YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Unlocking the Old Testament Part 6 - Genesis 5

Unlocking the Old Testament Part 6 - Genesis 5 — Transcript

by David Pawson - Official · 5,987 words · 1,035 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:02It's the story of how God was seeking a
0:05bride for his son. Each book is
0:08different from every other book. I'm
0:11trying to give you the keys for you to
0:13unlock it for yourself.
0:28There's a double thread running right
0:30through the Old Testament, which
0:32requires an explanation.
0:35On the one side, the Old Testament
0:38claims that the God of the Jews is the
0:41God of the whole universe.
0:43Now, in those days, every nation had its
0:45own God.
0:48Whether it was Baal or Isis or Moloch or
0:50whoever, so religion was strictly
0:53national.
0:55And therefore, all wars were religious
0:57between one God and another.
1:00Or between one God's people and another
1:01God's people.
1:03And therefore, Israel's God, called
1:05Yahweh or being or always, was
1:08considered by other nations to be the
1:10national God of Israel. And since every
1:13nation had its God, that was
1:15understandable.
1:16But Israel herself claimed that her God
1:20was the God above all gods.
1:23That phrase is used in the Old
1:25Testament. They went even further and
1:27said, "And our God is the only God who
1:30really exists.
1:32All the others are figments of human
1:34imagination."
1:35And then they went even further and
1:37said, "It's our God who not only made
1:40but maintains the entire universe."
1:44Now, such claims were of course
1:45offensive in the extreme.
1:47And you find these claims made in
1:49Isaiah, particularly chapter 40, at in
1:53the book of Job, and in many of the the
1:56Now, that's one side of this twofold
1:58thread that goes right through the Old
1:59Testament that the God of the Jews is in
2:02fact the God of the whole universe.
2:04The other side of that is that the God
2:07of the whole universe is the God of the
2:09Jews.
2:10And they were really claiming that the
2:12creator
2:14of everything that is, the most distant
2:16stars flung into space, had actually
2:19made a very personal and intimate
2:22relationship with one little group of
2:25people on earth.
2:26That the God of the universe had become
2:28the God of the Jews.
2:30In fact, he had identified himself
2:34with one family on earth, with a
2:36grandfather, a father, and a son.
2:39That the God of the entire universe was
2:42now calling himself the God of Abraham,
2:45Isaac, and Jacob.
2:47Now, can you imagine how other nations
2:50reacted to that?
2:51It's an incredible claim.
2:54Now, this astonishing twofold claim that
2:57the God of the Jews is the God of the
2:58universe and the God of the universe is
3:00specially the God of the Jews
3:02is explained in Genesis.
3:05And without Genesis, you would not have
3:07any ground for this astonishing claim.
3:11As I've said before, if you only had a
3:13Bible that began at Exodus,
3:15you would think, "Well, this is just
3:17about the God of the Jews."
3:19But Genesis says, "No, it's the God of
3:21the whole universe who has become the
3:24God of the Jews and is not embarrassed
3:26to call himself by just three men
3:30who belong to that tiny people.
3:33Now, remember that Genesis actually
3:36covers more time than the whole of the
3:39rest of the Bible put together.
3:42From Exodus to the last bit of
3:44Revelation covers around 1,500 years, a
3:48millennium and a half.
3:50Whereas Genesis covers the entire
3:52history of the world from the beginning
3:54right through to Joseph, which is far
3:57longer. So, when you read the Bible, you
3:59realize that time has been terribly
4:01compressed in Genesis. It covers many,
4:05many centuries
4:06as compared to the whole rest of the
4:08Bible, it's a longer period.
4:10Then when you look into Genesis itself,
4:13you find a very strange proportion of
4:16space given to the different parts of
4:18history.
4:21Chapters 1 to 11
4:24form a quarter of the book, quite a
4:26short section,
4:28and yet cover a very long period,
4:31centuries.
4:33And also
4:34talk about many people, even many
4:37nations.
4:38But the second half of Genesis, chapters
4:4112 to 50, which we're now looking at,
4:44is a much longer section. It's three
4:45times as big as 1 to 11. It's three
4:48quarters of the book.
4:49Yet it only covers a few years,
4:53a very short period.
4:55And it only covers a few people, in
4:57fact, one family.
4:59And only four generations of that
5:00family. There's a huge disproportion
5:04here
5:05if it claims to be the history of our
5:06world.
5:08And yet it's quite deliberate, and that
5:10proportion has a message in itself.
