Abraham’s Final Days: Keturah, Midian, and the Burial Mystery

it seems like in chapter 24 Abraham may have died or in may never have met but back down because when when LEA's are of Damascus Abraham's servant comes back into the land bringing Isaac's bride he refers to Isaac as his master now not Abraham so the suggestion is is that perhaps Abraham has died and by the way that would also mean that his dying request was to send LEA's are into the this other land to find a bride for his wife it was his last request it was his testimony please take care of this issue for me so if there's a good chance that Abraham died in chapter 24 and then 25 we see a story about the death of Abraham okay but then we have Abraham taking the wife named Katura and then he's going to end up having six children with her which would give Abraham eight total pretty good for a guy that didn't have any children until he was

like 90 alright but alright we're going to read about the death of Abraham and before his death though his marriage to a woman named Katura and their six children and the very next block of information starting with verse 12 as we're going to get there in a minute the very next block of a scripture is about Ishmael and Ishmael's sons Ishmael's been off the scene for a while now okay but Ishmael's it gives us a little bit catches us up on the story of Ishmael so what I would say has happened here is there's a good chance that Abraham died in chapter 24 and 25 we're gonna get the telling of Abraham's death and then a story but a story that precedes that of his marriage to Katura and their six children one of them being a boy named Midian alright and then the next block of scripture is going to be about Ishmael okay and I think the reason why the writer

must have delayed the information about Abraham's marriage to Katura and then his death was because he wanted to put the story of Midian Abraham's son by Katura and the story of Ishmael and his lineage Abraham's son by Hedor together Midian and Ishmael the reason why that's going to be important is because a few chapters later we're going to see that Isaac or Jacob's son Joseph is going to be sold into slavery by his brothers and who becomes the who who are the folks that sell Joseph into slavery for the brothers Midianites and the Midianites and Ishmaelite seem to have become one people alright so one story will tell you that the Midianites in it another story will tell you that the Ishmaelites in it seems like they were the same people alright so somehow in Israel's history the Midianites and the Ishmaelites end up becoming one people and the author of Genesis wants to put those two stories together okay alright so let's

just go through 25 one verse of the fine Abraham took another wife whose name was Katura Katura in in Hebrew means something like incense and she bore him Zimron Jokshan Medan Midian Ishbakh and Shua alright Jokshan was the son of Sheba and or the father of Sheba and Deedon descendants of Deedon were the Astroites and the Latushites and the Leumites the son of Midian the sons of Midian were Ifa Ifa Hanuk Abedah and Eldah and all these were the descendants of Katura okay the one name that you should remember out of all and that is Midian it's going to be important again because the Midianites are going to become traitors of spice and they're going to have constant interactions with the children of Israel throughout the Old Testament in fact the Midianites and the Ishmaelites are what it being oftentimes antagonists difficulty Israelites they're going to become that times enemies and that best kind of KG neutrals okay so but most is is

going to marry a Midianite okay in the book of Exodus marry Zipporah and Zipporah is of the Midianites okay so again that the book of Genesis is laying all of these threads and strands that will be picked up and tied up nicely later on but you have to be yet to pay attention to these you'll go through genealogies at times you'd be like why am I making this the ashrites them like humans there's nothing else in the Bible without some of these names but every now and then there will be a man in that tucked away in a genealogy that will end up being important later on okay Abraham first five left everything he owned to Isaac everything he owned to Isaac okay who was his first born Abraham's first one is Ishmael right but the first one didn't get everything the second born did which is a pattern that ends up becoming or which is an occurrence that ends up becoming a

pattern throughout spiritual able is more blessed than his elder brother came and set is even more blessed than able he's the third child okay Jacob is going to be more blessed than his older brother he saw okay Joseph is going to be more blessed than his other his 10 elder brothers you can see this as a pattern that follows through scripture and it's most powerfully manifest in the story of Jacob okay the world's way of doing things is to make the first born by virtue of being first born the one to receive the blessing and power in the authority that's the world's way doing things God's way of doing things is very different we have our customs God has his and God sometimes will bless the first born Jesus was the first born of Mary he had five at least five other siblings okay sometimes the first born is the most blessed but oftentimes whenever you see the first born being blessed in

scripture black God blesses the first born it's not because they were the first born right it was because they were humble and they knew they needed God's blessing they knew they wanted to participate in God's promises they knew that their the virtue of their birth did not entitle them to God's blessing it was a gift it's always a gift and oftentimes it was in the ancient world it was the younger brother who realized that first the only way I can get through life only thing that's going to make my work my life worth worth worthy is going to be the blessing of God the oldest son tended to sit back on his laurels and feel entitled the younger son tended to say well what crumbs are gonna fall from the table and then grassed at those okay so Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac not the old not Ishmael to Isaac but while he was still living Abraham was still living he

gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east all right so Abraham is generous to his other sons his his seven other sons he blesses them but they do not receive the birthright the birthright it's probably intuitive to everybody in here but just let me explain in a case it's not in the biblical in biblical terminology the birthright in biblical times refers to the son who receives the authority of the father he becomes the next has head of the household he's in charge of everybody all right he's basically king and pope emperor of the family he owns everything and he can dole out things to his younger brothers as he pleases okay that's in biblical times what the birthright met Abraham gives everything he has to Isaac he gives him the birthright okay but in the in the in the biblical story it's not about the two material possessions the

birthright it's special that you receive from Abraham is the promise the promise of the Messiah the promise of salvation the promise of redemption the promise that Messiah is going to come through this line okay so this that's what Abraham was giving to Isaac not to Ishmael not to me and none of those other sons to Isaac to Isaac the child that was born the only child that was born to barren Sarah okay one the one more thing of all these lines why why why is there this pattern of the Baron one receiving a child okay this keeps on happening in Genesis reason why it seems to be again just like the birthright issue man has his way of doing things he has his customs and by virtue of the birth you get everything that's the world's way of doing things but God doesn't do things that way he gives the gift the promise to the one that's humble okay but also also when

he's going to bring salvation into the world through the promise the inheritance that he gives to Abraham when he's gonna do that he wants to make sure that men and women understand this promise didn't come by human action or work Abraham you can follow me I want you to follow me I want you to be obedient to me but it's not gonna be any of that that makes the promise come to pass it's going to be me Isaac you're 60 years old you're supposed to be the one that brings forth more children to receive the promise and you're gonna build great nations but you are 60 years old and you still have no children Isaac you can't make this promise come to pass God is going to do it and that's oftentimes it seems why these patriarchs have wives who can't have children okay at least out until God intervenes okay all right so Abraham left everything that he owned Isaac but while

he was still living he gave gifts to the sons of his confidants and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east okay so they weren't raised in Canaan they were raised in West today Jordan okay that's east of the Jordan River east of the Dead Sea anyone in here been to Jordan anyone near been to Israel okay all right Israel's pretty it's not lush it doesn't have a lot of vegetation it's a struggle out there you go east and it's really a strong it's really a struggle out there the Indiana Jones has one particular film that was filmed in the the Nabataean the the brow of the ancient Nabataeans okay I don't know if it was the last Crusader or whatever it was but it's like sand dunes and then you're still you're stepping into these corridors and beautiful limestone and sandstone all around you and then Petra that's the land of the Nabataeans and these people of

the Nabataeans and the Jordanians in general are those who came from Ishmael Abraham's son Ishmael or Abraham's children dukhetura so all of those Jordanians even today are descended it seems from the Midiites and the Ishmaelites okay verse 7 all together Abraham lived 175 years then Abraham breathed his last and died at Brinnell's age an old man and full of years he was gathered to his people his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpila near Mamre you've seen that place before correct in the field at Ephraim of Zohar the Hittite in other words this is where Abraham had bought the field from the Hittites so he was buried there with his wife Sarah and Abraham's death after Abraham's death gone blessed his son Isaac who then the near beer Lahari Ruhi okay now we get this note this historical note about Ishmael's of Abraham's son Ishmael remember he was promised that he was going to be in the father of

nations to Ishmael all right this is the account of Abraham's son Ishmael whom Sarah's main servant Hagar the Egyptian or to Abraham these are the names of the sons of Ishmael listing the order of their birth Naboliath the first born of Ishmael Kedar Abdel Mimson Mishma Duma Massa Haddad Tima Jattur Nafish Kedema these were the sons of Ishmael these are the names of the 12 tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps so Abraham has 12 grandsons through Ishmael all together oh by the way that matches Jacob right he has 12 sons also so Ishmael and Jacob have 12 all right he breathed all together Ishmael lived 137 years oh we miss something who was there to bury Abraham Ishmael now he was hundreds of miles away we have word this father died and the last time they had seen each other he was kicking out and left to Ishmael died it had to help us he was 137 years old when he

