Blessing
Transcript
It's good to see y'all this morning. Grab your Bibles and go to Genesis chapter 48. We're on chapter 48 and 49 today. There are 50 chapters in Genesis. We have been walking through the book of Genesis. I believe this is our 30th week in Genesis.
Next week will be our 31st and then we will be done. When I was learning, studying, looking into church planting and, you know, you go to conferences, you hear people. One of the things they tell you is to not do really long sermon series. You keep it short. You keep it punchy. You keep people interested.
And we were like, what if we just read the Bible and talked about how good Jesus was? And that's been our plan. And so that's what we're going to do today. We're picking back up in chapter 48. I think we've done pretty well if we did 50 chapters in about 30 weeks. I think we were moving, but we're trying to learn our Bibles and grow together.
And so I've been studying through this. I, when I was growing up, my dad used to every morning, he would go out on our front porch and he would chain smoke. And he would smoke a pack or two in the morning, depending on how much time he had. And he would drink a two liter Diet Mountain Dew. And I don't know if he drank the whole thing, but that's what he did. He walked out with a two liter Diet Mountain Dew and packs of cigarettes.
And he would smoke and pace and talk on the phone and drink Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew. So I grew up doing what he did, drinking non-refrigerated Diet Mountain Dew. I would just, I was like three or four, would be pouring it into a big thing and just drink Diet Mountain Dew all the time. But he would pay us $2 per solo cup of cigarette butts. So you could go out around our front porch and if you'd fill up a solo cup with cigarette butts, he would pay you $2 for that.
Now I know when I tell stories to our church family, there are some people here who, you grew up a little bit fancier maybe. And I know that sometimes you judge me when I tell stories like this. And I just wanted to begin by saying, I forgive you. And I also know the rest of our church family. And remember how your dad used to chain smoke on the front porch? Well, I used to make money off of it.
My dad paid us and it actually worked out pretty well because when we were in like elementary school, you know, you'd want something. And he would say, well, you know how to make money. And he had two ways that were always there for us was picking up cigarette butts or picking up rocks in the backyard in a big bucket. Cigarette butts was usually easier. So that's what we went with.
And so we would fill up solo cups with cigarette butts. We would earn money. And then what I would do with that when I was in elementary school is we had a magazine. We have these Lego catalogs. And I would flip through and pick in a catalog what we wanted. I would show it to my mom.
I would hand her money. She would pick up a phone that had a cord that attached it to our wall. She would pick it up. She would call them. She would, during business hours, on a work day, she would call them, tell them what we wanted, tell them the number, tell them her credit card over the phone. And then she would hang up the phone and she would say, okay, it'll be here in 7 to 14 business days.
And I'd be like, sweet. And I'd be like, kind of here. And she'd say, no, business days. And I'd be like, what on earth? What are these extra days added in here? This isn't 7 to 14 days.
If I ran the Lego company, every day would be business day. You know what I'm saying? But so the first seven days were hard on an eight-year-old. It was difficult to wait seven days. The next seven business days were excruciating. Because it could show up any day.
And it wouldn't. And so you had waited all this time. You had picked up countless cigarette butts. You had worked, enslaved, waited for this. And then it would come. It would finally come.
And it would be the most amazing thing that ever happened. You would be on this, like, Lego high. I would go up. We had a room that we had all these Legos built in. And you would build your Lego stuff. And it would be so exciting.
And then eventually that would kind of fade. And you'd have to do this whole process again where you'd work really hard. And then you'd just kind of hope and wait. And eventually my younger brother came into our Lego room and destroyed everything. And that was the end of Legos for us. He just ruined everything.
And that actually was a good picture of what life would feel like for me. It'd work really hard. Hoping and longing for something. Looking forward to something. And then, you know, someone would come along and ruin it. Sometimes it was me.
Sometimes it was just circumstances. But something eventually would make it kind of fade or not last or be terrible. Or you'd move on to something else. And for most of us, that's what life looks like. We work and we hope and we dream for something. And we're kind of always kind of setting our sights on something in the future.
And if I could just get to that, then I'll be okay. If I could just get past this, then I'll be okay. One of the things that we wouldn't necessarily put these words to it. But we are searching for blessing or blessedness. Now, like I said, you wouldn't put those words to it. You wouldn't say, I'm just waiting for my blessedness.
But that's in some ways what we're doing is we're hoping to be in the good life. To have the good stuff. To have it work out the way we want to. Now, we would define that differently. But that's what we're longing for.
