This week we are focusing on Genesis chapters 27-28, with an introduction and overview of the Muslim faith. This overview is important since it is at this point that questions come up about Ishmael and Isaac; Esau and Jacob, and the history of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Therefore, we will address some basic facts concerning this history. As Christians we believe, and have historical evidence for, the passing of the Covenant Promise from Abraham to Isaac and his descendants specifically. This Covenant is the unfolding of the Genesis 3 Promise, and as we study we will see that the promise of a Messiah, fulfilled in Jesus, was there in the beginning, and can be found all throughout the Old Testament, connecting to the reason we have for sharing the Gospel Message today! This study will help us understand the history and importance of not only the faithfulness of God through His Covenant Promise, but the love He has for His people as seen in His sovereignty over all things! We can take comfort in the fact that God never makes a mistake, and all things work together for good, for those who trust in Him!

Defending our faith and developing a Biblical worldview based on our understanding of God’s Word takes time and practice, and must be part of a lifetime commitment we make to the LORD. It should form our purpose and identity in everyday life as we grow closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, modeling Him to our family, friends and neighbors. As Christians, it is more important than ever to know what we believe, and why we believe it, and then apply that to who we are on a consistent basis, and this can only be done if we know Jesus and what His Word teaches.

All class sessions include a time for prayer and reflection, a presentation, and a Bible study section. You will find the presentation overview and Bible study questions at the truthfaithandreason.com website, with basic answers for your review and, or to use as a leader’s guide.

Watch this week’s presentation:

 

Presentation

Foundations Bible study
Genesis chapters 27-28 and An Introduction to the Muslim Faith

Introduction and Review

Prayer cards: Take a minute and write your name on the index card provided, and add any special prayer request you might have. Exchange cards at the end of the class.

Review of Focus Verses:
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT Goes to Isaac

3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 

5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 

Genesis 26:3-4(5) (NIV)

WHAT DOES THE RELIGION OF ISLAM ACTUALLY TEACH?

The Religion of Islam

1. When did it start, who was its founder, and what is his story?
2. Who is the Muslim god as compared to Christianity?
3. Who do Muslims say Jesus is?
4. What is the Muslim’s “holy book” and how does it compare to our Bible?
5. How does Islam qualify as false teaching, and how does it compare to other false teachings such as Mormonism?

When did it start, who was its founder, and what is his story?

• Muslims believe that Muhammad was the greatest and last prophet sent by God. Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet sent of God, but not as great as Muhammad.
• Muhammad was born in 570 AD in Mecca. His father died around his birth and his mother died when he was six. He was raised by his grandfather and then by his uncle. He died suddenly of a strange fever in Medina in 632 AD (age 62—some say he was poisoned by a Jewish woman whose family was killed by his forces)
• Mohammad worked as a shepherd, then as a merchant trader for his wife who he married when he was 25 and she was 40. She was instrumental in pushing him to accepting that his seizures were visions and that he was to be a prophet of God. Mohammad had many [other] wives, one was 7 and he was 52, consummating their marriage when she was 9.
• Muhammad worshipped at Mt. Hira in the caves where he is said to have received revelations from the Angel Gabriel in 610 AD. He would have seizures or fall into trances during the revelations. The most famous is his flying on a winged horse to Jerusalem and being taken up to the 7^th heaven to receive the Qur’an. There are no witnesses to any of Muhammad’s visions.
• Muhammad was illiterate and could not write–he only recited sayings from his visions to his followers who wrote them down on bones, leaves, rocks and other similar materials. There were at least four Caliphs (Muslim leaders) who later recorded different information from these recitations. Only two versions survived and the others were apparently burned due to political infighting.
• Mohammad tried to be a prophet to both Jews and Christians, but both groups rejected him. This most likely lead to his fierce rejection of Jews and Christians as “infidels.”
• Mohammad spent 10-15 years in Mecca then migrated to Medina with his followers around 622 AD where he found support as both a religious and political leader. It was during this period that he established political order, created a central authority and became a military leader.
• During Muhammad’s war campaign he led some 27 battles and planned 55 others that included mass killings, rapes and forceful conversions to Islam.
• Muslims are to follow the example set by Muhammad. Islam infers that it is a religion of peace, but if you look at Mohammad’s life it was full of violence, war and forceful conversions to Islam (and that cannot be abrogated).

