SIN AND GRACE: A ONE-SIDED CONTEST
GOD PRESERVES THE FAITHLESS
Genesis 26:1-11
INTRODUCTION
Does anybody
here want to go to heaven? I don’t mean eventually, but now? Here’s what
I want to know. Do you long for heaven with the same anticipation that
you long for a vacation or to watch your favorite TV show or to finish
work for the day? Do you ever daydream about going to heaven the way you
daydream about being with a girlfriend or boyfriend? Do you ever ache
over not being in heaven the way good friends ache when one of them moves
to another part of the country? Do you ever say, "I can’t wait to
get to heaven" the same way you say, "I can’t wait to go skiing
this weekend"?
This is the
kind of language the Bible uses to describe how the normal Christian thinks
and feels about heaven. Many of us, if we were honest, would have to admit
we are more like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked, "Teacher,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus told him that he needed
to sell his possessions, give to the poor and come follow him in order
to get eternal life. The rich ruler hung his head and walked away from
Jesus at that point because, we are told, "he had great wealth".
He preferred money to heaven, the security of wealth to an eternal relationship
with God. If you could choose, right now, to get a million dollars or
go to heaven, what would you choose?
The apostle
Paul, in prison and unsure if he would get out wrote to the church in
the town of Philippi. "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no
way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always,
Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to
me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the
body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I
do not know. I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and to be with
Christ, which is better by far. But it is more necessary for you that
I remain in the body." Paul knows that he will be able to enjoy perfect
fellowship with Jesus in heaven and so he yearns for that above all else.
He is willing to remain and work so that others might join in the joy
but if it were completely up to him, heaven is where he wants to be because
that is where Jesus is. The whole Bible is full of this longing to be
perfectly united with God forever in heaven. The Bible is not a book about
how to live a happy life on planet earth. It is a book about how you and
I as sinful humans can live in eternal, perfect fellowship with the God
who made us.
What does
all this have to do with Genesis 26:1-11? If you do not long to be with
Jesus in heaven then what I’m going to say today will have no relevance
to your life. This will feel like being at a meeting with a bunch of people
who are going to take a tour of ancient Indian burial sites in the Amazon
jungle. I’m the tour guide giving the pre-tour orientation but you are
not going and have no interest in ever going. So what I have to say is
completely irrelevant to your life and boring. But, if you’re going on
the trip, you’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat to make sure you
don’t forget something important. You will be eager to know about all
the preparation that has been done to make sure you don’t die along the
way and you get safely home. You’ll want to be reminded why you are going
on this trip. You’ll want me to tell you that the expense, risk, and effort
are going to be worth it. That is what Genesis 26: 1-11 is about. We are
going to find out how God preserves his people on the journey to heaven.
We are going to be reminded of why we wanted to go there in the first
place.
But before
I unpack this text I need to say something else. This passage will make
no sense to you if you don’t think about the salvation that Jesus has
purchased for us correctly. For example, in Titus 2: 14 we are told that
Christ, "redeemed us from all wickedness to purify for himself a
people of his very own eager to do what is good." There is an unbreakable
connection between being redeemed and being eager to do good. If you are
not eager to do good, then you have not been redeemed. To use technical
language, there is an unbreakable connection between justification and
sanctification. In other words, everyone whose sins have been forgiven
and who have been promised eternal life have also been given a new heart
by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, all those who belong to Christ hate to
sin and love to obey God. Salvation is entirely a work of God’s free grace.
When he saves a person he does not merely pardon them from their sin but
he changes their very nature so that they want to do God’s will. It is
for this reason that the New Testament says things like this:
- "The
acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and
debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits
of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness,
orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live
like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. 5:19-21
- "Because
of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but
he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matthew 24:12-13
- "Do
you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do
not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy
nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom
of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you
were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the Spirit of God." 1 Cor. 6:9-11
This does
not mean that when a person becomes a Christian they are perfect. It does
mean that there has been a radical reorientation of their desires and
goals. The Christian hates their sin and loves to obey God. When the Christian
sins, he flees to Christ in repentance and faith. This does not mean that
true Christians can lose their salvation. It does mean that true Christians
do persevere and if a person does not persevere it simply means they are
not and never were a Christian. A. A. Hodge says it this way, "The
true doctrine is not that salvation is certain if we once believed,
but that perseverance in holiness is certain if we have truly believed."