And what we're going to look at in this chapter is Jacob is actually going to bless his grandsons and his sons. He's going to say, here's what God's going to do. And he's going to call blessing on them. And the truth is we're going to see that they hope for these blessings. And some of them last and some of them don't. We would argue some are better or worse than the others.
And the truth is this, unless God blesses us, we are not blessed. Unless he does it for us, our work will only be striving, chasing after the wind. We will only be trying to accomplish something we cannot accomplish. And so we need God to bless us. And the question is, what is his blessing? How do we get it?
And how do we keep it? So we're going to look at this story and then we're going to ask that question. And we're going to try to see where true blessedness is. So let's pray and then we'll read this together. God, you are a God who blesses. And who gives and who is generous and who cares and who loves.
And we pray, Lord, that as we study this word, we would see your blessing. And we would know your blessing. And we would place our hope in the right blessing. In Jesus' name, amen. Chapter 48. It's on page 24 if you have one of the Blue Bibles.
It starts this way. It says, After this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill. Now, we covered a handful of chapters last week. And what the after this is, is that all of Joseph's family moved to Egypt. He put them in Goshen. He's taking care of them.
They've been there for about 17 years. Which Jacob calls Joseph to him. And I'm going to give you the paraphrased Chet version. And Jacob says, Look here, boy. When I die, don't bury me here. You carry me back to Canaan.
And you bury me where I'm supposed to be buried in the promised land. You hear me? And Joseph says, Yes, sir. And so that's where we pick up. After this, sometime after, Jacob made Joseph promise that. Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill.
So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh, that's the oldest, and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, Your son Joseph has come to you. And then Israel, that's the other name for Jacob, summoned his strength and sat up in his bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, 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.
So he says, I was blessed. God blessed me. And now in a second, we're going to see that he's going to bless his grandsons and his sons. And there's this idea that God has poured this out on them. But Jacob has only looked at it from a distance.
He hasn't actually attained it. He just knows this is happening. God's promised this. And we're waiting for it. And now your two sons, this is verse five, who were born to you in the land of Egypt, before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. As for me, when I came from Paddan to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath. That is Bethlehem. So he says, your two sons will be my sons.
Now, he's old. He's the daddy. He's the patriarch. He's to do what he wants. He says, those boys that are yours. Nope.
Mine. Ephraim and Manasseh are now my sons. And they are, there'll be tribes of Israel listed when they, when they move into the promised land. And from now on, when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? And Joseph said to his father, they are my sons whom God has given me here. And he said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.
Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near and he kissed them and he embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold, God has let me see your offspring also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees and bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both Ephraim and his right hand toward Israel's left and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand and brought them near him. So Jacob's going to bless them.
And Joseph does something intentional here. And it's kind of a written in a little bit of a confusing way, but Joseph has his sons and he's walking them towards Jacob, his father. And he puts Ephraim on his right hand so that he would be on Jacob's left hand. And he takes Manasseh, who's the oldest, and puts him in his left hand so that he would be on Jacob's right hand. Because he's going to bless them. And the assumption that Joseph's making is that Jacob is going to lay his hands on them to bless him.
And he wants his oldest boy to get a right-handed blessing. It's his dominant hand. I don't know if y'all knew that. There's a right-handed, left-hand blessing. One's more powerful. That's what he's doing.
That's his hope. So he brings him up. That way to his father. 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. And he blessed Joseph and said, So he okie-dokied him.
When he got him up there, Jacob goes like this. Which, what? Why would he do that? Joseph had to be like, what on earth just happened here? So it says this.
The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. The angel who has redeemed me from all evil. Bless the boys. And in them let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. And let them grow in a multitude in the midst of the earth.
I want to point something out here. The blessing does not come from Jacob. It comes from God. Jacob is not blessing them. He is asking God to bless them. So in some ways, Jacob is joining in this blessing.
He is giving this blessing verbally. But the blessing comes from God. You are not blessed unless God blesses you. You can have all the money in the world. You can have all the things that we would say would be great. The Ecclesiastes says that sometimes God lets people have stuff, but not the ability.
He does not bless them with the ability to enjoy it. And that there are other people who have hardly anything. And he blesses them with the ability to enjoy it. And they're happier and better off. You're not blessed unless God blesses you. And that's what's happening here.
He's calling on God to bless these boys. He swapped his hands. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the hand of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to his father, Not this way, my father, since this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
He interrupts the blessing to swap his daddy's hands. But his father refused and said, 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 he. And his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.
