The Conclusion of a Story That’s Not Really Over

All right, good morning, good

news. That's going to be the last time that some of you ever see that.

About 14 months ago, we began a journey that we finish up today.

We have been teaching through the book of Genesis. We have been teaching through

the book of Genesis, not constantly for 14 months. We did take a break to talk

about, we did a series on spiritual growth. We talked about Christmas at Christmastime.

We did a series at the beginning of this year called Modern American Problems,

but then we got right back into Genesis and we continued to preach through Genesis.

And so of these last 14 months, nine of them were on the book of Genesis as

we've been just going back and forth.

So we've been working on this for nine months. Today is a little bit like having a baby, all right?

Today's text is Genesis chapter 45, starting in verse 16 and goes to Genesis

Genesis 45 · chapter mention Genesis 50:26

chapter 50, verse 26. And that is the conclusion of the book of Genesis.

It's the final like five and a half chapters.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to briefly summarize what happens in these

chapters. and then I want to ask and answer three questions that are related

to the conclusion of the book of Genesis. So here's the summary.

Picking up where we left off last week, remember Joseph is the prime minister

of Egypt. He's second in command at this point.

And his brothers who betrayed him when he was very little, they have now come

to Egypt because that's the only place that has food.

And Joseph is the one that's in charge of all the food. So he holds their life in his hands.

And at some point, like he recognizes who they are, and then eventually he reveals

himself to them, and so they realize who he is, and he forgives his brothers

for what they did all those years ago.

And the verse we ended on last week was about how Joseph kissed each of his

brothers as he wept, and afterwards his brothers talked with him,

and he invited the whole family to come down and live in Egypt because he's a bigwig there,

and he has all these resources, and he's rich now, and so why should you live

in this place where there's famine when you can come live here?

And so that's how it ends last week. And so this week now, these next five chapters,

what happens is Joseph sends for his father to come and move to Egypt.

Joseph's father's name is, anybody remember? What's Joseph's father's name?

Okay, Jacob, much better than

first service. They act like they never cracked a Bible in their life.

Okay, Jacob is his name. We've been talking about him for several weeks now.

And then his other name is?

Israel. Right, so God renames him Israel. So sometimes in the text he calls

it Israel, sometimes he's referred to as Jacob.

But Joseph sends for Jacob slash Israel to come to Egypt.

His father moves to Egypt, and in fact, all of Israel's family moves there and

settles there. All of the boys, all of the wives, all of the kids,

everybody moves to Egypt and settles there.

In chapters 48 and 49 of Genesis, very much toward the end, Jacob gives his

final blessings to his sons and to his grandsons.

In chapter 48 is the blessings to the grandsons. So Jacob meets Joseph's sons,

Ephraim and Manasseh, and he does a blessing for each Ephraim and Manasseh.

And then the next one, chapter 39, Jacob, as he's about to die,

does blessings for all of his sons.

And in fact, some of the blessings are actually more like curses. Do you remember that?

Yeah, earlier in this series, we actually jumped ahead and we read some out of Genesis chapter 49.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

And so some of the things he says to some of his sons at the end of their life

are blessings. Some of them are a little bit more like curses,

but he says his final thing to each son, and then he dies.

And then you get to chapter 50, which is the final chapter of the book of Genesis.

And that one ends with Joseph's death and some concluding thoughts.

So today, I want to talk about three questions, and I want to answer these three

questions from the concluding chapters of the book of Genesis.

Okay, and these are the three questions that we're gonna go through today.

Number one, what does the conclusion of Genesis teach us historically?

Number two, what does the conclusion of Genesis teach us theologically?

And then number three, what does the conclusion of Genesis have to do with us?

Okay, these final five chapters, what do they teach us historically,

theologically, and how are they connected, if at all, to our lives?

So, number one, the first question, what does the conclusion of Genesis teach us historically?

This one I think is very simple. The answer is the conclusion of the book of

Genesis shows us how Israel ended up in Egypt.

Okay? How did Israel end up in Egypt? When I say Israel, I mean literally the

guy named Israel. He moved to Egypt.

But also, he becomes this great nation there, right? And so there's this nation

called Israel that is there in Egypt.

