Higher Ways

by Mark Ottaway on June 15, 2011

Just completing my latest course through Moody Bible Institute was a great joy. The course, a study of the book of Genesis, was one I was looking forward to greatly. After dealing with Genesis 1-11, the most challenging section of Genesis, and greatly satisfying, I settled into chapters 12-50, chapters I had been fairly familiar with for years. But what struck me more than I had ever seen in the past was the amazing way God unfolded His plan. There were many things in my study of Genesis I had never really considered before. God in His sovereign grace chooses Abraham out of a pagan family. In Joshua 24:2 we read that Terah, Abraham’s father, served pagan gods, yet God calls Abraham. In Genesis 12:2 God gives Abraham a promise: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Yet Abraham, because he sees no present revelation of God’s promise to him, decides to takes things into his own hands and the result is the birth of Ishmael. Of course God’s chosen line comes through Isaac, who later is miraculously born in Abraham’s old age. As Isaac grows up and has children, he too does not fully understand God’s choice and favours Esau over Jacob. Yet in spite of Isaac’s choice, God has other ideas, as Jacob rises to prominence through the blessing of God.

Jacob, now a man, has seen and would be very aware of God’s plan for his family. He knows that Abraham was called and that the chosen line came through his father Isaac, and now through himself. Jacob, throughout his life, is aware of this blessing. Well Jacob has 4 wives, through which he has 12 sons. The question is which is the promised son? Of his 12 boys, 6 of them were born to Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. Leah was the wife which he had received from his father-in-law through trickery, yet the Bible tells us that Leah was blessed with children, because the Lord saw that she was unloved (Genesis 29:31). Jacob had 2 sons through Leah’s maidservant, Zilpah: Gad and Asher; and 2 sons through Rachel’s maidservant, Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. In Genesis 30:22, we read that God remembers Rachel and she conceives Joseph and later Benjamin, who is much younger.

So again, who is the promised son? Well to Jacob it would be obvious. Some may have believed it was Reuben, the firstborn. Yet Reuben displayed a very sinful life all throughout the Genesis account, and Jacob had seen from the precedence already set by Ishmael and Esau that the firstborn may not necessarily be God’s choice. Continuing down the line, Simeon and Levi had proven themselves far less than honourable (Genesis 34), disgracing their Dad. The fourth son, Judah, is given a “black-eye” in Scripture as the incident in chapter 38 records. The 4 sons born to the 2 maidservants were definitely not God’s choice as Jacob likely thought of the rejection of Ishmael (through Sarah’s maidservant). But there is one choice which is obvious. Jacob who loved Rachel (29:30), and with her has a son named Joseph. The Bible tells us that Jacob loved Joseph more than all the other sons (37:3). He therefore buys him a coat of many colours, and favours him above the rest. There is no question in Jacob’s mind whom God has chosen; the selection is obvious. So throughout his life Jacob lives with this promise, and when he hears from his other sons that Joseph is dead, he decides that life is not worth living saying, “I shall go down to the grave to my son in mourning” (37:35). What is left for Jacob? For to him the promise has ended, for who but Joseph would be the chosen one? Well, as time moves on Rachel has another son named Benjamin. Would Benjamin be the one? Benjamin is sort of depicted in the story as the innocent younger brother and Jacob now favours him, for he allows all his sons to risk their lives, going to Egypt for food; that is, except for Benjamin. There is no way Jacob will now lose God’s choice, as he did Joseph, as Benjamin must be the one through whom God would bring His people.

Well, God had His choice. Jacob was right, it wasn’t Reuben, nor was it the sons of either maidservant. But it wasn’t Benjamin, nor was it even Joseph, who was alive. In his favour, Joseph was mightily used of God, and was the vessel God used to save Jacob’s family. Yet who was God’s choice? Judah…yes, Judah. From a human standpoint, Judah was a very unlikely choice. Yet Judah, the one who in Scripture has a chapter devoted to his sinfulness, is sovereignly chosen by God to bring about the salvation of Israel. For through Judah came Israel’s great kings: David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and ultimately the King of Kings, Christ! In fairness to Jacob, he would not have known, just as we today do not always understand the plans and purposes of God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV).

Pastor Mark