5:13So, there's a kind of slowing down of
5:15history in the book of Genesis.
5:18There's a zooming in
5:20from the whole world and all its people
5:22to one family.
5:23And that is very deliberate because
5:25we're looking at history from God's
5:28point of view.
5:29And God began by dealing with the whole
5:31human race and the whole of history, but
5:33then he focused in, he zoomed in on this
5:36one family
5:38as if they were the most important
5:40family who ever lived. And from one
5:42point of view, they were.
5:44They were part of that very special line
5:47from Seth
5:49of people who called on the name of the
5:50Lord.
5:51And people who call on his name are in
5:53his mind, his eyes, more important than
5:56anybody else.
5:58Cuz they are the people through whom he
6:01can fulfill his plans and purposes.
6:04So, that's why we have this very strange
6:07proportion.
6:08You see, the Bible is not God's answer
6:11to our problems, it's God's answer to
6:14God's problem.
6:16I wish more people realized this. They
6:18present often the gospel as
6:21God's answer to our needs. Are you
6:23lonely? Are you unhappy? Do Does your
6:25life have no purpose? Then Jesus can
6:27meet your need. You've heard that kind
6:28of preaching. But actually, the Bible is
6:31not about our needs at all.
6:33It's about God's problem.
6:36And God's problem is what do you do with
6:38a race
6:40that doesn't want to know you or love
6:41you or obey you?
6:44What's he to do? That's his problem. And
6:46one solution to that problem is to wipe
6:48them out and start again.
6:50He tried it,
6:52but what I didn't mention in the last
6:54talk was that when Noah came out of the
6:56ark,
6:57one of the first things that he did was
6:59to get drunk
7:01and expose himself.
7:03And from then on, the whole sad, sordid
7:06story began all over again.
7:08So, even with Noah and his family,
7:11it didn't work.
7:12So, God had to think up something else,
7:15but he already knew what he was going to
7:16do
7:18to save the human race from themselves,
7:20but rather to solve his problem. If
7:23somebody asks me, "Why did God create us
7:25human beings?"
7:27then I give a very simple answer to
7:29that. He had one son
7:31already,
7:33and he enjoyed that son so much,
7:36he wanted a bigger family.
7:39Now, I can't express it more plainly
7:41than that. That's why you and I are
7:44here, because God wanted more than one
7:46son. He wanted a bigger family.
7:48And that's what he created us for, but
7:50the tragedy is
7:52he finished up saying, "I wish we'd
7:53never had our children."
7:56Now, what's he going to do about it?
7:58Well, he knew.
7:59And with Abraham, he began his solution
8:03to his problem.
8:05What to do with a rebellious human race.
8:10Now, he chose to do it through one
8:13particular part of the human race.
8:15And philosophers call this the scandal
8:18of particularity.
8:20What a phrase, but I want to explain it.
8:23It's important. The scandal of
8:25particularity is why should God only
8:28deal with the Jews?
8:30Why didn't he save the Chinese through
8:32the Chinese and the Americans through
8:34the Americans, the British through the
8:35British? It's an offense to us that he
8:38chose to solve his problem through the
8:41Jewish people.
8:43There are two poets, one of whom is
8:46called William Norman Ewer, and the
8:48other Cecil Brown. They both wrote very
8:51short poems. William Norman Ewer, who
8:54only died in 1976,
8:56wrote this poem.
8:58How odd of God
9:00to choose the Jews.
9:03Brilliant poetry.
9:05And certainly one of the most widely
9:06quoted poems of all time.
9:09So, along came Cecil Brown, and he
9:11decided to write a second verse.
9:14And his second verse went,
9:16"But not so odd
9:18as those who choose
9:20a Jewish God,
9:22but spurn the Jews."
9:25And those two verses sum up what
9:27philosophers call the scandal of
9:29particularity.
9:31Well, we had three children.
9:33And when we I brought sweets for them, I
9:36could do one of two things. I could
9:39either bring one bag of sweets and give
9:42that to one of them and say, "Now share
9:44that with your brother and sister."
9:47Or I could bring three bars of chocolate
9:49and give them one each.
9:51Now guess which brought peace to the
9:53house.
9:54See?
9:56And it was much easier to give them each
9:59some sweets.
10:01But we wanted to create a family.
10:05And if you're going to do that,
10:07then you must give the sweets to one and
10:09let them share it with the others.
10:11That's God's way.
