Note: Devotional based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 25.
“And the LORD said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and
two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels….” (Genesis 25:23).
Genesis 25 is a hinge point in this first book of our
Christian canon. The baton is literally passed from Abraham to Isaac. Just as
godly Sarah died and was buried (Genesis 23), so godly Abraham also goes the
way of all flesh (Genesis 25). Abraham too had his death day.
The focus then shifts from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and
Rebekah to carry forward the covenant promise (Genesis 12:1-3). Just as there
was the barrenness with Sarah threatening to stifle God’s promise, so there was
the barrenness of Rebekah (“she was barren” v. 21).
Just as Sarah bore Isaac, ending her barrenness, Rebekah will
give birth to two sons, who will “struggle” in her womb (25:22). The two sons will be the father of “two
nations,” who will be “two manner of people” (25:23). One, Jacob, will be
chosen of God, loved, and blessed, the other, Esau, estranged from the LORD by
his own short-sighted hard-heartedness.
If I had to identify the greatest theme of Genesis 25 it would
be “Election.” This is not a political term, but it refers to God’s sovereign
choosing.
The infallible interpreter of this passage is not Matthew
Henry or Matthew Poole, or any other merely human exegete, but the apostle Paul
who wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in Romans 9 :
Romans 9: 10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one,
even by our father Isaac;
11 (For
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that
calleth;)
12 It
was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As
it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
God chose to work his plan through Jacob and not Esau,
before the brothers were even born. His choice was not conditioned on what they
did or did not do. God’s choice of Jacob came about, “that the purpose of God
according to election might stand” (Romans 9:11).
Paul used this record to illustrate God’s sovereign election
in salvation. Who then is saved? Those whom God chooses. Neither of these two
nations deserved God’s love. Neither earned it. Both deserved rejection. Yet God,
in his mercy, chose to pour out his affections upon one.
There are two nations, two manner of people. They are the
elect and the reprobate. The roots of this go back to Genesis 3:15 when the
Lord told the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed.”
There was a high Calvinistic Baptist movement in the South
back in the 19th century known as “Two Seed in the Spirit
Predestinarian Baptists” who articulated this doctrine. I can’t say I affirm
all their beliefs, but they did rightly say there are two nations, two manner
of people. There are those who are born again and made sons of God. And there
are those who deny and reject Christ. Our Lord said to the latter in John 8:44,
“Ye are of your father the devil.”
The final question is this: Where do you stand today? Where
is your citizenship? To which nation do you belong? Has God made himself known
to you in Christ, not because of any standing in you, but only because of his
mercy? Or do you still stand distant and reprobate?
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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