Well, how is that? Especially if you know later parts of the Bible,

you might know there's a section of the Bible where there's this nation called

Israel that's embedded in another nation named Egypt.

How did that happen? The end of the book of Genesis explains to us how we got

to that point. So let me go ahead and read it to you.

Before I read today's text, I'm actually going to go back to the part where

this part of the story began, and that is Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

So let me just read you a couple of verses from Genesis 15 first,

then we'll get to the conclusion of Genesis.

But earlier on in the story, Genesis 15, the Lord was speaking to Abraham,

which would be Joseph's great-grandfather, and as God is speaking to Abraham,

he says this. This is Genesis 15 verse 13.

Genesis 15:13

Then the Lord said to Abram, Know this for certain.

This thing I'm about to tell you is definitely going to happen. Know this for certain.

Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them.

They will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. However, I will judge the nation

they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.

So this is God telling Abraham what's going to happen ahead of time.

He is prophesying. He's saying this is what the future holds.

You're gonna have a family that becomes this great nation

and they're gonna live in this land that's not their land okay now

at the time that he says this he doesn't name what like when

he says they'll be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them he doesn't

say what land that is but by the end of the book of Genesis we find out the

answer is Egypt is that land so he says that's what's gonna happen and then

he tells more things that are gonna happen in the future they will be enslaved

and oppressed for 400 years I will judge the nation they serve afterwards they

will go out with many possessions so he is telling them ahead of time this is the plan.

Your people are going to do this. And then these other people are going to do

this. And then I'm going to do this. And so he's explaining the whole story

ahead of time before it happens.

And he is specifically talking about them being this nation that's within this

other nation. They are foreigners in a land that does not belong to them.

So that brings us to now where we left off. So going now to Genesis chapter

Genesis 45 · chapter mention

45, I'm going to pick up, this is the conclusion of the book of Genesis.

This is where we left off last week. So last week we were reading in Genesis

Genesis 45 · chapter mention

chapter 45, and this is the last verse I read to you.

Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept and afterward his brothers talked

with him. And so now I'm just moving to the very next verse, right where we left off.

Genesis 45, 16. When the news reached Pharaoh's palace, Joseph's brothers have come.

Pharaoh and his servants were pleased.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, tell your brothers, do this. Load your animals and go

on back to the land of Canaan.

Get your father and your families and come back to me and I will give you the

best of the land of Egypt and you can eat from the richness of the land.

You are also commanded, do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your

young children and your wives and bring your father here.

Do not be concerned about your belongings for the best of all of the land of Egypt is yours.

So Pharaoh, when he hears about this, when he hears that Joseph has a secret

family, he's like, what, that's fantastic. You never told me you had a secret family out there.

Like, let's have them come live here. That sounds wonderful, okay?

You could tell that the way that Pharaoh feels about Joseph,

Pharaoh loves Joseph, right? He's the one that's like helped rescue the whole

nation from starvation.

And he's like, Joseph, this is great. If you got some family out there,

then hey, any family that's yours, family of mine, you know,

your friends are my friends, me casa, su casa, whatever, me period,

you period, pyramid, just everybody,

like, if there's people out there you care about, bring them here and let's

give them all the best stuff. So that's what happens.

I didn't say that in the first service. That just popped into my head and the

filter didn't catch it. Sorry.

So that's what happened. So then skipping on to Genesis 47, verse 27,

Genesis 47:27

this is kind of a verse that summarizes what happens in response to this invitation.

Israel settled, this is Genesis 47, 27.

Israel settled in the land of Egypt in the region of Goshen.

They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.

So when it says Israel settled in the land of Egypt, first of all,

if you interpret the word Israel to mean Jacob, okay, that did literally happen.

Jacob did settle in the land of Egypt. He moved there and lived with the rest of his family.

However, I think the word Israel here is being used in a broader sense than

that, because it says Israel settled

in the land of Egypt in the region of Goshen. What's the next word?

They. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.

It seems to me Israel is Jacob's name, but it also becomes the name of this

whole group of people that descend from him, and they become a great nation.

This is where Genesis 15 starts to come true. When he says, hey,

your people will be these people in a land that does not belong to them.

Here it is. It happens in verse 27. They acquired property in it and became

very fruitful and numerous.

