The Vision (9.12.25): Joseph & the Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 37)

 

Image: Cobwebs by round bales. North Garden, Virginia. September 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 37:

Genesis 37 begins the inspired narrative of the life of Joseph, an account which extends through Genesis 50. It tells us how his envious brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. What do we draw from this inspired account?

We are reminded that there is a sovereign God who is working out his perfect and all-wise will in all the providential circumstances of this life, including in the face of evil, in grief and pain and loss.

It is noteworthy that the name of God nowhere explicitly appears in this chapter. He is not always named, but He is always there.

And we see something in this lesser story, shadows and hints, of a greater story, if we compare Joseph with the Lord Jesus Christ:

Joseph was the beloved son of his father Jacob (Genesis 37:3).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father from all eternity, made flesh in the fullness of time (John 1:14, 18; Galatians 4:4).

Joseph was given special revelation by God, as a dreamer (37:5-11, 19).

Christ is the prophet, priest, and king, who spoke the Word of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, over and again, “Ye have heard it said….but I say unto you…”

Joseph was hated of the brothers he was sent to deliver from the death of famine (37:4).

John said of Christ, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10). Christ himself said in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Joseph came seeking his brethren to do them good on behalf of their father (37:13).

John 3:16 says, “God so love the world that he gave [sent] his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christ told in Mark 12 the parable of the vineyard owner whose husbandmen abused his servants sent to them, till finally he sent his own dear son, and they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).

Joseph was stripped of his coat and cast into a waterless pit (37:23).

Christ was stripped of his clothing for which the soldiers cast lots; he was crucified, and then placed in a tomb.

Joseph was sold by his brother for 20 pieces of silver (37:28).

Christ was betrayed by Judas one of the twelve, a friend like a dear brother, for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).

Joseph’s coat was dipped in the blood of a kid of a goat (37:31).

Christ shed his own blood on the cross, and He gave himself a ransom for many.

Jacob mourned and wept at the loss of his son, though he did not know Joseph still lived (37:34-35).

The disciples wept and mourned at the death of Christ, not knowing, at first, that he would, as he said, be gloriously raised on the third day.

Our Lord was under the power of death for three days. For 36 terrible hours. 12 hours Friday evening. 24 hours from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. And for six more hours from midnight Saturday till the early morning on the first day of the week. But then he was gloriously raised just as he said, and death was swallowed up in victory.

One of the great themes throughout this Joseph account will be summed up when Joseph meets those brothers years later in Genesis 50:20, and he says to them, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.” That is the Old Testament equivalent to Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Joseph was a great man with a great story, and he had a great role in God’s plan of salvation. But Christ is a greater man than Joseph, with a greater story. He is the Savior of all men. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (3.7.25): Put away the strange gods

 

Image: "The Theraphim of the Hebrews," from Oedipus Aegypticus, Athanasius Kircher, 1652-1654.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis chapters 35-36.

Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments (Genesis 35:2).

After his sons took vengeance on Shechem for the abuse of their sister Dinah, Jacob worried that he would be made “to stink” among the inhabitants of that land, and they would destroy him and his house (Genesis 34:30).

The LORD graciously intervened and directed Jacob to return to Bethel, “and make there an altar unto God” (Genesis 35:1).

Jacob then called for spiritual reformation in his family, starting in v. 2. He had gone to Padanaram to find a wife among his extended kinfolk, from those who knew Jehovah. He found there Leah and Rachel and remained 20 years.

Though Laban had known Jehovah, he was spiritually compromised and had also taken up household gods (the teraphim), which Rachel had stolen in their flight from Laban (30:19). Paganism had been mixed in with the worship of the one true God. The God of the Bible, however, is a jealous God. He will share devotion with no one or nothing.

Jacob exercised spiritual leadership and offered three commands to his household in v. 2:

First, “put away the strange gods that are among you.” The apostle John will echo this when he concludes 1 John exhorting, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Second, “be clean.” This is a call for spiritual purity. David will later write in Psalm 24 that those who approach the LORD in worship must have “clean hands, and a pure heart” (v. 4).