So he blessed them that day. So Jacob says, No, no, no, no, no, no. I did this on purpose. I know which one's which. Ephraim is now the older brother. Ephraim is now the greater one.
He will be named before his brother. He will be blessed beyond him. He did it on purpose. And that's such a Jacob-y thing to do. If you remember his story with his brother Esau. Jacob is like, Nope, younger brother.
They're awesome. Here we go. So he blesses them that way. I want to show you all something. I want to take a pause for just a second. That's not fully in line with what we're talking about today.
But I want us to see this together as a church family. They took this so seriously. That both Joseph and Jacob believed. And it actually functions this way. That this blessing mattered. And that the right and left hand mattered.
They see a weight in the words that they use to ask God to be at work. In the words that they use to call on God's blessing. And I think we ought to learn from that. Especially as we walk in church family together. And community groups as people who are filled by the spirit of God. And someone comes to our group.
And starts talking about decisions they're making in their lives. And we just respond. With some neat American opinions. And for some of our church family. Neat South American opinions. And we don't weigh out.
And consider. That we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. That we ought to listen to him. That we ought to speak in a way. That is weighty. And understand the power of our words.
To bless. And to move. And to have some authority. The Bible says that when two or more are gathered in my name. And they agree on something. I'm in their midst.
It's sealed. Like he. We sometimes in our groups. Just huddle up. And give each other some opinions and stuff. And we don't.
We don't consider the weight of our words. I was having a conversation with someone this past week. And I went to say something. And I felt like maybe the Holy Spirit was telling me not to. So I just had to sit.
I was like. Hold on. They were like. You okay? And I was like. I don't know.
I'm trying to listen. I said. Hold on. Be quiet. No. I didn't say that.
But anyway. I just sat and was like. Lord. Am I not supposed to say this? Is this not okay? Because I was just going to give him an opinion.
But I thought maybe it was a little bit weightier than that. And I needed to listen. And there's something to that. We ought to understand the authority given to us as church family. As we walk with the spirit of the Lord. And that's what Jacob does here.
And that's what Joseph understands here. And I think we ought to grow in that. Take a second. Pray. Ask the Lord for help. I think our groups ought to get better at asking the Lord questions.
And sitting and listening together. To see if there's unity in the spirit. So that we don't just pop off with our own little thing. But we actually ask the Lord. Is there something you want to say to us? Is there something you want to do here?
Is there some clarity that we can have here for this person in this situation? Rather than just trusting everybody's little opinion. But asking the Lord to help. And realizing the weight that's in our words. Alright? I will descend from my soapbox.
Back to the pulpit. Alright. Here we go. So he blessed them that day saying. This is verse 20. By you Israel will pronounce blessings.
Saying God make you as Ephraim in Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph. Behold I am about to die. But God will be with you.
And will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to you. Rather than to your brothers. One mountain slope. That I took from the hand of the Amorites. With my sword and with my bow.
We don't know what story that is. We don't know what mountain slope that is. But cool. He gets an extra mountain slope. Alright. Chapter 49.
Then Jacob called his sons and said. Gather yourselves together. That I may tell you. What shall happen to you in the days to come. So he calls and says.
I'm going to prophesy over you. At the end of this it says. So he blessed them with blessings. So they understood. He's ending his life. He's going to bless us.
He's going to speak truth and reality to us. As he is empowered. As one who follows the Lord. As the kind of connection to God on earth at this point. As this lineage is played out in the book of Genesis. Where we were told there's going to be a promised seed.
Who's going to come. Who's going to bless the nations. And we're still trying to follow that. He's got 12 sons. We're trying to see. They're actually now being made into a great nation.
But we still have to kind of ask the question of who's. Who's the one who's going to come and fix everything. We see that in a small way fulfilled in Joseph. That Joseph was sent. In Genesis he's sent. He actually blesses the nations.
Because God put him in a place to suffer on behalf of others. So that there might be life given to others. That's what we see. And that's actually a small picture of the full blessing. That's going to come through Jesus. So we're still kind of waiting to see what's happening here.
They know there's still some stuff to be spread around. And some blessing to be proclaimed. And somebody who might actually be like. I know you're the continued line. You're the. So that's what we're looking at.
Now if you are. If you are. Jacob's sons. This is a moment of anticipation. This is a moment of trepidation. This is a moment where this matters greatly.
