Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I'm Rich Young iii. And this is an amazing thing.
[00:00:17] I am here to facilitate learning the word of God on a fundamental level.
[00:00:23] So join me and let's grow together and build a relationship with our creator.
[00:00:29] And that starts now.
[00:00:37] Hello everybody and welcome to an Amazing Thing. Thank you for joining me. This is our midweek continual Bible study show where we continue from where we left off last week in the beginning. Lesson number seven.
[00:00:51] What is God looking for in us? Or what does God want with me? And so this is where we'll begin here. Last week. Let's review a little bit. Last week we began talking about belief.
[00:01:04] We knew that Abraham believed God was counted unto him for righteousness. And that's the one thing that God is looking for in all of our relationships with him is belief or faith, which is the same thing.
[00:01:18] And God continues to talk about the, the reward of belief in our growing in our relationship with God them. But there's also repercussions of us deciding not to believe.
[00:01:30] The Bible says that all unbelievers, murderers, whore among us and all liars should have their part in the lake that burneth with brimstone and fire. So we know that that's one of the repercussions of us not believing. And a tradition of humankind has been for a long time, if I say I don't believe something, that I'm relieved of the responsibility of that truth. But that's not true.
[00:01:56] The truth is the truth whether I believe it or not. And we saw from the scripture I just read that there is a repercussion of not believing it. And so. And belief is not a chemical reaction to us something that just happens when something's true.
[00:02:14] Belief is a decision that we make. We know we have a written word, God, everything God wants us to know is in his word. So I can choose to believe that word or I can choose not to believe it. And a lot of times we have things that we do and we put in as an excuse or to justify ourselves. If I believe this, that's going to cause me to have to do this particular thing. Because belief is always.
[00:02:44] Belief is not belief unless it's connected to a corresponding work.
[00:02:49] So our definition of belief is to come to a conclusion in our minds. God's definition is to come to a conclusion in our minds along with a physical activity that corresponds to what we say we believe.
[00:03:02] So belief requires an action. When God told Abraham, I'm going to show you this letter, Abraham started walking. So that showed God that he believed him.
[00:03:10] And so Therefore, belief is a very, very important thing. And God spends a lot of time talking about belief also too. When we believe something and we are on the right path to building that relationship, God through belief, who we connect ourselves to is a correlation to that. The Bible says, don't be unequally yoked with non believers. And so that means that I can't really connect myself to a believer or to an unbeliever without there's being some repercussions. The Bible says you'll learn their ways. And so we, we, we certainly don't want to do that.
[00:03:50] Also, to the correct belief leads us to know how to choose the correct yoking that we need to do. We see an example here, Esau, who takes not only one wife, but two wife of the heathen people that are surrounding them.
[00:04:09] When we know that Isaac has told him, don't make it take a wife of these heathenistic Hittite girls. And he does it anyway.
[00:04:17] And so that's where we'll begin this. Here. Now we, we prepare. Isaac prepares to give Esau the blessing. Esau, being the oldest brother, he has all of the benefits of being the oldest son. He, the oldest son is usually the priest of the family. He usually gets a double port portion of whatever the other children get. The other sons just say, if my dad owned 40 acres and it was three of us, I would get 20 acres and the two younger brothers would get 10 acres apiece. And so that is a part of the reward of being the firstborn. When you talk about being the priest of the family, we know that he is becomes the patriarch of the family and leads the family to what they ought to do.
[00:05:02] And so it's a great responsibility that goes along with being this. Okay, now Isaac tells Esau, esau, I want to get this done. I want to pass on the blessing to you, but let's have a, a party. Let's go get, get some of that venison and make that meal that I like.
[00:05:20] And so Esau gets everything ready, goes out and starts hunting. Rebecca, Esau's wife, she, her favorite is Jacob. So she tells Jacob, your dad is getting ready to give Esau the blessing. We're going to take it from him. I want you to go kill two kids of the goats. You're going to bring it in. I'm going to show you how to prepare it the way he likes it. Plus we're going to take the skins from the goat. We're going to wrap it on your arms and on your neck so that your dad thinks that you're Esau. And that way Esau smells like a goat anyway. So he. That'd be one other thing that you don't have to do. And so he says, well, mom, if dad finds out I'm tricking him, he's gonna curse me instead of bless me. She says, do what I tell you. Let the curse be upon me. And he does it. And they go forth, and that's what they do.
