#46: Worship Changes Everything

This week on Beyond the Pulpit we trace Genesis 26 through famine, fear, and a turn to worship, watching Isaac move from anxious survival to open-handed trust. God’s presence becomes the hinge: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you,” reshaping obedience, witness, and peace with former enemies.

• Isaac obeys without worship and lives small among the Philistines
• Fear drives deception and compromises witness
• God blesses amid failure, yet conflict rises
• At Beersheba God speaks and reestablishes presence
• Peace treaty and banquet echo Psalm 23
• Real change flows from reverent worship not mere rules
• Confidence shifts from human strength to God with us

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Beyond the Pulpit, exploring the life and ministry of Walnut Creek Church downtown. Walnut Creek Church exists to glorify God by making authentic disciples of Jesus Christ who love and worship him in all they do. All right, welcome to Beyond the Pulpit. My name is Derek Wadley, and I'm joined by Lou Cookie. Hey everyone. And Dan Rude. Good morning, everybody. And this last week we got into Genesis 26 at our Sunday services. And in the chapter, uh God appears twice to Isaac. And we get two different responses out of Isaac. Uh two different results, two different responses to God appearing. And uh in that it kind of revealed quite a bit about Isaac, and it actually reveals quite a bit about us.

Isaac As Main Character And Parallels

SPEAKER_03 0:49

That's correct. Yeah, there's a lot, a lot happening in chapter 26. Chapter 26 is the only chapter in the Bible where Isaac is the main character. So God, God is the main character of the Bible. But humanly speaking, uh chapter 26 is the only chapter where God, or where Isaac is the main, the main character. And uh some of the details in the in chapter 26 uh are just they're mind-blowing. When you think about uh the the story of the book of Genesis, how uh many of the events in Abraham's life are repeated then in Isaac's life. But what happens in Genesis is that uh these events in Abraham's life play out over the course of many chapters, but in Isaac's life, they play out in one chapter. There's one chapter. And we're supposed to notice the continuity and discontinuity of uh Abraham and Isaac, that they're similar and yet they are different. And so uh many people when they they or at least several commentators I read when they work through chapter 26, they're just comparing and track and contrasting uh how they are the same and how they're different, how where Abraham fails, where Isaac fails, where Abraham succeeds, where Isaac succeeds. And I think that's a helpful way to work through chapter 26. Um also another way to work through chapter 26 is to look at the two different times when God appears to Isaac. And uh the first time he appears uh to Isaac.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Two more times than all of us.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Oh, I know I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

That's exactly right. It is funny to think about it. It's the only chapter, but in one chapter, it so to speak, of Isaac's life, God appears to him, which is more than more than he was of expectation.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Has he not appeared to us? In the form of Christ. Yes, yes, okay.

Famine, Egypt Plans, And God’s Command

Obedience Without Worship

Fear, Deception, And Philistines

SPEAKER_03 2:38

In the coming of Christ. Thank you, dear. Nailed it. Yeah, nailed it. And uh so so the context is that there's a famine in the land, and uh Moses, who wrote Genesis 26, he's trying to tie the famine that Isaac's facing to the famine that Abraham's facing. He says, and there was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham's time. So he's like, it's a different famine. Now, a famine was devastating uh back then. I mean, famines are devastating, but oh man, super devastating when you're already in the middle of a desert and there is even more of a drought and you can't find any water. It's just devastating. And and so uh Isaac and Rebecca, they're on their way to Egypt. God appears to uh Isaac and Rebecca, he says, Do not go to Egypt, stay in the land, and I'm gonna take care of you. And so God appears to him, and this is the first time that God appears to Isaac in the Bible. Yep. Now, verse six is an interesting verse because um what you would anticipate as you're studying through it, what you would anticipate Isaac doing in verse six, it says, So Isaac settled in Gerar. That's like a good response. Yeah, he obeys, but what is omitted is that he does not worship. He doesn't worship, he does not he does not set up an altar, uh, he does not pitch his tent, and he does not worship God. But he does stay. So he he stays, so in a sense, he passes the test. Um but his fear champion. What's that the bare minimum champion? The bare the bare minimum, yes. Yes, and I think that's part of the the story is that God appears to him, he obeys, but what is omitted is he is worship, he does not worship. And then he has another fearful situation, and that's with that's with his wife Rebecca among the Philistines. And uh I think it's so interesting. He's he's living among the Philistines. I mean, they are like they are the bad guys in the New Old Testament.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah, when you read the Philistines and you think about Jacob's living amongst the people who are always trying to kill the people of God. I know.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

