom and me. Bowing down to you, so that unlocks a very important prophetic piece later on.
Well, he is sold to the Midianites. He is taken to Egypt. He is accused falsely of coming onto Potiphar's wife. He is placed in jail with a butler and a baker. They have these wild dreams.
Joseph says, "One of you will be raised back to Pharaoh's employment. Another of you will have your head chopped off." But remember me," he says to the butler, "when you go back to work for Pharaoh. Two years go by; doesn't remember him. Until Pharaoh has a dream. Pharaoh has a dream: seven emaciated cows coming out of the river, seven fat cows.
Remember the story? The seven emaciated cows do what? Eat, consume the seven fat cows, but they're not fatter. Then he he sees bundles or sheaves of grain, seven plump ears of grain, seven withered ones, and the withered ones consume the plump ones, but they don't grow any bigger. Genesis forty one twenty five.
Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years. The seven good heads are seven years. The dreams are one.
The seven thin and ugly cows, which came up after them, are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. He tells Pharaoh, "Prepare for seven years of hell on earth, worst famine you have ever seen, that will affect this part of the world." He does so. Verse thirty-seven. The advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, in the eyes of his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?" So he is promoted to the second most important authority in the land of Egypt.
So Pharaoh's chariot, his license plate said Egypt One. Joseph's license plate said Egypt Two. He was like the prime minister. He was second in command. The famine hit hard.
Even the people down in Canaan were hit hard by this famine. Jacob, the father of Joseph, the father of the twelve tribes, sends his boys to Egypt to get grain, but leave their youngest, Benji, Benjamin, the youngest, stays at home. I love him. I don't want anything to happen to him.
So the boys go to Egypt. They see Joseph. They don't recognize him. He's had an extreme Egyptian makeover. He's garbed like an Egyptian.
He walks like an Egyptian. Talks like an Egyptian. He is an Egyptian. They don't recognize him. Joseph says, "Do you have any other boys left at home?" They said, "Well, we have one kid, but our dad told us to leave him.
His name is Benji." He says, "Go home and bring Benji with you." So he brings Benji. They bring Benjamin back. Chapter forty-five, verse one. Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Make everyone go out from me, so no one stood with him." While Joseph made himself known to his brothers, he wants them to clear the room. Why?
Because he's about to get very emotional. And he wept aloud. Verse two. And the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph." Gulp.
I am who? I am Joseph. Does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. They reconcile eventually.
Jacob and the whole household comes to be cared for in Egypt. Jacob eventually dies in chapter fifty, last chapter, verse nineteen. Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Jacob and the seventy members of the family move to Egypt. They become a nation.
They're there four hundred years. They eventually become oppressed. That's when Moses is born. That's where Exodus picks up. While Joseph is in Egypt, he has two sons: firstborn named Manasseh, secondborn named Ephraim.
Brings them to Jacob to have Jacob bless them. Jacob deliberately crosses his arms to put his right hand on the youngest, his left hand on the oldest, so that the youngest would get the blessing and not the oldest. You see how God keeps mixing this up? It's always like I'm not going to prefer that one. I'm going to go this way and prefer that one.
And so again with Joseph. Ephraim is the first, the secondborn, but he is called the firstborn because he gets the blessing.
Well, I actually had more to share, but time is over.
So, with that, we conclude the book of Genesis, and we pick up next time with the book of Exodus. Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching with people everywhere, helping them know God more deeply and live out His truth. And this month, when you give fifty dollars or more, we'll send you Pastor Skip's brand new devotional, Soaring Above It All, as our thanks. This one-year journey through the Bible will help you see how Scripture fits together, understand its key people, events, and themes, and grow deeper in God's Word each day.
Give today at connectwithskifft dot com slash offer or call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
