Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program Connect with skip Heidzig.
It's all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why
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(00:21):
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(00:43):
today's message from pastor Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
These were the years the life of Ishmael one hundred
and thirty seven years. So he died at the same
age that Abraham was when his wife Sarah died. That's trivial,
doesn't mean anything. It just came to mind, and he died.
He breathed his lass and was gathered to his people.
They dwelt from Havilah as far as sure and so

(01:10):
you might read the and go, I don't know where
that is. So the author wants you to know this,
which is east of Egypt as you go down toward Assyria.
That's helpful in it. No, it's not, because we don't
know where that is. That's somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula.
It's out in the desert regions in ancient Arabia. That's
what is. Where it was. He died in the presence

(01:31):
of all his brethren. Okay, what we just read the
names of these twelve princes, and then the thirteenth, the
big Kahuna, Ishmael. The early genealogies of Islam begin here.
Islam regards Ishmael as a very important person, and though

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not every Muslim on Earth can trace his physical genealogical
heritage back to Ishmael, all Muslims can trace their spiritual
heritage back to Ishmael. And that is because twelve times
in the Qoran his name is mentioned, and he's mentioned
as a very important person. In fact, in the Qoran

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it's called Sura or section Sura nineteen, verse fifty four.
It tells the reader that Ishmael was a prophet, a prophet,
an apostle, and a prophet, those two words are used,
so he's very important, and they trace a lot of
their lineage back to Ishmael. Okay, So keeping that in mind,

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I've got to take you back, if you don't mind
a couple of chapters, go back to chapter sixteen to
see something to be reminded of it. I think it
will be helpful in the rest of the biblical future
as well as even in modern times. Verse eight of
chapter sixteen, he the Lord said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, where

(03:04):
have you come from and where are you going? And
she said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress SARAHI.
The Angel of the Lord said to her, return to
your mistress and submit yourself under his hand. You see
the word submit very important concept in Islam. The word
Muslim means one who submits, a submissive one, and they

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even believe that Abraham was the one who coined the
term Muslim submissive ones to the will of God. There
is in their tradition the sentence that says, and Abraham
called you muslemin or the submitted ones, a very very
important concept, submit under her hand. According to Islamic tradition,

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Abraham and Ishmael traveled to Mecca and there they built
a shrine called the Ka'bah. The Kabba is the holy
shrine in Mecca where people go every year and make
the pilgrimage. It is believed that Abraham and Ishmael are

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buried in Mecca, even though the Bible says Abraham is
buried where hebron the cave of Mikpela, Israel. His tomb
is there even to this day. But according to Muslim tradition,
Abraham and his son Ishmael are buried in Mecca. They
founded they built the Kaba, the sacred shrine. Just a
note about the sacred shrine, the Ka'bah. It was once

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a shrine that housed three hundred and sixty different idols
representing three hundred and sixty various gods that were worshiped
by the various Arab tribes in the region. Allah was
one of those gods. Of the multiplicity of gods, Allah
was the moon god. Muhammad took a special should I say,

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liking to Allah and claimed that he was the one
true God and he wanted to unify all of the tribes.
He squealshed all of the other gods, killed those who
did not submit, and Islam was established. But isn't it

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interesting that what is called today one of the three
great monotheistic religions of the world actually began as a
polytheistic religion. Well, you move on, and it says in
verse twelve, notice what is the future of Ishmael. He

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shall be a wild man. Literally, it's a wild donkey,
is the text, a wild donkey. The term wild donkey
refers to an animal called the onagar. It was not
a slur, It was a compliment. We think that's not
very good. No, it's very good. And onegar was a
fiercely independent animal of the desert and regarded and valued

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highly in that day. He's going to be fiercely independent,
is the idea. But notice this. His hand shall be
against every man, and it speaks of a state of war,
or a state of being at feud with other people,
and every man's hand against him, and he will dwell

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in the presence or of literally against all of his brethren.
It's interesting prophecy because Muhammad himself is called the Prophet
of the Sword and traces his lineage back to Ishmael,
the prophet of the Sword. His hand will be against

