Israel's Destiny

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we do believe that this is your word,

not merely the words of men.

And because of that, Father, we come to your word

not with the attitude of subjecting it

to our own judgments and preconceptions,

but we come to it in humility,

wanting to subject ourselves to it,

to conform our lives to it,

to be defined by it, by your truth.

So we ask, speak to us, address us, challenge us,

transform us through the preaching of your word this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen.

So we live in a world saturated with advertisements, right?

And everywhere we turn, we find marketing.

And people nowadays have become so adept at this,

nowadays they market stuff that don't even exist yet, right?

And so, I mean, we saw an example of this.

They did a really good job of this last,

or two years ago, I guess now,

leading up to the release of Star Wars Episode VII.

I don't know if you guys remember watching that movie.

The promotion was crazy.

Even the whole year before the movie even came out,

the movie was probably not even done in production,

the trailer came out,

which basically revealed nothing of the plot at all,

just a few cryptic pictures.

And then people went crazy, right?

It's just about it.

I mean, just the trailer.

And then another six months later,

they released a longer trailer

that has slightly more information,

but still leaves a lot to the imagination.

And then leading up to all that time,

they've been selling merchandise and promoting this.

So that by the time the movie came out,

the anticipation was just at a fever pitch.

I don't know if you guys remember that.

I mean, it just, it broke all kinds of,

you know, box office records.

It grossed $529 million in its opening weekend, right?

People bought tickets months ahead of time.

People bought and made costumes

so they can wear it, right,

on the night of the opening night of the movie, right?

People in our church,

some of them have lightsabers

and stormtrooper helmets, right?

So it's, the anticipation was unbelievable.

And it's kind of,

but as we get to the closing chapters of Genesis today,

this is the last sermon in Genesis,

we're at the end of the book,

but we find that the story actually doesn't end here.

It was just a teaser trailer.

It's just, it's not the end.

God had made promises to Abraham

of staggering proportions,

of national and international importance,

but at the end of Joseph's life,

we find that they still have not yet been fully fulfilled.

We've seen the first fruits of that fulfillment.

We get a taste of it,

and that's supposed to whet our appetites

and then build our anticipation

for the ultimate fulfillment that is still ahead.

And as Christians,

we have the fulfillment of God's promises

to look forward to

that far exceeds whatever the next big thing is

that this world has to offer

in grandeur,

in glory,

in beauty,

and in significance.

And that means we should,

as Christians,

be captivated by,

our hearts should be captivated by that reality,

our minds should be preoccupied by that.

And in fact,

that anticipation,

that hope we have in Christ

and the fulfillment of God's promises

should govern our lives

and constrain our lives.

And that's really the main point of this passage.

Those who possess the first fruits of God's promise

should hope in,

look forward to,

eagerly anticipate

the fulfillment of His promise.

Those who possess the first fruits of God's promise

should hope in the fulfillment of that promise.

So we're going to talk in first part

about the first fruits of the promise,

chapters 48 and 49.

And then we're going to talk about

the fulfillment of the promise in chapter 50.

And chapter 48, verse 1,

begins this way.

After this,

Joseph was told,

Behold, your father is ill.

Now the word ill

is in this context

as it does in other parts of the Old Testament,

1 Kings 14 and 1, for example.

It refers to terminal illness, right?

And so Joseph anticipates

his father's impending death.

And so he's bringing his sons with him

so that they can receive his blessing.

Now Jacob, when he sees Joseph,

kind of sends his strength.

It says, and he sits up,

and he says in verses 3 to 4,

God Almighty appeared to me at Luz

in the land of Canaan

and blessed me

and said to me,

Behold, I will make you fruitful

and multiply you,

and I will make of you

a company of peoples

and will give this land

to your offspring after you

for an everlasting possession.

And since Jacob explicitly mentions

that this is a promise

that God made to him at Luz,

we would expect these verses

to be the same

as the actual promises

that God gave to him

in Genesis 35,

which is when God appears

to him at Luz.

So that's Genesis 35, 11 to 12.

But in reality,

these are actually not exactly

the promises

that God gave to him at Luz.

It's actually kind of a combination,

a pastiche of all the promises

that God had given

to all the patriarchs before him.

So you see in verses 3 to 4,

it says,

I will make you fruitful

and multiply you,

and I will make of you

a company of people.

So that's actually a promise

that God didn't give

to Jacob at Luz,

but it was actually a promise

that God made to Isaac,

his father,

in chapter 28, verse 3.

