I am Pastor Nathan, and today we're going to
be in Genesis chapter 48. Can you believe it?
Two more chapters and we're done with this book,
so that's at least eight or nine more months.
No, just kidding here. Today we're going to be
talking about the legacy that we leave behind.
Have you ever thought about the question, what
will matter most at the end of your life? We're
all given an allotted time by the Lord here.
Regardless of how long or short that time is,
the Bible describes it as but a vapor. It comes
and goes. Every decision, every thought, every
interaction, what matters most at the end? You
know, we think about when the time when the titles
are gone, when the bank accounts no longer matter,
when the applause has faded. When the monitors
go silent, what is it that will matter most?
Well, Genesis chapter 28 takes us into a deathbed
scene. Not a dramatic scene. It's not loud or
political or military or anything like that.
It's just a simple bedroom scene with an old
man and his family gathered. Here in this room,
one of the most important spiritual transfers
in all of Scripture takes place. Obviously, the
old man here is Jacob. As we pick up the story
in Genesis 48 this morning, he is 147 years old.
He is a man who has lived a very complicated
life. He deceived his own father. He stole the
birthright and blessing from his brother Esau.
He fled his family in fear for his life. He ended
up cheated by his own uncle. He ended up having
to bury his beloved wife much earlier than even
he would expect to. For 22 years, he thought
his beloved favorite son was dead. And in the
middle of all of that, he limped away from a
wrestling match with God. Jacob's life was a
life marked with reversals and twists. and ups
and downs, but here at the end of his life, this
man Jacob, whose name means heel catcher, who's
known as a deceiver, a liar, a supplanter, someone
who trusted in himself far more often than he
trusted in the Lord, he goes from being all of
that to being a worshiper. And we know that because
Hebrews 11, verse 21, The chapter in the book
of Hebrews that is called the Hall of Faith,
that records the faith of all the great heroes
of Scripture, selects one thing out of Jacob's
entire life to highlight in highlighting the
faith of Jacob. And it says this in Hebrews 11,
21. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed
each one of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped,
leaning on the top of his staff. You see, when
the writer of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
was penning down the faith of all these heroes,
it wasn't his vision at Bethel that was highlighted.
It wasn't his wrestling match with God at Peniel.
It wasn't him outsmarting his uncle Laban or
any of that type of stuff. It was the blessing
of his grandchildren and the worship that that
was. And I think the reason why that is what
the Holy Spirit decided to highlight there is
because Genesis 48 is not just about inheritance,
right? It's not just about the last will and
testament, the trust, you know, the house, the
car, the bank accounts, all the stuff that we
might think about leaving behind. It's about
legacy. Genesis chapter 48 is about what you
hand forward when you could no longer move forward.
It's a chapter about faith that sees beyond its
own lifetime. And it's a chapter about grace
that crosses human expectations. And it confronts
all of us with a very, very important few questions.
Are we preparing our children or our grandchildren
or our nieces and nephews, whoever it is that
you have influence in and connection with in
your life, are you preparing them? For more Egypt?
Are you preparing them for the promises of God?
Are you setting them up as you come to the place
of passing from this life to the next? Are you
setting them up for success in Egypt? Or are
you setting them up for hope in the promised
land? Are you handing them simply comfort? Or
are you handing them covenant? You see, there's
nothing wrong with riches and wealth and things,
and there's definitely nothing wrong with us
planning to take care of our children and our
kids as we move from this life to the other.
But there is definitely a hierarchy of priority
of what is the most important thing that we could
leave behind. That's what we're going to be talking
about this morning, but first we're going to
spend some time in worship. I want to apologize
up front because I am drumming today. And if
it's a little bit louder than usual, so sorry,
okay? But I'm just excited to be able to be here
with you guys and worship, praising our Lord
and lifting up His name. You know, He is the
King of Majesty. He is... The one with the most
beautiful name. It's Jesus. He's our Lord, our
Savior. He is the one worthy of all worship,
all glory, all praise. And so that's what we're
going to start our service with, and then we
will get into what God has to share with us.
So please join me in prayer. Father, we love
you so much. We thank you, God, for you. You
are almighty. You are beyond comprehension. Lord,
You bless us with blessings we don't deserve.
Most importantly, Lord, the blessing, the gift
of salvation. God, from the very beginning, this
whole thing that we call life is about knowing
you, our creator. Trusting in you for our salvation.
Trusting in you as our shepherd for guidance
and direction. Lord, we have lives here that
you've given us, lives that you describe as a
vapor that come and go so quickly in the perspective
of eternity. And yet, Lord, during these lives,
we have real things we have to take care of and
jobs and homes and these things, Lord, that become
a part of the blessing you give us in this life,
Lord. And yet, God, sometimes when we come to
the very end, we can find ourselves more concerned
with... prepping those that we have influence
of to live in Egypt more than we prep them for
their homecoming into heaven. So Lord, I pray
you'd speak to us today as we learn from this
moment in Jacob's life at the very end as he
blesses his son Joseph and his grandchildren.
Lord, that we would learn from his lessons in
his life what was the most important thing to
leave behind. the most important thing that would
set them up for success while they were here
on this earth. And so that, Lord, we would be
encouraged in our own example, our own behavior,
the values that we live and exhibit, God, because,
Lord, our children are watching. Our grandchildren
are watching. Our nieces, our nephews are watching.
So, Lord, may we be people whose testimony at
the end of our lives is not that we were rich
poor or this or that, but that we were worshipers.
Worshipers who knew you and trusted in you for
all things. So God, we praise you now. We love
you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well,
good morning. We are in Genesis chapter 48. And
this chapter that we're in this morning, it shows
us a dying man who is now able to see more clearly
than he has ever seen before. His body is failing,
his eyesight is dimming, but his faith is sharper
than it has ever been. And he's going to do something
as we go through these scriptures that was originally
thought to be a mistake. And yet, as we're going
to see, it was actually a great proclamation
of truth. It was a great act of worship, and
it was a great act of obedience. And so, we pick
up here in Genesis chapter 48, verse 1. It says,
sometime after this, and that is referring to
Jacob making Joseph swear to take his bones back
to the promised land when God delivers everybody
out of, or all of them out of Egypt, Joseph was
told, your father is weaker. So he set out with
his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When Jacob
was told, your son Joseph has come to you, Israel
summoned his strength and sat up in his bed.
