Genesis - The Beginning of Blessings

 Blessings in Genesis

God created and it was good. It was very good. God was blessing from the beginning.

If you happened to be a bird or a fish or the seventh day of the week, you were blessed.  You had a God-given purpose. You were part of a relationship with God.

God didn’t say, let there be Wildebeest just for filler.

All of God’s creation had a relationship with its Creator.  One of his creations had a very special relationship. Humans were made in his image. We are blessed to be made in the image of our creator, but the blessing of all creation is that we are in a relationship with our creator.

Creation was not a fire-and-forget sort of deal. It was not a throw a bunch of cosmic material into a pot and see what happens.  God created with relationship in mind.  We are blessed in relationship.

God blessed people in the Bible with children and with generations. It wasn’t a one-and-done deal.  People were blessed to create offspring and descendants.  People could see their blessings not only in their flocks and silver but in their children and grandchildren.

We see blessings manifest in Abraham.  God promised to bless those who blessed Abraham.  He also told Abraham that he was blessed to be a blessing.

God blessed Abraham everywhere he went even when Abraham was doing boneheaded things.  God blessed him when he passed his wife off as his sister and got busted for it.  He was still sent away with great possessions.

Abraham and a very small army defeated 5 large undefeated armies.

God blessed Abraham—who was to be the Father of Many Nations—with a son in his old age.

God blessed that son, Isaac, even when he did his own boneheaded stunts.

God blessed Jacob who was known as the Deceiver for much of his life.  Those blessings involved many children from whom would come the tribes of Israel.

God blessed Joseph in his hardship and trials and made him great, so great he saved all of Egypt and his own family.

Most of the time, God’s blessings were not in response to human good.  The blessings came because those blessed were in relationship with God.

There were plenty of people who were blessed who did not know the one true God. The sun rises on the evil and the good.  The rain falls on the just and unjust, but we see the story of those who did know God and how God blessed them in spite of their human brokenness.

What can we take from this?

When God chooses to bless you, he will bless you.  It is seldom about scoring high on the playing-by-the-rules test.

Obedience, faith, love, and how we show mercy to others help that relationship and promote our growth.  These things are how we demonstrate our love for God but they don’t earn us blessings.

There is a natural relationship between our faithfulness and blessings, but blessings come from God and not our own efforts. Every good gift comes from above.

In his sovereignty alone, God bestows blessings upon us.

James tells us that our trials and hardships are blessings as well.  We should rejoice in them. We should use them to grow our faith.

Paul tells us that God takes everything that happens and uses it for good for those of us in a loving relationship with God.

God has called us. God chose us. God blesses us. 

Blessings were there in the beginning. Blessings continue. We should have eyes to see all of our blessings and we should live as Abraham was charged to live.

Blessed to be a blessing.

Let’s wrap up our journey through Genesis with some words about blessings from our Lord.  You can find these in Matthew 5.

Jesus said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

    for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

    for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

    for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

    for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

    for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

    for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Amen.

Just Trust Him

 Read Genesis 27

Here’s the thing for the next couple of Sundays.  We are calling them Throwback Sundays.  Why?

You are going to get the same message at the 9 am service and the 11 am service.  Why call them Throwback Sundays?

That’s the way we did it about 16 or 17 years ago.  If I had to go back 50 years, I would call them vintage Sundays.  I just realized that most the things that I have at home are not old.  They are vintage.

But to the message.  It’s the same at both services.  I tell you this because some of you might not have noticed.

For this story to make any sense at all, you must consider God’s words to Rebekah in Genesis 25.

“Two nations are in your womb,

    and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

    and the older will serve the younger.”

The children from whom these two nations would come are Esau—the older but just by a heel, and Jacob who had latched on to his brother as they emerged from the womb.

To further understand, we look to the end of Genesis 25.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

Isaac is now an old man and his vision is about gone.  He knows his days are numbered and it is time to give his blessing to his oldest son.  He calls for Esau and tells him to get some fresh game and cook it for him.  Isaac wanted a special meal to go with this blessing.

Esau got his hunting equipment and went to the field.  Rebekah had overheard this conversation and told Jacob to go get 2 goats from the flock so she could cook them just the way Isaac liked them.