And then the promise

of an everlasting possession

that God said to Jacob,

that was not a promise

that God gave explicitly to Jacob,

but to Abraham,

his grandfather,

in chapter 17, verse 8.

So really what Jacob

is saying here

is that all the blessings

that God had given

to his forebearers,

his forefathers,

his patriarchs,

he's standing in line

of that heritage

and saying that they all

belong to him

because that's what God

has promised to his people.

And so after recounting

what God had promised him,

Jacob then proceeds

to adopt his grandsons.

So the two grandsons

that were born to Joseph.

This formal adoption process

of grandsons

is actually well tested

in the ancient Near East.

A lot of people did that.

And the point of it

is that Jacob wants

his grandsons

to inherit his property

and all that he has

just like his other sons.

And then consequently,

what would happen after that

would be the additional sons

Joseph has

will count as Joseph's offspring.

But Manasseh and Ephraim,

the first two sons of Joseph,

will count as Jacob's sons.

And this is significant

because this is what

this is what

this is the structure

really of Israel

as a nation

because the 12 tribes

of Israel come from Jacob.

And that means

Joseph's two sons,

Ephraim and Manasseh,

will have an inheritance.

There'll be two other tribes

of the 12 tribes of Israel.

And that means

Joseph is getting

a double portion

of the blessing

which the firstborn son

was supposed to get.

So he's giving

his firstborn blessing

not to his actual firstborn

but to his firstborn

of his favorite wife,

Rachel.

So Joseph,

Ephraim,

and Manasseh

are going to be part of that.

And after expressing

his desire to adopt them,

he kind of seemingly

out of the blue

mentions his wife,

how Rachel died

on his way to Canaan.

And his rationale

seems to be,

you know,

Joseph,

your mother,

if she had lived longer,

you know,

she would have had,

she would have born

with more sons.

You know,

but she died prematurely.

And out of compassion

for your mother

who prayed

while she was,

after she gave birth to you,

may the Lord

add to me another son.

Now let me adopt

your sons

as my sons

so that they can inherit

in your place.

And so that's what

Jacob is doing.

But there's something

curious in what

Jacob is doing here

already.

It's hinting at

what's about to transpire.

He names

Ephraim first

instead of mentioning

Manasseh first.

Even though Manasseh

is the firstborn son

of Joseph.

And then

narrator informs us

in verse 10,

the eyes of Israel

were dim with age

so that he could not see.

And that explains

the curious question

he asks in verse 8.

When Israel saw

Joseph's sons,

he said,

who are these?

I mean,

you don't know

who your grandsons are,

right?

I mean,

so he knows

who they are.

I mean,

he knows the names

and he's already said

he was the one

to bless them,

but he can't see

very well.

So he wants to confirm

that before he blesses

him,

he knows exactly

who they are.

So that's what happens.

And then Joseph

brings them

to Jacob

to receive his blessing

in verse 13.

It says,

Joseph took them both,

Ephraim in his right hand

toward Israel's left hand

and Manasseh

in his left hand

toward Israel's right hand

and brought them

near him.

Right?

And so

Joseph is bringing them

in this precise configuration

to ensure

that his eldest son,

Manasseh,

gets blessed

by Jacob's right hand.

And this is

because people

across cultures

and all throughout history

have generally considered

the right hand side

to be the place

of honor

and blessing.

And sorry,

Ray,

who's left handed.

But the reason

for that

is quite simple

because most people

are right handed

in the world.

An estimated 75

to 95%

of the world population

are right handed.

And right handed people

tend to prefer things

on the right side.

So right handed preachers

look more often

toward their right side.

Right?

Right handed parents

when they are petting their kids

or kissing them

will pet,

will show their affection

to the kid on their right

lap more frequently.

When you people pack

to move,

people will put a box

where they're going to put things

that they want to keep

on the right side

and put the things

they want to discard

on the left side.

I mean,

this is just things

that we do subconsciously.

Right?

And there's an article

published

by the journal

Psychological Science

called When Left is Right.

And then researchers

report findings

that right and left handers

implicitly associate

positive ideas

like goodness

and honesty

more strongly

with their dominant

side of space,

the side on which

they can act more fluently,

and negative ideas

more strongly

with their non-dominant side.

And so what these researchers

found out is that

when people have

unilateral strokes,

so let's say

a right handed person

has a stroke

and can no longer

use his right hand,

that person,

his thinking

will also shift

with time.