[00:06:13] Esau is still out hunting. Jacob has prepared the meal. Obviously, Rebecca knows how to prepare the vent that the. She uses keys of the goat, but she knows how to prepare that. Her dad doesn't. I mean, her husband Isaac doesn't know the difference. And. And he can't really see all that well. So therefore he don't. He. He won't recognize it. And so they try and pull this off. They go in and Jacob takes the. The plate of the kids of the goat in and says, this me. I'm here with the meal. He said, who is this? Your firstborn, Esau. He said, you don't sound like Esau. Yeah, it's me.
[00:06:49] And so he goes in, his dad, touches his arms and his neck, and he says, what it is Esau. And they have the meal. And then he performs the blessing that. The blessing that God first gave Abraham. He passed it on to Isaac. Now he's passing that blessing on to Jacob. And so I'm gonna read here just the last verse of the blessing.
[00:07:11] And there's a. Quite a bit above this, but this last verse is all that's needed to. For us to get a sense of what this means here.
[00:07:18] This is Genesis 27, verses 29.
[00:07:21] Let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed is every man that curse of thee. Blessed is every man that blesseth thee.
[00:07:29] So Jacob has just supplanted his brother. He received the blessing that God gave to Abraham and Isaac. Now it's his blessing.
[00:07:39] Now, God loves the fact that Jacob desires the spiritual things, but he doesn't like the part of Jacob that is willing to supplant his brother and trick people out of what it is that. That he's trying to. To get here. And we know that in this blessing says, those that bless thee will be blessed, and those who curses thee will be cursed. Well, we know that the United States of America is one of the most blessed nations on earth. And that blessing has come to us because we're Israel's friend.
[00:08:10] And that's a big part of what. What our blessings is in this country, along with our Christian belief system.
[00:08:20] And along with that, we are blessed. But that's a big part of our blessing there. So now Esau comes back.
[00:08:26] He. He prepares the meal. He goes into his dad and says, dad, I'm here for the receive the blessings and have the meal. He said what?
[00:08:33] He said, I'm here to have the meal. And then Isaac realized what has happened.
[00:08:38] He realizes that your brother's already been here and he's received the blessings and he will be blessed. Isaac knew how important that was. And so this so angers Esau. He says, I'm going to kill him the day my daddy dies. Is the day we gonna have two funerals that day, because I'm gonna kill him. Jacob. Rebecca hears Esau make that threat, and so she gets Jacob says, you gotta leave here and go to my brother in Haran, and I'll send for you. When things die down, your brother wants to kill you. And so that's what they do.
[00:09:15] And did the scripture that says that, it's gonna be Genesis 27, 42 and 43. Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching, does comfort himself on in a purpose to kill you.
[00:09:29] Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise and flee to Laban, my brother in Haran.
[00:09:36] And so that's what she does. She instructs him to run and lets him know when things die down, if it ever does, I sin for you and whatnot.
[00:09:45] Isaac instructs Jacob to take a wife. While if you want to be married over there, you are at the people that don't have hedonistic beliefs, so take a wife while you're there. Of our family.
[00:09:57] So we know that all the people that were surrounding them, where they were then, were people of a hedonistic type belief system.
[00:10:07] We know that it was a grief of man to Isaac that Esau had taken not one, but two daughters of the hedonistic Hittite people that they were surrounded by. So he's instructing him, don't do what your brother did, you know, and do something like, we'll sinful. We'll send word when it's time to come home.
[00:10:25] And so now, as Jacob is running for his life, he walks all day. He gets to a place where he has to rest for the night. So he wraps his jacket around a rock and goes to sleep. And this is what he dreamed here. This is Genesis chapter 28, verses 12 and 13. And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set up on the earth.
[00:10:48] And the top reached unto heaven. Behold the angels of God ascending and descending. And behold the Lord Stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. And the land where thou lightest to thee will I give it into thy seed. Well, it looks like now God is making his covenant with Jacob. Now, he's already made the covenant with Abraham. Now to Isaac and to Jacob, God does not only want to be our parents, God, he wants to be our God and the God of our children.
[00:11:27] So now Jacob is coming to this realization that, you know, he has to know that every point in everybody's life, we have to not stand on what our parents believed. And that's something that we hear out of the mouth of people all the time. You start talking about spiritual things, and they start talking about the Bible studies their granddaddy taught and what their mama believes and all these kinds of things. But they never really go off into too much about what they believe and what their relationship with the Lord is. And God is looking for a relationship with us, not just our parents. And so every person has to come to that point for ourselves and build that relationship. And we have to examine our traditions that we've learned and whether they're true or not. That's something we talk about quite a lot here.
[00:12:15] Traditions and belief systems. You know, a tradition is anything that we believe for a long period of time.
[00:12:22] You know, I believe that four times 10 is 40. That's been my tradition since the fourth grade. And that's an easy example for us to really, really get.