As they say in theater, the plot thickens.  Both sons are on their assigned tasks.  Slaughtering the goats and preparing them took less time than hunting game.  Jacob’s meal was ready first. Mom made sure of it.

Jacob was Leary of passing himself off as his brother.  Esau was a man who was rougher.  His skin was tougher.  He was still a hairy man.  Jacob, well, not so much.

Jacob knew this whole ploy was so that Isaac would bless him and not his brother.  Esau had sworn away his birthright for a bowl of stew, but his father’s blessing was still in the hands of Isaac.

Mom dressed Jacob in Esau’s best clothes and put goat skins over his hands.  Isaac could barely see so he would have to rely on other senses.  If he touched or smelled Jacob, he would feel and smell like his older brother.

Jacob was still skeptical.  What if his father discovered the deception?  He would curse him.

Rebekah said that the curse would fall on her.  Jacob proceeded to take his father the meal.

Jacob began with a lie.  Isaac asked, “Who is there?”

Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your oldest son.” The deception was in full swing.

The deception was not easy.  Jacob felt and smelled like Esau, but the voice was that of Jacob.  In the end, Isaac was convinced that this was his older son and he blessed him.

He blessed him.  This was a big deal.  This was huge as far as the estate of his father was concerned, though if you keep reading, Jacob does not seem to be the beneficiary of that estate.

But a blessing is a blessing and Jacob had it.  He was blessed as if he were the firstborn.

What a screwball story.  God’s Chosen People will come from the line of Jacob.  The Savior of the world will come from the line of Jacob.

But could it have not come from Esau? Again, let’s go back just a little.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Esau already had 2 wives from the pagan people who surrounded them.  Remember that Abraham sent his servant to get Isaac a wife from his brother’s family hundreds of miles east of where they lived now.  There was no way that his son would marry one of these heathen women.

But Abraham’s oldest grandson did just that.  Actually, he took 2 pagan wives.  We are told that Esau despised his birthright.  He apparently was not too concerned about his offspring either.

By the way, Esau would later take a wife from the descendants of Ishmael. 

Jacob was pretty slick.  His mom was a good coach, but the story doesn’t end here.  Esau comes to his father’s tent with the game he killed and cook to his dad’s specifications only to discover that Jacob had stolen his blessing.

There were no do-overs.  What was done was done. Jacob had his father’s blessing.

Esau asked if his father had only one blessing.  This was Isaac’s response.

“Your dwelling will be

    away from the earth’s richness,

    away from the dew of heaven above.

You will live by the sword

    and you will serve your brother.

But when you grow restless,

    you will throw his yoke

    from off your neck.”

That’s not quite the same as how Isaac blessed Jacob.

“Ah, the smell of my son

    is like the smell of a field

    that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you heaven’s dew

    and earth’s richness—

    an abundance of grain and new wine.

May nations serve you

    and peoples bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers,

    and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed

    and those who bless you be blessed.”

Now that was a blessing that would continue this special lineage from the Father of Many Nations.  It was all part of God’s will that the line to his chosen people and to Jesus would go through Jacob.

We think of our plans as well order and sensible.  Sometimes we look at God’s plans and think, “What is he thinking?’

Did the God of all the universe really come up with this?

Our own understanding tells us that it’s a crazy plan.  That won’t work. I’ve got some ideas of my own.

When we think about those things too much, we have forgotten that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and truly sovereign.

When we think, “Just what is God thinking?” we are asking if God has lost control of his creation.

Through our human eyes and through our own understanding, it might seem like he has, but we walk by, live by faith not sight.

God does not run his plans by us for an estimate of supportability.

God does not ask us to chime in as the dream team of consultants that we think ourselves to be.

Have you ever seen those memes of our plans as a straight line from point A to point B?  Then there is one of God’s plan that goes from A to B but looks like a 2-year-old was turned loose with a crayon.  The trip takes you from A to B but it visits a thousand other destinations en route, some more than once.

Let me tell you that the one that looks like it was done by a small child armed with crayons is the one to put on your refrigerator.

Trust God’s plan.

It may involve hardship.  It may involve suffering.  It may involve death of loved ones.  I may involve dealing with people who hate your guts.

