Week 3

Someone had a great question this week: is everything happening right now in Genesis in chronological order? Yes! This is now a history of God's revelation of his covenant through Noah, then Abraham, and we will go on in Exodus to read the covenant with Moses and then David. Those are your markers to keep the order/chronology in place. When we read about Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, we are reading about the progeny of Abraham under his covenant.

The subject of this big chunk of scripture is Jacob. Jacob is the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. So now we are into the third generation of the covenant promise. Jacob's life is one of the most detailed of all the Patriarchs. In his story we have a few things going on.

• He was chosen while in the womb. He was a twin. Esau was born first, but Jacob will be the chosen one through whom the covenant promises will pass. This is revealed to Rebekah in a prayer, when she sought the Lord about what was going on in her womb. God reveals to her that there are two nations inside of her. And "the elder shall serve the younger". Again, early on, God is showing he goes outside of cultural norms - he does not choose the firstborn, but the younger, to be the bearer of his covenant. God makes it so before they have any opportunity to prove their worth.

• Jacob's name literally means "deceiver". He appears to resemble his name in character. He deceives Esau out of his birthright and his blessing, rightfully due to the firstborn son. He is a willful player in Rebekah's scheme to deceive Isaac into giving the blessing to Jacob rather than Esau. This will create such hatred between the brothers that Esau will begin plotting his murder. Rebekah will send him off to find a wife from her families clan in Haran. He is cunning and will use deceit with Laban (his father-in-law) as well. they both try to outwit each other, but Jacob will end up on top. It is ironic, however, that Laban will also be just as deceitful as Jacob, as he ends up tricking Jacob into marrying Leah first, then working another seven years for Rachel.

• The theme of favoritism plays out in this narrative. Clearly, each parent has a favorite. Isaac prefers Esau; Rebekah prefers Jacob. Jacob will favor Rachel heavily over Leah. And Leah will have to bargain with Rachel for her marital rights later on. And towards the end of our reading, we see that Jacob has a favorite child - Joseph because he was the son of his old age and the only son at the time of his favorite wife. We see the devastating impacts of favoritism on a family. Jacob's favoritism towards Joseph insights such hatred and jealousy among his 10 other brothers that they plot to kill him. We learn throughout Scripture that God does not show favoritism. He is impartial mediator of justice. He causes the sun to shine on both the godly and the ungodly and the rain to fall on both the godly and the ungodly.

• Theme of barrenness plays out in these patriarch families - Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel are all struggling with barrenness. Rachel will die in childbirth. Perhaps this is so the covenant promises must be shown to come about in miraculous ways - not anything man can determine.

• Jacob's encounters with God. In the first one in Ch. 28, Jacob is fleeing the wrath of Esau. Rebekah has sent him back to her family to find him a wife from her clan. Along the way, God comes to Jacob in a dream at Bethel. He dreamed that there was a ladder set up on earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God ascending and descending on it." Jesus will make reference to this image in John 1:51 "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Jesus is calling himself that ladder, that bridge between heaven and earth. The only way there could be a bridge between the human and the divine. God reaffirms the covenant of Abraham with Jacob, and then he adds to it. He says, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you." The next time God appears to Jacob, it is when he is returning to the land he left, he is returning to his father Isaac. As he leaves Laban ch. 32:1 says, "Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him and when Jacob saw them he said, "this is God's camp!" So God appears on his way out, to affirm to him that he will protect him and bring him back safely. And then he appears on his way back. Both times, Jacob is frightened. He is fleeing his father-in-law and he is terrified of Esau. He has escaped Esau's wrath by fleeing to be with his mom's family and finding wives for himself. Also God has favored him and blessed him. He leaves with nothing, and comes back a very wealthy man. He has accumulated great wealth from Laban. It is time to separate from Laban and he leaves to come home with a very full household and great wealth. And yet, he is terrified of Esau. He fears Esau will kill him. So afraid is he, that he sends loads of gifts ahead of him to try to appease Esau's wrath. He divides his children and assets up to send them in waves. And just before he encounters his twin brother for the first time, he came[s across the ford of the Jabbok river. He sends all his family, all his goods across the river, and he alone is there. And that night "a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him." The man asks to be let go, and Jacob says, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man says, "What is your name?" My name is Jacob. And the man changes his name. "You shall no longer be called deceiver, you shall be called Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed." Jacob clearly believes this stranger to be God or someone very close to God, like an angel… "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The next time Jacob will say something like this is in the next chapter when Esau runs to meet him and falls on his neck and kisses him and weeps over him, and shows him great mercy. Esau is not angry. Esau has forgiven. Esau doesn't need gifts to appease his anger. And Jacob tries to give him all the lavish gifts he has designated. Esau refuses, and says, "I have enough, my brother". And Jacob says, "please, brother, please take them. For truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God - since you have received me with such favor." So Jacob's experience with God at this point has been one of great mercy and forgiveness. Despite his deceitful nature, God has blessed him and provided for him, and kept his promises to him. in the same way, Esau has forgiven him and received him home. And then finally, God tells Jacob (ch.35) to go back to Bethel, the place where he first met Jacob on his way out, and settle there, and make an altar there. Jacob will instruct his household to get rid of all their idols, to purify themselves, change their clothes, and go with him to make an altar the God who had proved himself faithful to him in his distress and had fulfilled his promises to him. And God appears to Jacob again at Bethel and he blesses him: "You name is Jacob; no longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name… I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply (like Adam and Eve and Noah); a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you. that land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you."