[00:12:32] Look at what our belief system and our traditions are.
[00:12:36] So God won't buy it. Because in a tradition, we have to come to a belief system that's based on our relationship with God, a true relationship. And so that's what we have to do. God says, let.
[00:12:49] Let every man be a liar. Let God be true and let every man be a liar. Well, you know, some people who believe in things that can't possibly be the truth, some people have a distorted view of whatever our belief system is. Some people have half truths. Well, I have truth in the midst of a truth, all of this lie. And so, you know, especially when we talk about spiritual things and where we'll end up, everybody has to spend eternity somewhere. That's a part of the doctrine that we have to understand.
[00:13:22] So we have a.
[00:13:25] We have to learn to believe God. And he can guide our steps and help us make the correct decisions that we need to make among everything here.
[00:13:37] So Jacob is there. He's had this dream. He wakes up the next morning, and this is Genesis 28, 16, 19, and Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew it not.
[00:13:52] And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven.
[00:14:00] He called that place Bethel, which means the house of God. So Jacob sees things in a spiritual way much different than his brother.
[00:14:11] So God is establishing himself. He's made the covenant with Jacob now. So now the God of your father, I'm gonna be your God too. And so now Jacob sees the world in a spiritual way. He knows that God is God. And now God has to proceed to not only be Jacob's God, but to.
[00:14:30] To enhance the things that he likes about Jacob, but also to take away the things from Jacob that he does not like.
[00:14:37] And so that's what God is about to do now in this situation here.
[00:14:42] Okay, so Jacob gets to his Uncle Laban's house. He meets Rachel for the first time. She's a beautiful woman, and he falls instantly in love with her.
[00:14:52] And so he goes to her father and says, what do I have to do to have Rachel's hand in marriage? Laban, who is a more powerful trickster than Jacob ever thought about being, said, you work for seven years, and you can have her. And so he goes on and works and works and works. And so he serves seven years for Rachel, and he loves her so much. The seven years seems like only but a few days.
[00:15:17] And so that's the way things are when you're in love with somebody. You know, you working toward that, you know you're going to have that relationship that you. You want. And so it passed by very, very quickly. And so they have the ceremony. And in those days, in their tradition, the bride during the ceremony is veiled. And so you take your bride, you have the party, she's veiled, and you go into your tent, your honeymoon tent, and you're in the complete dark. So you. That's the way they did things. So Jacob wakes up the next morning. He's in bed with Leah. He screams, and I'm sure he did. And he says, what are you doing here?
[00:15:50] And so he goes to Laban. What did you do?
[00:15:53] He said, it's not in our tradition to give the younger daughter first.
[00:15:57] I. I told you you could have her for seven years. And you can. You just got to work another seven years. You got Leah, she's the oldest. And we, in our tradition, we give the oldest daughter first.
[00:16:07] So now Jacob, he loves Rachel so much, he proceeds to continue to work and he, Leah is his wife. And they start having children. And so.
[00:16:18] And that's. They. They go throughout this relationship.
[00:16:24] And so. But Jacob starts to see now the supplanter has become the supplanted. And that Jake, that Laban was something else. And he. He changed Jacob's late wages several times and whatnot. He goes on and he works seven more years and he gets Rachel. And then they get married and they do the things the word of God says. We reap what we sow.
[00:16:51] So Jacob did not want Leah. Now she is his wife.
[00:16:55] But I heard a wise man say one time, a man who's had others knows when he's been had. And so he goes ahead on with it and builds a family with these two wives. And he's starting to add to his family here.
[00:17:10] So Jacob fulfills the week to get rich. And this is Genesis 29:28. And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week and gave Rachel, his daughter, also to wife.
[00:17:23] So that's where Jacob is now. He's now has the wife that he truly loves. And he has to love Leah too. You can't live with somebody for seven years and have them as your wife. You're having children and not care. I mean, so I. I know he loves her.
[00:17:38] So he's worked for labor now 14 years now. Laban is starting to us, you know, to give him a wage now. He's not working for his daughters now he's working to provide for his family.
[00:17:50] So Laban tells himself, since you're working here, we'll split the herd up, the sheep and the goats, all the ones that are black as yours and all the ones as white as man. And when all the black one starts having more babies than white, he said, no, I didn't mean. I meant the opposite to that.
[00:18:06] So all the white ones is yours, all the black ones, man. Then the white one start having. It just goes on and on. He changed his wages 10 times.
[00:18:13] But Jacob is so blessed until he prospers, even though his uncle is a worse trickster than he ever thought about being.
[00:18:23] And so time goes on, and God lets Jacob know that it's time to go meet your brother.
