May 12, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect with Skip Heizig. We're glad you've joined
us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exist to
connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing
times through verse by verse teaching of His Word. That's
why we make messages like this one today available to
you and others on air and online. Before we kick
off today's teaching, we want to let you know that
(00:22):
you can stay in the know about what's happening at
Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates.
When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email
to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign
up today at connectiskip dot com. That's Connect with Skip
dot com. Now let's get into today's teaching with pastor
(00:43):
Skip Heitzig.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
There's a story about a father and a son who
were walking up a mountain taking a walk. The mountain
got more dangerous and steeper, and as dad was navigating
his way and he came to the place where he
had to make a decision which way to go, would
which might be the safest route, he heard behind him
his son saying, simply choose the right way, daddy. I'm
(01:10):
coming right behind you. Tonight we read about the man
who came right behind Abraham. That was his son Isaac.
He was, unfortunately following in his father's footsteps, the wrong footsteps.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Abraham was a man of faith.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Isaac I suppose was as well, for God does speak
to him and promise to bless him. But the footsteps
that Isaac follows from Abraham were not the best choices.
You've heard the old axiom like father, like son, and
we're going to see how he was like his father
(01:55):
in two respects, two failures that are familiar to us
by now. Number one, he ran away at a time
of famine to a place he thought would provide better
for him than the place God told him to be
in the land of promise. Abraham did that twice, and interestingly,
(02:21):
he lies about his wife, calling his wife his sister
rings a belle. Dad did that twice, once in chapter
twelve when there was a famine and he went down
to Egypt, and once in chapter twenty when there was
a famine and he went down to Garar, where the
Philistines dwelt.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And that is where his son goes, following in.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
His father's footsteps, following in the bad, wrong example of
his father. Now, I want to clear up an issue
because it seems to be an issue every few years
that surfaces in the Christian Church about this idea of
generational curses, and those in certain pockets of Christendom seem
(03:07):
to gravitate toward the false doctrine of if your parents
did something, you have a curse. And it's generational, and
there's only certain kind of incantational things that can break
that curse. And it stems from originally the Second Commandment.
(03:28):
And I want you to turn to the second Commandment
for just a moment, and that is Exodus chapter twenty,
Exodus chapter twenty. I know you're thinking, wait a minute,
you said Genesis twenty sixth to night. Now you're starting
us off in Exodus twenty. Well, you're used to that
by now. The second commandment is verse four. You shall
(03:51):
not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor
serve them. For I the Lord your God, am a
jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers. Upon the
(04:16):
children to the third and the fourth generations of those
who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those
who love me and keep my commandments. First of all,
you'll notice something that God is referring to unbelievers those
who hate me. Is the curse promised to not to
(04:39):
his children who are believers. A believer in God, a
follower of Christ could hardly be under the category of
those who hate God. So the curse is to those
who hate me. But verse six, showing mercy to thousands
are reserved that f or later tonight to those who
(05:01):
love Me and keep My commandments. Now, certainly children will
feel the negative impact of a parent's decision. That is,
and in the context here of idolatry, if a parent
exposes the family to idolatry via his or her own
(05:21):
practice of idolatry. Whatever a child sees reinforced in the
behavior patterns of mom and dad, that child is more
likely to commit that same kind of sin from one
generation to the next because they're exposed. Now here's the
(05:43):
greater lesson. We never sin in isolation. When Abraham sinned
when he failed to obey and failed to believe God
on a couple of those occasions by running away and
then subsequently by lying he just didn't sin in isolation.
(06:04):
It wasn't just him sinning against God. It affected his family.
It affected certainly Sarah, his wife. But his kids would
find out eventually about the Shenanigans of Pops and how
he lapsed in faith, and they who looked up to
(06:24):
their father, this would certainly have an impact upon them. So,
simply put, a disobedient believer is a menace to everyone,
as Abraham was and as Isaac is. So there's certain
things that your parents did that they passed down to you.