We're going to read some of this and go. Okay. But in some ways they're coming to see. What's my life going to be like. What's. What's my blessing going to be like.
It matters greatly. This is why Esau. When the blessing was stolen from him. Ripped his. His clothes and wept. Because it matters what happens here.
And this blessing will last. Okay. Assemble. And listen. Oh sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel your father.
Now. It was assumed. Last time. That he was going to lay hands on their heads. So I am assuming that happens here as well.
The text does not say. He's going to say his son's name. He's going to give a blessing. He's going to say another son's name. But I'm assuming.
Maybe they lined up. And he just was. Putting his hands on their head. And blessing them. Reuben. Reuben.
You are my firstborn. My might. And the first fruits of my strength. Preeminent in dignity. And preeminent in power. 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. Reuben. Slept with one of Jacob's.
Wives. Not his mom. But one of Jacob's wives. So when Jacob goes to blessing. It starts off really nice. And then it takes a turn you guys.
And now if you're the other brothers in this room. The tone of the room just changed. Because you were like. Oh no. I didn't know. I didn't know that could happen.
I thought maybe you could get like a lesser blessing. I didn't know it could. Oh man. I didn't know. So. You might at this point.
Be running through your head. What did I do? And the truth is. Reuben is. Is receiving some judgment. For his actions.
For his sin. For his wickedness. For his lack of repentance of it. There's no. It just says earlier in. In Genesis.
That Jacob heard about it. We didn't hear. He didn't do anything. Caught up to Reuben here. That's it. That's Reuben's blessing.
You were. You're going to be great. Now. You are not. And that plays out in the tribe of Reuben. In the 12 tribes of Israel.
As they move into the promised land. Simeon and Levi are brothers. So these are the next two. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel. Oh 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. Simeon and Levi are the guys who tricked Shechem. That entire city. Into getting circumcised.
So that they could go in and kill everyone. After they had defiled their sister Dinah. Jacob did not seem real pleased with it then. And now he says. Wasn't. Wasn't.
Holy. Wasn't appropriate. Was wrathful. You are cruel. And may my soul not dwell with you. And he says.
I'll scatter you in Israel. And actually when they move into the promised land. Simeon is in the middle of Judah. Judah surrounds Simeon. Simeon's not really allowed to do much. And the Levites are completely spread out all over the place.
Because they serve as the priest. Now it's an interesting thing. The Levites here. Get cursed. For their wrath and anger. And then later get blessed.
For zealous. Appropriate violence. So it's not just that all violence is bad. But the intentions of our heart. And the call of God on it matters. And so they later get blessed for it.
Even though they're still scattered. There's some redemption in it. But he just says. Y'all's was. Hateful. And wicked.
Your wrath is evil. Alright now. Judah. He moves on. Now if you're Judah.
We've read about Judah you guys. Remember Judah and Tamar. Tamar. Judah. Sold his brother into slavery. He was the one who kind of.
Came up with that idea. He did not do. What he was supposed to do. With his daughter-in-law Tamar. He was hanging out with the Canaanites. He did a lot of.
Of bad things. If. If. If I was Judah. When he said Judah. I'd have said.
Like you know. For a second. Like can you run away from a blessing. Would that make it worse. He could probably still reach you. It would.
He would make it worse. So you just got to go take. What you're going to get. Judah comes up. Judah. Your brothers.
Shall praise you. Your hand. Shall be on the neck. Of your enemies. Your father's son. Shall bow down.
Before you. Judah. Is a lion's cub. From the prey. My son. You have gone up.
He stooped down. He couched. As a lion. And as a lioness. Who dares. Rouse him.
The scepter. That's a. What a king holds. 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.
Binding. His foal. To the vine. And his donkey's. Cult. To the choice vine.
He has washed. His garments. And wine. And his vesture. In the blood of grapes. His eyes.
Are darker than wine. And his teeth. Whiter. Than milk. That's it. That's what he says to Judah.
It didn't turn. It didn't start off nice. And then go. Like he did to Reuben. I bet Judah was like. He said Zebulun.
And Judah was like. That's just. Beautiful. He just says. You're going to. Be praised by your brothers.
They're going to bow down to you. Everybody's going to bow down to you. There's going to be obedience to you. You're going to be. A king. Like he.
He pours all this on Judah. And we're going to come back to this. Because it matters greatly. What just happened there. But we're going to read the rest of the blessings.
And give them to the brothers. But Judah gets a beautiful one. Zebulun. Shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships. And his border shall be at Sidon.