died so for more than 120 years he had been estranged from his father Abraham years that he dies and comes makes a journey come back and he buries very tenderly buries his his father near the grave of Sarah who was the one who kicked him out she was entirely responsible for the whole thing for all the animosity okay that's why I say those had to be some tenderness there okay there were the sneeze or the sons of Ishmael and these are the names of the 12 tribal rulers according their settlements and camps all together which found it to 137 years he breathed his last and died he was gathered to his people his descendants settled in the area of Habibah to Shure near the border of Egypt as you go towards Ashur and they lived in hostility toward all their brothers remember what was said what was prophesied rubbish now what did the angel say he'll be against everybody he's he's gonna be

somebody who seeks conflict and the angel calls him and a wild donkey on a man this ends up being worn out by history lots of conflict it's never these are never necessarily terrible evil wicked people but antagonists nonetheless okay all right now he comes the crux of this chapter first slide team this is the encounter of Abraham's son Isaac Abraham became the father of Isaac and Isaac was four years old when he married Brabantah daughter of Bethuel the are Aramean from Padan Iran and the sister of Leban the Aramean Aramean whenever you see the word Aramean in scripture that is just the ancient Hebrew word for Syrian okay so it's from Syria right so that means that means that Rebecca Isaac's wife is Syrian and then you'll see in Deuteronomy chapter 26 you'll see you'll notice that the Israelites call themselves Arameans or Arameans okay these are the names of the sons oh wait I'm sorry Abraham became the father of Isaac Isaac

was 40 years old when he married Rebecca verse 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord capital Bell or D remember this is the covenant name of God this is the name you can call out upon he saves he delivers it he intervenes Isaac prayed to the I am that's the meaning of the covenant name Isaac prayed to the I am on behalf of his wife because she was Baron all right in Abraham's life we get six chapters drawn out a Sarah's there and and then here it's one sentence Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was Baron the I am answered his prayer as wife were back to became pregnant oh and by the way the prayer was really pooms because she has twins yeah all right verse 22 the babies jostled with each other within her and she said oh she didn't ask why am I why my life you know Erin we don't get to hear her

complain until she's pregnant and then she just this constant or fairly fit at the time she has known that she's having coins she just feels more happening inside of her so she went to inquire the Lord this troubled her enough that she needed to go seek out a prophet or an oracle and I don't know who the prophet was he's going to prophesy here in a second and this is the prophecy this is why some people think Shannon still alive no sunshine like still be alive here's the prophecy the Lord said to her this is usually the way the prophet's dig I'll say poor two nations are in your room and two people's from within you will be separated one people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the other okay two nations are in your room I love I love that picture of image not two babies or your two nations if you have a single child you

have a nation think about this from a pro-life perspective if if you take a baby aboard a baby you aboard a nation you have nations in your way we throw around the term genocide a lot today anytime many one nation goes to war against another nation is called somewhere somebody's been called a genocide but there are actual genocides happening all the time there aren't two nations in your room two people from within you will be separated one people will be stronger than the other the older will serve the younger okay so imagine hearing that you're Rebecca you heard that the older will serve the younger when the time came for her to give birth there were twin boys in her wound okay she discovers that I don't know at what point she discovers that maybe it's at birth the first to come out was red and his whole body was like a hairy garment so they named him Esau okay a little bit

of wordplay right there the name the name Esau is somehow related to the word red and Hebrew and hairy okay but when the baby comes out it's either he's all red which doesn't make sense because babies usually are red or discovered it seems like it's it's referring to he's covered in red hair covered in red hair now in the ancient Middle East having red hair was not a good sign of a couple of examples of this one example I can think of right now left off my head in the Middle Ages whenever a play of Christmas play was put on in the Middle Ages in Europe the the character that playing hair it King Herod was always depicted with red curly hair that's the origin of the clown by the way ranked early here he would come out on stage with red bright red curly hair and big huge floppy shoes and balloon pants and a smile that was ancient hair there and

then this tradition that something's wrong with you if you have red hair in the Middle East and also you if you were left handed that was a problem okay that meant something might be wrong with you too so if you're redheaded and you were left handed no right or reason that's just that was just the way things work but anyway this mention of him being covered in red hair might be a signal of some kind that he's going to be troubled of some kind okay and funny thing is as he turns out not to be trouble he's the like call list most level-headed person in most of the Genesis stories okay and really understand that so it if you might be you might if you're an ancient reader you might be tempted to think Esau is gonna be this kind of bad guy he turns out not to be a bad guy the red of his hair ends up actually signaling though a