10:13Instead of sending his son to be an
10:16American and a Chinese and an Indian and
10:19whatever,
10:20he chose the Jews. He sent his son to be
10:23a Jew and he's still a Jew.
10:25And he said to the Jews, "Now you share
10:27that with everybody else."
10:29That's how he chose
10:31to save us.
10:33And it's his choice. You can argue with
10:35it,
10:36but that was his choice.
10:39And that's why he is calling himself the
10:41God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
10:44Chapters 12 to 50 are basically the
10:47stories of just four men.
10:50And yet three of them are classed
10:52together and one is quite different.
10:55We're only going to look at the three in
10:57this talk and the fourth generation in a
11:00separate talk. He's quite different. God
11:02never called himself the God of Joseph.
11:05He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
11:07Jacob, just the three generations. And
11:09we've got to ask why.
11:11And as we study the stories of these
11:13three men,
11:14we're going to notice that there's a
11:16kind of counterpoint, a kind of uh
11:19contrast between these men and one of
11:22their relatives.
11:24So the counterpoint to Abraham is his
11:26nephew Lot.
11:28The counterpoint to Isaac is his
11:30stepbrother Ishmael.
11:32The counterpoint to Jacob is his twin
11:36Esau.
11:37You notice that those relations seem to
11:39get closer and closer from nephew to
11:42step brother to twin.
11:45And God is again showing there are still
11:47two lines running through the human race
11:51in very stark contrast to each other and
11:54the stories invite you
11:57to line yourself up with one line or the
11:58other.
11:59Are you a Jacob or an Esau?
12:02Are you an Ishmael or an Isaac?
12:05Are you an Abraham or a Lot?
12:07And as you read through these chapters,
12:09that's the question you should ask
12:10yourself.
12:12Who is your kind?
12:14Who do you line up with?
12:16So it's basically the story of four men.
12:18Now there are
12:19objections
12:21from those who don't want to believe
12:23these chapters who say they're legends
12:25or sagas,
12:27the kind of folk tale that arises. There
12:30may be a nucleus of truth in them, but
12:32they're simply legends that have grown
12:34up around these men.
12:37I don't see why people should object
12:39like that. For one thing, the novel as
12:42such is a recent form of literature.
12:45Novels were totally unknown in Abraham's
12:48day. Nobody wrote invented stories.
12:51Fiction is just not there. It's not a
12:54form of writing in that day. They wrote
12:56down what happened. They didn't stretch
12:59their imagination much less engage in
13:01what is now called faction,
13:03which is a mixture of fact and fiction
13:05and many TV plays are faction.
13:08One of the things that tells me these
13:10stories are true
13:12is that there are no miracles in them.
13:16You'd have thought if people were going
13:17to invent stories about great men of
13:19God, they'd have attached all kinds of
13:21miracles. There are hardly any miracles
13:24in the book of Genesis. Have you ever
13:25noticed that?
13:27There are dozens in the book of Exodus.
13:30But hardly any.
13:31Yet legend is usually stuffed with
13:33miraculous or magical things happening.
13:36These stories don't have that.
13:38Furthermore, nobody has found a single
13:41anachronism in these stories. Let me
13:43tell you what I mean. If Genesis said
13:45that Abraham picked up the telephone and
13:47got in touch with Isaac,
13:49that's an anachronism.
13:51And you just know that's false because
13:53there were no telephones in those days,
13:55much less faxes.
13:57So if you saw a telephone or a fax
13:58mentioned in Genesis, immediately you'd
14:00be suspicious.
14:02But in fact,
14:04the cultural details that emerge in
14:06these stories, archaeology has shown to
14:08be totally true
14:10to the day in which they lived.
14:12So really, I believe there's no reason
14:13whatever
14:15for doubting the truthfulness of these
14:17stories.
14:18The one feature that natural explanation
14:22can't account for is that angels play
14:24quite a part here.
14:26But they do right through the Bible.
14:28Especially during the days of Jesus and
14:30even more in the book of Revelations. So
14:32if you've got problems with angels,
14:34you've got problems with the whole
14:35Bible.
14:36But apart from that, these stories are
14:39terribly ordinary.
14:41They're about ordinary men and women
14:43who are born, who fall in love, who
14:45marry, have children, and die.
14:48So what's difficult about that?
14:50They keep sheep and goats and cattle and
14:52grow a few crops.
14:54So what's the problem with that?
14:56They disagree, they quarrel, they fight.
14:59So what's new?