So he starts

to associate

good things now

with the left side

instead of the right side.

In the same way,

when the researchers

made it difficult

to use the right side,

people started

to switch

their abstract thinking

as well

to try to associate

good things

with their fluent side.

So it's just

kind of what's happened,

this has been happening

throughout history,

across cultures,

and that's Jacob

because generally

most people

are right handed.

These patriarchs

in the same way

associated good things

with the right side

and they wanted,

so the son

that they wanted

to bless more,

they wanted to make sure

they were on the right side.

So that's what

Joseph is trying to do.

But even though

Joseph is so careful

to present his sons

in the right place,

look at what happens

next in verse 14.

And Israel

stretched out

his right hand

and laid it

on the head of Ephraim,

who was the younger,

and his left hand

on the head of Manasseh,

crossing his hands,

for Manasseh

was the firstborn.

So this is exactly

what Joseph

wanted to prevent.

So when Jacob

is in the middle

of his blessing,

Joseph is upset enough

that he interrupts him

and tries physically

to move his arms away

and put him

in the right place.

Verses 17 to 18,

it says,

When Joseph saw

that his father

laid his right hand

on the head of Ephraim,

it displeased him.

And he took his father's hand

to move it

from Ephraim's head

to Manasseh's head.

And Joseph said

to his father,

Not this way,

my father,

since this one

is the firstborn.

Put your right hand

on his head.

And displeased the word.

It suggests great anger.

Sometimes throughout Scripture,

displeasure leads to death.

I mean,

to people being killed.

So it's a great displeasure

that he's feeling,

but he's restraining himself

knowing that this is his father.

But even though

it's a little bit

betrayed by his actions

when he takes

his father's hand

forcibly and tries

to move it,

he's thinking to himself,

I mean,

this blind old man

is making this mistake

and he wants to correct it.

But Jacob insists

in verse 19,

I know,

my son,

I know.

He also shall become

a people

and he also shall be great.

Nevertheless,

his younger brother

shall be greater than me

and his offspring

shall become

a multitude of nations.

So Jacob knew

exactly

what he was doing.

And just as he,

who was the younger son,

deceived his father

and stole the firstborn's

right of his older brother Esau,

now he is intentionally

blessing Joseph's younger son,

Ephraim,

with the greater blessing.

And there are actually

several parallels

between this scene

and the scene

where Jacob steals

Isaac's blessing.

So first,

both patriarchs

were blind,

right?

So Isaac was blind.

Now here,

Jacob is blind.

And then,

it's related to that

is they blessed

the younger son.

And then once

the younger son

is blessed,

the older son protests

saying,

no,

this should not be so.

And then,

the preference

for the younger

is reaffirmed,

that blessing

cannot be reversed.

So this is a very,

closely parallel

to his earlier story

when Jacob steals

his brother Esau's

blessing.

And the blessing

of the younger son

fits a pattern

throughout the book

of Genesis,

right?

So Abel,

the younger,

was favored

over Cain

in chapter 4,

right?

Perez was preferred

over Zerah

in chapter 38.

And of course,

most famously

in chapter 27,

Jacob was preferred

over Esau.

And this rubs

against,

directly against,

the ancient Near Eastern

system of primogeniture,

which is to pass

on the inheritance

and the right of succession

to the eldest son.

The Bible intentionally

subverts that.

God intentionally

subverts that

well-attested practice.

And there's a very

specific theological

reason God does this.

And Paul explains this

in Romans 9,

10 to 16.

He says,

When Rebekah

had conceived children

by one man,

our forefather Isaac,

though they were not

yet born,

had done nothing

either good or bad,

in order that God's

purpose of election

might continue,

not because of works,

but because of him

who calls,

she was told,

the older will serve

the younger.

As it is written,

Jacob I loved,

but Esau I hated.

What shall we say then?

Is there injustice

on God's part?

By no means,

for he says to Moses,

I will have mercy

on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion

on whom I have compassion.

So then it depends

not on human exertion

or will,

but on God

who has mercy.

Right?

The reason why

God does this

in choosing,

in going against

the engineers

in the custom

of blessing the firstborn

and choosing

for himself sovereignly

the people

whom he will bless,

God's showing

that his choice,

his grace,

being part of his people,

that depends not

on human will

or exertion,

but on God's

sovereign will.

