Tonight, we're going to finish our series in the story of Abraham in Genesis.
If you want to turn to your Bible, Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and we're
going to look at chapter 25.
The first, nope, yes, chapter 25.
So we're going to be looking at the first 11 verses of that if you want to look at there.
As we start, you know, I don't know if you've thought about this, but as we've looked through
this whole story, one of the interesting questions in studying particularly the Pentateuch is
to think through when was it written and who was it written for?
Because the Bible always tells history, and it tells true history, but it tells history
with a purpose, often with a pastoral purpose.
And I'm pretty confident that Moses wrote at least 99% of the Pentateuch.
The last part that talks about his death, he probably didn't write, although, you know,
God may have inspired him to write that too.
But if he didn't, the rest of it is all things that he wrote, which means that most likely
this book was written either as Israel was wandering through the wilderness for 40 years,
or as they're coming up to the brink of a promised land, knowing that they're entering into a land
that is full of people who probably aren't going to welcome them.
And there's a whole set of uncertainty that came with that.
And if you know the story of how the Israels handled that, they didn't handle it well.
They were afraid.
They grumbled and complained.
They fled in fear when God said, move forward in faith.
They struggled over and over again to believe that God would actually be faithful to his promises,
that God would actually take them into this promised land that he had said that he would.
They didn't see God at work necessarily in the day-to-day of their lives.
And so they wondered, will God come through for us?
Will God actually do it?
Maybe you've been there.
Maybe you're there even tonight.
Will God come through?
Will he really be faithful?
Can we really trust him?
Will he really have good things for me in this new place that I've moved to?
Will he really comfort me and carry me through seasons of sorrow and loss, depression or loneliness?
Will God really love me to the end?
Even when I'm a nobody?
Can God really wipe away my sins as bad as they really are?
Can God really give me a better life than the life that I can get by ignoring him and going after it all myself?
Will God really watch over me if I am faithful to him, regardless of the cost?
These are questions that have risen in my heart at various seasons in my life.
God, are you really going to come through?
I think as we look at this text tonight, it speaks powerfully to that.
So we're going to look at, we're going to read Genesis 25 verses 1 through 11.
We're going to read it and then I'm going to pray and then we're going to dive in and look at it.
So you can bear with me as I'm going to do my best with these names.
You ready?
Here we go.
All right.
So Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah.
She bore him Zimram, Jokshan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua.
Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan.
The father of Dedan was Asherim, Letushim, and Leumim.
The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephor, Hinnok, Abida, and Eldah.
All these were the children of Keturah.
Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.
But to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts.
And while he was still living, he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the east country.
These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years.
Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man full of years, and was gathered to his people.
Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the came of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the Hittite, east of Mamre.
The field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites.
There Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife.
After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son, and Isaac settled at Bir Lahai Roy.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your word, and thank you that in its dramatic, momentous, and its more mundane parts,
Lord, you speak to us, and you reveal yourself to us.
Lord, I pray tonight as we look at this passage for a few minutes together,
that you will help us to see what kind of God you are.
Lord, and that you will strengthen us in our walk of faith through that.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, so you might have thought after that grand introduction that we were going to get a grand passage,
and we don't, do we?
We have a very mundane passage here, don't we?
It's a little bit about this, and a little bit about that, and there are no grand pronouncements.
And yet there are, in the midst of it, little clues where the writer is tying up threads that have woven through the story.
And in tying up those threads, he's answering the question that any story reader would have thought,
if you're reading this for the first time, well, Abraham has died.
What's going to happen now?
This was, you know, there were promises to him, like, how is this going to go forward?
And in the midst of it, the writer is reminding us about who God is.
In fact, I think that the writer is reminding us about the things that Abraham had learned about God.
That God would be a faithful God, worthy of faith and trust to the very end.
So let's look at the signs of God's faithfulness in this text as we remember God's story together.
So first, the first thing we see, and we see this in verses 1 through 6,
is that God fulfilled his promise to Abraham to make him the father of many nations and to be a blessing.
Okay?
So, we look through this, and there's this whole thing.
