God truly works in ways beyond our comprehension. He can take our sinful acts and still cause His will to prevail. Through the battle of deception between Laban and Jacob, God fulfills His promise to Abraham and Isaac regarding the multiplation of their seed. Yet, the deception of Laban and Jacob also reveal other unrighteous attributes of the natural man as Jacob deals with the struggles of polygamy. These struggles apply not only to simultaneous polygamy but to sequential polygamy as well.

Jacob is one of the primary patriarchs of Israel. The Israelites referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As God had appeared to his grandfather and father, so He now presents Himself to Jacob. The grace of God extended to a sinner is truly the greatest marvel known to man. Jesus refers to this passage as He speaks to Nathaniel many years later declaring that He Himself is the fulfillment of the ladder of which Jacob dreamed. Later Jesus would declare: I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.

Genesis, the book of beginnings, is the foundation for much of what we believe. Truly it is the beginning of the whole counsel of God! This message considers the account of a family that consists of a permissive father, a controlling mother, a worldly older son and a deceptive younger son. Does that sound too familiar? The dysfunctional label has been applied to many different relationships in the last couple of decades. However, if we are honest we will recognize that each family has areas in which their functionality needs a little help. Praise God that He provides us the remedy for the dysfunctional family in His Word ... if we would truly apply to our lives. But this will require humility and determination in our recognition, repentance and reconstruction.

The sins of the father, as a generality, are passed down to the son. It was no different between Abraham and Isaac. As Abraham had stumbled with the King of Gerar, so his son follows in his footsteps. As God revealed His faithfulness in the days of Abraham, He once again reveals His faithfulness to His promise through His provision and protection.

The account of the birth of Esau and Jacob brings us to a consideration of some great theological debates; especially, as we recall Malachi 1:1-3 and Romans 9:10-15. The primary difficulty is the question of predestination. In this message we consider the birth record and the birthright of Esau and Jacob.

Abraham was old and God had provided the promised Son, Isaac. It was time for Isaac to have a spouse. To accomplish this task, Abraham sent his trusted servant Eleazar to find Isaac a bride from his family at Nahor. Abraham was confident in the provision of God because Abraham was confident in the promise of God. The Word of God does not fail. When we consider the faith of Abraham in the promise of God it should challenge us in our faith in consideration of all of the promises that God has for us in His Word. If that is not inspirational enough, consider the faith of Eleazar who submitted to the faith of his master, traveled to Nahor, and called upon the God of his master to fulfill His promise of provision! May God allow us to be so faithful.

God had promised Abraham that in him, and his seed, all of the nations of the world would be blessed. He had also promised that the seed would be a child who would be from Sarah. Sarah then gave birth to Isaac. That birth was miraculous. But now God was asking Abraham to do something that has to be one of the greatest tests of faith recorded. Abraham displayed his fear of God and his faith in God as he took his son Isaac to Mt. Moriah, to offer him there as a sacrifice to God in obedience to the challenge of God. This test was to demonstrate the greatness of the love of God for you and I. For God so loved the world (you and I) that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life!

God appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre and promised that, within a year, Sarah would have a son. However, during the ensuing year, Abraham traveled to Gerar where he repeats his failure from Egypt and almost jeopardizes the plan of God. God speaks to Abimelech in a dream and warns him not to touch Sarah. God protected His chosen vessels and His ordained plan. Sarah then gives birth to Isaac fulfilling the promise that God had made to Abram 25 years earlier. In time, Sarah becomes at odds with Hagar and calls upon Abraham to send away Hagar and her son by Abraham, Ishmael. God uses the symbolism of this division between Sarah and Hagar in the New Testament to discuss the profit, purpose, and path of Christian liberty.

When Abram left his family and country to follow the call of God, his nephew Lot chose to travel with him. As they dwelled in Canaan and experienced the blessing of God upon their lives and possessions, new challenges faced Abram and Lot. The land where they had settled could not yet support both the herds of Abram and the herds of Lot. As is sadly the case in many churches, dissension ensued. The herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abram began to fight. Abram offers Lot the choice to move or stay. Lot, motivated by faulty and selfish logic, chooses to move his household to the plain near Sodom. This choice led to many unhappy consequences. Yet, the Scriptures record in the second epistle of Peter that Lot was a righteous man. As a result of considering the life of Lot, we must ask ourselves, "what are my primary determiners for decision making?"

One of the greatest accounts of the interaction of God with man occurred by the terebinth trees of Mamre. Abraham sees three strangers, ministers to their needs, and then realizes that one of the three is YHWH Himself ... God incarnate! During this meeting, YHWH declared to Abraham that Sarah would have a child. In this account we see many lessons regarding the attributes of God and importance of hospitality.