later event in his life we're going to come to that and it has to do with him selling his birthright hold on to that for a moment okay they named him Esau after this his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel so he named him he was named Jacob Jacob if somehow it means something like heel grasper which is colloquialism or idiomatic for the sever heel bravo okay so if you're watching a football game and players running down the sidelines with football he's gonna score a touchdown there's gonna be some defender that's gonna fly in won't be able to tackle him but he can at least swipe at his heels try to trick him up if a heel grabber somebody who tries to grab on to you keep your forward progress from if you from heading forward progress a heel grabber he jake of this personified the heel grabber somebody who's born from behind with none of the advantages but he's

going to always look for other people's advantages it tricked him up he's going to be a deceiver of some kind of subclinic okay now who else in the Bible that we've read so far has seems to be a heel grabber is mentioned specifically in terms of a heel say that okay sir sir explain Genesis 3 I will bruise your heel and yes yes so the the the seed of Eve we're told God tells the serpent and Eve your your seed is going to crush the serpent's head and the serpent is going to grab or bruise the seed to heal that's the first prophecy in the Bible it's pointing someday to the Messiah who's going to destroy Satan but also Satan is going to have his he's going to have his day okay so Satan is the last person we saw in scripture that was associated with grabbing the heel and now jake of was going to end up being the the one who

receives the blessing is associated with deceit like the serpent in Genesis 3 okay but that's the beautiful thing about these stories that we're reading Jacob's a bad guy he saw as a much better man than he is in some ways Jacob is a rascal he's a supplant from the beginning he was in the womb trying to pull his older brother back in some way shape reforms to make sure he didn't get out first and he's going to deceive deceive deceive he's going to deceive his brother later on he's going to see this father his blind old father he's going to deceive him he's going to take advantage he commits elderly abuse or elder abuse and then he's going to he's going to end up deceiving his father long later along the way though he's going to get his and he gets deceived and he learns he's chastised in life and one day he has a meeting with God he wrestles with God and

God is going to put his hip out of joint and he's never going to walk the same which is a physical thing that happened to him but also a spiritual thing that happened to him he didn't walk away from that encounter the same when you meet God you don't walk away the same you know you meant God because you're not the same anymore and he's a completely different person the deceit is behind him the heal kind of thing is behind him he's become a different man all right so you see this wonderful character in Jacob he goes from somebody who's associated with Satan to the he has the name Israel champion with God okay after this his brother came out his hands grasping east house he also he was named jake and Isaac was 60 years old when Kravakar gave birth to them the boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter a man of the open country while jacob was a

quiet man staying among the tents usually the dads are the ones who go out and take care of the livestock when they go hunting then the mother stays in the tents all right so what we have here is we have Esau doing things that his father likes to do or he's part of his father's world and Jacob is more a part of his mother's life to stay back to the intensities quieter Esau's probably big and bombastic and powerful and he brags a lot and and he has very simple tastes in life he's a simple entertainment he likes to go out and hunt and bring a whole game and Jacob he stays at home and his life is mostly an inner life nobody knows much about him there's all kinds of things going on inside here that nobody knows about okay and guess which one Isaac preferred Isaac who had a taste for wild game verse 28 says loved Esau but we're back to

him Jacob don't ask for this question did you have favorites dad love favorites will cause followers you know especially duty comes off of you and that's gonna happen here were you the favorites anybody in here you think you were the favorite five of you okay all right any middle children in here all right anybody had a sibling who you knew was the favorite well these these kind of questions you know they they really kind of get people's personality explains a lot one of the great things about my upbringing is um if I'm really I knew my brother John was a favorite but we only knew that once we became adults when we were in the house and and it wasn't horrible it wasn't we were never mistreated at nothing ever happened in our expense it was always something else and something we joked about but it never had any substantial it never made any substantial difference about we're treating you're all treated really

really well but but you know sometimes one of your children just has a little more of you in them a little more of it you find a minimal I guess easier to get along with maybe maybe that's just that's a that's just part of being human okay but the the the different it difference in treatment had huge impact upon this family right here okay so why did Isaac prefer Esau because he brought him food that he liked to eat okay now Isaac knew that the promised son was going to be the younger he knew that because there was that prophecy the elder shall serve the younger so he already knows Esau is not the one to receive the birthright he knows that but yet he still prefers him and Rebecca she knows too that the younger is going to rule over the elder and she seems to have this preference for Jacob we might call him today modest boy once when Jacob was

cooking some stew Esau came in from the open country vanished he said to Jacob quick let me have some of that red stew I'm famished it's way more primitive than that in the original Hebrew it's let me swallow some of that red red stuff that's that's literally what it reads in Hebrew but at least he doesn't say eat or have he says swallow but doesn't make it it makes very little sense he sounds like a caveman if you put it that way in in the English so the translator still translated that way but in Hebrew you could hear it give me some of that so that I can swallow the red red stuff red he's covered in red hair at birth his name is associated with red and here he sees red stew give me some of that red stuff I'm famished that is why he's called also called eat them the word eat them literally means red in Hebrew by the way

