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Genesis
49:13-33 “Zebulun
shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of
ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. 14
Issachar is a strong ass couching
down between two burdens: 15 and
he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and
bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. 16
Dan shall judge his people as one of the
tribes of Israel. 17 Dan
shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse
heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. 18
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad,
a troop shall overcome him: but he shall
overcome at the last. 20 Out
of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. 21
Naphtali is a hind let
loose: he given goodly words. 22
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: 23
the archers have sorely grieved him, and
shot at him, and hated him: 24
but his bow abode in strength, and the
arms of his hands were made strong by
the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from whence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel:) 25
even by
the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall
bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth
under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: 26
the blessings of thy father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills: they shall be on the
head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his
brethren. 27 Benjamin
shall ravin as a wolf: in the
morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. 28
All these are the twelve tribes
of Israel: and this is it that
their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his
blessing he blessed them. 29 And
he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is
in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30
in the cave that is in the field
of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which
Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a
buryingplace. 31 There
they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his
wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The
purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from
the children of Heth. 33 And
when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into
the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED545] “We
have journeyed as far as verse 13 in chapter 49, for those of you who were not
here with us, we are at a scene at the very end of Jacob’s life, Jacob is on
his deathbed, he has strengthened himself, sat up to prophecy over his sons, to
bless the sons of Joseph, he is both prophetic and paternal no doubt as he’s
doing this. He makes mention of some of
the weaknesses and failings of his sons, but they fall into a prophetic
scenario also. And told out to the end
it seems that God’s blessing is also there for them in the long run. So we have gone through Reuben, his oldest,
his failings, and what Jacob had to say as a blessing. Simeon and Levi, certainly their failings,
and yet there were blessings hidden in there.
Judah, no doubt thought he was in for it after listening to the others,
because of the failings he had made, but Jacob clearly seeing the Messiah
coming through the tribe of Judah. We
have come as far as Zebulun, in verse 13, Jacob filled with the Holy Spirit
speaking to his sons and to generations to come, to us this evening. Prophecy
About Zebulun In The Last Days Zebulun,
he says, now you can imagine each son as he’s going according to their age, as
it gets to them, I’m sure there’s a little bit of trepidation hearing about,
you know he kind of really gave it to some of his older sons there. “Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the
sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships; and his border shall be
unto Zidon.” (verse 13) Now the
border was not ever extended to Zebulun as a tribe, they never fought the
battles to extend their border all the way to Zidon. Some of this, no doubt, looking down to the
[Millennial] Kingdom when the tribes are allotted their portions. But Zebulun was up in the north, Zebulun did
enjoy a trade route, though they were not seamen as far as their own shipping,
yet the route that came in from the Mediterranean went right through Zebulun
down to the Sea of Galilee and then on to Damascus, so they enjoyed the trade
of the sea, and of the merchantmen of the sea.
[Later on, when the 10 northern tribes broke off from the southern tribe
of Judah, Zebulun along with the other 9 northern tribes inherited the
mercantile treaty between the House of Israel and the Phoenician empire
headquartered in Tyre and Zidon.] No
doubt some of that is what Jacob is seeing as he looks at Zebulun, and no doubt
he’s seeing some things we’re yet to see ahead of us. [Steven Collins in his book “Israel’s
Tribes Today,” on pages 198 through page 201 shows strong evidence Zebulun
became the Netherlands, land of the Dutch, a heaven for ships, Europe’s biggest
seaport being Rotterdam. As we’ll see,
from being a mere tribe to becoming a nation, fitting Jacob’s description for
Zebulun, as these tribes were clearly prophecied to become nations.] Prophecy
About Issachar In The Last Days “Issachar
is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: and he saw that rest was good, and the
land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a
servant unto tribute.” (verses 15-16) So
is his son standing there thinking ‘Oh I wonder what he’s going to say about
me?’ ‘Issachar, you’re a strong
donkey,’ ‘Oh great, dad, appreciate that.’
Issachar, their lot fell out in the Jezreel Valley, the Valley of
Armageddon, ‘he saw that rest was good, and the land, that is was
pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto
tribute.’ Now it’s interesting,
because Issachar there had this beautiful, lush, fertile valley, the Jezreel
Valley falls out to them. They bowed
their shoulder to bear, he says, they become a servant, because the Via Mare,
the Way of the Sea, the Way of the Kings went right through that valley, they
would fall into the hands of different empires, the Assyrians, Egyptians,
Babylonians and so forth, and because they were right in the middle of the Via
Mare, the trade route, Issachar ended up paying tribute to a number of
different governments just because of their location. But Issachar again, as we move on, in
Deuteronomy 33 we hear of Joshua when the land falls out by the lots, we are
going to hear some better things certainly about Issachar, but we know in the
days of David, it says ‘the men of Issachar were men who understood the
times, and they knew what Israel should do.’ So they become faithful to David, Issachar
has some great things in their future. [Steven Collins in his book “Israel’s Tribes Today,” on
pages 206 through page 208 shows strong linguistic evidence and historic
evidence that Issachar became the nation of Finland.] Prophecy
About Dan In The Last Days Dan,
verse 16, “Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder
in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall
backward. I have waited for thy
salvation, O LORD.”
(verses 16-18) And
of course Samson is from the tribe of Dan, one of the most dominant judges that
the nation would see. Ah, “Dan shall
judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder” a
poisonous snake “in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider
shall fall backward.” I wonder if Dan is appreciating this from his old
dad. ‘What a blessing, dad.’ And then he comes out with this statement
‘I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.’
we don’t know if he comes out with that because Dan is so depressing, or if he
comes out with that just as a positive ending to Dan, some feel he comes out
with that because [they feel] the anti-christ will come from the tribe of Dan. We don’t know that for sure, because of the
mention of the serpent and so forth here.
Dan is omitted in Revelation chapter 7 where there’s 12,000 from each of
the 12 tribes chosen. But in Ezekiel
chapter 48, where we have the division of the land to the 12 tribes, Dan is given
a portion during the Millennial Kingdom Age.
