Genesis 6/24/17

GENESIS

June 24, 2017

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

 

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)

 

Unfortunately, we see in chapter 26 that Isaac has repeated the same faux pas as his father concerning Abimelech, or the son of the Abimelech Abraham dealt with. It reads like a TV rerun:

 

“And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines to Gerar. ²And the LORD appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down into Egypt. Stay in the land which I shall tell you about. ³Sojourn in this land and I shall be with you, and I will bless you, for I shall give all these countries to you and to your seed, and I shall perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. ⁴And I shall make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven and will give to your seed all these countries. And in your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed. ⁵Because Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My Torahs (Teachings).’

 

“⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar. ⁷And the men of the place asked him about his wife and he said, ‘She is my sister.’ For he feared to say, ‘She is my wife.’ In case, he said, ‘The men of the place would kill me for Rebeccah,’ because she was fair to look upon.” (Genesis 26:1-8)

 

How is it do you suppose that Isaac, knowing the Lord, hearing about Him since birth – including [I’m sure] the story behind his birth, being raised by Abraham himself, and probably hearing the stories about when his father did the same thing to his mother as well as his regret about it – how do you suppose, he didn’t have the faith to know that the Lord would protect him from jealousy toward Rebeccah when he was obedient to stay in Philistia during the famine? AND under the son of the same king his dad had pulled the same line with about Sarah? KNOWING I’m sure, what had happened then?

 

Well, how is it that we do the same thing? If you think about it logically, we put 100% of our trust in Y’shua concerning our salvation don’t we? We have NO doubt that when we leave this earth, we will go straight to heaven and live forever in His presence. And why? Because He said so!  The Holy Spirit touched us and the next time we heard His message about His love and sacrifice we believed it whole-heartedly. And now we KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that 2^nd Corinthians 5:6-9 is as true for us as it was for Paul when he wrote, “Therefore, since we are always confident, and knowing that when we are at home in the body we are getting away from the Lord: ⁷because we are walking by faith, not by sight: ⁸but we are confident; we even rather prefer to leave from the body and to be at home with the Lord. ⁹For this reason then we strive earnestly, whether when we are at home or when we are away, to be well pleasing to Him.”

 

Putting those verses in a nutshell, he was saying that because we truly believe that when we leave this earth we are going to be in the presence of the Lord, we will live our lives to please Him because we love Him. And loving Him means that we live our lives according to His Word and Promises as opposed to our circumstances: “we are walking by faith, not by sight”.

 

So if we are so firm about our eternal life, how can we [albeit only periodically] start to unravel when we face a seemingly difficult situation? How can we believe God for miracles and all that supernatural stuff but not believe He can or will do what we can’t do when we’ve done all we can?

 

Ever since I first read it, my white-knuckle verse has been Romans 8:28, “And we know that, for those who love God, He works all things for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” That tells us right then and there that getting saved doesn’t mean life is going to be a bowl of cherries from then on in.

 

What it DOES say is that no matter what, He always has our back! AND being not only the omniscient Creator of the Universe, but also THE Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) AND the One Who personally told us “I have told you these things so that you would have peace because of Me: in the world you have distress: but be of good courage, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) How can we not trust Him with everything?

 

I personally think it is just the residue of our old human nature that makes us doubt once in a while. Jesse DuPlantis says that we should doubt our doubt. When doubt comes in concerning the love of God or anything about Him that we know isn’t true, why do we instantly put our faith in that doubt? Because that is what we are doing when we run with something – putting our faith in it. But if we would doubt our doubt it would disappear. Only while we put our faith in it is it allowed to stay.

 

And renewing our mind is the PERFECT way to be able to doubt your doubt quickly! And how do we do that? Romans 12:2, “Stop being conformed to this age, but you must from the inside continually be changed into another form, by the renovation of your mind, to prove what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God for you.”

