The Seed, the Promise, and Ishmael

Genesis is a good place to appreciate what God sees as most important. At the end of the book, in Genesis 49, Jacob is blessing his sons, and, in verse 10, the Messianic promise is passed unto Judah. The book details the line of God’s promise and why certain people are chosen or passed over as God maintains that line. Returning to the beginning of the book provides a key for all that follows. In Genesis 3:15, the promise of enmity between the seed of woman and the devil is first made.

Immediately, in Genesis 4 a contrast is drawn between Cain and Able. Genesis 6 draws a contrast between Noah and the sinful population around him. This contrast continues, and, in Genesis 21, we see this conflict between Ishmael and Isaac. This strife between the devil’s followers and the seed of the promise until it culminates with Christ’s crucifixion and victory over death in the gospels.

The Seed of Promise
Genesis 12 records the multifold promise God makes to Abraham in which God promises the blessing of the world through Abraham’s seed. This term of seed repeats through the book, and, in Genesis 21, God makes it clear that the seed of promise will continue through Isaac. Isaiah 41:8 records God calling His people the seed of Abraham His friend. Also, Acts 3:25 has Peter and John focusing in on that same language, looking back to those promises made in Genesis. Galatians 3:16 then makes it clear that this singular see was to culminate in one, that is Christ.

In II Samuel 7, God makes reference to a seed of promise when David wishes to build God a great house of worship. In verse 13, God speaks of a sure household and throne for David. The prophets refer to this offspring as a branch of David, and Jeremiah 33:26 records God saying His promises to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and David are as sure as day and night. In John 7:42, while Jesus is calling on those around Him to come and drink the water of life, the people question his lineage, whether or not he is of the seed of David. Romans 1:1 has Paul placing emphasis on this lineage while writing to Jews and Gentiles in Rome, and, in Revelation 22:16, Jesus Himself refers to the seed of David.

Ishmael and Isaac
Returning to Genesis 21, Sarah calls on Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out of their household because of the animosity between the women and their children. Approximately fifteen years separate these children, and Ishmael is pictures as mocking of Isaac. The Hebrew gives the idea that Ishmael is playing as if he is the true heir of Abraham’s household rather than the baby Isaac, only recently weaned in Genesis 21. God validates Sarah’s concerns, and He tells Abraham to follow her advice to cast Hagar and Ishmael out.

Galatians 4:22 makes a parallel that Ishmael represents that which is carnal, and Isaac represents spirituality. In verse 28, Paul makes the connection that we are supposed to be trusting in the spiritual promises of God, and he speaks of the physical standing at enmity with the spiritual. The two cannot exist together. We cannot be spiritual while holding onto the physical. The conflict in Genesis 21 is a continuation of the conflict that begins in Genesis 3, and it foreshadows John 15:18.

A Shadow of Christ
Isaac is the only begotten son of Abraham and Sarah. He is the seed of promise through whom the nations will be blest, and God even calls on him to be sacrificed. Through Isaac, God sees Abraham’s love and commitment to God, and God demonstrates that love and commitment to us in not sparing His own Son. God gave up the culmination of the seed of promise for the sake of our sins, raised Him up, and sits Him down at the throne’s right hand. It all begins in Genesis.

sermon by Tim Smelser

The Paradox of Hell

Through our class studies of Genesis, we talked about some of God's qualities – His transcendency, His goodness, His love, His patience, and His fairness. One inescapable question, though, is this: how could a loving God send a soul to Hell? How could one so merciful and full of grace condemn a soul to eternal punishment? According to the Princeton Institute, only forty percent believe in Hell, but the Bible speaks of this place repeatedly. It is warned of fifty-five times, and Jesus speaks of this place more often than any other Bible figure.

II Peter 2:4 and Jude 13 describe it as a place of darkness. The Bible describes Hell as a fearful place. Matthew 13:42 and 25:41, Mark 9:34, and Revelation 20:10 speak of it in terms of fire and burning. These descriptors are metaphorical to help portray this place to us in physical terms. Four times in the gospels, Jesus describes Hell as a place of weeping, and Matthew 25:46 and Revelation 14:11 describe this punishment as eternal. Despite these clear teachings, millions of Christians dismiss the idea, but it comes back to our problems comprehending a compassionate God even allowing Hell to exist.

How Can Hell Exist?
God’s character demands Hell. God is all-loving and all-forgiving. I John 4:8 says God is love, but He is also all-righteous and all-holy. Evil cannot abide in the presence of God. Habbakuk 1:13 expresses God’s intolerance for wrongdoing. God’s eternal plan is to bring His creation back to His goodness. Sin separates us from Him, and His plan of salvation is a way of erasing evil. II Corinthians 5:17 describes us as new creations when we submit to His will. Verse 20 explains that Christ’s sacrifice provides that avenue of unity with God. His holy nature differentiates between good and evil.