Third, “and change your garments.” This was to be a spiritually symbolic gesture. In the Old Testament it is common to hear that those who repented put on “sack cloth and ashes.” Here, however, they were apparently called to take off their old dirty garments and put on new, clean garments. The apostle Paul will later offer a similar metaphor in Ephesians 4 to illustrate the transformation that takes place in the life of believers, calling for the Ephesians to “put off… old man” and “put on the new man” (vv.21-24).

We, who were once not a people, have been made, by grace, part of the family of God. We are called to personal reformation, to remove idols, to be clean, and to change our garments. Salvation also means sanctification.

We may be discouraged at times by our slow progress and even our outright failures. Let us remember, however, that we have been saved by the one who never bent a knee to any idol, who knew no sin or uncleanness, and who has given to his saints his own righteous life to cover them.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (2.28.25): Jacob's Sanctification

 

Image: Esau Meeting Jacob, wood engraving, George Frederick Watts, 1863-65.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 33 & 34.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came… And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept (Genesis 33:1, 4).

The LORD chose Jacob to bear his covenant with Abraham, not because of any inherent merit in him, but only, as Paul said in Romans 9:11, that “the purpose of God according to election might stand.”

Indeed, early on it seemed that there was little in Jacob that appeared spiritually commendable. He manipulated his brother Esau into giving him the birthright (Genesis 25). He deceived his father Isaac, pretending to be Esau, to receive his father’s blessing (Genesis 27).

But, as Jacob’s story unfolds, we begin to see evidence that the God who chose this man also worked to change and sanctify him.

We see this especially in Jacob’s prayer for deliverance in Genesis 32 as he prepares to meet his estranged brother Esau. Jacob humbles himself, telling the LORD, “I am not worthy  of the least of all thy mercies,” before he petitions, “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau” (32:10-11).

It is there in Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel of the LORD, and his being given a new name, Israel, and a new identity as a prince of God (32:28).

And it will continue in Genesis 33 as Jacob meets and is reconciled with Esau (33:1-4)

There is something of the gospel in this. The man chosen by God who humbles himself, and seeks deliverance from the Lord, wrestles with God in prayer, will be made, by God’s grace, a new creature in Christ, given a new name, a new identity, and reconciled with his brethren.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (2.21.25): Jacob’s humility in prayer: Unworthy of the least of all the mercies

 

 Image: Jacob Prays for Protection, 1866, Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible.

Note: Devotion taken from Sunday sermon on February 16, 2025.

“I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant” (Genesis 32:10a).

The old adage is that there are no atheists in foxholes. In times of deepest distress men often turn to the LORD in prayer, even if it is a prayer of desperation.

In Genesis 32, as Jacob faces the prospects of being met with hostility by his estranged brother Esau, he offers a prayer of deliverance.

The prayer begins in v. 9 as the addresses God: “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD….” He recalls that it was the LORD who sent him on this journey (cf. 31:3. 13b), with this promise, “and I will deal well with thee” (v. 9b).

In v. 10 we hear what might be a highpoint of Jacob’s spirituality, as he expresses humility, lowliness, and offers a declaration of his unworthiness before a sovereign God: “I am not worthy of the least of all mercies, and of all truth, which thou hast shewed thy servant…” (v. 10a).

There is an evangelical spirit in these words. It recalls Christ’s parable of the Pharisee and the publican, with the tax collector unwilling so much as to lift his eyes to heaven, smiting his breast, and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). The apostle James likewise exhorted, “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:9-10).

It is only after his humiliation that Jacob petitions, “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother….” (Genesis 32:11).

Jacob offers us a model of sincere prayer, which begins with lowliness and contrition. We are not worthy of the Lord’s mercy and truth, and yet he extends these to us, and he hears and answers our prayers.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (2.14.25): The LORD protects fallen saints in a fallen world

Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 31.

“God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands…” (Genesis 31:42b).