 

And how can we have our mind renovated from the inside out? Have you ever heard of GIGO? It’s a computer term (at least that’s how I first heard of it): Garbage In, Garbage Out – implying data. Well, what kind of data are you putting in your computer/brain? Y’shua taught this centuries before computers: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” Proverb 23:7. Yes Proverbs was written by King Solomon, but Who do you suppose gave him his wisdom? But if you would like a direct quote, let’s go to Matthew 15:10-20, “Then after He summoned the crowd, He said to them, ‘You must listen and understand: ¹¹that what is entering the mouth does not defile a person but that going out from the mouth. This defiles that person’…¹⁷Do you not understand that everything that enters the mouth and the stomach comes out and is thrown out in a latrine? ¹⁸But the things that go out from the mouth come out from the heart, and these things defile the person. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, immoralities, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemes. ²⁰These things are the things that defile a person…” “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Pro 23:7 NKJV)

So as we know that we cannot change anyone else say nothing to ourselves – let’s give our Lord that job, as it is His anyway. And I would suggest meditating on His Word throughout your day. If you don’t think you can do that, let me ask you this; can you worry all day about something? That’s what meditation is – worrying. Worry is meditating on something troublesome. Why not replace it with something you need from God’s Word?

 

When you meditate on His Word, you eventually memorize it. Then it gets inside you, in your spirit and in your soul, which is your mind and emotions. And when THAT happens, you will automatically “…from the inside continually be changed into another form, by the renovation of your mind” and therefore then know “what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God for you.” It’s a promise. It’s HIS promise. Therefore it WILL happen.

 

So if you have to doubt anything – doubt any doubt about your God. Pick a verse in His Word and roll it over and over in your mind this week. And see if, by the week’s end, it doesn’t have an effect on you. I’m going to do Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. ⁶In all your Ways know Him and He will make your paths smooth.” (I could use some smooth paths, let me tell you.) I chose that one because I’m real familiar with it and it will be easy for me to remember [intact] and meditate on.

 

Let me know which verse you chose and how He strengthened you with it. I’d LOVE to know! Because “All Scripture is God-inspired and useful for teaching, for reproof, restoration, for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God would be able to meet all demands since he has been equipped perfectly for every good work.” 2^nd Timothy 3:16-17 

SHALOM

Genesis 6/17/17

GENESIS

June 17, 2017

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

 

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)

 

As we pick up on Genesis chapter 25, Abraham is dead and his full personal lineage has been noted as well as Ishmaels’. We are starting today at Genesis 25:19, which is entitled Toldot, referring to a specific [weekly] reading from the Torah that continues to 28:9. Toldot means result, consequence, birth, offspring, descendants; and starts with the descendants of Isaac, the son of the promise, as we can read in Galatians 4:21-24.

 

“And these are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begot Isaac: ²⁰And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebeccah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. ²¹And Isaac entreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren, and the LORD was entreated by him and Rebeccah his wife conceived. ²²And the children struggled together within her and she said, ‘If it is so, why am I like this?’ And she went to inquire of the LORD. ²³And the LORD said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb and two kinds of people will be separated from your body, the one people will be stronger than the other people and the elder will serve the younger.’ (25:19-23)

 

Verse 21 is the first time we read of a husband praying for his wife. But after 20 years of marriage, Isaac and Rebeccah were still childless. And talk about results! Although Rebeccah only had two children physically, her twin sons grew up to father the Hebrews (Jacob) and the Edomites (Esau). We need to remember that the world was still pretty young at this time. Isaac was born only 2120 years after creation and there had been a worldwide flood around 1600 years after creation, so the population was still pretty sparse, which is why, I believe, they had soooo many more children as a general rule then than we do today. (And also why I wasn’t born back then, thank you very much.)

 

“And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵And the first came out, red all over like a hairy garment and the called his name Esau (Esav). ²⁶And after his brother came out and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel, and his name was called Jacob (Yaakov) and Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. ²⁷And the boys grew and Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a plain man, living in tents. ²⁸And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his venison, but Rebeccah loved Jacob.” (25:24-28, the spellings in parentheses are Hebrew and in the ONM)

 

Many people translate the name Jacob to mean supplanter, meaning someone devious. And although Jacob wasn’t necessarily always on the up-and-up, I believe his name means at the heel. Considering it was given to him at birth, and references his zeal to be first – both at birth and later in life toward the things of God.

