God's Faithfulness Now and Hereafter Genesis 25:1-18

Remember when I was in high school, I had two experiences That made me think deeper than I ever had before about my life in the big picture of reality

One time when I was 16 my parents, and I were driving down the road my parents are here today So this is fitting and as we were driving my parents told me

Seth when you were young you think you were going to live forever But life goes by fast

My parents told me they remember being 16 like it was yesterday And they could tell you that I had another similar experience about the brevity of life around that time

My English teacher mr. Bowman in 11th grade said something to our class that was profound and made me think much deeper than I usually

Did we were talking about famous? And poets of the past He told our class

Do you realize that you are living in just a little pocket of history just as these famous writers?

Lived in a small piece of history This is a profound statement High school student to wrap his or her head around as you get older as you know you start to realize this truth more and more

Every one of us knows where our life is heading a day will come when we will take our last breath and leave this world

For thousands of years men and women have lived their life Just like we are right now

Then they finish their course and they die a Day is coming when people will gather to say goodbye to you

This morning we are going to see two goodbyes one for Abraham one for his son

Ishmael What we will see it is that while this life flies by and our time here is very

Important it is truly just the beginning It's the beginning for only one reason

God is faithful He is faithful to his people and we will see this brought out in this text

This sermon is titled God's faithfulness now and hereafter I encourage you as always now to turn in a

Bible with me as we look at Genesis 25 verses 1 through 28

If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 22 and 23

And our big idea our proposition is the Lord is faithful to his people in life and in death

We're going to see two observations of this in this text The first is that he prospers their legacy after they're gone

He prospers their legacy after they're gone and we'll see this in verses 1 through 6 and then also in verse 11

But before we jump into our text today Let's recap where we have been the last two and where we were through three weeks ago in Genesis It's been a while since we were last in Genesis two weeks ago

We had a sermon on the office of eldership that we're going to vote on at our meeting Today and last

Sunday Rob preached a sermon from John 5 Three three weeks ago. We were in Genesis when we were in Genesis, we finished up a series of sermons on the

Abraham and his servant to find a wife for Isaac What we saw was was the

Lord's plan come to pass During these sermons the application was clear to us

We asked the question, how do we discern the will of God for our own lives? What we learned was that 95 % of the time the choices are made up for us because the

Bible tells us how to live This is God's this is known as God's revealed will

But what are we to do in those difficult situations where the Bible doesn't give us a clear answer?

The Bible tells us what what steps to take but it doesn't say do this And so that's what we looked at in Genesis 24 and what we looked at was that we were to pray for wisdom

We are to gather all the relevant information. We are to talk to wise counselors and then make the best decision over time we should receive confirmation that this was the path the

Lord was sending us down if we Use the Lord's means of figuring that out And we saw this play out in the narrative of Genesis 24 and the

Lord works the same way with us Today we are going to finally see the end of Abraham's life.

I mentioned the introduction that we are going to see two Funerals today Abraham and Ishmael It's worth noting that this is our goodbye to Abraham after spending much time with him

We have been concentrating on the Lord's work in the life of Abraham since January 17th.

It's a long time That means we've spent nine months with this man and the

Lord has shown us much through his work in his life Now, let's look at Genesis 25

The start of the section is not necessarily in chronological order

Since it does not immediately follow Sarah's burial at the end of chapter 23

We get a genealogy Here and it's not from Sarah, but from a new woman

Keturah And we get this genealogy to say that all of these people came from Abraham So I'm gonna look at verses 1 through 4 here.

I'm gonna read them. So please follow along with me And these are a lot of funny names here. Okay, so so so bear with me here as I just read these names

Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asherim, Ledushim, and Luamim.

The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephor, Hanak, Abadah, and Eldah.

All these were the children of Keturah So try to do that ten times.

That's not easy Now you might be wondering Is this polygamy?

Which would mean that Abraham had more than one wife or did he marry this woman after the death of Sarah?

A few months back I explained why there was polygamy in the Old Testament. It was not ideal

But because the world was dangerous and women needed protection and a large number of men would die in war

I mean war was a was a was a monthly thing here Leaving women without security to fall back and would have been a major issue

So what what would happen was that men who are well -off would take multiple wives women to be their wives

And what I explained then is that these were unique times The Bible lists polygamy in the

Old Testament, but never endorses it In the New Testament in 1st Timothy 3 2 a godly man is described as one who is a husband of one wife

So when we see polygamy in the Old Testament, let's not think that the Bible is endorsing it. It's not For a time the

Lord allowed it to prevent worse things from happening to women who no longer had a husband

So it can be hard for us to understand this in a 21st century context, but that's just a little Overview of why you would see it because you just see the

Old Testament like what what's up with that? And and so we need to address that but but Abraham here may actually not be taking part in polygamy

This may be a woman. He married in his old age after Sarah died Abraham was 10 years older than Sarah and he outlived

Sarah by 48 years So if he had 38 years after she died, so it's possible that he married her during that time.