And this reality

of salvation,

that God's,

salvation is of God's

sovereign choice,

his sovereign grace,

precludes any sense

of entitlement

and pride,

and instead

it promotes humility

in all God's people's lives.

Because maybe,

maybe you think

that you're better

than most of your peers.

Right?

Maybe you're a believer

or you're not a believer,

but you think

that you live

a pretty good life.

Right?

You,

you,

let's say you

try to give to charities,

you try to obey the law,

you try to limit

your carbon footprint,

and now you think

that because you did that,

God owes you something.

You know,

well,

I'm better than these people.

Right?

I mean,

I'm,

so if anybody

can get to heaven,

I mean,

surely it should be me.

Right?

Well,

but,

but let me tell you this.

What,

what God's promising

to his people

is eternal joy,

right?

Eternal communion with him,

right?

It's eternal inheritance

in heaven,

and how can you possibly

expect to earn that?

We work for the most

of our lives

to just earn

a living wage,

and maybe if we're fortunate

to eat God of retirement,

you have to work

your whole life

to do just that.

How do you expect

to earn

God's eternal salvation

and communion with him?

You can't earn that.

It's too costly,

and not only is it

too costly to earn,

we have failed miserably

in our own attempts

to earn it.

God's chief design

and desire for us

is that we love him

and live for him,

and we have all lived

at some point

in our lives

as if God didn't exist,

as if we're not

accountable to him,

as if we're really

just living for ourselves,

and even when we have

supposedly done God's will,

we have often done so

out of fear

of his punishment,

or out of pride,

out of a desire

to lift ourselves up

in relation to other people,

or out of our own

prideful attempt

to earn our own

ticket to heaven,

right?

Not out of love for God,

not because we want

to live for God.

We can't save ourselves,

therefore we have

to humble ourselves,

and that's what this truth

about God's sovereign grace

teaches us.

And this truth

also applies

to the Christian.

If you have already

been saved,

it's not because

of your own merit.

It's because of

God's grace.

For this reason,

we as Christians

have nothing to boast about.

It precludes pride

and entitlement.

It promotes humility

because we have nothing

to boast about.

Instead of boasting

about ourselves

and our own deservingness

or worth,

we glorify God

and His grace

in saving us.

And let me give you

a couple diagnostics

to test to see

whether this is a truth

that you really grasp

or not,

because a lot of times

people,

Christians know this

in their heads

but haven't truly

grasped it in their hearts.

And there are two

telltale signs

that you haven't

really grasped this

in your sight

because Christians

who haven't grasped this

because this truth

promotes humility

tend to be prideful

and the way

that exposes itself

is legalism

in one sense.

That's the first sign.

Instead of emphasizing

God's grace,

we emphasize

our obedience.

And that means

these people,

these Christians

take obedience

really, really seriously

and then when they fail

they take it

really, really, really hard.

And often they will

design for themselves

kind of self-inflicted

punishment or penance

to make up for the wrongdoing

that they have done.

And these people

often have guilt

that lingers

and that's a sign

of this legalism

of not fully grasping

this truth.

A second telltale sign

is that this Christian

is prone to insecurity

and envy

because they connect

God's grace

with their own deservingness.

When life gets hard

and there's no obvious sign

of God's blessing

on their lives

they start to get

really insecure.

Maybe I did something wrong.

Maybe God doesn't

actually love me.

Maybe God's grace

is not actually my life.

And then when they see

other people prospering

and seeming to be

blessed by God

that either leads us

to judge them

and despise them

saying that person

doesn't deserve that.

Why is he getting this?

Or envy.

I wish I had

what that person had.

Now, recognizing

God's sovereign grace

in saving his people

delivers us

from this pride

and insecurity

and it frees us up

instead to marvel

at God's grace

not just in our lives

but in the lives

of everyone around us.

That's what this truth does.

It frees us.

And because Jacob

understands this truth

he illustrates it

in blessing Ephraim

here over Manasseh.

And then having adopted

and blessed Joseph's sons

Israel now calls

the rest of his sons

in order to bless them.

Israel is a prophet.

Israel is another name

for Jacob.

And his blessings

both look back on the past

and then look ahead

to the future.

And as Jacob blesses his sons

we see God's promises

that have been confirmed.

The first fruits

of God's promises.

But I'm not going to go through

and cover all the blessings

just because

that's going to take a while.

But there's clearly

main characters

that are blessed

in this list.

It's one of the five

major characters

that have had major plot

were involved

in major plot points

throughout Jacob's narrative.

