Ps. 105:7-15; Heb. 11:9, 13-16, 21

How are we to understand the Patriarchs?  You might think that we should just go read the stories in Genesis and let them speak for themselves.  There is truth to that.  But the problem is that we may take from the stories what we put into them from our own experience.  This is quite easy to see when studying the lives of Jacob and Joseph.  Our preoccupation with family life, how to have better marriages, and how to raise our children results in many people coming to Genesis 25-50 only to see life in a “dysfunctional” family.  

 It is true that what is written here is for our learning (Rom. 15:4) and admonition (1 Cor. 10:11).  But the question is what examples are we seeing in the lives of God’s saints?  Why are these stories chosen, leaving major gaps in the narrative of their lives?  

In answering these questions the best thing we can do is to let Scripture itself give us the answer.  Psalm 105 is a call to praise for Israel (v1-3).  They are to praise God for His marvelous works (v4-6).  What works does God have in mind?  It is the way God has been faithful in keeping His covenant (v7-8).  And what covenant is He talking about?  The one He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (v9-11).  The Psalmist recalls (v12) how they were few in number (initially it was just Abraham and Sarah; by the end of Genesis the total is still in the 70’s).  Yet God protected them as they wandered from nation to nation (v13-15).  He protected His “anointed ones”, His “prophets”.

We will always need to keep in mind in the stories of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, that God is working.  His work is to draw out from the families of mankind one family to be His.  They will receive His gracious covenant, becoming people of faith.

The Hebrews passage reminds us that these are, in fact, people of faith.  They are not perfect; they engage at times in grievous sins.  But they come to receive God’s grace by faith, exhibiting that faith in acts of righteousness.  

In this regard we can see certainly a lot of opportunity for us to learn from these people of God.  We too are sinners.  We must come to faith, the kind of faith that results in a changed life.  But let us remember as well that we are called to trust in the Sovereign God who is at work in the world, in history, in the entire universe.  Genesis is not simply about Jacob, nor is our life simply about us.  Everything must be related to what God is doing.  Ultimately it is about what God is doing for His Son, exalting Him over all His enemies (Ps. 2:8-9; 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:20-28).  The choice of this family and specific descendants is everything to do with the exaltation of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

As with Jacob, so we live as “strangers” (Ps. 105:12; Heb. 11:13).  May we come as they did to desire more and more the better, heavenly country prepared by God for His saints (Heb. 11:16).