Do you remember, first, let's go back and just remember the promises.
Chapter 12, verse 2.
This is what God said to Abraham.
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse you.
And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
And then again, later in chapter 17, verses 4 and 5, he picked up and he said,
And God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
No longer shall you be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham.
For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Okay?
So, when we look at verses 1 through 6, what do we get?
Basically, we get an account of here to, previously up to now, never heard of, oh, by the way, there was another woman.
Oh, and who was she, and what the heck?
So, here's the thing I want you to say.
Don't get distracted by that.
Right?
Verse 1 says she was a wife.
Verse, which one?
Verse 5, 6.
Verse 5 seems to be referring to her actually as a concubine.
It is clear from the story that Abraham must have known her for a long time.
She was a part of the household for a long time.
Because do you remember when God came to Abraham when he was 100 and said,
I'm going to give you a son?
And what did Abraham say?
Uh-uh, that doesn't happen anymore.
The plumbing doesn't work.
I can't do that.
Right?
You're going to have to do a miracle for that to happen.
Which means that Keturah was on the scene even before then.
We don't know anything else about her.
We don't know a lot about God's intent.
We need to recognize that God in the Old Testament is often descriptive and not prescriptive.
So, this isn't license for us to go out and get a second wife when we are struggling with fertility.
Just to sort of throw it out there.
Like, this is, this is, so, what it is though is it's saying that God in his grace would use someone even like Abraham with all of his faults.
And we've seen his faults.
He already tried to produce an heir through Hagar.
Here we see another, what I would say is a fault.
But again, the Bible, he's, the writer here isn't dwelling on it.
He's just being factual about, hey, by the way, this was also true about Abraham.
So, why does he say it?
If it's not a moral story about do this or don't do this.
He says it because he wants to, he wants to show you that at the very end of Abraham's life,
God had fulfilled his promises to Abraham.
Suddenly, he had all these children.
Oh, by the way, there, it wasn't just Isaac and Ishmael anymore.
There were all, there were other children as well.
And likely, Midian was the father of the Midianites, who were people who lived on the Arabian Peninsula.
We don't know what happened with the rest of these descendants.
But what do we see in this text?
Look with me again.
What did Abraham do for them?
First of all, he blessed them.
He gave them gifts.
He, out of the bounty of what God had given him.
Remember, Abraham seemed to be a pretty wealthy guy.
He gave them good gifts and blessed them.
And the second thing he did is he sent them away.
And we'll pick this up in point three, so I'm not going to dwell on it now.
But he sent them back to his homeland, back east, to where he came from originally,
so that they would live in a good land where he knew they would be well provided for,
yet not dwelling in the very land of promise that would be a greater fulfillment of other parts of God's promises to them.
So we see the fulfillment of him being a blessing and a father of many nations.
And do you see God's character in being overflowing in this?
God isn't saying, hey, I've got a very strict plan and all these other things.
Oh, I'm sorry, you, Ishmael, you're not a part of it.
These children of Keturah, no, I'm sorry, you're not part of it.
So you get thrown in the trash heap.
That's how we would think God would work, is that he'd just throw those people off.
But it's not true.
Instead, God in his abundant riches blesses Abraham and makes him a blessing to all of these children,
even the ones that aren't the ones through whom God is going to work his great work in the world.
And this is the character of the God that Abraham had faith in.
So that's the first thing we see, that God was faithful to that promise.
Secondly, look with me in verses 7 through 10.
Verses 7 through 10, we see that God gave Abraham a greater sense of a down payment
on the land that he had promised him.
Do you remember back in chapter 12, again, God comes and this is the promise he gave.
God led Abraham to Canaan and it says this in 12.5.
When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem,
to the oak of Morah.
At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land.
Now look, here's the thing.
At the end of Abraham's life, they had not gotten the land, right?
Even the audience, the Israelites having gone to Egypt, been delivered and brought back,
they hadn't received the fullness of this promise.
And yet, the author wants you to know,
oh no, but God has been, God has shown that he will be faithful because,
do you remember the story in chapter 23?