So certainly here, some reflections of Samson, being a strong judge,
being a serpent, poisonous, in some ways. Remember Dan down there by the area of the
Philistines [Joppa], their original inheritance would even have taken in the
port of Joppa, but Dan never, after Samson, really overcame the Philistine
adversity, they were always being attacked, so in the days of the Judges they
would end up leaving, and move up to Lachish, and they would overtake that city
and murder everyone, and move up there.
You hear the statement in the Bible “from Dan to Beersheba,” Dan ends up
relocated up in the north where they should not have been, wanting something
that hadn’t been God’s lot for them, there’s certainly a lesson there, and
idolatry originates in Israel largely through Dan, then even under Jeroboam it
says Bethel and Dan is where golden calves were set up. So Dan, poisonous to the nation, in that
sense, making it certainly fall back, we can look at that. And then this burst comes out of Jacob on his
deathbed, “I have waited for thy” literally “Yeshua” which is
Hebrew for Salvation, Greek the word is “Jesus,” the word is “salvation” and
it’s the first mention in the Bible, first time the word “salvation” is used,
and it’s in the context of Dan, it’s interesting. Just imagine Jacob, all of a sudden after
kind of giving Dan the business, looks up and says “I have waited for thy
salvation, O LORD.” [Steven Collins in his book “Israel’s
Tribes Today,” on pages 214 through page 218 shows tremendous historic
evidence that Dan became the nations of Ireland and Denmark, both of which were
brutally warlike in their early history.
The ancient Gaelic name of Ireland, as taught even today in their school
history books is Tuatha de Danaan, which is Gaelic for Tribe
of Dan. The Danish viking kings
in the early 800s AD raided and almost conquered all of England, with the
exception of the kingdom of Wessex to the south, where England’s first king of
note, Alfred the Great, withstood them, and after 300 years of brutal warfare,
the two races assimilated. [The BBC
series based on Bernard Cornwell’s book series titled “The Last Kingdom” is all
about the history of the near total Danish-viking conquest of England.] Ireland, even up to the time of “the troubles”
between England and Ireland in the 1960s, show through the I.R.A. how Ireland,
Dan, lives up to the prophecy of being ‘a serpent by the way, an adder
that bites the heel of the horses to make it’s rider fall backward.’ Other than Judah, the Jews, Dan is the only
other tribe out of the 10 northern tribes that is so clearly identified in
secular history as being the Danish and Ireland, two racially linked nations. The historic description of how then end up
there Steven Collins gives in his book, pages 214 through 217.] Prophecy
About Gad In The Last Days Gad,
I wonder if Gad’s thinking ‘It’s my turn.’
“Gad, a troop shall overcome him:
but he shall overcome at the last.” (verse 19) ‘Great, dad, what encouraging
news.’ Remember, Reuben and Gad and
half the tribe of Manasseh would not enter into the Promised Land, they would
take their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River, so Gad was always
a territory that would be under attack by the Assyrians, by different tribes,
but it says at the last here, Gad in fact would exert themselves, they would
have victory at the last, but they would be overcome at times. Interesting, short picture of Gad, we would
get more from the mouth of Moses and the lots during Joshua’s time,
interesting. [Steven Collins in his book
“Israel’s Tribes Today,” on pages 218 through page 222 shows who he
believes Gad became as a nation.] Prophecy
About Asher In The Last Days Now
verse 20, the tribe of Asher, “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,
and he shall yield royal dainties.” (verse 20)
he’s going to have a bakery, I don’t know. The area of Asher, certainly famous for
productivity, the olive groves and vineyards, and we’ll hear further on that
Asher will dip his foot in oil, we’ll talk about that when we get there, if the
Lord has tarried and hasn’t straightened it all out for us by then. But out of Asher, his bread shall be fat,
lush, productive area of the country, and he shall yield royal dainties. [Steven Collins in his book “Israel’s
Tribes Today,” on pages 202 to 205 gives historic evidence that points to
Asher becoming the Union of South Africa.
Some of these I’m not sure about, we’ll see for sure on all of these
prophecies, which must have been fulfilled, at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb
(cf. Revelation 19:7-9).] Prophecy
About Naphtali In The Last Days “Naphtali
is a hind” a deer, “let
loose: he giveth goodly words.” (verse
21) And in Judges 5:18 we hear some
good things from Naphtali, Naphtali is involved with some of the battles with
Cicera and so forth. Interesting, you
know, look, we have some of the major failures, like Reuben, Simeon and Levi
that are more famous, we hear about them as God is speaking, pronouncing on
their lives. We have some of them that
are famous in regards to notoriety, Judah, and when we get to the tribe of
Joseph, some remarkable things. But we
have some of them that seem more obscure.
The important thing is, you know, most of us live our lives that way,
but then the Lord takes note, he takes note of our service, he takes note of
the work of the Spirit in our lives, of our yielding to him, certainly every
man is rewarded according to his works.
Salvation is a free gift, it is not a work, we are saved. But it says some of us, when our works are
tried, they’ll endure the fire like gold and silver and precious stones, and yet
some believers, it says their works will be burnt up as wood, hey and stubble,
but the soul itself shall be saved. So
it’s interesting to see here, even those we would consider obscure, that we
don’t know very much about [and this goes for who they became as nations, where
the best we can do is historically guess, and that’s it], God has something to
say to each of them, and has recognized some things about them. Even as we read this here, Naphtali is a hind
let loose, there was something about Naphtali that was like a deer, running
through the hills, there was just something in his nature. And then it says “he giveth goodly
words.” So a picture maybe the way
God takes note of our walk and our talk, that they’re consistent with one
another. [Steven Collins in his book “Israel’s
Tribes Today,” on pages 209 through 210 gives historic evidence that the
tribe of Naphtali became the nation of Sweden.
It’s interesting that it appears the Nordic nations of Finland, Sweden
and Norway all had viking origins, and that historically, the Finish vikings
maintained a trade route from Finland to the Black Sea, up and down the rivers
in Russia. Finnish forts and wrecks of
longboats have been found buried in the mud of some of these rivers, showing
the tribes that became these nations, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
Holland, all are grouped close to each other, and could have taken this
backdoor route into northwestern Europe.
