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In part 13, we ended the study with a conclusion which I want to start today’s study with. By doing so, we will set the stage for what the Lord has prepared for us during this study.

In the last study, we didn’t actually get to the next time hand was mentioned in the Old Testament in the Hebrew. That verse is Gen 25:26.

What we did do however, is we covered the story as it unfolds from the previous mention of the word hand up until Gen 25:26.

We studied from Gen 24:49 to 24:67 and what we saw is God working through Abraham’s servant, Rebekah, and Rebekah’s family.

As this story unfolded, we ended our last study at the end of chapter 24 leading us to start with Chapter 25 today. Here is where we left off:

Gen 24:63 –  And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
Gen 24:64 –  And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
Gen 24:65 –  For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

When we have come to see how we are Rebekah in this story, sought after by the Father of our master, then we too will understand the meaning of Rebekah covering her head.

Once we have seen our Lord, we know that we too have just been given Life by the marriage He is offering to us.  From this union, we are met in the field of the world … in the eventide of the night, and our Lord shows us that we are His.

In this, we are comforted in the continual death of our old man as we experience the fiery trials in which we know will end in good for us.

Gen 24:66 –  And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
Gen 24:67 –  And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

It is only once we are able to look back at our old man and the ways of the old man that we will be comforted by the union of our Head with His body.

Just as Isaac was comforted by his new wife, the wife of the new man in type and shadow, we too are comforted with knowing that everything the Lord has done to and through us has been for our good.

The Lord uses all He does for our good, and though the death of Isaac’s mother was required for him, we know that this story and admonition are for us now.

House of Keturah

Now, we are picking up in chapter 25 and as is customary, we are going to study the story which leads us to seeing God’s awesome hands working to, through and for His election.

As we are about to read, Abraham continued to be blessed all the days of his life.

Gen 25:1 –  Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
Gen 25:2 –  And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. (6)
Gen 25:3 –  And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan.(2) And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. (3)
Gen 25:4 –  And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. (5)
Gen 25:5 –  And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
Gen 25:6 –  But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.

I took the time to read this side of Abraham’s seed because there are several sons, grandsons, and great- grandsons that are mentioned within the children of the concubines who receive gifts.

That thought breeds another thought. Does God bless those who are our brothers with gifts but NOT with “all that he had”? Does God really show favoritism within His family?

Deu 10:15 –  Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

Act 3:25 –  Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Remember, we have been building upon themes mentioned in the last few studies and one of the points that we have been building upon through this series is that while the prophet of the Lord is being blessed, so too are his brothers and enemies.

Progressing to the present story, we see that in type and shadow the “master Abraham” also blesses the brothers of the bondwomen as well, the seed of the concubines. We can even see this in the numbering of those the Lord saw fit to mention in this lineage of Keturah.

We have 6 sons born to Keturah. Of those sons, we have 2 sons who also have sons. Of those 2 sons, one brother has 3 sons and the other brother has 5 sons.

Six is the number of our flesh; of things pertaining to the earth and this is what Abraham’s concubines produced more of for Abraham.

In this example though, we can also see a connection to the message that God is sharing with us. We can see that of the 6 sons given to Abraham, two of those sons have children which are mentioned but EVEN in that linage we can see that God extends our seed as He sees fits.

One of Abrahams sons, Jokshan, has two sons. Of those two sons, one son is mentioned to have 3 sons. On the other side of the equation, we see the other son of Abraham mentioned, Midian, and he has 5 sons but none of their lineage is mentioned here.

God witnesses to our flesh that He is working all things out to the counsel of His own will and that includes showing a process of grace to all of mankind.

God does things in a process and He blesses them this way, too, just as He shows that He blesses the “father and seed” at the same time. The Lord blesses the fruit of the Spirit in us the same way.

Deu 1:8 –  Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

The question of the minute is, does God show this same love towards others? Does He give all the land to be possessed by those He gives it to? What is the land? Does He give this land to be possessed to everyone?

If we keep focus on what we are being told spiritually, we will understand why they went through these admonitions physically.

In the case of Abraham and his sons, we can glean a lot from how the Lord deals with each of the sons and their lineage after them.