Now as we've been studying through the life of
Jacob, specifically after his wrestling with
God at Peniel and getting the new name Israel,
we have noticed and commented a few times how
as we're reading through the scriptures, he's
often... called Jacob, and then Israel, and then
Jacob again, and then Israel, and back and forth,
back and forth. And, you know, somebody asked
me, it's like, why does that happen? Like, what
does it mean when the one happens in the other?
And then you get to, you know, verse two, where
it's switched from Jacob to Israel in the same
sentence, right? The same man. And there's a
few reasons for that, but one is just the back
and forth is a reminder to us that Jacob and
Israel is the same man at the same time. right
that is an important reminder you know um when
we come to the lord we were taught in romans
that that we still have an old nature resides
with us. And, you know, God comes into our lives
and changes us and literally gives us a new name,
but a lot of times we still act according to
our old nature, and Jacob's life is a picture
of that. But also, you know, when we're going
through the Scriptures, as Moses was writing
the story of Jacob, we often see that the name
Jacob is used when Moses is highlighting his
human weaknesses. or emphasizing his fear or
specifically his family dynamics in kind of the
human way he dealt with things. But then we'll
see the name Israel used when Moses is highlighting
his covenantal role or his spiritual calling,
right? So here we see both in the same sentence
because as the sentence starts, it moves from...
The personal emotion that Jacob has, he's dying,
he knows that. His long lost beloved son has
come to him. It switches from that personal moment
of emotion to him acting within the role of his...
covenant leader and acting in the role of the
covenant destiny. And so it says, you know, Jacob,
and then it says Israel summoned his strength.
And so we're just seeing Moses highlight these
two kind of natures of Moses as a man and as
a man of God. And so, but the idea here when
we see the switching of these two names for Jacob
and Israel. Here specifically in verse 2, it's
just highlighting that the man who deceived,
the man who was a liar, the man who manipulated,
he is now the father of the covenant nation,
God's people. And this particular story in this
chapter is about him passing that on to his family.
And so it's the struggler. has now become the
one through whom God's promises continue. And
I just think it's an important thing to notice
right there in the beginning because God often
gives us new names before we fully live into
them, right? How many of us have met Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior and are now children of
God? Do you always act like it? No, you don't,
right? And that's the thing. Jacob was declared
Israel before he consistently acted like Israel.
And that's an important distinction here. You
know, identity, when it comes to the Lord and
our faith in him, identity often precedes maturity.
And that's a grace of God. God will call you
my child before you're consistently acting like
it. He will say, you're a part of my family before
you regularly walk in that identity. And, you
know, the realistic thing here is that we struggle
with that back and forth walk all the way into
the point where we leave this earth. And yet
God doesn't say, well, you're not my child anymore
because you're not acting like it. He says, you're
my child. And that moment of faith, when we put
our faith in Jesus Christ and we receive the
washing of the blood and the cleansing of our
sins, we are God's. Children. And we're called
God's children before we are consistently acting
like one and even throughout our life when we
go back and forth. And that's grace. That is
the grace of Almighty God, the one who loves
us more than we can imagine. And so we're here.
Manasseh and Ephraim are brought before Jacob.
And I think that's another interesting detail
here because we remember that Joseph, when he
was there in Egypt, he married an Egyptian woman
named Philemon. and she was a daughter of a priest
of one of the Egyptian gods, and he had two sons
by this Egyptian woman. So what this means here
is as Jacob, the one who holds the covenant of
God, is the one that's gonna pass it on through
his family according to what God has told him
to do, is in this story gonna pass that covenant
onto the half -Egyptian sons of Joseph. Isn't
that interesting? But it's simply a precursor
of what God has done in the church, right? Israel
was God's chosen people. But then we get to the
New Testament and we see that God's plan all
along through Israel and all that was that the
whole world would have the opportunity to be
a part of the covenant. That everybody would
have the opportunity to be saved. And then we're
taught in the New Testament how the Gentiles,
which is everybody that's not a Jew, is grafted
in. to the nation of Israel, and we have become
this entity called the church, right? It doesn't
mean that Israel doesn't exist anymore. It doesn't
mean that Jewish people don't have a special
place within God's timeline and whatnot, but
we see it right here in the very beginning of
the nation of Israel that God was already including
Gentiles into that covenant. And so these two
children are bought. brought before Jacob to
be blessed. Blessings were of huge importance
in ancient times, very high honor in the Old
Testament, and they carried a lot of... a weight.
You know, like today, it would be like the last
will and testament, you know, your trust, right?
You pass away, and then we have this document
that says, here's where all my stuff goes. Here's
all my accumulated wealth, or assets, or possessions,
or, you know, important things, and these who
they go to. Blessings were like that in the Old
Testament. And so, It would be a practical matter
of property rights, you know, and so as Abraham
passed the property rights of the promised land
to Isaac, Isaac passed those to Jacob, and Jacob
then is passing all of that down onto his sons,
but there's a whole lot more to it because it's
not just the practical things. Blessings would
often be times where prophetic statements would
be made. If you go through the Bible and you
look at these times where fathers would speak
blessings onto their kids prophetically, there
was also conditions that were to fulfill those
things. If the blessings were positive, it would
be like, you're gonna become this great people
group if you do these things. Or there's gonna
be a curse upon your life unless these things
happen. There was all these kind of prophetical
statements and conditions made. And really there
was requests that God would give goodwill, happiness,
and favor upon the one being blessed. That was
generally the idea. because, I mean, who doesn't
want their kids to be blessed, right? Who doesn't
want their kids to have a good life and all of
that? But Jacob begins this speech of blessing
in verse 3 by speaking straight to Joseph, and
he revisits the entire covenant. He says, Joseph,
Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to
me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
He said to me, I will make you fruitful and numerous.