So in order for this to happen, in order for all of Joseph's family to move

from Canaan to Egypt and become this great people there in Egypt within the

Egyptian land, somebody had to go tell Jacob that Joseph was still alive.

Can you imagine that? Those of you who've been following this story the whole

time, Jacob's back at home. He doesn't know.

He thinks his son died as a 17-year-old, and he hasn't seen him for,

it's been like 20 to 22 years since then.

He hasn't seen him in all this time, and he thinks he's dead.

And so then the brothers have to come home and explain, like, Joseph's alive.

You know? Well, no, he's not. He's dead. You know? And they're like,

well, he's actually alive. He's the prime minister in Egypt.

But that's not possible. How could he do that if he's dead?

You know? And then they've got to be like, well, we did a tiny little trick.

That we never told you about.

I mean, I don't know how they said it. It doesn't say they said it that way.

But at some point, I don't know how they said it to him, but at some point,

they had to break the news that Joseph is still alive.

And Jacob doesn't believe it at first. If you read the story,

you'll see at first, he goes, well, that can't be true, right?

And then when he sees all the wagons from Egypt, he's like, well,

maybe it is. And so he gets on a wagon and he goes to Egypt and sure enough, it was true.

And in chapter 46, the reunion of Jacob and Joseph is described.

It's a tear-filled reunion. Neither one of them has seen each other for a couple

of decades. and so they see each other and they just cry and they're happy to

see each other and I can't believe you're alive.

And at this point, Joseph's probably had kids by now, so he's meeting his grandsons

that he didn't know he had.

And so all that takes place, and that's how your people will be foreigners in

a land that does not belong to them. That's how it happens.

But the other thing that was prophesied back in chapter 15 is that Israel is

not just foreigners in a land that doesn't belong to them, but they become enslaved

and oppressed. Remember that?

When does that happen? That does not happen in the book of Genesis at all.

Genesis ends without that happening. In fact, Genesis ends on a note that it

seems like that would be very unlikely to happen.

The way that Genesis ends, Pharaoh and Joseph are getting along. Everything's great.

Joseph brings his family. Pharaoh's like, yeah, this is awesome.

We'll give them all the best stuff.

Joseph's family is doing wonderful in the land of Egypt. They're not oppressed.

Everything's going great.

But God said that they were going to be oppressed. So when does that happen?

It happens after the time period of the book of Genesis.

In fact, if you were to read through Genesis and you get to the final chapter,

here it is, Genesis chapter 50, okay?

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

You just turn one page, and you get to the book of Exodus, which is the very

next book in the Bible, and the very next verse you start reading,

and the story continues on there.

The story that begins in Genesis goes right on into Exodus, and it explains

how these celebrities all became oppressed.

Here it is, Exodus chapter 1. I'm going to read it to you. It's what happens

Exodus 1 · chapter mention

right after the book of Genesis, at least as you're reading through.

Exodus chapter 1, verse 1.

Exodus 1:1

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob.

Each came with his family, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar,

Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

We know that from Genesis, right?

The total number of Jacob's descendants was 70. That's how many people moved

there before they became a numerous nation. It started off with this family of 70.

Joseph was already in Egypt. We know why, right? Because we know that story.

Then Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died.

So I want you to notice that Exodus is most certainly the sequel to the book

of Genesis. Can you tell by the way it's written?

Like the person who wrote Exodus, I believe Moses was the primary author of Exodus.

The person who wrote Exodus assumed that you read Genesis before you read Exodus.

Because when you get to this sentence right here, the total number of Jacob's

descendants was 70. Jacob who? Doesn't even explain, right?

Joseph was already in Egypt. Who's Joseph? We're like five verses into this

book. you haven't told us who any of these people are, right?

And all of a sudden, it's like, well, Joseph and all his brothers and all that

generation died. Who are these people?

The writer of Exodus is like, hey, you watched the first movie.

You know. Like, the writer of Exodus wrote it assuming that whoever's reading

it already has the information in Genesis, and he can just pick up right where

they left off. So, this is where they are.

Next verse. Then, Joseph and his brothers and all that generation died.

But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied,

and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.

That matches what the end of the book of Genesis says happened when Jacob went and settled there.

But then this is the like, this is the terrible part where everything changes.