 

In this last passage of chapter 25, we will learn that Esau wasn’t so excited about the big picture of life. He was consumed with what was in-the-moment. Now to be sure, we should be able to concentrate and focus on our day-to-day projects and duties, but not to the point to where we are all but blind to the future and the real important things of this life, which are not temporal, but eternal.

 

As Y’shua told us in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not gather treasures on the Earth for yourselves, where moth and rust are destroying and where thieves break in and steal:²⁰but build up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and do not steal: ²¹for where your treasure is there also will your heart be.”

 

Esau was the poster child for this warning! “And Jacob made a stew and Esau came from the field and he was weary. ³⁰And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Feed me, I pray you, with that same red stew, for I am weary.’ Therefore his name was called Edom, Red. ³¹And Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright this day.’ ³²And Esau said, ‘Look, I am at the point of death, so what good will this birthright be to me?’ ³³And Jacob said, ‘Swear to me this day.’ And he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, then he got up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.” (25:29-34)

 

Esau, being the firstborn would have inherited two-thirds of his father’s estate AND would have been the official head of the family socially, spiritually and authoritatively. Now don’t get me wrong, I really like lentil stew and make it every winter. However, it is not worth the fortune and position that Esau gave for it. But he was within his rights. The firstborn, the father or God the Father were the only ones who could alter the inheritance of the firstborn.

 

God did this in Numbers when He assigned Levi and his heirs to be the Priests of the Hebrew nation instead of Reuben, who was the firstborn of Jacob/Israel. “And I have taken the Levites instead of all of the firstborn of the children of Israel. ¹⁹And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel, so there will be no plague among the children of Israel when the children of Israel come near the Sanctuary.” (8:18-19)

 

Israel also reversed the birth order when he was declaring his blessings over Joseph’s two sons at his death, (we assume under the Lord’s guidance). “And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, ‘Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.’ ¹⁹And his father refused and said, ‘I know it, my son, I know it. He also will become a people and he also will be great, but truly his younger brother will be greater than he and his seed will become the fullness of the nations.’” (Genesis 48:17-19)

 

So this was a very big deal and Esau sloughed it off for dinner. And somehow I doubt that he was near death as he claimed, as he came in under his own power and carried on quite the conversation. He was just consumed with his own body and needs and could have cared less about anyone else’s feelings or about anything long-term.

 

We, as God’s children, should be concerning ourselves with the big picture on a continual basis. That picture of course, being the Kingdom of God and our individual place and responsibilities in it. 

 

I would suggest spending time every morning with your Creator before you start your day going out into the world that buffets you around as much as possible. Try putting on some praise music, or just reading your Bible with the focus on what He wants to tell you and how you can allow Him to change you. You may even want to start each day with communion too. It will make you look forward to waking up I promise you.

 

You may have to adjust your schedule, but isn’t making quality time for the One Who gives you every heartbeat, every breathe, every new day, eternal life and works every single circumstance you have for your good (Romans 8:28)  worth it?

 

I have to tell you that I am NOT a morning person! And I was relatively sure that God wired me that way. Then several months ago, I started waking up early – pre-alarm and sometimes even pre-dawn! Well it just irritated the stuffing out of me as I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep with no avail. So I would pray in my head until the alarm went off and I HAD to get up.

 

It took quite a while, but at some point I figured out that it was the Lord waking me up to spend time with Him. I’m far from the sharpest knife in the drawer you know, so when this brainstorm finally came – I stopped waking up early! Well then I was devastated and begged Him to give me another chance promising to be obedient and not stupid! Well, He did and so did I! So if I can do it – you can too! And it does wonders for your day, for your attitude, for your peace and for the most important relationship you have! Give it a try, you’ll like it, I promise! So does He.

 

SHALOM!

AND HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL THE DADS OUT THERE!!

Genesis 6/3/17

GENESIS

June 3, 2017

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

 

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)

 

Genesis 25 gives us a short synopsis of the next several years when, we can assume, life went on per usual until the next main event in chapter 26 which was another famine.