[00:18:30] And so you got to get right with this. Your dad is still alive, so you got to try to fix this thing.
[00:18:36] So this is Genesis, chapter 32, verses 9 through 12. And Jacob said, o God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saith unto me, return unto thy country and into thy kindred, and I will deal with thee. Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, the mother of with the children.
[00:19:05] And I surely will serve thee.
[00:19:09] And God says, I will surely be with thee and make thee of the sands of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And that's a poor reading again, so forgive me for that one. But God tells him to go back. I'm going to be with you, and so go on back with him. So in the midst of Jacob, standing on God's promise there, he depends on God keeping his promise. Because if God doesn't keep his promise, then that could mean, you know, a lot of trouble for him as well as his children. And we'll be right back after this message.
[00:19:52] In our fast paced world, we're constantly bombarded with news reports from around the world.
[00:19:57] But none of those traditional news sources understand what's going on in the world from a biblical perspective.
[00:20:05] So here at an Amazing Thing, we'll bring to you special reports that we like to call moments of clarity.
[00:20:13] When events happen around the world that relate to Bible prophecy and where we are on God's prophetic time clock, we will bring you that report and explain how it does.
[00:20:23] So subscribe to an Amazing Thing and you won't miss a thing.
[00:20:39] Remember, we bring you three shows per week, so make sure you, like, subscribe, ring that bell whatever you do, where you receive your video content and podcast and make sure you tell your friends so they can be a part of our show and a part of our amazing thing. Family. Thank you so much.
[00:21:02] Okay, and we're back now. Now Jacob is on his way back home and he's gonna meet his brother along the way. So they get to this brook and Jacob sends his family across, he breaks them up into a couple of different sections of people. So if Jacob, if Esau comes and starts killing the wives and the kids and whatnot, the other ones will see it and be able to get away.
[00:21:28] And so he sends his family over. He stays on this side. It's pitch black, dark. And so he stays there for the night.
[00:21:36] And.
[00:21:38] And so I'm going to read this. This is Genesis 32, 20, 24 and 26. And Jacob was left alone and him until the breaking of the day. And he said unto him, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I would not let thee go except the bless thee. Bless me. Now jump the gun a little bit. Let me explain what this is here. Jacob, after he sends the family over A man shows up and starts wrestling with him in the middle of the night. Now it's pitch black. He can't see who it is, and so he's wrestling with him. And they wrestle all night long. I don't know if Jacob had him in the figure 4 leg lock or the Boston Crab, but he gets the best of him here. And. And so the man he's wrestling with says, let me go for the daybreaker. Jacob says, I will not let you go until you bless me. So Jacob obviously has some idea of what's going on here. And so he's in the midst of this wrestling match, and God is wrestling with Jacob is what the word says. It didn't say Jacob wrestled with the. With the angel. The Bible says the angel wrestled with Jacob. The name Jacob means tricketer. So he's gonna wrestle that trickster out of him. And Jacob has already shown some change. He's broke the family up in a way to where everybody won't. He's not just concerned about himself like when he went over there. Now he's concerned about his family as well as himself.
[00:23:00] So God doesn't want to remove the good things out of Jacob, but he wants to enhance the spiritual things. So all of our lives, we will go through tribulations and testings of things in our own life. And God is trying to not only correct us, but reprove us, lead us to know what true belief and true understanding of his Word is.
[00:23:25] And so that is what Jacob is doing with. With.
[00:23:28] That's what God is doing with Jacob here. But only now he's dealing with a physical people at this time. So he's wrestling physically with Jacob here.
[00:23:39] And so this is what happens at the end of the wrestling match. This is Genesis 32, 27 and 28. And he said unto him, this is the. The angel talking to Jacob. He said, what is your name?
[00:23:53] And he said, jacob.
[00:23:55] And he said, thy name is no more. Jacob.
[00:23:59] Most of that negative stuff that you had in you now is gone. I like that. I'm going to rename you Israel, for you are a prince with man, and you are prince with God.
[00:24:11] Well, we can know from that statement that God is making with him.
[00:24:17] That is to the. We learned that the Bible deals with two subject matters, me and God. Me and you, our fellow man and our relationship with God. So God says, you have prevailed with me, therefore you have prevailed with man as well. So you're a prince.
[00:24:37] And so that's where we are now. So after he says, what is your name? Your Name is Jacob, but it's for a prince. You have your. You have prevailed with God and have prevailed with man. And so a name change after that. So it's been 20 years since Jacob left and went there. So he has spent 20 years with God transforming him to a better person.
[00:25:03] He has a, a name change.