Greg preached it in a couple weeks ago.
But the writer makes sure we know exactly where Abraham was buried.
He was buried with Sarah.
He was buried in a plot of land that did not belong to anyone else.
Again, go back and read 23 and you'll see,
Abraham insisted that he buy it and purchase it and own it as his very own.
And God gave him favor to be able to do that.
And that little plot of land with a grave, with a cave,
in which Abraham and Sarah were buried,
was God's down payment saying,
I will give you this land one day.
I have not forgotten my promise.
And even though you can't see it yet,
this is the foretaste of what I'm doing.
It reminds us of what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 11,
that great chapter about the hall of faith,
about Abraham and others like him.
These all died in faith,
not having received the things promised,
but having seen them and greeted them from afar,
and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out,
they would have had an opportunity to return.
But as it is,
they desire a better country,
that is a heavenly one.
Therefore,
God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared for them a city.
What the writer of the Hebrews does
is take this little promise of a plan,
of land,
of a physical place where God's people will dwell.
And he blows it open to say,
look,
those who know God on this earth know that no place on this earth is actually their final home.
There are strangers and exiles on this earth as long as they live,
because they're looking forward,
because they know that the homeland that their hearts are longing for
is so much greater than anything that they've seen on this earth
that is in fact heaven.
And that's where they have set their hope.
And that's where they have set their desire.
And so,
as they live here,
they have these little foretastes
of what is to come.
I wonder if you've experienced a foretaste of heaven
in your life.
I think it can take all sorts of different forms.
Stand at the base of the Rocky Mountains
and look up at the majesty and grandeur of God's creation
and know it's just a taste of how glorious the world was
before the fall came in.
Maybe it's sitting around with some good friends
after supper with a fire in the fireplace
on a cold winter evening
talking and sharing,
deeply connecting with each other and with the Lord,
talking about significant and life things together.
And the sweetness of that connection with friends
and fellowship with God
is a foretaste.
Maybe it's sitting in the symphony hall
listening to Beethoven's Ninth
swell and move and stir your soul.
A foretaste.
There are so many different ways and different places
where we experience foretastes of heaven.
We experience it when we've sinned against our friend
and we go to them and say,
I'm sorry, it was wrong.
Will you forgive me?
And they look at you
with tears in their eyes
and they say, I do.
I forgive you.
This is a foretaste of heaven.
This is what it will be like
forever
in all of it.
C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory writes this,
the books or the music
in which we thought
the beauty was located in
will betray us
if we trust to them.
He's writing about
these kind of foretastes
and these experiences.
It was not in them,
it only came through them.
And what came through them
was longing.
These things,
beauty,
the memory of our own past,
are good images
of what we really desire.
But if they are mistaken
for the thing itself,
they turn into dumb idols,
breaking the hearts
of their worshipers.
Do you see what he's saying?
He's saying,
if you long
for these things,
for friends
or for music
or for nature
to bear the weight of heaven,
if you try to ask them
to do that,
they can't do it.
He says this,
for they are not
the thing itself.
That is that thing
that we most desire
in our hearts.
They are only a scent
of a flower
we have not found,
the echo of a tune
we have not heard,
news from a country
we have never yet visited.
God gave Abraham
and those Israelites
reading this account
a taste,
a foretaste
of the fulfillment
of his promises
by giving him this land
and saying,
I will give you this land,
this land that points us ahead
to heaven
and being with God forever.
So we see God's faithfulness
in making Abraham
a father of many nations
and a blessing to them.
We see secondly,
God's faithfulness
in the down payment
of a land
for his offspring
to live
and to display
God's glorious grace.
And finally,
in verse 11,
we see God's
sovereign providing
for the line of promise
through which the fulfillment
of all
that God has promised
will come.
Right?
Now we mentioned it earlier
in verses 5 and 6,
there's a little foretaste
of this.
Right?
The writer
is writing
about this
wife
that we never knew
anything about
and listing all
of his descendants.
And then in verse
4,
right?
Nope.
Verse 5,
you would think
he would say something
about,
and this is how
he provided for them.
