And the title of my sermon this morning is Jesus in the book of Genesis.
Jesus in the book of Genesis.
Now all throughout the Bible, and where is my Bible?
Somebody hand me a Bible for crying out loud.
Here, thank you.
All right.
I took my, I have a certain Bible that stays up here for me to preach out of, and I took
it with me to Tucson, and so I got to get it back up here.
Your truck and the accord.
Why thank you.
All right, I'll get it.
So the title of the sermon this morning is Jesus in Genesis.
And all throughout the Bible, we need to understand that the message is Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 10, to him give all the prophets witness that through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
That is the message of the entire Bible.
All of the prophets give witness to that.
And if you remember when Jesus was on the road to Emmaus with those two disciples at
the end of the book of Luke, he begins to expound the scriptures unto them all of the
things concerning himself, and it talks about him starting with the law of Moses, and then
going through the Psalms, and going through the prophets.
It's all about Jesus.
If you want to have a proper understanding of scripture, if you want to read the Bible
the right way, the right way to do it when you're reading the Old Testament is to be
looking for Jesus.
So as you're reading Genesis, look for Jesus.
As you're reading Exodus, look for Jesus.
As you're reading Leviticus, be looking for Jesus.
And let me tell you something, he's there.
You'll find him.
And in fact, he's there more than you might think.
And this is why Jews can't understand the Old Testament because it's all about Jesus
and that just goes right over their head.
Now as we go through the book of Genesis, I'm going to show you Jesus in Genesis this
morning, and it can almost be overwhelming that Jesus is in Genesis so much.
Now some of the things I'm going to show you are more obvious.
They're just super clear.
You'd have to be blind or you'd have to be Jewish to not see Jesus there.
Okay, those are both the same thing.
But you'd have to be blind not to see Jewish or you'd have to be blind not to see Jesus
there.
But some of them, obviously, you have to look a little harder.
But that's the whole point.
As you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you'll
start seeing Jesus even more.
So there's the stuff where you'd have to be blind like Genesis 22.
That's pretty obvious that that story is about Jesus, right?
But then other places you might have to look a little bit harder.
So we're going to show both this morning.
And look, this sermon is not going to be exhaustive.
And what I mean by that is that I guarantee you I miss things when I prepared this sermon.
I guarantee you that people will come up to me after the sermon or maybe comment on the
video on YouTube and say, hey, you forgot about this, you forgot about this, you forgot
about this.
Because I guarantee you, you could spend your whole life reading Genesis and you'll keep
on finding new things.
You'll keep on finding Jesus in places where you didn't even expect Him to be.
But we're going to hit the highlights this morning of Jesus in Genesis.
Let's start in chapter 1, okay?
Genesis chapter number 1.
Of course, the Bible starts out, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And for those of us that are New Testament Christians, we know that that's Jesus who
created the heaven and the earth.
Because the Bible specifies in Colossians chapter 1 that it's Jesus who is the creator
and that God the Father created all things by Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was the one who did the actual creating on behalf of God the Father.
So the Bible's clear on that.
But look at Genesis 1.26.
The Bible says, and God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over
the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
There's Jesus right there in the book of Genesis because God is speaking of Himself in the
plural saying let us make man in our image.
That's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost creating man in their image.
Go to Genesis chapter 2.
In Genesis chapter 2, we have Jesus once again pictured not as clearly, but we see in Genesis
2.24, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife
and they shall be one flesh.
You say, well, what's that got to do with Jesus?
Well, flip over to Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians chapter number 5, keep your finger there in Genesis 2.
But when the Bible talks about a man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his
wife and those two being one flesh, and when Adam says to Eve, this is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh, guess what?
That's actually about Jesus Christ and the church, the Bible tells us.
Look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25, husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved
the church and gave himself for it.
Jump down to verse 31.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, sound familiar, and shall be joined
unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
He's saying, you know, it's a great mystery that the man and the wife become one flesh,
but he said, you know, the greatest mystery and even greater mystery is Christ and the
church.
So that's what's actually pictured in Genesis chapter 2.
So that's what I mean about studying the Bible and looking for Jesus and looking for the
deeper meaning, not just what's there on the surface.
Now what's there on the surface is great stuff, but there's also more going on below the
surface.
It's all pointing us to Jesus.
It's all teaching us faith in Christ, salvation through Christ.
Go back to Genesis and look at chapter 3 verse 7.
Genesis chapter 3 verse 7.
What does the Bible teach us in Genesis 3?
7 and the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sowed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
This is Adam and Eve.
They've eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they realize
that they're naked.
So in order to clothe their nakedness, they sow together fig leaves and make themselves
aprons.
Look at verse 21.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord make coats of skins and clothe them.
So after God shows up and rebukes them for their sin and tells them about their punishments
and by the way predicts the coming of Jesus Christ in verse 15 where he says that the
seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, right?
That's the first reference to Jesus Christ coming and being the savior of the world right
there in Genesis 3.15.
