Transcription
So, um, in uh, previous lessons, we were really just establishing um, the idea of how we approach the Bible and how important it is for us not to just read verses in isolation, but that we need to read um, you know, things in context. And we need to read—and when it’s saying read, it’s not a casual observation, but it’s an intentional, in-depth study—um, to get to the understanding that the author intended when the author wrote it. Um, so you know, those are some of the things we focused on. And um, it’s important, even when we read the Epistles, the new—the letters of the New Testament—to understand the background of those letters.
I watched a great video today. Um, I was enjoying it so much until he butchered um, one of the verses; otherwise, I would—I actually liked it. And then I—I took the like off. I was like, okay, I don’t want people to think I agree with everything on this video. Um, and basically everything was good up until he took a verse and just threw it out of context big time. And I was like, if he understood the context—and and people usually do that with such confidence, like throwing something out of context—I mean, I’ve done it often too. Um, and you always do it out of ignorance, don’t you? So you know, it’s so so so important that we um, we we stay humble. Like I remember when I was in um, one of the Bible colleges I was at, I remember one of our lectures saying to—to us that you need to be dogmatic about what you believe, but humble enough to change. So it’s like, what you believe, believe it and be confident about it and be unshakeable about it, but be willing to question it and study it out. And um, and if you see that you’re wrong, be willing to change.
And I remember um, when was it? Um, years—a few years back, maybe two or three now—um, when um, I was teaching something um, that was undoing a teaching that I had done. Um, and um, I remember the guy who I was sitting with one-on-one and explaining this to and saying, “I know I said that, and I know I said this, but this is what I see in the word,” and so this is why I’m telling you because I—I—I want to encourage you to study this out and see what I’m seeing. Um, and his only response to it was um, was, you know, “Even if I don’t agree with you, I can really—I really have a lot of respect for you for being willing to say what I taught there I don’t agree with, and I—I’ve seen it as wrong. So please ignore that teaching, and this is what I see.” And a lot of people kind of would have a—all fall apart because, you know, “I can’t believe you—you didn’t know the truth.” Um, and my response to people on that is just kind of, “Grow up. Nobody has a full Revelation, and we’re growing in our Revelation. And if I think it’s—it’s wise and humility to know, okay, you know what? I was wrong. Let me um, let me rather adjust what I’m—what I’m believing. Let me—let—uh—uh—grow because we haven’t all—we none of us have arrived. We’re all on a journey. Amen.”
So um, when we look at Concepts that are taught and explained, especially in the New Testament books, um, we need to recognize that their origin is in the Old Testament. Any Doctrine in the New Testament finds its roots in Genesis to Malachi; specifically, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And I’ll throw this in just to stretch things out, and I’m not explaining this, but it gives you an opportunity to—to think about it and study it out, but you can even uh—uh—find everything in the first few chapters of Genesis. And so we see that Moses’s style of writing is really—every—builds upon each other, and it’s just further explanation and further explanation and further explanation. You know, I shared this with someone recently—I taught it here—um, and uh, one of the—the—the people I taught it to started running ahead with this, and it’s amazing to see the conclusions that they’re making without me having to make them for them. Um, and that’s the thing is, if your Point of Departure on understanding the word is correct, it’s easy to draw conclusions um, and come to the right conclusions. So yeah, when we uh—uh—read the scriptures, study the scriptures, we—we—we—we need to also realize that the meaning of those terms, the—the meaning of those phrases, um, is according to how they’re used; it’s not according to the Oxford dictionary. Okay, it’s not according to even the Greek dictionary; it’s not according to your Hebrew dictionary. So when we click on the Greek and the Hebrew on your electronic Bible and you see the word there, um, you can’t just take the word that they’ve chosen, and you can’t just take any of the meanings of that word; you have to look at what did the author intend with this context, and then you take the meaning for the context. Okay, like you know, Shakespeare talking about being gay, it means something different—different today; you have to look at the cultural context. Okay.
