Special Lecture

House Church Study 5 (Genesis)

by Paul Choi   05/10/2022  

Question


Abraham’s Family (3) Lesson 5

LIVING BY FAITH TO BE A BLESSING TO ALL NATIONS

Genesis 20-22

Key Verse: 22:12

  1. Look at chapter 20. Where and how Abraham did make the repeated mistake? How did God help Abraham and his family? How can we overcome inner fear and prevent the same mistake?

  2. Look at chapter 21. When conflict arose between Ishmael and Isaac, what did God tell Abraham to do? (21:8–13) How did he show his trust in God? (21:14) How did this event help him to grow as a God-centered man? (21:33)

  3. How did God take care of those for whom he was concerned? (21:15–21) What, if anything, needs to be removed from your family and your ministry?

  4. Look at chapter 22. What was God’s test to Abraham? (22:1–2) In what respects was this difficult for him to do? How could he resolve this matter through faith? (Heb11:17–19) How did this act of faith make him a source of blessing? (22:16–18) What lesson can we find here for house church ministry about loving God most?


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BibleNote


Abraham’s Family (3) Lesson 5

LIVING BY FAITH TO BE A BLESSING TO ALL NATIONS

Genesis 20-22

Key Verse: 22:12

  1. Look at chapter 20. Where and how Abraham did make the repeated mistake? How did God help Abraham and his family? How can we overcome inner fear and prevent the same mistake?

    Abraham lied to Abimelek that Sarah was his sister. Abraham thought that Abimelek had no fear of God. Abraham’s guess was wrong. His inner fear made Abraham have the same mistake.

    God intervened in Abraham’s mistake and rescued Abraham. God appeared in Ablk’s dream and warned him to return Sarah to Abrm. Ablk appealed his innocence, God admitted it, but warned him not to touch Sarah. God also introduced Abraham as a prophet.

    The servant of God and God’s chosen family must live by faith to the end. We must overcome inner fear. We must live by faith not to make the same mistake.

Abraham and Abimelek

20 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”

11 Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

  1. Look at chapter 21. When conflict arose between Ishmael and Isaac, what did God tell Abraham to do? (21:8–13) How did he show his trust in God? (21:14) How did this event help him to grow as a God-centered man? (21:33)

God told Abraham to get rid of the son of compromise because the son of compromise cannot share God’s inheritance with the son of promise.

Abraham obeyed and sent Ishmael and Hagar off to the desert.

Abraham believed that God would take care of her, and provide her family.

Sometimes we must cut off, sent off our old-compromised habit, behavior, life-style to live for God-centered life.

John 15:1-7, the farmer prunes unnecessary branches to make other’s fruitful. Let’s think about what are my unnecessary branches to be cut off? Who is my Ishmael?

The Birth of Isaac

21 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac[b] to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring[c] will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.” 14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

  1. How did God take care of those for whom he was concerned? (21:15–21) What, if anything, needs to be removed from your family and your ministry?

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she[d] began to sob. 17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

God took care of Hagar and Ishmael for the sake of Abraham.

God was with Ishmael, too. Our God is the God of mercy. He gives light to the righteous and the evil.

  1. Look at chapter 22. What was God’s test to Abraham? (22:1–2) In what respects was this difficult for him to do? How could he resolve this matter through faith? (Heb11:17–19) How did this act of faith make him a source of blessing? (22:16–18) What lesson can we find here for house church ministry about loving God most?

    God’s test to Abraham was to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

    Isaac is the covenant son, the heir of Abraham, and Abraham’s one and only son.

    God’s command sounded contradictory to God’s plan.

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[a] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Abraham Tested

22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[f] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” 15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[g] all nations on earth will be blessed,[h] because you have obeyed me.” 19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.


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