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every man. Interesting prophecy, especially interesting in that Islam itself
divides the entire world up into two camps, and two
camps only. Camp number one Dar al Islam, the House
of Islam, the house of those who submit second class
for the whole world. The other one. If you're not

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Muslim Dar al Harb, House of War. You're either Muslim
and of the House of Islam or the House of War.
In the Quran, there are one hundred and nine verses
called war versus. One out of every fifty five verses

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in the Koran is about making war feuding against others,
either an inclusive statement or a call to arms. It's
just interesting in light of the origins of Ishmael and
the prediction made about him and those who would follow him.
So he breathed his last, he was buried, gathered with

(07:58):
his people. They dwelt from Havilah. We already read that
verse nineteen. See how far we can get, we may
be able to make it. This is the genealogy of Isaac,
Abraham's son, Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old
when he took Rebecca as wife. She was obviously much younger.

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He was forty, the daughter of Bethel Well the Syrian
of Padanna Ram the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now
Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife. Watch this.
I love this. Here's a husband praying for his wife.
And here's why he's praying, because she was barren. She

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can't have children. And the Lord granted his plea and Rebecca,
his wife, conceived. The children were always seen as a
direct blessing of God Psalm one twenty seven. Children are
a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb
is his reward. Thus to have no children, to be
barren was as if you were left out or cursed.

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I'm not going to get into that theology. But what
I want you to understand is, here's a husband praying
for his wife. I love this. I know we live
in an advanced age of modern age, the age of fertilization.
You can go to specialists and figure out all sorts
of ways of getting pregnant, but please don't leave out
the spiritual component where you say, Lord, how do you

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want us to plan our family? Who should be included?
How many we were able to have? One son? He's
better to me than ten. He's a wonderful, wonderful guy,
even with the broken tibia. But we would have had
many more if we could. The Lord knows those things.
Some people are not able to have children, but they

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can adopt. And so the interesting thing I find so
often story after stories. We were unable to conceive, so
we adopt two children. As soon as we did, my
wife got pregnant. There's two more, et ceter. The Lord
knows those things. Bring God into the family planning and
submit that to the Lord. So Verse twenty one. Isaac

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pleaded with the Lord because she was baron, and the
Lord granted his plea and Rebecca, his wife, conceived, but
the children struggled together within her, and she said, if
all is well, why am I like this? You know
it's tight in there. There's two kids in there, and
to watch this? So she went to inquire the Lord.

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What did she do? She prayed, and the Lord said
to her, now watch what God says. Talk about being startled.
Imagine this, two nations are in your womb. Yikes, two nations.
I just wanted a child, and you're telling me I
got two nations. Well, of course, it meant two children

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that would give birth to nations. The two nations are
Israel and edom the Edomites and the Israelites. Two people
shall be separated from your body. One people shall be
stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. Now,
I told you about a law called the law of promogeniture,

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not a fancy long word. The law of promogeniture was
what we're seeing happening with Isaac, and what we see
here we see a reversal of that law here. Typically,
that law stated in that culture that the firstborn son
has privileges and rights.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heightzig before we get
back to Skip's teaching. It's more important than ever for
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in the God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's issues. Collection
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(11:55):
God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's issues. Is our thanks
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(12:18):
reach people around the world with the good news of
Jesus through connect with skip Heidzig. Let's continue with today's
teaching with pastor skip number one.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
He becomes the head of the family. The authority of
the family falls upon him. He is the new shaikh
or the new head. Number two. He gets a double
portion of the goods the physical inheritance because the family
line is being passed on to him. Now that will

(12:47):
help you when you get to the whole story of
the prophet Elijah and the other prophet, Elisha, who is
following Elijah round, following around, following around, and he finally
said to Elijah, I want a double portion. What he's
saying is I want to inherit your ministry. I want
to take your place, so to speak. I want to
be the one who inherits this powerful ministry to the

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nation of Israel. But the law of primogeniture is turned
around here. It's not the firstborn, it's the second born,
which is funny because it seems to be almost a
biblical precedent all the way through it wasn't Ishmael, it
was Isaac. It's not going to be Esa, It's going
to be Jacob. The Deliverer is going to be what

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the children of Israel didn't think of when Moses appears
and says, I'm the one God called to take you
out of bondage. They didn't know what to do with Moses.
And what about Joseph. He was the youngest at that
time and scorned by his brothers, but he was the
one God chose to be the prime minister of the

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Egypt and really of the known world. So it's a
beautiful principle. And here's the lesson for us. We make
a grave mistake, and you'll see it here when we
start judging by appearances. Because when Esa is born, he's manly.