A new king who had not known Joseph came to power in Egypt.

So this is why the unlikely thing happened. At the end of the book of Genesis,

they would never be oppressed and enslaved.

At the end of the book of Genesis, Pharaoh and Joseph were getting along great.

And he's like, give all the richness of the land to your family.

And I would assume that maybe even for a generation or two after that, that continued, right?

Joseph had kids and Pharaoh had kids. And I'm guessing maybe one of those kids became the next king.

And Joseph's family took on whatever the next thing was.

And so the next two generations probably looked at each other and went,

hey, your dad has been really good to our family.

You know, we really appreciate you. And then they said, oh, well,

your dad is the one that saved us all from starvation.

We really appreciate you. That's wonderful. And maybe the grandkids even talked about it too.

But at some point, enough time passed that there was a king in Egypt who didn't

have any clue who Joseph was.

And then this happens, verse nine. He said to his people, look,

the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.

Let us deal shrewdly with them. Otherwise they will multiply further.

And if war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.

So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with

forced labor. They built Pithom and Ramses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

And so that's how it happens. One day, someone who doesn't know anything about

Joseph just looks up and says, wow, I've got a bunch of people in our country that don't look like us.

What are we going to do? And they oppress them and enslave them.

And that is how the prophecy that God made back in Genesis chapter 20,

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

back in Genesis 15, when he said they will be oppressed and enslaved for 400

years, and then I'm gonna judge that nation. That's how all that comes to be.

So what I'm saying here is, remember the question is, what does the conclusion

of Genesis teach us historically? In fact, you could put the three questions

back up. What does the conclusion of Genesis teach us historically?

What it teaches us is why the rest of the Old Testament went the way it did.

Like how in the world do you have this one nation that's inside this other nation

and then gets oppressed and then you have to have an exodus and then Leviticus

and the rest of the Old Testament unfolds from there.

So the conclusion of Genesis shows why the rest of the Bible happened the way it did.

All right, question number two. What does the conclusion of Genesis teach us theologically?

There's one thing that the book of Genesis ends on. It's a real famous quote

that I'm going to read to you from chapter 15.

It seems to me like it just, in a very powerful way, it gives us this lesson

about God that really has been throughout the whole book anyway.

It's been saying it over and over again, but then Joseph just says it at the very end.

It seems to me that what Genesis teaches us theologically is that this story,

okay, this story that we call Genesis, is not simply what happened back then.

It's what God caused to happen back then. It's what God brought about in his world.

Genesis is not just a record of human activity. It's the record of what God did.

You can see this, like it's obvious from the very beginning of the book of Genesis

when God creates the world, right?

Like it starts off with God creating the whole world. The world does not just happen.

That happens at the initiative of God. And then the stories happen from there.

And you can see like God is a character in the book of Genesis,

like causing the things to happen, reacting to things, saying,

well, this is gonna happen. This is gonna happen.

In fact, Genesis 15 is a really good example of God pre-planning ahead of time what's gonna happen.

So he says, Abraham, I'm gonna do this. And then your people are gonna do this.

And then these other people are gonna do this. And then I'm gonna react to what

they did. And I'm gonna judge what they did. And he tells the story ahead of time before it happens.

And we see God intervening in the story and rescuing his people or punishing

other people or whatever all throughout the story.

And then we get to the end and Joseph says something that's like very clearly along these lines.

He already has said stuff like this before when he's like, you did not send

me here, but God sent me here. Remember from last week?

And then he says what's really like one of the more famous things in the book of Genesis.

And so let me read it to you. This is kind of the last thing Joseph says as

far as the like him and his brothers and the whole saga with what they did to

him and what he's doing now.

So this is Genesis chapter 50.

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

I'm going to start reading right in the middle of verse 17.

This is a message that the brothers have sent to Joseph. So this is the brothers talking.

Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Okay?

They're referring to themselves there as the servants of the God of your father.

They're saying, please forgive us.

Joseph, we were wrong to you back when you were 17. We are really sorry.

Will you please forgive us for selling you into slavery?

Joseph wept when their message came to him. And then his brothers also came

to him, right? They sent the message first, then they showed up in person.

Bowed down before him and said, we are your slaves. But Joseph said to them,

don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

You planned evil against me. God planned it for good to bring about the present

result, the survival of many people.