The reason that perseverance in holiness is certain for those who have
truly believed is what this passage is about. Persisting in faith, love
and obedience is not optional for the Christian. But the Christian knows
how fickle his heart is and how many temptations there are in the world.
He knows this is a dangerous journey. Therefore, the Christian is eager
to know how it is that God guarantees a safe arrival.
MAIN POINT
Only God
can guarantee a safe arrival in heaven because…
I. Life
is full of trouble (v. 1-2a)
We are informed
at the outset of the story that there is a famine in the land. What land
is being referred to? We are told this is not the same famine that occurred
during the days of Abraham. The comparison tells us that the land must
be the land of Canaan, the land that God promised to give to Abraham’s
descendants. If we are remembering what we have already read in the book
of Genesis, a couple of questions come to mind. First, God has made incredible
promises to Abraham about Isaac. Isaac is the son that Abraham and Sarah
waited over 25 years to have. He is the son that Abraham took up Mt. Moriah
to sacrifice but whom God rescued. Why is God treating him so harshly?
Where is the blessing that God so extravagantly promised to Abraham for
his son? Second, in Genesis 12 we were told the story of the first famine
and Abram’s response. Do you remember what he did? He went to Egypt and
told the people that Sarah was his sister because he was afraid the men
would kill him to get her. As a result, she ended up in Pharaoh’s harem.
The first famine ended in disaster for Abraham. So we are asking, will
this famine end in disaster also? How will Isaac respond to this?
The fact
that this is the second famine in the land of Promise shows that life
is full of trouble. If there can be two famines in this land, then there
is trouble everywhere. What we are about to find out is that God has sent
this trouble, as he does all trouble, for a reason. But what I want you
to see right now is that Isaac is not responding to the trouble very well.
His animals are dying. The milk from the goats is drying up. There are
probably little children belonging to his servants that are showing the
signs of malnourishment. Perhaps his family members are complaining about
the lack of food and expressing fear over their future. He really is in
a tight spot. But what does he do? Well in v. 1 we’re told that he goes
to Abimelech, king of the Philistines who lives in Gerar. This is on the
southern border of the land of Canaan, on the way to Egypt.
Now, when
he gets to Gerar, God appears to him. Isaac is in his eighties at this
time. This is the first time, as far as we know, that God has appeared
to him. What’s the first thing that God says to Isaac? He says, "Don’t
go to Egypt." Why does he say this? He says it because that is what
Isaac is doing. He is on his way to Egypt and only stopped in Gerar for
a brief rest. Rather than trust God and wait for his deliverance, Isaac,
like his father before him and like us, comes up with a plan to get out
of the trouble. His plan, however, will lead him to disaster, just like
it did his father before him. What makes Isaac’s decision to go to Egypt
worse than Abraham’s is that he knew what happened to Abraham and Sarah.
He knew that it was a mistake. He should have known that no matter how
bad the situation was that God was in control and that he had a way out
that didn’t involve going to Egypt.
How often
do we respond to trouble in this way? Our eyes are not fixed on God and
his promises to us. Rather our vision is full of the trouble that has
come to us. We panic and respond in fear and take a course of action that
is sinful because what we care about is escaping the trouble, not finding
our life in Christ. If we make a habit out of finding our own solutions
to the trouble God brings to us then we end up not persevering to the
end. We leave the Promised Land and live in Egypt, outside of the blessing
of God. Isaac is not living by faith in the promise of God at this moment;
he is living by faith in his own wisdom and plan. You can be sure that
if you were to talk with Isaac he would be able to give you all kinds
of reasons, probably many "spiritual" reasons, why he should
go to Egypt. However, God says, "Don’t go there." Famine in
the land is no reason to flee to Egypt.