(06:48):
Are you affected by your parents' choices and behavior?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Certainly?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Could you have a propensity to do the same kinds
of things. Absolutely, But do you have to do them
because there's some generational curse. Absolutely not. That curse or
pattern of sin is broken by the power of God
in your life. Let God's power break it. Now, my
(07:18):
parents had certain behaviors. All of our parents do, and
perhaps that instilled certain inclination and proclivities in myself to
do the same kinds of things. For instance, whenever my
dad got frustrated, he had a short fuse and he
got angry very quickly he'd blow up, and when he'd
(07:40):
blow up, he'd swear. We all heard it. I had
three older brothers who also saw that, and they also
did that. I'm not saying they did it and I didn't.
I did it as well. They simply reinforced that it
was okay to swear when you're frustrated and you get angry.
(08:02):
But when I came to Christ, I watched God deal
with that area of my life. I no longer get
frustrated or angered easily, and when I do get angered,
I don't swear. My mother was a smoker when I
was younger, always had a cigarette in her hand. That
(08:24):
made an impression on me, so that when I was
ten years of age, I had my first cigarette, and
I kept smoking until I was twenty. When I came
to Christ.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I quit.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
The behaviors of your parents or the environment in which
you were raised does not necessitate a stronghold upon your life.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
But unfortunately, you live in a culture that is enabling
(09:02):
you to label.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Behaviors as well.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's a disease or it's codependency, or you're the adult
child of a left handed cigar smoking golfer, So chances
are you're going to be a left handed cigar smoking
golfer two. Isaac did not have to. In fact, ninety
(09:30):
years have passed between Abraham's foray into Garar and over
one hundred years when he sauntered down to Egypt to
disbelieve God. A long time had passed. There really was
no excuse for him at all. So we go now
to chapter twenty six of Genesis and we watch his
(09:51):
first failure.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
In the first few verses, there was.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
A famine in the land, the land the land God
promised to Abraham and now Isaac and later Jacob beside
the first famine that was in the days of Abraham,
and Isaac went to a Bimelech, the king of the
Philistines in Gharar.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's his first failure.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Then the Lord appeared to him and said, do not
go down to Egypt. Live in the land of which
I shall tell you. You discover that twice in Isaac's
life the Lord appeared to him.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Now that's significant. I've never had the Lord really appear
to me. Twice.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
The Lord appeared to him once at the beginning of
this chapter and later on once toward the end of
the chapter. But with Abraham, the Lord appeared eight different
times on eight different occasions. The Lord appeared to Abraham.
Now there's something to make note of. Isaac is one
(11:02):
of the great patriarchs, but he's not a remarkable person.
What I mean by that is, if you go simply
by real estate in the Bible, there's not a whole
lot set about him. There's a lot set about Abraham
fourteen chapters. There's a lot set about Jacob eleven chapters.
(11:25):
But just about everything that Isaac did is in one chapter.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh, there's a little bit in chapter twenty five about
him praying for his wife and about the kids that
they had, but really it's incidental to the main story
of the two kids, Jacob and Esau, which will follow
in chapter twenty seven. This is sort of a parenthetical
statement to show you the two failures of this man's life.
(11:54):
So just about everything he did is in one chapter.
Fourteen for Abraham, eleven for Jacob.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig before we return
to Skip's teaching. If you've ever wondered what the Bible
has to say about some of our culture's big issues.
We have a great resource for you. When you give
a gift of fifty dollars or more this month to
support the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send
you God Speaks Biblical answers for today's issues. This special
(12:23):
resource bundle contains six of Pastor Skipp's booklets that address
topics like suicide, why the Truth matters, Heaven and Hell,
and the Church's response to racism. You'll gain valuable insight
into what God's Word says about the big questions in
our culture, and get equipped to stand for the timeless
truth of Scripture. Go to connect with Skip dot com
(12:44):
slash offer or call eight hundred ninety two two eighteen
eighty eight and request your copy when you give fifty
dollars or more. Now let's get back to Skip for
more of today's teaching.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
As Griffith Thomas said of him, Isaac was the ordinary
son of a great father and the ordinary father of
a great son. Yet he is still to be respected
and honored because he was one of the patriarchs. By
the way, one of God's names is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
(13:18):
and Jacob. So I'm not saying he's a lightweight at all,
but in comparison to the others, he just doesn't have
the real estate that is given to him. Well, evidently
Isaac is on his way to Egypt. How do I
know that? Because God says, don't go down to Egypt,
which would indicate he's on his way down to Egypt exactly.