As Stephen Collins documents, they all had Israelite origins in their linguistics
and some of their artifacts discovered in their tombs and graves.] Prophecy
About Joseph In The Last Days Joseph
now, is the longest blessing here given, because it takes in Ephraim and
Manasseh. “Joseph is a
fruitful bough,” Ephraim means “fruitful,” “even a fruitful bough
by a well; whose branches run over the wall: the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot
at him, and hated him: but his
bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands
of the mighty God of Jacob; (from whence is the shepherd, the
stone of Israel:) even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee;
and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the
womb: the blessings of thy father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills: they shall be on the
head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his
brethren.” (verses 22-26) Of course “blessed
is the man,” and this is such a picture of Joseph, “that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
he doth meditate on it day and night, he shall be like a tree planted by the
river of water, it shall bring forth it’s fruit in season, it’s leaf also shall
not wither, all he does shall prosper.” It’s reflected in Psalm 1,
Joseph is a fruitful bough, he’s fruitful, because he hadn’t sat in the seat of
the scornful, he hadn’t walked in the counsel of the ungodly. With the most difficult things he went
through he remained true to God, without a New Testament…without so many of the
advantages that we have, Joseph was a man that had stayed true to God, he
hadn’t been vindicative and so forth. It
says that he’s a fruitful bough, and the source of that is, it’s planted by a
well, like a tree planted by rivers of water, there is always, and the word
“well” there is “a fountain.” When you
go to Israel, you go to the Middle East, you go somewhere where there’s palm
trees, once in a while you’ll see one that’s taller than the others, and if you
ask if it’s a different kind of tree, they’ll say ‘No, that one hit a
spring.’ And the palms they say love
to have their heads in the heat and their feet in the spring, that’s how they
flourish, cooked up top in the hot sun in the desert, and have their feet down
in a well, they’re happy. And it’s a
picture of Joseph like that, a fruitful bough that hangs over a wall, that has
his own spring, his own water source, and certainly he found that in the LORD,
with his branches running over the wall.
“the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and
hated him:” Now, you won’t find any
specific record of archers, as it were in his life. But the arrows, many times in Scripture, are
used of the tongue, used of the attitude, and certainly Joseph in that sense,
hated of his brothers, sold down into Egypt, Potiphar’s, Potiphar’s wife
accuses him, he gets thrown into prison, it says they shot at time, years in
bondage, he was persecuted, “but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of
his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;
(from whence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)” so it gives us
this interesting picture. He was under
fire. Remember David, he was anointed to
be king at 17, and it wasn’t till he was 30 that he had the united kingdom, the
north and the south under him, it was years before he finally took the thrown,
before he was the king he had been anointed to be. And Joseph was given the dream, God had the
plan for his life, but there were years and years of refining, Psalm 105 said
it was there in Egypt when he was in fetters that he learn humility, and iron
was put into his soul, those years of hardship.
And here it describes it as being shot at by archers. You know, again, imagine 17 years or however
long, of everything going wrong, you’re doing what’s right for God, you refuse
to compromise, you refuse to sin, and everything seems to go the wrong
way. And it says, yet in that situation,
when archers were shooting at him, it says “his hands were made strong” now
it’s a Hebrew phrase that means “they were made supple, they were accurate,
they were at ease,” it was because of the hands of the mighty God of
Jacob. [Pastor Joe is looking back,
historically, at Joseph’s life, when Jacob said in verse 1 “that I
may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.” i.e. these are prophecies about who each
tribe would become “in the last days.”
We’ve seen who Ephraim and Manasseh were prophecied to become, “a
nation, one great nation, and a company of nations,” not merely one tribe and a
company of tribes. So Joseph is being
viewed collectively as Ephraim & Manasseh, who they would become “in the
last days,” and that they as nations, would be shot at by archers. This points to being shot at in major
wars. We all know that Daniel was given
prophecies about major nations that would become Gentile world empires,
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire, divided four ways at
his death, and the Roman Empire, and then it’s subsequent 9 resurrections, and
one more prophecied to come. So why is
it so hard to recognize that these prophecies given under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, through Jacob, pointing to the “last days” can’t be about
nations as well? Pastor Joe’s
interpretation is Biblical, as far as it goes, but remains inside the context
of Old Testament history, and not prophecies for the future, end times, as
Jacob said they would be about.] What it
says is this, you guys have watched battle scenes, Braveheart, and you look at
that, you have to understand how you felt after five minutes of fighting,
swinging an ax or a sword. Any of you
ever here ever box, you watch it on television, you have no idea what three
minutes in there are like getting pounded by somebody else is like, it just
seems like hours, the fight, ten rounds, twelve rounds is remarkable. These guys could get in a battle, and to
fight for long periods of time with a sword or an ax and a shield is really,
the amount of energy that is exerted is unthinkable to us. And for the archers, it was twenty minutes,
fifteen minutes before the bow was already starting to shake from the stress of
constantly pulling back the tension on the bow.
It says it was not like that, when he was under fire, when things were
going wrong in his life, when he was being accused falsely, he didn’t fall apart,
he wasn’t stressed out, he remained supple, he was able to aim, pulled back on
the arrow, it was accurate, it was smooth, it says he was being strengthened by
the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.
That was the well, the fountain that he was able to draw from and remain
fruitful, even in the most difficult of circumstances. And we read that, but you know for all of us,
for me, for all of us, it seems as time goes, as the years go by, you learn to
trust the Lord. You know, I look at
Joseph’s life, and say ‘Lord, give me the correspondence course,’ I love
the chapters, I love this Joseph story, I don’t want to do the lab work, can’t
I just learn from studying the chapters?
But so often God takes us through those circumstances, and it’s in those
places that we learn to rely on his strength.