I will make many nations come from you, and I
will give this land as a permanent possession
to your future descendants. Now, as I said in
the intro, what we're looking at today is legacy,
right? When the time comes for you to leave this
earth, what is it that is most important for
you to leave behind? What is the most important
thing, truth, teaching, value? To make sure your
children or your grandchildren or whoever it
is that you've had influence on, what is the
most important thing to impart to them when the
time comes to go home and be with the Lord? And
he starts here by revisiting the covenant, the
promises. Now, Luz is the original name for the
place called Bethel. You guys remember when Jacob
was at Bethel and laid down and he had the vision
of the ladders and the angels? The original name
of that place was Luz. And so this was where
God first appeared to Jacob while he was fleeing
Esau. So as Jacob is about to impart what is
most important to him, to leave with his son
and his grandchildren, he starts with, this was
the first time God appeared to me. And when God
appeared to me there as I was fleeing for my
life for being a liar and a deceiver, God promised
fruitfulness. He promised multiplication. He
promised that nations would come from my family.
And he said that the promised land would be permanently
given to my descendants. It's all about God's
promises. Everything we do, everything we have,
everything we leave behind, the most important
part of all of that is God's promises and what
God has said because those are the only things
that are unchangeable. God's promises are immutable.
And so as he's gonna get into this little final
blessing, it's about God's promises. And this
is important because as he goes to revisit it,
he's not just saying, oh, hey, God gave us some
promises. He goes, no, no, no, I wanna take you
all the way back. And these promises are the
same promises that were given to Abraham in Genesis
12 and then given to his son Isaac in Genesis
26. And then Jacob's saying, then the promises
that were given to me here in Genesis 28. But
in all three of those instances, God showed up,
showed himself to Abraham. God showed himself
to Isaac. God showed himself to Jacob. God was
the one who personally showed up and said, hey,
I gave this promise to your dad, and I'm telling
you that you've inherited that promise. But after
Jacob, there is no recorded direct covenant appearance
of God to any of Jacob's sons. Jacob was the
last one that God personally appeared to to say,
hey, let me reiterate my promise. And it's because
the promise was now to move forward by faith
and testimony in the remembered promise. It was
all about remembering. God said this. It wasn't
about God showing up and going, yeah, God said
it to me directly. But it was about passing along
the knowledge. The memory that God said this.
And it is a foundation of our family. It is a
foundation of our life. And so verse six, he
goes on to say, your two sons born to you in
the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt
are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to
me just as Reuben and Simeon do. Children born
to you after them will be yours and will be recorded
under the names of their brothers with regard
to their inheritance. Now this is kind of weird,
right? Hey, I want to remind you about God's
promises and you brought your sons to me so I
could bless them. And oh, by the way, they're
mine now. Have a nice life. Right? You think
that's kind of weird, but I mean, it is a quite
astonishing thing he does. But what he's doing
is he's adopting Joseph's sons as his own. What
that means is that they are in direct line to
inherit everything that Jacob would pass down
to his sons. Now you might think, well, isn't
Joseph getting the raw end of the deal here?
What's taking place is that Joseph is... inheriting
through his children what Reuben was supposed
to get. You see, the firstborn in a family would
always get a double portion of the inheritance,
right? When the inheritance was divided among
the kids, firstborn would get the double part.
I'm still trying to convince my mom of that,
but we're not quite there yet. So, you know,
but Reuben was supposed to get it. And he says,
just like Reuben and Simeon, his son number one,
son number two. Reuben was supposed to get that
double portion, but He's now pointing out that,
look, I'm going to adopt your two kids so that
they, I could give them the double portion that
was supposed to be for Reuben. That I'm going
to bless you by blessing them with the double
portion. And so Reuben, as you remember in Genesis
35, he forfeited his birthright because he tried
to usurp authority in the family by sleeping
with his father's concubine. Simeon. who's number
two in the family, he ends up just kind of disappearing.
His tribe disappears. And as we'll read later,
it's because he was just a bloodthirsty and cruel
man. And they kind of get absorbed into the tribe
of Judah. Levi, who is son number three, we're
going to find never gets any land. He doesn't
get any inheritance in the land because he and
his people are called to be the priests of God
for Israel. And so instead of land, they get
cities all throughout the entire promised land.
Now, Joseph, his two sons being adopted by Jacob,
preserves the number of tribes at 12, which is
just an important thing in the prophetic timeline.
But these two separate tribes, the tribe of Ephraim
and Manasseh, are referred to as the tribe of
Joseph in different places in Numbers chapter
1. But the idea now is that they're not one generation
removed from the patriarch. connected to the
patriarch directly, that everything God has for
Jacob's children is gonna go directly through
them, okay? Now, verse seven, he says, when I
was returning from Paddan, and that was the place
called Paddan Aram, which is where his uncle
Laban was, to my sorrow, Rachel died along the
way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of
Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath,
that is, Bethlehem. When Israel saw Joseph's
sons, he said, who are these? And Joseph said
to his father, these are my sons God has given
me here. So Israel said, bring them to me and
I will bless them. Now his eyesight was poor
because of old age he could hardly see. Joseph
brought them to him and he kissed and embraced
them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected
to see your face again, but now God has even
let me see your offspring. Then Joseph took them
from his father's knees and bowed with his face
to the ground. So Joseph shows up to Jacob and
Jacob's like, hey son, I need to tell you what's
gonna be taking place here. I wanna remind you
of the promises. I wanna remind you of all these
sayings that I'm gonna be adopting your two kids
as my own and all the foundation of our faith
and everything. I wanna pass on to them the promises,
the inheritance, the spiritual inheritance. But
as he's recounting all of this foundation of
his life, he takes a moment here to speak of
just grief that he has in his life that's unresolved.