It's like what? I know. And then you think about David, how David later he's he sought refuge among the Philistines. And there's something there's something about that. I haven't been able to figure out how it relates to David quite yet. Someday we'll but maybe maybe when we teach Genesis when we're 80 years old. Yeah, that's right. We'll circle back and we'll be able to make even more connections. But he doesn't worship, he doesn't worship, but he does obey. He's in the land of the Philistines in Gerar, and he's like, Oh man, my wife, she's a looker, she's looking good, she's very pretty, and these Philistines are pretty intimidating. And he's a foreigner, that's what God says to him. Stay as an alien in the land. Yep. So he's like, These aren't my people. Uh I'm a foreigner in this land. I don't really have any rights. They're just gonna kill me, probably. You know, they're probably just gonna kill me. That's what he says. The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebecca, for she is a beautiful woman. Uh I think that gives us a little bit of a taste of what life might have been like back then. Um, you know, I I have a uh a beautiful wife, but I've never thought uh of you know introducing her as my sister in order to avoid being murdered.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Okay. That's never crossed my mind. It's no context I can think of. Oh no. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

And like even like part of your thinking is like, how does that actually help? I mean, it does and it doesn't. You know, you're like, oh, wait a minute. I mean I'm gonna introduce her as my sister, therefore, if something happens, it's not gonna be as bad, or nothing's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Okay, so who's who's your kid's mom? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, don't worry about that. Don't worry about it. Not relevant, Derek.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

That little guy. We don't have kids. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 6:30

I know, I know. Yeah, so he he compromises, he lies because he's afraid, and his his fear is it's just overriding his brain. Well, yeah, fear it causes you to do all kinds of insane things. All kinds of insane things. Yeah. It is a powerful motivator. It is. And it often circumvents your brain.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

Yeah. It it often circumvents your brain and it goes around your brain. You're not even you're not even thinking. And as as uh Christians, when we when we read in the Bible that that Isaac fears and he gives in to his fear, and uh there are many examples of that where people give in to their fears. Saul gives in to his fear, you know, he's afraid and he gives in. Many many examples we could look at. This is not teaching that uh as Christians we should have no fear. Right. This is not what it's saying.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

So doesn't Proverbs 1 tell us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge? So there's there's clearly there there's a good fear and a righteous fear. A righteous fear.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Well, and there's just a reality where you're gonna be in fearful situations.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

You're gonna be in fearful situations. You don't want to have no fear response to like staring down a lion.

Moral Clarity From An Unlikely Source

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Exactly. Exactly. I I read that uh seven percent of uh uh adults in America believe they could defeat a grizzly bear in a fight.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

That sounds like one of those 60% of all stats are made up in the case.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

No, I actually read this that seven percent of people in America of adults think they could they could they could like deal with a grizzly bear.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Were they on drugs or intoxicated when they answered that?

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Yeah. It's hilarious. So like those people that have you ever seen a grizzly bear? That's the question. I know. I'm like, what are you okay?

SPEAKER_03 8:17

So that's not God isn't saying like you're around a grizzly bear, you should have no fear. Right. That's not what he's saying. I think what is partly emphasized here is it I'm not saying there there's zero, that literally nothing for Isaac to fear here in the story. I think that what's happen what's playing out here is that this is uh an inflated fear. That would be my suspicion. And it's it's an inflated fear that moves him to make a uh make make a very foolish, sinful decision to to lie.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

It's a fear that short circuits the promise of God. It does his belief in the promise of God's.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

That's right. That's right. And then he lives a lie. He's living a lie. Uh verse eight, when Isaac had been there for some time, uh, some translations say for a long time. Uh the commentators I read said, you know, that's certainly months, and it could be years. You know, so he's there for a long time. Uh eventually, Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, he observes what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Eventually, uh Isaac's guard is down. He's down.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

He lets his guard down. That's probably probably my favorite little little detail in the whole story is when Moses turns Isaac's name into a verb.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Isaac, Isaac's wife.

