The Early Leaders of Israel

The Bible Course

Document #: TX001075

Patriarchs and Holy Women• What is a patriarch?

– The father and spiritual leader of a tribe, clan, or tradition. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the patriarchs of the Israelite people.

• What is a matriarch?– Matriarchs are sometimes called holy women. A

matriarch is the original mother of a group, who would form a “house.” The term often refers to the wives of the patriarchs because they, as well as their spouses, contributed to the building of the nation of Israel.

Qualities of the Patriarchs• They obeyed God.• They knew God wanted his people to treat all people

with justice.• They lived good, moral lives.• They understood that God wanted his People to

come back to him with their whole selves.

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Abraham• Despite humanity’s sin, God chose to stay in

relationship with humanity and chose a group of people to call his own, namely the Hebrew people. They would later be called the Israelites.

• Abram born in Ur to Terah. There were three sons: Abram, Nahor and Haran. They all grew up & married. Haran died young leaving behind a son named Lot. Terah seems to have raised his grandson Lot as his own son, and Lot & his uncle Abram developed a close relationship.

Abraham

• It was when he was already an old man that Abram’s story really began. When Abram was 75 years old, he heard a call from God.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “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 curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:1-3)

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The Promises to Abram

LAND AND A NATION: “Go to the land that I will show you,” God says. As Abraham will find out, the land God will show him is Canaan. God will make a great nation of Abram, and the first thing a nation needs is land.

KINGSHIP AND A NAME: “I will bless you, and make your name great.” Making his name great meant founding a dynasty, giving Abram political authority and power. God has thrown down the proud tyrants of Babel, and now he intends to build a kingdom on humble, faithful Abram.

BLESSINGS FOR ALL NATIONS: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God isn’t just promising to give Abram some local prestige among the tribes of Canaan. God will use Abram to bring salvation to the whole world. The whole human family, torn apart by sin, will be brought back together again through the line of Abraham.

God will reinforce each of these promises individually with covenant oaths at three different points in Abraham’s life.

Promises to Abram

As we will see in the chapters to come, these three promises are actually fulfilled in three more covenants later in history:

• The promise of LAND AND A NATION will be fulfilled in the covenant with Moses

• The promise of KINGSHIP AND A NAME will be fulfilled in the covenant with David

• The promise of BLESSING FOR ALL NATIONS will be fulfilled through Jesus Christ

The very first verse of the New Testament, Matt 1:1 reminds us that the whole plan of salvation goes back to Abraham: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

The Binding of Isaac

• Abraham gains a son in Isaac but loses Ishmael to Sarah’s jealousy.

• When God tells him to sacrifice his only remaining son, Abraham obeys.

• The sacrifice of Isaac is a

type of the sacrifice of Christ

The Binding of Isaac and God’s Third Oath

Isaac Christ

A father offers his beloved son. The Father offers his beloved Son.

The son submits to the father’s will

The Son submits to the Father’s will.

Isaac carries the wood for his own sacrifice

Jesus carries his own wooden cross.

God himself provides the sacrifice

God himself provides the perfect sacrifice.

Isaac• Abraham’s servants found Isaac a

wife, Rebekah, from among Abraham’s people.

• Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau was born first, but Jacob ended up getting his brother’s birthright and their father’s blessing.

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Jacob & Esau

• Esau was Isaac’s favorite & Jabob was Rebekah’s favorite

• Esau thought only of what he wanted now; Jacob thought of the long term.

• Esau gave up his birth right (all that came with it) to fill his stomach

• Isaac was old and blind and Rebekah & Jacob tricked him into giving the blessing that Esau would have had.

• When Esau learned of this he was understandably disappointed.

• All that was left for Esau was a prophecy referring to the future of the two nations Israel & Edom.

Jacob• Through a dream, God renewed his

Covenant with Jacob.

“And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the god of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen 28:12-14)

• The same promises were there: land, a dynasty, and universal blessing through his descendants

Jacob and Laban• Jacob fell in love with Laban’s

daughter Rachel

• He worked 7 years for Laban to be able to marry Rachel

• Leban tricked him in that when he woke up he realized that he was married to Rachel’s older sister Leah.

• Jacob worked another 7 years to be able to marry his true love Rachel.

Twelve Sons• Leah easily conceived & bore 4 sons:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi & Judah• Rachel was miserable because she had no

sons, Leah was miserable because she knew that Jacob loved Rachel more.

• Rachel gave her maid to Jacob (as Sarah did with Hagar) she bore Dan & Nephthali

• Leah who hadn’t bore any sons for awhile gave her maid to Jacob & she bore Gad & Asher.

• Leah then bore 2 more sons, Issachar & Zebulun

• Rachel finally bore a son named Joseph.• The 12th son Benjamin born later

Joseph

• Joseph was Jacob’s favorite• Brother’s resented him & resented him

more when he received an expensive robe from his father.

• Resented him all the more when he told them two dreams he had. (sheaves of grain in the fields & sun & moon & 11 stars bowing down to him)

• Decided to kill him only Reuben was against it.

• Sold into slavery with slave traders• Jacob believed his favorite son was dead• Joseph ended up in Egypt

Joseph

• After years of service, Joseph rose to become the prime minister to the Pharaoh (king of Egypt)

• Predicted 7 years of plenty would be followed by 7 years of famine.

• The 11 brothers bowed before him –just as the dream foretold.

• Joseph didn’t reveal himself right away.• God managed to bring good out of evil (Joseph’s

brothers had betrayed and sold him but God had used that betrayal to save the whole family)

• Jacob was overjoyed – God spoke to him in a vision telling him to go to Egypt (it was part of God’s plan)

Twelve Tribes of IsraelWhen someone refers to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, they are talking about a confederation of twelve tribes, groups, or clans of faithful people who traced their origin to the patriarch Jacob. After Jacob’s first 11 sons were born, God renamed Jacob Israel. Thus the descendants of Israel’s sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad & Asher) became the Israelites, God’s Chosen People. Their names came to symbolize the 12 tribes that settled in the Promised Land. Jesus chose Twelve Apostles in honor of the tribes and as a symbol of the restoration of the People of God.