I think this is happening here because what these
kids who are here in the presence of this story
right here are hearing is one, the foundation
of everything is the promises of God. Two, what
they're also hearing is that the promises of
God doesn't mean you're not going to have sorrow
in life. You know, faith doesn't erase sorrow.
It carries it. You know, how many of you still
have problems in life after you got saved? Anybody?
Yeah. Like one or two problems? No, like endless
and countless, right? Salvation doesn't mean
you're not going to have sorrow and pain and
grief. And that is an important truth to pass
on to our kids, right? We don't want our kids
to believe the erroneous teaching that's like,
oh, you get saved and everything's great now.
And we also don't want them to believe that because
bad things are happening in our life means that
God has abandoned us or God has left or God is
not with us. And him revisiting all these memories.
God made all these promises. But yeah, even walking
with the Lord, I had sorrow. And Rachel died
long before. I would hope that she would live
longer than this. She died sooner than I wanted
her to. But it's a mature faith that can speak
in hopeful faith of God's promises. and speak
about pain in the same breath. That's a maturity
of our faith, right? An immaturity of our faith
is when we talk about hopeful faith only when
everything's great, and then when things get
really bad, we're, oh, I'm doubting God, and
is God really here, right? And, you know, that's
just an immaturity of faith. But passing on a
mature faith to our kids is something where we
live and believe and act and speak in the idea
that God is God no matter what happens. God is
God in the good. God is God in the bad. God is
God in the happy times. God is God in the sorrow.
And more importantly, that God is knowing God
and walking with him does not mean that you won't
have bad things happen in this life. And as Jacob's
going to go on, it's going to be quite the contrary.
The truth is that having God makes managing the
bad things in life manageable because he's walking
with us, because he's with you. And so Jacob
here, he's like, who are these? It tells us that
his eyesight was bad. So yeah, part of it was
like, hey, I'm talking about your kids, Joseph.
And Joseph was like, they're standing right here.
Who are these kids that have shown up? It's not
just because he was old and his eyesight was
bad. This is also a part of the ceremonial presentation,
right? Joseph, I'm going to adopt your kids,
and da -da -da -da -da -da -da -da. And so, who
are these? These are my kids, Dad, right? You
know, in a marriage, when the bride comes forward,
and Dad or whoever's walking her forward, and
the husband steps out, and he goes, who gives
this woman to me to be my bride? I mean, does
anybody in the room think, does he really not
know who her dad is? Wow, they're getting married
and he doesn't even know her dad? No, it's part
of the ceremony, right? And so who are these?
These are my sons, you know. And so they come
in and it's really interesting. Before he gets
into the official, let's get to business and
let's get to the proclamation and all this stuff,
it just tells us that he kissed and embraced
them. He doesn't rush into prophecy. He draws
them near. And I think that's because legacy
is not something we just declare. It's something
that is felt, right? We want our kids to know
God, to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
to know him. But we don't just want them to know
him as this dogmatic rule master who's just,
these are the rules, blah, blah, blah. And a
part of the legacy that we want to pass on to
them is not just like God is the most important
thing and knowing him is the most important thing,
but he loves you. He loves you. You know, I think
truth without tenderness hardens a person. So
many children, I think, learn covenant in the
context of affection. Without affection, They
grow up to think of the covenant as something
harsh and restrictive, and they want nothing
to do with God. But then when there's tenderness
without truth, it weakens them. They grow up
thinking, oh, God is a God of love, and don't
you dare ever say anything anybody is doing is
wrong, because that's just mean. It's the middle
ground. Truth is truth, but when the... The people
in our lives that we have an influence over,
whether we're parents or grandparents or nieces,
nephews, whatever it is, we want them to know
the truth of Scripture. And we want them to know
that sin is sin and all of these things, but
you know what they need to know most? God loves
them and died for them. He died that they would
be set free from sin. They don't have to sin.
Yes, sin leads to hell and judgment and all these
things, but truth without the tenderness just
becomes this harsh, restrictive, legalistic thing.
And our kid's like, I want nothing to do with
that. I want nothing to do with that. So we see
Jacob here. What I see is him saying, before
we get into the business of the promise and all
this kind of thing, he's just, I love you guys.
You are a gift God has given to me. And I want
you to know. That not only do I love you, but
the Father loves you. That's what I see in this,
in his embracing of them and just communicating
to them the affection and the care he has for
them. And then he says in verse 11, I never expected
to see your face again, Joseph. You know, before
we get into the promise and the inheritance and
all of these things, I just want you to know,
man, that God gives more than you could ever
expect. He made promises way back in the beginning,
right, as we're following the thought here. God
made promises to Abraham and to Isaac and to
me. And Joseph, I want your sons to directly
inherit those promises from me in all the legal
sense and all the spiritual sense. And, you know,
God's promises doesn't mean we're not going to
have sorrow in life. And yet, just, oh, I see
you guys. I love you. And then he's like, I never
expected to see your face again. I can't believe
we're even here. I didn't expect to see you,
let alone your kids. And now I'm here embracing
your kids. What does that show these kids? What
does that show us? God gives more than we could
ever expect. Don't you want your kids to know
that? It doesn't mean God's going to give you
everything you want. But God gives and blesses
abundantly more than we could ever ask. And we
want our kids to know that. We want them to know
that it's his promises that are unshakable and
all these things to pass on because when things
do get difficult and they're gonna be like, I
didn't get what I want. God's a big meanie. It's
like, no, no, no, you don't understand. Jacob,
I'm a man who lived a really difficult life and
here at the very end, I thought, Joseph, you
were dead and not only do I get to see you, but
then I get to see your grandkids. What an amazing,
gracious God do we serve? And so Jacob, never
expecting to see him again, now sees the second
most powerful man in Egypt bow down to him. Bow
down to an old shepherd, which we've read that
shepherds were an abomination to Egyptians. And
yet here's Joseph, prime minister of Egypt. He's
bowing down. I mean, what is that showing the
kids? By example. It's showing something very,
very important. This is for all the younger people
here. Just because you might be more successful
than your parents, you might have acquired more
wealth, more power, more influence, maybe you've
achieved levels of fame or fortune or whatever
it is that your parents never reached does not
erase the need for honor and respect of those
people in your lives. Now, Granted, not all of
us had great parents. Some of us have abuse in
our history and just all kinds of rotten things.