15:01They erect tents, they build altars, and
15:03they worship God. All of these things
15:06are totally within the range of normal
15:08human experience.
15:10So what's different about these stories?
15:12The answer is God talks to them.
15:15And they talk to him. They hold
15:17conversations. The God of the entire
15:19universe
15:22makes a friend called Abraham.
15:26That's a wonderful epitaph. Wouldn't you
15:27like that on your gravestone? Friend of
15:30God.
15:32It was God who called him, that's my
15:33friend, Abraham.
15:35Now, that is incredible, isn't it? That
15:36the God who flung all the stars out
15:38there
15:40says, "He's my friend."
15:42This man, Abraham.
15:43That is the scandal of particularity.
15:45People can't cope with a God who makes
15:47personal friends.
15:50No, they feel that somehow it's not on.
15:53And yet that is the truth of what
15:55happens here.
15:56Now, the big question is, why should God
16:00choose to identify himself as the God of
16:03Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or to give them
16:05their Hebrew names, Avram, Yitzchak, and
16:08Yaakov? Why should he identify himself
16:10with them? What's so special about them?
16:13And that's the question people have been
16:14asking ever since, what's so special
16:16about the Jews? Why should they be the
16:18chosen people and not us?
16:20Well, that's the implication when they
16:22say, "Why should they be the chosen
16:23people?" You can almost hear them saying
16:25to themselves, "And not us."
16:27Cuz we're so much more important or
16:30gifted or whatever than them.
16:32It's not true.
16:33But the answer lies in God's sovereign
16:36choice.
16:38Not arbitrary choice, sovereign choice.
16:42The one thing that is quite clear is
16:43that these three men had no natural
16:46claim on God.
16:50God freely initiated the relationship
16:53with them.
16:54They couldn't say,
16:56"We claim that relationship."
16:58And in fact, on each of the generations,
17:01it is striking that the son who would
17:04normally inherit from the father didn't.
17:08Because in those days, the eldest son
17:11inherited the family business and the
17:12family wealth.
17:14And yet in each generation,
17:17the God God chooses not the eldest, but
17:19the youngest son.
17:21He chooses Isaac, not Ishmael.
17:24He chooses Jacob, not Esau. As much as
17:27to say, "Nobody has a natural claim on
17:30my love.
17:32It's just my love
17:34that I give to you."
17:37So, it was not a question of straight
17:39heredity through the eldest son. Neither
17:41Isaac nor Jacob were the firstborn. And
17:44what they inherited was a free gift
17:47every time.
17:49So, they had no natural claim. More
17:51striking is the fact that none of these
17:53three men had a moral claim
17:56on God. Not one of the three could claim
17:59to be better than everybody else.
18:01In fact, the Bible is an honest book and
18:03tells us
18:05that all three of them were liars.
18:09All three of them.
18:11We are not given stained-glass pictures
18:14of these three great saints. We are
18:16given a picture of very ordinary men
18:19like us
18:20who had their weaknesses. Both Abraham
18:23and Isaac lied through their teeth about
18:26their own wives to save their skins.
18:30So, what have they got that others
18:32haven't? Why should God choose them? And
18:35Jacob was the worst of the three.
18:38There's not one of you would like to
18:39have Jacob as a relative.
18:42You'd be scared stiff of what was going
18:44to happen to your money or anything
18:45else. He was a schemer. Mind you, he was
18:49paid back.
18:50I cannot read one verse in the Bible
18:52without giggling.
18:54And it's the verse, "And lo, in the
18:55morning, behold, it was Leah."
19:00I mean, you know the story, don't you?
19:02It's the first morning of his honeymoon.
19:04He woke
19:05up.
19:09And he's got the ugly sister.
19:12Cuz he went to bed in the dark and she
19:14was veiled all through the wedding and
19:16he'd worked 7 years to get the pretty
19:18sister.
19:19And his father-in-law's palmed off the
19:21ugly Now, if it happened to you, you
19:22wouldn't laugh.
19:24But if it happened to your best friend,
19:27well,
19:28I mean, the humor in the Bible comes
19:30across, doesn't it? But
19:31the lesson behind that the lesson behind
19:33that verse is very profound. Whatever a
19:35man sows, that shall he also reap.
19:38Here's the man who
19:39cheated his own blind aged father.
19:43And now somebody's cheating him.
19:45He can't complain about that, can he?
19:47That's the bite a bit. These are very
19:50human men. They have weaknesses. They
19:52make mistakes. They do the wrong thing.