So that has mostly to do with where Zebulun. Eventually the tribe is going to be. And he moves on. Issachar is a strong donkey. Crouching between the sheep folds. He saw that a resting place was good.
And that the land was pleasant. So he bowed his shoulder to bear. And became a servant at forced labor. So he says Issachar is a strong donkey. But then he basically just says.
He wants good stuff. So he works really hard. And eventually that's kind of his undoing. That's what he puts on Issachar. Dan shall judge his people. As one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent in the way. A viper by the path. That bites the horse's heels. So that his rider falls backwards. I wait for your salvation oh Lord. So he says Dan will be a judge.
But then he kind of says that Dan will be a bit tricky. And harm people. And we don't know if that's bad people or good people. But he just kind of says. And then he ends by saying. I wait for your salvation oh Lord.
Basically if the Lord doesn't show up and help. This is going to all be a mess. But he moves on from Dan to Gad. He says raiders shall raid Gad. But he shall raid at their heels.
So this is a blessing. And I'm not trying to take away from the blessing here. But it's also a dad joke. Because Gad sounds like the Hebrew word for raiders. So his whole blessing is a big pun.
It would be like if his name was Raid. So he said Raiders will raid raid. But Raid will raid Raiders back. Like it's a tongue twister thing. And then he just moves on to Asher. So it's a real blessing.
But it just shows you the potency of dad jokes. Sorry. It doesn't. Asher's food shall be rich. And he shall yield royal delicacies. And he moves on to Naphtali.
Now if you're Asher. I think I'd just be like sweet. Could have been better. Could have been a lot worse though. Asher. You're going to eat well.
I'll take it. Cakes and stuff. I got it. I'm down. So he says.
Your food should be rich. And you'll eat royal delicacies. Naphtali. Naphtali. Naphtali. Naphtali.
Naphtali. Is a doe let loose. Is a doe let loose. That bears beautiful fawns. That bears beautiful fawns. A doe would have been understood as sleek.
And healthy. And healthy. And beautiful. And he says that bears beautiful fawns. Would be. It's going to be fruitful.
Going to be blessed. Going to grow. Then he just moves on to Joseph. Now. Naphtali's blessing is a good one. I have two brothers.
I don't have eleven. And maybe they treated this with a whole lot of respect. And they didn't do what I think might would have happened. But he called Naphtali a doe. A pregnant doe. And I just feel like if you had eleven brothers.
Who've been called lions and vipers and strong donkeys. They might give you a hard time about that. I mean when they saw Naphtali. They might just be like doe. A deer. A female deer.
Like they might have just rubbed it in a little bit. Maybe not. Probably wouldn't have known that song. But. Anyway. Naphtali gets that blessing.
Joseph. So this would be to Joseph. He's already blessed. Ephraim and Manasseh. This would go to Joseph. This would go to his two sons.
Joseph. Is a fruitful bough. A fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him. Shot at him.
Harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd. The stone of Israel. By the God of your father who will help you.
By the almighty who will bless you. With the blessings of heaven above. And the blessings of the deep that crouches beneath. Blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty. Beyond the blessings of my parents.
Up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph. And on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. And what happened here is very interesting. The two brothers who get the longest and the best blessings are Joseph and Judah. And Joseph's blessing is not really very specific.
It's poetic. It's beautiful. But it's not really specific. And a lot of it seems to be highlighting Joseph's personal life. Actually what happened in his life. That he was set apart from his brothers.
That he was greatly attacked. But the Lord had blessed him. And he just calls on all these blessings to be on Joseph. That Joseph would be blessed. Heavens above. Crouching in the deep.
All the blessings of fertility. All the blessings. Like he just asks for all that and blesses him with that. But there's nothing really all that specific. And the truth is the blessing given to Ephraim and Manasseh is good. And the way that things play out with them in the history of Israel is good.
But it does not compare to Judah. And so we'll look at that in a second as we finish up this chapter. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. This is his youngest son. In the morning devouring the prey. And at the evening dividing the spoil.
He just says they will be ferocious. He doesn't say good or bad or whatever. He just says Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning devouring the prey. And as of the evening dividing the spoil. And I really hope one day Benjamin went to Naphtali.
And said hey. Me and some of our other brothers are planning on getting tattoos. Judah was going to get a lion. I was going to get a wolf. Issachar is going to get like a swole donkey. Dan is going to get a viper.