• Jacob will become the father of the 12 tribes of Israel: his first four sons will comes from Leah. Reuben (will sleep with his father's concubine, Rachel's maidservant), Simeon (plots against Joseph), Levi (also plots), and Judah (this is the one through whom the covenant promise will pass, kid #4 who also has his own troubles in chapter 38. He is the one who marries a Canaanite woman, and marries his firstborn son, Onan to Tamar. We have discussed her many times in Epic of Eden. God strikes Onan down because of his wickedness. She will be given by Judah, her father-in-law, to his next eldest son, in keeping with the leverite law. That son refuses to get her pregnant, by letting his seed fall to the ground, and God will smite him as well for such an evil act. He is refusing to fulfill his role as kinsmen redeemer. So now she is sent back to her father's house until his last son, his youngest grows up and can marry. But he has no intention of carrying through. She knows it. She's in a world of hurt. She is without a social and security net now. She has no way to support herself, she will be destitute. She is in crisis. And Judah is refusing to give her her rights under leverite law. So she takes matters into her own hands. She disguises herself as a prostitute, Judah - the one from whom the covenant will pass - propositions her, gets her pregnant, and when he finds out Tamar is pregnant, he calls her out to be killed, and she reveals to him who it is that got her pregnant. And he realizes, she is right and not him. Righteousness means obeying the law. She was righteous. He was deceiving. He was not righteous. Again, not the most worthy, but chosen nonetheless. Sons # 5 (Dan) and #6 (Naphtali) come from Rachel's maidservant. Sons # 7(Gad) and #8 (Asher) come from Leah's maidservant. Sons #9 (Isachaar) and (Zebulon) will come from Leah again. Then comes Dinah. Finally, God remembers Rachel and she will have Joseph, #11. Benjamin will come much later as #12, and Rachel will die giving birth to him. These names will be associated with the 12 tribes of Israel (although we will discover that the Levites will become the priests, they have a special designation as God honors them for an action in the wilderness. And there will not be a tribe named after Joseph, but after his two sons - Ephraim and Menassah.) Marks Gospel: Mark 11 - Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Is hailed as king. His entry echoes Zech 9:9 which describes a humble, triumphant king. Interestingly, the first thing Jesus does is go straight to the temple. What follows is back and forth movement of Jesus into the temple, then out to Bethany, then back to the temple the next day. ALL OF JESUS TEACHING IN CHAPTERS 11- 13 TAKE PLACE IN THE TEMPLE. Jesus is teaching in this segment as Israel's king. This gives all of his teaching here added authority. Temples in the ancient world typically had relationships to kings: kings built temples, consecrated temples, protected temples, remodeled temples, rebuilt temples, were named after kings ("Solomon's temple", "Herod's temple") Therefore, as Israel's king, Jesus would have had a perfect right (in God's eyes and his eyes) to enter the temple and take charge of its health. Jesus enters huge temple complex and causes a stir. He appears angry and quotes Jeremiah's temple sermon in chapter 7 where Jeremiah accuses Israel of turning the temple into a den of thieves. They do this by showing up all the time in their religiosity, but in their hearts they are far from God. They appear pious, but they do nothing to care for the poor while all the while worshipping idols. Notice that this happens between the two mentions of the fig tree. He curses the fig tree, then goes into the temple, then explains the curse. They must be related. Since the fig tree was often a symbol for Israel, it appears that Jesus is relating the temple and his role as Israel's king. It seems as though Jesus is saying that Israel (as represented by the temple) is no longer a sufficient method through which God's redemption plan can be carried out. He seems to be predicting the temple's desolation.