19:56And some right things, too. So, why
19:58should God say, "I'm the God of Abraham
20:00and Isaac and Jacob?"
20:03Well, we must search these chapters for
20:05something more. All of them were
20:07bigamous, even polygamous.
20:11What did they have then?
20:13The answer is there is one thing marked
20:16out these three men. It's a very simple
20:18thing.
20:19Faith.
20:21These men
20:23believed in God.
20:25And God can do wonders when a man
20:27believes.
20:29God would rather have a believing man
20:31than a a good man.
20:33In fact, he even said to Abraham
20:37that his faith
20:39went down in God's book as
20:41righteousness.
20:43It was reckoned to him as righteousness.
20:47The best thing you can ever do is to
20:49believe in God.
20:52Jesus once said,
20:54when he was asked, "What must we do
20:57to do the will of God?"
20:59What does God want us to do? And Jesus
21:01was quite He said, "Believe on the one
21:02he sent." That's all.
21:05Faith is the beginning of a good life.
21:08You may do many good deeds, but if
21:09you're not a believer in God,
21:11where does that leave you?
21:14And God reckoned Abraham's faith
21:18was righteousness.
21:20And Isaac shared that faith, and Jacob
21:22had that faith, too. In different ways,
21:25for they were very different people,
21:27different personalities, different
21:28temperaments, but the one common thing
21:31was they had faith. And they showed it
21:33in very different ways, as I have said.
21:36Abraham showed it by leaving
21:39Ur of the Chaldees.
21:41I thought you might be interested to see
21:43this.
21:44That's um
21:46a big ziggurat, as they're called, a
21:48tower reaching to heaven in Ur of the
21:50Chaldees, where Abraham lived. It was a
21:52very impressive place was Ur.
21:55I thought you'd be interested in this.
21:57That's a typical fireplace in a house in
22:00Ur in Abraham's day.
22:03Would you believe it? They were a highly
22:05sophisticated, cultured city.
22:08Terribly advanced for their age. And God
22:11said to a man sitting by a fire like
22:13that, "I want you to live in a tent for
22:14the rest of your life." And the man was
22:1675.
22:18Would you leave a fireplace like that
22:20and live in a tent up in the mountains
22:22where it's cold and snows in winter for
22:25the rest of your life at the age of 75?
22:28But if that old man had not done so, you
22:30wouldn't be sitting here now.
22:32That was Abraham.
22:34Just thought you'd be interested to see
22:35what an amazing place he left to live in
22:38a tent up in the hills and to look after
22:39a few sheep and goats, because God said,
22:42"I want you to come with me."
22:45To a land you've never seen.
22:47And you'll never see this land again.
22:50I want you to leave your family and
22:52friends. Abraham actually took his
22:54father
22:55and his other members of his family
22:57halfway. He got as far as Haran, and
23:00they decided they'd had enough, and they
23:01settled there.
23:03And Abraham went on alone with his
23:04nephew Lot.
23:06This old man.
23:08But he believed God.
23:11And he even believed that God could give
23:13him a son.
23:15Well, considering his wife was 90 at the
23:17time, it's no wonder that when the boy
23:19came they called him joke.
23:23Isaac.
23:24Hebrew for laugh.
23:26And they called the little boy joke.
23:29What a joke because Sarah, when she
23:31heard that she was going to be pregnant
23:32at that age, she just roared with
23:34laughter.
23:36And God heard that laughter, too.
23:38But what faith.
23:40Mind you, his faith
23:42shook a little.
23:43He waited first of all 11 years and the
23:46boy never turned up and his wife got
23:48older and older.
23:50And when she suggested that Abraham try
23:52and get the boy through one of the young
23:54maidservants, he did.
23:56That's how Ishmael got born.
23:58But Ishmael was not a child of faith, he
24:00was a child of the flesh.
24:03And God didn't choose him.
24:06Now, don't ever think that that was
24:07unfair to Ishmael because God blessed
24:10Ishmael.
24:11And he promised him that he'd be the
24:12father of many nations and produce 12
24:15princes.
24:16And he's the father of the Arab nations
24:18today.
24:20So, God didn't
24:22put him down, but he didn't choose him.
24:24Not for that line of faith.
24:27Because Ishmael didn't show faith.
24:30But he was blessed.
24:33And above all, Abraham exercised faith
24:35when God said, "Would you be willing to
24:38sacrifice your son, your only son for
24:41me?" That was after another 16 years had
24:43passed and then the boy came, Isaac.