Life can
be painful but God always has a way out that does not involve going to
Egypt. How often do I see this in marriages? Marriage can be excruciatingly
painful. Escape becomes the all-consuming goal. Many escape through divorce.
Some escape through work. Some through food. Some through children. Some
through buying more and more. Some through pornography. Some through alcohol.
Some through hobbies. How often have I heard, "God doesn’t want me
to suffer like this"? Dear friends, that is not true. The Bible says
repeatedly, "God loves you and sometimes he wants you to suffer."
When God sends you a difficult marriage, the answer isn’t to flee to Egypt.
God has a way out that will keep you on the path headed to heaven. Your
solution, like Isaac’s, will take you out of the Promised Land.
Proverbs
14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the
end it leads to death." There is a lot of pain in this life. If your
goal is to escape the pain, you will come up with many ways that seem
right to you but that are going to lead you to death. God has a way that
doesn’t always eliminate the pain but the end is life. If your goal is
heaven, then you will listen to God when he says, "Don’t go to Egypt."
If your goal is pain relief, then you won’t listen and you will end up
in death.
Only God
can guarantee a safe arrival in heaven because…
- Life
is full of trouble
- And
because…
II. Salvation
is a gift from beginning to end (vv. 2b-5)
In vv. 2-5,
we see the reason for God’s sending Isaac this trouble. He does it so
that he can get his attention, appear to him, and give him these great
promises. When life is going well, it’s hard to pay attention to God.
But when he sends us some trouble, we’re all ears. Isaac is in his 80’s
or 90’s. The uncertainty and suffering of waiting those 20 years for the
birth of Esau and Jacob is a dim memory. His two boys are healthy young
men in their late 20’ to early 30’s. Life is good. Life is peaceful. He
does not move around like his father before him. He is leading a comfortable
life. Then here comes the famine. He panics and flees towards Egypt. But
God stops him and tells him to not go to Egypt. Then he gives Isaac the
promises that he gave to Abraham before him. I want you to see that while
God uses many of the same phrases yet he enhances the promises in a couple
of significant ways.
Turn to Genesis
12: 1-3 & 22: 15-18. Do you hear the similarities? "Go to the
land I will show you" and "Live in the land I will tell you
about." "I will bless you." "I will make your descendants
as numerous as the stars in the sky." "Through your offspring
all nations on earth will be blessed." But then notice the differences.
This is the first time God tells anyone, "I will be with you."
This is the first time that the promise is for "these lands",
not just "this land". In other words, God intends for the descendants
of Abraham to rule over many lands, not just the land of Israel. Finally,
notice that God tells Isaac that he is going to do these things, not because
of who Isaac is but because of who Abraham was.
Listen, Isaac
is in the midst of disobeying God and yet God gives him these promises.
God confronts him and makes these amazing promises based on his own mercy
and on Abraham’s obedience. If God were to deal with Isaac as he deserves
he would reject him. God has every right to abandon Isaac because Isaac
is in the process of abandoning God. For the sake of Abraham and for
the sake of his own faithfulness to his promises he is being kind to Isaac,
not because of Isaac. It is the same for us. God does not make promises
to us because of who we are. He makes promises to us and keeps them because
of whom Jesus is. It is because Jesus obeyed God and kept all his requirements,
commands, decrees, and laws that God is kind to us. Christian, God loves
you the way he loves his son. God wants good for you, the same way he
wants good for his son. It is not because of you but because of Jesus.
God killed Jesus for your sins. God gave you all of Christ’s righteousness.
God gave you a new heart by the Holy Spirit. God put his mark of ownership
on you. God guarantees that you will inherit all the promises he has ever
made, not because of your obedience but because of Christ’s obedience.
But, God also guarantees that you will be eager to do good now because
of the work of Christ.
There is
another feature to this promise that you need to see. You need to see
that these promises are about way more than land and physical prosperity.
These promises are for more people than just the physical descendants
of Abraham and Isaac. Every time the NIV says "descendants",
the Hebrew word is literally "seed", a masculine, singular noun.
