back to index2021-01-24 Jacob's legacy of faith
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All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11, and we are going 00:00:13.040 |
So at this rate, we're going to be in Hebrews for a while. 00:00:16.360 |
But as I said, those, these three verses, verse 20 to 22, actually represents almost 00:00:26.160 |
And so the verse that we're looking at in verse 21 about Jacob covers about 13 to 14 00:00:33.720 |
And so instead of just kind of doing a quick overview and saying, by faith, he did this 00:00:38.180 |
and moving on, I think it'll be helpful for us to understand the context behind what it 00:00:43.520 |
means when he says, by faith, Jacob did this. 00:00:47.560 |
So let me read it again in verse, let me just read verse 21, and then we'll jump into the 00:00:55.360 |
By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worship leaning 00:01:09.920 |
May your word be handled in a way that honors you, that only your voice may be proclaimed. 00:01:18.360 |
Give us eagerness, Lord God, to hear from you and to apply and shape our hearts and 00:01:24.200 |
our lives, Lord God, according to your will and purpose. 00:01:30.360 |
You know, through the pandemic, and I know that even in our church, there are some people 00:01:39.120 |
Obviously this happens, you know, that's just part of life, but you know, it's especially 00:01:44.120 |
hard when you lose someone during COVID because of all the restrictions at the hospital and 00:01:49.640 |
And, you know, this year, I didn't mention this to Lee, but, you know, Lee's father passed 00:01:55.760 |
away and we were at the funeral and Lee's father actually left a letter to his children 00:02:03.120 |
And I was really intrigued to hear because, you know, they were so blessed. 00:02:06.160 |
And so he gave me an opportunity to read it and I was so encouraged by it. 00:02:11.000 |
And again, obviously I don't know his father, I don't know what his life was like, but you 00:02:14.920 |
could tell that in that letter how much God meant to him. 00:02:18.660 |
And so everything that he wrote in there and he wrote it to the family, he wrote it to 00:02:21.640 |
each one of his children, that this is what he desires and, you know, sharing his mistakes, 00:02:26.000 |
that don't make these mistakes, but, you know, making sure that you guys prioritize, you 00:02:30.680 |
know, church, prioritize God, prioritize his word. 00:02:33.600 |
And I was just so blessed to read that, knowing that that was the last thing that he left 00:02:42.200 |
You know, we take anything that somebody says in the last words very seriously because we 00:02:46.740 |
know that it's not going to be frivolous, that whatever it was in your heart is what 00:02:53.900 |
This is the totality of the things that I know in life, that this is something that 00:02:58.920 |
And that's how in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon at the end of his life summarizes 00:03:03.160 |
all of his experience and says, "The chief end of man is to fear God and to worship him, 00:03:11.000 |
That's why we take the Great Commission very seriously because of all the things that Jesus 00:03:15.600 |
taught at the end, he gave that commission to the church, "Go make disciples of all the 00:03:20.640 |
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." 00:03:23.960 |
He taught many other things, but the reason why we call that the Great Commission is because 00:03:27.960 |
that was the last commandment that he left the church. 00:03:32.220 |
And so since then, that's what drives the church. 00:03:35.180 |
This is what he's placed us to do, to go and be a light to the world. 00:03:40.000 |
And again, another thing that, again, that my dad said when, you know, he was alive that 00:03:44.920 |
I remember, you know, when you're young, your dad says things just kind of like, "Yeah, 00:03:51.160 |
But years later, you think back and it makes so much sense and there's so much wisdom behind 00:03:57.280 |
And one of the things that my dad said that really stuck with me, he said, "How you leave 00:04:01.000 |
something is much more important than how you came." 00:04:03.160 |
He said, "Much more important because how you leave is what they will remember from 00:04:11.760 |
And again, it's so true, there's so much wisdom behind that, that we start with a bang and 00:04:18.960 |
And typically, that's how human relationships are, you know, like we start with excitement 00:04:23.400 |
and then it just kind of fizzles out and then we have experience after experience of bad 00:04:30.360 |
But it's much more important how we end than how we started. 00:04:38.640 |
We're talking about in this one verse, at the end of his life, he's blessing his children 00:04:43.200 |
so that God's covenant blessing will be passed on. 00:04:46.720 |
And in this short sentence contains basically the totality of his life. 00:04:52.040 |
What was most important to him is at the tail end, he knows he's going to die and he wants 00:04:58.560 |
And so that little phrase, "By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons 00:05:03.200 |
of Joseph," reminds us of the way he died and what is stated about his death tells us 00:05:11.920 |
In fact, in Numbers chapter 23, verse 10, remember the prophet Balaam, right? 00:05:18.960 |
He was trying to be recruited in order to put a curse on the nation of Israel and he 00:05:23.000 |
recognizing that this family had a special blessing from God and he refuses. 00:05:27.760 |
And in Numbers 23, verse 10, he says this, "Who can count the dust of Jacob or number 00:05:35.800 |
Let me die the death of the upright and let my end be like his." 00:05:42.920 |
So even in Numbers 23, 10, there was something about Jacob's death that he says, "I want 00:05:49.800 |
Not only do I want to live like him, but I want to make sure that I die like him." 00:05:53.760 |
And so this phrase, again, this verse in verse 21 contains all that they knew about his death, 00:06:00.880 |
that they were passing down from generation to generation. 00:06:03.120 |
So what is contained in this verse that we are to glean from? 00:06:10.160 |