here and listen I never did I did I didn't tie that no sin did I the reason lying in the middle ages he depicted Herod as a clown as what we call a clown today red hair was because we know from Josephus the ancient Jewish historian that Herod was an Edomite he was from Edom so he's descended from Esau the one who gave away his birthright for red stuff okay I'm getting ahead verse 31 Jacob replied first sell me your birthright this is what you've been waiting for she's the healer there it is there it is it's within I've been waiting for this and he's back in mom's tent and so he cooks and he knows how to cook good stuff probably planned it knowing what we all what we know from Jacob later on I probably planned all day he knew his brother was going to come home finished and he made something that appealed to Esau red stuff give me something

red red stuff and then Jacob says first sell me your birthright that is let me become the one who receives the promised inheritance let me be the one give away your right to be the one who's the father of the nation that produces the Messiah get that away give it to me and you can have the red stuff the stuff that appeals to your nature this is this is what I was talking about earlier god books at the the humble and the weak oftentimes because they they know they need help and look for opportunities and hear what court is set before these two boys one of them is going to be okay the other one though is going to go down in the analysis of history as the father of the nation that produces mankind's only out the Messiah Esau's hungry Esau don't do this look what you're giving away you're giving away an encounter with an angel where you wrestle with an

angel you're giving away you're giving away having a son like joseph you're giving away having a descendant like moses you're giving away the children of israel in egypt the 10 plagues that don pours out in the party of the red seat you're giving that way you're stepping you're taking yourself out of that story if you get this away you're giving away exibits and leviticus and numbers and deuteronomy you're giving away david you're giving away samuel and giving away the temple and you're giving away you're giving away and ultimately you're giving away old little town death man how still we see a way in a major you're giving away jesus all right jakem he sees this he values this esau though is driven by his appetites and look what he says look verse 32 i'm about to die what good is the birth light to me but jakem said swears me first so he swore most to him selling his birth right to jakem

look what you gave away look what you gave away 334 then jakem gave esau some brand and some lentils stew he ate and drank and looked at this nut right here and then got up and left meaning it's over the appetite is satisfied for now that's the extent of the benefit that the stew gave you it it bought you 15 minutes of satisfaction you can get up and walk away and forget that you were hungry but you're going to be hungry again tomorrow but jakem look what you just received oh what a story and it might seem obvious looking back three and a half thousand years to you and me it might seem obvious who made the mistake here and who made the wise choice here but we're faced with that decision all the time all the time temporal pleasure temporal temporary satisfaction of some pleasure relief comfort the temporary end of hunger that will read this and ask the end tomorrow or

the promises of god and i would imagine the angels are amazed at how oftentimes human beings in the same position how this story is a story in every generation give me the red stuff you see the red stuff and let the birthright go the promise of god salvation okay so if a piece are despised as perfect i want to close with this first scripture okay happy he breathed something chapter 12 with me the moment he breathed chapter 12 look at verse 14 the writer says make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy without holiness no one will see you learn see to it that no one misses the grace of god and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many see that no one is sexually immoral or is godless like he saw who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son afterward as you know when he wanted

to inherit this blessing he was rejected he could bring about no change of mind though he sought the blessing with tears okay so later on he's going to try and get from his father the birthright that he gave away and his father's going to say i can't it's too late and he saw leaves right for a single meal give away the birthright this is why the flesh has to be put in his place and his objection from the spirit the flesh has its appetites and if it orders us around it comes if our appetites becomes the become the basis for our decisions and our lives rebelled around what's comfortable or satisfying pleasurable we end up every day making that he saw choice and uh failing to appreciate the birthright that's given us all right so last thing i would say is choice is made all the all the difference in the world care if some here's night that we were talking about going

back to a high school reunion has anybody been to their 20th 30th or 40th high school reading you know a couple of you okay i've now been to a high school reunion but i've been at a couple of events where i got to see i got to see people from a long time ago and when the last time past this you can really look and see can't always tell when two people make a decision once one makes a decision for god here and another one makes a decision for the world and at both 18 years old it's hard to tell the difference between the two of them but fast forward 40 years and you can see it written on the face it's written on the lives they led the histories they have the past they have the future they have don't give away your birthright don't give away the promises of god for temporary satisfaction that's the lesson