God puts great emphasis on making sure we understand that we are SEPARATE from our brethren, that we are SPECIAL to God in the capacity that He has placed us in. This is because He has given us life to look towards His Life, Truth and Way.

Abraham and his sons were emphasized the same way, so how do we see that portrayed in scripture?

Gen 25:7 –  And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.
Gen 25:8 –  Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
Gen 25:9 –  And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;
Gen 25:10 –  The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

We now see the “old man” dying and we see that both the “wheat and the chaff”, Isaac and Ishmael, are there at the same time to “bury the old man”. As this comes to pass, we can see:

Gen 25:11 –  And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi.
Gen 25:12 –  Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham:
Gen 25:13 –  And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
Gen 25:14 –  And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
Gen 25:15 –  Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah:
Gen 25:16 –  These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations.
Gen 25:17 –  And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.
Gen 25:18 –  And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.

We have just read Ishmael’s lineage are it pertains to his firstborn. Then, we read that Ishmael dies and is gathered to this people. Also, importantly we are told that there are 12 princes each with a nation.

There is certainly something being told to us in that we are told that even the “seed of the flesh” is blessed among men to be setup as such. We have a foundation setup and being told to us by having Ishmaels lineage named.

“Isaac entreated the Lord”

Before we start with Isaac’s lineage, let’s see what we can see when contrasting where Ishmael and his seed dwell with where Isaac and his seed dwell?

Notice, Ishmael and his seed dwell before Egypt in the land of Havilah all the way to the land of Shur.

H2341

cha v yla h

khav- ee- law’

Probably from H2342; circular; Chavilah, the name of two or three eastern regions; also perhaps of two men: – Havilah.

H2342

chu l  ch yl

khool, kheel

A primitive root; properly to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), that is, (specifically) to dance, to writhe in pain (especially of parturition) or fear; figuratively to wait, to pervert: – bear, (make to) bring forth, (make to) calve, dance, drive away, fall grievously (with pain), fear, form, great, grieve, (be) grievous, hope, look, make, be in pain, be much (sore) pained, rest, shake, shapen, (be) sorrow (- ful), stay, tarry, travail (with pain), tremble, trust, wait carefully (patiently), be wounded.

And ….

H7793

shu r

shoor

The same as H7791; Shur, a region of the Desert: – Shur.

H7791

shu r

shoor

From H7788; a wall (as going about): – wall.

H7788

shu r

shoor

A primitive root; properly to turn, that is, travel about (as a harlot or a merchant): – go, sing. See also H7891.

H7891

o

sh yr  shu r

sheer, shoor

The second form being the original form, used in ( 1Sa_18:6); a primitive root (rather identical with H7788 through the idea of strolling minstrelsy); to sing: – behold [ by mistake for H7789], sing (- er, – ing man, – ing woman).

We can see from the above, that the people of Ismael, by definition the children of the bondwoman and of whom we all start out from naturally, dwell in a difficult land. This land is one of continuous turning, a place where we dance by and to a wall.

Though they may not realize it, this wall is God Himself loving some children more and loving some less. How Steven can you profess such a thing? Does God really love some more than others?

Since the Lord sets us all into the position we are in, while in this age, we are all operating in the capacity that He has placed us in.

What then do we see with how the Lord describes Isaac’s lineage, and by type and shadow, how the Lord describes those who are considered “seed of the promise”?

Gen 25:19 –  And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac:
Gen 25:20 –  And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
Gen 25:21 –  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

The first thing I notice is that the Lord doesn’t describe the lineage of Ishmael in detail. The Lord simply lists the physical lineage of Ishmael and his seed and then He moves on to Isaac’s seed.

It is when the “new man” in Isaac is forty years old, that He is ready to go forth and intreat the Lord.

H6279

a thar

aw- thar’

A primitive root (rather denominative from H6281); to burn incense in worship, that is, intercede (reciprocally listen to prayer): – intreat, (make) pray (- er).

H6280

a thar

aw- thar’

A primitive root; to be (causatively make) abundant: – deceitful, multiply.

The whole and complete man is ready to come to the point of praying to the Lord and being accepted, because the beast has been dethroned.

