Satan (Part 12) – The Epic War: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah

Click here for the entire series and the outline.

Click here for previous sermon.

Click here for next sermon.

A.    The prophecy of the Messiah through Abraham

1. In approximately 1977 BC, God made a very significant revelation to men that the promised Messiah would come through a man named Abraham (Gen 12:1-4).
   1. Up until this time, it was possible that the Messiah could have been born through any one of the thousands of descendents of Shem or Jepheth.
   2. At this point, Satan had to only focus his efforts on one man, Abraham.
2. God first told Abraham that in him would all families of the earth be blessed (Gen 12:3).

• God then told Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan to his seed (Gen 12:7).
  1. Satan now knows two things: the Messiah will come through one of Abraham’s descendents and that the land of Canaan will play a significant part in the coming of Messiah.
  2. Satan doesn’t yet know which of Abraham’s children (which were not yet born) would be the progenitor of the Messiah.

1. It appears that Satan quickly began to attempt to destroy Abraham.
   1. A drought caused Abraham and his wife Sarai to have to go down to Egypt (Gen 12:10).
   2. Abraham, worried that the Egyptians would take his wife, told her to lie and say she was his sister (Gen 12:11-13).
      • Who do you think inspired him to do that?
      • Remember who the father of lies is (Joh 8:44).
   3. God reproved Abraham for his lie through the Pharaoh, but did not destroy him for it (Gen 12:14-20).
2. God promised Abraham that he would have a son that would be his heir (Gen 15:1-6).
3. It was apparent that the promised heir would be born through Abraham and Sarai since she was his only wife.
   1. Sarai got tired of waiting for the promised son, so she talked Abraham into having a son through her maid Hagar (Gen 16).
   2. Who do you suppose gave her that ungodly advice?

• God later appeared to Abraham and told him that he and Sarah would have a son (Gen 18:10).
• Satan now knows that the Messiah will come through Sarah.
  1. It appears that he tries to get Sarah away from Abraham and get Abraham in trouble with God again.
  2. Abraham lied again and told Abimelec king of Gerar that Sarah was his sister (Gen 20:1-2).
     • Who do you think inspired him to do that?
     • Remember who the father of lies is (Joh 8:44).
  3. God reproved Abraham through Abimelec for his lie, but did not destroy him for it (Gen 20:9-10).

1. At long last God gave Abraham and Sarah the promised son, Isaac (Gen 21:1-3) and promised that through him would the promised Messiah come (Gen 21:12 c/w Gen 22:18 c/w Gal 3:16).
2. With the promised son of Abraham born, Satan has lost another battle with God to prevent the Messiah from being born.

B.     The prophecy of the Messiah through Isaac

1. Isaac’s reprobate brother Ishmael persecuted him (Gal 4:28-29).
2. Who do you suppose was behind the persecution of Isaac through whom the Messiah would come and crush the serpent’s head?

• Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau (Gen 25:24-26).
  1. Esau was a child of the devil and Jacob was a child of God (Rom 9:10-13).
  2. Esau was the firstborn (Gen 25:25-26).
  3. Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob (Gen 25:27-28).
  4. Things were looking positive for Satan with Esau being the favored son of Isaac.
  5. Jacob manipulated Esau into selling him his birthright, which Esau easily gave up because he despised it (Gen 25:29-34).

1. God made the same promise to Isaac as He did to Abraham, saying that in his seed (which was Christ – Gal 3:16) all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen 26:4).
2. It was not yet clear which of Isaac’s sons the promised Messiah would come through: Esau, Jacob, or a future son.
3. It appears that Satan set out to destroy Isaac as He did to Abraham.
   1. Immediately after the promise was given to him, like his father Abraham, he lied to the men of Gerar and said his wife Rebekah was his sister (Gen 26:6-7).
      • Who do you think inspired him to do that?
      • Remember who the father of lies is (Joh 8:44).
   2. God reproved Isaac through Abimelech for his lie, but did not destroy him for it (Gen 26:8-10).

• Through guile, Jacob stole Esau’s blessing from their father Isaac (Gen 27).
• The LORD finally reveals to Jacob in Bethel that the promised Messiah would come through him (Gen 28:14).

1. With the promise of the Messiah being made to Jacob, Satan has lost another battle with God to prevent the Messiah from being born.

C.     The prophecy of the Messiah through Jacob (and Satan’s persecution of Joseph)

1. Jacob was persecuted by Esau (Gen 32:6-8), but Jacob relied on the LORD and He changed Esau’s mind and spared Jacob (Gen 33:1-4).
2. Jacob had twelve sons, any one of which could be the man whom the promised Messiah would come.

• Satan now has to figure out which son the Messiah will come through.

1. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son (Gen 37:3).
   1. Joseph had a dream which prophesied of a time to come when his brothers, father, and mother would bow down to him (Gen 37:5-11).
   2. This would have been a reason for Satan to assume that the Messiah would come through Joseph, and it appears that Satan took action to destroy him.
   3. Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him, but God didn’t let that happen (Gen 37:17-27).
   4. They ended up selling him into slavery in Egypt (Gen 37:27-28).
   5. Joseph prospered in the house of Potiphar (Gen 39:1-6) until Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of attempted rape and he was put in prison (Gen 39:7-20).
   6. He became head of the prison (Gen 39:21-23) and was eventually brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream, and because of his interpretation, Pharaoh made him second in command of all of Egypt (Gen 41:1-45).
   7. Joseph presided over a program to store up grain in the seven years of plenty which provided food for the Egyptians during the seven years of famine (Gen 41:46-57).
   8. During the famine, Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy food (Gen 42:1-3).
   9. They fulfilled the prophesy of his dream when they bowed down to him (Gen 42:5-6).
   10. Joseph had them bring Jacob and all of his family to Egypt where they were given land and provided with sustenance from the Pharaoh (Gen 45:9-28).
   11. Satan’s attempt two attempts to kill Joseph ended up putting Joseph in a position to save his family including his brother Judah whom the Messiah would come through (Gen 50:20) (more on this later).
   12. Satan’s apparent plan to kill Joseph ended up backfiring which was a major defeat for him.
2. As was mentioned above, Jacob and his entire family ended up leaving the land of Canaan that was promised to him and his seed (Gen 28:13) because of a drought and dwelt in Egypt for 215 years.
3. Having Israel in Egypt all those years must have given Satan a hope of victory.

D.    The prophecy of the Messiah through Judah

1. Before Jacob died, he prophesied that the Messiah would come through Judah (Gen 49:9-12).
   1. Jesus Christ is the Lion of the tribe Judah (Gen 49:9 c/w Rev 5:5).
   2. Jesus Christ holds the sceptre of Judah (Gen 49:10 c/w Heb 1:8).
   3. Jesus’ garments are dipped in blood (Gen 49:11 c/w Rev 19:13 c/w Isa 63:2-3).
   4. Jesus’ eyes are a flame of fire (Gen 49:12 c/w Rev 1:14 c/w Rev 19:12).

Assuming that Satan could decipher that prophecy without the light of the New Testament, he would have been able to narrow down the lineage of the Messiah to the tribe of Judah.