But no,
the writer takes
a complete left turn
and says,
oh,
by the way,
Abraham didn't give
these people
what he had.
He gave that
to Isaac.
There was a priority.
And you remember,
if you've been here
listening through the story,
the promise in 12
was you will be
a father
of great nation.
Abraham didn't have
any kids at that point.
We get all the way
up to chapter 16
and it's years later
and he still doesn't
have any children.
And they try to
manufacture a child
by using Hagar,
a maidservant.
And God says,
no,
this is not the way.
Even though a child,
a male heir is produced,
he is still not the one
who is the child of promise.
And so again,
then they wait again
for a long time.
And then God finally gives
Abraham and Sarah
a child.
Miraculously,
Isaac is born
beyond the age
when it seemed like
that would happen.
And then God says,
oh, by the way,
when Isaac is 11,
God tells Abraham,
go up on the mountain
and sacrifice
this son,
the son of the promise.
And Abraham,
by that point,
had learned
how faithful God was.
And so he obeyed,
even though he didn't understand.
And even though he couldn't see
how this would ever
make any sense.
Hebrews tells us
that he believed
that God could even
raise the dead
if that's what it would take.
But that God would
continue to provide,
to protect
for this promise
of this son
who would be
in the line of promise.
When we get to verse 11,
look with me at it.
The writer is
very intentional here.
There are places
in the scripture
and even in this story,
you'll see Isaac will do it.
Isaac will want
to give his blessing
to his son.
We see the same thing
with Jacob.
Jacob wants to give
his blessing
to his sons.
There is this
paternal blessing
that's meant
to be passed down
that can be a great help.
But that's not
what this is.
Because what you see
is very intentionally
in verse 11,
it was after
Abraham
had died.
The blessing
came on Isaac.
And who did it come from?
It came from
God himself.
You see,
it wasn't
Abraham's faithfulness
that meant
that God
could move ahead
with his plans.
It wasn't
Abraham's righteousness
that allowed God
to move ahead
with his plans
for the world.
but it was
God himself
who was doing this.
And just as God
who had been faithful
to Abraham
through his faithfulness
and his faithlessness,
through his failures
and his successes,
God who had shown himself
to be faithful
to his promises
to Abraham
now blesses Isaac
and says,
and I'm going to do
the same thing for you.
I will be the same
God for you.
I will be the same
God for you.
Think about how
the Israelites
might have heard
this story.
Do you think
they would have heard it
the way I think
the writer wants us to?
Because the writer,
the Israelites
wandering in the wilderness
or on the brink
of the promised land,
what are they thinking?
Will God be faithful?
And God is saying,
am I not the God
of Abraham
and Isaac
and Jacob
and Joseph?
Am I not the God
who delivered you
from slavery in Egypt
with a mighty hand
and with great works?
I delivered you
from one of the most
powerful nations
on the face of the earth
and I've made you
a great nation
and I've allowed you
to walk through wilderness
for years
providing for you
supernaturally
when there was no way
that you could have
provided for yourself?
Have I not been
that kind of God
for you?
Do you not believe
that I will bless you
as you go forward
in faith?
We struggle with this,
don't we?
We struggle to believe
that God's past results
are indicators
of his future performance
you know that disclaimer
past results
don't always give
right?
That's not true
with God
for God
his past results
are always a guarantee
of his future
performance
which leads us
to today
what about us?
Friends,
I wonder
what are some
of the promises
that God has given
to his people
that you struggle
to believe in?