Sunnis vs. Shia:

• There are extensive historical, cultural and doctrinal differences, however some basic notes include:
• Sunni: “One who follows the tradition of the prophet”
• Shi’a: “A group or supportive party of people—Shia-t-Ali or the party of Ali.
• The division originated over disputes as to who should succeed Muhammad: Sunnis believe leaders should be elected from those capable and they followed the first three Caliphs; Shi’a believe leaders should be from the family of Mohammad and they are followers of Ali, Mohammad’s cousin who was the fourth Caliph.
• Over the years this division has led to many differences in doctrine.
• The idea that the end of times will be ushered in by the 12^th Imam, or the Mahdi, is promoted by most who follow the Shi’ites’ teachings.
• There are other sects in Islam that follow versions of both Sunni and Shi’a.
• Most Muslims are Sunni, but Shi’a are the majority in Iran (90%) and in Iraq (70%).

Who is the Muslim god as compared to Christianity?

• In Islam, God/Allah is portrayed in the Qur’an as unapproachable and as a god who makes no attempt to communicate with His creation.
• Allah demands blind faith and complete obedience to his rules and regulations, and he does not communicate with his people; he has only given revelations through his prophets and angels, with Muhammad being the greatest.
• Allah guides or leads astray whomever he pleases and man is, and always will be, bond-slaves of Allah.
• Allah is one-dimensional and neither desires nor is able to have a relationship with his creation.
• Muslims have 99 names for Allah’s character, not one of those names shows him to be a god of love.
• Muslims believe that Allah will only love those who do his will, and that he hates those who do not do his will.
• Allah may will or not will someone into paradise, it is his prerogative, the only guarantee is being martyred through an act of jihad.
• A follower of Allah must contemplate the scales of his life and hope that the weight of the good side outweighs the bad side so that he may be considered for paradise by Allah.
• Prayer is a requirement, not a relationship.

Who do Muslims say Jesus is?

• The Qur’an holds a high view of Jesus, for example, it teaches that Jesus’ birth was foretold and announced by angels; that He was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life with the power to perform miracles and even raised people from the dead, and he is appointed to return to earth and usher in the end times.
• Muslims believe Jesus was a great prophet of God (but not as great as Mohammad), but they do not believe that he is the Son of God. Muslims believe that it is a great sin to think that Allah could have begotten a son as “Allah cannot beget nor is begotten.”
• Muslims do not believe that Jesus is God nor do they believe in the concept of the trinity, they wrongly view Christians as believing in three gods. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the great divisive issues. Not believing in the oneness of Allah is the greatest sin of all, worthy of death.
• Muslims do not believe that Jesus died and was resurrected. They believe that God took him up before he was crucified, and one view is that God replaced (Judas) on the cross instead of Jesus.
• Many Muslims hold on to theories that have now been disproven by both Christian and non-Christian scholars such as the swoon theory, the wrong tomb theory and the conspiracy theory.

What is the Muslim’s “holy book” and how does it compare to our Bible?

• The Qur’an is viewed as the sacred holy book that has never been corrupted, changed or tampered with. Muslims view the Qur’an as being sent down from heaven and given to Muhammad in its original holy form. Muhammad recited it (he was illiterate) to his companions who wrote it down on leaves, bones, stones etc.
• Muhammad declared Arabic script the divine language, yet it is one of the most difficult languages to understand, therefore the Qur’an is basically untranslatable.
• Four successive Caliphs (Muslim leaders) had different forms or copies of the Qur’an. The third Caliph burned 15 codices of the Qur’an written by Muhammad’s companions, as no two were exactly alike.
• Muslims claim that the two surviving copies are primary sources from the seventh century, but upon careful examination using coinage of the times the earliest possible date is eighth century, therefore the Qur’an can only be considered a secondary source. The earliest version is Ibn Ishaq’s with a date of 735 AD. This is 100 years removed from the events and does not qualify as a primary account (no eyewitnesses alive to confirm).
• The other Sacred Books of Islam (Sira, Hadith, Tafsir and Tariq) have no primary sources. The first source for the Hadith is 250 removed, and the Tafsir and Tariq are 300 years removed. The claim is early oral transmission of the information.
• These secondary sources were written by Arabs in other regions and cultural areas away from the actual events and therefore away from criticism for their accuracy. Most of the men who wrote the first sources were Persian.
• The Hadith, written in 870AD, is the collection of “presumed” true sayings by Muhammad. However, Bukhari, who wrote the Hadith, is recorded as throwing out 592,603 (99%) sayings as spurious, and kept only 7,397 (1.2%). How can Muslims be sure that he kept the right ones?
• The Qur’an has numerous contradictions but Islam uses the idea of abrogation (later passages take precedence over earlier ones) to explain these contradictions. However, the Suras (chapters) are not in chronological order so how do you decide which ones can abrogate for others (especially when it comes to peace versus violence)?