So one of the ways—um—um, I don’t think we’ve spoken about this yet, but one of the—the ways that—um—um—we see that is in the—the term “eat.” Did we look at this? I see heads shaking. We didn’t look at this in terms of “eat.” Okay, great. If we have, then just put some funny emoji up there or something. But Genesis chapter 2:16 and 17. So let’s start off there. Genesis chapter 2, it says Genesis 2:16 and 17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou—thou shalt surely die.’” Okay. Now the word “eat,” um, now—now let me—let me pause there, and I might get into this again, so it’s good to um, repeat myself, um, but let’s—let’s just think about this for a moment. Okay, what is the message of Genesis 2:16 and 17? Think about it for a moment. I’d love someone to type up there uh, what you think—what is the—what is—what is the author trying to convey to us here? So think about it and type it up, and let’s see—we won’t—uh—uh—put a dunce hat on anybody or kind of out as a um, a heretic, but just uh—um—just—just put down what you think there. What is—what is Moses, who’s writing Genesis—what—what—what is he trying to explain to us here? Okay, some good answers coming out. I don’t see any bad answers yet. Um, you guys have been listening. Um, so—so that’s good. You know, “Don’t doubt God,” um, comes out. Um, some other ones—they’re all good—“Eating is believing,” and “belief and unbelief”—those are all really good answers. And the rest of you are—are worried about saying the wrong thing, so you’re not typing, but um, the—the answer is in 2 Timothy chapter 3:16 or—or 15 and 16. Um, the message of—of anything from Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 to the end of Revelation is salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. That’s the message of the Bible. You—this is—this is what we’ve labored continuously to—to explain to you, to make sure that you understand that. So when we’re reading Genesis 2:16 and 17, we can’t come up with some kind of exotic teachings, as uh—uh—some translations put Hebrews chapter 13, um, verse uh, 8 I think, and 9. We can’t come up with exotic teachings; we have to come up with salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And this is also the only message that you’re authorized to ever teach—ever. You’re not authorized to teach on anything except salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. You—now this will uh, hopefully shake some of you. You can teach on creation if you’re bringing out the deeper meaning of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. If you’re just teaching on creation, even if you’re teaching it to kids—especially if you’re teaching it to kids—you’re teaching on Creation without teaching salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus; you’re um, you’re butchering the word, and you’re doing a disservice to those kids because you’re um, you’re not explaining the actual message of the Bible. Okay. So the Lord God commanded man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in that day thou—thou eatest thou shalt surely die.” So the—the—the word “eat” is implying to consume, to dine, to feed. Okay. And Adam eats from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil in chapter 3, right? Okay. So chapter 3—you go over a couple pages—chapter 3, from verse 6 to 8, it says: “And uh, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and that the tree—a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” So in this account, we see Adam and Eve not dying physically. Okay, they don’t cease to exist after they eat, right? If you read your Bible, you’ll see that that didn’t cease to exist um, as—and—and—but that’s at face value; that’s what the text is suggesting. Okay, that’s what the text is suggesting, but this is water by the way, um, but if we—if we—we—we—we—we—we dig deeper, we realized actually there’s something deeper going on, okay, that is—is really important. So this shows us that statements that Moses makes in any of his writings, we need to look closer at because it’s—it’s—it’s—it’s more than likely metaphorical, okay, because this is his style of writing. So Genesis 5:5, Genesis 5:5: “And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.” Okay. Then you look at Genesis chapter—Genesis—and—and—and God says, you know, “If you eat of this tree, you’ll surely die,” or—or—um—uh—um—let me just find it again here, okay, whatever it says. But evidently what—what we see here is that the writer is not speaking about eating physical fruits from a tree; that’s not the issue here. Okay, the first time I—I—I—someone said that to me, I was offended, and I—I—I—I—I—I didn’t listen to them anymore because I was like, “Come on, man,” um, you know, but as I started to study the word, I started to see this, and I was like, okay, there’s actually more to this. I believe it’s the accounts of creation, but the purpose of it is actually deeper; it’s actually telling us salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And there’s a deeper meaning to “eating.” Okay. And so um, look at verse 17 of chapter 2: “But of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof,” excuse me, “thou shalt surely die.” Did Adam and Eve surely die after they ate of