There's Reuben,

Simeon, Levi, Judah,

and Joseph.

So I'm going to comment

on their blessings

and focus on those five sons.

And it turns out

as he blesses them

not all of Jacob's blessings

are actually blessings.

Some of them are curses.

And the sons

who dishonored him

in his life

are cursed instead.

And we see this

in verses three to four.

Jacob addresses Reuben.

Reuben,

you are my firstborn,

my might,

and the first fruits

of my strength,

preeminent in dignity

and preeminent in power.

So far, so good.

Unstable as water,

you shall not have preeminence

because you went up

to your father's bed,

then you defiled it.

He went up to my couch.

So Reuben,

as Jacob's firstborn,

was preeminent in dignity

and preeminent in power.

But then in a shocking turn,

right, Jacob turns

and continues.

He's unstable as water.

He won't have preeminence.

Right, that signals

that repetition of that word.

It signals the reversal

of his fortunes.

And narrator told us

at chapter 35, verse 22,

that Reuben went

and lay with Bilhah,

his father's concubine,

and Israel heard of it.

So at the time,

Jacob heard of it.

But at the time,

perhaps out of fear

of retaliation

from his much more

physically robust son,

he didn't do anything.

But on his deathbed,

when he knows

there's nothing he can do,

he unleashes his fury

and his fierce condemnation

of what his son had done.

And look at this.

Because you went up

to your father's bed,

then you defiled it.

He went up to my couch.

There's a threefold repetition

of what Reuben did.

He says three times

exactly what Reuben did,

almost kind of conveying

his sense of disbelief.

Can you believe

he did this?

And then while he addressed

Reuben directly

in the first two times,

he said,

you went up

to your father's bed,

then you defiled it.

In the last class,

he's telling the rest

of his sons,

because he speaks to him

in third person,

look, he went up

to my couch.

And the fact that he

used the word defile

is significant here

because that word

means to profane something

that's sacred or holy.

The word is usually

used to describe

in the Old Testament

for the profaning

of God's name

or God's temple

or God's Sabbath

or the sacrifices

or the priesthood.

So the fact that

that word is used here

to say you defiled

Jacob's marriage bed

means that marriage bed

in God's eyes

is sacred.

It's holy.

It's something

that he wants to honor.

And it's confirmed

by Hebrews 13, 4,

let marriage be held

in honor among all

and let the marriage bed

be undefiled

for God will judge

the sexually immoral

and adulterous.

God makes marriages

and because he makes marriages

he takes marriages

very seriously

because he designed marriages

to be a picture

of God's sacrificial love

for his people.

And so a marriage bed

is sanctified,

it's holy

and to violate it

is a defilement,

a profaning

of what God has said

is holy.

And because of this curse

in Reuben's line

not a single prophet

or judge or king

arises from his line.

Reuben loses preeminence

in the history of Israel.

And then having demoted Reuben,

we might expect

the blessing of the firstborn

to devolve to the next son

which is Simeon

or to the next son, Levi,

but they also

don't get to enjoy that.

Instead they get

their father's curse

in verses 5 to 7.

Simeon and Levi

are brothers,

weapons of violence

are their swords.

Let my soul

come not into their counsel.

Will my glory

be not joined

to their company

for in their anger

they killed men

and in their willfulness

they hamstrung oxen.

Cursed be their anger

for it is fierce

and their wrath

for it is cruel.

I will divide them

in Jacob

and scatter them

in Israel.

So Jacob is here

referring to

the massacre

of the Shechemites

in the town of Shechem

by Simeon and Levi.

They were angry

that their sister

was dishonored,

defiled

by having

premarital relations,

sexual relations

with an uncircumcised

Shechemite

and because of that

out of their wrath

they designed the ruse

to have those men

get circumcised

acting like they're going

to become one people

and then while they were

hobbled after circumcision

they went and killed them all.

And so that's what

Jacob is referring to here.

Simeon and Levi

are brothers,

weapons of violence

are their swords.

The word sword here

most likely refers

to the circumcision sword.

So here Jacob is saying

that they used

what should have been

a sign of the covenant,

a sign of God's blessing

to kill others

and because of that

Jacob fiercely denounces

them also.

And this prophecy

is also fulfilled.

We see that in Numbers

18 and 35

as well as Joshua 21.

The Levites,

instead of receiving

their own inheritance,

they are scattered

throughout Israel

into 48 cities

distributed throughout

all the tribal regions

of Israel.

