Genesis 23-27
Regarding God's covenant with Abraham and the Temple Mount:
Notes from "Living & Dying by Faith" by Jack Abeelen
Notes from "Living & Dying by Faith" by Jack Abeelen
Salem--little town at the foot of the hill, Mount Moriah
Jebusites took it.
David came and took it.
Solomon built temple somewhere up the hill.
Second temple rebuilt temple, still not at top.
Here Herod leveled out 35 acres---Temple Mount (Mount of Olives)
still not the top of the hill of Moriah
have to go north outside the city walls, Golgotha---nothing higher on that mountain range
place of sacrifice is at the top of the hill
Note: I've done a bit of research on this--the location of Golgotha is contested. I feel like it's a stretch for him to tie such a neat bow on the package.
"In your seed"
1. reference to Abraham's natural seed (DNA--genealogy)
2. reference to Abraham's spiritual seed (Jews)
3. apply to spiritual but not physical descendants (Christians)
4. Jesus Christ
*************************************************************************
"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." Genesis 25:22
Rebekah asked God why they were struggling inside her, and God shared with her that two nations were in her womb, and the older would serve the younger.
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Genesis 26
"When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah." Genesis 26:34-35
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Genesis 27
"God does not condone Jacob's wheeling and dealing, but one thing is apparent—Jacob valued the birthright and a place in the godly line, while Esau preferred the gratification of his physical appetite to spiritual blessings." -Believer's Bible
"Esau’s marriages to two Hittite women (Judith and Basemath) were a grief to his parents. This note demonstrates how unfit Esau was for God’s blessing, and how foolish was Isaac’s later attempt to bless Esau (Gen_27:1-40). Esau later married a third wife, Mahalath (Gen_28:9)."-BKC
Jack Abeelen--Lessons from a Dysfunctional Family
Isaac--43 years before he goes he thinks he's going at age 137, he gives the blessing to Jacob. 122 years from Mount Moriah.d
Both Esau and Isaac are 77 years old here.
"The cool lesson in all of this weirdness, and you’ll see how weird it gets, is that God is able to function in it to accomplish His will. So, on the one hand it’s a pretty sad story of a family that doesn’t do very well. On the other hand, there is this glorious truth that God uses messed-up people and overrules their weirdness and still has His will." -Jack Abeelen
"It’s all about submitting to the will of God. And now she believes if she [Rebekah] doesn’t intervene, God’s will will not be accomplished. Absolute stupidity. Of course God will accomplish His will. Like I said, He doesn’t need us at all...Learn from this, if nothing else, that if you know the will of God, you should never set out to accomplish the will of God by a work of the flesh. Those never fit together."
"You just can’t make that happen for yourself. We see that a lot of times. People go, “Well, I believe God’s called me to music.” And you’ll say, “Well, great. I’m sure the Lord will open doors.” And then they start calling everybody and marketing themselves and pushing themselves forward and not waiting at all upon the Lord. And they may get where they want to be, but are they right where God wants them to be? Probably not. Because if the Lord is in something, the Lord will open the doors. It’s harder to wait. It’s just the right thing to do, you know? It’s just the right thing to do." -JA
"In fact, if you go back and read the story there, David had these men take six steps – just six steps – one, two, three, four, five, six; stopped, built an altar, offered a sacrifice, worshiped the Lord. Went six more steps. They did this for six miles. David’s taking no chances. But he wanted to do it right, you know? Was it efficient? No. Took a long time. Was it effective? Absolutely. Why? Because His will doesn’t need your help. You need His help. Right." -JA
His descriptors:
*unspiritual father-Isaac
*unsurrendered mother--Rebekah
*unscrupulous brother--Jacob
"And, look what he says here in verse 12, “If my father feels for me, I might seem to be a deceiver to him.” You might SEEM to be a deceiver to him?! (Laughing) And not only that, “I’m going to lose that blessing. I’m going to get a curse. I’m not going to get a blessing.” I love the fact that Jacob doesn’t seem to mind being a deceiver. He just doesn’t want to be seen as one. Now, we laugh at that, but I’m thinking there’s a lot of people like that, aren’t there? They are more interested in what they seem to be than what they really are. And, “What will people think of me?” And the bottom line is, who cares what people think of you? What does the Lord think of you? What matters is what God thinks of you." -JA
"This guy is a spiritual fraud, now, that is bringing the name of the Lord into his conversation to further his agenda. Right? In every biblical sense, this is taking the name of the Lord in vain. More than swearing, this is it. This is using God’s supposed involvement to move forward your own agenda." -JA