There it is predicted, but think about this.
He makes them coats of skins.
Their covering for their sin was what?
A fig leaf apron.
His covering is made of an animal skin.
You know what that represents?
The fig leaves or any kind of clothing made from plants, any plant-based textile represents
man's own efforts, man's own works, okay?
They're trying to cover their sin with their own works of sewing together their fig leaf
apron.
God provides the real covering for their sin which is what?
The coats of skins.
Well, where do you get skins from?
By killing an animal.
Yeah, you can't skin an animal without killing it, right?
So he makes them coats of skins.
He killed an animal.
He killed that lamb or that ram or that goat or whatever the animal that he used and he
killed that animal and he made them coats of skin.
You know what that pictures?
Two ways for your sins to be covered.
One is your futile effort to sew together fig leaves of your good works and your good
deeds of your own righteousness.
That's the plant-based salvation and it's going to take you straight to hell because
it doesn't work.
Then there is God's plan of salvation which is the blood of the lamb which is being clothed
in that robe of righteousness provided by God himself.
And by the way, the same exact thing is taught in Genesis chapter 4.
Flip over to Genesis 4.
In verse 3, it says in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit
of the ground an offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the firstlings of
his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
But did he respect Cain's offering?
Nope.
Cain is bringing the fruits and vegetables, the plant-based offering.
Abel brings the firstlings of the flock.
He brings the lamb.
He brings the blood.
He brings the fat of the lamb.
He brings the sacrifice that represents Jesus.
Jesus is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
So all the way back in Genesis chapter number 1, you've got Jesus with the Father and the
Holy Ghost.
You've got Jesus the Creator.
In chapter 2, we're picturing Jesus with the church, the bride of Christ.
Then in chapter 3, we are picturing salvation by works, sewing together your fig leaf apron
versus salvation through Christ, the coat of skins.
Same thing in chapter 4, salvation by works.
Cain brings the fruits and vegetables that he produced from the ground versus the blood
of the lamb, the animal sacrifice that Abel brought.
It's about Jesus.
The whole book is about Jesus and it just keeps on going.
We get to the next famous story.
Go to chapter 6, Genesis.
The next famous story in the book of Genesis has to do with Noah's Ark.
And Noah's Ark, you say, what's an Ark?
An Ark is a box, okay?
There was an Ark of the Covenant which was a box that they put the stone tablets of the
Ten Commandments and some other things into.
That was called the Ark of the Covenant.
It was like a chest or a box.
Noah's Ark is a giant boat that's basically in the shape of a box in a sense because it's
a, you know, three-dimensional rectangular solid.
And so he creates, and obviously we don't know exactly how it looked or what it was
shaped like, but we can read the instructions about how God told Noah to build this boat.
And one of the features of it is that it had one door.
Look at Genesis 6, 16.
A window shalt thou make to the Ark and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above and the
door of the Ark shalt thou set in the side thereof with lower second and third stories
shalt thou make it.
And throughout the story of Noah's Ark, the door is significant.
It talks about God shutting them in and then God opening the door of this Ark.
The Ark pictures salvation, right?
Because without the Ark, you're doomed.
You're going to drown physically.
Well, the spiritual meaning is salvation from hell, from damnation.
And notice it has one door.
You know what that represents?
There's one way to be saved.
And guess what Jesus said in the book of John?
I am the door.
He made seven great I am statements in the book of John.
I'm the good shepherd.
I'm the true vine.
I'm the bread of life.
I am.
And he says, I am the door.
If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.
I am the way, the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me.
There was no back door into the Ark where somebody could kind of slip out a little stowaway
there.
And there was a Hollywood movie about Noah's Ark that was made several years ago.
And there was a stowaway on the Ark in that movie.
Somebody snuck on, you know, they completely perverted and twisted the Noah's Ark story.
This is what Hollywood will do with a Bible movie.
And they literally made Noah into a homicidal maniac that's trying to murder a baby.
That's what the movie's about.
Noah, who knows what I'm talking about?
Yeah.
Noah is literally trying to murder a baby.
And the whole movie is how vegans are wonderful and eating meat is bad.
You know, the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches because Cain was the first vegan,
amen.
And so, you know, Abel was slaughtering that flock, right, and bringing the fat thereof,
okay.
And so, he made it out that, oh, you know, mankind is so bad because they're meat eaters
but Noah is this wonderful vegan when he's not trying to murder his own grandchild.
You know, super weird folks.
This is how the Word of God is twisted by Hollywood and the world and the devil.
But the true story of Noah's Ark involves that boat being salvation and there's one
door.
There's one way in.
And Jesus said, on the door.
So where's Jesus in the Noah's Ark story?
The door.
On the door.
If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.
Go to Genesis 12.
Genesis 12, we're skipping over Genesis 11 but Genesis 11 is the story of the Tower of
Babel and that has a spiritual significance in regard to Jesus Christ as well because
they're trying to build a tower to reach unto heaven and that pictures man's futile effort
to work his way to heaven, to earn his way to heaven.