Did you want to come and get like a pregnant deer? Like maybe on your belly or like your lower back or something? No? Sure? Okay. I just want to give you the option.
We drew up some little designs for you. 28. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them. Blessing each with a blessing suitable to them. So we would not categorize Reuben's and Simeon and Levi's as a blessing.
But that's what it was. He was calling forth what was appropriate for them. That's interesting. Because what was appropriate for Reuben and Simeon and Levi seemed different than what was appropriate for Judah. Although we've seen Judah make a lot of mistakes and not handle things well. He did seem to be repentant when he came back and when he worked everything out with Joseph in the last text that we looked at last week.
But he does not seem to have anything fall on him for the other things that he had done that were evil. Then he commanded them and said to them, verse 29, I am to be gathered to 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. To the east of Mamre. In the land of Canaan.
Which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite. To possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.
When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. And my hope for myself and for you is that we get a similar story where we're trusting and hoping in the Lord. Speaking about his goodness. Speaking about his promises. Proclaiming that he will continue to work in the coming days. And then we draw our feet up, breathe our last, and we're done.
We are faithful to the end. Okay. All of these blessings play out in some form. And all of these blessings eventually stop. Except for Judah's. Here's what happened with Judah's blessing.
Judah's blessing that there would be a king. That the scepter would not leave from him. The ruler's staff from in between his feet. This blessing ultimately goes to David. Judah is the great, great, great granddad of David the king. And God, when David is king, says, I'm going to make a covenant with you, an everlasting covenant.
And that goes from Judah to David to Jesus. And what happened here is that when Jacob went to bless Judah, all he could see was Jesus. And when he went to bless Judah, all he could see was Jesus. All he could see was this king who would reign eternally. All he could see was this lion who would conquer his enemies. All he could see was the beauty carried out in Christ.
And ultimately, here's the truth. If your blessing is not carried out in Christ, it will not last. As we look at this, we might would say, honestly, if I was going to lay out my life here, I'm with Naphtali. I just want to have some beautiful fawns. That's what I think blessedness is. Healthy kids, healthy family.
Some of you are like, I think I'm in on that Asher blessing. Cakes and stuff. Like, I just want that. Like, if I could just eat. Like, if you looked at the portion of my budget that went to eating out. We don't eat out nice, but we eat out a lot.
Like, I just like being able to talk about you guys. Like, I... Some of us would say that's kind of where I line up. Some of us look and go, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to be like Benjamin. I just want to be tough and mean.
I want to be feared. I want to be powerful. Some of you are looking at the Issachar blessing and say, I just want to work hard and enjoy good comfort. Is that too much to ask? To work hard and be comfortable? And the reality is, some of those things, you'll get some nice stuff out of them.
They won't last unless they're carried out in Jesus. Unless you're blessed in Christ, you are not blessed. If you are blessed in Christ, you are forever blessed. So let's look at this blessing that goes to Christ. Look back at Judah. Judah, your brothers shall praise you.
That word praise is used a couple of times mockingly for humans. Every other time in Scripture, it is used for God. May all the people praise Him. This is a praise that is owing only to God. So he says, Judah, you will be praised.
And he's talking about Christ, that all of the praises of men will fall to Judah. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Isn't that a beautiful picture? Think of the enemies of Christ. Sin and death and hell. And think of how fearful they are to us.
Think of Satan, the ultimate enemy, and how fearful he is. And that Jesus gets to walk in and grab him by the back of the neck. Turn his head where he wants it. When I was growing up, my dad, every once in a while, he would grab you by the back of the neck. And it was ultimate like, it's like in that Batman movie where Bane puts his hand on that guy's shoulder and says, Do you feel in charge? Is that kind of move?
Did you just put your hand on the back of the neck of your enemies and they would just be like, I do not, I do not feel in charge. And that's Christ to our ultimate enemies. That He is so glorious and so powerful that He just walks over and He grabs them and says, Okay, your time's done. And this is what Jacob is seeing as he proclaims this over him. He says, Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouse him? You go to the zoo and you see lions. They're fun to watch because there's a giant cavern in between you and them.
If there wasn't, you wouldn't just be like, Oh, that lion's not dangerous. It's laying down. It's like, bro, they can hop right up. That's what he's saying. He's saying, you can rest at ease because nobody goes and wakes up a lion. Nobody's messing with them.