And then similarly,

Joshua 19

tells us that

Simeonites,

instead of obtaining

their own property,

obtain a small piece

of their property

within the territory

of Judah.

So they're scattered,

dispersed,

weakened.

then after Jacob turns

to Judah,

and this is the first

blessing and one of the

most important blessings.

And in fact,

Jacob's blessing of Judah

and Joseph make up

about half of all

the blessings

in this passage.

He says in verse 8,

Judah,

your brother shall

praise you

and your hand shall be

on the neck

of your enemies.

Your father's son

shall bow down

before you.

So that means,

Judah's name

means praise.

That's his mom,

Leah,

named him so

because she said,

this time I shall

praise the Lord.

And so Judah,

that's what his name means

and he will himself

be praised.

And the word,

your hand,

also looks and sounds

very much like the word

Judah and praise.

And so there's a lot

of word plays

going on here.

And then Jacob,

it says,

Jacob says,

Judah will be like a lion.

He'll be powerful

and regal,

a royal beast.

And he says in verse 10,

the scepter shall

not depart from Judah

nor the ruler's staff

from between his feet

until tribute comes to him

and to him shall be

the obedience

of the peoples.

So from between his feet

is a euphemism

for the private parts.

So what he's saying here

is that the scepter,

the ruling,

the reign,

the kingship

will never depart

from the descendants

of Judah.

And it says

until tribute

comes to him.

Now that doesn't mean

that Judah

will stop having kings

when finally

tribute comes to him,

rather it's referring

to the culmination

of that.

Jacob will,

I mean,

Judah will continue

to have kings

in his line.

He will continue

to reign

and be preeminent

among his brothers

and that will be

culminated

at the point

when other nations

bring tribute

to him.

And obedience

of the peoples

shall be his.

This is a prophecy

that's fulfilled

in the Davidic kingdom.

David is the king

that comes from

the line of Judah.

And so this second

half of the verse 10,

in case some of you

guys are confused,

I'm going to just

take a little detour

and explain that

in verse 10

because if you're

looking at Bible

translations,

that's not English

standard version,

which is one I have,

it probably says

something different

in your Bible.

If you have the

New International

Version,

NIV,

it reads,

until he to whom

it belongs

shall come

and the obedience

of the nations

shall be his.

Some of you guys

have that.

Or if you have

the King James Version

or the New American

Standard Bible,

it says,

until he to whom,

no,

until Shiloh comes.

Some of you guys

have that?

So,

maybe I didn't even

have to mention it.

Are you guys

all using the ESV?

Okay.

Well,

you're not.

Okay.

So,

if you see that,

I want to,

I mean,

this is not,

doesn't directly tie

to the main point

I want to make,

but I do want to

build your confidence

in God's word.

And if you see

a discrepancy like that,

I want to show you why.

And the one is,

so first is,

the word for tribute

is notoriously difficult

to translate and interpret

because it only occurs

once in the entire Bible.

So,

really,

it's really guesswork.

You're trying to figure out

what it means.

And then,

and secondly,

so people who translate it

as,

until he to whom it belongs,

that's the way

they translate the word tribute.

So,

if you add one Hebrew

syllable consonant,

it changes to one

to whom it belongs.

So,

so people who translate it

that way are saying that,

okay,

it's probably a corruption

of the original manuscript.

So,

there probably used to be

this syllable in there

and that makes a lot more sense

to us.

So,

we're going to interpret it

that way.

That's what they're saying.

And the third option,

the Shiloh comes,

that's just the literal translation

because the Hebrew word

is Shiloh.

And if,

and they're understanding it

to mean Shiloh

is where the Ark of God,

which represents

the presence of God,

resided.

It's the city

where the Ark of God

was kept

before the time

of the Davidic monarchy.

So,

when David took the throne

in Jerusalem,

they brought the Ark of God

to Jerusalem.

So,

they think that it's

until Shiloh comes

means that that's the culmination

of Judah's reign

is that when Shiloh

as representing the Ark of God

that was in Shiloh

comes to him,

comes to the king.

So,

that's,

those are the kind of

three major interpretations.

You could believe

any one of them

and the reason why

is because

they all mean

the same thing

in the end

because they all refer

to the Davidic monarchy.

Like,

no matter which way

you cut it,

it all refers

to fulfillment

in the Davidic monarchy.