It's the same thing that the fig leaf apron represented, the same thing that canes, fruits
and vegetables represented is that tower that we're going to build our way to heaven.
And of course we see Jesus show up again in Chapter 11 when God says, let us go down there
and confound their languages.
He said us in Chapter 3 as well.
But we got to go so fast through this because there's just so much to talk about folks.
Jesus is everywhere in the Book of Genesis.
Now there's a major gear change in the Book of Genesis from Chapter 11 to Chapter 12.
Chapters 1 through 11 form one section of the Book of Genesis.
Chapters 12 through 50 are kind of part two of Genesis.
You could divide it into part one and part two.
The reason I say that is that Genesis 1 through 11 have to do with the whole world.
And then chapters 12 through 50 have to do with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the patriarchs.
So we're kind of homing in on one person, one family, one nation for the rest of the
book.
So we enter that new phase as we get into Genesis Chapter 12 verse 1.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and
from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great.
And thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed.
Keep your finger there.
Go to Galatians 3.
Galatians Chapter 3 in the New Testament.
Galatians Chapter 3.
This is the famous passage where Abraham is being called.
And there are a lot of other passages like this in Genesis because you've got the initial
call in Chapter 12.
It's reiterated again in Chapter 15.
And he keeps renewing this promise to Abraham.
And in fact when we read Genesis 22 right before the sermon, he went into this again
how in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Look at Galatians Chapter 3.
Let's get the interpretation.
Verse 6.
Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
So how was it that Abraham was declared righteous in the sight of God?
It was through faith.
How did he get saved?
How was he justified?
Why is Abraham in heaven today?
Because he believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.
To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins.
Look at Galatians 3.6.
Abraham believed God.
It was accounted to him for righteousness.
Verse 7.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham.
And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached
before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.
So when God said to Abraham in Genesis Chapter 12 Verse 3, in thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed, what was on God's mind?
Yeah, because the Bible said the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith said, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
It says it a few different ways throughout Genesis and of course nations are just gigantic
families of people, right?
Especially in the Old Testament when they were more ethnically based, okay?
So think about this.
You foresee something, right?
You picture something in the future.
You think about something that's going to happen in the future.
And that's on your mind and then you talk about it, right?
So when God said, you know what Abraham, I'm going to make of you a great nation and you
know what?
In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
What was he thinking about?
Was he picturing Benjamin Netanyahu?
Was he picturing this star brim fan flag?
Was he picturing Ariel Sharon?
And was he picturing all these different so-called Jews?
That's not what he was picturing.
You know what he was thinking about?
Was he thinking about an American flag?
The United States military?
What was he thinking about?
He was looking at all the heathen hearing about the gospel.
He was looking at people getting saved in the Philippines.
He was looking at people getting saved in Jamaica.
He was looking at people getting saved in the United States, Mexico, Japan.
He was looking at people getting saved.
The heathen being justified by faith.
And he said, you know what Abraham?
You're going to be a blessing.
And in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
So the proper way to understand Genesis 12 3 is to understand it as a prophecy of Jesus.
That the reason that God is even choosing Abraham.
I mean just right out of the gate.
Okay I'm choosing you Abraham.
You want to know why I'm choosing you?
What's the, oh so that I can enjoy land?
So that I can have a wall to pray to?
So that I can, you know, have the Torah?
Hey and I can keep dietary laws?
Really?
Folks, why is he being chosen?
He's being chosen.
Hey you're going to be chosen to be a light unto the Gentiles.
You're going to be chosen to bring forth Jesus into this world, right?
Why is he being chosen?
So he can bless the whole world by producing the physical Jesus Christ, right?
Born of Mary who is of the tribe of Judah, who is of Israel, who is of Isaac, who is
of Abraham.
That's what's going on with the nation of Israel folks.
The whole point of the nation of Israel is to bring us Jesus.
Okay?
Jesus is the fulfillment of this.
So Genesis 12 is about Jesus.
Then when we get into Genesis 13 and 14 we have the story about Lot, Abraham's nephew
going and living in a wicked place, Sodom.
And because he goes and lives in this wicked place, bad things happen to him.
He ends up getting kidnapped and becoming a prisoner of war.
So then Abraham takes his 318 servants that are trained in his house and he goes and fights
a battle against these kings and liberates his nephew Lot.
He saves his nephew Lot and he defeats these other kings, Kedah, Laomer and others.
And then Melchizedek shows up and blesses Abram when he returns from the slaughter of
the kings.
And this guy Melchizedek shows up and blesses Abram and the Bible says that Melchizedek
was the priest of the most high God.
And he comes bringing bread and wine, right, which pictures of course Jesus Christ with
the Lord's Supper and the bread and the fruit of the vine.
And he shows up and he's the priest of the most high God.
The Bible says that his name is first being by interpretation king of righteousness.