(13:41):
So he's on the way down to Egypt because there's
a famine in the land, much like what Abraham did
in chapter twelve of Genesis one hundred plus years before this.
Because there's a famine and he must not believe that
God is able to take care of him in the
land of Canaan. By the way, if you wonder why
(14:02):
would he go down to Egypt, why would he go
down south if there's a famine in that region. Wouldn't
there be a famine down in Egypt as well as Canaan. Well, yes,
but Egypt was better equipped. It was the breadbasket of
the ancient world. And here was the difference. They had
a big river, the Nile River, and it emptied at
(14:25):
the Nile River delta into the ocean, and so that
water provided a lush basis for agriculture that did not
necessarily depend on rainfall, whereas the Land of Canaan was
almost solely dependent on rainfall. Even it's lake, the Galilee,
and its river, the Jordan needed to be early replenished
(14:47):
and still does with rainwater. That's why in Deuteronomy the
eleventh chapter, God tells the children of Israel, the land
that I am taking you into is not like the
land and of Egypt, where you had plenty of water
the Nile river. But the land that I bring you
into is a land of hills and valleys that drinks
(15:09):
in the water from the rain of Heaven. And if
you obey me and trust me, I will give you
the early rain as well as the latter rain, the
whole winter season at the early part and the latter
part what they call in Hebrew the yore and the Malkosh.
The early and the latter rain all bless you with that.
(15:32):
So to be in the land of Canaan was a
place of faith. You couldn't just go down to the
river and pump the water into your vegetable garden.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You had to.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Trust that the Lord was going to bring it from Heaven. Well,
it hadn't rained for a long time. There's a famine
in the land. What do you do? Do what Dad did?
Dad went down to Egypt. He survived. But Egypt is
always seen as a negative move in the Bible. It
would be sort of like equating it to the world,
(16:03):
going back to the world to get your provision, rather
than trusting the Lord in your new place, the new life,
looking to the world.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Unfortunately, a lot of us believers begin the Christian life
with these unrealistic expectations, and we leave the prayer room
and we think what they told us.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Was happily ever after.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Well true, ultimately that is true. But in the meantime
there's hills and valleys and places of trust and places
of blessing and places of famine. But because they have
the happily ever after a white picket fence, everything's going
to be perfect. I'll never struggle ever ever again. The
(16:52):
first struggle that happens in their life, they want to
run back to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
This isn't what I expected. This is hard.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Oh that's good enough reason to sort of to bag
the whole Christian thing and go back to what the
path to hell. Not a good idea, but that's how
a lot of us think.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So it brings up this question.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
If there's famine and the Promised land, why, if that's
the land God said I'll bless you in, why would
God allow there to be a famine in the land
God told them to go to. Hear God telling them
to go to this land as soon as they get
their famine, and then later on more famine, and now
more famine.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Why.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Well, the answer is pretty easy, because your faith in
God is really worthless unless it's tested. How do you
know if your faith is really valuable, if it really works.
Do you think your faith only grows by a steady
diet of blessing after blessing after blessing. I'm under the
spout where the glory comes out twenty four to seven.
(18:00):
That's the Christian life. Your best life now takes no
faith for that. I'll tell you what takes faith is
when you look at your cupboards and there's nothing in them.
