How Did We Get Here?

O Lord God Almighty, if we are among those who have come to the feast, it is only because of your grace, your creating grace, electing grace, redeeming grace, and so we ask that you would give to us more grace, to hear from you, to feast upon you in your Word that we are about to hear, and then later in the Word that we are to receive and eat. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Our text this morning is Genesis 25. We are going to spend most of our time dealing with verses 19 through 26, but we are going to read through from the beginning of the chapter and stopping briefly as we go through these transition sections. In the span of a few paragraphs, we are going to transition from Abraham who has been the subject since the end of chapter 11, and now moving to Isaac, his son, and actually to think about his son, Jacob. So follow along as I read at the beginning of chapter 25, Abraham took another wife whose name was Ketera. She bore him, Zimran, Gokshan, Medan, Median, Ishmaq, and Shua. Gokshan, father, Shaba, and Daedin, the sons of Daedin, were Asherim, Lethushim, and Leumim. The sons of Mediam were Ifa, Afer, Hanukh, Abida, and Elda. All these were the children of Ketera. Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 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. What this paragraph is establishing is that Isaac is the only legitimate heir. Yes, Abraham had other sons, and after Sarah died, he married Ketera, and we see here that there were some other concubines, and he had other sons. But notice, he gave, verse 5, all he had to Isaac. So the inheritance went to Isaac. There is a distinction between the official inheritance to Isaac, and then gifts to his other sons. And notice, he sent them away. And as we have seen several times in Genesis, sending away to the east is the place away from the presence of God, away from the promise. And so he sends them away to the east, not so much as a punishment, but to signify here that Isaac is the promised child. He is the promised line. He is receiving the promised inheritance. Verse 7, these are the days of the years of Abraham's life. 175 Years, Abraham breathes his last and died. In a good old age, an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people, Isaac and hischamel, his sons buried him in the cave of Makpala, in the field of Ephraim, the son of Zohar, the Hittite east of Mamra, 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 the here, Laharoi. So Abraham, he may recall, was 75 years old when he departed Heron, and so he lived here in this promised land for an even 100 years. Versace says he died in a good old age. It had been promised him that explicit promise in chapter 15 that he would die in a good old age, and it is fitting that at the end of Abraham's life two realities are highlighted. One, that he was buried in the cave of Makpala in chapter 23. He bought that as a burial plot for Sarah. She's buried there. Now he's buried there. That's significant because of this whole land which is promised to him. This is the only piece he actually purchased. This is the only thing in his official possession is this cave. And so as a kind of first fruit of the promise, reaching its ripe and fulfillment, he's buried there with Sarah. And to notice the other reality in verse 11, God blessed Isaac. God came to Abraham in chapter 12 and said, I am going to bless you with this seventh full blessing. And so the book end of his life is to say, that blessing now is being passed on to your son, Isaac. Verse 12, these are the generations of Ishmael. Abraham's son whom hang are the Egyptians, Sarah's servant, born to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael named in the order of their birth. Nebios, the first born of Ishmael and Kedar, Abdiyo, Mithsam, Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad, Taima, Jettur, Nayfish, and Kedamah. These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names by their villages and by their encampments. Twelve princes, according to their tribes. These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. He breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people. They settled from Havela to shore, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen. Ishmael did not receive the promise. So his descendants settled outside of the promised land, but he does receive something. So it's noted again, 12 princes, 12 being a number of fullness and completion. We hear nothing more about Ishmael after that. Fittingly, the last thing we are told about him is that he settled over against all his kinsmen, verse 18. Just as it was predicted in chapter 16, Ishmael's hand would be against everyone. And so we see with Abraham and then with Ishmael that their conclusion is fitting as a sort of bow upon their lives. And now we come to our main text this morning, verse 19. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham's fathered Isaac and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Patanerum, the sister of Levin, the Aramean to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her. And she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord stood to her. Two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak. So they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. We started another section. There are ten of these Tolodote sections and Genesis. His Tolodote is the word translated generations. So we saw one in verse 12 was very short. These are the generations of Ishmael. And then a new Tolodote section in verse 19, these are the generations of Isaac. But actually it's more about Isaac's sons than about Isaac. Perhaps the story is familiar to you. Rebecca, his wife, has two sons jostling within her. The first to come out is red. So don't think of a red head sort of Middle Eastern Irishman, not like that, but ruddy, reddish of complexion, and exceptionally hairy. The word for hairy in Hebrew say, are, sounds like say here, which will be the region where eventually the Edomites will dwell. The word red, Adam, sounds like Edom, which is the other name for Esau. And the second son comes out holding the heel of Esau. His name is Jacob, which means he grasps the heel Jacob. From the womb and from the day of their birth, these two were struggling. The younger, though given that culture, should have been subservient to the older. Yet God says, I'm going to overturn that, and the younger will be stronger than the older, and the older will serve the younger. Overturning this principle of primogenitor. But what is really going on here? Because it's more than just a story about birth. Why is this here? What is this meant to tell God's people and tell us? Beyond and behind all these details about one smooth skinned child who's sort of holding on as he comes out of the womb in one very reddish, hairy child, what is this story about? Well, it's actually fairly simple. This is what we would call today in the movies, an origin story. It's a question, how did we get here? If you're an Israelite, and you're reading this some centuries later, Moses wrote this, and this would have been hundreds and hundreds of years later, and you're reading it on a scroll, or someone is reading it to you, or someone is passing down this story to you around the family campfire. This is a story to remind you as the Israelites, where you came from and how you got here. Almost all of the most famous epic movies in our day have origin stories, Star Wars. I don't want to ruin it for you, but surprise Darth Vader's actually Luke's father. I don't want to ruin it about the Middiclorians, but George Lucas ruined that for us. So you got that. You got all this sort of backstory. What happened there? Harry Potter, something about Voldemort and the curse and a mark of lightning bolt on his head, or the Avengers all have stories. X-Men have stories. Batman has some very dark, brooding backstory. Superman, the planet krypton, spider man is a high school kid who gets bitten by a spider. Lord of the Rings has basically just a backstory, and then another thousand pages of backstory and then a language to give a backstory. And more and more endless backstories. And if you watch Disney movies, you know the most dangerous place to be in, and a Disney story is to be a parent because so many of them, Lion King, parents, frozen parents, tarzan, parents. Think of how many stories the backstory is, mom or dad or both die, finding Nemo, Snow White, Bambi, Fox and the Hound, Mulan, Princess and the Frog, Lilo and Stitch. Go look it up. Bad things happen to parents in Disney stories. But there's a reason because that gives a certain gravitas, or it explains something about this character is missing something, or they're looking for something, or there's some story of pain in their history. Every country has an origin story. The large degree, that's what has been so divisive over the last years in our country, trying to explain, well, how did we tell our own story, where we're from, what we're like, how we got here. Your family, good, bad or otherwise, has a story, how you got here, where you're from. The youngs know that we're Dutch because if you ain't Dutch, yeah, you ain't much, you know. And we go back to as far as we can trace back to the 17th century, all the way back to Dortrecht in the Netherlands. And we came to America in the beginning of the 19th century, settled in southwest Minnesota. There's a story, don't know to confirm it or not, but it's passed on that one of our ancestors fought in the Civil War, yep, fought for the place of there. And that's how the spelling of our name was changed from the Dutch D-Young with the J, to D-Young with the Y, Anglicise, as he fought for the Union in the Civil War. My dad grew up on a farm, downstate from Chicago. And he grew up, everyone in his family were Cubs fans, except he was 10 years old when the Gogo Sox won the pennant in 1959. So he decided he was going to be a White Sox fan. And my whole family now, I'm a White Sox fan, they won the pennant, so we only had to wait like 90 some years, not 108, like Cubs fans. So now because of that decision, that origin story, my dad made when he was 10 years old now. I'm a White Sox fan, and now my boys are White Sox fans. I was born in Chicago, so I root for all of the bears and the bulls and the black hawks and all the Chicago. We moved to Michigan in 1985 when I was in third grade, went to college there, went to seminary out in Boston, met Trisha there. We got married. We moved to Iowa for two years. We moved to Michigan for 13 years. We came here over four years ago. We could go on and on. That's how we got here. You have your own story. How did you get here? Where are you from? And it says something about who you are. You share those stories, hopefully not because they're determinative, but they do explain something good or bad, and we're all every family's a mix of both. Your origin story, your family history is something you repeat, something you retell because it explains something of who you are, why you are, and where you are. Churches, denominations have origin stories. They tell them. The Presbyterian Church in America was formed