24:46"You willing to sacrifice him for me?"
24:49And it tells us that Abraham was willing
24:53to kill Isaac as a sacrifice because he
24:57believed God would raise him from the
24:59dead after he'd killed him.
25:02Now, considering that God never had done
25:04that before,
25:06and had never caused a resurrection,
25:08that was some faith.
25:10But that's why he was prepared to do it.
25:13And the reason why he was prepared
25:16to believe that God would raise Isaac
25:18from the dead was because he had been
25:21able to conceive Isaac
25:23when he was a very old man,
25:25when, as the Bible says, his body was as
25:28good as dead.
25:30Therefore, he said, "If God can make my
25:32dead body produce life, he can also
25:35raise my son from the dead." What faith.
25:39Isaac, his faith
25:42was shown that he submitted to the be
25:44sacrificed when he was in his early 30s.
25:48Every picture I've ever seen of Abraham
25:50offering Isaac as a little boy of 12. Is
25:52that the picture you've got in your
25:53mind? You'll never find a Jew believing
25:56that.
25:57Because the Jew knows his Bible and he
25:58doesn't divide it into chapters as we
26:00do.
26:02After the sacrifice of Isaac, the very
26:04next thing that happens is Sarah's
26:07death,
26:08the age of 127,
26:10when Isaac is 37.
26:13That's the next event after the
26:15sacrifice. So, Isaac was in his early
26:1730s, and he submitted to his father,
26:20Abraham, an old man.
26:23And he did it on a mountain called
26:25Moriah, which later became Golgotha,
26:29or Calvary. It's an amazing story, isn't
26:31it?
26:32Well, I'm jumping ahead to the next
26:33talk. So, let's get back to this one.
26:36Jacob.
26:37Oh, by the way, Isaac also had faith
26:40that God could choose his wife for him.
26:43And he accepted the wife of God's
26:45choice, Rebecca.
26:47Next thing to notice is that Jacob had
26:49faith. Mind you, at first, he had faith
26:52in himself. He could manipulate the
26:54blessing and he did.
26:57And by scheming and deception, he got
26:59the blessing.
27:00But at least it showed someone who
27:03wanted to be blessed.
27:05Which is good.
27:07But later God had to break that man.
27:10And he limped for the rest of his life.
27:13After wrestling with God all night, he
27:15walked like that for the rest of his
27:17life. But from then he really believed
27:19God.
27:20And he believed that his 12 boys would
27:22become 12 tribes. These men in spite of
27:25all their weaknesses and their failures
27:27and the mixture of good and bad, they
27:29shine as men who believed in God.
27:33They had faith
27:35and therefore when you look at the
27:36contrast in their relatives, you find
27:40people of flesh rather than faith.
27:43You find materialists
27:45rather than those with spiritual vision.
27:48We find a lot
27:50who chose deliberately
27:52to go down into the fertile Jordan
27:55Valley rather than live in the barren
27:57hills.
27:59Abraham and Lot's families had a bit of
28:01a disagreement and Abraham said we
28:02better live separate. That's wisdom
28:04sometimes.
28:05And Abraham said Lot, you can take first
28:08pick of this land. Where do you choose
28:10to live and I'll go somewhere else.
28:13Amazing that Abraham should say that to
28:15Lot. Should have been the other way
28:16around.
28:18But Lot looked down into the valley
28:19where the Jordan River snaked through,
28:22where there was a jungle, very fertile,
28:25warm, tropical climate.
28:27And the whole place appealed
28:30to Lot and he said, "I'm going down to
28:32the valley. Looks good." Abraham said,
28:34"All right, I'll stay up in the hills."
28:37But God is a god of the hills.
28:40And Lot just went after his eyes.
28:45Now not only do you see that in Lot, you
28:47see it in Ishmael,
28:50and you see it in Esau. Esau would
28:52rather have a plate of instant soup
28:56than a blessing when his father died.
28:58And he traded it for it. And the Esau
29:01syndrome is still around. People want
29:03everything now or next Tuesday at the
29:05latest.
29:07In fact, in the letter to the Hebrews,
29:09it tells us not to be like Esau,
29:13who regretted his birthright, and then
29:15afterwards sought the blessing with
29:17tears, but there was no repentance
29:18there.
29:20So, that we've got these three men of
29:22faith contrasted with these relatives of
29:26flesh.
29:27And that kind of distinction runs
29:29through most families today.
