Primary Bible Passages: Genesis 12-50 and Job

Key Verse: Genesis 45:7

Memory Verse: Isaiah 14:24

Lesson Aim: To trace the early stages of the development of the nation of Israel through the era of the Patriarchs.

Preparatory Daily Bible Readings:

• Monday: Genesis 12; Genesis 15:1-6
• Tuesday: Genesis 19
• Wednesday: Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 4
• Thursday: Genesis 24
• Friday: Genesis 25
• Saturday: Job 1-2; Genesis 42
• Sunday: Genesis 37; Genesis 45

I. THE ROOTS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. (Genesis 11:10-12:3)

A. Beginning with Genesis 11:10, the focus of the Bible switches from attention to mankind in general to primarily one nation and its impact upon all mankind.

B. The latter part of Genesis 11 is given to the background of Abraham, who was first called Abram.

1. Abram was born about 1967 B.C. in the tenth generation following the Flood.

2. Abram was a native of Ur of the Chaldees, a city in the Mesopotamia Valley.

3. Abram grew up in a stronghold of pagan, polytheistic religions.

C. Beginning with Abraham, the world would be given another opportunity. From him would come a nation which God would (1) be a witness of God’s works to the rest of the world, (2) act as a depository of God’s revelation, (3) be the people of the coming Messiah, and (4) through which all other nations would be blessed.

II. ABRAHAM.

A. Abraham was called by God to separate himself from his family. (Genesis 12:1-3)

1. He was to follow God’s leading into a country which he knew not.

2. In God’s appearance to Abraham, He promised him (1) a land, (2) great multiplication of his offspring, and (3) the coming Messiah from his lineage.

B. As strong as Abraham’s faith was, it was not without weaknesses and occasional lapses.

1. He failed to completely separate himself from his family by taking his nephew, Lot, with him to Canaan.

a. Though a saved man, Lot was very materially oriented. (Genesis 13:5-13)

b. Lot chose to live in Sodom, a city given completely to homosexual activity. (Genesis 13:13)

c. Though Lot was a rich merchant in Sodom, there is no evidence that he reached even one person with the truth of God, and when the Lord destroyed the city and region with fire, Lot lost all he had, including his wife. (Genesis 19)

d. As Lot dwelt in seclusion and poverty in a cave near the Dead Sea, each of his two daughters committed incest with him and produced offspring which have perpetually been adversaries to the Jewish nation. (Genesis 19:30-38)

2. Soon after he arrived in the promised land, a famine arose. He left the land and went to Egypt. (Genesis 12:10-20) While in Egypt, he misrepresented the truth about his wife, Sarai.

3. He became impatient with God for not giving him a son as quickly as he expected. His impatience produced an unqualified son through his Egyptian handmaid, a move which brought him and his offspring enormous grief. (Genesis 16:1-18:22)

C. By faith, Abraham looked forward to the coming Messiah, and in so doing, he was justified before God.

1. In a most glorious revelation to Abraham, God made clear that He would give Abraham a son through which the Messiah would ultimately come. It was at this point that Abraham grasped the reality of the coming Messiah and trusted Him as his own personal Savior and received salvation (justification). (Genesis 15:4-6)

2. The fulfillment of God’s promise of an immediate son to Abraham from whom would eventually come the Messiah was Isaac. (Genesis 21:1-8)

3. As a revelation to mankind of the faith which Abraham already had and by which he had been justified many years prior, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. (Genesis 22:1-14) In a great prophetic picture of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as God’s lamb on the Cross, Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah where he prepared to sacrifice him. Picturing how Christ would die in the place of sinners, God provided a lamb who died a substitutionary death in the place of Isaac.

III. ISAAC.

A. God renewed the covenant promise He had made to Abraham and confirmed its fulfillment through Isaac. (Genesis 22:15-18)

B. Much coverage in scripture is given to the marriage of Isaac. (Genesis 24)

1. Abraham sent his servant back to the family kinsmen to find a suitable bride for Isaac.

2. The servant’s singular and primary attention was given to finding a bride for Isaac.

3. Isaac and the servant searching for a bride for him is a prophetic foreview of Christ and those who win souls. Rebekah is a type of Christ’s church.