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He's Harry, says, and they call him Harry because he's
full of hair. And his dad loved it, loved him.
He was a man of the field, he was a hunter.
Jacob was a mild man. He was a man inside
the tandy, liked to cook with Mama. He could make
a killer red chili stew. But he was a mild man.
And the Bible says the Bible says Rebecca loved Jacob,

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Esau loved. Excuse me, Isaac loved Esau. I should just
read it, and I have to tell you to you
and then I won't get confused. So when her days
were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were
twins in her womb, so you might say they were
womb mates. Oh oh, well they were right, were they? Okay,

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there were womb mates. And the first came out red
and he was like a Harry Garment. I don't know
what to do with that. It's just it was like
a Harry Garment all over. So they called him Harry.
That's what he means, Harry. Here comes Harry. Afterward, his

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brother came out and his hand took hold of Esau's heel.
So his name was called Yakov, one who grasps the
heel or he'll catcher. So we have Harry and He'll Ketcher.
Those are the kids' names. The original idea of Yakov
was the idea that God is at my heels, protecting

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me or protecting my son. But because of the personality
of Jacob, he seems to be one who grabs the
heel to trip his brother up in life, it came
to mean he'll catcher somebody who connives and manipulates to
trip other people up. That was his name. And noticed this.

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Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them, so
they had waited twenty years for children. So the boys
grew and Esaw was a skillful hunter, a man of
the field. Jacob was a mild man. See mild man,
dwelling intents. What are we going to cut mom? Nothing

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wrong with that today. I mean, some of the best
chefs are men, but in those days it's just a
little weird. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of
his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Jacob cooked a stew,
and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.

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And Esau said to Jacob, please feed me with that
same red stew. So just pot of red chili. Let's
just kind of make it contemporary for our culture, red
chili on the stove, for I am weary. Therefore his
name is called Edom, which means red. And the country
of Edom will come from Esa. Now, before we finish

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the text, and we'll set it up for the next time.
Isaac loved his son Esau. He was a man's man, Harry.
Here's my kid. He's a man, he's Harry. He likes
to hunt, kill things, and he favored him. And in
those days, and you can see it through his eyes

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and probably in the eyes of most men. In many cultures,
Esau was more attractive as a male specimen, more so
than Jacob cooking meals with mom. So Dad favored him.
But here's the lesson. There's more than meets the eye.

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When we start judging on outward appearance, we can miss
the boat totally because this was not God's favorite one.
Esau was the first born, but the second born is
the PropheC. He said, we'll get the inheritance and be
the one that God chooses. In fact, what does God
call throughout the Bible the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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So he's hugely important to the Jewish nation as one
of the patriarchs. It's God's choice. So we often see
this whole law promogeniture or whatever it might be, overturned.
God says, no, forget that, that's outward I've chosen someone else.
Later on, we're going to read of Samuel, the prophet

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going to search for a new king of Israel, and
he goes to the house of Jesse and he sees
the firstborn named Eliab, and he looks at Eliab. He's tall,
and he's handsome, he's good looking, he's strong. And Samuel
immediately judges by outward appearance. He said, surely this is
the Lord's And God interrupts his thought process and said, nope,

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I've rejected him, for the Lord does not see his
man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance. God
looks at the heart. And you find this principle, by
the way, all throughout the Bible, and I want you
to know how good that is. We fit into it.
We even find in the New Testament. Jesus was called

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Jesus of Nazareth. And remember when Nathaniel heard about that
and said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yeah,
like the Messiah, the Savior. Now here's the principle. I'll
call it the Nazareth principle. As soon as people say
can anything good come from that town or can anything