29:32Those who live by faith,
29:34those who live by flesh.
29:37Now, this contrast is also seen in their
29:40wives.
29:42And you ladies, when you read these
29:44chapters, study the wives. They're very
29:46interesting. For one thing,
29:48Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel had one thing
29:52in common. They were all very beautiful.
29:57Not glamorous,
29:59but beautiful.
30:00And glamour fades, but beauty increases.
30:04Uh friend of mine, a Methodist minister,
30:06had a beauty queen contest in his
30:08church. This was
30:0935 years ago, and shocked his
30:11congregation. But he made one condition,
30:15and that is that every entrant had to be
30:16at least 60 years of age.
30:19And he wanted to try and demonstrate
30:21that glamour and beauty were two
30:22different things. Now, it says of the
30:25three wives of the patriarchs, they were
30:28all beautiful, and they had the lasting
30:30beauty of inner character.
30:33And they all submitted to their
30:35husbands.
30:38I'll go on to something else.
30:41The wives of the others
30:44are again a contrast to the wives of the
30:47men of faith.
30:49There's an unusual shaped mountain at
30:51the south end of the Dead Sea called
30:53Lot's wife.
30:56It's the shape of a woman running away.
30:59But the even Jesus said, "Remember Lot's
31:02wife."
31:03She looked back
31:05to the comfortable life they were
31:06leaving.
31:08Yet a life that was going to be judged
31:09by God. They lived in Sodom.
31:12A name that's become infamous in
31:14history.
31:15Well, that's what we're looking for when
31:17we read these chapters.
31:19We're looking for faith and flesh and
31:21the contrast between men and their
31:23wives.
31:25And you begin to understand why God
31:27says, "I belong to this side of the
31:30family and not to this side."
31:37Let's just look at those three men in
31:39perhaps a little greater detail.
31:44God made a promise to Abraham on which
31:46we still rely.
31:49God began creation with one man and he
31:51began redemption with one man, this man
31:54Abraham, and he made a covenant. That's
31:57a beautiful word that goes right through
31:59even to when we take bread and wine
32:01together. For this is the blood of the
32:03new covenant. But this word covenant is
32:05very precious. It is not the word
32:07contract.
32:09It's not a bargain struck between two
32:11parties of equal power and authority.
32:14A covenant is entirely made by one party
32:18to bless the other. And the other has
32:20only two choices, to accept the terms or
32:23to reject them, but they cannot change
32:25them. And God makes covenants and he
32:28keeps them. And God swears by them.
32:31Have you ever heard God swear?
32:33When man swears, he He by a power
32:36greater than himself. He often says, "By
32:39heaven I'll do that." or "By God I'll do
32:41that."
32:42Well, God, you see, has nobody higher to
32:44swear by.
32:45So, he swears by himself.
32:48And where a human being might say, "By
32:50God I'll promise to do that."
32:53God says, "By myself I have sworn."
32:56That's how God swears on oath.
32:58By myself, cuz there's nothing above God
33:00to swear by. So, he swears by himself
33:04and he tells the truth, the whole truth
33:05and nothing but the truth. And he
33:07promised Abraham, virtually a covenant
33:10is a marriage.
33:12And the key words are always I will. And
33:14if you read Genesis 12, God says six
33:17times, "I will.
33:19I will.
33:20I will. I will."
33:23And the truth is that the God of the
33:25universe married himself to this
33:27particular family.
33:29And he promised them a place to live in.
33:32He gave them a a little pit patch of
33:34land where the continents meet.
33:37The very center of the land mass of the
33:39world is Jerusalem.
33:41And that's where the road from Africa to
33:44Asia and the road from Arabia to Europe
33:46cross near a little hill called
33:49Armageddon
33:51in Hebrew.
33:52And it's the crossroads of the world.
33:55He says, "That's the place I'm going to
33:56give you forever."
33:58And they hold the title deeds to that
34:00place, whatever anybody else says,
34:02because God gave the title deeds to
34:05them, to Abraham
34:08and his descendants forever. Second
34:10thing God promised was to give them
34:12descendants.
34:14That they would always be descendants of
34:16Abraham on the earth.
34:19And the third promise
34:21was that he would use them to bless or
34:25to curse
34:26every other nation.
34:29Now, that's the calling of the Jews to
34:31share God with everybody.
34:34But that can cut both ways.
34:37God said to Abraham, "Those who curse
34:39you will be cursed. Those who bless you
34:42will be blessed."