And those things are real. Those things matter.
But to honor our parents is one of the Ten Commandments.
generational humility, it matters a lot. And
you know, some cultures are better at this than
others. But what is Joseph teaching his kids
right here? This is my dad. And the kids, mind
you, they've grown up in Egypt, right? They're
quite thoroughly culturally Egypt. And then all
these dirty shepherds show up, and that's my
dad. Your dad's a dirty shepherd? Wow. Terrible
to be you, you know. And no, no, no, you don't
understand. This is my father. He's the covenant
holder. And I'm sure Joseph had taught his kids
about God and all of that, but now they're seeing
their dad, who's the most powerful guy under
Pharaoh, bow down on his face before his father
Jacob. Teaching them reverence for. The Father.
Teaching them how to show honor and respect in
that regard. And so, I believe all of this just
kind of softened the room. Affection is established.
The memory of the promises have been spoken.
And now the hands move, right? Look at verse
13. Then Joseph took them both. With his right
hand, Ephraim towards Israel left. And with his
left hand, Manasseh towards Israel's right and
brought them to Israel. But Israel stretched
out his right hand and put it on the head of
Ephraim, the younger. And crossing his hands,
put his left hand on Manasseh's head, although
Manasseh was the firstborn. Now, Joseph understanding
the significance of this moment, right? The fathers
would lay their hands on the children and pronounce
and speak the blessing. And that was the symbolic
moment of the transfer of. Rights and transfer
of authorities and the transfer of the blessing
and the promise, right? It was a symbolic moment
of that. And so he properly positions his sons
according to the traditions, right? The right
hand is where the firstborn went and the left
hand was where the second son went. And, you
know, this whole right hand and left hand thing,
it was a big deal throughout Scripture. It's
mentioned a whole lot. The right hand symbolized
strength, honor. authority, right? And so people
that were left -handed, you're just out of luck.
Sorry. No, just kidding. The reason the right
hand became symbolic of these things is because
most people are right -handed, right? And whatever
handed you are, your dominant hand tends to be
the stronger hand of the two. And so since most
people are right -handed, the right hand came
to be known as the place of strength and authority
and all that. You know, we see Christ himself
in Mark 14, 62. It says he's seated at the right
hand of God, right? It doesn't mean if you're
left -handed, you can't go to heaven. It's a
symbolic thing. So Joseph brings the firstborn
to Jacob's right hand, which is what we expected.
He's the firstborn son. But then, instead of
placing that right hand of honor, Jacob switches
his hands and puts the right hand on the head
of the secondborn child, right? Now, the crossing
of the hands here, you know, this isn't an, oh,
the old man's confused. He just can't see well.
It's a deliberate thing. It's an intentional
thing. This is a theological thing. It's a prophetic
faith -driven thing. How do we know that? Because
Hebrews chapter 11 says, Jacob by faith blessed
each one of Joseph's sons. By faith. That means,
even though it's not recorded here in Genesis,
Jacob knew something. He knew what he was supposed
to do. He was listening to God. He was doing
only what God willed. Somewhere, somehow, someway,
he knew that God's intent was to bless Ephraim,
the secondborn, with the firstborn rights, and
Manasseh with the secondborn rights. His own
opinion, his own worries, his own fears. It didn't
matter. We see Jacob here acting in faith. And
this is why it tells us in Hebrew 11, it's by
faith he blessed each one of the sons and he
worshiped leaning on his staff. One of the greatest
act of worships we could do as God's people is
obey him. God, I want to worship you. And you
come to church and we sing songs and we go, man,
that drummer is way too loud. And it's just like,
and then we go home. And then we disobey the
Lord. And we think, oh, I worshiped God today.
God said, I want obedience, not sacrifice. I
want you to do what I tell you to do. I mean,
sure, oh, I got up early on Sunday and I was
so tired, but I went to church. Great, thanks
for the sacrifice. But you know what I want more
than that? I just want you to do what I tell
you to do. And Jacob here is doing that. We don't
have the story, but Hebrews gives us the insight.
He knew that the blessing that God wanted to
carry forth to his family, it didn't originate
with him. It was God's blessing to give. And
so he was going to give it the way God wanted
to give it, and he crossed his hands, right?
Now, we're going to deal more with that in a
little bit, but let's look at the blessing itself
in verse 15. Then he blessed Joseph and said,
The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
walked, the God who has been my shepherd all
of my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed
me from all harm, may he bless these boys. And
may they be called by my name and the names of
my fathers, Abraham and Isaac. And may they grow
to be numerous within the land. So this is the
specific blessing he's laying upon them, the
blessing that God had passed from Abraham to
Isaac down to Jacob, and now Jacob is including
them specifically in the first line of that blessing.
And he invokes God's name three times in this.
He says, God of my fathers, God who has been
my shepherd, and the angel who has redeemed me.
As he's speaking to these children, this is the...
what he wants to pass on, the most important
thing, the final lesson, if you will. If I have
nothing else, no opportunity to say anything
else to you, this is what I want you to know.
