The Birth of a Nation (Sermon)

INTRODUCTION 

Thank you worship team. 

NEW SERIES 

Today, we are beginning a new series on the minor prophets. This is a big undertaking. We have never preached these minor prophets before. We chose ones that arguably are from the Post-Exilic period and short. Over the next few weeks, we will speed through the Bible to give you a picture of the history of God’s people up to the point of exile with three introductory sermons. Today, our sermon covers the birth of a nation, the nation of Israel. But we are not talking about May 14th, 1948. 

THE BIRTH OF A NATION 

Our Bibles begin with God creating the universe and our world. He made light and dark, water and land, stars and planets, animals and plants. He invented men and women, which are uniquely made in his image. He placed them in a garden called Eden. Their job was to cultivate it. It was paradise, heaven on earth. Unfortunately, the honeymoon was quickly over. The Devil appeared and deceived the first woman, Eve. She ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to Adam to eat. He partook, and death entered the world. God exposed this rebellion and cursed Satan and the ground. Yet, in God’s pronouncement resided the seed of a grand reversal. Death would be destroyed, the land would find healing, and the relational havoc would be fixed all through a descendant of this married couple. The story of Genesis meanders from century to century, from birth to death—birth to death. We get to Noah in chapter 5. God floods the earth because of sin. In chapter 8, God promises Noah and the remnants that he will never flood the world again. God sealed that promise with a rainbow. 

BLESSING 

After many years, we read of a man named Abram, who lived in what was today the country of Iraq. God made him a promise. This is what he said:  

Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And 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. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  (Genesis 12:1–3, ESV) 

This blessing was incredible for several reasons. Abram was seventy-five years old. Raise your hand if you are seventy-five or older. Consider moving away from family and starting a nation. Think about having a baby! Although Abram was married, he had no children and couldn’t have. (Now, it seems people were a bit more youthful back then.) But still, at 75, this was a miracle if he heard God correctly! God was promising a growing family and asking him to relocate. The Bible teaches that God can do miracles. He made everything in the past and controls everything in the present. When God says he will do something, he does it. God was going to bring life to Abram’s wife’s barren womb. What a tremendous blessing. 

OUR BLESSINGS 

In what ways has God blessed you? Think about that. We have good weather, education, cars, family, and health. In Genesis chapter 12, we see an incredible blessing. 

GOD’S TIMING 

Yet, God’s timing was not Abram’s. Abram and his wife had to wait and wait and wait. They waited a decade, and Sarai began to think something went wrong. Did they hear God correctly? Did God say she would birth a nation? The blessing was to Abram’s kids. Maybe she was not the woman through whom the blessing would come? And even if she did have a child, how many people does it take to make up a nation? 

NATIONS TODAY

In 2024, the smallest country in the world is Vatican City, with 1000 people. The population back in the Bible was considerably less. Cities in biblical times had kings, not mayors. Nations seemed more like tribes, not millions of people; however, Abam and Sarai didn’t even have that. They were waiting. Things were not looking good for nation-building. 

WAITING 

How are you when you have to wait? 

• Do you like it? 

• Do you enjoy being stuck in traffic on I-94? 

• What about waiting for a meal? 

• How about waiting for medical results? 

• Or for the weekend or vacation? 

• When we were kids, and my kids haven’t done this as much, we would always ask on road trips what? [Are we there yet?]

Waiting can be challenging. Agree or disagree? It was hard for Abram and Sarai. What do you think they were feeling? 

• Fear,

• Doubt, 

• Anxiety, 

• Frustration, 

• Confusion, 

• Hurt, 

• Or sorrow? 

SHORTCUT

Coming on eleven years of waiting, Sarai thought of a shortcut. She had a slave named Hagar. She could be the surrogate mother. Abram could have a child with her. That might be what God wanted. So, Sarai convinced Abram to have a child with Hagar. Awkward. Today, people can hire a woman to carry their zygote. Yet, this was not that. Mothers naturally bond with their babies. That is normal. But for Hagar, the baby was hers in every sense of the way. She was not a rental womb. The baby would have some of her features and characteristics. She was the mom. She might have thought of being superior to Sarai. She may have bonded with the child’s dad, Abram. Sarai became jealous. She didn’t view Ishmael, Hagar’s baby, as her child, nor did she want him to have the family’s wealth or Abram’s blessing. This polyamorous relationship crumbled. God designed marriage and family to be between one man and one woman for life. Hagar was not that. Ishmael was born to Hagar when Abram was eighty-six years old. She ran away from home because Sarai was mistreating her. God saw Hagar’s plight. She was, in many respects, a victim. God directly spoke to her like he did to Abram. He promised her a child who would become significant in number and power. People have speculated that nations in the Middle East and North Africa descend from him.

