(Genesis) Genesis 25:1-2

Now today, our study brings us to the 25th chapter of Genesis. And this probably is getting to be a little monotonous to you, but we've come now to another great chapter of the Bible. And I'll have to keep saying this for, well, there are 50 chapters in Genesis, and I think you probably could say it for each chapter, and so I just keep saying it, but they are wonderful chapters here, and this one records the death of Abraham, and it gives the generations of Ishmael, and also the generations of Isaac, and the birth of the twins, Jacob and Esau, or Esau and Jacob, if you want them in chronological order, and then the experience of Esau and Jacob relative to the birthright.

So that this is a remarkable chapter and covers a great deal of ground. Now, we saw last time how a bride was secured for Isaac, and that bride was Rebecca. And we read now in chapter 25, this will be the last mention of Abraham that is in the record, but frankly, his story ended back when the servant was sent out to get a bride for Isaac.

I'm reading chapter 25 now, and verse 1 of Genesis. Then again, Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. Abraham, after the death of Sarah, he married again, and this one is Keturah.

And she bare him Zimran, Jokshan, and Midan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And that's quite a family. He had his biggest family after the death of Sarah.

And somebody raises the question, well, I thought that at the time of the birth of Isaac, that this man, he was dead as far as his capability of bringing a child into the world. Friends, he was. But you see, this is an evidence of the fact that when God does something, he really does it.

That's the reason that I believe that anything that God does bears his signature. And right here, this man Abraham was not only able to bring Isaac into the world, but he now brings in this great family here. But the interesting thing that we have before us is that we have Midan and Midian.

Now, the other boys, I'll be honest with you, that nations came from them, but I can't identify them right now, and I'm not interested because they do not cross the pathway in Scripture. But Midian does. We'll find out that Moses, a little later on, goes down into the land of Midian, and he takes a wife there in Midian.

Remember, that's in the line of Abraham and the Midanites also. So that you have here these other sons of Abraham, but we'll not follow them for the very simple reason that we're following Isaac. And Isaac is the way the Lord put it, your seed are called.

It's through Isaac and not through any of these others, not through Ishmael, not through Midian or Midan. And all of these were men of the desert, nomads in that day.