They're fearful. And the reality is, as the Bible plays out, we are told that Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. In Revelation, it says, Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy to open the scrolls and he's worthy to receive praise. And then John, who's seeing all this, says, I looked and I saw a lamb who was slain. That Jesus Christ is a lion who became a lamb on our behalf and then is seated as the lion of the tribe of Judah forever, having slain his enemies and having been slain for our sin. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until the tribute comes to him.
To him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Earlier it said, Your brothers will bow down to you. That would be the nation of Israel. Now it says, To him belong the obedience of the peoples, meaning all nations everywhere, that Jesus will rule as a king eternally. The scepter will never depart from his hand. You ever feel like things are out of control?
Do you know there's a ruler's staff sitting in between the feet of Jesus? And it is not going to move. You ever feel like you're drowning? Do you know that there's a king who sits on a throne who rules over this world and over our lives and it will not be taken from his hand? Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. That means very little to us.
That is actually a very silly thing to do. If you were parking your donkey, you would tie it to something so it would not run off. You do not tie it to a grapevine. It will eat your grapes. That is what it is saying. Nobody ties a donkey to a grapevine unless everything is a grapevine and they are unendingly wealthy.
Do you know what's so beautiful and exciting? This is a better picture of this same passage for us. You know what the streets are paved with in heaven? Gold. Do you know why? Because gold isn't that beautiful and important anymore.
And it's everywhere. Jesus is glorious and important in heaven. You can tie your donkey to the choice vine and you can drive your Ram 1500 across some gold. It's unending wealth in Christ that he is beyond glorious. That he is beyond wealthy. That he holds everything in his hands.
Do you see what he holds in his hands? He holds his enemies. He holds a ruling staff. And he holds unending wealth. And then it says this. He has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
Taken at face value. That means that wine is so prevalent they use it to do the washing. But as we see this played out in scripture there are other places where wine is used very poetically and very picturesque of what else Jesus is going to do. So I think it does point to his wealth. I also think it points to his death where he takes a cup and he says this is my body. This is my blood poured out for you.
The blood of the new covenant. That you might have an eternal salvation and an eternal hope. That he is covered in blood. But the other two times that the Bible is going to talk about Jesus Christ being coated in the wine. Coated in the pressing of grapes. It's going to be Isaiah 63 and Revelation 19 where he treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God.
That Jesus Christ is coated in the blood of his enemies. That's graphic and true. That Jesus Christ will conquer all of his enemies and will reign and stand supreme and that he will walk through the wrath of God. He does that for us on the cross. And he does that for us in judgment. So if he's seeing Jesus and he sees him and his clothes have been washed in wine.
That's the blood of the covenant. That's the blood of his enemies. And only Jesus can do that. His eyes are darker than wine. His teeth whiter than milk. That Jesus is beautiful and glorious above all else.
That he is to be beheld and be captivated in his glory. Jacob could have had a lot of mean things to say about Judah but when he puts his hand on his head all he can see is Christ. And because all he can see is Christ Judah's blessing lasts and is carried out in Christ and is an eternal blessing. Charles Spurgeon I read this quote this week and he's talking about Jesus. He says Jesus is the most magnanimous of captains which means generous and forgiving. There never was his like among the choicest of princes.
He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious generous kind and tender yes lavish and super abundant in love you will always find it in him. That when Jacob went to bless Judah all he could see was Christ and Christ in all of his glory and the hope for us is that we would not be blessed in our hard work and that we would not be blessed in earthly possessions but that we would be blessed in Christ through faith in Jesus and his work on the cross.
This is actually what is true for Christians who have been filled with the spirit that we are blessed in Christ. Ephesians 1 says this Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We constantly are running around asking the Lord to bless us with the blessing of Issachar or the blessing of Asher or the blessing of one of these smaller blessings. Can I just have the blessing of Benjamin? If you just give me that blessing I'd be happy and in reality we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. If you are in Christ your blessing is carried out in him and you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and they cannot be taken away because they are held there by Jesus.
When Christ when God looks at us he sees Christ and therefore we are blessed. And if you are not in Christ and you have not placed your faith in Jesus I don't care how much money you have I don't care how healthy you are I don't care how stunningly handsome you are you are not blessed. I don't care if you have the richest delicacies you are not blessed. So I want you if you are a Christian today I want you to hear me for just a second. If you have placed your faith in Jesus his spirit dwells in you I don't care what's going on in your life I want you to know something. If Jacob laid his hands on your head and blessed you you would be blessed in Christ.