When David becomes king,

all of these things

are fulfilled.

The nations bring tribute

to him,

right?

The obedience

to the people

are his.

The Shiloh comes,

the Ark of God

comes to him,

and to him

who it belongs

has come.

So,

he's the one.

And so,

that's what

those discrepancies mean.

And then,

verses 11 to 12

conclude

Judah's blessings.

Binding his foal

to the vine

and his donkey's

cold to the choice vine,

he has washed

his garments

in wine

and his vesture

in the blood

of grapes.

His eyes are darker

than wine

and his teeth

whiter than milk.

Now,

the reference

to binding his donkey

on the vine

is a little obscure,

but basically,

what he's saying

is that there will be

such abundance

of wine,

and wine is considered

a sign of luxury

and prosperity.

There's such an abundance

of wine,

you could even tie

your donkey

to your vine,

not worrying

about your donkey

eating right from

your grapes

and trampling

on your vines

because there's

so much

to go around.

And that image

of prosperity

and wine

and milk

flowing

is taken up

by later writers

of the Bible

in the Old Testament

prophets

and they use that

to talk about

the Messianic kingdom.

And when the Messiah

comes and the kingdom

of God comes,

it will be like this.

So this is all

pointing to that

ultimately.

And now,

after blessing

his other sons,

Jacob at last

turns to Joseph

in verses 22 to 26

and Jacob

blesses Joseph

with fruitfulness

which is upon

an Ephraim's name

because his name

means twice fruitful

from Genesis 41, 52.

And the expectation

then is that

this blessing

on Joseph

will pass

through Ephraim

who was the one

who received

the greater blessing

from Jacob.

And then Jacob

recounts Joseph's

troubled past,

how he was,

you know,

sold into slavery

by his brothers

and imprisoned

by Potiphar.

And he talks

about that

in more abstract ways.

And then he talks

about how

the mighty one

of Jacob,

the shepherd,

the stone of Israel

helped him

through it all.

And then,

after having

recounting his past,

he blesses Joseph

and he names

every blessing

you can possibly

think of.

He lists them all.

And the word blessing

has been kind of

a key word

throughout the book

of Genesis.

And one commentator

says this is kind of

like the finale

of a fireworks display

because the word blessing

happens just again

and again

and again

and again

like just six times

in just two verses

in verses 25 to 26.

And there's a beautiful

balancing of this blessing.

It says,

right,

blessing of heaven above,

blessings of the deep

that crotches beneath,

blessings of the breasts

and of the womb.

So the word heaven

is a word play

on the word breast.

They look and sound similar.

And the word deep

is a word play

on the word womb.

So there's a beautiful

harmony here

and a balance

between basically

the male sphere

and the female sphere,

right?

So the woman can uniquely

bear and rear children,

right?

And he's saying here

that that part

will be blessed.

And he's also saying

that men are called

to till and to toil

and then that sphere

is also going to be blessed.

So Joseph is all set.

He's going to be blessed

in every single way.

And it's no surprise to us

that in the future

in Israel as a nation,

Ephraim becomes

a very strong tribe.

And when the northern tribes

of Israel,

so basically 10 of the 12 tribes

minus Judah,

basically 12 tribes

minus Judah and Levite,

separate from the Davidic monarchy

to form their own kingdom,

northern kingdom of Israel,

the first king chosen

out of that group

is an Ephraimite.

And from that point on,

every king's seat,

the royal seat of Israel

is in Ephraim's territory.

And so Ephraim becomes

kind of synonymous

with this reign

and prominence

in Israel's kingdom.

And so,

and after all of this,

verse 28 concludes

Jacob's benediction

by saying,

all these are the 12 tribes

of Israel.

This is what their father

said to them

as he blessed them,

blessing each

with the blessing

suitable to him.

And this is where

we begin to see

more clearly

the first fruits

of the promise

that God had given him.

Right?

It's the first time

in the entire Old Testament

where the 12 tribes

of Israel are mentioned.

Right?

So this,

these are not just

Jacob's 12 sons,

but they're the ones

that are going to be

the forefathers

of the entire nation

of Israel.

And that's fairly obvious

as we read the blessings.

It's not really

blessing to individuals,

but blessing to entire tribes.

And then,

and so these are

really the first fruits

of the promise

that God had given

to Abraham

being fulfilled.

He said in Genesis 12 too,

I will make of you

a great nation.

And that promise

of nation is now

beginning to be fulfilled

through his 12 sons.