We get put into the place where our own strength starts to fail, and
then we think ‘Lord, what I believe, is it real? Was it just profession? Are you there?’ and all of those things
are being tested out, and we find how gracious he is and how faithful he is,
that he never leaves us or forsakes us, and we find in those times, it’s in our
weakness that his strength is made perfect, as Paul says. And Joseph discovered that, his hands
remained supple because he was in the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob. And from thence, from the Mighty God of Jacob
comes the shepherd, we love that, “the Lord is my shepherd,” “the rock, the
stone of Israel,” “even by the God of thy father, who shall help
thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the
womb: the blessings of thy father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills: they shall be on the
head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his
brethren.” (verses 25-26) This is
what he says, “Joseph, the blessing of thy father” now this is the one who is
speaking to Joseph, “thy father,” he’s saying “the blessing that I, Jacob, am
pronouncing upon you, is prevailing above the blessing of my progenitors unto
the utmost bound of the everlasting hills:”
‘Joseph, the blessing I’m pronouncing on you is greater than the
blessing that my father, Isaac, pronounced upon me, and it’s greater than the
blessing that his father, Abraham, pronounced upon him. These blessings I’m pronouncing on you,’ he
says ‘go unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills.’ “they shall be on the head of Joseph, and
on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.” (verse
26b) And of course Ephraim, Manasseh
become the major tribes in Israel, Joshua, Deborah, Samuel all come from the
tribe of Ephraim, Gideon, Jephtha come from the tribe of Manasseh, God’s
blessing certainly on Joseph’s line. [We
have seen at the end of the previous chapter that these prophecies about Joseph
and his two sons, Ephraim & Manasseh, and now all these prophecies for
Jacob’s other 11 sons are for “the last days.”
That’s now, that’s historically from about the year 1800 to now, when
Ephraim became a great company of nations, and Manasseh became one great
nation, both of them becoming world superpowers. That’s the full intent of this prophecy about
Joseph. In Steven Collins book “Israel’s
Tribes Today,” read from pages 154 to 189 for the historic context proving
from another source just who Ephraim and Manasseh are today, and how they
became a great company of nations and one great nation. Pastor Joe is pointing to the Old Testament
historic inheritance of Ephraim and Manasseh in the Promised Land under Joshua
and the Judges period of Israel’s history, and not who they became “in the last
days.” He has focused on their early
past, and not present inheritance of God’s blessings through Jacob on them.] Prophecy
About Benjamin In The Last Days The
last now is Benjamin, Benjamin, the son of his right hand, the one who was born
while Rachel died, ah, interesting “Benjamin shall ravin as a
wolf: in the morning he shall devour the
prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.” (verse 27) Benjamin must be thinking ‘Dad, I’m
your favourite, I’m the one you didn’t want to lose, I’m the one you didn’t
want to send down to Egypt, remember?’ “Benjamin
shall ravin as a wolf: in the
morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.”
(verse 27) Benjamin develops a
reputation of a tough tribe, that’s for sure [again, Pastor Joe is only
looking, historically, as far as what they became as tribes, and not to later
times in history]. We have at least one
ravenous king, and many others coming in the Old Testament, who was Saul, the
first king of Israel, who was powerful in many ways. And of course we have from the tribe of
Benjamin [the southern half of Benjamin that stayed with Judah after the
Assyrian captivity of the northern 10 tribes, where the upper half of Benjamin
went into Assyrian captivity and disappeared from historic view] Saul of Tarsus
in the New Testament, who slaughtered the Church and made men and women
blaspheme the name of Jesus until the day that the Lord converted him. So Benjamin, an interesting picture, known
for their toughness, Jerusalem actually falling in their territory, Benjamin
fought many battles protecting the most sacred places in the land, were finally
absorbed into Judah [the lower half of Benjamin was absorbed into Judah, the
upper half of the tribe went into Assyrian captivity], and the southern area of
Judah contained Benjamin, part of Simeon properly called Judah then. So, interesting blessing pronounced on
Benjamim, and we’ll see more of that as we work our way through the Old
Testament. [From Steven Collins book “Israel’s
Tribes Today,” on pages 211-213 covers the tribe of Benjamin through Old
Testament history, and then to the present, showing Benjamin’s “blessing”
points to them becoming Norway, initially the Norwegian vikings, who often,
along with the Danish, Finnish and Swedish vikings, raided England and much of
northwestern Europe along their coasts.]
Jacob
Instructs His Sons About Where He Wants To Be Buried, And Dies “All
these are the twelve tribes of Israel:
and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed
them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.” (verse 28) And that’s the first time in the Bible you
have the phrase “Twelve tribes of Israel,” and that’s the 12 tribes of Jacob,
we’re given his name was “one governed by God.”
“And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my
people: bury me with my fathers in the
cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is
in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan,
which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a
buryingplace. There they buried Abraham
and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife;” and
isn’t it interesting, “and there I buried Leah.” (verses 29-31) You would think he would say “there I buried
Rachel,” who is the one he loved so dearly.