The account of Jacob’s flight from Laban in Genesis 31 teaches us that the LORD protects his fallen saints in this fallen world.

One commentator noted that this account of Jacob and Laban is “a disturbing vignette of human history,” adding, “It reflects the human predicament in a sinful world. It declares… the brokenness of creation and humanity” (Currid, Genesis 2:110).

This is not some idealistic portrait of Christian family life. This is a family ready to go to war against one another, withholding and taking from one another, accusing and attacking one another. But all the while the God of the Bible is there, and he is protecting Jacob.

God intervenes through special revelation to direct the path of Jacob, telling him to flee from Laban and return to the promised land (vv. 3, 13). The LORD intervenes also in a dream to restrain the hand of Laban (v. 24).

We might look on with real encouragement at the final scene of reconciliation that is worked out here between Jacob and Laban, despite their conflict, through a covenant and a covenant meal (vv. 43-55).

And what does God do today? He speaks to us through the special revelation of the Word to direct our path, and he works in ways, ordinary and extraordinary, to protect his people. He sees our affliction and the labor of our hand (v. 42).

I read this week an account of John G. Paton (1824-1907), Scottish missionary to the New Hebrides islands in the South Pacific. He woke one night to hear a mob of armed and hostile natives burning down the church next to his house and urging one another to strike a blow at him as well. Just then a sudden storm arose, with rushing wind, thunder, and rain. The mob became silent, lowered their weapons, and withdrew terror stricken, saying, “That is Jehovah’s rain!” (see Currid’s account, Genesis 2:120).

Sometimes the LORD intervenes like that. But even when he does not do so temporally, he will do so ultimately. As Paul said in Romans 8: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (v. 31), and nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).

God will protect his fallen saints in a fallen world, providing for them a life that can never be taken away from them, through Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (1.31.25): The LORD’s Provision for Fallen Saints in a Fallen World

 

Image: Ferdinand Bol, Jacob and Rachel, c. 1645-1650, Harvard Art Museums.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 29.

Then Jacob went on his journey… And he looked, and behold a well in a field…” (Genesis 29:1).

Genesis 29 continues the inspired account of the Patriarch Jacob. He had been chosen by God to carry forward “the blessing of Abraham” (28:4). If Jacob was going to fulfill these covenant promises, then he must have a wife and he must have children. His father Isaac had sent him to seek out a godly wife (28:1), and the LORD promised Jacob that he would be with him (28:15). At the well where he “happened” to stop he will meet Rachel, just as Abraham’s servant had met Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, by a well.

Election is one of the great themes of this narrative. God chooses Jacob and Jacob must choose a wife. Providence is also one of the great themes of this narrative. God will provide for Jacob, his chosen. I suggested as a title for this chapter, “The LORD’s provision for Fallen Saints in a Fallen World.”

This is a post-Genesis 3 world, a fallen world. Jacob is a fallen saint, with remaining corruptions within him. Some of the things that transpire in this narrative fall short of God’s glory. God’s design was for one man and one woman to be united in a one flesh union (see Genesis 2:24), but Jacob will have two wives, sisters, Leah and Rachel, in his household, as well as their respective maids.

The moralist has a hard time with a passage like Genesis 29, because it is not some simplistic moral story in which the protagonist always behaves in an upstanding manner. We need to make again the distinction between the descriptive and the prescriptive. Sinful actions are recorded here but not promoted.

The overarching point here is that God is providing for him, and that provision began with him stopping at a well. As Solomon will later record, “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). As one commentator put it:

We are too apt to forget our actual dependence on Providence for the circumstances of every instant. The most trivial events may determine our state in the world. Turning up one street instead of another may bring us in company with a person whom we should not otherwise have met; and this may lead to a train of other events which may determine the happiness or misery of our lives” (R. Cecil as cited by Currid, Genesis 2: 78).