Look in vv. 3 & 4 ("them" is also "seed" as is
"offspring"). It is not wrong to translate this as a plural
but turn now to Galatians 3: 15-18 (page 824). Do you see what Paul sees
in this use of the masculine, singular term, "seed"? He sees
that all these promises are pointing to Christ and are all fulfilled in
Christ and by Christ. Christ will rule over the lands. Christ’s descendants
will be more numerous than the stars. All the nations of the earth will
be blessed in and by Christ. All of salvation is a gift. Pardon for sins,
the righteousness of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, eternal life
and all the faith and obedience that you perform, all of it is a gift
from God through Christ.
Salvation
is not based on our obedience but salvation always produces obedience.
Look at v. 6. Isaac hears the command of God, believes his promises and
obeys him. He stays in Gerar. He lives by faith. Here is the sign that
Isaac does belong to God, that God is blessing him, that God is with him.
He does the will of God. Jesus says in John 14:15, "If you love me
you will obey my commands." How do you know if you love Jesus? Are
you keeping his commands? Faith in Christ, love for God always leads to
an obedient life. Not obedience done to earn God’s favor but obedience
born out of hope in God’s promises. If you were to ask Isaac, "Why
are you staying in Gerar?" He would say, because God has promised
to bless me, be with me, and give me all these lands. He would not say,
"So I can earn God’s favor. So God will like me better. So I can
get more blessing from God." He obeys because he loves God and what
God promises.
We all live
like this all the time. Last Thursday our small group had our monthly
potluck. I didn’t get to eat lunch on Thursday. About 4 in the afternoon,
I was very hungry. I could have eaten some cookies that were in the office
but I didn’t. Why not? I didn’t eat the cookies because I knew that the
meal we would eat together would more than make up for the hunger I was
feeling right then. I knew that if I ate some cookies then, I would not
enjoy the meal near as much later. We obey God now even though it may
bring discomfort or maybe suffering to our lives because we are so certain
that what God has in store for us cannot even be compared to the discomfort
right now. That’s what Isaac did. The famine is in Gerar as well but he
is willing to endure the hardship that obedience brings because he is
so sure that the future God has promised is infinitely better than any
future he could give himself. But, if our making it safely to heaven was
dependent upon our obedience none of us would make it, as we now see in
Isaac’s case.
Only God
can guarantee a safe arrival in heaven because…
- Life
is full of trouble
- Salvation
is a gift from beginning to end
- And
because…
III. Our
hearts are filled with fear (vv. 6-11)
The bible
is such a shocking book. Verse 7 ought to just stun you. It is shocking
for two reasons. First, what is he thinking? God has just finished telling
him to stay in Gerar and that he will bless him and be with him. Why is
he afraid of these men? How can he possibly fear men when God has just
made such amazing promises to him? But also, this is shocking because
this is now the third time that we have seen the "hero" of the
story resort to this tactic. In Genesis 12, Abraham told the Egyptians
Sarah was his sister and so Pharaoh took her into his harem. Then in Genesis
20 Abraham told these very same people that Sarah was his sister
and Abimelech took her into his harem. In both cases, Abraham is rebuked
for his cowardly act. Isaac knows these stories. How in the world can
he do this? How can he jeopardize Rebekah like this? What a jerk. He’s
not just a little jerk. He’s a big jerk. He wants it both ways. He wants
everyone to think she is his sister but he still wants her to act like
his wife. What a hypocrite!
I just love
how Abimelech responds to Isaac in this story. Remember, Abraham lied
to this guy in exactly the same way. Abimelech knows that this is Abraham’s
son. He remembers what God said to him when he took Sarah into his harem.