He married Keturah Moses cares about recordings recording Abraham's genealogy here

And he does this later in our text today with Hagar's line that started with Ishmael as we shall see later on here

But even though these two genealogies are Included Keturah and Hagar's the most important genealogy is that which came through Sarah?

God's promises for this incredible future For Abraham's offspring would come through Sarah and not

Keturah or Hagar and we see this in verse 5 Abraham gave all he had to Isaac The text says that the inheritance went to Isaac Abraham and Sarah's son the promised child

Abraham's inheritance would go to him and Him alone. We know in our world that before someone dies

They make a will The purpose of the will is to determine who gets what what positions when this person

I remember back in 2005 My dad and I visited Florida and we the reason the purpose of the trip was my grandpa was dying

And my aunt and uncle lived nearby and I remember when we visited there my aunt and uncle were concerned Because my grandfather had not yet prepared a will and my dad could tell you my grandpa was one of those people who?

Did everything at the last minute? He wasn't one of those one of the types who would who would plan ahead and so we were actually sitting in his place

With my uncle and my uncle was asking him questions about his will you know concern that he could die You know any week in it, and we wouldn't know what to do with his possessions and my uncle said to my grandpa

He said who's gonna get your car? And I happen to be in the right place at the right time because he looked over at me

And he said I'll give it to Seth And it was a it was a 1997 Chrysler Sebring convertible

And so I after my grandpa passed I did get the car and for the for the first And the only time in my life.

I was actually cool because at college. I I drove with the top down But the point is when you die you can't take your possessions with you

I've heard it said that there are no u -hauls behind hearses The possessions of the deceased are passed down to family members

What we have to understand about ancient times is that the patriarch of the family would pass along his blessing to the next generation

It was typically the firstborn who would get most of the inheritance, but not always We will see that in the story of Jacob and Esau that the first firstborn does not get the blood

That'll be next week What we have already seen in Genesis is that Isaac was not the firstborn child for me that would be

Ishmael And so while most of the inheritance blessing typically went to the firstborn

What we see in the biblical narratives is the Lord determines who gets the blessing Isaac received the inheritance from Abraham because the

Lord promised long ago that through him all the promises would be fulfilled The Lord delivers on this and shows his faithfulness to Abraham even after he is gone

Abraham's death would not stop the work that God did through him In fact, it was just the beginning of the great legacy of Abraham that the

Lord would prosper This is the main idea. I want you to see point one Let's look at let's look down in verse 11 and see how this ties in with verse 5 verse 11 says that after the death of Abraham God blessed

Isaac his son and Isaac settled at beer the high Roy The Lord blessed

Isaac because he said all along that it is through this man that I fill all of my promises

Not through Ishmael and not through any of Keturah's sons the Lord promises long ago to Abraham and After he died the

Lord continued an incredible legacy that started with him The Lord is going to prosper

Abraham through his through the son even after he is gone And in verse 11, we see the

Lord's firm commitment to seeing his plans through Abraham prosper after his death think about this your

Influence continues after you are gone if you have lived a life closely following the

Lord where he can use that People may read your journals or remember the things you said and be motivated to follow the

Lord more closely Your children grandchildren and great -grandchildren will desire to emulate your godly example the

Lord does this he uses this Lives and I know it's because he's done in my own life. I never got to meet my great -grandfather

David lysine Which comes from which comes from my mom my mom's line David lysine came over from Sweden in World War one and actually fought

In against the foes in Europe with America right after he came over so he came over from Europe and then went right back to Europe to fight, but he was a

David lysine was a very godly man, and I know The influence he had on his son my grandfather who was a very godly man

Also, my great -great -grandfather Niels Gustafson He he wanted to be a pastor and we have his journals and he never became never became a pastor

So I kind of like I'm maybe I'm in his legacy. You know being a pastor all these generations later

So what we can tell about these these men from from our family history is that they were very godly men and they inspire me and my other family members who are

Believers to run the race of faith. Well, just as they ran it Well, and as you walk closely with the

Lord the seeds that you plant will continue to bear fruit after you are gone The Lord is faithful to bless your legacy to glorify him through his work in your life

That's what's so remarkable about this a Kathy even share the story about Mike And in the hope operation

Christmas Child continues after Mike is gone the seeds planted by people who have been dead for hundreds or thousands of years are bearing fruit throughout the ages as We are encouraged by their

God glorifying legacy Why do people read? John Bunyan's pilgrims progress.