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good come from that person, It's like God is waiting
to show the world what God can do through that
town or that person. He is that's a biblical principle.
It's like oh, really, anything good come from that person
or that place. Watch watch what I can do. Now.
When we get to First Corinthians, chapter one, Paul says,

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you see your calling, brethren, not many mighty, not many noble.
After the flesh recalled. But God has shows in the
foolish things of this world to confound the wise and
the weak things of this world, to put to shame
the things that are mighty, that no flesh would glory
in his presence. So here's the principle. Mighty God chooses

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pretty lame instruments to work through. God doesn't look for
the most educated and the mighty and the this and
the that. He looks for just like broken people, beat
up people, people that the world would trash and say,
kennedything good come from that person? God's oh yeah, watch this.
And here's why he does it, that no flesh would

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glory in his presence. You know what it's like if
there was a surgeon in a modern surgical suite with
all of the latest gizmo's and gadgets to be able
to perform a surgery, if he could do it or
she could do it under those conditions that would be expected,
But if that same surgeon was in the middle of

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the jungle and only had a Swiss army knife and
some yarn to sow the person up. If he could
or she could successfully perform that operation. Under those conditions,
that person would be greatly applauded as somebody who's above
and beyond. Why because they're confined to meager tools. So

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God chooses meager tools so that he gets the glory,
so that when God does something, it's all about him
and not about the tool. We're gonna go, that was
a pretty cool tool. Yeah, No, wonder God used that person.
He's so smart, she's so this, or he's like, I
don't get it. I don't know. I got use that person?
Can anything good come from that person? Do you see
what God's all about? That's God's style. That's why when

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I first read that verse in First Corinthians, I went, yeah,
that's my life verse from now on. Because I know
the truth about me, and those who know me well
also know the truth about me. So I love it
and you should love it. Because God will choose what
the world does not choose or looks over or ill regards.

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So Jacob verse thirty one and will close as we
take it di verse thirty four. Jacob said, sell me
your birthright as of this day. And Esau said, look,
I'm about to die. What is his birthright to me?
It's just a promise. I can't eat a promise. I'm hungry.
Jacob said, swear to me as of this day. So
he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

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And Jacob gave Esau bread and a stew of lentils,
a little red chili on the side, and then he
ate and drank, arose and went his way. And Esa
despised his birthright. And I will explain more of that
as we get into this story later on. I have
a question, in light of the fact of a person

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making the birthright, which was a spiritual nod just a
physical heritage, but a spiritual one, despising it. Could it
be that some here are despising, so to speak, their birthright.
You're not valuing what is most valuable in life, that

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is a spiritual inheritance, spiritual life, spiritual things. Now, we
read a couple times in this chapter. So and so
died and was gathered together with his people. And then
this guy died and he was gathered together with his people.
One day. You're going to die. One day, the local
newspaper wherever you end up dying will have your habituary
in it. You will be gathered to your people. Now,

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if your people happen to be God's people, you're going
to be surrounded with God's people the moment you die,
and in the presence of God. If your people were
the worldly people and you didn't care about the birthright
spiritual things, you'll be gathered to your people. The best
time to start a godly life is while you're young,
and then you develop a habit and a practice, it

(24:03):
becomes the fabric of your life. Oh yeah, you can
wait to your deathbed to receive Christ. But I love
what Solomon says, seek now your Creator in the days
of your youth. Best choice a young person can make
is to give their lives to Christ. Best choice a
middle aged person can make. Best choice an older person
can make. But don't leave Earth without a relationship with

(24:27):
the author of life through Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Thanks for listening to connect with Skip Heightsig. We hope
you've been strengthening your walk with Jesus by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you
about this month's resources that will help you confidently speak
God's timeless truth into our culture. Pastor skips God speaks
biblical answers for today's issues. Collection of booklets is our

(24:53):
Thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today.
Request your copy when you give fifty dollars or more
one hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight. That's eight
hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. Or visit connectiskip
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(25:13):
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Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching
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