And what will be the end of Abraham’s line through Isaac and then Jacob? From him will come David, and from David will come the LORD Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 1:1: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”). God is working out his plan of salvation across many generations. He will indeed provide most excellently for fallen saints in a fallen world.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (1.24.25): And behold a ladder set up on the earth

 

Image: Nicolas Dipre, Le songe de Jacob, c. 1500, Avignon, Petit Palais.

Note: Devotion taken from sermon last Sunday on Genesis 28.

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it (Genesis 28:12).

In Genesis 28 Isaac blesses Jacob and then sends him to the land of Padan-aram to find a suitable wife, who shared a common faith in Jehovah.

Moses tells us that as Jacob traveled through Beersheba “he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun had set…” (v. 11). It sounds coincidental, but God was directing his path.

Moses continues, “And he dreamed….” (v. 12). This was the time before the completion of Scripture. This is God speaking by special revelation. That he did so then does not mean we should expect he will continue to do so now. We now have the Scriptures written.

What did Jacob see in his dream? “And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven…” It was a portal between earth (the realm of man) and heaven (the realm of God).

Moses continues, “and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” Angels are messengers, taking communications back and forth between earth and heaven. We can imagine the prayers of the saints being lifted up and the sovereign replies and comforts of God coming down. Here is a picture of something unseen that happens when God’s people pray and worship. The ladder also anticipates the Scriptures whereby God speaks to men.

Yet it is more than this. It anticipates the incarnation of the LORD Jesus Christ.

Christ himself once pointed to this passage early in his ministry, telling his disciples they would remember it when they saw him on the cross doing his mediatorial work: “And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (John 1:51).

Paul would later write in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

The believer can confess concerning the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, “and behold a ladder [is] set up on the earth.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Vision (12.20.24): We have found water (Genesis 24:32)

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 26.

Genesis 26:25 An he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.

 

Genesis 26:32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

 

Genesis 26 is focused on events in the life of the Patriarch Isaac. As he sojourned in Gerar, Isaac resolved to dig up the old wells that the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth (v. 15b), and then to give them their old names (v. 18b: “and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.”). This led to tension with the herdsmen of Gerar. Isaac abandoned one well calling it Esek (contention) and then another calling it Sitnah (hatred (vv. 20-21). He moved to another place called Rehoboth (Room) (v. 22), and then he arrived at Beersheba (the well of the oath) where his servants set to dig again (v. 23).

 

This account indicates that for God’s people there will be times when the old wells of the fathers must be dug again. There will always be a process of revival, reformation, and retrieval. This is what happened at the time of the Protestant Reformation. The old wells had been filled with earth by the medieval Roman church. Rather than teaching the doctrine of justification by faith, they were teaching justification by works. Rather than pure and simply evangelical worship, they had added the traditions of men.

We must constantly go back to the old wells that supplied the needs of our godly spiritual fathers and call them by the names that those same fathers used.

We might also consider how this passage, with all its descriptions of digging wells and its climactic description of finding water, points us to Christ. A parallel passage that comes to mind is John 4, when Christ encounters the Samaritan woman at the well. This was “Jacob’s well” at Sychar (John 4:5-6).

 

Christ asks the woman to give him a drink and then tells her that he can give to her “living water” (4:7, 10). She takes his words literally and tells him he has no means to draw this living water. Then John says:

John 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

The woman later leaves her waterpot to go to her city and tell her neighbors of this man she met at the well, saying:

John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

A Christian is simply one who says, after finding the Lord Jesus (or, better, being found by him), “We have found water.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision: Two Nations, Two Manner of People

 

Image: Esau selling his birthright to Isaac, drawing by Rembrandt, c. 1640, British Museum, London.

Note: Devotional based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 25.

“And the LORD said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels….” (Genesis 25:23).

Genesis 25 is a hinge point in this first book of our Christian canon. The baton is literally passed from Abraham to Isaac. Just as godly Sarah died and was buried (Genesis 23), so godly Abraham also goes the way of all flesh (Genesis 25). Abraham too had his death day.

The focus then shifts from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rebekah to carry forward the covenant promise (Genesis 12:1-3). Just as there was the barrenness with Sarah threatening to stifle God’s promise, so there was the barrenness of Rebekah (“she was barren” v. 21).