Therefore, don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your little ones.

And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

So do you see what's going on here? Like he says to them, you planned evil against me. That was bad.

You guys did a bad thing, okay? You thought about it, you chose to do it,

it was wrong, you shouldn't have done it.

But then he says, God, what?

God planned it for good. And what is the it?

The it is what they did to him, right? Selling him into slavery.

God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people.

God's really the author of this story. He has a particular way he wants it to end.

So he planned this out and he had it because he wanted this to be a good ending.

He wanted the next thing that happened to be a good thing. So he caused the

survival of many people to have.

You shouldn't have done it. You were bad. But God's role in it, he was good.

He planned it for good, the survival of many people. And so I guess I just want

you to see, like as you get to the end of the book of Genesis,

something is said that really has been implied the whole time.

The story ends with Joseph saying, what has happened. This has been God's plan all along.

So Genesis is, I guess what I'm trying to tell you is, Genesis is not just history.

Genesis is his story, like God's story that he is unfolding in his world.

You see it all over the place in the book of Genesis.

Number three, what does the conclusion of Genesis have to do with us?

So we understand how it's connected to the rest of the Bible.

We understand how it's connected to the story that God is telling.

But what is, I mean, it's about these people back then, a long time ago.

What does Genesis have to do with us?

In order to answer that, let me go ahead and read to you the final five verses

of the book of Genesis. This is the way that it ends.

This is Genesis 50, verses 22 through 26.

Genesis 50:22–26

Joseph and his father's household remained in Egypt.

Joseph lived 110 years. He saw Ephraim's sons to the third generation.

The sons of Manasseh's son, Machir, were recognized by Joseph.

So this shows how old he is and how many generations he was able to see.

So Manasseh had a son, and then Manasseh, I guess, had sons,

and he was able to see them. So his great-grandchildren.

He lives to see his great-grandchildren, maybe even great-great-grandchildren,

depending on what sons to the third generation means.

But he lives a long time, and he gets to see his kids' kids.

And then look at this, verse 24.

Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die. Okay?

So he said this before he died, obviously. I know they said he died,

but then this is going backwards. Okay?

Now, before he died, he said this, I am about to die, but God will certainly

come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land that he, what's the word?

Promised. That's very important. To the land he promised. Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob. That's great-granddad, granddad, and dad.

Bring you up to this land, to the land he promised, Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob. So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath.

When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here. Ew, gross.

That's what he wanted. Carry my bones up from here. For what?

I assume so that they will be buried there in the land that God has promised us.

Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin

in Egypt, which I assume is how they would handle dignitaries in Egypt at that

time. And that's how Genesis ends.

Genesis ends with they involved him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.

So what I want you to notice is the story of Genesis doesn't really like end

at the book of Genesis, right?

The ending of Genesis is about how the story is not over.

Do you see that? Like as you're getting to the end and Joseph's about to die,

he doesn't say like, and you know, I'm glad we all lived happily ever after.

He says, no, there is something that's gonna come after this and I'm not gonna

live to see it, but it's gonna happen.

God will certainly come to your aid, right? This thing's gonna happen.

I'm gonna be dead when it happens, but it's gonna happen.

God will certainly come to your aid and will bring you up from this land.

This is not where we're all gonna stay.

This is not our destiny. There's a land that he promised to us.

There's a land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

At some point, he's gonna take us out of here. He's gonna bring us there.

So Joseph made the Israelites take an oath. When God comes to your aid,

you are to carry my bones up from here.

He's saying, so let me just point out, I guess, two things.

One is about Joseph's faith, and one of this is about the connection to the rest of the story.

You can tell, this conclusion assumes a sequel.

It doesn't end with, they all lived happily ever after. It ends with,

hey, there's another thing that's about to happen, and I'm not going to get

to see it, but you all, when the next thing happens, this is what you need to

do when the next chapter begins.

So the conclusion of Genesis assumes a sequel. And the conclusion of Genesis

also shows you the faith that Joseph has in his God.

Joseph's faith in God. He is saying God is going to keep his promises.

He's saying the reason I'm giving you these instructions about my bones,

my bones are not supposed to stay here because here is not where the story ends.