Here’s a man that could have had a pyramid in Egypt, no doubt. He is the father of the second most powerful
man in the world, and instead he says ‘No, promise me this, carry me up
there, when the morning comes and it’s time for my resurrection, I want to get
up with grandpa and grandma and my mom and dad,’ and interestingly, ‘with
Leah,’ the one he had, I think so kind of rejected in the beginning, he was
not appreciative of what Laban had done, he had despised her, she didn’t in his
eyes find favour, and yet I think he realizes as life goes on, and this is the
first time we really hear about Leah’s death, I think he realized as time went
on, and Judah began to be magnified in his eyes, that he said ‘This is the
mother of the Messiah, I mean, I will always love Rachel, she’ll always be the
love of my life, but Leah is the one who gave birth to Judah, who is the one of
whom the Messiah comes,’ and he says ‘I want to be buried with
them.’ “The purchase of the field
and of the cave that is therein was from the children of
Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of
commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the
ghost, and was gathered unto his people.” (verses 32-33) He let go, he’d been holding on. Again, as we come to Hebrews chapter 11,
of all of the different circumstances of his life, when it picks out the point
where he is most to be honoured for his faith it says “Jacob, when he was
dying, blessed the sons of Joseph, he worshipped leaning upon the top of his
staff.” It was that staff he said ‘when
I came over Jordan, it was all that I had, now I have become two bands,’ God
had blessed him, and now he’s passing over, as it were, another boundary, no
doubt he sat up in bed, he let go of his staff, it probably clanked on the
floor, said ‘Good bye,’ released his spirit, gave up the ghost, let
go. And ‘bury me with Abraham,
Sarah, and with Isaac and Rebekah my mom and dad, and with Leah.’ And then he pulled his feet up into
the bed and he went and was gathered unto his people. His body would be buried there in Machpelah,
but his spirit immediately went to be with Abraham and Sarah, his mom, his dad,
Leah, and most of all certainly Rachel waiting for him on the other side. But what a remarkable scene. Moving on, what a way to go, what a way to
go. And if God allows us dignity, what a
wonderful thing, to sit up on the edge of your bed, prophecy over all your
kids, and to pull your feet up into the bed and say ‘See ya later, see ya in
the morning,’ and to be gone, without fear, without terror, with dignity,
what a wonderful gracious picture. related
links: To
order Israel’s Lost Tribes Today, look up on Amazon
“Israel-Tribes-Today-Steven-Collins”. Also these books by Yair Davidiy, a Jewish
Israeli author, “The Tribes,” “Ephraim,” “Joseph,” and “Lost
Israelite Identity.” also available on Amazon. Genesis
50:1-26 “And
Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2
And Joseph commanded his servants the
physicians to embalm his father: and the
physicians embalmed Israel. 3 And
forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which
are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned
for him threescore and ten days. 4
And when the days of his mourning were
past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace
in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5
My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I
die: in my grave which I have digged for
me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and
bury my father, and I will come again. 6
And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy
father, according as he made thee swear. 7
And Joseph went up to bury his
father: and with him went up all the
servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of
Egypt, 8 and
all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and
their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9
And there went up with him both chariots
and horsemen: and it was a very great
company. 10 And
they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and
there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven
days. 11 And
when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor
of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called
Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. 12
And his sons did unto him according as
he commanded them: 13 for
his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the
field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a
buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14
And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and
his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had
buried his father. 15 And
when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will
peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him. 16 And
they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he
died, saying, 17 So
shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy
brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass
of the servants of God of thy father.
And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18
And his brethren also went and fell down
before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. 19
And Joseph said unto them, Fear
not: for am I in the place of
God? 20 But
as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to
bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21
Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little
ones. And he comforted them, and spake
kindly unto them. 22 And
Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. 23
And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the
third generation: the children of
Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I
die: and God will surely visit you, and
bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob. 25
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely
visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26
So Joseph died, being an hundred
and ten years old: and they embalmed
him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” The
Burial Of Jacob “And
Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.” (verse
1) Joseph
is an emotional human being, this is the sixth time we’re told that he weeps,
we’re going to be told it one more time.
In Psalm 56 it says God takes note of all of our tears, that all of our
tears are kept on record, he keeps them in a bottle. And here it tells us for the sixth time we
have here Joseph falls apart, and when he cries everybody knows, he’s not
ashamed to let his emotion out. The
Hebrew people, the Middle Eastern people today, not afraid to cry out loud
[they’re all children of Abraham, Ishmaelites and Hebrew alike] and let their
emotion out. He falls upon his father
and he sobs, any of you who have lost a dad, lost a mom, you know some of the
emotion here. The emotion is God given,
it’s the right thing to do at this point in time. “And Joseph commanded his servants the
physicians to embalm his father: and the
physicians embalmed Israel.” (verse 2) now
it’s interesting, the physicians. Now he
didn’t ask for the priests to do this, who were normally part of the embalming
process, because the priests as they went through the embalming, which took 40
days, would sometimes call on the names of their gods and so forth. Joseph had his own doctors, it was cheaper
than having Blue Cross and Blue Shield to have your own doctor, and Joseph
could afford it, so he had his own doctors, and he has his physicians take care
of this. And it records a remarkable
process where they would actually draw the brain out through the sinuses, the
Egyptians had perfected it. I know
you’re thinking ‘My husband’s brain could fit through his sinuses.’ They would get it out in pieces, they
would get the whole thing out, and then they’d make a small slit on the left
side, and they would take out all of the intestines, the stomach, they would
leave the heart, and I believe the kidneys, they would leave a few things in
there, and then the person was stuffed with myrrh and cassia and all kinds of
spices, filled up the abdomen, and then they would take them and soak them in a
solution for 40 days, we’re not exactly sure of everything that was in that…but
they’d be wrapped in a linen that was soaked in gum, a natural gum from the
area, and some of those, they unwrap them today and they’re still in pretty
good shape. So it was a long
process. And it’s going to tell us that
they mourned for Jacob for 70 days. The
natural mourning period, the official mourning period for the Pharaoh was 72
days, so the whole nation mourns for Jacob for 70 days, you can imagine what
regard they held this man in, in Egypt, it was his son who had spared their
lives, who had caused them to prosper and to live when the rest of the world
had died in the famine and the things that had come. He says he “commanded his servants the
physicians to embalm his father: and the
physicians embalmed Israel. And forty
days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are
embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for
him threescore and ten days.” (verses 2-3) two and a half months, 70 days
they’re mourning, Egypt is mourning for Jacob, imagine. “And when the days of his mourning were
past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace
in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,” (verse 4) and
we’re not sure why, in verse 4, Joseph doesn’t go directly to Pharaoh, because
he had said ‘God has made me a father to Pharaoh,’ he was Pharaoh’s