Just as Sarah bore Isaac, ending her barrenness, Rebekah will give birth to two sons, who will “struggle” in her womb (25:22).  The two sons will be the father of “two nations,” who will be “two manner of people” (25:23). One, Jacob, will be chosen of God, loved, and blessed, the other, Esau, estranged from the LORD by his own short-sighted hard-heartedness.

If I had to identify the greatest theme of Genesis 25 it would be “Election.” This is not a political term, but it refers to God’s sovereign choosing.

The infallible interpreter of this passage is not Matthew Henry or Matthew Poole, or any other merely human exegete, but the apostle Paul who wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in Romans 9 :

Romans 9: ¹⁰ And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

¹¹ (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

¹² It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

¹³ As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

God chose to work his plan through Jacob and not Esau, before the brothers were even born. His choice was not conditioned on what they did or did not do. God’s choice of Jacob came about, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand” (Romans 9:11).

Paul used this record to illustrate God’s sovereign election in salvation. Who then is saved? Those whom God chooses. Neither of these two nations deserved God’s love. Neither earned it. Both deserved rejection. Yet God, in his mercy, chose to pour out his affections upon one.

There are two nations, two manner of people. They are the elect and the reprobate. The roots of this go back to Genesis 3:15 when the Lord told the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.”

There was a high Calvinistic Baptist movement in the South back in the 19^th century known as “Two Seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptists” who articulated this doctrine. I can’t say I affirm all their beliefs, but they did rightly say there are two nations, two manner of people. There are those who are born again and made sons of God. And there are those who deny and reject Christ. Our Lord said to the latter in John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil.”

The final question is this: Where do you stand today? Where is your citizenship? To which nation do you belong? Has God made himself known to you in Christ, not because of any standing in you, but only because of his mercy? Or do you still stand distant and reprobate?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (12.6.24): The Thing Proceedeth from the LORD

 

Image: Valentin Serov, Abraham's Servant Finds Isaac A Bride, Rebekah (1894)

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 24.

“And the man bowed his head, and worshipped the LORD” (Genesis 24:26).

“The thing proceedeth from the LORD” (Genesis 24:50).

Genesis 24 is a rather long chapter (67 verses). The old AV translators divided it into seven sections (vv. 1-6, 7-9, 10-14, 15-28, 29-31, 32-60, 61-67). In the fashion of Hebrew narrative, there is a good bit of repetition in it.

The focus of the chapter is an inspired account of Abraham, in his old age and after the death of Sarah, sending out the godly “eldest servant of his house” back to the country he had left to seek “a wife unto my son Isaac” (vv. 1, 4).

There are various spiritual lessons within this chapter. It has lessons on prayer and worship. This summer the youth of our church looked at a chapter from Peter Masters’ book Steps for Guidance in the Journey of Life which draws lessons from Genesis 24 on courtship and marriage. The overarching lesson of this chapter, however, is upon the providence of the LORD.

The Bible teaches us that there is a sovereign LORD, and he is directing the course of history on both the macro-level (Cf. Romans 13, no civil authority is in place but by his will) and the micro-level (Cf. Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” And: Proverbs 16:9 “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”).

The God of the Bible is Jehovah-Jireh (the LORD provides) (Genesis 22:14). In Genesis 24 the LORD, in his good providence, brings about the union of Isaac and Rebekah, and the keeping of his covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). This theme is perhaps best stated in v. 50 when Laban and Bethuel (not exactly theologians!) declare, “The thing proceedeth from the LORD.” It is God’s will.

It is also noteworthy, that the godly servant of Abraham constantly prays to and worships the LORD as he seeks the fulfillment God’s providential plans. Before he sets off on his journey he prays (24:12: “O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee…send me good speed”). In the midst of seeking a bride for Isaac, he worships (24:26: “And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD”). Having secured the agreement with Rebekah and her family, he worshipped (24:52: “when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth”). He worshipped before (v. 12), during (v. 26), and after (v. 52) the providential works of the LORD.