It may not proceed at your pace. It may include what you might think are unnecessary steps. It may just seem outright crazy, but if you know it to be from the Lord, then just trust it.

Decades ago, I was known among the Marines in my company by a simple phrase.  When Marines were looking at all the reasons that would make the mission impossible, I would simply say:

JUST DO IT

Yes, Nike stole my slogan.  It’s my own fault.  I never copyrighted or trademarked it.  Who would have thought it would catch on with people who made shirts and shoes?

JUST DO IT

I want us to try something similar.  As we face the absurdity of navigating our world, let’s think in similar terms.

JUST TRUST HIM

As we look at putting our Master’s words into practice in what seems like a never-ending race of running against the wind, let us think:

JUST TRUST HIM

When God’s word tells us to love our enemies or pray for those who hate us or turn the other cheek when our own nature would like to deliver a real whopping, think this:

JUST TRUST HIM

We will continue following the story of Jacob and Esau. We skipped over Esau’s part in this for today, but he is not forgotten.  For now, let’s just leave it with he is very upset and thinking about killing his brother.

 It’s good to know the story.  Study it. Learn it.  Know it, but above all just trust God and God's plans and his thoughts and his ways for they are truly higher than our thoughts and ways.

In an age that seems exceedingly complicated, here’s is something simple to which you may cling.

JUST TRUST HIM

It’s the whole trust in the Lord with all of your heart thing again.

It’s that lean not on your own understanding bit one more time.

It’s just trust him.

JUST TRUST HIM

 

Amen.

Blessed is the One who heeds Wisdom's Instruction

 Read Proverbs 29

As we draw near the end of Proverbs, we come again to where we began.  There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Consider my governing framework for this book of wisdom in the context of verse 18.

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;

    but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

That was from the NIV. Some of you my age may have learned this in the King James Version.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

The English Standard Version puts it this way.

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,

    but blessed is he who keeps the law.

When we do not receive the vision sent to us by God—in whatever form that takes for us who live in this age—we depart from the blessings of living God’s way into the minefields of the everything else.

When we don’t listen to and abide in what Dad, Abba, Father has been telling us, we are surely headed out of the land of blessings into the wasteland of peril.

I’ll take one more crack at this.  There is God’s way and there is everything else.

God’s way – Everything else

Blessings – Minefields

Wisdom – Foolishness

Righteous – Wicked

Industrious – Lazy

Obedient - Rebellious

Life – Death

God’s way – Everything else

For all of the parallel construction, positives and negatives, A-B structures, provocations that require some deep thought, metaphors and other comparative tools, Solomon brings us to the ultimate dichotomy.

There is living God’s way and there is everything else.

If we don’t look to God’s way and are blind to his revelations, we live without restraint.  We live lawlessly.  We perish.  In modern rural vernacular, that dog don’t hunt.

If we go back to the original language, we find that God’s way was delivered most often in what we call the law—the Torah.

There is much discussion whenever we use the word law or Torah, so much so that many Christians lose sight of the command to be known as disciples of Jesus by our love and substitute being known by our interpretations and self-righteousness.

Too often we strain out gnats and swallow camels in wanting people to agree with our way, instead of being known as disciples of our Lord by practicing God’s way, by living a life governed by love.

The problem is that we too often place what some would consider negative or confining attributes on the words Torah and law.  We should consider these terms in a fuller meaning, hopefully, closer to their original intent.

What is Torah?  It is direction.  It is instruction.  It is law, but it is also customs, rulings, teachings, but most of all it is God’s way.  Whether we frame it as a command, a directive, an instruction, a ruling, or guidance—it is God’s way. Commands, directives, instructions, and the like can all mean the exact same thing or vary in significant ways.  That variance is often our language mixed with our perspectives and sorted by our bias.  It is also our vulnerability to being lured into the everything else.

Understand that God revealed his way to us for our own good. We should receive, understand, and live out the instructions that God gave us.

Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

He that keeps the law is happy

Blessed is he who keeps the law.

But I thought we were free from the law?  I thought Jesus was the way to heaven?  I thought the ultimate sacrifice for our sins had been made?

I thought we were saved by grace through faith?  You are!

But how will you respond to this wonderful gift?  Will you live to bring glory to God?  Will you enjoy your relationship with God?

God has revealed his way to us.  He has also revealed the everything else.  Much of this revelation came in those first 5 books of the Bible.  Much came through the prophets. Much came in the wisdom books of the Bible.  Much came in the life and teachings of Christ Jesus—the Word made flesh, and much comes from the Spirit of God that lives within us.

When we dismiss or devalue one part of God’s revelations to us, we discount his sovereignty in favor of our own and are not heeding wisdom’s instructions. 

Our atonement came in the blood of Christ Jesus—the only one to ever fulfill the law, but our response to this great love is left to us.  Will we stop resisting when God is directing our steps?

God is moving us forward to a better relationship with him.  One obstacle to that is our interpretation of this statement:  Love fulfills the Law.

Too many think that those who live by love are getting off easy.  God’s laws must be rigid and strict and compliance must be lock-step, and to some degree difficult.  Consider, instead, that God has raised—not lowered—the bar for us, at least for those who will follow him and be known as his disciples by our love.

Love fulfills the law does not abandon obedience.  It embraces it.  I know several people who can do tasks over and over again and do them well.  They are obedient and compliant and do exactly what the specifications require. The specification may be difficult, but skill comes with repetition.

Others note the specifications for individual tasks and have been given eyes to see a house or a ship or a space station.  We do not denounce those who can only see the step-by-step directions.  They are living their lives as fully as they are equipped to do.

We should also embrace those who can see the house or the ship when they read the directions.  They do not see less.  They are not less obedient. They see the designer’s passion and embrace it. They live by love and in so doing fulfill the law.

They—in many cases that is we—didn’t get off easy.  We accepted the challenge to live completely in God’s way.

If you think you are getting off easy when you say, love fulfills the law; you have not understood God’s ways.  Living by love is not joining the French Foreign Legion never to be heard of again. It’s living to the glory of God, growing in his grace, and enjoying the relationship knowing that the life you have called your own truly belongs to the one you proclaim as Lord.

The old standard for us was to love God with everything we had and love each other as much as we love ourselves.  While difficult, we sometimes obtain that second part.  Loving someone as much as we love ourselves is possible.

Now consider that Jesus gave his disciples—that includes us in this age—a new command.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We don’t just love others as much as we love ourselves.  That would be easy in comparison to what he called us—commanded us—to do.  Love one another as much as he loved us.  He loved us to the point of giving his life for us.  Yep, that raised the bar.

Remember, all of the points of the law hang upon, rest upon, come together in the commands to love God and love one another.  Loving God and loving one another are the supporting uprights and beams of the law.

Let’s get back to the proverb.

Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

He that keeps the law is happy

Blessed is he who keeps the law.

Why follow the law?  Why live a life governed by love.  Why seek to live God’s way?

As with so much that has been revealed to us in our studies, God does things that are for our own good and instructs us to do things that bless us.  They are the directions that give us hope and a future.

We do not live God’s way to obtain salvation.  God has done all that is required to save us from our sins and from death.  Jesus paid it all!

In response to this unfathomable love, we want to please God.  We want to live in his ways.  We want to do the things that bless God. We want to bring glory to his name and enjoy the relationship he has in store for us. We want to live as he designed us to live.

When we do, he blesses us even more.  We are happy.  Sin and death are no longer hanging over us.  So, what will we do?  Will we go on sinning so grace can abound even more?

BY NO MEANS!

We will live God’s way.  We will live as he instructed us, not so much in lock-step compliance—though some may find this to be the limits of their God-given abilities—but fully governed by love.  In so doing, we will be happy and blessed.

There is God’s way and there is everything else, and God’s way is love.

God’s way is love!

Blessed is he who lives by Love. To live this life given to us in the blood of Jesus, and to live it without love, is lawlessness.  It is rebellion.

God is love.  God’s way is love. His law, his prophets, his wisdom, his Word made flesh, and his Spirit that lives within us bring us to love.  Love directs our steps.

There is God’s way and there is everything else, and God’s way is love.

We can live in God’s way.  Remember that he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  You are equipped to live God’s way.  You are equipped to live by love.

Amen.