Okay, story's going to go over there because God promised it would.

Okay, so my bones that are here need to go there because you all are certainly going to go there.

Right so he is saying god's going to keep his promises after i die i'm sure

of that my story is ending now but the story is not ending now god's going to

keep his promises after i die so you just need to prepare for the stuff that's

going to happen after i die and then genesis ends.

So the story continues. Now, what promises did God make that Joseph's referring to?

That he's so certain that they're going to get out of Egypt,

they're going to go to some other land, and his bones are going to be there.

What are these promises that God made? So let me just, before I close this hole

up, I just want to remind you what it is he's thinking of when he says the land

that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

These are the promises that God made to his great grandfather,

Abraham. This is Genesis chapter 12. We learned this like a long time ago, months and months ago.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 12, verses one through three. This is what it says.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

The Lord said to Abram. Okay. So this is three generations before Joseph.

The Lord said to Abram, go out from your land, your relatives and your father's

house to the land that I will show you.

And as Genesis unfolds, you find out it's really to the land that I will give

you, right? It's land. I'm not going to just show it to you. Like, there it is.

There's land that's going to be your land, where this nation that comes from you is going to live.

So go to your father's house to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you. I will make your name great. Abraham didn't even have a son at this point.

I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name

great, and you will be a blessing.

And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who treat you with

contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

And this word peoples, I think, means like people groups, all the people groups,

all the nations, all the different nations and people groups out there will be blessed through you.

So that's the promise that was made to Abraham.

Now, when you look at these promises, some of this stuff happened during Abraham's lifetime.

He actually saw some of the promises come true, but not all of them.

Some of them came true. For instance, this, let's see, I will bless those who

bless you and I will curse those who treat you with contempt.

Any of you remember that that actually happened in the book of Genesis?

Yeah, there's a story later on where Abraham is dealing with Abimelech, this king, right?

And Abimelech takes Abraham's wife for a little bit, but he doesn't know it's Abraham's wife.

And then there's a curse that's on their house. And then there's like,

whoa, we're sorry. And then they give her back.

And then Abraham prays for them. And then there's a blessing and a healing that

comes on them because of Abraham. Do you remember that whole story?

Right, so this, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you

with contempt. Like that already was coming true during Abraham's lifetime. He saw that.

But then the part about them becoming a great nation, he didn't get to see that happen, right?

He had a kid and then he died. And the great nation thing happened after him.

Now, the great nation thing happened within the time period of the book of Genesis,

but it didn't happen within Abraham's life, right?

It happens in Genesis. It just happens after Abraham's time.

Then the part where that nation of people actually get the land that was promised

to them, that doesn't even happen in Genesis, right?

That doesn't happen until the book of like Joshua, 1 Samuel,

that section of the Old Testament.

And then what about this last part? so eventually they are a nation and they

do get the land but it says this it ends with and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you,

well like we're people on earth are we a part of this when did this happen when

did all the peoples on earth be blessed through Abraham,

it seems to me that this particular one does not reach its fullness until the New Testament.

Do you want to see it? You want to see it in the New Testament?

Because the New Testament actually quotes this verse and talks about who it's related to.

And so let me just show it to you. This is in Galatians chapter three.

Galatians chapter three. I'm going to start reading in verse eight,

but I guess just for context, you understand. So this is in Genesis.

And then like thousands of years later, the apostle Paul is in the Roman empire.

Okay, this is way later. And he is writing a letter to Gentiles.

These are people who are not even related to Abraham at all.

They're not like Abraham's great, great, great, great grandchildren.

They are other people groups on the earth, right?

So there's these Gentiles that are there, and Paul writes them a letter.

And this is what he's writing them. He's saying, hey, you all are Gentiles.

You're not part of Abraham, and yet you believe in Jesus.

And so he's specifically writing to Christian Gentiles when he brings up this verse.

So let me read it to you. Galatians 3, verse 8.

Galatians 3:8

Now, the Scripture saw in advance

that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Let me stop right there.

So when he says the Scripture saw in advance, he's saying, like,

back in the Old Testament, it talked ahead of time about things that are happening now.

Okay, if you go back to the Scriptures, you go, whoa, the Scriptures knew what's happening later.