His justice is a component of His holiness. Our God will not ignore the problem of sin, and He has never done that since the beginning of time. Psalm 5:4 explains wickedness and arrogance cannot be tolerated by God. He has offered us a solution to that problem in the form of Jesus, but if we refuse that sacrifice, that payment, then we become responsible for the debt of our sins. That debt is death and separation from God’s presence. God knows the challenges we face in resisting temptations and immorality, and His love provides us a place where we will be freed from that bombardment. His people will be free of sin and temptation, and those who dwell on that immorality will not be in Heaven to tempt His people.

Does the Penalty Fit the Crime?
In our eyes, Hell is an awfully stiff penalty for the minor error of failing to recognize God or our own sins. Our sins alienate us from God. The question is not how many sins or for how long. The question is whether or not I’ve accepted the solution to sin. God does not send us to Hell. We choose our destination. John 3:17-18 tells us that He is trying to remedy to solution to sin, and tells us that our choice to follow His Son is a choice to reject the consequences of sin. There is nothing arbitrary about our final destination. God does not makes the choice for us. he merely affirms the choice we have been making for our entire life.

Luke 16 records the parable of a rich man and Lazarus. Both die and find themselves awaiting different consequences for their lives. Abraham asks the rich man if he realizes that he chose those consequences, and he reaffirms to the rich man that his relatives have to choose their destinations for themselves – that Abraham, Lazarus, nor the rich man may interfere. Romans 1:18-22 warns us against turning away from this plain choice. When we reject God, we reject His goodness, His love, His mercy, all that He has done for us. How can we hope to stay in His presence when we have separated ourselves from Him.

Concluding Thought
Think about this. God created water, and, while we live, we can enjoy the water He provides – believer or otherwise. We can say the same about peace, joy, and love. However, our Giver will stop giving to those who have turned away when time is over. Hell deprives God’s gifts from those who have rejected Him. The good news is that we do have hope. God has given us an avenue of salvation. He has made the payment for sin. Ours is simply to accept that payment.

sermon by Ben Lanius

Emotion and Our Religion

What role does emotion play in our religion and in our salvation? We know that we cannot let emotions rule our lives, nor should we be staid and stoic in our spirituality. How do we know we have a right feeling when it comes to our salvation? What role does emotion play, and does how we feel trump what the Bible says regarding worship? These questions stem from good motivations to move away from unemotional and unfeeling worship, but we have to be careful to avoid swinging the pendulum to the other extreme.

Joy and Salvation
Are we saved because we feel good, or do we feel good because we are saved? In Acts 8, Philip receives instruction to intercept a eunuch from Ethiopia who is studying from Isaiah 53. We are familiar with how Philip teaches Christ to the eunuch starting from this passage, how the eunuch requests to be baptized based on Philip’s teachings, and how the eunuch departs rejoicing. Which direction did this man’s joy go? Was he saved because he felt good, or was he joyous as a result of salvation?

Acts 16 records Paul and Silas singing and praying to God from prison. A great earthquake opens the prison doors, and the jail supervisor prepares to kill himself when he thinks his charges had escaped him. The jailer responds to the gospel message, and he rejoices after obeying the word. Feeling good is not, by itself, proof of salvation. Emotion provides no guarantee, though we see joy coming from salvation.

The Deception of Emotion
In Genesis 37, Joseph’s brothers plot to kill him. Instead of murder, they sell him into slavery again. They convince Jacob a beast killed his youngest son, and the patriarch mourns for many days. His distraught is great. His emotions are strong, but he is wrong. Joseph is alive and well. Also, Acts 26:9 records Paul describing his being convinced that he should persecute Christians, even to death. He was zealous in his devotion to God, but, again, his emotions were wrong.

Ephesians 3:3-4 contrasts Paul’s words of Acts 26 when he appeals to understanding God’s word. Peter wrote that Paul’s writings are hard to comprehend – but not impossible. We can understand God’s word intellectually. It has to take root in our minds, but too often we interpret an emotion as communication from God. These emotions, as we’ve noted, can unfortunately mislead us, and II Timothy 3:16 reminds us that scripture is the primary source of our faith. Our feelings cannot instruct or correct us in righteousness. This has to come from God, and II Peter 1:3 encourages us that God has given us all we need. We cannot allow our feelings to set aside God’s word, for when we do, we question His power and divinity.