That's what the word Melchizedek means.
It means king of righteousness in Hebrew.
And then he says first being by interpretation king of righteousness.
That's the name Melchizedek.
After that also king of Salem, which is king of peace because Salem is sort of like the
modern Hebrew word shalom, Salem, right?
So he's saying he's the king of righteousness, he's the king of peace.
It says he was without father, without mother, without descent.
He didn't have a lineage.
It didn't tell us in Genesis chapter 14, oh yeah, Melchizedek, the son of so and so who
was the son of so and so.
This guy Melchizedek just pops on the scene in Genesis 14 out of nowhere.
We don't know who his dad is.
We don't know who his mom is.
We don't know where he descended from.
He just pops out of nowhere.
He's the priest of the most high God.
Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life but made like unto the son of God, abideth the priest continually it says in Hebrew
7-3.
So basically this guy Melchizedek, he wasn't a guy who was born unto a mom and dad and
lived and died.
He was not a normal human being that had beginning of days or end of life.
What this was was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus.
Jesus showed up, okay, and just interacted with Abraham.
And by the way, we see this throughout the Old Testament.
It's not the first or the last time that Jesus showed up.
Why?
Because in chapter 18 the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the tetragrammaton,
Jehovah, the Lord shows up with two of his angels to Abraham in the heat of the day.
Now you say, well, how do you know that was Jesus?
Because it was the Lord and here's the thing.
We know God the Father.
No man could see his face and live.
No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he had declared him.
So it couldn't have been the Son.
It wasn't the Holy Spirit that walked up to him.
It was Jesus.
Preincarnate Jesus Christ.
It was the same as when Melchizedek showed up.
That was Jesus.
Genesis 18, the Lord shows up and speaks with Abraham face to face.
That was Jesus as well.
Then of course in chapter 19, Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed with fire and brimstone.
You say, what's that got to do with Jesus?
Well because of the fact that that's a foreshadowing of the second coming of Christ when he pours
out his wrath upon this earth.
Flip over, keep your finger in Genesis 22 if you want to go to Genesis 22 and go to
Revelation 6, the last book in the Bible, Revelation chapter 6.
Revelation chapter 6.
Now a lot of people have this idea that God the Father is the mean God and that Jesus
is kind of toning him down.
God the Father is mad and he's rattled.
And then Jesus is like, whoa, whoa, I'll step in.
I'll die for them.
It's okay.
Folks, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
God the Father loves us.
God the Father is loving.
He sent the Son.
He sacrificed his Son.
Amen?
But Jesus is not just all love and sweetness and light either.
He's got some wrath too.
Why?
Because he's just like Dad.
God the Father, like Father, like Son.
I mean they both are love and they both are holy and they both have wrath.
Right?
They have the same attributes, folks.
Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Okay?
And what does the Bible say in Revelation 6 verse 16?
And said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that
sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
The wrath of who?
The wrath of the Lamb.
For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand.
So in the end times when the great day of his wrath is come, who's the his?
It's Jesus.
It's the Lamb of God.
The wrath of the Lamb.
And it's fire and brimstone that's poured out in Revelation chapter 8 a half hour later
when the wrath of the Lamb begins to be poured out.
And so that's foreshadowed when Jesus, the Son of God, shows up to Abraham in Genesis
18 and says, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and then the Lord rains fire and
brimstone down from the Lord out of heaven.
The Lord rains fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.
Okay?
Why?
Because it was Jesus that was there that decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
Okay?
Because the Lord Jehovah is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Okay?
That's the Lord.
One God, three persons.
That's the Trinity.
Amen?
And so that's Genesis chapter 22.
Genesis 22, I would say along with Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 is one of the three greatest
messianic passages of the Old Testament.
I would say number one, hands down, is Isaiah 53.
I mean, Isaiah 53 is just mind blowing how it just preaches Jesus.
And it's just so clear.
But other than Isaiah 53, Genesis 22 and Psalm 22 are powerful passages about Jesus.
And it's easy to remember because they're both 22.
So just remember Genesis 22, Psalm 22, these are your two powerful passages about the crucifixion
of Christ.
Of course, Psalm 22, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And it talks about them piercing his hands and his feet and all those things, casting
lots on his vesture.
Well, Genesis 22 is that powerful passage about Abraham offering up Isaac.
And he's told by God to offer him up as a burnt offering.
And of course, he doesn't go through with it, but he's willing to go through with it.
And then God stops him.
But look at verse seven of Genesis 22.
And Isaiah spoke unto Abraham his father and said, my father.
And he said, here am I, my son.
And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together.
So he says, look, here's the fire, here's the wood, where's the lamb?
He said, God's going to provide the lamb.
Okay.
Now when they get there, he binds Isaac his son and he lays him on the wood.
That is a picture of Jesus Christ being bound and laid upon the cross.
And the cross is made out of what?
The wood.
The Bible says he and his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, right?
Because it was a wooden cross where Jesus died.