just read a few
of them to you
Philippians 1-7
he who began
a good work in you
will bring it
to completion
in the day
of Christ Jesus
John 10-10
I have come
they may have life
and have it abundantly
2 Corinthians 12-9
my grace
is sufficient
for you
my power
is made perfect
in weakness
2 Corinthians 4
verse 14
he who raised
the Lord Jesus
will also
raise us
will raise us
also with Jesus
and bring us
with you
into his presence
John 6-37
all that the Father
gives me
will come to me
and whoever
comes to me
I will never
cast out
John 10-28
I give them
eternal life
and they will
never perish
and no one
will snatch them
out of my hands
friends
these are the promises
that God has given us
greater promises
yes
than even what
he gave to Abraham
we are in some ways
the fulfillment
of God's
promise to Abraham
and yet God
has these greater promises
for us
how do we know
that God
will be faithful
to us
the way he was
in the past
the way he was
to Abraham
well friends
we go back
to the very center
of the Christian faith
we go back
to the very center
of all that it means
to know and believe
God
and the God
of this Bible
it's about Jesus Christ
and about his life
and his death
and his resurrection
we look to the cross
and the empty tomb
and we see
God has been faithful
to do all
that was needed
to fulfill
all of those promises
for us
when we look
to those things
we are certain
of his love
because he came
and offered his life
for our salvation
we look
and we see
that his death
for us
because of his
perfect sinlessness
and because of his
willing sacrifice
was perfectly
sufficient for us
that there's nothing
else that we need
to do
for our sins
to be forgiven
we look at the
empty tomb
and we know
that today
we worship
a savior
who is not
an idea
or a character
in a book
but who is a living
God
who today
is active
seeking us out
calling us to him
fellowshipping with him
when we look
at the cross
and the resurrection
we know
that sin
and death
and sorrow
and evil
do not have
the last word
in our lives
or in the world
because Jesus
has conquered them
we look
at the cross
and we know
that God
has the power
to deliver us
at any time
we know
that God's love
has never been
dependent on
our goodness
but on his
merciful initiation
to us
friends
we look at the cross
and we look at
the empty tomb
and we see
that Jesus
is enough
Jesus is enough
for our lives
today and tonight
and whatever it is
that is causing
doubt for you
that God
will come through
that God
will be faithful
that he
will be with you
and the promises
that he has given
to you
that he will
carry them through
perfectly
without fail
this is what
Genesis 25
1 through 11
wants us to remember
that is not
the walk of faith
is not because
our faith
is so great
but it is because
the faithfulness
of God
is so
unbelievably
secure
that we
then are drawn
to give our faith
and our trust
to him
and to walk
in the footsteps
of Abraham
and to walk
a walk of faith
not because
we think
we can
get to where
we need to go
but because
we are putting
ourselves
in the hands
of one
who has shown
himself
to be
perfectly
faithful
so friends
this is where
Abraham leaves
us
looking at
God
and meditating
on his
faithfulness
and trusting
that he
has been
will be
good
to us
and so
we can
trust him
and so
as Paul
writes
in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4
so we don't
lose heart
though our
outer self
is wasting
our way
our inner self
is being renewed
day by day
for these light
and momentary
afflictions
whatever our
trials of life
preparing us
for an eternal
weight of glory
beyond all
comparison
as we look
not to the
things that are
seen
the trials
the challenges
the pain
the evil
the hurt
the brokenness
of this world
but looking
to the things
that are unseen
God
sovereignly ruling
it over
his love
shown to us
at the cross
the reality
of his power
at work in us
and in the Holy Spirit
we look to the
things that are
not to the things
that are seen
but are unseen
for the things
that are seen
are transient
and they will
pass away
but the things
that are unseen
these are eternal
let's pray together
Lord as we
consider this
odd little story
about the death
of Abraham
and the end
of his life
Lord we pray
you would help us
to take hold
of these signs
in even the telling
of this story
to remind us
of what a faithful
God you are
and Lord
that we would
respond tonight
in faith
Lord if some
of us tonight
have been wrestling
with faith
and doubt
Lord I pray
tonight that you
would meet them
meet us
and remind us
and call us
Lord
to a life
of faith
by reminding us
of how faithful
you are
Lord I pray
if there is anyone
here tonight
who has not
put their faith
in Jesus Christ
who looks at
the cross
and didn't
think that was
for them
till tonight
Lord that they
would consider
putting their
faith tonight
that Jesus
which died
for them
to save them
from their sin
Lord I pray
for all of us
that we would
learn to walk
with our eyes
fixed on you
oh Lord
the faithful one
Lord we pray
these things
in Jesus name
amen