In your bank account and there's a boy nothing there
in fact, negative balance, and you say, as you close it,
God is good all the time. He'll take care of
(18:20):
me no matter what. This is the land he brought
me into. If I die, I die. What's the worst
that can happen. I die, I lose a few pounds,
or I die and I go to heaven. God says,
dwell in this land, and I will be with you
and bless you, for to you and your descendants, I
(18:43):
give all of these lands, and I will perform the
oath which I swore to Abraham, your father.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Stay in the land. Now, he was in Garar. That's
where God stopped him.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Garar is where the Philistines, the early Philistine encampments settled
in are before it became known as Felictia later on
in David's time. But this is really in the land
of Canaan, but on the border that threshold as you
go down to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
God tells him to stay. God tells him he would
bless him. And look at verse four, and I will
make your descendants.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Now listen how this sounds so much like the promise
God gave to Abraham.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
It's a reiteration of it.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven.
I will give to your descendants all these lands, and
in your seed all the nations.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Of the earth shall be blessed.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Because you're such a wonderful person, because you're such a
man of faith, and I couldn't resist you. No, because
Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws. This blows my mind. I
(20:08):
got to tell you why. Here's the disobedient patriarch, like
Father likes him, going down to Garar, actually going down
to Egypt. God stops him. And when God appears to
him and speaks to him. Notice what God doesn't say.
He doesn't say.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
What is the deal with you stupid patriarchs?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Every time there's a famine, you go rushing down to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I'm sick of this.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Know what God does is pronounce a blessing upon him,
a blessing upon him.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
The disobedient patriarch.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
God reiterates the grand blessing that he gave to Abraham.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
This is called mercy, and oh how we love it,
the merciful Great God.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, I know we're in Genesis twenty six barely, but
I want to direct your attention one more time, if
you don't mind, to Psalm one hundred and three.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Psalm one hundred and three.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Is David's synopsis of the history of his people, going
all the way back through Moses up to the present time,
and it's all about how God dealt with them. And
I want you to get this under your belt tonight
because you just may be in a place where you
need to experience God's mercy and favor and grace.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Psalm one hundred and three.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I could just read it, but you know it was
fun a couple of weeks ago when on a Sunday
we did a responsive reading. Do you remember that? So
I'm going to read verse one and the odd numbered verses,
and then you out loud, read verse two and the
even numbered verses, and you go down to verse ten,
and I'll close with verse eleven.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is
within me. Bless his holy name, who forgives all your iniquities,
who heals all your diseases, who satisfies your mouth with
(22:27):
good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to
the children of Israel. He will not always strive with us,
(22:49):
nor will he keep his anger forever. For as the
heavy are high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward those.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Who fear him. Isn't that great. That's where we stop.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Now here's the point our faults, and there's a lot
of those right. Our faults are like a grain of
sand next to the high mountain of God's mercy. That's
how those last few verses render. If I were to
spin it in a poetic kind of a spin, it's
(23:35):
like a grain of sand next to the mountain of
God's mercy. Paul and Ephesians too said God, who is
rich in mercy. Jeremiah was looking at the destruction of Jerusalem,
but the saving of a few, and he said in
Lamentations three, it's through the Lord's mercies.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
That we are not consumed his mercy.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Because his compassions they fail not. He went on to say,
they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. So
don't be too surprised when you find people like Isaac
doing all of the stupid things that one does as
they fumble and bumble their way on the pathway of.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Their journey of faith. Don't be surprised when.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
God, who is merciful, bless us again, not because of Isaac,
but because God made a promise to Abraham.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go remember
that when you give fifty dollars or more to help
reach more people with the Gospel through connect with Skip Heitzig,
we'll send you God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues,
which contain six of Pastor Skip's booklets to help you
understand what the Bible says about big issues like racism,
the importance of truth, suicide, and Heaven and Hell. To
(24:59):
request your copy of God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues,
call eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight, or visit
connect with Skip dot com slash donate for more from Skip.