Mark 11:20-25 READ

This at first sounds like a blank check about prayer… but anyone who has tested God in this, has seen that it does not happen. If we literally pray for a mountain to be moved, in faith, it probably doesn't move. What is this mountain? Some think Jesus is specifically referring to the temple mount there in Jerusalem. But most likely, Jesus is teaching more generally about prayer. He may have been pointing to a specific mountain nearby, not to limit his promise to it, but to use it as an example of any monumental challenge that disciples might face.

Some points:

• Jesus explicitly names HIMSELF as the guarantor: "I tell you" Jesus puts his reputation on the line. Notice the power is not in the word we use but in Jesus' power.

• He eyeballs the disciples right in front of him "You".

• He is emphasizing the power and the scope of his promise about prayer. This is a massive miracle, for a mountain to move.

• "ask whatever you wish", must be taken in the context of scripture. Clearly, the request must conform to the nature of God's love, God's truth, God's purposes, God's gospel, God's holiness. Notice Jesus does not answer James and John's "wish" to be on his left and right in his kingdom. This is because they miss the point of God's kingdom.

• Also, there is a condition here to answered prayer: forgiveness. The effectiveness of our prayers depends on the nature of our relationship to others. If you have hate in your heart, probably God won't hear your prayers. We have already seen that Jesus did not answer prayers flowing out of greed or desires for power or prestige, the requests by James and John. But he did answer blind Bartimeaus request to see. EFFECTIVE PRAYER REQUIRES A PURE HEART. Remember in James, he talks about the prayers of a righteous person are very powerful. So ironic, that the more humble we are the more powerful our prayers. The more selfless, the more God hears.

• It is clear by this teaching that Jesus intends for the righteous to ask largely and receive largely. That is why we gather for healing services at our church. We are asking large things. We are supposed to do this. Very confusing chapter 13!

First, it is important to note that there are many differing opinions in Christian thought about the "end times". We call this the study of eschatology.

In this chapter, Jesus is talking about the destruction of 2 things: the temple and the return of the Son of Man.

How to interpret this chapter? 3 options

• The destruction of the temple has already taken place (in AD 70), while the coming of the Son of Man is still future to us.

• Clues that Jesus prediction of the temple destruction has already happened, and was a local catastrophe that happened in 70. o the expression "desolating sacrilege" in v.14 is code language for the destruction of the temple borrowed from Daniel 7:27, 11:31, 12:11). This was already understood in Jesus day. o Jesus warns followers to flee from Judea to the hills. This implies a local crises, that the disciples could actually escape from. If this were a global crises, there would be no point in trying to escape. o Instructions are counter-intuitive: if Judeans heard there was an encroaching army, instinct says to run inside the gates and bar oneself in. Jesus is here saying flee to the hills. Since one would only survive by fleeing to the hills, the pregnant and those carrying young children would be particularly at risk.

• Clues that the coming of the Son of Man is a global event, disconnected from the destruction of the Temple. o V. 24 tells us that the Son of Man will come "after" the destruction of the city, but does not tell us how long after. Jesus clearly envisions some time passing (v.12-23) implying these two events are not related chronologically. o Vv. 28-31they are told to look for signs that can tell the careful observer that something is about to happen. BUT IN vv. 32-37, they are told that no signs can tell us when the Son of Man will return.

• Jesus disciples within 40 years would see specific signs that would warn them to flee Jerusalem for their own safety. But none of the disciples would/will ever know the timing for the return of the Son of Man. The Father alone knows; therefore, they must be ready.

How do we interpret the turmoil in the beginning of the chapter? Are these signs of the end? There are 3 categories of turmoil: appearance of false messiahs, political and natural upheavals, and persecution. In each case, Jesus makes it clear that these things are not "the end". Disciples are to be faithful, free of anxiety, unalarmed. There will be no way to predict the end. Others may think so, but not even terrible turmoil will give us a clue. The normal state of affairs on earth will always involve false messiahs, wars, natural upheavals, and persecution. These have been going on for centuries and will continue to do so. They cannot provide clues for the timing of the coming of the Son of Man. SINCE KNOWING THE TIMING IS IMPOSSIBLE, WE MUST BE READY… THAT IS OUR JOB.