in 1973 because the PCUS, the Southern Presbyterian Church was drifting into theological liberalism. This church, as it's roots in the 1970s, officially began as Christ Covenant in 1981, which is why we're celebrating our 40th anniversary later in a few months. We were planted to be a resource church and to plant a Presbyterian in the Charlotte area. That's how the church started. That's where Christ Covenant comes from. This is something about how we got here and what we're about. This birth in chapter 25 is the origin story for God's people. Now, of course, it goes back to Abraham and you can trace it all the way back to Adam. Yes, they were children of Abraham. That's the beginning in one sense. But so is this, the birth of Jacob, because Jacob will later be called Israel, and so God's people, the Israelites. Now, they were children of Abraham, and they weren't called the Abrahamites, are to say, the Israelites. This was their namesake. They were all sons of Jacob. And so you have to imagine yourself as an Israelite, leaving Egypt, awaiting your place in the Promised Land, hearing this story. God has done all of this for you, the plagues upon Egypt to save you, to bring you, to give you the law, and as Moses writes this down, you are on the cusp of entering the Promised Land, or perhaps position yourself under David or Solomon in the glory days of Israel, or maybe in the darkest moment of your history, in captivity, in Babylon. You would go back to this story, reminds us who we are, where we came from. And as those who are children of the promise, grafted into this olive tree as the Gentiles were, by faith, we can also say for all of us in Christ that this is our story. So we too are meant to think whether we are in moments of greatest triumph or in the darkest pit. We are to think of our origin story. How did Jacob come into the world? And the answer to that is staring us right in the face. There are two things that we are meant to see in Israel's national origin story and in our faith origin story. And they are right here in Jacob's birth. Number one, God created him. Number two, God chose him. So look at the first. God made him. Now that's true of everyone, of course, any life is owing to God, but the point is underlined here. Because notice, Rebecca, like Sarah before her, is barren. Isaac gets married when he's 40. The twins are born when he's 60. So the 20 years, not quite as long as Abraham and Sarah had to wait, but 20 years of their married life, Rebecca is barren. Notice Isaac and Rebecca don't resort to another woman. They're the only patriarch to be truly monogamous. They're not going to try some other way, some other made servants. This is going to take a miracle. So Isaac prays, you see that in verse 21, and the Lord granted his prayer. Of course, every new life is from God, all of this. You have children, you know, this is a great gift from God. God is the maker of us all, but this is a unique point, one that we are not meant to forget. We could say in a sense, God made these twins, exony hello, out of nothing. Because by emphasizing that the couple was unable on their own to have children, God is telling us, however this science was not working, the raw material was not there in Isaac and Rebecca to make this work. So we are meant to see these children. This was not the inevitable outworking of ordinary biological function. Of course, we realized children are a gift, but there's a sort of, yeah, this is what you thought would happen. And you get married and you come together, and then you have kids. And that's what people grow up thinking. So many of you have stories that were otherwise. It's very difficult or even unable. It took many, many years. Here, it took 20 to the point where Isaac and Rebecca knew that this was not going to work just by their own natural function. If they were to have children, it would require a supernatural birth. One response, this is simply gift thanks for life. We shouldn't be here. That's what the Israelites should have remembered. All those centuries later, when they swelled to be millions in number, if they looked back to the story of Jacob's birth, they would remember we should not be here. Just biologically, naturally, we shouldn't be here. By the laws of nature, we would not exist. We were not supposed to happen. Our lives are a gift. And that's good. However, we were born. That's good for all of us to remember and give thanks. And even more profoundly than that, they were to remember on a spiritual level. They came into being because God willed them to come into being. We owe our existence as God's people. To His power, His mercy, His will, here's how the gospel of John puts it, we were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. If you're here and you are, I see you, that's amazing. If you're here and you're a sincere, born again Christian, that's doubly amazing. That's a miracle. On par with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. On par with Isaac and Rebecca having children after 20 years when they had no biological rationale that they would have children. And God said, let there be life, and there was life. It sounds so prosaic. But if we believe that God made us, and that He gave us life once, spiritual life again, that has massive implications. If your existence is owing to the creation of God, that means we ought to be grateful people. It means we ought to be humble people, obedient people. It means that we say, I am not my own, but I belong body and soul to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, it means that God tells you