So the wood represents the cross.
He was bound and laid upon the wood.
Okay.
And when he's laid upon the wood and Abraham lifts up the knife to slay his own son, of
course the angel of the Lord stops him and says, Abraham, Abraham.
And he tells him, do the lad no harm.
You know, this was only a test.
Okay.
Well, of course this picture is the father sending the son to be the savior of the world.
Right?
This picture is God the father sending Jesus giving his son.
But what do the Jews do with this passage?
What do they do with it?
What do the oneness people do with it?
What are the modalists, the people who reject the Trinity, the oneness Pentecostal, what
do they do with this?
I mean, why didn't Abraham just lay on the wood and just be like, you know, right?
Just stab himself.
No, the father gave his only begotten son.
All right.
So this is a Trinity passage.
Amen.
Now I'll tell you exactly what the Jews do with it because I've listened to their responses
to this.
And you know when Abraham is stopped from killing Isaac, there's a ram whose horns are
caught in the thicket and then they end up sacrificing the ram instead.
So this is what's cool about this passage is that he said God will provide himself a
lamb for the offering.
But what do they find in the bushes?
A lamb?
No, they find a ram.
You know what God's showing us there is that this wasn't about that ram and the thicket.
It's about the lamb that he's going to provide.
It's about Jesus.
So that ram was a temporary measure.
Like here, we'll use this ram for now.
We're going to sacrifice a ram for now.
But when he said God shall provide himself a lamb, he's talking about Jesus.
He's not talking about a ram because a ram is not a lamb and a lamb is not a ram.
These are two different animals.
Even though they rhyme, they're not the same animal.
Okay.
So he basically finds the ram in the thicket.
And by the way, the ram with his horns caught in the thicket, that picture is the crown
of thorns because the ram caught in the thorns has thorns on its head just like Jesus would
have thorns on his head.
So here's what the Jews say about this.
The Jews say, well, the reason that this story was made up because of course the Jews believe
that all the stories in the Bible are made up.
They do not believe that any of this actually really happened.
And I don't care if you talk to orthodox Jews, conservative Jews, reformed Jews.
I've spoken to the rabbis.
I've listened to their lectures.
And they believe that it's a wonderful book of myths is basically what they believe.
And so they believe that this story was made up.
They believe it was written around the time of King David.
That's what they'll say.
And they say, well, this story was written to explain how the Jews went from doing human
sacrifices to doing animal sacrifices.
Because they say, you know, back in the olden days, the Canaanites and the people around
they were all doing human sacrifice.
And so this is them switching from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice.
That's what they teach.
What a stupid interpretation.
Boy, makes a lot more sense when you just think about Jesus in there.
And it's a great story.
Makes perfect sense.
Wonderful story.
But what else can they say, folks?
They don't believe in Jesus.
So they have to come up with that kind of crazy stuff.
So how about as we move forward in the book of Genesis, Genesis 24 is of course the passage
where Isaac gets his bride, Rebecca.
And of course this picture is Christ and the church.
You know, Isaac is Christ and Rebecca represents the church.
And then when we get to Genesis chapter 27, we have the story about Jacob and Esau.
Turn to Genesis 27 if you would.
And in the story of Jacob and Esau, you have to use Romans 9 to interpret this, okay?
Because Romans 9 hearkens back to this, okay?
And in fact, let's put our finger in both places.
Let's go to Romans 9 and look at this in Genesis 27.
In this story of Jacob and Esau, Esau, the older brother, represents the Jews.
And this is a common theme in the Bible of the older brother and the younger brother.
This happens over and over again whether we're talking about Jacob and Esau, whether we're
talking about Ishmael and Isaac, whether we're talking about Ephraim and Manasseh, whether
we're talking about Reuben versus Judah.
So there's this older brother, younger brother, Phares and Zara.
I mean, just all throughout the Old Testament, there's this older brother, younger brother
theme, the story of the prodigal son, the older brother, younger brother, where you
have the younger brother excelling the older brother or taking preeminence above the older
brother.
I mean, this is something that just happens over and over and over again.
It's one of the major themes of the Bible that you'll see just literally scores of scriptures
just going over this theme of elder brother, younger brother, and the younger brother excelling
the elder brother.
Well, what is this picture?
Don't feel bad if you're the older brother, folks.
It doesn't mean your younger brother is going to excel you because there are a lot of first
borns and elder brothers who do great things for God.
That's not the point.
But the point is that the elder brother in these scenarios represents the Jews.
Now why are the Jews represented by the elder brother?
Well, because they've been around longer than the New Testament Christians.
They were around longer.
So the elder brother represents the Jews, the younger brother represents the Christians.
This is one of the major interpretations that you'll see in scripture in regard to this
theme.
And of course there are many other interpretations that are also true to the elder brother, younger
brother theme because it's just very deep.
The Bible is very deep.
It has a lot of different meanings.