 

We are dividing chapter 25 into 4 parts and covering them individually, the first 3 of which will be covered today:

 

Genesis 25:1-6 Abraham Marries

“Then Abraham went and took a wife and her name was Keturah. ²And she bore him Zimran, Yokshan, Medan, Midian, Yishbak, and Shuakh. ³And Yokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. ⁴And the sons of Midian; Ephah, Efer, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. ⁵And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. ⁶But to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away, eastward, to the east country from Isaac his son while he yet lived.”

 

The first thing I noticed was that all Abraham’s other sons were called “the sons of the concubines that Abraham had” on verse 6, but still referring to them as Keturah’s sons, whom he married after Sarah died. And the only thing I can think of was that perhaps Keturah pulled a Sarai, couldn’t have children herself and brought concubines in for Abraham.

 

Or perhaps Abraham was married to Sarah so long, and loved her so much that he just couldn’t think of anyone else as his wife. Perhaps, try as he may, no one could take Sarah’s place in his heart and so he considered Keturah a concubine. We actually have no idea – I’m just throwing it out there because it confused me.

 

What we do know is that Isaac was the son of promise (see Hebrews 11:17) and received the entirety of Abraham’s inheritance, as the Lord ordained him to have. We also know that not all of Isaac’s [half] brothers and their descendants remained friendly throughout history, at least the ones that are mentioned again. But as the Lord had Moses record the names, let’s look at the meanings of the names of the sons of Abraham, as children were usually prophetically named back then:

 

Zimran means musical or more literally, to strike or play a musical instrument with one’s fingers. (Not mentioned again, except in Abrahams’ 1^st Chronicles genealogy.)

 

Yokshan [or Jokshan] means insidious. And he, history tells us, became an Arabian patriarch. (Although not mentioned again biblically, except in Abrahams’ 1^stChronicles genealogy.)

 

Medan means discord or strife. But obviously they went their way and did not participate in Biblical history as they are not mentioned again, except in Abrahams’ 1^stChronicles genealogy.

 

Midian means brawling or contention. This seems quite apropos when we see that God’s people fought against the Midianites throughout the Old Testament, and were their main foe during the times after Joshua in the Book of Judges, especially concerning Deborah and Gideon (see Judges 6).

 

Yishbak [or Ishbak] means he will leave. And as he is not mentioned again in God’s Word, save for in Abrahams’ 1^st Chronicles genealogy; this too must have been a peaceful parting without jealousy.

 

Shuakh means to sink, bow down or be humble. (Not mentioned again, except in Abrahams’ 1^st Chronicles genealogy.)

 

Sheba. There were three (3) early progenitors of the tribes that live in the land we now call Ethiopia, but in ancient times was called Sheba. And all of these tribal patriarchs were named Sheba (?). And considering how early in history Abraham’s son was born, I tend to think that he was one of them.

 

We know that the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon over a thousand years later and was totally enthralled with his wisdom (see 1^st Kings 10 and 2^nd Chronicles 9). And the nation of Sheba is mentioned several times throughout the Old Testament.

Legend says that Solomon and the Queen had a son while she was in Israel, although that has never been proven. We do know however, that Ethiopia has for centuries and even to this day, a huge Jewish population. So be it through hearing the truth or by heritage or both – Ethiopia has been and still is filled with God’s people. (Perhaps they are the ‘lost tribe’ that theologians get all excited about every now and then.)

Dedan has no listed meaning. However, as it is also the name of one of Cushs’ descendants, I fail to see it as a good thing. Cush was Ham’s oldest and Nimrod’s father – need I say more?

Asshurim was a son of Dedan, but has no recorded meaning and neither is he mentioned again.

Letushim means hammered or oppressed. He is also historically listed as the patriarch of an Arabian tribe and also a son of Dedan.

Leummim means night, or it figuratively means adversity. He is not mentioned again biblically either nor is he recorded historically as far as I could tell save for being the third son of Dedan. Have you noticed that none of Dedans’ sons are mentioned after their birth? Perhaps their fathers’ namesake had something to do with that. (I just may add that to my list of questions I have for when I get to heaven and get a Face-to-face.)