"He goes by what he feels - not by what he senses in his heart, by what he hears. Your feelings will let you down a lot. God’s Word will never let you down. So, if you’re looking to grow spiritually, you certainly want to establish your heart, not based on how you feel but upon what God says, because feelings tend to change with circumstance." -JA
"You can’t live by your feelings. Isaac went by his feelings. He felt. He went, “Oh, oh, yeah. All right. I guess I can put the fact that he’s got a squeaky voice out of my head. And he doesn’t sound a bit like Esau. He sounds like that little pansy, Jacob, mama likes so much.” (Laughing) It’s how he felt about him, right? But, you know, he feels like he’s the right guy so “I gotta go by that.” And how difficult for us to grow spiritually, but how easy it is to go by your feelings when you’re separated from God in your heart. So, you hear people sometimes sharing what they believe about God, but it isn’t based upon the Scriptures. It’s based upon how they felt last night at the meeting." -JA
"Now, you read this, and you want to say to yourself, “Well it sure sounds like Jacob and Rebekah had their way. Lies and deception worked.” Well, Hebrews says it is now an action of faith upon Isaac’s part that he leaves the blessing the way it was. He could have retracted it because it was deceptive. He could have said, “Okay, I was fooled. That was my intention. You can’t hold me to that.” But he doesn’t. He leaves it the way that it is solely because he realizes that God is in this thing."-JA
"Herod was the last Edomite, so that’s the Edomite line."-JA
"There’s a Scripture in Malachi 1:1-4a where we read these words, “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. ‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. ‘Yet you say, “In what way have You loved us?” ‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ says the LORD. ‘Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.’ Even though Edom has said, ‘We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.’ ” And people have a problem with that. They say, “Well the Lord said he loved Jacob and hated Esau.” I’ve got a problem with it too. I’ve got a problem with ‘He loved Jacob.’ This guy’s a crook. Jacob is just an absolute crook. People that get too worried about Esau…….”Well, how could you hate Esau?” How could He love Jacob? That’s my problem right there. I’m just trying to clear that 18 up for you."-JA
"And like I said, by the time you get to the end of chapter 27, only Isaac is sure that God would have His way. Nice to leave Isaac in that condition because the only thing we learn of him beyond this is that he dies. But the rest are off, still scheming, plotting of their own ways."-JA
Jebusites took it.
David came and took it.
Solomon built temple somewhere up the hill.
Second temple rebuilt temple, still not at top.
Here Herod leveled out 35 acres---Temple Mount (Mount of Olives)
still not the top of the hill of Moriah
have to go north outside the city walls, Golgotha---nothing higher on that mountain range
place of sacrifice is at the top of the hill
Note: I've done a bit of research on this--the location of Golgotha is contested. I feel like it's a stretch for him to tie such a neat bow on the package.
"In your seed"
1. reference to Abraham's natural seed (DNA--genealogy)
2. reference to Abraham's spiritual seed (Jews)
3. apply to spiritual but not physical descendants (Christians)
4. Jesus Christ
*************************************************************************
"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." Genesis 25:22
Rebekah asked God why they were struggling inside her, and God shared with her that two nations were in her womb, and the older would serve the younger.
********************************************************
Genesis 26
"When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah." Genesis 26:34-35
**********************************
Genesis 27
"God does not condone Jacob's wheeling and dealing, but one thing is apparent—Jacob valued the birthright and a place in the godly line, while Esau preferred the gratification of his physical appetite to spiritual blessings." -Believer's Bible
"Esau’s marriages to two Hittite women (Judith and Basemath) were a grief to his parents. This note demonstrates how unfit Esau was for God’s blessing, and how foolish was Isaac’s later attempt to bless Esau (Gen_27:1-40). Esau later married a third wife, Mahalath (Gen_28:9)."-BKC
Jack Abeelen--Lessons from a Dysfunctional Family
Isaac--43 years before he goes he thinks he's going at age 137, he gives the blessing to Jacob. 122 years from Mount Moriah.d
Both Esau and Isaac are 77 years old here.
"The cool lesson in all of this weirdness, and you’ll see how weird it gets, is that God is able to function in it to accomplish His will. So, on the one hand it’s a pretty sad story of a family that doesn’t do very well. On the other hand, there is this glorious truth that God uses messed-up people and overrules their weirdness and still has His will." -Jack Abeelen
"It’s all about submitting to the will of God. And now she believes if she [Rebekah] doesn’t intervene, God’s will will not be accomplished. Absolute stupidity. Of course God will accomplish His will. Like I said, He doesn’t need us at all...Learn from this, if nothing else, that if you know the will of God, you should never set out to accomplish the will of God by a work of the flesh. Those never fit together."