C. Isaac became known for digging wells.

IV. JACOB.

A. Jacob and Esau were twins. Their character was in great contrast.

1. Esau, the first-born, was a materialistically oriented, worldly person with weak character.

2. Jacob was deceitful and self-serving, yet he greatly valued spiritual things.

3. From within the womb and ever thereafter, Jacob and Esau and their offspring were adversaries in conflict.

B. The family birthright and blessing became key issues in the life of Jacob.

1. Indicative of Esau’s whimsical nature and his failure to appreciate spiritual things, he sold his birthright to Jacob for one meal. (Genesis 25:30-34) The birthright entitled one to the future material and spiritual headship of the family.

2. The family blessing went to the holder of the family birthright. (Genesis 27:1-40) Esau wanted the blessing, but was not allowed to have it because he had forfeited the birthright. This is Biblical testimony of the spiritual truth that one must have a spiritual birth through Christ in order to have the spiritual blessings of God, including eternal life.

3. Because of his value of the spiritual things of God, Jacob had the favor of God, while Esau had God’s scorn in view of his lack of interest in things of God.

C. God changed Jacob. (Genesis 28-36)

1. Though a believer in God, his early life was marred with deception, impatience, and self-will.

2. Because of the deceptive way in which he received the family blessing, he was forced to flee for his life from Esau. (Genesis 27:41-28:5)

3. On his way to his kinsmen in Haran, Jacob saw a vision of a ladder from heaven to earth. God promised to protect and bless him according to the terms of the covenant with Abraham. Jacob promised to tithe on all future blessings. (Genesis 28)

4. In Haran, Jacob met his uncle Laban, whom God used to reveal his deceitful nature to himself. In repeated ways Laban deceived and misused Jacob. One of the chief ways Laban deceived Jacob was by giving him Leah to wife after he had worked seven years on the promise of receiving beautiful Rachel. (Genesis 29-30)

5. Tensions mounted, and after 20 years in Haran, Jacob returned to Canaan. (Genesis 31)

6. On the way, God met Jacob and finalized the breaking of his deceitful self-will. At that time, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, which means A Prince with God. (Genesis 32)

V. JOB.

A. The book of Job centers around a rich man, who lost his wealth and health within a few hours, and who found himself in a prolonged period of intense suffering.

1. Hebrew poetry is used to express the deep emotion which characterizes the book of Job.

2. Most of the book of Job is a big debate between Job and four men who came to comfort him. The issue was human suffering.

B. In reality, the events in the life of Job were the result of a cosmic experiment.

1. God offered the scientific hypothesis that Job was a true servant who served Him for no other reason than love out of a pure heart.

2. Satan countered that Job (and all believers) was corrupt. He proposed two falsification tests to prove it.

3. Satan was given permission by God to conduct his falsification tests. They failed.

C. The importance of human suffering is a central issue in the book of Job.

1. With Job and his comforters, human suffering was the main issue.

a. The friends of Job argued that all suffering is because of and inseparable from immediate sin.

b. Job argued that he was innocent and that there are other reasons, than immediate sin, why people suffer.

2. Though God is concerned about what men suffer, He is far more concerned about their response to whatever they face and their faith and confidence in Him, especially in the hour of need.

D. At the end of the big debate, God appeared to Job.

1. God never spoke to Job about human suffering, nor did He directly answer any of Job’s questions.

2. God’s revelation to Job centered around his creative work and the daily operations of the natural world.

3. God’s message in Job is the message of trust in Him. God’s argument was that if He can create and maintain the natural world without any mortal input, He can and will take proper care of His people. They should trust Him to do it.

VI. JOSEPH.

A. Joseph, who was intelligent and exceptionally gifted, was hated by his brothers. (Genesis 37:2-11)

1. He was the favorite son of Jacob.

2. His boyhood dreams were prophetic of his future supremacy over his family.

B. From age 17 to age 30, Joseph’s life consisted almost entirely of one cruel injustice and adversity after another.

1. The hatred and jealousy of his brothers led to their sale of Joseph into slavery. (Genesis 37:12-36)

2. He became a slave in Egypt. (Genesis 39:1-6)

3. After a failed attempted seduction of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife, she falsely accused him of attempted rape. He was thrown into prison. (Genesis 39:7-20)

4. In prison, his help to others was met with ingratitude. (Genesis 39)

C. In spite of years of hardship and unjust suffering, Joseph had a most beautiful spirit. (Genesis 41:38)

1. The Egyptian Pharaoh dreamed a prophetic dream concerning the future of Egypt. (Genesis 41:1-36)

2. Only Joseph, by the revelation of God, was able to properly interpret the dream and offer a solution regarding the coming troubles.