Ephah was Midian’s first-born and also the name of the geographical area Midian/the Midianites settled in (or perhaps conquered, as the case may be).

Efer [or Epher] means gazelle and is also an Arabian name.

Hanoch has no listed meaning that I can find.

Abidah means father of knowledge. How interesting. He is also a son of Midian, but is only mentioned again in Abrahams’ 1^st Chronicles genealogy.

Eldaah means God of knowledge (El meaning God). He is also one of Midian’s sons. I believe we can safely assume that Abraham shared his faith in the one true God to his entire family, so although the few mentioned later appeared to have parted from the faith, we can hope that the first few generations were saved any way.

 

Genesis 25:7-11 Abraham Dies at 175

“And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, a hundred seventy-five. ⁸Then Abraham expired and died in a good old age, and old man full of years; and was gathered to his people. ⁹And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Efron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, ¹⁰the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. Abraham and Sarah his wife were buried there. ¹¹And it was after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac lived by the well Lahai-Roi.”

 

El Ro’i means God sees me (see Genesis 16:13), therefore Isaac lived by the well that was named, the Well of the Living One Who sees me or the Well of the One Who Reveals Himself. Either way we now know that Isaac’s story is about to kick in.

 

And there doesn’t seem to be an overpowering animosity between Isaac and Ishmael at this time, does there? They got together to bury their father and because God blessed Ishmael also, he was well established with his own families and territories. In fact, we will see in this next section of chapter 25, Ishmael’s family covered quite a bit of territory already:

 

Genesis 25:12-18 Generations of Ishmael

“Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bore to Abraham. ¹³And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names according to their generations: the first born of Ishmael, Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsham, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Nafish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their towns and by their small villages; twelve princes according to their tribes.” (25:12-16) Notice that God blessed both Ishmael and Isaac’s son Jacob with patriarchs of 12 tribes.

 

Although many of Ishmael’s sons’ names are repeated in God’s Word, they are referenced due to the towns and villages that were built honoring them by name.

 

Nebaioth means fruitfulnesses and is also the name of the [ancient] country settled by him.

 

Kedar means dusky of skin, and is the patriarch of the Bedouin tribes who still migrate throughout the desert areas of the middle-east today.

 

Adbeel mean languished, chastisement, disciplined by God. Poor thing! That’s worse than being named Jabez (which means sorrowful or born in sorrow)! I wonder if he prayed his way out of it like Jabez did (see 1^st Chronicles 4:9-10).

 

Mibsham means fragrant.

 

Mishma means a report or hearing.

 

Dumah means to be dumb as in silent – figuratively deathly silent. It is also [still] the name of a region in Arabia.

 

Massa means burden.

Hadad means fierce. This is also the name of a royal Edomite mentioned in 1^st Kings 11. The Edomites are the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother, which will be covered next week when we finish chapter 25.  The Edomites also fought with Israel due to the animosity between Esau and Jacob (who later God renamed Israel).

 

Tema. No meaning was found for Tema, although we do know that is was also the name of the region that he settled.

 

Jetur means encircled or enclosed.

 

Nafish has no meaning that I could find.  

 

Kedemah means precedence.

 

“And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred thirty-seven years, and he expired and died and was gathered to his people. ¹⁸And they dwelled from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria: he died in the presence of all his brothers.” (Genesis 25:17-18)

 

In light of our common [spiritual] genealogies and seeing how many of Abraham’s descendants, be it through Hagar or Keturah are now Arabian, let’s try to keep all this in mind and sincerely and continually pray for our half-brothers and sisters who have all descended from Abraham. As the Lord blessed Ishmael, may He be able to bless his descendants also – bless them with the knowledge of knowing the One True God of their father Abraham, and His Son Who died for them as well. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 bold used for emphasis) They too are whosoevers so let’s pray – it’s truly the only thing that will start the revelation of Truth. And everybody needs Truth!

 

SHALOM!