Why do they still read that book that was written in the 1600s? People read it because it describes the journey through the life of faith that they are living themselves and it's an encouragement to them

John Bunyan wrote this book from prison and the Lord still uses it to bear fruit

I've heard it said that it's the second best -selling book next to of course the Bible in the history of the world

What we see in this text is the Lord bless Abraham's legacy through Isaac Helpless blessings that came from this line and so the

Lord Prospers the fruit of all of God's people make a difference in this world as their fruit has an impact after they are gone

Are you? Living a life to the Lord that will bear fruit over the long haul ask yourself that question or will people

Look at your life and pass over it and say you know what there really is nothing notable about this life that I can emulate

To use to follow Christ because we need to follow people right as they follow Jesus we don't want to we don't want to be that person right what a tragic thing

It is when you look over someone's life, and they didn't make a difference We need to be people who do make a difference now the old quote says one life

That soon will pass only what's done for Christ will last Now even though Isaac is going to get the inheritance

Abraham did not leave children through Keturah and Hagar with nothing and we see this in verse 6

But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts and while he was still living he sent them away from his son

Isaac eastward to the East Country You'll notice it says concubines plural.

This is another word here in this in this context is referring to his wives Keturah and Hagar and as Abraham was passing away

He made sure to give gifts to his other children, and this says much about Abraham's character. He's taking care of his family

As we have looked at the life of Abraham. We know that he has been a man not without fault We have seen him play godliness a good man or woman

Takes care of their offspring no matter how they came into the world, and this is what Abraham does here In Genesis 21 when

Hagar and Ishmael were sent out we saw the love that Abraham had for his son Ishmael Abraham wanted him to stay but Sarah wanted him to go and being obedient to the

Lord he went along with her wishes and sent Ishmael out in verses 6 we are getting

In verse 6 we are getting the picture of all of Abraham's loved ones gathering around him before he dies

And you can you can picture this right when when a loved one has passed away everybody gathers around to say

Goodbye And as they are gathering around Abraham the patriarch sends his children away, but keeps the promised child

Isaac there You notice at the end of verse 6 that Abraham sent to them to the east country

He sent he kept Isaac there, but he sent his other children to the east country

We have already seen the significance of the direction east in the book of Genesis in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve fell into sin the

Lord kicked them out of the Garden of Eden and sent them east And that would be angels facing the east of the garden to protect access to the tree

Then in Genesis 4 16 after Cain killed Abel the Lord sent Cain east of Eden Okay Hopefully we don't have that skip the rest of the sermon here, okay, so so the direction east

Cain kills Abel the Lord sends Cain east of Eden then the Tower of Babel was built

The people who built it migrated from you guessed it the east So the direction east has spiritual significance in Genesis in the three passages above it represents

Rebellious people who are cut off from fellowship with God in our passage today it means that these people are not

God's chosen line as we have seen in Genesis God's chosen line runs through Isaac and not

Abraham's other children and the author Moses is making this clear the Lord's blessing is upon Isaac and through Isaac the whole world will be blessed

We need to understand the Lord's plan through this chosen line the Lord chose Seth the third son of Adam and Eve Then eventually from the line of Seth comes

Noah then comes Abraham and now this line carries through Isaac and we know the significance of this line

It's through this line That salvation will come and evil will forever be defeated

Jesus Christ Eventually comes from this line. He delivers his people from their sins and crushes the head of the serpents as he crushes

Satan And Isaac and not only receives Abraham's inheritance But more importantly he is the promised child through whom the

Lord will fulfill his promises to Abraham The Lord does not change his mind after Abraham is gone.

He doesn't say you know what now that he's dead I'm not gonna continue to continue his legacy and to continue the work that I started with him

No, he prospers Abraham after his death by blessing his son and continuing the promises through him

That started with Abraham Think about Abraham's legacy that the Lord prospered over the long haul

Lord prospers you as Well after you are gone if you walk closely with him, right?

We need to live a life that he can use For his glory after we are gone a

Charles Spurgeon once said that a life well lived for the Lord Is one that outlasts your earthly life?

So live a life that outlasts Yours And so this is the first observation.

