FAMILY…
Has there ever been such a word that can bring up feelings of love, warmth, and welcome for some, yet strife, rejection, and pain for others? Family is about love, acceptance, and nurturing, but not everyone shares those feelings. For some, family may be the backdrop for deep hurt, shame, or regret.
The good news is that no matter what your earthly experience of family has been, you have a heavenly Father who loves you unconditionally, flawlessly, abundantly, and forever and ever and ever! His love can heal your brokenness and fill the emptiness that our earthly families may have left within us. We have a “Good, Good Father!”
We also have a spiritual inheritance that far exceeds anything we can ever hope for on this earth. Do you realize that we are joint-heirs with Jesus himself? He paid the price for us and set us free so that we can freely be called children of God! And, as children of God, we also have an abundance of spiritual brothers and sisters. You have a great big family right here!
Unfortunately, we often see division within the family of God, but know that it is not God’s plan. Jesus prayed…
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:20-23 NIV
You are my heart sisters, and I love you with the love of the Lord! I also pray that God will make us one in him!
There is an old song that expresses it so beautifully:
You’re my brother, you’re my sister
So take me by the hand
Together we will work until He comes
There’s no foe that can defeat us
When we’re walking side by side
As long as there is love we will stand
So, what is all this talk about family in our conclusion of our study of the book of Genesis?
In our final week of study, we have observed examples of how God continuously preserved the children of Abraham, his inheritance, his very own people, through every generation. God had a plan to redeem the world, and the Messiah would come from the line of Abraham. Every attempt to thwart this plan was defeated, and God continued to move his plan forward.
Whether it was the sexually immoral Judah though whom kings would reign, and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords would come, to the blessings of God given to the second born rather than the first born so that his purpose would prevail, we can see that God intentionally chose those through whom his blessings would flow. As Jacob blesses each one of his children, we see the hand of God in his choice of each one of the leaders of the tribes of Israel, those whom he will call “His people.” And, when God chooses whom he will use, there is no way any person is going to change that.
The same goes for you. God has chosen you to be a part of his family. Get this – you have been chosen! When you accept Christ as your Savior, you are a very special part of the family – Yes, this very same family we have been reading about these past 10 weeks!
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12 NIV
Galatians 3:29 says, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
We are children of Abraham, but more importantly we are children of God!
Have you sometimes wondered if, when the truth about you is revealed, it will disqualify you from being included in the people of God? Have you been afraid that when it comes down to it, God will be ashamed to name you as his own? Look at the twelve sons of Jacob. Look at the twelve apostles. And see that Jesus is populating his family, his church, with imperfect but repentant people, flagrant but forgiven sinners. We bring nothing to the table that makes us worthy to be claimed by Christ. It is the Lamb who was slain who has made us worthy. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has invited us to reign with him over his kingdom, the Promised Land God has always intended his people to live in – the new heaven and new earth. ~ Nancy Guthrie, The Promised One: Seeing Jesus in Genesis, pp. 275-276
You may feel unworthy at times, but look at some of the people God chose to be a part of his lineage: Jacob, a deceiver and 2nd born; Judah, the immoral; Rahab, the prostitute; Ruth, the Moabite; and some of the evillest kings in the history of Israel… You would think that is God would choose the very family through whom his Son would be born, he would have chosen a less dysfunctional family. However, God will choose whom he will choose, and the Bible says that He also chose YOU.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. John 15:16
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Ephesians 1:4
God chose me in Christ, not because I am good, but to give me his goodness. ~ Nancy Guthrie
God chose me in Christ, not because I am strong, but because he wants to be the strength of my life. ~ Nancy Guthrie
I look forward to discussing the twelve sons of Jacob and being a part of the family if God with you this week in our small groups!
Week 10 Discussion Questions
Here is a preview of what we will be talking about in our small groups for WEEK 10.
ICE BREAKER: We are talking about family this week. If you could choose a theme song for your family, what would it be?
QUESTION 1: This week, our focus has been on the twelve sons of Jacob, the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. What is something that stands out to you about these twelve sons and about God’s choosing them to be his people?
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:7-8
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
QUESTION 2: What have you learned about how God chooses who will belong to him? Do you have a difficult time accepting the fact that He has chosen you? Why or why not?
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
QUESTION 3: The people of God are those in both the Old and New Testament eras who have responded to God by faith and whose spiritual origin rests exclusively in God’s grace. On pp. 261-262, we read numerous verses about the very people God calls “My people.” What is something that stood out to you?
QUESTION 4: While there is a great deal we can learn from Genesis about how we can expect God to deal with us as individuals, we cannot miss the context, which is that God’s purposes are not primarily about individuals but about his chosen people. What does this mean for the person who says, “I love Jesus, but I don’t need the church”?
QUESTION 5: In the blessings Jacob gave to his sons, we see both the judgment and mercy of God at work. Several of them would have to live with some natural consequences of their past actions. Yet all of them were blessed by being part of God’s chosen people. As you think about your own past failures, the consequences you’ve lived with because of past sins, how does it encourage you to see God’s choice of these sons of Jacob as his especial possession?
QUESTION 6: What impacted you most from this study?
Congratulations! You have just completed our winter study, The Promised One: Seeing Jesus in Genesis, by Nancy Guthrie. I pray that God blesses you immensely for seeing it through to the end!
Be sure to join us for our next study, No Other Gods, by Kelly Minter, beginning April 30th! We will seek to go deeper in our relationship with God, and to rid our lives of anything that crowds Christ from the throne of our hearts. I believe this will be a time of heart healing, spiritual growth, being set free from bondage, and growing in our passion for God’s Word. Registration will begin soon after Easter, and we would love for you to join us!
Have a blessed week and a Happy Resurrection Day!
Here is a beautiful version of the song I quoted above, “We Will Stand.”
