Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 7/8/2011 What is the message of the Book of Genesis? Many correct answers could be given to that question. It tells us how God made the world; it tells us about the entrance of sin; it speaks about the choice of Abraham as the originator of the line from whom the Saviour would come. It also tells us what bad clay the heavenly Potter has to work with, because from one perspective Genesis is about how God worked in the lives of certain individuals. In this passage, we see how he worked in the lives of three of his people (Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob) and there are many lessons for us. The passage also mentions a fourth person, Esau, and he is a picture of how close we can come to the blessing of God and not receive it. The passing of time A lot of years have passed since Jacob obtained the birthright from his brother Esau. Isaac is probably now 137 years old. What had happened to Isaac in the intervening years? We are given three details in Genesis 26. ...

This sermon was preached on 24/7/2011 As we can see from the account, nothing is said about the childhood and adolescence of Esau and Jacob. No doubt there were significant events and one that can be worked out from the genealogies is the passing of their grandfather Abraham when they were about fifteen. There would also be regular events, also significant but which carry the possibility of being taken for granted. We saw in a previous study that prayer was a major feature of the lives of Isaac and Rebekah, and no doubt that would have continued. Esau and Jacob would have grown up within a pious community where the name of God was honoured, although they have felt a bit isolated because of the fewness of those connected with them. It is useful to bear in mind why Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. He is not writing a history of the ancient world, instead he is describing the development of the kingdom of God. Moses only refers to important people and events when they affect God’s...

This sermon was preached on 17/7/2011 There are three reasons why I think a study of the life of Jacob is important. First, we are believers in the same God and follow the same spiritual life as Jacob did. We learn more about the spiritual life from the accounts of individuals in the Bible than we do from other biographies, even of devout believers. Second, his life covers a great deal of the Book of Genesis – studying Jacob also means studying aspects of the lives of his parents (Isaac and Rebekah) and his children (especially Joseph). Third, the Lord often refers to himself as the God of Jacob, which points to a relationship between them that has implications and lessons for other believers. Before we look at what Genesis 25 says about the birth of Jacob, we should look at the genealogy in the chapter because he genealogies of the patriarchs provide interesting details. We can see from Genesis 25:7 that Abraham died when he was 175 years old. He was 100 when Isaac was born, ...