That he's the God of my fathers. That he is the
God of the unbreakable covenant. He's anchoring
them into the family history. This is who we
are. This is what has guided our family. This
is what is going to guide your family. That the
God of the unbreakable covenant is the one that
is guiding us. And he says he's the shepherd
of all my life. He wants his kids to know his
personal testimony. Grandpa Jacob. Through all
the stories and all the ups and downs, God has
been my shepherd. That means provision and protection
and guidance and patience and discipline and
presence, all of that. Jacob is condensing his
entire life into one phrase. God has been my
shepherd. And then he says redeeming angel where
he's now anchoring them in his own saving experience
with God. He's rooting these boys down into the
most important thing in his life. The most influential
thing in his life. One, something that's older
than themselves. God's promises predate you kids.
They go way back. They're unchangeable. They're
God's promises. These things don't change with
the generations. This is stuff God said way in
the back, in the beginning of things. Then he
says, he's been my shepherd my whole life. This
is the first time in scripture that God is referred
to as shepherding a person. First time. And then
when he says, he's the angel who's redeemed me,
that word redeemed is gaal in Hebrew. It's the
word we know as kinsman redeemer. He's my near,
personal, involved, protective, rescuing God.
This is who he has been in my life. And he says
he has redeemed me from all harm. That word harm
means ultimate ruin. So he's not saying God's
kept me from pain and consequence and hard times,
but he's kept me from ultimate ruin. What he's
doing here in this blessing is imparting to them
who God is. This is who God is. This is why you
can trust him. This is not only what he's done
from our family history, but this is what he's
done in my life personally, my personal experiences,
and I want you to know that. That as he has guided
me in my whole life, he will guide you if you
trust him. That is, he has redeemed me from ultimate
harm because, kids, I know you may have heard
stories about Grandpa Jacob and, yeah, but, you
know, I want to be Israel right here at the end
and want you to know that my ultimate, ultimate
salvation is him. That it's going to be in him
and through him. And so he prays here and he
says, may they grow numerous. Just echoing the
creation mandate, right? Genesis 128, be fruitful
and multiply. So this blessing that he's putting
on the kids, it's not that you would have great
success. It's not that your businesses would
explode. It's not that you would have a great
comfortable house or a nice car. It's not that
your bank accounts would be huge. It's not that
here I bequeath to you this set of china that
really has no value but super sentimental. All
that stuff is cool, but the most important thing
is that you would know God. That you would know
who he is, not from just stories, but you would
know who he is from my personal testimony. That
you would reflect back on all the experiences
that I've had and learn what took me so long
to learn. That if I just trusted in him, I would
have avoided so much heartache in my life. May
they grow to be numerous. The mandate of creation,
the Abrahamic promise. And you'll notice there
what's really interesting in verse 15. It says,
then he blessed Joseph and said these things.
God of my fathers, God who is my shepherd, angel
who has redeemed me, may he bless these boys.
And may they be called by my name and the names
of my father Abraham and Isaac. He blessed Joseph
the father by invoking this blessing on his sons.
You see, a father is blessed when his children
stand in covenant favor. When your kids are doing
well and walking with the Lord, a father is blessed
by that, right? Bless my kids. I want them to
know you, Lord. I want them to be walking solid.
I want their faith to be strong. I want all of
that, and a father is blessed by that. Charles
Spurgeon said the blessing of children is the
blessing of parents. And conversely, many of
us may have experienced the opposite, right?
When the kids are knuckleheads, you're like,
well, this is not a blessing right now. But what
Jacob is saying here is, look, boys, the God
of the covenant, who established the covenant,
the God who has personally shepherded me. You
know, maybe they didn't understand shepherding.
Maybe that had to have been explained. I don't
know, but the one who has watched over me and
guided me and pulled me out of my own stupidity,
the one who has redeemed me because it's in him
and his promises I rest, it's not about me, that's
the same God that I'm entrusting to you. And
that is the God that I'm entrusting you to because
he is the one. That matters most. Knowing him
is what matters most. That's what legacy is.
That's the legacy that I believe God wants us
to leave behind for our kids and our grandchildren
and all those young ones that we have a chance
to influence until the time we're gone from this
earth. It's not land, wealth, and success. It's
not church and ministry. It's God himself. This
is what I want you to have. Because this is the
most important thing. This is the thing that
makes everything else make sense. This is the
thing that transcends the life you're going to
have because, you know, Jacob, I'm about to die.
But I'm not dying. My body is going to die and
I'm going on. And so the thing that transcends
this life we have, that's but a vapor. What is
the most important thing to leave behind? The
most important thing that our children know.
The most important thing that they see us live
in our own values and priorities. It's that God
is most important. I was sent a video the other
day. It was talking about service and volunteering.
And it was just talking about, you know, scripturally,
it's like we're called to serve. We're not called
to volunteer. And so I was talking about the
difficulties in today's world where we look at
service as something where it's like, well, if
I have time and if it's convenient and if it
works for me and if I can and if I have free
time on my schedule, then I'll volunteer. And
that's not the biblical model of being involved.
That's a whole other Bible study. But there was
a comment made in this video where it said, if
your kids see you, put the kingdom of God over
here as something I'll do when I have time to
do it. What do you think they're going to learn
about the kingdom of God? And then when they
grow up and they go, the kingdom of God isn't
that important. And we go, Lord, what if I, we
went to church and we did this and we did this.
Lord, why don't they see the importance in who
you are? And the answer is going to be, where
were you on Super Bowl Sunday? Again, nothing
wrong with football, guys, but where were you?
Where do you think your kids learned it? And
so the encouragement is like, put those godly
values first. Put those godly priorities first.
Put the kingdom first. All the other stuff is
fine. Hobbies, entertainments, it's great. No
problem with that. But when we prioritize Egypt
over the promised land. And our kids and our
grandchildren and our nieces and nephews and
whoever it is, they're watching us and they're
going, that's what's important. And then when
we come back and try and tell them, no, church
is important, and they'll go, really? You only
went twice a month. Yeah, but what are you going
to say? Jacob looked back over his whole life,
his deception, his exile, his wrestling, Rachel's
death, the loss of his son Joseph, famine. And
here at the end of his life, he's going, God
didn't fail me. God didn't let me down. He shepherded
me. He walked with me. He was with me every moment
of my life. And you need to know that because
if you get that and you have it and you claim
it, your life will be blessed, not perfect. So
verse 17. When Joseph saw that his father had
placed his right hand on Ephraim's head, he thought
it was a mistake and took his father's hand to
move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's. Joseph
said to his father, not that way, my father.