3. In a great testimonial to the power of God over circumstances, within a few minutes, Joseph was promoted from a slave in a dungeon to prime minister of Egypt.

D. In his role as second in command in Egypt during the great famine, Joseph became the physical savior of his people.

1. The famine, which also reached Canaan, forced Joseph’s brothers to come to Egypt to buy food for survival. (Genesis 42)

2. In Egypt, Joseph’s brothers had to face Joseph and deal with their sin against him. (Genesis 42-44)

3. Joseph saw the providential hand of God in what his brothers did to him and held no resentment against them. He forgave them and used his position to succor them through the hard times of the day. (Genesis 45-46)

E. God used Joseph as a key tool in the early stages of the development and preservation of His nation of Israel.

1. Joseph is a prophetic symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of His people.

2. Joseph knew that the time of Israel in Egypt was temporary; and that when the nation was strong enough, God would bring them out of Egypt and into the promised land of Canaan. (Genesis 50:24-25)

The age of the patriarchs parallels the origin and formative stages of the nation of Israel. Before Abraham, the scriptures deal with God’s involvement of the human race as a whole. From Abraham onward, the focus of scripture is on the nation of Israel and God’s dealings with the rest of mankind primarily in relationship to Israel.

When God called Abraham out from the highly polytheistic and pantheistic Mesopotamia Valley, almost the entire human population on earth was given to paganism. God called Abraham, who was first named Abram, out from paganism and revealed Himself to him as the one and only true God. He promised Abraham that He would raise up a great nation through him, a promise which could only be fulfilled through a natural son to Abraham and his wife, Sarai. Since both of them were very old, past the age of child-bearing, they were skeptical and impatient that it would ever happen. God reinforced this promise and explained to Abraham that from this special biological son would ultimately come the Son of God, who would become by His sacrificial death, the exclusive hope of all lost people. Abraham realized the gravity of God’s promise and believed in the coming Messiah to his justification before God and to his eternal salvation.

God reinforced the necessity of the substitutionary sacrifice of the coming Messiah when He commanded Abraham to offer his special biological son, Isaac, as a sin offering. Abraham was willing, but at the last minute God substituted a sheep in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s offering of Isaac was no revelation to God. He knew Abraham’s faith and had justified him many years prior when he first believed in the coming Savior. Abraham’s offering of Isaac did justify him before men, multitudes of whom have read his story throughout the years since it occurred.

With Abraham, God began to raise up the special Jewish nation. Through them, God would deliver His revelation to the rest of the world, and they would become the primary custodians of the holy scriptures. They would become God’s example and point of illustration to the rest of the world. Best of all, through this nation, God would give the Savior.

When this nation was very young, it needed nourishing. It was too young, weak, and fragile to survive without special care and protection. To Abraham and Sarai was born Isaac, and to Isaac was born Jacob and Esau. Esau had no appreciation for spiritual things and God elected to continue the development of his new nation through Jacob, whom He later named Israel.

Jacob had 13 sons, one being a priest. From these sons, God brought forth the Jewish nation known as Israel. For a possession, He gave them the land of Canaan, the real estate at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. All of the offspring of Jacob constitute this nation.

While they were few in number and fledgling, God brought them under the umbrella of Egyptian protection. Strangely, He did so with a great famine. He knew that if they stayed in Canaan, they would be swallowed up by the native population through inter-marriage or destroyed by superior military powers. In Egypt, they found military protection and economic provision until such time as they multiplied sufficiently to stand own their own.

Since God knows the end from the beginning and since He is in control of all things, He arranged to place a member of the Israeli nation in a high place of authority in Egypt prior to the need. That man was Joseph, one of Jacob’s sons. His older brothers actually sold him into slavery thinking to destroy him. Their act was actually a part of the strategy of God for getting the right person into the right place to sustain them in the great famine which was soon to begin. This famine forced Jacob and his family into Egypt where they were nurtured until they were strong.