CONFRONTATION

Then, God confronted Abram and Sarai as this conflict brewed, reiterating his promise to Abram. In Genesis 17, if you have a Bible, turn there, starting in verse 1. 

“I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. (Genesis 17:1–4, ESV)

We don’t use the word Covenant that much these days. What does that word mean? It means a promise or an agreement. We read it multiple times in the Bible. God made a promise to Noah, Abram, Moses, and David. Genesis 17 goes on. Look at verse 5. 

 

5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, [that is Israel] for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”  (Genesis 17:5–8, ESV)

Then it happened, Sarai conceived! It was a miracle. 

INFERTILITY 

I know several friends who just haven’t been able to have kids. That can be horrible. Sarai chuckled when God repeated this promise. She was ninety years old. That didn’t compute to her like it would be for God to say I am going to the Olympics in four years in gymnastics when I can’t touch my toes and never have been able to. It probably did not make sense to us. It would be like God was making a joke twenty-four years after the first supernatural encounter with God. God asked her about her laughter, and she lied. She denied that she laughed. As a little reminder, God had her call her son “he laughs,” or Isaac, and the nation was born. Yet, this was a far cry from a country. It was just the three of them, Hagar and her son. It will be a while before they double—more waiting. Isaac had to grow up, get married, and have children. 

ISAAC

He did. He married a woman by the name of Rebecca. Eventually, they had twins, Jacob and Esau. But a family of four and servants was not a nation. On top of that, the sons didn’t get along. They were enemies. But God kept his promise. Esau would become the father of the nation of Edom, south of Israel. And God chose to bless Isaac audibly, stating to him: 

3 Sojourn in this land, [Israel] and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (Genesis 26:3–5, ESV)

JACOB 

Through some turn of events that seems to be made for TV, Jacob grew up and got sister wives and two concubines who were basically enslaved. The result was over twelve children, sibling rivalry, and not quite a nation. One night, God met Jacob and said: 

“The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you” (Genesis 35:12, ESV).

The promise continued. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel that day. Often, the name of a nation was the name of one of the founders of the people. Names had meaning. Israel meant one who perseveres or who prevails with God. Jacob did that. Yet, like those before him, he had problems. There was famine and loss. Because of the dysfunction in the family, the younger brother, Joseph, was enslaved in Egypt. He was in prison under false accusations, yet in a rags-to-riches story, he became one of the most influential people in Egypt. And when famine struck, he provided for his family. Eventually, the famine stopped, and he passed away, and the tables turned again. The ruling party of Egypt saw Israel’s family as a threat and enslaved them all. In America, colonial slavery lasted 246. However, God allowed Israel to be in bondage for 400. God’s people cried out for relief, and he heard their cries. He raised up a man by the name of Moses, who would have direct contact with the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Moses’s rescue began when he was eighty. Leaving was not easy. 

• They had an army chasing them with the intent to bring them back to slavery. 

• They were backed up against a sea with nowhere to go. 

• When God rescued them miraculously, they escaped to wander in the Saudi Arabian Desert for forty years, 

• They lived off the land, with no electricity, running water, or plumbing. It was primitive tent camping. 

They were used to being in a civilized community with culinary diversity and conveniences. That was all gone. Almost day one, the complaints piled up. Life seemed better in Egypt. They questioned Moses’s leadership. The people were not content. They wanted back. Their murmuring and rebellion were so prolific that God sentenced them to forty years of wandering in the desert until they died and their kids would get the benefit of the Promised Land. In the end, Moses was 120 years old and gave the next generation a set of conditions to obey. 

CONDITIONS 

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 1. Moses said:

28 “If you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. (Deuteronomy 28:1–6, ESV)

Blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, and blessing: seven times he said it. Back to Eden. Back in good with God. But if they didn’t obey, God would bring curses like the punishments he issued for Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3. He would kick them out and punish them. The stakes were high. Read with me chapter 29, verse 1. 

2  And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. 7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. (Deuteronomy 29:2–8, ESV)

Chapter 29 retells how God had provided. Moses wanted his people to remember what God had done. He saved them with ten miraculous plagues, parted the Red Sea, destroyed the Egyptian army, satisfied their thirst, and fed their hungry mouths. God led them with a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. He spoke directly to their leader, made sure their clothes didn’t wear out for forty years, and protected them as they entered the borderlands. 