Let us be like that godly servant. Let us trust that the LORD is working all things for his glory and for the good of them that love him. And let us pray to and worship him, before, during, and after his accomplishment of all things.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (11.29.24): Seven Lessons from the Death and Burial of Sarah (Genesis 23)

 

Image: Camelia, "Pink Perfection," Lee County, NC, November 2024.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 22:20--23:20.

Between the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19) and the marriage of Isaac (Genesis 24), there is Genesis 22:20—23:20. It provides a much less well-known episode related to the death and the burial of the matriarch Sarah. It reports to us the death of a godly woman.

Here are seven practical applications that flow from this passage:

1.     We are reminded that the God of the Bible is a God of providence, who is working all things to His glory and our good.

Genesis 22:20-24 reveals the providential work of God in history. It tells us that God was raising up Rebekah from the line of Abraham’s brother Nahor to be a wife for Isaac after the death of Sarah. He is Jehovah-Jireh, the LORD who provides (Genesis 22:14). We should remember that “God is at work all around us,” even when it seems we are surrounded by frowning providences.

2.     We are reminded that God will keep his Word.

God was at work to keep his promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). He spared Isaac and will provide through Isaac’s union with Rebekah the raising up of a great nation from Abraham. He will keep his promises to his people.

3.     We are reminded of the shortness and the preciousness of each life.

Genesis 23:1b says, “these were the years of the life of Sarah.” Should Christ tarry we will each have both a birthday and a death day. As Moses prayed, “So teach us to number our days, that we might apply hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

4.     We are taught that the proper response to death is godly grief and sorrow and even tears.

We see this in Abraham’s response to Sarah’s death: “And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her” (Genesis 2:2b). The Christian sees death as a consequence of sin (Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death”), and so it calls for grief and sobriety.

5.     We are shown by example that the proper way to dispose of the body at death is burial in the ground in hope of the resurrection from the dead.

Genesis 23:19: “And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife…”

6.     We are taught that the land promise was fulfilled to Abraham, but an even greater promise is yet to be fulfilled.

Abraham was indeed “a stranger and a sojourner” (Genesis 23:4), but we move toward “a better country” the “heavenly” country, the city God hath prepared for us (Hebrews 11:16).

7.     We are told that a godly woman is to be praised and honored even in her death.

As with all fallen men, Sarah was a sinner. She had concocted the plan to have Hagar serve as a surrogate. She had deceived Abimelech. She had laughed when God promised her a son. She was also, however, by God’s grace, a godly woman. God’s love for her in Christ covered a multitude of sins.

The description of a godly woman in Proverbs 31 begins, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies” (v. 10). Sarah was a virtuous woman. Peter put her forward as an example in 1 Peter 3:1-6, noting, “whose daughter ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement” (v. 6). Proverbs 21:28 says a godly woman’s children and her husband will arise to praise her. Of course, no godly woman lives only for the praise of mere men, but she desires most of all the smile and approval of her God.

Finally, we must also note also that our ultimate hope is not that we would be praised in our death. Our hope is that we will be raised from the dead by the same power that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the tomb on the third day. Because he lives, we too have the hope of life eternal. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul asked, “O grave where is thy victory?” (v. 55), declaring, “The sting of death is sin” (v. 56). Yet he concluded, ^“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 57).

Christ is indeed our only comfort and hope in life and death.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (11.22.24): Christ: The New and Better Isaac

Image: The Binding of Isaac, by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, c. 1593, Piasecka-Johnson Collection, Princeton, New Jersey.

Note: Devotional based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 22:1-19.

Christians have long seen the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22 as a type (a shadow, a prefiguring, an anticipation) of the cross of Christ.

Consider these parallels:

Isaac is the son of Abraham (see the title given eight times in Genesis 22:2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13). Christ too is “the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), but also “the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).