Be sure to check out the many resources available at
connectwiskip dot com slash store. Come back next time for
(25:23):
more verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here on
connect with skip Heidzig, Make.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
It Connect, make a Connects of the Cross, Chats, song
makes Next.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Connect with skip Heidzig is a presentation of connection communications
connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
Welcome to Connect with Skip Heizig. We're glad you've joined
us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exist to
connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing
times through verse by verse teaching of His Word. That's
why we make messages like this one today available to
you and others on air and online. Before we kick
off today's teaching, we want to let you know that
(00:22):
you can stay in the know about what's happening at
Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates.
When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email
to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign
up today at connectiskip dot com. That's Connect with Skip
dot com. Now let's get into today's teaching with pastor
(00:43):
Skip Heitzig.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
There's a story about a father and a son who
were walking up a mountain taking a walk. The mountain
got more dangerous and steeper, and as dad was navigating
his way and he came to the place where he
had to make a decision which way to go, would
which might be the safest route, he heard behind him
his son saying, simply choose the right way, daddy. I'm
(01:10):
coming right behind you. Tonight we read about the man
who came right behind Abraham. That was his son Isaac.
He was, unfortunately following in his father's footsteps, the wrong footsteps.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Abraham was a man of faith.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Isaac I suppose was as well, for God does speak
to him and promise to bless him. But the footsteps
that Isaac follows from Abraham were not the best choices.
You've heard the old axiom like father, like son, and
we're going to see how he was like his father
(01:55):
in two respects, two failures that are familiar to us
by now. Number one, he ran away at a time
of famine to a place he thought would provide better
for him than the place God told him to be
in the land of promise. Abraham did that twice, and interestingly,
(02:21):
he lies about his wife, calling his wife his sister
rings a belle. Dad did that twice, once in chapter
twelve when there was a famine and he went down
to Egypt, and once in chapter twenty when there was
a famine and he went down to Garar, where the
Philistines dwelt.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And that is where his son goes, following in.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
His father's footsteps, following in the bad, wrong example of
his father. Now, I want to clear up an issue
because it seems to be an issue every few years
that surfaces in the Christian Church about this idea of
generational curses, and those in certain pockets of Christendom seem
(03:07):
to gravitate toward the false doctrine of if your parents
did something, you have a curse. And it's generational, and
there's only certain kind of incantational things that can break
that curse. And it stems from originally the Second Commandment.
(03:28):
And I want you to turn to the second Commandment
for just a moment, and that is Exodus chapter twenty,
Exodus chapter twenty. I know you're thinking, wait a minute,
you said Genesis twenty sixth to night. Now you're starting
us off in Exodus twenty. Well, you're used to that
by now. The second commandment is verse four. You shall
(03:51):
not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor
serve them. For I the Lord your God, am a
jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers. Upon the
(04:16):
children to the third and the fourth generations of those
who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those
who love me and keep my commandments. First of all,
you'll notice something that God is referring to unbelievers those
who hate me. Is the curse promised to not to
(04:39):
his children who are believers. A believer in God, a
follower of Christ could hardly be under the category of
those who hate God. So the curse is to those
who hate me. But verse six, showing mercy to thousands
are reserved that f or later tonight to those who
(05:01):
love Me and keep My commandments. Now, certainly children will
feel the negative impact of a parent's decision. That is,
and in the context here of idolatry, if a parent
exposes the family to idolatry via his or her own
(05:21):
practice of idolatry. Whatever a child sees reinforced in the
behavior patterns of mom and dad, that child is more
likely to commit that same kind of sin from one
generation to the next because they're exposed. Now here's the
(05:43):
greater lesson. We never sin in isolation. When Abraham sinned
when he failed to obey and failed to believe God
on a couple of those occasions by running away and
then subsequently by lying he just didn't sin in isolation.
(06:04):
It wasn't just him sinning against God. It affected his family.
It affected certainly Sarah, his wife. But his kids would
find out eventually about the Shenanigans of Pops and how
he lapsed in faith, and they who looked up to
(06:24):
their father, this would certainly have an impact upon them. So,
simply put, a disobedient believer is a menace to everyone,
as Abraham was and as Isaac is. So there's certain
things that your parents did that they passed down to you.