"You just can’t make that happen for yourself. We see that a lot of times. People go, “Well, I believe God’s called me to music.” And you’ll say, “Well, great. I’m sure the Lord will open doors.” And then they start calling everybody and marketing themselves and pushing themselves forward and not waiting at all upon the Lord. And they may get where they want to be, but are they right where God wants them to be? Probably not. Because if the Lord is in something, the Lord will open the doors. It’s harder to wait. It’s just the right thing to do, you know? It’s just the right thing to do." -JA
"In fact, if you go back and read the story there, David had these men take six steps – just six steps – one, two, three, four, five, six; stopped, built an altar, offered a sacrifice, worshiped the Lord. Went six more steps. They did this for six miles. David’s taking no chances. But he wanted to do it right, you know? Was it efficient? No. Took a long time. Was it effective? Absolutely. Why? Because His will doesn’t need your help. You need His help. Right." -JA
His descriptors:
*unspiritual father-Isaac
*unsurrendered mother--Rebekah
*unscrupulous brother--Jacob
"And, look what he says here in verse 12, “If my father feels for me, I might seem to be a deceiver to him.” You might SEEM to be a deceiver to him?! (Laughing) And not only that, “I’m going to lose that blessing. I’m going to get a curse. I’m not going to get a blessing.” I love the fact that Jacob doesn’t seem to mind being a deceiver. He just doesn’t want to be seen as one. Now, we laugh at that, but I’m thinking there’s a lot of people like that, aren’t there? They are more interested in what they seem to be than what they really are. And, “What will people think of me?” And the bottom line is, who cares what people think of you? What does the Lord think of you? What matters is what God thinks of you." -JA
"This guy is a spiritual fraud, now, that is bringing the name of the Lord into his conversation to further his agenda. Right? In every biblical sense, this is taking the name of the Lord in vain. More than swearing, this is it. This is using God’s supposed involvement to move forward your own agenda." -JA
"He goes by what he feels - not by what he senses in his heart, by what he hears. Your feelings will let you down a lot. God’s Word will never let you down. So, if you’re looking to grow spiritually, you certainly want to establish your heart, not based on how you feel but upon what God says, because feelings tend to change with circumstance." -JA
"You can’t live by your feelings. Isaac went by his feelings. He felt. He went, “Oh, oh, yeah. All right. I guess I can put the fact that he’s got a squeaky voice out of my head. And he doesn’t sound a bit like Esau. He sounds like that little pansy, Jacob, mama likes so much.” (Laughing) It’s how he felt about him, right? But, you know, he feels like he’s the right guy so “I gotta go by that.” And how difficult for us to grow spiritually, but how easy it is to go by your feelings when you’re separated from God in your heart. So, you hear people sometimes sharing what they believe about God, but it isn’t based upon the Scriptures. It’s based upon how they felt last night at the meeting." -JA
"Now, you read this, and you want to say to yourself, “Well it sure sounds like Jacob and Rebekah had their way. Lies and deception worked.” Well, Hebrews says it is now an action of faith upon Isaac’s part that he leaves the blessing the way it was. He could have retracted it because it was deceptive. He could have said, “Okay, I was fooled. That was my intention. You can’t hold me to that.” But he doesn’t. He leaves it the way that it is solely because he realizes that God is in this thing."-JA
"Herod was the last Edomite, so that’s the Edomite line."-JA
"There’s a Scripture in Malachi 1:1-4a where we read these words, “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. ‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. ‘Yet you say, “In what way have You loved us?” ‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ says the LORD. ‘Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.’ Even though Edom has said, ‘We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.’ ” And people have a problem with that. They say, “Well the Lord said he loved Jacob and hated Esau.” I’ve got a problem with it too. I’ve got a problem with ‘He loved Jacob.’ This guy’s a crook. Jacob is just an absolute crook. People that get too worried about Esau…….”Well, how could you hate Esau?” How could He love Jacob? That’s my problem right there. I’m just trying to clear that 18 up for you."-JA
"And like I said, by the time you get to the end of chapter 27, only Isaac is sure that God would have His way. Nice to leave Isaac in that condition because the only thing we learn of him beyond this is that he dies. But the rest are off, still scheming, plotting of their own ways."-JA
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