[00:25:09] And also what we've done here, he's had a fervent night of prayer, so the Bible says. He wrestled with this angel all night long. So the Bible says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And this is prayer, any kind of communication, or whether we on our knees praying to God, whether we're discussing something with him, whether, however it turns out, that is prayer is communicating with God.
[00:25:40] The Bible says Adam and Eve walk with God in the cool of the day. That was prayer. They were talking about something while they were walking.
[00:25:47] So God won't reveal his name to Jacob. God has already asked Jacob, what's your name? He says, my name is Jacob. He says, no more. Your name has now been changed to Israel. So Jacob said, what's your name?
[00:25:59] And so let me read this. This is Genesis 32:29. And Jacob asked him, and tell me, I pray thee, that name.
[00:26:08] And he says, wherefore is it that thou does ask me after my name?
[00:26:14] And he blessed Jacob there. He never told his name and he didn't tell it this time here. So God's name is going to be a big part of what he's building in his relationship not only with Jacob and his family, but with all of us.
[00:26:27] And that is going to be a big thing as we go throughout these Bible studies so that we can understand the things that God would have us to know here.
[00:26:38] And so God keeps his name a secret. Only titles and attributes will we hear throughout the rest of the Old Testament study here that we're in. So now we get to the point where Jacob meets Esau. This is Genesis chapter 33, verse 3 and 4.
[00:26:56] And he passed over before them.
[00:26:59] He's got to meet his brother now. He's passed over before his children and wives who were before and bowed to the ground seven times until he came near his brother. And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, fell on his neck and kissed him, you know, now he's all right with God, now he's alright with his brother. And that must have been an amazing sight to see these two men who hadn't seen each other in 20 years, like laying out in the road, kissing each other.
[00:27:30] So that's an amazing thing. So when Jacob became right with God, he became. It became easy for him to be right with his brother.
[00:27:38] So the same thing is true in our own lives. If we can be right with God, we can be right with our brother. And so that's a very, very powerful lesson. So Jacob goes back, he has 12 sons.
[00:27:52] So let me read this. This is Genesis, chapter 35, verses 26, 23, 26.
[00:27:58] Now the sons of Jacob were 12.
[00:28:00] The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel are Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaiden was Dan and Nathalia. The sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, were Gadda and Asher.
[00:28:25] And so Jacob has 12 sons and they became the come, the 12 tribes of Israel.
[00:28:31] Now we get to the part where Isaac dies and Jacob is back. He's got to see his father, Isaac. Isaac is old, very, very old. This is Genesis 35, 23, 26. Now this, I'm sorry.
[00:28:45] 35, 27, 29.
[00:28:48] So Genesis 30, 35, 27, 29. And Jacob came unto Isaac his father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbaoth, which is in Hebron. And Abraham and Isaac.
[00:29:04] And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years.
[00:29:09] And Isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days.
[00:29:17] Esau and Jacob buried him.
[00:29:20] Esau and Jacob buried their father together there. And so they were able to put their differences behind them.
[00:29:29] And we all want to be right with God in our lives so that we can be right with our brothers.
[00:29:34] We want to continue to believe God, grow in his word, grow in our knowledge of him.
[00:29:42] Believe and stop making believe a a chemical reaction and believe what God has shown us.
[00:29:51] And all these things are so fantastic. And I hope that you're enjoying these studies. We have a ways to go, but we're going through a little bit at a time in continuous fashion so we can build our relationship with God that way. And so I hope you enjoyed this. And we'll be right back after this message.
[00:30:18] Remember, we bring you three shows per week, so make sure you like, subscribe, ring that bell, whatever you do, where you receive your video content and podcast and make sure you tell your friends so they can be a part of our show and a part of our amazing thing family.
[00:30:34] Thank you so much.
[00:30:44] In our fast paced world, we're constantly bombarded with news reports from around the world.
[00:30:49] But none of those traditional news sources understand what's going on in the world from a biblical perspective.
[00:30:57] So here at An Amazing Thing, we'll bring to you special reports that we like to call moments of Clarity.
[00:31:05] When events happen around the world that relate to Bible prophecy and where we are on God's prophetic time clock. We will bring you that report and explain how it does.
[00:31:15] So subscribe to an Amazing Thing and you won't miss a thing.
[00:31:37] Well, everyone, that brings us to the end of our show today.
[00:31:40] I hope you found this show a blessing.
[00:31:44] Be sure and subscribe to the show however you receive your podcast and video content.
[00:31:51] Be sure and tell your friends and family, be safe and we'll see you next time. And remember, make it an amazing day today. We'll see you next time.
[00:32:16] Sam.