This dethronement is always painful and is always fiercely contended by the beast in us all, but it does result in us, as Isaac, being able to go to the Lord and bear fruit.

This may all sound a bit far- fetched, but what sayeth the Word?

Gen 25:21 –  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Gen 25:22 –  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
Gen 25:23 –  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
Gen 25:24 –  And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

We just read that we know the Lord is the one who is entreated and listens to those who He has caused to pray to Him.

How did He cause Isaac to pray to Him? He put Isaac in a trial of Rebekah being barren and thus the fiery trial caused distress in Isaac and Rebekah and Isaac prayed out to the Lord for deliverance.

In like manner, and as we all know the Lord does with those He loves, He again brings the next trial for us to TRY OUR FAITH and have us call out to Him again.

Gen 25:22 –  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.

As we go to the Lord, and ask him in prayer what He is doing with us in our lives, He is liberal with His answer to us … just as He is with Rebekah.

Just like Rebekah, we too all want to have fruit in us that bears the image of our head, correct?

As we cry out to the Lord for this, then He tells us that the wheat and the chaff must grow up together… the old and the new are in the kingdom of God but one is “taken away”.

 

“His hand took hold on Esau’s heel”

Which of the following with be “taken away from the throne of God” and which will be given all power of the throne, but not the throne itself?

Gen 25:25 –  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
Gen 25:26 –  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

We know the story of Jacob and Esau as we just read, but what we should see, Lord willing, is that the Lord worked even the unnamed baby to grab the heel of the elder.

The Lord causes us, too, to take dominance over and supplant the things in our lives that need to be tripped up.

H3290

ya a qo b

yah- ak- obe’

From H6117; heel catcher (that is, supplanter); Jaakob, the Israelitish patriarch: – Jacob.

H6117

a qab

aw- kab’

A primitive root; properly to swell out or up; used only as denominative from H6119, to seize by the heel; figuratively to circumvent (as if tripping up the heels); also to restrain (as if holding by the heel): – take by the heel, stay, supplant, X utterly.

Given the meaning that the name of Jacob has, there obviously was some grabs at position with their father by each of these brethren.

Indeed, we know that when all else fails, Jacob uses His mother’s clever scheme to get the blessing intended for Esau, but before that could happen, Esau despised His birthright.

Gen 25:27 –  And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
Gen 25:28 –  And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Gen 25:29 –  And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
Gen 25:30 –  And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.

How many times does our “elder”, in type and shadow our “old man flesh way of doing things” come to us wanting to be fed? We do so but we always want to make a deal with our elder brother.

We tend to want to make the best of the current situation and just like Jacob, we want to use the current circumstance to make a deal with the one who can get us to the top or so we think.

After all, this story ends up with Isaac being tricked by Jacob and Rebekah. Esau was saying what he needed to right now to get a little food in his belly because he was next to dead.

I assure you though, that when Esau was strengthened and outside of the immediate distress, he wanted his birthright back.

We know he thought it was still his because when he finds out what Jacob does in getting the blessing, Esau chases Jacob down.

Gen 25:31 –  And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
Gen 25:32 –  And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33 –  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Gen 25:34 –  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

We know this all was orchestrated of the Lord so that He could bring about His will in the situation.

Conclusion of “Awesome Hands – part 14”

Everything that we have read in this study has led us to knowing that the Lord is in control of all things.

However, knowing this is not the same as living it out until we can look back and see how the Lord has led us up to the point where we find ourselves looking back.

While we are being blessed, so are our enemies and those “who are of our household”. The children that came from Abrahams concubines were also given gifts to ultimately do the will of the Lord too.

However, the Lord takes extra time to give detail to us about how He works with those who are “of the seed of promise”.

We can see these workings by looking towards the lives of those who were given lives to live for these admonitions towards us.

Looking forward to the next study, we will continue to build upon the next mention of “hands” in Genesis and will see how the next mention of hands is intimately connected to Mal 1:1-5 and Rom 9:9-13.

Mal 1:1 –  The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
Mal 1:2 –  I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
Mal 1:3 –  And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Mal 1:4 –  Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
Mal 1:5 –  And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

Rom 9:9 –  For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
Rom 9:10 –  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11 –  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 –  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 –  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14 –  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.