This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand
on his head. But his father refused and said,
I know, my son, I know. He too will become a
tribe, and he too will be great. Nevertheless,
his younger brother will be greater than he,
and his offspring will become a populous nation.
Dad, you're doing it wrong. I know, son, I know.
Not, I know I'm doing it wrong. I know what I'm
doing. What did he know? Jacob knew that God
had the right to reorder blessing as he sees
fit. He knew that God's word is what matters.
God's way is what matters. And at some point,
as Hebrews alludes to, by faith, God had spoken
to him and said, I want you to bless Ephraim
as the first, Manasseh as the second. And so
as Joseph is going, whoa, whoa, whoa, dad, you're
doing it wrong. Like the tradition is the firstborn.
And there's the law of the firstborn. And Jacob's
like, I know. But God's sovereign grace has the
right to overturn. Anything that man has. We
see this pattern throughout Scripture over and
over, right? Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael,
Jacob and Esau. We're seeing it here with Joseph
over his brothers through the blessing of Ephraim
and Manasseh. Jacob says, I know, my son. I know.
He repeats it twice. That's him communicating
prophetic certainty here. I know what I'm doing.
God has spoken to me, and I'm not going to do
anything else. I understand you don't know what
I know, but trust me. And I think Jacob's able
to accept God's sovereign reordering of the future
here because he's experienced God's shepherding
faithfulness throughout his whole life. And here
at the very end, he's getting it now. God's way
is the right way, not my way. God's way is the
right way. God's way really should be the only
way. And so Joseph's like, no, no, no, Dad. That's
the wrong kid. I know, son. I know what I'm doing.
God has spoken. You see, God's grace is never
captive to position or privilege or heredity
or expectation or tradition, right? We might
have in our own families, you know, my firstborn,
and we have our plans and plan. This is what
I want to leave behind. This is how families
can be structured. But we can't call God our
shepherd and then complain when he crosses our
plans. Right? And so, for those of us that are
in the Jacob position, it's submit to the sovereign
grace of God. God might say, hey, I want you
to do this with the... this kid instead of this
kid, and you're like, but that's not how it's
supposed to be. You know how it's supposed to
be? However God wants it. That's how it's supposed
to be. And so Jacob confirms his blessing. Whoa,
whoa, whoa, Manasseh's going to be blessed. He's
going to be a great nation, but Ephraim will
be greater. And this is what happens, as we see
later in Scripture in Isaiah chapter 7 and Hosea
chapter 4, that At certain times, the entire
northern kingdom was called the kingdom of Ephraim.
So this kind of took place. But verse 20, so
he blessed them that day, putting Ephraim before
Manasseh, and he said, the nation Israel will
invoke blessings by you, saying, may God make
you like Ephraim and Manasseh. Now I wasn't able
to confirm this, but allegedly today in the Passover
thing that the Jewish people do, they say these
exact words. May God make you like Ephraim and
Manasseh. What a cool fulfillment of prophecy,
right? The nation will invoke this blessing.
Verse 21, Israel said to Joseph, look, I'm about
to die. But God will be with you and will bring
you back to the land of your fathers. Over and
above what I'm giving to your brothers, I'm giving
you the one mountain slope that I took from the
Amorites with my sword and my bow. Jacob has
matured over his long life as we all do. In Genesis
28, 15, a very young Jacob fleeing for his life,
God appeared to him and said, I am with you.
In Genesis chapter 31, verse 3, during the period
of Jacob's life where God was pruning him and
shaping him, God said, hey, don't forget, I will
be with you. Later on in Genesis 31, verse 5,
right after that, Jacob says, God has been with
me. And then here in Genesis 48, 21, he now confidently
passes on the most important lesson he could
possibly pass on to his grandchildren. God will
be with you. He has been with me every step of
my life. He has been with me when I was an idiot.
He's been with me when I did wrong. He's been
with me when everything was great. He's been
with me in the ups and the downs. And kids, I
can't pass on anything more important than to
understand this. Keep God at the center and know
him and walk with him because he will be with
you every step of the way. And then his final
gift for Joseph is a mountain slope, which is
kind of like, what? But that phrase mountain
slope in there literally means Shechem. You guys
remember Shechem? The first place they settled
when they entered the promised land. It wasn't
the place God wanted Jacob to go to, but it was
where they settled. It was the place where Simeon
and Levi slaughtered everybody, all the men there,
because the men of the city had raped their sister.
And this is incidentally the exact place where
Joseph's bones will be buried years later. But
as he's saying this to Joseph, hey, with all
the other stuff I'm giving your brothers, I'm
giving you specifically this piece of land. But
dad, we're in Egypt. But dad, you don't own Shechem.
What is Jacob proclaiming here? It's prophetic
confidence that one day the land will be ours.
Why? Because God said so. And God's promises
are unbreakable. And so Genesis 48, it just simply
asks us, what are we handing down? What are we
passing on? What is the legacy that we're going
to leave when our time comes? Some of you may
be close to that time. Some of you are far away
from that time. But the foundation of the values
and everything that we instill as a part of our
legacy began today with your behavior today,
with your speech today, with how you walk in
faith today, with the priorities that you put
today. This is where it starts. I can tell you
just from being with people in times where there's
passing and stuff that it's very, very, very
difficult and heartbreaking for the person that
is on their deathbed to be with tears just wanting
their children to know the Lord and know what's
most important. And the kids won't hear it because
that person lived a life of disobedience and
a life of putting God on the back burner and
a life of prioritizing Egypt over the promised
land. And then at the very end, they're finally
realizing Egypt's done. doesn't matter the world
doesn't matter and oh my gosh I just want you
guys to know the Lord and they're like they're
not getting it it's heartbreaking it's devastating
grandparents take spiritual concern for your
grandchildren right teach and transfer truth
through tenderness you know grandparents they're
I say we I get to play that role in a in in couple
lives and grandparents are known for like, oh
yeah, we break all the rules, right? You know,
confession time, you know, if there's cookies
in the house that I have access to in the morning,
James gets up with me and he's not supposed to
have cookies in the morning. And so James will
get up and he'll go, Papa, can I have a cookie?