Romans 8:15-16 calls us heirs of God as witnessed by the Spirit, and Hebrews 10:15 tells us the Spirit bears witness to us through God’s covenant and laws. We are not left to our own feelings to determine right and wrong. God has not left us directionless in the matter of our salvation. Psalm 119:11 speaks of laying up God’s word in our hearts. Verses 97-99 and verse 104 tell of the understanding that comes from God’s word, and verse 130 describes God’s word as a light of understanding. The only proof I have of my salvation is in the commandments of our Lord.

The Role of Emotion
Does this infer, then, worship and life bereft of emotions? Philippians 1:23-25 records Paul praising Christians who demonstrate joy and glory in their salvation. Chapter 3:1 of the same book calls upon us to rejoice in the Lord as does chapter 4:4. There is nothing wrong with showing emotion and having strong feelings regarding our relationship with God. God and Jesus demonstrate emotion in their love for us, in Jesus weeping over the lost, in commitment to our reunification with our Lord.

Our joy comes as a result of our salvation, but we cannot mistake good feelings for a guarantee of salvation. We are not saved because we feel good. Like the eunuch and like the jailer in Acts, we should be rejoicing as a result of having obtained salvation.

sermon by Tim Smelser

Cutting a Covenant

It’s interesting how clear God makes it to His people that He will do things in His way as opposed to their way. However, He often communicates His plan in ways to which we can relate. He makes promises. He creates covenants. He uses imagery and forms familiar to hose with whom He is communicating.

The events of Genesis 15 is a passage that is pretty familiar to most of us. Prior to this chapter, God has made promises to Abram regarding a land, a nation, and a blessing through his descendants. This promises is repeated, but, in chapter 15, Abram asks how these promises will be fulfilled. He doesn’t see how a great nation can come from an old man and a barren woman. In response, God instructs Abram to make a sacrifice, a very unique and strange sacrifice. He cuts several animals in half and creates a path between the separated halves. Abram goes into a deep sleep filled with horrors, and God speaks to him in this sleep. Smoke and a flaming torch cross the path between the hewn animals, and God reaffirms His covenant with Abram.

The Importance of His Covenant
What happens here? God cuts a covenant with Abram in a practice familiar to Chaldeans and the nomadic tribes of the region. Tow leaders would walk together along a path between hewn animals, inferring carnage will come to those who seek to break or interfere with the covenant formed. It is the forming of a very serious relationship. Jeremiah 34:18 refers to this practice, and God says He will make His transgressing people like the sacrificed animals. He warns them of the doom involved with their breaking of the covenant they had with God. They had been unfaithful, and they would be delivered to their enemies. This is the gravity with which God views our covenant-relationship with Him.

In Matthew 26, we read of the night Judas will betray Jesus, when Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, and when Jesus institutes a memorial of His impending death. In this, He references a new covenant sealed by the dividing of His body and the spilling of His blood. Jeremiah 31, after numerous promises in the previous chapters of a coming king like David, God describes a new covenant that He will make with His people. In that upper room, Jesus is telling His disciples He is bringing that new covenant, and the Hebrew writer, in chapter 8, expounds upon how this new covenant is different from and superior to the one it replaces.

I Corinthians 11:23 again refers to Jesus’ body being broken as the bread and the cup as His blood. The Greek word translated as broken in verse 24 is often used metaphorically as shattered. It is an image of being violently torn, as if by a great force. Each record of the crucifixion in the four gospels tells of the temple’s veil being torn in half, top to bottom, when Jesus cries His last. Hebrews 10:19 compares Jesus’ flesh to that veil that was torn in half. Symbolically, Jesus is cut as the sacrifice for our covenant between us and God.

Maintaining the Covenant
Jesus lives as a spotless lamb. His blood is shed and His body broken for the institution of our new covenant. Upon His crucifixion, God cut a covenant between Himself and man, a new testament rooted in the same tradition with which He formed a covenant with Abram before the nation of Israel had even been born. In Hebrews 10:28-29, God warns us against breaking that covenant, trivializing His blood, and trampling the body broken for us. Finally, Isaiah 53:5-6 describes the wounding of God’s Servant for the sake of our transgressions. We are like straying sheep, so one spotless lamb accepts the consequences we deserve.

The events in Genesis 15 may seem strange to us now, but they illustrate a serious and committed relationship between God and Abram. It was something holy and sacred. Likewise, we today have a sacred covenant with our God. May we never break that bond lest we treat our Lord’s sacrifice as inconsequential. Instead, we should daily be renewing our commitment and our service to Him.

sermon by Tim Smelser