But the main thing that we need to grasp from this is what the Bible actually explains to
us in Romans 9 where it says in verse 6, not as though the word of God had taken on effect
for they're not all Israel which are of Israel.
Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but an Isaac shall thy
seed be called.
So he's saying, look, Ishmael is not the one that is the child of promise.
It's Isaac.
It's the younger brother, Isaac, not the older brother, Ishmael, right?
And Isaac shall thy seed be called.
That is, verse 8, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God.
The Jews are not the children of God.
But the children of the promise are counted for the seed, the New Testament Christians.
For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son.
And not only this, not just Ishmael and Isaac, folks, but when Rebekah also had conceived
by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election or choice might
stand, not of works but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve
the younger as it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated.
So the Bible tells in the New Testament, book of Galatians, we as Isaac was are the children
of promise.
The son of the bond woman, Hagar, represents Israel after the flesh.
The physical Israel after the flesh, the so-called Jews, and then we are Isaac as Christians.
We're Isaac, right?
But then when it comes to Jacob and Esau, they're Esau and we're Jacob.
Because those two parables are put side by side in Romans 9.
Hey, they're not all Israel, which are of Israel.
Ishmael, Isaac, Esau, Jacob, it's two parallels of the same point that he's making.
Now how does Esau picture the Jews and how does Jacob picture New Testament Christians?
Well here's how.
Because the elder brother Esau was supposed to get the birthright.
The inheritance should have belonged to him.
But he forfeited it because he despised it, he rejected it.
He didn't see the value in it, he forfeited it.
Isn't that exactly what the Jews did?
I mean to them pertain the promises and the kingdom.
I mean here comes their Messiah, the King of the Jews, writing in on a white ass saying
you know, hey here I am folks, right?
Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Hey, we will not have this man to reign over us.
Give us Barabbas, crucify him.
They should have inherited just like Esau should have inherited.
He despised it, he forfeited it, they despised it, they forfeited it, okay?
Then you have Jacob who gets the blessing.
How does he get the blessing?
If you remember, he puts on animal skins to get the blessing.
You remember that?
He's got to put the goat skins on his hands, he's got to put the goat skins on his neck
so that his father will feel him and think it's Esau because Esau is a hairy man.
Folks we're back to the coats of skins from Genesis chapter 3.
Folks we're back to that robe of righteousness from the slain lamb of God, right?
Those goat skins, goats were often picturing Jesus in the burnt offerings when they're
sacrificed right?
And then those animal skins, you know what the animal skin represents?
You know what the coat of skins represents?
The righteousness of Jesus being imputed unto us.
We put on righteousness as a garment.
Look, we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, as a garment.
It's not our righteousness that saves us.
We put on the righteousness of Jesus, right?
And so God doesn't see our sins anymore.
He looks at us and he sees the righteousness of Jesus imputed unto us.
Just like their nakedness was not seen, their shame was not seen, that animal skin was seen,
right?
The righteousness of Jesus, the lamb of God.
So that's how Jacob represents Christians who've got the skins on, amen?
And then Esau represents the Jews who forfeited their blessing, forfeited their birthright,
and then later cried about it, right?
The wailing wall, they're still crying about it, amen?
Look at Genesis chapter 32.
What are we talking about today?
I've got to hurry because there's so much to cover.
Fifty chapters?
Fifty chapters, Jesus in the book of Genesis, he's everywhere.
Page after page, chapter after chapter.
Folks, this is one book.
You say, well, that's just easy with Genesis because Jesus is all over Genesis.
Guess what?
He's all over Exodus.
Guess what?
He's all over Leviticus.
Guess what?
He's all over Numbers.
He's all over Deuteronomy.
He's all over Joshua.
He's all over Judges.
Look, we could do this with every book of the Old Testament.
We could do this with 39 books.
You think we're going to have any trouble in the book of Psalms?
You think we're going to have trouble finding Jesus in the book of Job?
Oh, he's there.
He's all over the place.
You think this is going to be hard in Isaiah?
Folks, to him, give all the prophets witness.
In Genesis 32, we got to kind of fast forward for sake of time.
It says in verse 24, and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the
breaking of day.
Who was this mystery man?
Who is this man that Jacob wrestled with?
Well, here's your answer.
Look at verse 30.
And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel, which means face of God, for I have seen God
face to face and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Penuel, notice the difference in spelling.
You got Peniel, Penuel.
Same place, just two different ways to spell it.
The sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh.
Look, this man was Jesus.
Say, well, Jesus didn't used to be a man.
He used to just be words.
Folks, he didn't wrestle with sound waves.
He wrestled with a man.
Ah, you believe in the eternal humanity of Christ?
You got it right.
Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
And if Jesus was a man in chapter 32 of Genesis, guess what?
He was a man in Daniel 3.25 when he was in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego and they said the form of the fourth man is like the Son of God.
He said didn't we throw three men into the fire?
Oh, I see four men, loose, walking, and they have no hurt.