If you are not a Christian I want you to know that this is offered to you through Christ and his work that he can bless you in him. I want to read for you what Jacob could say to you that is true for you to be blessed in Christ. I want you to hear this if you are in Christ this is reality for you. That Jacob could put his hand on you and say something along these lines. Through the sufficiency that is in Christ may you be blessed. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Father may you be blessed.
You are forgiven. Your sins are no more. They are buried at the bottom of the ocean. They are as far away as the east is from the west. There is no condemnation for you. You receive grace upon grace.
You have been made new. You have a new identity. You are no longer who you were. You are now who Christ says you are. You have been cleansed, washed in pure water, bright and clean. You are without blemish or spot, wrinkle or stain, altogether lovely and pure.
All the sins that have been committed against you are no more. You bear their Mark no longer. You are holy and blameless and above reproach. You are saved. You have been rescued. The Lord will defend you and keep you.
His blood has paid your debt and ransomed you. You have been delivered from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of His beloved Son. You are loved and cherished and adored. You have been adopted into the household of God. You are His cherished possession. You have an eternal Father who will not leave you or forsake you.
You have an eternal family that cannot be taken from you. You belong to Christ. You cannot be snatched out of His hand. He will keep you. He will keep you and bring you to Himself. You will make it.
You are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We don't know what all of those are but we know what some of those are. That we are forgiven and that we are free and that we are ransomed and that we are adopted and that we are loved. And that cannot be taken away from you because it is carried out in Christ. It is not carried out by you. You do not have to be strong enough.
You do not have to be smart enough. You do not have to be moral enough. You do not have to keep it together. Christ keeps it together on your behalf. Our hope is in Him. 1 Peter 1.24 says, All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers and the flower falls. But the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. The band is going to come back up and I want you to know that. I want us to remember that. The gospel has been proclaimed and if you have placed your faith in Jesus it stands forever.
You will not be taken away. You will not be destroyed. Your blessing will not be removed. That because Jesus Christ earns it and keeps it and it is carried out in Him then we have it in Him eternally. That our hope is in Christ and in Christ alone. Not your ability.
Not your wisdom. Everything else fails. Everything else fades. But what's carried out in Christ is forever. In just a moment Bianca will begin to play and we'll have a minute to just sit and to think and to pray and then we'll take communion together. And communion is where we remember that Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed for us and that our hope is in Him.
Do not come to this table today trying to gain your own blessing outside of Christ. Leave that in your chair. Don't come here hoping for a smaller blessing or just longing for something simple and missing out on the beauty of every spiritual blessing carried out in Christ. Don't come weary and exhausted because you've been trying to strive to earn something. Leave that there and come to the one who's earned it for us. Who keeps it for us.
Who our hope is in. Don't come timidly. Come boldly. Do not think small of His mercy as if it is not big enough for you. Do not think small of His grip as if He somehow might drop the scepter or might lose His hand on you. Do not think for one second that His hand has relinquished from the back of His enemy as if they might can run free and do whatever they want.
He is glorious and beautiful. He is beyond all reckoning and our hope is in Him so that we might trust in Him and Him alone and that we might walk forward and be in Him set free to be small and to be weak and to be ugly and to be messy and to be free. To be confident. To be hope filled. Because when the Father looks at us all He sees is Christ. if you are not in Christ I want you to know the blessing you are chasing after is too small. It is silly.
It will fail. It will fade. And you will be exhausted. Place your faith in Jesus. Receive all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Have it carried out by Him.
Place your hope in Him and be free. Let's pray. God help us not to think small of you but to know that when you look at us you see Christ. That we are wealthy beyond all reckoning. That we are healthy and hope filled beyond all reckoning. That in you all our blessing is carried out.
They do not all come here. Some of them are only viewed from afar but they are held tight in heavenly places. Some of us are sick and will remain so. Some of us are poor and will remain so. Some of us will not get what we have longed for here but what you hold for us is better and we will wait patiently. Because we are blessed because our blessing is carried out in Christ not us.
It is carried out by the one who died. It is carried out by the one who holds our hope and our eternity and our very souls in his hand and who has not relinquished the ruling scepter. May our hope be forever in you. Lord you are beautiful and glorious. All sufficient. And your blessing and your love and your blood is enough.
Thank you Lord that through the cross we receive the blessing of Judah that we get to be ushered in to the blessing carried out by you. Give us faith to trust in your sufficiency. In Jesus name. Amen. When you feel ready take communion and then we will sing together as a church family.