Another patriarch, though not of the Jewish nation, was Job. He lived east of Canaan at about the time of Jacob and Esau. Job was God’s prime example of His plan of salvation and service out of love and a free will. Satan, who is the constant adversary of all men, thinks that no man serves God because he loves Him. He thinks service by man to God is strictly a business deal. He thinks men serve God only for the benefits they get in return. He thinks God only gives benefits as a result of faithfulness by man, and that those who are unfaithful are immediately punished. Satan knows nothing of grace and true love, and of the voluntary, uncorrupted service which these produce.

Like multitudes, even religious multitudes, ever since, those who came to comfort Job took essentially the same position as Satan took. As a test of His plan and Job’s motives, God allowed Satan to take away Job’s enormous wealth and his good health. In fact, Satan reduced Job to agony and suffering beyond adequate description. Job’s friends accredited his pitiful condition to deep, unconfessed sin in his life. They assured him that if he would get the sin out of his life, his wealth and health would be restored. Their reasoning was highly unfounded.

Though God did not directly address Job’s probing concerns and questions about why he, and other men, find themselves in great adversity and suffering, He did indirectly shed great light on how to deal with it. At the end of a serious debate between Job and his contemporaries which centered around why mortals suffer, God appeared in a special revelation to Job. He did not directly answer any of Job’s questions.

In His special appearance, God spoke profoundly of His great creative work and of the fact that no man was there to see it or offer the slightest input or help. In fact, He reminded Job that men still understand very little about it. He also called Job’s attention to the many existing cataclysmic geological phenomena which can only be explained by a great flood. God continued and spoke of His natural world, which continues to function century after century with absolutely no input from man. God gave special emphasis to his two most powerful creatures, the land-based dinosaur, behemoth, and the marine dinosaur, leviathan. He reminded Job that man is powerless before either of them, but that He, God, is in complete control of both.

In the most powerful of terms, God asserted to Job His power and might to control all things in the best possible way. His point was obvious. If He could create and effectively continue the universe with all that is in it, He can take care of men. His message to Job, and to all men, is the message of faith and trust. The wisest thing any man can do is trust Him, even when that man is unaware of what God is doing and when it seems that God is doing something wrong. He isn’t. He never does.

This central theme of trust is a common thread to the age of the patriarchs. In the case of each one, in varying ways, the message is one of faith. Each one was taught to trust God more and the providential trustworthiness of God is powerfully evident. Abraham had to trust God. He didn’t know where God was taking him, but God was doing something good and wonderful by calling him out. Abraham had to trust God to give him and Sarai the son of promise at such old ages in life. Abraham had to trust God to raise Isaac up if he sacrificed him; most of all, Abraham by faith looked forward to the coming Messiah.

Likewise, Isaac had to trust God. He didn’t even go on the trip to get his wife. He had to trust God to make sure she was the right one. When Jacob returned to Canaan, the angels of God appeared to him. Laban was behind and Esau was ahead. Canaan was full of uncertainties and dangers. Jacob had to trust God. Surely the providential hand of God is obvious in the events in the life of Joseph, and the trustworthiness of God shines like a bright beacon. Joseph, more than most, did trust God; and what a personal champion he became in the process! The message of Joseph says trust God. Believe in His plan and let Him use you in it. What wise advice for every generation!

2. Discuss characteristics of the era of the patriarchs.

3. Discuss Abraham’s religious background.

4. Elaborate on the promises of God to Abraham.

5. Scripturally prove when Abraham was justified before God.

6. Discuss the purposes of the offering of Isaac.

7. What lessons have you learned from the life of Isaac?

8. What are the historical connotations of the fact that Jacob and Esau struggled in Rebekah’s womb?

9. Describe the character and personality of Esau which is so prevalent in modern society.

10. What is the spiritual significance of the fact that Jacob, the second-born, prevailed over Esau, the first-born?

11. Discuss the lesson of God to Jacob after he left Laban and prepared to meet Esau on his return to Canaan.

12. Explain how the Jews became known as Israelites.

13. Describe the early life of Joseph.

14. Describe the years of extreme adversity and injustice which Joseph endured.

15. Discuss Joseph’s attitude and spirit in spite of adversity.

16. What spiritual outlook enabled Joseph to respond so well to the trials of life?

17. Relate Joseph’s treatment of his brothers to your life.

18. Describe Satan’s attitude regarding the motives of men and service to God.

19. Summarize God’s revelation to Job.