favourite, undoubtedly, possibly he’s defiled from being with his dead father,
there’s some reason here we’re not certain of why Joseph himself doesn’t go
directly to Pharaoh, but it says “when the days of his mourning were past,
Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in
your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me
swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave
which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury
me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray
thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father,
according as he made thee swear.” (verses 4-6) So, interesting to watch, we’re going to see
Joseph do the same thing, making these preparations for the end of his own
life. I think it’s important for
everybody in this room to have a will, those of you with small children, you
should all have a will, because the State [of Pennsylvania, where he’s
preaching from] will take them if you don’t have a will, your relatives don’t
automatically get them. And more
importantly, on the spiritual side, Jacob when it’s time to go, pulls his feet
up into the bed, he blasts off without any fear. A lot of people in this world make
preparations for all kinds of things, for their vacations, for retirement, you
know, we have people just in denial today, they can get nipped and tucked, and
dyed and new teeth and glass eyes, you know, you can fight the battle as long
as you want, but at some day, you’re just going to look great when you die,
it’s a loosing battle. But everybody in
this room, at least, should be encouraged to make that preparation, everybody
whose saved has, everybody here tonight who has not asked Christ to forgive
their sins, have you made preparation for eternity? Are you ready to slip through to the other
side? Because eternity’s on the other
side. However fast this life is, Jacob
lives to be 147 years old, that’s nothing compared to how long he’s been gone,
this was thousands of years ago. What’s
on the other side, have you made preparation for that? Have you asked God’s forgiveness? If you want to slip into the presence of a
God that is completely holy, the Bible says he cannot look upon sin, he can’t
allow any darkness in his presence, where he dwells in unapproachable
light. We can never do that ourselves,
we can never do it by religion, religion from the Latin “religari,” it means to
relink, and religion is man’s attempt to relink with a holy God, with
eternity. And man can’t do that. You know, you can tell me ‘I ain’t like
that guy, that guy was a heroine addict, running with prostitutes, and I did
this,’ you know, we’re talking about eternity. You see these guys jump across the Grand
Canyon with a motorcycle with a rocket on the back [Evil Kinieval tried that],
with a big ramp, well this is like jumping across the Pacific Ocean. You may say that guy’s on a skateboard, he
was a junkie and he was this, me, I’ve got a rocket on my motorcycle. You ain’t getting across the Pacific Ocean. In the measurement of things, you ain’t going
to look like you got any further, that’s foolishness, that’s the way religion
is, we measure ourselves against other people.
The assurance that we want is in Christ.
Buddha is in a pot in a temple, and Mohammad is in his tomb, Zoroaster
is in his tomb, but there’s an empty tomb in Jerusalem, Jesus got up on the 3rd
day, and he’s the one that told us what we need to do to be ready for eternity,
and that is, that because we’re humans we need forgiveness, not a perfect path,
we’ll never follow it, we need forgiveness.
We don’t deserve forgiveness, we can never earn forgiveness. Forgiveness comes at the cost of someone
else. Forgiveness comes because an
innocent substitute died in our place, and that is received by faith, by going
to God the Father and saying ‘Father, I believe that your Son Jesus died
for my sins, and I accept that, that it is done, and I trust you with it. I commit my eternal destiny in your
hands.’ We make preparations for
all kinds of things in this world, graduations, retirements. How many people go through life and it goes by
so fast, and they never make preparation for eternity? I encourage you, you can do that before you
leave here this evening, and we’ll move on here. Pharaoh said, verse 6, ‘Go on up, bury
your father according to the things that he made you sware,’ “And Joseph
went up to bury his father:” and look at this, please notice, “and with
him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the
elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and
his father’s house: only their little
ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.”
(verses 7-8) you can imagine, here comes up out of Egypt, across Sinai and
up on the eastern shore evidently up to the Jordan River this massive group of
people, with chariots and with horses, drawing this coffin, this sarcophagus,
some kind of a wooden coffin on this litter, with Egyptian painting on the
outside of it, and Jacob’s in there embalmed, all of these royal officials, and
there’s enough of a military presence that no Canaanite in his right mind would
think of doing anything. And it’s going
to tell us, they’re astounded as they see this coming. This is the first time in 39 years that
Joseph goes back into the land. When he
left the land he was carried by Ishmaelites in a caravan, now the first time
back he’s in caravan, but he’s leading the caravan with the Egyptian army and
all of the royalty of Pharaoh’s house, a remarkable scene as he comes back to
put his father in the tomb. All, it
says, all, interesting, “and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and
his father’s house: only their little
ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.”
(verse 8) perhaps the journey too
difficult, or just a token to Pharaoh that they would be back, “And there
went up with him both chariots and horsemen:
and it was a very great company.
And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond
Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven
days.” (verses 9-10) So this huge entourage
pulls up, they circle in some ways, some feel this was a threshingfloor here,
it was a large threshingfloor where the center of the mourning could take
place, and all of the locals saw this and are staggered. And here’s Jacob, the one we look at who was
the scoundrel, the conniver, you think Abraham was more noble, and Isaac was
more noble, but here’s the one, Jacob, and God is most often called the God of
Jacob, at the end of his life was so yielded, so acknowledging of the God of
Abraham and Isaac, here’s the one that’s brought embalmed, in royalty with all
of Egypt accompanying him to bring him up, this shepherd, this simple shepherd
with the burial of a king, you know, royal burial. “And when the inhabitants of the land, the
Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a
grievous mourning to the Egyptians:
wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond
Jordan.” (verse 11) “Abel-mizraim” the buryingplace of the Egyptians, or
the mourningplace of the Egyptians. “And
his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: for his sons carried him into the land of
Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham
bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite,
before Mamre.” (verses 12-13) So
evidently what happened is, the 12 sons of Jacob then must cross over the
Jordan with their father’s coffin, and then move up into the territory of Heth
to the cave by Machpelah were they intern the coffin, they place the coffin
there. Now no doubt Abraham’s bones were
there, it’s a tomb. Isaac’s bones are
there. Quite often they’d call it a
sarcophagus, sarcophagus means “flesh eater,” because of the humidity in the
land and so forth, within a few years, where you laid the body there was
nothing but bones, and they would scrape the bones together and put them in a
pot, and the place would be empty for the next one. So, interesting there, in Hebron, where
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried, it seems like one of them is still in
pretty good shape there, and the rest of them are bones, but there’s a mummy
there, not a daddy, a mummy there in that tomb, royally embalmed, Jacob,
interesting. “And his sons did unto
him according as he commanded them: for
his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the
field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a
buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.” (verses 12-13) Joseph’s
Brothers Fear He’s Going To Seek Vengeance Against Them “And
Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him
to bury his father, after he had buried his father.” (verse 14) he
had longed to see the land of Canaan again, where he had been brought up, but
it simply says “Joseph returns to Egypt,” he will be there for 54 more
years. Joseph knows that’s where God has
placed him. Because he’s going to give
instructions that he will be buried also up there in Shechem, but Joseph knows,
even though his heart was there in Canaan, he was very aware of the fact that
God had called him to Egypt and that his work was not done there, so it simply
says, and I’m sure it was with some heartache, it says “Joseph returned to
Egypt, he, and his brethren, all that that went up with him to bury his father,
after he had buried his father.” (verse 14) Now he gets back to work, I think long
and prolonged mourning, it’s a very difficult thing. If we know we have left go the life of a
believer, we need to get back to work.