The Importance of Bible Study
Practicing Hermeneutics

Homework Review

Chapter Reading for Step #3: Context – What does it say?

Chapters 27-28

Isaac Blesses Jacob

• 27:1-4
• 27:5-13
• 27:14-17
• 27:18-25
• 27:26-33
• 27:34-40
• 27:41-46

Jacob sent to Laban and Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

• 28:1-5
• 28:6-9

Going Deeper Questions for Step #4:  What does It mean?

(Genesis 27:1-41) In this chapter, we find the story of Jacob and his mom, Rebekah, deceiving Isaac. What did Rebekah do, and why (cross-reference clue: go back to chapter 25:22-23)?

Jacob, and his mom Rebekah, deceive Isaac

• Rebekah, like Sarah, knew God’s promise and plan because God had told her earlier what would happen between the twins in her womb (Gen. 25:22-23), but like Sarah, Rebekah tries to “help” God out by having Jacob deceive her husband Isaac into thinking Jacob was Esau.
• Jacob didn’t try to stop the plan, but on questioning his father’s ability to recognize him, Rebekah devised ways to trick Isaac (fur hair on his hands, the smell of Esau by using his clothing and the cooking of his favorite wild catch).
• Rebekah did this because God had told her “The older will serve the younger” and she knew if Isaac gave the blessing to Esau instead of Jacob, that promise might be compromised.
• However, like Sarah, anytime we do things outside of God’s plan, we will reap the consequences.
• God could have taken care of Isaac’s blessing in many ways, had Rebekah completely trusted, but instead the consequence is that she would lose Jacob forever (he would have to leave) and it appears that she never saw him again (the text does not tell us what happened to Rebekah, but she is not brought up again in the story until we hear where she was buried at the end of chapter 49).

What was the blessing that Isaac gave Jacob; how did Esau respond when he discovered what had happened, and how did his father Isaac answer him?

The blessing Isaac gave Jacob (instead of Esau)

• The “blessing” was the tradition of the father giving to the firstborn, along with the birthright, a promise in a spiritual way, of a life filled with goodness and plenty – this included land, food, people to serve him and bow down to him, even his brother(s). He also said, “cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.” All this includes the blessing of the Covenant God made with his father Abraham.

How Esau responded, and Isaac in kind

• Esau came in bringing the food from the kill he made that day, not knowing what happened, Isaac told him that he had already blessed Jacob, who he thought was Esau. Esau begged his father for a blessing, but Isaac told him it could not be done because he had sworn it.
• In ancient times, a person’s word was binding, especially when it was part of a formal oath. This is why Isaac’s blessing was irrevocable. He did prophecy to Esau “that he would live away from the fertility of the earth, and away from the dew of heaven from above. “By your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve; but it shall come about when you become restless, that you will break his yoke from your neck.” This came true later on when Edom became an enemy of Israel.
• Note: Herod was 1/2 Edomite, and this is why it was said by God “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated” – Jesus did not speak to Herod when He came before him, and earlier in his ministry He spoke of him as “that dog.”
• Paul writes about this in Romans 9:6-13…

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; ⁷ nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” ⁸ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. ⁹ For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” ¹⁰ And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; ¹¹ for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, ¹² it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Romans 9:6-13

Going Deeper: Culturally speaking, what was the importance of the blessing, and how is it different from the “birthright” Jacob also stole earlier (see chapter 25:30-34)?

The blessing confirmed the birthright:

• A birthright was a special honor given to the firstborn son. It included a double portion of the family inheritance along with the honor of one day becoming the family leader.
• The blessing was the spiritual part that included an oath (and sometimes a prophecy) for future assurance of family leadership, wealth, land, people and protection – in some cases it included a curse, or potential curse.
• Numbers 6:24-27 give us an insight to the five main parts of a blessing according to Mosaic Law: “The LORD bless you, and keep you; the LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace. So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”

(Genesis 27:42 through 28:9) In this section Jacob is sent away. Where was Jacob sent, and why?

Where Jacob was sent, and why?

• Jacob is sent to Rebekah’s family in Haran because Esau was planning to kill him.
• Initially, before he left, they thought he would only be gone a few days, but in reality, it would be 20 years – the resulting consequence.
• Rebekah knew that Esau vowed to kill Jacob, so she said to Isaac, I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from them what good will my life be? So, she got Isaac to agree in sending Jacob away to get a wife from her brother Laban.

Isaac blessed Jacob before he left – What part of the Abrahamic Covenant did Isaac emphasize (focus on 28:3-4)?

Isaac and the Covenant

Isaac blessed Jacob again by saying: “May God almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”

• Isaac finally realized that it was Jacob who was to have the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, not Esau, and he blessed him with the three main parts:

1) Descendants (a nation/company of people)

2) the Land

3) the blessing (implied)

Going Deeper: Esau had previously married some of the “daughters of Canaan;” after this happened with Jacob, who else did he marry, and what is the implication for the future?

Esau and his wives

• When Esau realized that the daughters of Canaan displeased his parents, he took a wife from the family of Ishmael – his daughter Mahalath.
• Note: This would be the combination of Ishmael and Esau that would expand the Arab Nation that is still in conflict with Israel today.

HOMEWORK

Read Chapters 29 and 30 for step three context

Going Deeper Questions for Step #4:  Interpretation

1. (Genesis 29:1-20) In this section Jacob meets his family from Haran. What happened when Jacob met Rachel? How did Laban respond to meeting Jacob, and why? Who was Leah, and what was the comparison between her and Rachel?
2. (Genesis 29:21-35) In this section Jacob begins his family by working for Laban. Describe how Jacob ended up with Leah, even though it was Rachel he loved, and how did God respond to Leah’s plight? How did Laban respond when Jacob confronted him?
3. Discussion: How does Laban compare to Jacob as a deceiver, and what lesson can we take away, as application, from the actions of these two men?
4. (Genesis 30:1-24) In the first part of this chapter Leah and Rachel continue their competition for Jacob’s affection, and in having children. What did Rachel do when she saw Leah had so many children while she had none at this point, and how did Leah respond in kind? Going Deeper: Make a chart that show the twelve sons of Jacob in order of their birth, who their moms were, and the meaning of each of their names.
5. (Genesis 30:25-43) In this section of the chapter, Jacob asks Laban to give him what he owed him so he could leave with his family. How did Laban try to get Jacob to stay, and what offer did Jacob make to Laban? Discuss: Jacob is said to be the first “Geneticist.” What did he do with the flocks to get them to reproduce and flourish, and how do you see God’s hand in this?

Application for chapters 29-30
– How do I use what I have learned?

Please continue to join us each week as we study about, and through, God’s Word!

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You will not find this material in the public school curriculum even though it is based on solid evidence and grounded in research. It is ironic that following the evidence to where it leads stops at the door of our public schools as they will not let a “Divine footprint” in!  Join us as we examine evidence for Christianity and learn how to become a thoughtful defender and ambassador of your faith.

Click into the resource page of this website to view many of the top Christian thinkers and apologists along with some of their work; connecting to these types of resources is essential in your Christian growth.

Please let me know what you think: Give feedback, ask questions or send concerns in the comment section of the blog.

Teri Dugan

TeriDugan@truthfaithandreason.com

1 Peter 3:15