God told him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have
taken; she is a married woman." In chapter 20 Abimelech took Sarah
as soon as Abraham said she was his sister. Not this time. What is he
doing? He’s watching Isaac. He’s keeping his eye on him because he doesn’t
trust him. He finally confirms his suspicions when he sees Isaac doing
things with Rebekah that brothers don’t do with sisters. Isaac is not
only unfaithful but stupid. He is engaging in sexual relations with his
wife out in the open. Verse 9 could be translated, "Abimelech called
to Isaac and said…" In other words, the minute he sees Isaac and
Rebekah messing around he yells out the window at him. "Hey Isaac,
come here for a minute." Can’t you just imagine Isaac’s embarrassment?
Hollywood has never made a funnier scene. Isaac puts himself together
and Rebekah covers herself and runs in the house. Then Isaac makes his
way into the king’s palace and stands before the king seated on his throne.
Then the king says, "What are you thinking? What is this you have
done to us? Almost anyone of my people could have had sexual relations
with your wife and then what have happened? God would have wiped us out.
You almost destroyed my kingdom, just like your father. I thought you
were a follower of Yahweh. Why did you do this?"
Why did Isaac
act like this? He did this because he was afraid. Faith and fear are opposites.
They are like oil and water. When you are afraid you are not living by
faith. When you are living by faith, you are not afraid. The two cannot
exist in the same person at the same time. Lewis Timberlake’s definition
of fear fits Isaac perfectly. "Fear is a dark room where negatives
are developed." Was there ever any truth to his fear? NO. Look at
v. 8. They lived there a long time and nobody every bothered them. You
can bet that Isaac was full of self-congratulation during that long period.
He said things to himself like, "Good thing I told everyone she was
my sister. My plan is working like a charm." All the while, Rebekah
was in real danger and so were the Philistines. He believes his plan in
response to fear is working when in reality he is jeopardizing God’s whole
plan. Yet nothing happened because God was looking out for them. Oh how
kind God is. How generous and merciful to look out for poor, miserable
sinners like Isaac, like us! Look at v. 11. Isaac was afraid that he would
be killed if he told the truth. Abimelech tells his people that if anyone
molests Isaac or Rebekah, they will be killed. Do you see the irony? God
is keeping his promises to Isaac. He keeps anyone from sleeping with Rebekah
for a long time. He has Abimelech catch him. He rebukes Isaac through
Abimelech for his sin and so teaches him to trust and not fear. He protects
Isaac and Rebekah through Abimelech. Abimelech ought to drive him out
of town but instead he protects him. This is all of grace. God is kind
to Isaac although Isaac deserves God’s anger.
You need
to understand that one of the greatest barriers that we all have to overcome
if we are going to persevere to the end is our own fear. We are fearful
people. How often do we respond to life out of a heart of fear rather
than out of a heart of faith? Fear is sin. To be afraid of anyone or anything
except for God is a great sin. Fear calls into question God’s love and
his power. Isaac in his fear is essentially calling God a liar and calling
him impotent. How often have I called God a liar and injured my wife and
children because I was afraid? 10 or more years ago, we overspent our
Christmas budget. I was balancing our checkbook that January and discovered
that we had spent a couple of hundred dollars more than we had in the
budget. Fear gripped my heart as I visualized not being able to pay utility
bills and the mortgage. I was sure that financial ruin was upon us. I
argued with Jane and made the children cry. I sulked around the house
for a couple of days before God finally got my attention and I went to
his word and believed his promises. I confessed my sin to God, my wife
and my children.
Isaac is
a Christian. He believes God and obeys God sometimes but he disbelieves
and disobeys God other times. But because he is a Christian God is preserving
him, even though he is faithless at times. He restores him and brings
him back to himself. This is how God deals with all his children. If you
are longing for heaven, then this story ought to fill you with hope and
love for God. We see in God’s dealing with Isaac, that God preserves us,
in spite of our sin, even when we are faithless. He does this because
of Christ and his work on our behalf, not because of anything we have
done. One of the verses from "Amazing Grace" says this, "Through
many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. Grace has brought
me safe thus far and grace will lead me home." This is the promise
of God for all his children.
Only God
can guarantee a safe arrival in heaven because…
- Life
is full of trouble
- Salvation
is a gift from beginning to end
- Our
hearts are full of fear
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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