And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
Jesus Christ was a man even before Bethlehem, folks.
He's the man who Jacob wrestled with.
He's the man who showed up as Melchizedek.
He's the man who showed up to Abram in the tent door in Genesis chapter 18 and we can
go on and on.
Jesus Christ is a man.
Look, there are so many verses in the Bible that say God's not a man.
And then other verses say God is a man.
Which one is it?
Well, God the Father, not a man.
Jesus, a man.
Got it?
So if it says God's not a man, we're talking about God the Father.
If it says nobody's ever seen him, if it says nobody can see his face and live, we're talking
about God the Father.
If we're talking about I saw God face to face and I'm still alive, we're talking about the
Son of God.
Why?
Because all three of them are divine, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
One God eternally existing as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, aka the Trinity.
Now I'm going to close by talking about Joseph, okay?
And we don't have time, of course, to go through Joseph's story.
But the whole book of Genesis is sort of a narrowing.
We start out talking about the whole world, right?
Then we kind of narrow down to one family, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And then we kind of narrow down further and really focus in on just one person from that
family which is Joseph.
Joseph is the main character for the last dozen or so chapters of the book of Genesis.
I mean, he's clearly the emphasis.
Now you say to yourself, you know, why is that?
I mean, why not emphasize Judah?
Well, we don't want to read any more sordid details about that than we have to, right?
You know, why not emphasize the whole life of Judah or why not emphasize Levi?
I mean, we barely read anything about Levi.
I mean, Levi is the guy who's going to be the priest, right?
I mean, Judah is the guy who's going to give us the kingship of David and eventually Jesus
Christ.
But I'll tell you why Joseph is emphasized.
You're not going to believe this.
It's because Joseph pictures Jesus.
Joseph pictures Jesus.
Let me give you about 20 reasons why Joseph pictures Jesus because, I mean, you don't
have to look very hard to find the similarities between Joseph and Jesus.
This should blow your mind.
Well, first of all, his birth was miraculous because his mother was barren but then God
heard her and miraculously opened her womb that was previously barren.
He was loved by his father.
Of course, that's not a big deal.
He was sent by his father to seek his brethren.
Go to Genesis 37 and we know, of course, Jesus was sent to do what?
To seek and to save that which was lost.
Genesis 37 verse 13 says, And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the
flock in Shechem?
Come and I will send thee unto them.
And he said to him, Here am I.
So he's being sent by the father to go seek his brethren, right?
And he said to them, Go I pray thee, verse 14, see whether it be well with thy brethren
and well with the flocks, and bring me word again.
So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron, and he came to Shechem, and a certain man
found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field, and the man asked him, saying,
What seekest thou?
And he said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
So you start out the book of Genesis with a guy saying, Well, I know not.
Am I my brother's keeper?
Hey, where's your brother Abel?
Oh, am I my brother's keeper?
And then you get to the guy who represents Jesus, I seek my brethren.
Exact opposite attitude.
Now he was hated and rejected by his brethren.
Joseph was.
Joseph was hated and rejected by his brethren, just like Jesus was hated and rejected by
his brethren.
Now we could call his brethren the whole nation of Israel.
You know, he came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But also his literal brethren, Simon, Judas, Joseph, and James, they did not believe on
him while he was alive.
After he died and was buried and rose again, then they believed on him.
But when he was younger, before Jesus died on the cross, his brethren rejected him, made
fun of him, attacked him.
Okay.
So just as Joseph was hated and rejected by his brethren, Jesus was hated and rejected
by his brethren.
Look at chapter 37.
I don't have this one in my notes, but look at verse number, let me find it here.
It's going to be worth it.
All right.
Verse 8.
And his brethren said to him, Shout thou indeed reign over us?
Or shout thou indeed have dominion over us? and they hated him yet the more for his dreams
and for his words.
Now isn't that what they said about Jesus?
We will not have this man to reign over us.
And Joseph's brethren are saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.
And they hated him because of his words.
Jesus was hated because of his words and his preaching as well.
Okay.
So what do they do?
Well, they strip off his coat in verse 23, which represents Jesus being stripped of his
coat before he goes to the cross.
Remember they cast lots on his garment.
Then Joseph is cast into a pit with no water in it.
Okay.
Which represents Jesus being three days and three nights in hell, in the heart of the
earth, the bottomless pit.
Joseph was betrayed for 20 pieces of silver by a guy named Judas.
Okay.
Why?
You say, well, it's Judah.
Yeah.
But in the New Testament, Judah is called Judas.
Matthew chapter one calls him Judas, Judas and his brethren.
Okay.
Because Judas is the New Testament spelling of Judah.
So Judah is the one who says, hey, let's sell Joseph.
Judas is the one who sells Jesus.
Now you say, well, why is it 20 pieces of silver instead of 30 pieces of silver?
Let me explain to you why.
Because the price set on a young man under 20 years of age in Leviticus 27, the price
set is 20 shekels of silver.