(06:48):
Are you affected by your parents' choices and behavior?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Certainly?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Could you have a propensity to do the same kinds
of things. Absolutely, But do you have to do them
because there's some generational curse. Absolutely not. That curse or
pattern of sin is broken by the power of God
in your life. Let God's power break it. Now, my
(07:18):
parents had certain behaviors. All of our parents do, and
perhaps that instilled certain inclination and proclivities in myself to
do the same kinds of things. For instance, whenever my
dad got frustrated, he had a short fuse and he
got angry very quickly he'd blow up, and when he'd
(07:40):
blow up, he'd swear. We all heard it. I had
three older brothers who also saw that, and they also
did that. I'm not saying they did it and I didn't.
I did it as well. They simply reinforced that it
was okay to swear when you're frustrated and you get angry.
(08:02):
But when I came to Christ, I watched God deal
with that area of my life. I no longer get
frustrated or angered easily, and when I do get angered,
I don't swear. My mother was a smoker when I
was younger, always had a cigarette in her hand. That
(08:24):
made an impression on me, so that when I was
ten years of age, I had my first cigarette, and
I kept smoking until I was twenty. When I came
to Christ.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I quit.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
The behaviors of your parents or the environment in which
you were raised does not necessitate a stronghold upon your life.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
But unfortunately, you live in a culture that is enabling
(09:02):
you to label.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Behaviors as well.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's a disease or it's codependency, or you're the adult
child of a left handed cigar smoking golfer, So chances
are you're going to be a left handed cigar smoking
golfer two. Isaac did not have to. In fact, ninety
(09:30):
years have passed between Abraham's foray into Garar and over
one hundred years when he sauntered down to Egypt to
disbelieve God. A long time had passed. There really was
no excuse for him at all. So we go now
to chapter twenty six of Genesis and we watch his
(09:51):
first failure.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
In the first few verses, there was.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
A famine in the land, the land the land God
promised to Abraham and now Isaac and later Jacob beside
the first famine that was in the days of Abraham,
and Isaac went to a Bimelech, the king of the
Philistines in Gharar.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's his first failure.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Then the Lord appeared to him and said, do not
go down to Egypt. Live in the land of which
I shall tell you. You discover that twice in Isaac's
life the Lord appeared to him.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Now that's significant. I've never had the Lord really appear
to me. Twice.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
The Lord appeared to him once at the beginning of
this chapter and later on once toward the end of
the chapter. But with Abraham, the Lord appeared eight different
times on eight different occasions. The Lord appeared to Abraham.
Now there's something to make note of. Isaac is one
(11:02):
of the great patriarchs, but he's not a remarkable person.
What I mean by that is, if you go simply
by real estate in the Bible, there's not a whole
lot set about him. There's a lot set about Abraham
fourteen chapters. There's a lot set about Jacob eleven chapters.
(11:25):
But just about everything that Isaac did is in one chapter.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh, there's a little bit in chapter twenty five about
him praying for his wife and about the kids that
they had, but really it's incidental to the main story
of the two kids, Jacob and Esau, which will follow
in chapter twenty seven. This is sort of a parenthetical
statement to show you the two failures of this man's life.
(11:54):
So just about everything he did is in one chapter.
Fourteen for Abraham, eleven for Jacob.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig before we return
to Skip's teaching. If you've ever wondered what the Bible
has to say about some of our culture's big issues.
We have a great resource for you. When you give
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you God Speaks Biblical answers for today's issues. This special
(12:23):
resource bundle contains six of Pastor Skipp's booklets that address
topics like suicide, why the Truth matters, Heaven and Hell,
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truth of Scripture. Go to connect with Skip dot com
(12:44):
slash offer or call eight hundred ninety two two eighteen
eighty eight and request your copy when you give fifty
dollars or more. Now let's get back to Skip for
more of today's teaching.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
As Griffith Thomas said of him, Isaac was the ordinary
son of a great father and the ordinary father of
a great son. Yet he is still to be respected
and honored because he was one of the patriarchs. By
the way, one of God's names is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
(13:18):
and Jacob. So I'm not saying he's a lightweight at all,
but in comparison to the others, he just doesn't have
the real estate that is given to him. Well, evidently
Isaac is on his way to Egypt. How do I
know that? Because God says, don't go down to Egypt,
which would indicate he's on his way down to Egypt exactly.