34:43And it is still the truth.
34:45As many have discovered.
34:48Now, that was his covenant. In return,
34:51God expected first that every male Jew
34:54would be circumcised as a sign that they
34:56were born into that covenant.
34:59And second,
35:00that Abraham would obey God
35:03and do everything God told him.
35:05And that covenant is at the very heart
35:07of the Bible. And on the basis of that
35:09covenant, God said,
35:11"I will be your God,
35:13and you will be my people."
35:16That phrase is repeated all the way
35:18through the Bible until the very last
35:20page, and there it is again. "I will be
35:23their God, and they will be my people."
35:26A lovely phrase that.
35:28God wants to stick with us.
35:31He wants to stay with us and live with
35:33us. And as you know, at the very end of
35:35the Bible, God himself moves out of
35:37heaven and comes down to us to live with
35:40us on a new earth forever. He wants to
35:42live with us. He wants to be family.
35:44Wants to be our father.
35:46That's was the whole purpose behind
35:48creating our universe and ourselves.
35:52Well,
35:53how am I doing for time?
35:552 minutes.
35:57Then I better begin to leave it there.
35:58I'll just say this that
36:00Jacob, the most colorful of all, the
36:02mother's boy,
36:04even when he was born, he was holding
36:06the heel of his twin brother Esau, the
36:08red-head brother he had.
36:10Grasping from the very beginning, but
36:12God dealt with him.
36:14Esau went actually to live in a place we
36:17now call Petra.
36:19Some of you may have seen these amazing
36:22temples carved out of the red sandstone.
36:24Esau went to live here and formed the
36:27nation of Edom.
36:29And the hatred between Ishmael and Isaac
36:32is still in the Middle East, between
36:33Arab and Jew. But the hatred between
36:36Esau and Jacob has gone.
36:38Because the last
36:41were known by the name of Herod.
36:44And it was a descendant of Esau that was
36:47king of the Jews when Jesus was born.
36:50And who killed all the babies in
36:51Bethlehem to try and get rid of this
36:54descendant of Jacob who was born to be
36:56king.
36:59Finally, I'd just like to point this
37:01out.
37:02Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all showed
37:04their faith in one extraordinary way.
37:08They all
37:10each of them left to his son
37:13what he didn't possess.
37:17Abraham said, "Son, Isaac, I'm leaving
37:19the whole land around you to you."
37:23And Isaac said to Jacob, "I'm leaving
37:25the whole land to you." And Jacob said
37:28to his 12 boys, "The whole land
37:30I leave in my will to you." And not one
37:33of them possessed any of it except one
37:35cave, the family vault in Hebron.
37:38The cave of Machpelah. Isn't that
37:40amazing? What faith to write a will
37:42leaving a whole land to offspring when
37:45you've never possessed it?
37:47But they believed that God had given it
37:49to them.
37:50And that one day
37:52that whole land would be theirs.
37:54And finally,
37:56when I read Hebrews 11, I read about
37:58these men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
38:00and I read about their faith, and then
38:03it says this,
38:04"All these were still living by faith
38:08when they died."
38:10They didn't just believe for a day or
38:12two.
38:13When they died, they were still
38:14believing because they never saw the
38:16promises fulfilled.
38:19And listen what it says now in that same
38:20chapter. They were all commended for
38:23their faith, yet none of them received
38:26what had been promised to them.
38:28God had planned something better
38:31for us
38:34that only together with us
38:37would they
38:39be made perfect.
38:41See, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not
38:43dead.
38:44I've seen the tombs of their bodies in
38:46Hebron.
38:47But they're not dead. Jesus said God is
38:50the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
38:51Not was, is.
38:53He's not the God of dead people, he's
38:54the God of the living.
38:56And we are worshipping the God of
38:58Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're still
38:59alive.
39:01And without us they will not be made
39:04perfect.
39:06And they're among the great cloud of
39:07witnesses that's watching how we run.
39:11Because their perfection, their
39:12fulfillment of God's promises
39:15dependent on us, too.
39:17We're all going to come into it
39:18together.
39:19When Jesus comes back to earth, you'll
39:21see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob coming
39:23back with them with him.
39:26And together with us
39:28made perfect in God's sight.
39:30All those weaknesses taken away
39:34and perfectly reflecting the image of
39:35God.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Unlocking the Old Testament Part 6 - Genesis 5 by David Pawson - Official, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 5,987 words across 1,035 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.