Jacob was still ministering through Joseph, through his sons. His physical life was over, his ministry was
not over, and when we let go of a loved one, if we believe they are where they
are, if we believe that we have a limited time in this world, if we believe
those things, then we get our hand back to the plow, we get back to work. We know we’re going to see them again, but we
can’t live defeated lives. It’s painful,
it hurts, once in awhile I think of my dad, I get ambushed, I’ll smell a smell,
I’ll see an ad in the catalogue when you least expect it, like Candid Camera,
all of a sudden, boom! I get ambushed. I was sitting with my wife, watching a
Hallmark movie, and here comes this sailor home from World War II, and I
remember my dad talking about the South Pacific and what it was like when he
got back to the States, and I just look at this guy walking down the road, back
to his farm, with a sack over his shoulder, and I just fell apart, it happens
once in a while. I’m going to get
completely over it when I hug him, you see that’s when I’m going to be over it
completely, not until then. But we just
have more to deal with when we get back to work, more reality. And I look at Joseph, he goes back up, back
to Egypt, leaves his father and he goes.
“And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they
said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite” pay us
back, “us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph,
saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto
Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin;
for they did unto thee evil: and now, we
pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.”
(verses 15-17) Now do you think
Jacob really said that? These guys are
still chips off the old block, they come back.
You see, Esau had said ‘I’m gonna kill Jacob one day, but I’m going
to wait till my father dies, and then I’m gonna do it, because I don’t want to
make my father miserable.’ So
they’re thinking, ‘this runs in the family, this guy was just being nice to
us, and now that’s all going to go out the window, and Joseph’s going to get
us.’ Now, would you think
that Joseph, when we followed this, Joseph said the right things to them. Didn’t he?
Joseph told them that God had allowed this to happen, that the things
that happened, it wasn’t something they did to him, it happened to him so that
he could preserve life. Remember we went
through all of this together? Would you
think that the average person would have gotten ahold of the truth by now? [especially they having seen and been through
the famine, and seeing God’s deliverance through Joseph] How come, in our relationship with Jesus
Christ, some of us are saved for years, and we mess up or we do something
stupid, and then we’re all saying ‘He’s gonna get me now.’ You know, ‘I did good for five years,
I blew it again,’ you know, he’s a type of Christ, Joseph, and it’s very
interesting, there’s something in us like that, we are more suspicious than we
need to be. We’ve learned to do that to
remain safe. Wouldn’t it be wonderful
when we get to heaven [at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, where we’ll be just
before we go back down with Jesus to stop WWIII] and we know fully as we’ve
been fully known? And there’s no more of
that doubt, there’s no more of that suspicion, there’s no more of that ‘What
if’ when we see him face to face, when this corruption puts on
incorruption, this mortal puts on immortality (see https://unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm). And even some of us think ‘I know that
I’m messing up, I’m going to be in heaven [in the Kingdom of heaven as an
immortal son or daughter of God] one month, I’m going to get in a traffic jam,
I’m going to do something I shouldn’t do,’ ‘Hey you, outa here!’ Never, never, never. I don’t think Jacob said for him to say this
at all, I think they’re conniving, they got a guilty conscience after 39 years
still. ‘Say this to Joseph,’ you
know they’re trying to remove all doubt here.
And look, in verse 17, when he heard it, he wept when these servants
came to him, he was so hurt. This is the
seventh time that he weeps, he wept. And
I wonder sometimes how the heart of God is broken when we doubt him? You know, you raise kids, I just can’t
imagine if one of my daughters, just saying ‘I don’t deserve it, you pay the
heating bill every month, I can take water out of this facet, I don’t deserve
it, I never clean my room, I never do this, I don’t do the things you tell me
to do, and you’re going to come home and tell me to pack my suitcase and change
my last name, and I know I’m going to be out of here, and I ate a cookie and
didn’t tell you,’ they don’t do that.
I would feel terrible, wouldn’t you, if one of your kids groveled like
that before you, it would brake my heart.
You know they don’t do that, they say ‘give me that cookie!’ Jesus says except you repent and become
as little children, for as such is the Kingdom, they just take it for granted
you’re going to pay the electric bill and the gas bill and you’re going to feed
them and you’re going to take care of them.
They don’t get ulcers worrying about that stuff. And God doesn’t want us to get ulcers
worrying about whether he loves us. How
do we know he loves us? The same way
Joseph’s brothers knew, he told them, Joseph told them he loved them and
forgave them. Here it is, he told us he
loves us, that he forgives us, that when he died for us he paid for all of our
sins, that as we fail in this life, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and
just to forgives us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And having that black cloud hang over your
head, Satan condemns us, because that’s what drives us down. If we’re legalistic in our hearts, and we
don’t grow in grace, it’s self-defeating.