(13:41):
So he's on the way down to Egypt because there's
a famine in the land, much like what Abraham did
in chapter twelve of Genesis one hundred plus years before this.
Because there's a famine and he must not believe that
God is able to take care of him in the
land of Canaan. By the way, if you wonder why
(14:02):
would he go down to Egypt, why would he go
down south if there's a famine in that region. Wouldn't
there be a famine down in Egypt as well as Canaan. Well, yes,
but Egypt was better equipped. It was the breadbasket of
the ancient world. And here was the difference. They had
a big river, the Nile River, and it emptied at
(14:25):
the Nile River delta into the ocean, and so that
water provided a lush basis for agriculture that did not
necessarily depend on rainfall, whereas the Land of Canaan was
almost solely dependent on rainfall. Even it's lake, the Galilee,
and its river, the Jordan needed to be early replenished
(14:47):
and still does with rainwater. That's why in Deuteronomy the
eleventh chapter, God tells the children of Israel, the land
that I am taking you into is not like the
land and of Egypt, where you had plenty of water
the Nile river. But the land that I bring you
into is a land of hills and valleys that drinks
(15:09):
in the water from the rain of Heaven. And if
you obey me and trust me, I will give you
the early rain as well as the latter rain, the
whole winter season at the early part and the latter
part what they call in Hebrew the yore and the Malkosh.
The early and the latter rain all bless you with that.
(15:32):
So to be in the land of Canaan was a
place of faith. You couldn't just go down to the
river and pump the water into your vegetable garden.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You had to.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Trust that the Lord was going to bring it from Heaven. Well,
it hadn't rained for a long time. There's a famine
in the land. What do you do? Do what Dad did?
Dad went down to Egypt. He survived. But Egypt is
always seen as a negative move in the Bible. It
would be sort of like equating it to the world,
(16:03):
going back to the world to get your provision, rather
than trusting the Lord in your new place, the new life,
looking to the world.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Unfortunately, a lot of us believers begin the Christian life
with these unrealistic expectations, and we leave the prayer room
and we think what they told us.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Was happily ever after.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Well true, ultimately that is true. But in the meantime
there's hills and valleys and places of trust and places
of blessing and places of famine. But because they have
the happily ever after a white picket fence, everything's going
to be perfect. I'll never struggle ever ever again. The
(16:52):
first struggle that happens in their life, they want to
run back to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
This isn't what I expected. This is hard.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Oh that's good enough reason to sort of to bag
the whole Christian thing and go back to what the
path to hell. Not a good idea, but that's how
a lot of us think.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So it brings up this question.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
If there's famine and the Promised land, why, if that's
the land God said I'll bless you in, why would
God allow there to be a famine in the land
God told them to go to. Hear God telling them
to go to this land as soon as they get
their famine, and then later on more famine, and now
more famine.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Why.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Well, the answer is pretty easy, because your faith in
God is really worthless unless it's tested. How do you
know if your faith is really valuable, if it really works.
Do you think your faith only grows by a steady
diet of blessing after blessing after blessing. I'm under the
spout where the glory comes out twenty four to seven.
(18:00):
That's the Christian life. Your best life now takes no
faith for that. I'll tell you what takes faith is
when you look at your cupboards and there's nothing in them.