And moreover,

if you look at

the previous instances

in Genesis

where the sons

of Jacob were listed,

so in Genesis 35

and Genesis 46,

in both of these occasions,

Jacob's sons

are listed

basically in accordance

with who their mothers were.

So it says sons of Leah

and they will list them

and the sons of Rachel

will list them.

And that's a very

unconventional way

to list sons in the Bible.

And it signals

that there's disunity

and division

in their family

because they're

warring against each other,

sons of Leah

and sons of Rachel.

But this here

is the first instance

when all the sons

of Jacob

are listed together

in one list

in the order of birth.

Right?

So this shows

that Jacob's family

is now united again.

They're reconciled

and now they're

going to be ready

to fulfill God's promise

of creating

a great nation

out of Israel.

So that's the first fruits

of God's promise.

And as he sees

this promise

being fulfilled

and as Joseph,

his son,

his beloved son,

is about to close

his eyes in death

as God had promised earlier,

Jacob now looks ahead

to the parts

of God's promise

that is not yet fulfilled

in Genesis 46,

3-4.

He says,

I am God,

the God of your father.

Do not be afraid

to go down to Egypt

for there I will make you

into a great nation.

I myself will go down

with you to Jacob

and I will also

bring you up again.

Bring you up again

out of Egypt.

God had promised him that.

But because

he's not,

he's still in Egypt

when he's dying,

he tells all of his sons

to take him

to the specific piece of land,

the one piece of land

that he had officially purchased

or rather his forefather,

Abram,

had officially purchased

from Mamre

to bury him there.

And the reason for this,

and of course,

I mean,

he's a very prominent figure.

Remember from last week

that Pharaoh was

paying homage to Jacob

and Jacob is really,

I mean,

his son,

Joseph,

is a vizier of Egypt.

So Jacob could have been

buried in the best property

in Egypt

wherever he wanted.

But the reason why

he specifically instructs them

to take him back to Canaan

is because he's not

staking out his claim

in Egypt,

but he's holding on

to God's promise

and saying,

that's where God promised

to give us a nation

and a place

for us to dwell.

And therefore,

I'm going to hold on to that

and hope in the fulfillment

of that promise.

And so I charge you,

my sons,

to take me back there

when I die.

So that's,

and that leads us

to our second point,

which is shorter.

And it's the fulfillment

of the promise.

So this,

we saw the first fruits

of the promise

that Jacob gets to enjoy

and now we have to see

the fulfillment

of the promise.

And in chapter 50,

now Jacob's sons

do follow through

on their father's last wish

and Joseph gets Pharaoh's permission

and then they go

and bury Jacob in Canaan.

And as they do that,

the word go up

is used seven times

and that's not just

any other word

for going somewhere.

It's rather a technical word

that's used

in the book of Exodus

referred to Israel's

exodus from Egypt.

So this is prefiguring

what is to come.

In the same way,

Jacob and his sons

are going up to Canaan

out of Egypt.

Israel,

the nation,

will go up

out of Egypt

into Canaan

at the Exodus.

And then,

and when they're done

with the burial,

however,

Joseph's brother's

old fears

just resurface.

and then,

and they're worried

that now that

their father's dead

and there's no one

to really

keep Joseph in line,

that Joseph

had been holding

a grudge against them

all along

for selling him

into slavery earlier

and now he's going

to really destroy us.

And so he's,

they're worried about that

and they act preemptively

and to,

to basically

appease

Joseph.

And then Joseph

reassures them

in verses 19 to 21.

Do not fear

for am I

in the place of God?

As for you,

you meant evil

against me

but God meant it

for good

to bring it about

that many people

should be kept alive

as they are today.

So do not fear,

I will provide for you

and your little ones.

And last week,

I explained this briefly

that how this illustrates

God's radical sovereignty

and care for his people,

right?

Because it doesn't say here

that what Joseph's brothers

meant for evil,

God used it for good.

It says that what they

meant for evil,

God meant it for good,

right?

That means it's,

God's not like this investor,

right,

who is trying to cut his losses,

minimize losses

at a time of financial downturn.

No,

he's the investor

who sovereignly knows

everything that's happening

and every downturn

and every loss

is intended

from the very beginning,

from eternity past

for good.

That's how sovereign

and mighty

and God is

and that's how he cares for us.

And so Joseph,

knowing this,

is able to graciously

forgive his brothers

and assure them

and speak companyly