Blessing Amid Failure And Conflict Over Wells

Beersheba And God’s Second Appearance

Worship First: Altar, Tent, And Well

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Isaac was Isaacing, his wife, Rebecca, and whatever that means. And so he gets caught and he he he misrepresents, he's misrepresenting the Lord. And so you have you have um Isaac, who's supposed to be the man of God, who trusts God, the the ambassador of Yahweh to the nations. God's heart is to bless the whole world. He's made he's entered into a covenant with Isaac, he's just reaffirmed that covenant in the earlier uh text, and now it's the Philistine who has not perfect moral clarity, but more moral clarity, saying, What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Why are you lying to us? And so his witnesses is uh compromised. And uh so the result of not worshiping is that he's he gives into his fear, he misrepresents the Lord. I think those are the two consequences. Then in verse 12, he it you know, he he keeps going, he keeps living life, he sowed seed in the land that year, and he reaped a hundred times what was sown, and the Lord blessed him. So you're like, and a famine, God's blessing him, even though he just fails. And God is just continuing to bless him, but there are consequences. So instead of living peacefully with the Philistines, uh now there's conflict. There's conflict with the Philistines. And um, you're supposed to see that conflict playing out with the wells, and um, but eventually he makes his way to Beersheba. And Beersheba is where the Lord appears to uh Isaac again. So this is like round two. This is round two. It's like God, it's like, okay, you blew it the first time here, Isaac, uh, but now you get another chance. Let's try this again. And uh Beersheba is is the place where Abraham worshipped God. He worshipped in Beersheba. And so there's something symbolic there that I think is right. Like his father worshipped uh in Beersheba. So he goes to Beersheba um and God appears to him and it says, God says, uh from there he went up to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, I am the Lord, or I am the God of your father Abraham, do not be afraid. Don't be afraid. You've been living in fear, buddy. Don't be afraid. Why? For I am with you, I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham. And he says, I made a covenant with him, I made a covenant with you, um, and I'm going to do what I say. I will, I am with you, I will bless you. But this time, do you see his response in verse 25? It's different. Yeah. So this time he built an altar there. This time he worships. He built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. Isaac's servants also dug a well there. And so he he throughout the story, he's chasing he's chasing water for his flocks. And uh this is where we need to remember the instruction by TLC. Don't go chasing waterfalls. Just don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Go back to your father's lake. Do you know how many times I wanted to bring up TLC? Don't go chasing waterfalls on Sunday. I didn't do it though. Self-control.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

About uh 65% of the people there would be like, I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

We don't know who but the people who knew they they knew they would know.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Don't go chasing waterfalls. Y'all that don't know listening to this. Don't go chasing waterfalls. Don't go listen to TLC. But for those that know, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Oh yeah. If you know, you know. So he's not chasing waterfalls. No, he's not chasing the wells. He's he's worshiping God. He's worshiping God. And I think there there's something here about the priority of worship we're supposed to pay attention to. This is not teaching us that Isaac is now perfect. We're gonna learn about his imperfections in chapter 27. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

We might, as TLC would say, learn that he's a scrub. I don't mind yikes.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

And you know, God, don't want no scrub. Wow. I don't even know what to make of this conversation. Luke is not having a good time. It's devolving quickly. Pull up, put up pull up into Satanism.

From Fear To Peace Treaty

SPEAKER_03 14:09

I didn't see that that connection there, D. Good job. Um so he built he built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there. Isaac's servants also dug a well there. So he's he's now getting he's getting the point. Um he's beginning to worship God. And this is where all real, genuine transformation happens. Worship. It's worship. This is in in many ways, it is it is the point of all that God is doing here. You know, if you ask the question um what's wrong with the world, you know, one way to answer that question is to say the world, um, the world worships the wrong God or the wrong God fails to worship God. Now that's the Romans 1 problem, you know, that we suppress the truth the knowledge of God, the truth of God, and righteousness.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

And Paul builds that case for 11 chapters and then starts chapter 12, therefore, that's right. In view of the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, uh holy and pleasing. This is pleasing to God. Yes, this is your true worship, and then that leads to the renewing of your mind, certainly. Renewing of your life.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

The foundation is your true worship.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

That's exactly right. And when um when people fail to worship God, um, when we reduce God and his word down to a set of um, you know, moral moral codes and do's and don'ts, um, I I think we we just zap all the power of the gospel. Um we just we we drain all the gospel of all of its power. And because it's a it's a flat uh I don't know what the right word is. It's a it's a it's the gospel is not primarily about getting us to do different things. That's not what the gospel is about. It's the gospel is about reconciling us to God that we might know and love and worship God.

Psalm 23 At The Philistine Banquet

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Well, it strips like the whole biblical storyline of a relationship with God. Like it's totally void of relationship, it's just a set of you know, it's no different than like a chore list or certainly, you know, and it's not founded on anything. And so it's just be kind of like if parenting was simply like here's a list of instructions, just do these things, I am not gonna love you or not love you.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

We would all be great parents if that's all that parenting was just give your kids the list of do's and don'ts.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

But there's like this relational aspect that it's at the very heart of parenting.