We have seen here that should motivate us to live a life To the glory of God over the long haul the

Lord Prospers the legacy of his people after they are gone And this is the first observation we have seen the second observation here in our final observation this morning of The Lord's faithfulness in life and in death is that he takes his people to be securely with him after death

And we'll see this in verses 7 through 10 We just saw that the Lord is good to his people as he continues their influence for his glory on earth after they are gone

But of course if we cease to exist After we perished from the world, this would not mean much

It would rob us of our joy and it would rob God of his glory as We get the opportunity in heaven to see what the

Lord accomplished through us. It leads us to praise him Thankfully our existence does continue after we die

We will see this in the life of Abraham in the following verses verses 7 through 10. So please look with me if you will

These are the days of the years of Abraham Abraham's life 175 years

Abraham breathes his last and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was and was gathered to his people

Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Matt Palah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the

Hittite east of Mamre The field Abraham purchased from the Hittites there

Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife. I Mentioned in the introduction that life is brief and you may wonder how we could say that 175 years is brief

As far as lifespans go, of course 175 years is brief as far as lifespans go.

As far as lifespans go, of course But if you were to ask Abraham and you may get the chance one day in heaven did life go by fast?

He would tell you yes, it did in James 4 14 We are told that our life is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes

I heard I heard a pastor describe it one time go outside on a cold day and those days are coming soon here

I don't need to remind you that you breathe right and you can see your breath, you know And eventually, right, it just disappears.

That's your life. Abraham was here at one time, and he is no longer.

And so are many others who have gone before us. And as we think about the brevity of life, what impact should this have on us?

The Bible tells us that understanding the brevity of life should motivate us to live a certain way.

Psalm 90 .12, the psalmist prays to the Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.

In light of the brevity of life, it is wise to live a life, first and foremost, that is pleasing to the

Lord, so that the Lord can look at that life and see that His glory was displayed through that person.

We should aim to live a life that people can reflect on and be influenced by, as I already mentioned in point one.

Will people look at your life and say that he or she wasted it? Or will they look at it and say this is a life worth reflecting on and imitating?

Now the focus of this point is that the Lord is faithful to His people in death. Before we zero in on this, let me ask the question, in what ways is the

Lord faithful to His people in death? We already looked at how the Lord is faithful to His people in this world by continuing their legacy after they're gone, by prospering the seeds that were planted to bear fruit to continue generations.

What we are zeroing in on in this point is the Lord's faithfulness to His people after death by taking them to be with Him in the afterlife.

The end of verse 8 says that after Abraham died, he was gathered to his people. Some have said that this is referring to the burial of Abraham's body and he was buried as his ancestors were buried.

However, this is not the way to take this. This is saying much more than this. In verse 9, we learn of the place that he was buried.

He was buried in the same place as his wife. I remember back in Genesis 23 when Ephron sold him that field in the land of Canaan, east of Mamre.

That's where he's buried. If this were referring to being buried with his ancestors, then his ancestors would be there.

However, they're not there. Only his wife Sarah was buried in this specific location.

Furthermore, in this text, Moses notes that he was gathered to his people before he was buried.

So it cannot be referring to his burial. So what is this referring to? This is referring to the immaterial side of his existence.

Every human being has a body, the physical side, and a soul, the immaterial.

When you die, your body goes into the ground and your soul goes to either one of two places, either heaven or hell, a place of blessing or a place of torment.

Abraham was a godly man, so we know that he went to be with the Lord when he died. And when the text says that he was gathered to his people, we can assume this would include those from this godly line of offspring that I already mentioned.

This would include Noah and Seth before him and Enoch.

He was gathered to these people and he was gathered to the Lord. The phrase, gathered to his people, is used in several other places in the

Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible. And they were all written by Moses.

It's used to describe the deaths of Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, and Moses, and actually

Ishmael later on in this text. And we actually get a picture of this in Luke 16 with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Abraham is in a place of blessedness with the Lord. And we know from the life of Abraham that he hoped for his offspring to be as many as the stars in the heavens as the

Lord promised him. And he hoped that they would have the land of Canaan forever. However, his greatest hope was dwelling in the presence of God that would happen after his death.

We know this because Holy Scripture tells us this. Hebrews 11 .16

says about Abraham and his immediate offspring, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city. So this is what

Abraham's ultimate hope was. As true believers in God, they could count on this future home being theirs.

And the application is clear for us. As you leave this world as a sincere follower of Christ, you will be gathered with all the people of God who have gone before you, and you will dwell in the presence of God along with them.

You must desire the heavenly country as they desired a heavenly country. I mentioned in the introduction that this life is just the beginning.

This life goes by fast and its time is short. But the life to come has no end.