how to use your body. It means that God establishes your identity. We don't establish it for ourselves, let alone defining God and His identity. It means that every person in this room who truly belongs to Christ is a miracle of supernatural sovereign grace. This is the point. They were to remember our mother, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Rebecca. Her womb was as good as dead. But here we are. And they were then to think our spiritual lives were as good as dead. But here we are because of God. God called into existence the things that were not. He made us. And if we don't get this right, He made you not the infinite virtually processes of random chance. But God made you, knew you, formed you. Then it sets us on a trajectory of thankfulness, obedience, humility, and faith. Remember this story is not remember where you came from. God made you by a miracle. And then here's the second, not just to God make you. He chose you. The story of these twins and their gestation and their birth was to explain in part the lifelong tension between Esau and Jacob. And the centuries-long conflict between the etymites and the Israelites. So part of this is to explain why did Jacob and Ishmael, why they had such a hard time? Why did we have such a hard time with the etymites? Well, you see it here from the very beginning, verse 22, the children struggled within her. And just notice as an aside, the children, they don't become children. If we choose to birth them, they are children. From the moment of conception, not a clump of cells, not yet to be born, not simply beings with fetal heartbeat. They are children. And these children struggled within her. It's a strong verb. Some commentators say you could translate. They were crushing each other. So just take heart. You have brothers, you have sons, crushing each other. Just being biblical, mom. Well, from the very beginning, in their life, there's a violent collision with these twins. So much so that Rebecca says in verse 22, why? What's going on? This is more than just, oh, here, Isaac, come. Isaac, they're moving. Feel this. You feel that leg? I got to lay down. They're hurting each other and hurting me. What is happening? This is beyond just cute baby movements. And so the Lord comes to her. You have few nations in your womb, two peoples. And they're going to be divided. And one will be stronger than the other. And the older is going to serve the younger. It was a precursor of things to come. Have we not seen many times already? And we'll continue to see in the book of Genesis. Families fight. Now we don't want it to be so. We want to grow and we want to love one another. But there's at least some small cover. The Bible is realistic. This book about origins, about beginnings. It's about a lot of things. It's about blessing. It's about front. But it's also about families fighting all the time. Can you enable the sons of Noah, Abraham and Lot, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Jacob and Laban, Joseph, and his older brothers. There's lots of family conflict. And in verse 23, we read that the natural order of things is going to be overturned. One of many surprising reversals in Genesis. Cane was older, his offerings rejected, Abel's accepted. Then, his canes banished, Abel's killed, the youngest brother Seth becomes the chosen line. Ishmael was older than Isaac, but Isaac is the promised line. Rachel's chosen instead of her older sister Leah. Joseph, instead of his older brothers, even Judah instead of Rubin, the common theme in the Bible and the common theme in Genesis. God often, you might even say, usually does things in ways you don't expect. And all throughout the book of Genesis, you go, well, that's different. I didn't see that coming until you learn the pattern and expect the unexpected. But more importance than simply overturning the cultural expectations for the first born. This is a story about election. For all the years and the centuries afterward, the Israelites were meant to think, let's not forget how we got here. Why are we special of all the people on earth? Why are we God's treasured possession? Why are we a holy nation? Why are we a royal priesthood? And the answer is right here in their origin story because God. Because God shows you, less they say, well, it must be a family connection. Nope. Can't say that. Same mother. Well, maybe it's an ethnic thing. Nope. Can't say that. Both chemites. Well, surely there was something deep down that we had done just some little bitty thing we had done to make ourselves a little more deserving. God says, no, you can't do that. Because this is before you were born. Before you had done anything good or bad, I said, Jacob will be mine. Paul famously makes this exact point and relates it to all Christians in Romans 9, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because it works. But because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. Yes, it is essential that we understand. God wants us to understand as a part of our origin story, as a church, as Christians, the doctrine of election. You say pastor, really, this is so divisive and it's difficult. And a lot of Christians see it different ways. Do we have to talk about it? Well, we talk about things when they're in the Bible. And here it's right here in front of us. And I know. I've had all sorts of conversations. I have my own questions. I know this is a difficult doctrine. It raises difficult questions. Well, God's sovereign, what about human responsibility? Yes, well, both of those things are true. And what about my family members and