I'm like, are you supposed to have a cookie?
And he's like, no. And I'm like, well, they didn't
say anything about it. Half a cookie. So I'll
split it with you. So we're probably not going
to have cookies accessible anymore after this.
But I mean, you have this calling not just to
be the grandparent and the fun and the rule breaker.
You're a part of the teaching, right? One of
the things I try and do with James, my grandson,
as much as I can, and I don't hit it every time,
but my intention is every time I leave the house,
I tell him I love him and I tell him Jesus loves
him because I want him to know that. His entire
life. My granddaughter, from the day she was
born, she didn't even know English yet. And I'm
like, Genesis 1 -1. In the beginning, God. Like,
honey, if you have that as your foundation. In
the beginning, God. He is it. He is number one.
And so take that concern, you know. Parents,
grandparents, whoever, picture their future in
the promises. Their future is not in Egyptian
prestige. Their future is not in how much money
you leave them. Their future is not in the practical
material things. Those things are good. I'm not
saying they're bad, but their future is beyond
that. It's the covenant destiny that they have
in the Lord. So yeah, you handle all the practical
things, sure, but don't leave out the most important
legacy to leave behind. Our kids need a vision
for the kingdom of God and they learn it from
you. So take that seriously. But above all, do
everything you can to know that Jesus is their
great shepherd. That he's the one that wants
to walk with them and guide them and teach them
and mold them and shape them and discipline them.
But he's never gonna leave them. He will be there
through every decision, good and bad. Teach them
that he is their shepherd so that they don't
learn and get to the point where they're convinced
by the devil, Jesus doesn't love me. There is
no way I could come to him. I've messed up too
much. We don't want them to mess up, but the
reality is is we cannot mess up too much to where
Jesus will not accept us and embrace us and hold
us and kiss us and love us. At the end of his
life, Jacob doesn't rehearse his achievements
or complain about the difficulties. At the end
of his life, he says, God shepherded me. The
deceiver, the manipulator, the conniver, the
complainer. What does he say at the end? God
shepherded me. Despite my mistakes, he walked
with me. Despite everything, he was there. And
if God could shepherd Jacob, he could shepherd
you. If God has shepherded you, I believe the
greatest gift that you could leave to your children,
your grandchildren, all of that, is not just
advice, but testimony. Not just advice, you need
to go to church, but no, we went to church. Not
just, you should read your Bible, but no, no,
no, you've seen me read my Bible. Not just, hey,
prioritize the kingdom because that's what matters,
but they've watched you prioritize the kingdom
because that's what matters. Tell them, he fed
me, he corrected me, he carried me, he redeemed
me. He forgave me through all the grief, through
all the detours, through all the ups, through
all the downs. But he never left me. He never
forsook me. And no matter what happens in your
life, the most important friend, the most important
companion, the most important person to have
in their life is Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's pray.
Father, we love you. God, we know that each one
of us have a time, a life, an allotment that
you've given us here on earth. And none of us
know what that allotment is, but you do. And
Lord, your word tells us to redeem the time for
the days are short. Lord, we may live. 100 years,
and that's but a vapor compared to eternity.
Help us, Lord, as we live here on this life and
work and earn and build, that we do all those
things in a godly way, and Lord, that we enjoy
entertainments and comforts that you've given
us, but we never, ever put those things on a
higher priority list than knowing you. and living
in obedience to you. Why, Lord? Because our children
are watching us. Our grandchildren are watching
us. Our nieces, our nephews, the kids in youth
ministry, whatever, they're watching us, Lord.
And they're learning from us the values that
are eternal. And so, Lord, help us to... see
Jacob's example here and to follow that example
of saying the most important thing is knowing
the God of the covenant. The God who has walked
with me. The God who will walk with you. The
God who loves you more than you can ever imagine.
The God you can always turn back to no matter
what you've done. The God who will save you ultimately
because of your faith in him. That that most
important knowledge, that our most important
truth, that our most important relationship would
be what we leave behind, that above and beyond
all of the stuff that is of the world, Lord,
that we would leave behind a relationship with
God that they would have, that they would know,
that they would walk in. And Lord, when you cross
up our plans, as you crossed up Jacob's hands,
Lord, that we would be like Jacob and just trust
in your sovereignty. Because, Lord, you are not
bound by human tradition or human convention,
Lord. And then like Joseph, Lord, here in this
world, we would honor and respect those you've
given us, Lord. Because, Lord, that is an example
of honor and respect of you, our Father in heaven.
And that, God, we would take very seriously the
calling you've given us to live the values we
want to instill. To demonstrate the obedience
that we would want to have our children know
or live in their own lives. And so, God, if we've
blown it, Lord, today, help us to change it.
Because, God, you are still shepherding us. And
so we trust you, Lord. Help us be different if
we've blown it, Lord. If we've been good, God,
thank you so much and that you would help us
to continue to instill those values, Lord, that,
God, we've been instilling. Lord, if we've got
a long way to go, may we not think that we have
time to start doing things right, but now is
the time. And, Lord, if we're at the end, God,
help us to know that you are the angel who redeems
us. That you can even redeem our lives. You could
redeem our mistakes. You could redeem all of
it as Jacob knew at the very end that he would
be able to pass on the truth that God and knowing
God is the most important thing of all. We love
you. We thank you. Help us, Lord. Bless us. Be
glorified in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Well, God bless you, church. Let's worship
the Lord.