Yeah, because God wrote the Scriptures, and He knows what's happening later.

So the Scripture saw in advance that God was going to do something later.

What did He do? It's on advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.

That word justify in this context means like forgive them of their sins,

declare them to be righteous, include them into the family of God,

in God's covenant people.

The Gentiles, not just Abraham's kids, Gentiles by faith.

And when Paul's saying that, he's referring to faith in Jesus Christ.

Gentiles that believe in Jesus.

Can get in to God's people and God's covenant.

And scripture saw this in advance, which was like, well, when did it say in

advance? I feel like there's just a lot of stuff in here about Hebrew people and Abraham people.

Well, when did the scripture say this in advance? So this is what he says.

He says that this is the plan all along.

Scripture saw in advance God would justify the Gentiles. You could believe in

Jesus and you could be a part of God's family forever.

And he told the good news ahead of time to Abraham saying, and here's the quote,

all the nations will be blessed through you.

So when he says the scripture saw in advance, he's specifically thinking of

Genesis here. And he specifically quotes Genesis.

He said, remember that part when God was talking to Abraham?

Remember at the very end of the promise when he said all the different people

groups will be blessed through you?

Surprise, you're the people groups. That's who he was talking about.

So those who have faith, those people who believe in Jesus are blessed with Abraham who had faith.

How fantastic is that so let me get one one more thing in the new testament

that covers this this is perhaps even more exciting hebrews chapter 11 verse

Hebrews 11:20

20 but i just want you to see here in galatians paul believed that the promise

that was made to abraham was connected to gentiles,

thousands of years later ones that believed in jesus.

All right, Hebrews pretty much does the same thing. Look at Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews 11, verse 20. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

Hebrews 11:20

You might remember, that's from the book of Genesis. We learned that earlier in this series.

By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph,

and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

That is a reference to the conclusion of Genesis. It's a reference to the five

chapters that we are in this morning, but I didn't actually read you that part, but I did summarize it.

Remember how I said in chapter 48, Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh,

Joseph's sons. That's what he's referring to here.

He blessed each of the sons of Joseph. All right. By faith, Joseph,

as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites

and gave instructions concerning his bones.

Now, if you're just reading through the Bible and you weren't very familiar

with Genesis, you would get to this part and go, well, that's weird.

By faith, he mentioned the exodus and gave constructions concerning his bones.

But if you've read the last paragraph of Genesis, you go, oh yeah, I know. I remember that.

That's part of the story. Turns out it was a significant part of the story because

2,000 years later-ish, like people are still talking about it.

And he says, so Joseph mentioned the Exodus. Why did he mention the Exodus?

Because he believed. He believed that they were going to get out of there and

go to the land that was promised to them.

And so he gave instructions concerning his bones. He was saying the bones need to go there. Why?

Because Joseph believed they were certainly going to go there.

That's why it says, by faith, Joseph mentioned the exodus and gave instructions concerning his bones.

It wasn't just something he did. He did it like he believed that God was going to keep his promise.

So he said, make sure that these end up there because you're going to end up

there because God said you would.

So that's our story. And you go, okay, but that doesn't say what it has to do

with us. That's just more, that's great for Joseph.

Okay, but what about us? So let's just skip to the end of this chapter.

This is Hebrews 11. We're just going to skip to verse 39.

Hebrews 11, verse 39, all these were approved through their faith,

Hebrews 11:39

but they did not receive what was promised. Now, this is interesting.

Who, what is it talking about? All these, what's these?

These is referring to people. All these people were approved through their faith. What people?

All the people that he has mentioned in the chapter up to this point.

I read to you some of them, right? He mentioned Isaac.

He mentioned Jacob. He mentioned Joseph.

He actually mentions a whole bunch of Old Testament people. And after he lists

all these Old Testament people, he says all these people, all these Old Testament

people were approved through their faith.

They were part of God's family because they believed in him,

because they trusted him.

All these Old Testament people, the way that they are united to God is because

they believed in him. And he says, but...

They did not receive what was promised. But you may go, what?

Why didn't they receive what was promised? But you actually know they didn't

receive what was promised if you've been going through Genesis, right?

Abraham was promised a great nation, and he did not see that in his lifetime.