what about the fairness? And there's lots of questions that you have. And this is not the theology class or the Romans 9 sermon to go into all of those questions and answers. It is, however, to make sure we do not miss the larger point. As you sit here this morning in your Christian, if you're a Christian or take it collectively as a church, as God's people, and you think to yourself, why am I a Christian? I know lots of people that aren't. Why are we singing songs to Jesus this morning? Most people, even in Charlotte, aren't doing that. Why are we? How did we get here? Where did we come from? What is our origin story? And ultimately there are only two options either. You got here because there's something however small in you that was more worthy, more deserving, more spiritual, or the ultimate answer is God. God chose us. God elected us. God put his love upon us. Isn't that what we were singing in the hymn? Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room, while thousands make a wretched choice? Why are so many making a wretched choice? And I'm here, God, because God chose you. The wrong response is to say, well, I guess it's all fatalism. The right response as you think about loved ones in your life who don't know Jesus is, well, I guess there's hope for all of us because it doesn't ultimately depend upon me. Yes, I must exercise faith, but I only could do that if God gives me and grants me the gifts of faith. Jesus says, you cannot come unless the Father draws. You simply will not do it, but then He also says, and He will never cast anyone out. So don't think you ever come to Jesus and Jesus is, let me check my list. Sorry, not chosen. No, He says, you came. You know why you came? Because I chose you. I chose you before the foundation of the world. That's why you came. And I'm so glad you came. And I will never cast you out. God made you. God chose you. That's the story. How did we get here? Yes, there's other parts of the story. There's other secondary causation in the story, but that explains our story. And so we're meant to see just like the Israelites were. It's not because of your family. I hope you don't think that being a Christian is just a family thing. Kids, young people, so glad if you have parents who bring you to church and raise you in the Lord, you maybe you go to a Christian school or your parents at home teach you the Bible. That's wonderful. That's good. You want to follow in their footsteps, but you do need to make it your own. You can't just say, well, this is my family kind of does this. You say, I'm not here ultimately because this is a family thing. Though God loves us in our families, you certainly cannot think. This is somehow an ethnic thing. Your race, your ethnicity, the color of your skin does not make you one bit closer, nor one bit farther away from God and his mercy. And it is not anything you have done. It's not even God, well, he looked into the future to see that you would make some really good decisions. There's nothing about that here. Quite the opposite. Paul makes just the opposite conclusion. The reason why this choice happens here because God doesn't look and say, well, Jacob, in fact, if you know the rest of Genesis, you know, Jacob, he's not so great a lot of the time. He's got a lot to learn. His name means trickster, but God said, I will set my affection upon you. So it's not anything you've done. It wasn't your works. It was God's call. It wasn't your purpose that started this story. It was God's plan. You must remember. We must remember as God's people, where we have come from. God made us. He chose us. Listen, the world is so pressing in to shape you into its image. In the world is always telling stories. The world doesn't come usually with here. Here's a tract of propositions. And I want you to reject Christian ones. And I want you to believe these propositions. No, that would be too obvious. The world tells us stories. And the world is telling you a story of where you are from, how you got here, and where you are going. And so many of those stories in the world are lies. And actually it's worse than that. If they were lies, it would be obvious. They're often half truths, which are the worst kinds of lies. And so you must be absolutely clear that you were made through Christ, you were chosen in Christ, you were saved by Christ, you will live for eternity with Christ, you belong to Christ, you believe in Christ, you obey in everything Christ. That's our story. And it explains how we got here. And it explains where we are going. So as you think about our national story, you think about your own personal family story. Don't miss the far more important spiritual story of how you got here. Because in those moments where things are going so well, you're meant to remember, okay, I can't pat myself on the back. If I'm moving from strength to strength and God's story, it's because God made me and God chose me. And in those moments, in the darkest, deepest well, say, I don't see how this is going to end, but God made me. God chose me. It gives humility in the moments of prosperity and it gives hope in the moments of adversity to remember who you are and where you're from and where you're going. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we give thanks for your word, which tells us the real story amid so many false stories, the story we need. And we pray that we will not forget it. And as we come to your table, may you remind us once again, the story you have called us to inhabit and to enjoy and promise to us forever. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.