the—the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil? Well, they didn’t die physically. So either the Bible is not making sense; it’s not right, or there’s a deeper meaning, and there has to be a deeper meaning. And most of us have had to explain to us that he died spiritually. Then well, let’s look. Okay, let’s keep looking at this. Okay. Um, so the phrase “eat of” um, is used by uh, Moses, who writes uh, Genesis, um, to explain Adam’s actions of Disobedience towards God’s voice. Now, from other lessons, what is God’s voice? Let’s see if you’ve been listening, or how well you’ve been listening, because I know you’ve been listening. What is the voice of God when we see that terminology in—in—in—in the scriptures? Yes, Lucas, it’s the word; it’s the gospel; it’s the message. Okay. Um, because we often read it, and we think there’s an audible voice coming down from heaven. No. Okay, there was a message that Moses was preaching to the people; there was a message that the prophets were speaking to the people; that message was the voice of God. And that’s the message—you could even say—I’ve never looked at it like this, but you could even say that, you know, um—um—there’s that account in um, Kings where it says, you know, “There’s the fire, there was the earthquake, there was the wind, and then there was a still, small voice.” God wasn’t in the fire; God wasn’t in the earthquake; God wasn’t in the wind, but then a still, small voice. And that’s what—is—is how we look at how God speaks to us. And you know how we use that in the modern church is to say that—and it’s not incorrect; it’s just not completely correct, actually, now that I think about it—but we kind of say that there’s a still, small voice in us, and that’s the voice of the Lord speaking. Yes. But when we study the scriptures, there’s a still, small voice that we often don’t hear because we’re focused in on all these dramatic events, like The Exodus. We—we’re looking at, “Wow, 2.2 million uh—uh—Hebrews escaping from—from—from Pharaoh and going through the—the—the—to the promised land. Isn’t that amazing?” But we’re missing what that story is actually telling us; it’s telling us salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And so we need to learn when we’re studying the scriptures not to be distracted by wind, by the—the—the—the fire—you know, it sounds like Captain Planet—the water—you know, we got to not be distracted by all of these um, events and then listen for the still small message, the still small voice. Okay, I like that anyway. Um, because um, the “eat,” you know, in—in Genesis, it’s saying that that the—the—the—the eating is showing about their Disobedience, and obviously the—potential obedience that they could have had that they didn’t have. Um, so this is why—now he—he—he further explains, and now we can understand this in context. Genesis chapter 3, verse 9 and 10—9-11, let’s look at that. Genesis chapter 3—we’re really going slowly through this, but it’s good. “And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, ‘Where art thou?’ And he said, ‘I heard thy voice in the garden.’” I want to pause there, and you might be saying, “But I thought ‘voice’ meant ‘message.’” Of course it does. Even in the garden, there was a message that Adam and Eve could believe or reject, and they rejected it. And that’s the message of creation; that’s the message of Genesis—of—of the Garden of Eden. They chose to reject—not believe—that’s why they are not mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, because there was no—by faith—anything for Adam and Eve. Just think about that for a moment. I mean, when I first saw that, I was like, “That makes perfect sense now,” you know. Okay, so they weren’t Believers because they didn’t choose to believe what the message that the Lord had spoken to them through uh—uh—um—creation—I don’t know however it was spoken to them. Um, where are we? Verse 10: “And he said, ‘I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ And he said, ‘Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I have commanded thee uh, thou shouldest not eat?’” Okay. So if you look at that, then it’s saying uh—um—“eat.” Now remember, eating and not eating is obedience and Disobedience, right? Okay. So to eat and live is explaining obedience, and to not eat is what brings death, and that’s what Disobedience to the voice of God is. And so we see this very clearly in um—in—for—in—in people’s response to the gospel. They can eat. Now, if you’re thinking about the title what we’re talking about and you’re connecting the dots to what I’m saying now, you should start to think, okay, because we’re talking about the communion table. Okay. So with that being said, now I’ll go back to this and say that “eat and live” is explaining obedience; it’s a positive response to the voice of God, which is the message of God, the gospel. So people hear the gospel—go—El—they believe the gospel; they’re eating, and they’re living; they’re experiencing eternal life. Okay. People who hear the voice of God—they hear the gospel—but they don’t eat—it brings death because they were disobedient. Okay. So let’s um—uh—in the same book, the—the—the Moses is—is—is using these words differently though as well. Okay. So now let’s look at it. Okay. Genesis 24:33: “So you can’t always just take the same application either and use it everywhere; you have to look at what is it meaning in this—this um, context.” Okay. But Genesis 24:33: “And there was set meat before him to eat, and he said, ‘I will not eat until I have told—told mine errand.’ And he—he said, ‘Speak on.’” Okay. And then in 25:34, 25:34: “Then Jacob gave Esau um, bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.” Okay. So in those two instances, um, it’s talking about literal food. Okay. So you have to look—is it talking about it literally, or is it talking about it figuratively? Okay. So in order to understand the word “eat” in Genesis chapter 2 and in Genesis chapter 3, it’s important for us to be patient and um—uh—sorrow in studying out the context and in looking in the—the word. And this is one of the things I can guarantee you that as we go through this, um, we’re going to go through—through it in context; we’re going to go through it thoroughly. I don’t know—previously I’ve taught this a little bit differently, and I’ve taught it—maybe I don’t know—six to eight hours. I’m pretty sure we’ll be longer with it this time because I’ve realized like it’s important to lay an even firmer Foundation. Okay. So um, you—it—it’s possible for us to—to think that Adam and Eve—like—and it’s possible for us just to focus on the fact that they ate literal fruits and died. Okay. But like the phrase “eat of,” like we’ve seen, is—is using that—Moses is using it to teach sin and Disobedience, or sin as Disobedience, sin as unbelief to God’s word, which is God’s voice. Okay. So you know, when we wrongly interpret kind of texts like this, um, it results in wrong beliefs; it results in wrong practices. Um, and the extreme of—of these kind of things is—is an easy one—uh—um—Jesus saying, “You have no part of me unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood.” So then you get a crazy—I’m going to pronounce it wrong, but a crazy—um—Doctrine—uh—what’s it—transubstantiation or whatever they call it—uh, where they believe that the—the—the communion elements are the literal body and the literal blood uh, of Jesus Christ. And I—I was watching a—a Catholic priest speak on this—you know, my—my study isn’t limited to people like me—but I was listening to a Catholic priest speak on these things recently, and um, you know, he said—um—these are some—he was talking about—these are some of the things that um, Catholics need to know, and he went into depth on each. But uh, one of them he was talking about that, and I was like, you know, “That’s where they get it wrong,” one of the ways, because they’re—they’re—they’re—they’re taking it literal when Jesus couldn’t have been talking figuratively; I mean, he couldn’t have been talking literal; he had to have been talking figuratively. Okay. Um, and he said some other interesting things, um, which I won’t get into now, but um, you know, if we want to understand what Moses is writing um, and how he explains what we can call the promise of God, uh, we need to—we need to get deep; we need to go deep. And um, you’ve seen this or you’ve experienced this in Ministry school, and I’m sure at your campus as well, but um—um—too much scripture isn’t bad for you. Anyone who’s ever complained that I use too much scripture when I teach, um, you know, I’ve—after getting to know them a bit, I’ve realized um, that that they need more scripture; they don’t like what I teach because they’re looking for Grace light, not Grace life. Um, so Genesis chapter 1, let’s go from verse 26. Genesis chapter 1. So now the understanding of um, “eating,” um, or uh, “eat of,” um, or not eating, with that understanding of unbelief and belief, we want to kind of study this out. Okay. And this is the first mention of the Great Commission, okay, just by the way. Genesis 1:26: “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl—the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’ So God created man in his own—own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply—discipleship—and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’ So he’s writing about man in the image of God as God’s plan from the beginning. Okay. He’s writing about man in the image of God as God’s plan from the beginning. When I started to see this, I had to stop singing the song ‘Communion,’ which I loved so much, because I realized that that was a wrong belief that I had, and many people have in the body of Christ. Okay. The—and the song ‘Communion,’ uh, ‘Take me back to the Garden,’ just that first line already put me off after I started to see this, because um, we—we all have this imagination or this idea that it would be so much—we—we’re aiming to get back to the Garden, but I had a discussion with the pastor about this, um, and it was amazing because I had to stop him and say, ‘I believe what you used—what you believe now is what I used to see, but I realized Adam and Eve were not perfect; nothing in the Bible says that they were created in perfection; they were created for the image of God or in the image of God, but now—like—this was what they were invited into; they rejected it.’ So from the beginning, they were short of the glory of God; they didn’t have the glory of God; they were short of the glory of God, and—and now that’s why salvation was necessary. Okay. So where were we? Genesis chapter 2, okay, verse 1: ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.’ Okay. So he—he was writing about the rest of God. Okay. Genesis 12, verse 1 uh, to 3. Genesis 12:1-3: ‘Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee—and make—I will bless thee,” and my notes stop there. Verse 3: “And I will bless—bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee; and in thee all—all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Okay. So he’s writing about the promised land. Okay. God’s word to Abraham is God’s promise for man on Earth. Okay. So—so—and it’s the whole purpose is—and God’s plan from Genesis even now with Abraham is uh, to—for man to be in the image of God. We were created for the image of God.”
Okay. Genesis 17:1. Genesis 17:1. And when Abraham was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I'm the Lord Almighty, or the—sorry, I'm the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly. So, the Moses's writings here are indicating how the children of Israel found themselves living in the land of Egypt. Okay. Now we go to Genesis chapter 47, and I'm trying to find a spot to have a break, but I'm not finding it in my notes now. But Genesis chapter 47, from verse one. Okay. Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren and their flocks and their herds and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. And they said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, and the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. Now therefore we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee. The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell; and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, and in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren, and all his father's household with bread, according to their families. Okay. So Jacob had relocated his family to Egypt because of the famine. Okay. And now, centuries later, we know they're enslaved by Pharaoh. Okay. And this has been highlighted to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15. Okay. Genesis chapter 15, from verse 5. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. Verse 6. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. Verse 12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. So we need to take note where it says, Thy seed shall be a stranger. That's Genesis chapter 15, verse 13. Thy seed shall be a stranger. Okay. The word stranger is talking about an immigrant, okay, an immigrant. So now let's take note of God's instruction to Isaac about not going down to Egypt in Genesis 26. Okay. Genesis 26, verse 1. From verse one. Now we're on a journey, so if you miss me or you skip something, you need to probably go back and listen to this again. But Genesis 26, verse one. And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and I will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and I will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. So if we see the phrase there, he says, Go not down. That's the instruction. Okay. This is talking about don't settle down, don't put down roots. Okay, because he's showing what that going down to Egypt to settle is sin; it's disobedience. Okay. So now we're seeing the message in this story, this account. Settling in Egypt was disobedience to what God had spoken to them; it was taking them away from God's promise. Like okay, Genesis chapter 49:18. Genesis 49:8. This it says, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Okay. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. So God's promise had always been emphasized to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Okay. And it was emphasized as the Messiah would come and save and deliver man from sin. That's why it says here in Genesis 49, verse 18, I've waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Okay. That's a response; it's indicating that we know God is the one who's going to save. But I want to go back to this and say it's been emphasized to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's why Moses often wrote of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's the message that was con—um—reiterated to Abraham, then to Isaac, and then to Jacob. Okay. And the purpose that that carried through Abraham, through Isaac, and through Jacob, because—and here's the crux of it—responding to the voice of God, which is the message of God, automatically brings you into his plan and his purpose. Or we could say—and this is now a different journey that I would go on with you—bringing us into his righteousness, which is about now fulfilling his purpose in making things right in the earth. And that's about fulfilling his dream to seeing all men saved and come to repentance. And as soon as we positively respond to the message, like Abraham did, like Isaac did, like Jacob did, it automatically brings you into purpose; it gives you mission; it gives you purpose. Okay. So there's a lot that you can chew on with that, but we see in Genesis chapter 22—um, what we're in 26 now—go to Genesis [Music] 22:5. God's now—the revelation here is that he is the provider to provide a lamb. Okay. He's to provide a sacrifice. Okay. So Genesis chapter 22, and then before we go into Exodus, I think we'll stop. But Genesis chapter 22, from verse 5. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey, the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. So that's a statement of faith. Okay. Verse 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here I am, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And then verse 14. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. So many things that I would love to pull out of this verse for you, but let's just look at this firstly. It's saying, you know, the—we often read this with—many—we always read anything with our glasses on, our traditional glasses, what we've always heard, what we've always read, what we've always believed. Okay. So verse eight. My son, God will provide himself a lamb. Think of it differently. This what I've been showing you through Genesis is the story of salvation, and this is what Jesus would have taught in Luke chapter 24. He's saying, um, God will provide himself. Who what is that? It's God in the flesh; it's the incarnate; it's Jesus. Okay. Jesus isn't God's biological son; Jesus is God; God in the flesh; he's the incarnate. Okay. And God provided himself as a lamb for a burnt offering. This is what Abraham is now—um—preaching as Moses records this; this is what Moses is preaching; the Gospel according to Moses. Okay. So the term Jehovah-jireh implies that God foresees the need, and God makes provision for the need. God foresees the need, and God makes the provision for that need. So we see Abraham foreseeing God's salvation, and so he says, Jehovah-jireh, which explains God himself is the one to save; God himself will prov—God will provide himself as the—the—um—the offering. Okay. And just for the fun of it, I'll throw this in and say, in verse 14, Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; he didn't call God Jehovah-jireh. Okay. Since then, I have had to stop singing that song. He—okay, we—you know, because he is not Jehovah-jireh; the name of the place is Jehovah-jireh, to remind us that God provides. So his name is not Jireh. Okay. His name is Jehovah, who provides; it's his nature. Okay. Um, so you know, this whole event of God himself providing a himself as a sacrifice is on Mount Mariah, and it's all about the Messiah, Jesus, the Lamb that is God's provision for man's need. Okay. That God would become man to save man. So from this explanation, and as we look further even into the book of Exodus, what we start to see unfold again and again is God's faithfulness to the promise that he makes to Abraham to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, which is the message of salvation, and that's what we have to continue looking at in the next lesson. But what I want you to see there is that as we unpack this, we're building towards what is the imagery then used in the New Testament, especially in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, because there's a story there, and we will get there, but we won't get there quickly. Amen. So anything that stands out for you, anything that jumps out for you, I might not answer the question if you have a question simply because we might still get to that question, but if you have it, you're still welcome to write it down. But let's just look at that for a moment. If you've got something, I trust if it's insightful and it's not over too overwhelming. But I mean, even as I've—you know—um—I prepared these notes maybe two weeks ago in preparation for the trip, and—like I didn't revisit them to be honest today in preparation because I was recording for your homework, and as I've been going through it, it's been awesome because I've been getting more revelation, and it's been exciting me. So it's really like amazing things. Lucas says, Goosebumps are so good, especially like the part about God provided himself; totally new way of seeing it. It's, you know, one of the things I learned at one of the Bible schools I was at was when we're meditating on the word, it's—like obviously you go into context and you go into depth—but if you take John 3:16 for example, for God so loved the world, so it's like emphasize each part of the verse. For God so loved the world, and you think about each part that you're emphasizing, and sometimes you'll get something that you missed previously, like with that God will provide himself a lamb, and you think, Okay, God is going to himself put a lamb there, but it's something deeper than that. God will provide himself a lamb. You know, when we start to kind of meditate on things like that, or in that way, it does away with reading quickly through something and just getting what we've always just seen and stuff. So that's good. PR says, Eating and believing; hear the gospel and believe; the gospel is obedience. God will provide himself; he'll provide himself as a lamb for a burnt offering. That's also awesome; that's good; great. So we've still got a long journey ahead if we're only getting into Exodus in the next session together, which won't be tonight because you've got Peter with you in the next session, and so I'm going to pray for us, and then we can give you guys a break as you get ready to receive.