And Joseph knew that they were gonna be a great nation, and he saw the beginning

of that, but he didn't get to see them go to the land.

That's why the whole bone thing came up, because he said, I'm not gonna be around

for the land part of this promise. But he was sure it was gonna happen.

So he's saying that these old testament people they believed in god but they

didn't receive what was promised well why why didn't they get it during their lifetimes that's weird,

what they should they should god makes promises you just do it real fast and

do it while they're still alive so it says they did not receive what was promised

why here's why since god had provided something better for what's the word us

so that they would not be made perfect without us the

writer of Hebrews is saying the reason it didn't happen in their lifetime is

God had a plan for something that goes all the way into us.

Now, who's the us? Well, initially, when the writer of Hebrews is writing this,

it's to whoever he's writing to, okay? But who is he writing to?

He's writing to Christians. He's writing to people who believe in Jesus.

So when he says, since God had provided something better for us,

he's saying not Genesis people.

He's saying, like people, nowadays, people who believe in Jesus people,

God was providing something better for us so that they, Genesis people,

would not be made perfect without us.

And that word perfect, by the way, means like the Greek word means like complete or finished.

So he's saying like God did not finish the story. He did not make everything

right. He did not complete everything for them.

Without us. That's why they didn't get to see all of it because there was still

more story to come and we're in it.

So then he keeps talking and so I'm gonna read you the very next verse.

Now the very next verse is Hebrews chapter 12, verse one, which looks like,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

oh, we've moved to a whole new chapter. It's a whole new topic.

It is not. The writer of Hebrews kept talking. Someone came along later and

put a big 12 there. Okay, but it was not there originally.

The guy who wrote Hebrews just kept talking and this is the next thing he said.

Therefore, which you could tell, No one would start something with a therefore,

right? That's because of what he had just said.

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

Again, this is a reference to all these people, all these Old Testament people that came before us.

Since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us,

let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us.

Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us. Like in light of all

the stuff that's happened to all the people that came before us, let us repent.

Let us turn from our sins.

Let us race toward Jesus. Let us run toward God's will, right? Let us do that.

Now in light of everything that's happened, let us turn from our sin.

Let us run the race that God has for us, keeping our eyes on who? Jesus.

That's all of Genesis was pointing to him.

All of the Old Testament was pointing to him. The whole story is getting us to this point.

We're keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.

Again, the word perfecter here means like the completer, the finisher.

Like the whole story finds its completion. The whole story gets finished in him.

So those of us who believe in him, that's how we get in on it because the story completes with him.

Who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame and

has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.

So the question was, what does the conclusion of Genesis have to do with us?

And I said, the book of Genesis ends unfinished.

Okay, the story goes on. Okay, how long does the story go on?

Okay, according to the New Testament, it goes all the way to Jesus dying on

the cross so that the story may include us.

That's what it said.

God's great big story of redeeming the creation, right, that begins in Genesis

and it goes wrong really early on, that story stretches all the way to those

of us who believe in Jesus and into eternity when all things are made new.

So that is the conclusion to the book of Genesis. Let's pray.

God, thank you so much. Thank you for this book historically.

It's good to know why Exodus went the way it did, why the rest of the Old Testament

is the way it is. So we thank you for the history.

But we look at the story and we recognize it's not just history.

It's not just stuff that you watched. and we're just eating popcorn and watching

along seeing what was happening.

But that you were unfolding your plan in this world.

And so we thank you for that, but really we thank you that you would include

us in the plan, that we could be learning this for nine months now and then

go, wait, all this is related to us?

All this points to Jesus being the fulfillment of the covenant and if we are in him, then we are in?

That is good news. Thank you that we get to be the peoples, what you were talking

about when you said all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you so much, God.

I pray for those of us who know you that we would as we like as we ponder this

that we would go out then you're then it's just another reminder you're worthy

of everything you're worthy of it all,

and if there's anybody here who does not know you I pray that they would come

to know you today I pray that the eyes of their mind or the eyes of their heart would be opened,

and they would see like wow this could include me by faith,

and so I pray that they would trust in you and be involved in your great big

story and pray that you would do that and that they would do their part.

Thank you so much. Thank you for it all. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word. This is in Romans chapter eight.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God those

who are called according to his purpose. That is good news.