Grace is, you know, people talk about ‘cheap grace, cheap grace,’
that really incenses me, because grace first of all is not cheap, it cost God
the blood of his Son Jesus Christ. And
grace is the most demanding Gospel there is, because when you sin in front of
the Law, the Law says ‘You’re dead,’ when you sin in front of grace,
grace says ‘Get up, dust yourself off, and get going again!’ Grace is the most demanding Gospel that
there is, it doesn’t let us off the hook, it urges us onward. Joseph wept when they spake unto him. I think, Martin Loyd Jones said if he were to
live his life over again, he would preach nothing but grace. George Whitfield said he saw better and
longer lasting fruit from preaching the love of God than from preaching
judgment. But we’re going to finish this
anyway. Now he must have summoned them
to his palace, “And his brethren also went and fell down before his face;
and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but
God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save
much people alive.” (verses 18-20)
because God did that, Judah is alive, because God did that the Messiah
has come, because God did that we’re sitting here this evening. “Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little
ones. And he comforted them, and spake
kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in
Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and
Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.” (verses 21-22) Now he was 56 when his father Jacob died,
so he lives for 54 years after that, imagine.
Joseph
Lives 54 More Years Enjoying His Grandchildren To The 3rd Generation “And
Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children of Machir the son of Manasseh
were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.” (verse 23)
it seems he sees Ephraim’s children to the great-great grandchildren. Manasseh’s children it seems he sees to the
great grandchildren. So not only was he
a father, he was a grandpa, he was a great grandpa, and he was also a
great-great-grandpa. He was not only the
Vizier, the Prime Minister of Egypt, he was a great grandpa too. And it says the kids were brought up on his
knees. Now, by the time he’s 110 I’m
sure his older brothers have passed off the scene, we’re not sure about
Benjamin, he was the only one that was younger.
But no doubt Ephraim and Manasseh are still alive, and he has a lineage
of children and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and imagine what it was
like for them to go see Joseph. He must
have been old and wrinkled by then, hope the Egyptians let him off the hook and
he didn’t have one of those black wigs on him, because you look bad. By that time, just admit it, you’re in denial
if you’re 110 and you still got a black wig on.
I remember one time before Kathy’s dad passed away and the kids were
little and we were out there once, and he had crows feet, he was all wrinkled,
his skin, you know, some of us age worse than others. And one of the little grandkids were sitting
at the table, and one of the grandkids said ‘How come grandpa looks like a
crocodile?’ You know kids, they’re
not afraid. And you can imagine Joseph
with great grandchildren, with grandchildren on his knees, and he told them
about Adam, and the Garden of Eden, Moses hadn’t written it down yet, but he
told them about Noah and the Flood, about Shem, about his great grandpa
Abraham, who had been an idolator in Ur of the Chaldees, and how the God of
grace had appeared to him and called him.
How he never had his grandpa until he was 100 years old, when God
granted for his grandpa Isaac to be born.
How that his dad and Esau had wrestled in the womb, how Rebekah had
prayed and then complained, ‘LORD,
what’s this all about?’ and he said ‘There’s
two nations in your womb.’ And all
the long years of his father Jacob, he must have told that to them, the
wrestling with God at Jabbok, the prophecies on the bed. He did what grandpas and great grandpas and
great-great grandpas are supposed to do.
He was a figure that somehow to little minds and little hearts arose out
of the past. You know I listened to my
grandpa when I was a kid, he was 80-years-old, and he could speak Hungarian,
German, English, Romanian and had gone to college in Indiana, come across the
North Atlantic in a sailboat, just was amazing listening to him. He was my buddy, I was a little squirt, and I
always loved him, he used to get my mom mad, I like that about him for some
reason when I was a little kid. You kind
of respect your mom and dad, but grandma and grandpa, they have it over mom and
dad, so you really look to them, because they’re the only ones that can still
boss mom and dad around. But he was a
guy who brought things out of the past that amazed me, and yet standing on the
edge of eternity, even as a young boy, talked of the future, died on
Thanksgiving Day, I remember that Christmas under the tree, was my first Bible,
from him, long before I was saved. I’m
looking forward to seeing him one day.
Joseph, with his kids on his knees, imagine, imagine. “And Joseph said unto his brethren, I
die: and God will surely visit you, and
bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of
the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry
up my bones from hence.” (verses 24-25) ‘I don’t want to be buried in a
pyramid, don’t leave me down here in some pointy building, surrounded with
gold, if I wake up here on resurrection day, I’m going to be mad at you
guys.’ Choosing his pilgrim
heritage, ‘carry my bones up from hence,’ “So Joseph died, being
an hundred and ten years old: and they
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” (verse 26) We have covered from Genesis chapter 1 to
Genesis chapter 50, over half of human history, more than half of the Old
Testament history, of time as far as the time-line. We began in glory, we ended at a funeral, we
began in the brilliance of Creation, and we end up in a coffin, we begin by
hearing ‘In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die,’ and
Satan saying ‘you shall not surely die,’ and we end the Book with
several funerals. Again, the Book of
Hebrews says this “By faith, Joseph when he died, made mention of the
departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his
bones.” It tells us in Exodus
chapter 13 that when they came out of Egypt, the children of Israel, they had
gold and silver the Egyptians gave them, but it says Moses, he went and he got
the bones of Joseph, and they brought them with them. They lugged them for 40 years through the
wilderness. He got quite a ride. They should have took the route he took when
he brought Jacob up, it was much faster.
But 40 years, and then they buried him, it says in Joshua 24, in
Shechem, Shechem was a major area of Ephraim, the inheritance of his sons, the
center of the blessings that were promised to him. And that’s where Joseph is going to wake up
in the not too distant future, he’s going to stand up in Ephraim, he’ll walk
down to Machpelah to meet the rest of the family and go up to Jerusalem to see
the Lord together [no, and then he’ll rocket up to the Wedding Feast of the
Lamb with the rest of us, along with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the 1st
Resurrection to immortality]. You’ll
notice out of the crowd there will be two that look very Egyptian, and you’ll
say ‘Are you Jacob or Joseph?’ …[transcript of a connective expository
sermon on Genesis 49:13-33 and Genesis 50:1-26, given by Pastor Joe Focht,
Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116] related
links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED545 |