Isaac is a beloved son of Abraham (22:2: the son “whom thou lovest”). Christ is the beloved Son of God the Father. Cf. at his baptism and transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). See also Ephesians 4:6 where Paul said, “he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

Isaac is the only son (three times in 22:2, 12, 16). Christ is the only begotten Son (cf. John 1:14, 18; 3:16).

Isaac is the servant of his father (22:6 “and laid it upon Isaac his son”). Christ is the Servant of God the Father (Mark 10:45: He came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”).

Isaac cried out, “My father” (Genesis 22:7). Christ cried out at Gethsemane, “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36).

Isaac carried the wood to Mount Moriah (22:6-7). Christ carried his cross to Mount Calvary (Matthew 27:32: “him they compelled to bear his cross.”).

Isaac was told, God will provide himself a lamb (22:8). Christ is the Lamb of God (see John 1:29, 36; and Revelation 13:8: “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth.”).

Isaac was bound for the sacrifice (22:9: “and bound Isaac his son”). Christ was bound and handed over to Pilate (Matthew 27:2, “And when they had bound him”

God provided a substitute for Isaac (22:13: there was “a ram caught in the thicket by his horns… who was offered “in the stead of his son.”). Christ served as a substitute for elect sinners (Romans 5:8). Christ is both the Lamb and the Ram.

Isaac’s ram was caught in a thicket by his horns (22:13). The sacred head of Christ was encircled by a crown of twisted thorns pressed upon his brow (Matthew 27:29).

Perhaps the apostle Paul had Genesis 22 in mind when he said of God the Father’s offering up of Christ, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Here is one writer’s summary of this analogy:

The Lord Jesus “enters his day of suffering  as the new Isaac, the true son of Abraham in the fullest sense, the one who would offer himself wholly up to death, according to the divine foreordained plan, and bring the blessing of forgiveness and eternal life to all who put their faith in him” (Nicholas P. Lunn, The Gospels Through Old Testament Eyes, 183).

Christ is indeed the New and Better Isaac.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (11.15.24): God is with His Elect

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 21:9-34.

And God was with the lad (Genesis 21:20a)

God is with thee in all that thou doest (Genesis 21:22b).

Genesis 21 begins with the announcement of the birth of Isaac (vv. 1-8). The long-awaited promise to Abraham and Sarah is fulfilled. The threat of barrenness is overcome. God will keep his Word (Genesis 12:1-3). From Abraham would come a great nation, and by it all families of the earth would be be blessed.

The remainder of the chapter outlines two further threats to this promise.

The first concerns a threat from within, from Hagar and her son Ishmael, who stood as a potential rival to Isaac (vv. 9-21). Sarah says to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son” (v. 10). This was “very grievous” for Abraham to do, but the LORD assured him that he would make Ishmael “a nation, because he is thy seed” (v. 13).

The second concerns a threat from without, from King Abimelech whom Abraham and Sarah had previously deceived (vv. 22-34; cf. Genesis 20). Abraham, however, enters into a covenant with Abimelech, and they live in peace.

The threat averted, Abraham “planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God” (v. 33). The proper response when one recognizes the LORD’s gracious provisions in his life is worship.

Within Genesis 21 there are two statements in which what we might call the “Immanuel Principle” is given emphasis.

First, in Genesis 21:20 Moses says, “And God was with the lad [Ishmael].”

Second, in Genesis 21:22 Abimelech says to Abraham, “God is with thee in all that thou doest.”

God is with those through whom he has chosen to work. He is with his Elect.

There is a longing in man’s heart for God to be with him. We see that principle here, and it will find its greatest fulfillment in the New Testament.

In the fullness of time Christ would come from the seed of Abraham to be blessing to the nations.  One of his titles would be Immanuel:

Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Having died on the cross and risen again the third day, soon to ascend, he promised his disciples:

Matthew 28:20b and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The apostle John on the isle of Patmos had a vision of the new heaven and the new earth and of the new Jerusalem, of which he wrote:

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

The one true God has been with his elect; he is with them now; and he will be with them at the end of the age.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle