"To Abraham and His Seed" 15   This is an edited version of the lecture titled, "To Abraham and His Seed," which was preached on June 14th, 2008.   Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect.    James 2:22       The Old and New Testaments of the Bible Are interconnectedAs I read the Bible, I often find it rather extraordinary. Each book of the Bible tells stories about people from different time periods, and the subject matter varies as well. For instance, the book of Samuel deals with political power and historical events, just as The Romans of Three Kingdoms and other such books do; Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are quite philosophical and ideological in their contents. Proverbs addresses moral issues.As such, each book in the Bible has a slightly different subject matter, but every time I read the Bible, I feel that the entire Bible focuses on one point. It is similar to how a compass always points to the south and the north regardless of how much you turn it around. Likewise, the more you read the Bible, the better you see that everything in the Bible points in one direction. Therefore, if any interpretation or idea that strays away from this seeps into our minds, then we could end up being quite unfortunate.In John's Gospel, it says, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me" (5:39). When you study the Old Testament in detail, you can see that passages in the Old Testament support the passages in the New Testament about the life of Jesus Christ and His death. Furthermore, as you read the Gospels in the New Testament, you come to understand various parts of the Old Testament. The profound messages in the Bible are interlinked like cogwheels. Therefore, we are fortunate to come to examine, in more detail, the passages in the Old Testament that we have not considered and could not consider carefully.It is possible for us to judge the taste of a drink and the way it has been designed as a product. We may consider its ingredients. We might compare such descriptions of a product to the New Testament. Then, there is a process through which a drink is made. Certain fruits had to be cultivated, they were mixed with certain other liquids at a given temperature. Such steps are comparable to the Old Testament. However, we simply pay for a bottle of drink and drink it; we do not know much about it. It enters the body and becomes part of the blood and the flesh, but we are not concerned about it as we drink it. However, if we begin to consider in detail how the food we eat was made, how it came to us, and how it enters our body, then we come to be more careful about what we eat, and we come to consider various aspects of it.What is the attitude with which we read the Bible? In the Old Testament, there are books that are rather difficult and bothersome to read. Then, there are books like Proverbs that are easier to read. The reason we feel that Proverbs is easy is that it gives us clear answers as to what is wrong, what is right, what is foolish, and what is wise.However, if we examine the New Testament - which declares Jesus Christ, who is the founding stone in our lives - through the Old Testament, then we come to realize something tremendous. Of course, the New Testament describes how Jesus was nailed on the cross and died, and it contains the apostles' words of warning to the Church, "abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood" (Acts 15:20). These are concise statements that seem to give us conclusions. There is a difference between simply reading the Bible and coming to accept these words in the New Testament in our hearts so that they are expressed in our lives. Regardless of how much you read and know the New Testament, if we do not know the Old Testament, the extent to which the passages in the New Testament can blossom in our lives and reveal their power within fellowship is limited. Therefore, I try my best to chew over various passages in the Old Testament, and so we study Genesis, and we study the book of Jonah.However, the conclusion of these lectures is one. We cannot help but come to one conclusion. Why would that be? As I explained earlier, the reason is that the many Old Testament passages that we study point to the life and the death of Jesus Christ, just as a compass points to the south and the north. They also teach us in advance about various historical events that will unfold as a result of the life and the death of Jesus. The Old Testament is like a mirror that shows us, through such events, how we live our lives.   Sarah's death, Isaac's marriage to RebekahGenesis chapters 23 and 24 are no exceptions. So far we have continued studying from Genesis chapter 1. It seems that it took us the longest to study Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 3. We also spent a significant amount of time to study Genesis chapter 12 - where the story of Abraham begins - through chapter 17. The passage up to Genesis chapter 22 verse 19 contains stories that are quite overwhelming. In particular, Genesis chapter 22 describes how Abraham took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah and tied him up to offer him as a burnt offering, in order to carry out God's command. In light of this passage, we carefully considered what it says in the letter of James. It allows us to consider how faith and works in the Bible, prophecy and fulfillment, our faith and how we keep it are shown to us. God had already promised Abraham his blessing. However, it was when Abraham made up his mind to act on it and offer his son as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah that God stopped Abraham and gave the tremendous promise, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). Through this passage, we learned that through the obedience of God the Son - who put into action the heart of God the Father - the tremendous path for the gospel to be spread to all the nations of the earth was opened. This gospel reached our ears through the Church, through fellowship, during the Age of the Church.In light of the content of the previous chapter, it may seem that the content of Genesis chapter 23 and 24 are not all that remarkable. After Genesis chapter 22 verse 19, it speaks of a certain relative that used to live far away, and in Genesis chapter 23, it says that Sarah has died so Abraham bought a field in order to bury his wife; it says that he bought the cave in the field and the trees in the field. Is it simply saying that a certain person bought a field and the trees just as a person might purchase some real estate?Then in Genesis chapter 24, there is an old servant. Abraham tells the old servant, who is in charge of all of his household, to go to his homeland and find and bring a wife for his son, among his relatives. Abraham asked this of the old servant and the servant went to Mesopotamia and brought a woman. What could be the significance of stories like this? What should we consider through passages like this? Sarah died and Rebekah came. What is this telling us?In Genesis chapter 24, we see how Isaac received Rebekah as his wife, and chapter 25 describes the rest of Abraham's life. After Sarah died, Abraham took Keturah for a wife and had sons. However, there are no detailed descriptions of these sons. Then there is a brief description of how many sons the first son, Ishmael, had and what happened to them.What we read from the middle of chapter 25 has to do with what God said to Abraham when Sarah urged Abraham to cast out Ishmael, "For in Isaac your seed shall be called" (Genesis 21:12). It is a new story that begins with the birth of Esau and Jacob. All of these stories flow from one to another in the same way that water flows.When you carefully read the book of Genesis in light of this flow, you come to feel that there is a break in the flow when you read chapters 23 and 24. You wonder, "I know Abraham, I know Isaac, and I know that they are important, so why does it describe how Sarah died and that she was buried? What about it?' Also, you might wonder why there is such a lengthy description of how Isaac gets married. Needless to say, the story itself is entertaining and interesting. In Genesis chapter 24, there is quite a contrast between how events unfold in a complicated manner in Rebekah's house and how Isaac quietly meditates in the field. So when you read Genesis chapters 23 and 24, you find it hard to connect them with what comes earlier. We often consider them to be unrelated.Now, let us return to Genesis chapter 22 and examine it again.   "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. (Genesis 22:18-19)   After these verses, verse 20 says,   Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, "Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor."   Abraham left Ur of Chaldees, headed west, and stayed at Haran. There, his father Terah died and Abraham headed towards the land of Canaan. He left his younger brother Nahor in Mesopotaamia. It was said that Nahor had children and was well.This is quite strange. Abraham took Isaac up Mount Moriah and he was going to kill him, but God stopped him. As a result, Isaac did not die and returned with Abraham. After that, someone told Abraham that his younger brother in a faraway land had children and was well. It would help to connect the end of Genesis

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