COVENANT

Moses wanted his people to remember that God kept his end of the bargain in miraculous and sustained ways. He was amazing. Why did Moses say all this? Verse 9 tells us why. Look at verse 9 of chapter 29 with me. 

“Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do” (Deuteronomy 29:9, ESV). 

Moses wanted them to keep the promise. What did that involve? Keeping God’s commands. Which were what? 

LAW 

What did God command? Jesus quoted it in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Let’s look at Deuteronomy chapter 6. 

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:4–6, ESV).

This is the great commandment. We are to love God. Moses told the people to constantly put reminders of this command before them and their children. All the Law of God can be summed up with it. God expanded the law to his top ten rules in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Do you know what the Ten Commandments are? [You shall have no other Gods, no graven image, don’t take his name in vain, keep the sabbath, honor your father and mother, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, and don’t be jealous.] We can read in Deuteronomy 5, verse 7. Let’s look at them in our Bibles.  

7 “ ‘You shall have no other gods before me. 

8 “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 

11 “ ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. [What does that mean, to take the name of the Lord in vain? Don’t throw around God’s name like a wasted word. I know our upbringing and culture mold us. But let’s not say God’s name when frustrated like a swear word. Let’s not take his name or Jesus Christ’s name lightly. We don’t go around and say Mohammed or Buddah. Let’s be respectful and differential to the utmost of our God. The following command is in verse 12.]

12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. [Jesus said he is the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus said he came to fulfill the law. The New Testament teaches that Jesus is our rest. We find our ultimate rest in Jesus; thus, keeping Friday to Saturday without work is fine, but not necessary anymore. Instead, we must have time and life dedicated to rest in Jesus. We are to trust him and rely on him. Let’s keep reading. Verse 16.]

16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. [This is my personal favorite since I have six kids.]

17 “ ‘You shall not murder. 

18 “ ‘And you shall not commit adultery. 

19 “ ‘And you shall not steal. 

20 “ ‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. [What does that mean? Don’t lie.]

21 “ ‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’ [What does that mean? Don’t be jealous or envious.](Deuteronomy 5:7–21, ESV)

That is the Law. The people were told to keep God’s commands. Moses and God seemed to think they wouldn’t or couldn’t. I can say from personal experience I haven’t, nor can I obey that Law perfectly. God knows our limitations. The bar is not that complex, but it is high. And God is just. He punishes his people for their sins. He exiled them from the land like he did to Adam and Eve. Yet, in Deuteronomy 30, we see that God wouldn’t leave them or forsake them. He would be faithful, merciful, and gracious to his people who repent or turn from their sins to him in faith. 

THE FUTURE 

Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 30, verse 1. Let’s see God’s grace amidst his people’s rebellion.  

30 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2 and return to the LORD your God, [Returning is another way of saying repent.] you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then … (Deuteronomy 30:1–3a, ESV)

Then what? If they repent, what will happen? Verse 3 of Deuteronomy chapter 30:  

Then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (Deuteronomy 30:3–5, ESV)

God will restore, gather, and bring back the repentant. He will bless and not curse them. Then, look at the passage and verse 6. 

“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6, ESV).

See what God does. What I love about this verse is who is doing this circumcision? God. Change will come from God. He makes a way for God’s people in the Old Testament to come to him. And He made a way for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died in our place for our failure to obey the Law. God is our hope. 

I grew up in a faith community with love, respect, and joy. People loved Jesus and the Bible. However, when it came to my understanding of how we change, the emphasis seemed to be on my effort. This may have been felt more than taught. The result was that I saw myself as the solution and problem. I had a man-centered Christianity, full of pride, self-righteousness, and conceit. On the flip side, I also felt anxiety, fear, sorrow, and depression. In the Old Testament, we see God is the center of transformation. That is fantastic news for Israel and us. (But I am getting ahead of myself.) 

God spiritualized circumcision for the people of Israel. He promised to cut off the waste of men’s and women’s hearts. To set them apart from the nations around them, and he will do it. 

APPLICATION 

As we come to this new series, let us see God’s grace to God’s people. 

1. What blessings has he given you? Take a moment to think of a few examples. There is value in remembering God’s gracious provision. 

2. What does it look like for you to listen to God? He speaks to us today. He speaks through his Word. What are you doing to listen to him? 

3. Are there commands in the Bible that he is inviting you to obey? What are they? Think about the command to love God and your neighbor. 

4. When you fail, do you come back to God? Do you have space to receive his mercy and walk by faith? Do you repent? Jesus made that way possible. 

God was not done with Israel. He would raise up a king to lead his people to the Promised Land. Come back next week to learn about the Age of the Kings. 

PRAYER 

Let’s pray. 

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