Once you sincerely come to know God, a second cannot go by that you are not in fellowship with Him.

And that's the most beautiful truth there is. That we are forever gods once you come to know Him. John 17 .3

says, and this is eternal life, that you know the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Which means that once you know God, you have eternal life. You have it here now and you have it forever with Him.

When God makes you His people, He makes you His people forever. And death does not separate this relationship.

Now there is a separation that happens when you die. That's the separation between your physical body and your soul.

But there is no separation between you and God. And that's a beautiful truth that we must hold on to. In the

New Testament, when Jesus was talking to the Sadducees, the Sadducees were a political group of Jews who were secular.

They did not believe in the afterlife. The Pharisees were people who believed in the afterlife and the future resurrection.

The Sadducees did not. And when Jesus was talking to them, He told them about what

Moses wrote. And what He said is that long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead,

God told Moses that He was their God. He told them specifically,

He says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He did not say

I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and I stopped being their God when they died. No, it's not past tense, it's present tense.

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is, of course, because the

Lord continues the existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob after they died physically.

The theme of the future resurrection of the body is in the Old Testament and it's shown even more clearly in the

New Testament. But what this text is describing is what we call the intermediate state, where your soul goes in between this life and the future resurrection.

Because what happens to a believer when they die is your soul goes to be with the Lord and then when

Christ returns at some time in the future where we do not know when that'll be, what happens is our bodies will be reunited with our souls and the good news is that our new body will never fail.

It's a new, glorified, resurrected body. And we've been talking about this on Wednesday nights as we've been studying what the

Bible says about the end times with the study of eschatology. So what we see clearly in this text is that the

Lord is faithful to his people in life and in death. He was faithful to Abraham as he took him to be with him and he is faithful to all his people after they die.

So this is the second observation of his faithfulness to his people in life and in death. He takes them securely to be with him and he takes them to be with him forever.

What a beautiful truth this is. So as we wrap up this sermon today, what we have seen in this text is that the

Lord is faithful to his people in life and in death and now I'm going to close with one more example of the

Lord's faithfulness to Abraham to show his faithfulness to his son,

Ishmael. The Lord not only delivers on his promise to Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, but also

Hagar and Ishmael. So we're gonna close by reading here verses 12 through 18 of chapter 25.

These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's servant, bore to Abraham.

These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth. Neboeth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, Abdeel, Mipsam, Mishma, Duma, Massa, Hadad, Tima, Jeter, Napish, and Kedema.

These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names. By their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.

These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. He breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people.

They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt, in the direction of Assyria.

He settled over against all his kinsmen. Now we could focus on how this future offspring of Ishmael actually goes against the offspring from Isaac, the blessed line.

And I talked about that in a previous sermon. We won't get into that today. But this future conflict.

But the point is here, is that God is faithful to keep his promises. Because in Genesis 16 .10,

the Lord promised Hagar that her son Ishmael would have many offspring. In Genesis 21 .13,

the Lord promised that a nation would come from Ishmael. And when the Lord makes a promise, he cannot break it.

So he keeps his promises through Abraham and Sarah. And also here, the promise that he made to Ishmael's mother,

Hagar. That he would prosper him as well. The Lord promises to be with his children always as we sojourn through this world.

And to make our life count after we are gone. As we live, Lord willing, a

God -glorifying legacy that is remembered. And he also promises his children to take us to be with him in a place of forever bliss when our time here is done.

So let us rejoice, as we just meditated on what the scripture said this morning. Let us rejoice in these wonderful truths that we have seen.

Now next week, we will see this chosen line from Abraham continue through two twin sons.

These two twin sons, of course, are Jacob and Esau. And we will see that the Lord chooses one and not the other to continue this blessed line.

And the Lord does something here that surprises us. And so I look forward to opening the word with you next

Sunday, let's pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you for the opportunity to look at the

Bible and to patiently look at this together, Lord. There are golden nuggets to see here.

And I hope, Lord, that people have seen a few of the golden nuggets, a few of the main points that were pulled out of this text today.

And Lord, what a blessing it is, Lord, that our lives have so much importance to them, that our legacy,

Lord, can continue after we are gone, that a God -glorifying legacy that we should all long to have.

I thank you for so many who have gone before us, Lord, that we look at their lives and we are encouraged and blessed by them.

And Lord, we thank you so much too that when we do take our last breath from this world, that you are still our

God, that we are still in fellowship with you. And we will be forever, as Paul says in 2

Corinthians 5, when we die, we will always be with you.

And what a great truth that is to hold onto. You are our God, as you are the

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it's in your name we pray, amen.