That's the market value of a young man under 20.
Joseph was 17.
So he's basically sold for 20 pieces of silver.
That was the going rate.
Okay.
Why was Jesus sold for 30 pieces of silver?
Well, the going rate for a man of Jesus Christ age 33 would have been 50 shekels of silver.
Okay.
And if you remember, in Zechariah, it talks about how Jesus being priced at 30 pieces
of silver was an insult to him.
It was like, oh, yeah, I goodly priced that I was priced out of you.
Thirty pieces of silver in Zechariah, I believe, chapter 11.
Now what's the significance of 30 pieces of silver?
Thirty pieces of silver or 30 shekels of silver is the price of a slave who is killed.
Okay.
So in Leviticus 21, 32, if you let your ox out and he gores a servant or a slave, that's
a 30 shekel item, you know, to replace that loss of your slave who gets gored and killed
as opposed to a free man who is giving of his services for 50 shekels in Leviticus chapter
27.
So anyway, you can see even the numbers add up of Joseph being betrayed for 20 pieces
of silver.
At first glance, it might seem a little different, but it's very much the same and there's a
reason for the numbers.
Everything in the Bible matters.
It means something.
He's betrayed by Judas.
Then after he's sold into slavery, they take his coat and they dip it in blood, the Bible
says.
They dip it in animal blood.
Well, when Jesus returns in Revelation 19, it says he's wearing a vesture dipped in blood.
Another parallel.
Okay.
Then Joseph goes down into Egypt.
Guess what?
Jesus went down into Egypt.
Right?
Jesus, when he was just a little child, had to flee into Egypt to escape from King Herod.
Joseph is then falsely accused and arrested.
Jesus was falsely accused and arrested.
Joseph is punished with two criminals, just like Jesus was punished with two criminals.
And if you remember, Jesus was between two thieves.
Joseph's in the prison with two criminals, the chief butler and the chief baker.
One of the guys on the cross with Jesus ends up getting saved.
The other guy is damned.
What happens in the prison with Joseph?
The chief butler is saved and the chief baker is damned, representing the thief on the cross
and the other thief that died and went to hell.
Oh, I'm sure that's all just a coincidence, though.
I mean, it's just, you know, coincidences really abound in the Bible, don't they?
Okay.
How about this?
When Joseph started his ministry being about 30 years of age, the Bible tells us in Luke
chapter 3.
Well, guess when Joseph started his ministry?
When he was 30 years old.
When he was 30 years old is when he started his ministry being the second in command to
Pharaoh, right, running the nation of Egypt.
He started that ministry because government workers in that capacity are known as ministers,
like the prime minister.
He became the prime minister at age 30 or what would be known as the vizier or the second
in command to Pharaoh.
Oh, he's the second ruler under Pharaoh?
Kind of reminds me of Jesus who is the second ruler under God the Father, right?
In the final kingdom, he delivers up the kingdom to the Father.
God the Father reigns supreme.
Jesus is the second command, just like Joseph is the second in command.
Of course, we know the famous verse in John 11, 35, Jesus wept.
Well, guess what?
The Bible records Joseph weeping as well, picturing when Jesus would weep.
Joseph, if you go to Genesis 45 verse 7, Joseph was a savior.
He saved them.
Now, he didn't save them spiritually, but he saved them physically.
He saved them from starving.
It says in Genesis 45, 7, and God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in
the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
So what is Joseph?
He's one who preserves.
He's one who saves.
He's one who delivers.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is all of those things.
The Bible says in Jude that we are preserved in Jesus Christ and called.
We're preserved.
Joseph was a preserver.
We're saved.
Joseph was a savior.
We're delivered.
Joseph delivered them.
Folks, the Bible is truly an amazing book.
The book of Genesis is all about Jesus over and over and over again.
You can't ignore it, folks.
Now some of these jump off the page at you like Genesis 22.
Others you have to study the Bible more and think more about.
And I promise you, I promise you I've left things out.
I guarantee you that there are things in Genesis that I haven't even found yet.
Five years from now, ten years from now, I'll be finding more.
Because the Bible is about Jesus.
So if you want to know the right way to read the Bible is to look for Jesus in the Old
Testament.
That's the right way to understand it.
That's the right way to read it.
Now there are other things.
I'm not saying that the only thing we get from Genesis is just Jesus.
There are lots of other things for our lives.
But we want to make sure that Jesus has the preeminence in our Bible study and that we
make that the most important interpretation.
That's my words and I have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for the Bible, Lord.
And I thank you so much that we have it translated into our English language.
And Lord I pray that every single person here would read it and study it and meditate upon
these things day and night, Lord.
I know that it's January and a lot of people hopefully have started reading the Bible and
hopefully they've been reading through Genesis and trying to work their way through the Bible,
Lord.
I just pray that people would stick with it and understand what an amazing book this is.
This lamp unto our feet and light unto our path.
Open our eyes, Lord, that we will behold wondrous things out of your law.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.