In your bank account and there's a boy nothing there
in fact, negative balance, and you say, as you close it,
God is good all the time. He'll take care of
(18:20):
me no matter what. This is the land he brought
me into. If I die, I die. What's the worst
that can happen. I die, I lose a few pounds,
or I die and I go to heaven. God says,
dwell in this land, and I will be with you
and bless you, for to you and your descendants, I
(18:43):
give all of these lands, and I will perform the
oath which I swore to Abraham, your father.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Stay in the land. Now, he was in Garar. That's
where God stopped him.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Garar is where the Philistines, the early Philistine encampments settled
in are before it became known as Felictia later on
in David's time. But this is really in the land
of Canaan, but on the border that threshold as you
go down to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
God tells him to stay. God tells him he would
bless him. And look at verse four, and I will
make your descendants.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Now listen how this sounds so much like the promise
God gave to Abraham.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
It's a reiteration of it.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven.
I will give to your descendants all these lands, and
in your seed all the nations.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Of the earth shall be blessed.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Because you're such a wonderful person, because you're such a
man of faith, and I couldn't resist you. No, because
Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws. This blows my mind. I
(20:08):
got to tell you why. Here's the disobedient patriarch, like
Father likes him, going down to Garar, actually going down
to Egypt. God stops him. And when God appears to
him and speaks to him. Notice what God doesn't say.
He doesn't say.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
What is the deal with you stupid patriarchs?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Every time there's a famine, you go rushing down to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I'm sick of this.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Know what God does is pronounce a blessing upon him,
a blessing upon him.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
The disobedient patriarch.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
God reiterates the grand blessing that he gave to Abraham.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
This is called mercy, and oh how we love it,
the merciful Great God.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, I know we're in Genesis twenty six barely, but
I want to direct your attention one more time, if
you don't mind, to Psalm one hundred and three.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Psalm one hundred and three.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Is David's synopsis of the history of his people, going
all the way back through Moses up to the present time,
and it's all about how God dealt with them. And
I want you to get this under your belt tonight
because you just may be in a place where you
need to experience God's mercy and favor and grace.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Psalm one hundred and three.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I could just read it, but you know it was
fun a couple of weeks ago when on a Sunday
we did a responsive reading. Do you remember that? So
I'm going to read verse one and the odd numbered verses,
and then you out loud, read verse two and the
even numbered verses, and you go down to verse ten,
and I'll close with verse eleven.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is
within me. Bless his holy name, who forgives all your iniquities,
who heals all your diseases, who satisfies your mouth with
(22:27):
good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to
the children of Israel. He will not always strive with us,
(22:49):
nor will he keep his anger forever. For as the
heavy are high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward those.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Who fear him. Isn't that great. That's where we stop.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Now here's the point our faults, and there's a lot
of those right. Our faults are like a grain of
sand next to the high mountain of God's mercy. That's
how those last few verses render. If I were to
spin it in a poetic kind of a spin, it's
(23:35):
like a grain of sand next to the mountain of
God's mercy. Paul and Ephesians too said God, who is
rich in mercy. Jeremiah was looking at the destruction of Jerusalem,
but the saving of a few, and he said in
Lamentations three, it's through the Lord's mercies.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
That we are not consumed his mercy.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Because his compassions they fail not. He went on to say,
they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. So
don't be too surprised when you find people like Isaac
doing all of the stupid things that one does as
they fumble and bumble their way on the pathway of.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Their journey of faith. Don't be surprised when.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
God, who is merciful, bless us again, not because of Isaac,
but because God made a promise to Abraham.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go remember
that when you give fifty dollars or more to help
reach more people with the Gospel through connect with Skip Heitzig,
we'll send you God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues,
which contain six of Pastor Skip's booklets to help you
understand what the Bible says about big issues like racism,
the importance of truth, suicide, and Heaven and Hell. To
(24:59):
request your copy of God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues,
call eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight, or visit
connect with Skip dot com slash donate for more from Skip.
Be sure to check out the many resources available at
connectwiskip dot com slash store. Come back next time for
(25:23):
more verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here on
connect with skip Heidzig, Make.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
It Connect, make a Connects of the Cross, Chats, song
makes Next.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Connect with skip Heidzig is a presentation of connection communications
connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
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