Worship As The Root Of Real Change

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Well, I even yeah, I mean Paul and Romans, it's the it's in view of God's mercy that produces worship. Certainly. Same, I mean, similar here with with Isaac, it's like do not be afraid for I'm with you. I mean I'm with you. It's not that Isaac deserved what he had. Um it was uh God chose Abraham and he chose Isaac apart from you know what they did or did not do. And so you see there's there is a there's a sense of like God, there's a mercy of God. I mean in God appearing to him multiple times, God saying to him, I'm I'm with you. Even I think the sense of like do not be afraid. I think there's a it's easy to not recognize that we're operating out of fear. Certainly. And in some respect, no one uh the Lord appears to to Isaac. It's like he reminds him of who he is and that what he's doing is the way he's living is opposite in regard to who God is and the promise that he's made to him. Exactly. The uh it's like God reminding him, No, I am the God of your father, Abraham. I'm with you just like I was with him. Like there's no need to be afraid. And I think there's something like all of a sudden you you kind of realize realize, oh, who God is and how gracious and merciful he is that produces a sense of of awe and and um and worship of um it'll lead you to worshiping uh God sincerely. It's not just an act, um you know, uh the behavior or a thing that we go through just kind of meaninglessly, but there's a a real sense of like in your heart and your soul, you're like, oh wow, like God is with me and God has taken care of me, and that produces this sense of uh desire to to worship the Lord. And and that ultimately leads to the way we live our lives of worship.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Yeah, then we will obey rightly. Right. Then we will obey rightly. And uh it says for do not be afraid. Now the next like the way my heart operates, this is the way my heart operates, is do not be afraid because you have so many flocks. Do not be afraid uh because you have so many wells. Do not be afraid because you have so many servants. Do not be afraid because um you're not gonna get any diseases. Do not be afraid because you have a a vast and mighty army. Do not be afraid, you know, because you I've given you superior intelligence over the Philistines or whatever it is. You know, there there are so many uh human um things that I want to plug into that this equation that I put my con that I want to put my confidence in. But God says, no, no, do not be afraid. Why? For I am with you. So God wants to be Isaac's confidence. And you do you remember, do you remember the story of Moses when God appears to Moses and he says, uh, he says to Moses, um, hey Moses, you gotta go back to Egypt and rescue my people. And uh and he's like, Oh, I don't know how to speak. You know, I can't, I just I don't know how to words good. I don't I don't words good, you know. Yeah, he's I don't know how to speak. And uh And then God says, uh I'm gonna be with you. And then he's like, uh no. I don't know. I don't know if that is that good enough, and then and then eventually uh God's like Moses, no, you're gonna go to Egypt. And he's like, okay, but can Aaron come? And God's like, okay, yeah, Aaron can come. And he's like, All right, I'll go. Great. And and I thought, I that's that's my heart right there, you know. Yeah, instead of God's like, the I am the all-powerful, all-knowing Yahweh, God of the Bible. I am who I am. I created everything and I am with you. And Moses is like, that's not good enough. I need Aaron. And I'm like, oh my goodness. And it is it is hard. It is hard for God, uh, God being with us to be uh the the source of our confidence and hope. Like I I want to put my hope in everything else naturally. But but part of learning to walk with God and trust God and worship God is believing that God really is with us. He's really with us. And so, what is the solution to fear? Is that God's with us? What's the solution to lust?

SPEAKER_00 21:38

God's with us.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

God with us. What's the solution to our greed? God's with us. Uh what's the solution to our pride? God's with us. He's with us. Now I'm not saying there are there are no other steps to take.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

It's not just like a mantra.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

It's not a mantra, it's not a mantra, but it's a re it's a reality. And Isaac, he he embraces that reality in verse 25. So he built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, pitched his tent there. Isaac's servants also dug a well there. And um the result in the next section is that Abimelech comes to him from Gerar and they make a peace, they make a peace treaty. And it says that verse 28, um, after Isaac worships the Lord. Verse 28, they replied, We have clearly seen how the Lord has been with you. We think there should be an oath between the two parties, between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you. So instead, so remember when Isaac was living in fear, remember what happens? He's living in fear, compromised life. They said, Get out of here. Get out of here. Okay, but when he's worshiping the Lord, what's the result? They say, Hey, let's sit down together. Yep. Let's sit down, so sit sit down together. And so I think there's a picture here of um, it's a picture of just rightly honoring God in our lives. So if you want to know how do we rightly honor God, we trust and worship God. And then in verse 30 it says, So he prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank. It's one of the clearest uh pictures or fulfillments of Psalm 23. You know, the Lord is my shepherd, I I have what I need. You know, he lets me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, and then he says, You've prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You know, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. And here's Isaac sitting with the Philistines, with the Philistines having a banquet. And they ate and they drank. My cup overflows. It's an incredible picture. Incredible picture. And so I think as a as a church, uh, we never want to reduce what we're doing down to a set of moral codes or patterns or habits. Codes, patterns, habits. There's a place for all of that. But ultimately, uh, we want to be the type of people who worship God from the heart. What do we do on Sunday mornings? We worship. What do we do on Mondays? We worship. What do we do on Tuesdays? We worship. Our hearts are offered unto God. Uh we're our where our brains are being renewed, our minds are being renewed by the word, and we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. And that's where real change comes from.