Verse 21, "By faith Jacob blessed Joseph's two sons." 00:06:25.000 |
Usually when the father passes away, he blesses his children. 00:06:28.320 |
It's supposed to go to, the blessing really should go to his children, but here the highlight 00:06:33.680 |
and his blessing at the tail end of his life doesn't say he blessed, who should have been 00:06:40.680 |
Reuben was the first child of the 12, or any one of these children, but he says he blessed 00:06:47.600 |
So what's going on here that him blessing his grandchildren are highlighted above the 00:06:57.560 |
Now we already know that Reuben was the first child of the 12, and he's the one who should 00:07:05.320 |
It says in Genesis chapter 35 verse 22, "Because of his sin, he forfeited his birthright." 00:07:12.360 |
That he ended up sleeping with Jacob's concubine and defiled that, and as a result of that 00:07:20.800 |
So it wasn't that he wasn't blessed, but his first born blessing was passed on. 00:07:30.440 |
And so what I want to look at this morning is Genesis chapter 48 verse 1, to look at 00:07:35.320 |
the context, the historical context behind which this takes place, and what is it about 00:07:40.720 |
his blessing and his tail end that is meant to give us a reminder and as an example what 00:07:49.880 |
So Genesis chapter 48 verse 1, it starts off by saying, "Now it came about after these 00:07:54.280 |
things that Joseph was told, 'Behold, your father is sick.' 00:07:57.260 |
So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him." 00:08:00.800 |
You notice the order of the names of Joseph's son, Manasseh and Ephraim. 00:08:05.920 |
Remember we said that whenever you see the order in something, there's significance in 00:08:15.080 |
And that's why they're mentioned in that order. 00:08:18.120 |
But look with me in verse 5, chapter 48 verse 5. 00:08:21.000 |
"Now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in 00:08:29.680 |
And then he calls them, "Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are." 00:08:35.400 |
So there's two things that we need to recognize. 00:08:37.480 |
One, where Jacob says, "I'm going to treat them not as my grandchildren, but my own children. 00:08:43.840 |
I'm going to bless them just as I will bless my other children, I will bless them like 00:08:48.700 |
So they're not going to get residuals from what you have. 00:08:51.960 |
I'm going to directly put my blessing upon them. 00:08:54.040 |
So that's the first thing that we need to recognize. 00:08:56.300 |
But the second thing is, look at the order in which he mentions it. 00:09:11.160 |
It wasn't that the author was dyslexic and he was just getting the order, you know, mixed 00:09:18.000 |
In verse 8 through 10, "When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, 'Who are these?' 00:09:25.420 |
Joseph said to his father, 'They are my sons, whom God has given me here.' 00:09:29.340 |
So he said, 'Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.' 00:09:33.320 |
Now the eyes of Israel were so dim from age that he could not see." 00:09:40.600 |
Anybody who was awake last week, right, in the last week's text, and that whole drama 00:09:45.040 |
of, you know, of Jacob scheming and taking over Esau's blessing because Isaac could not 00:09:51.480 |
see and kind of tricking and, you know, put on fur to trick his dad? 00:09:55.680 |
And he said, well, at the end of his life, I mean, his blindness may be genetic. 00:10:05.080 |
And it was time to pass on the blessing, starting from verse 11 through 20. 00:10:09.760 |
"Israel said to Joseph, 'I never expected to see your face, and behold, God has let 00:10:17.600 |
Then Joseph took them from his knees and bowed with his face to the ground. 00:10:22.400 |
Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left, and Manasseh with 00:10:28.960 |
his left hand toward Israel's right, and brought them close to him." 00:10:34.600 |
And it was very deliberate because his father can't see. 00:10:38.780 |
And so Joseph wanted to make sure that his older son had the right hand blessing because 00:10:45.160 |
the right hand blessing meant that he was going to get the double blessing because he's 00:10:50.920 |
So he did it deliberately in order to not to make the mistake, right? 00:10:54.640 |
Not to make the same mistake that Isaac made that he's making sure. 00:11:00.400 |
My guess is Joseph probably heard the story, you know, it was passed down how his father 00:11:06.040 |
He's like, "No, you know, obviously this runs in the family. 00:11:10.440 |
So he takes them by their hand and he places them so that all he had to do is put his hands 00:11:17.480 |
And so he brings them in that order, but in verse 14, "But Israel stripped out his hand, 00:11:22.400 |
right hand, and laid it on the head of Ephraim." 00:11:32.560 |
"Who was the younger and his left hand on Manasseh's head, crossing his hands, although 00:11:38.680 |
He blessed Joseph and said, 'The God before whom my father Abraham and Isaac walked, the 00:11:44.440 |
God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from 00:11:50.280 |
Bless the lads and may my name live on them and the names of my father Abraham and Isaac. 00:11:56.160 |
And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.'" 00:12:02.640 |
His father is switching his arms and maybe he's forgotten. 00:12:08.680 |
And so Joseph tries to correct him in verse 17, "When Joseph saw that his father laid 00:12:13.000 |
his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him." 00:12:20.520 |
"It displeased him and he grasped his father's hand and removed it from Ephraim's head to 00:12:27.600 |
So Joseph said to his father, 'Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. 00:12:41.680 |
They lived in contention and fighting all their life because Esau got mad. 00:12:47.040 |
And I think maybe Joseph was thinking, "If you do this, these two are going to be fighting 00:12:54.600 |
And in order to say that, he said, "You did this wrong." 00:12:56.400 |
And he was displeased and he grabbed his father's hand to make it right. 00:13:00.920 |
And Jacob says first, but his father refused and said, "I know, my son. 00:13:12.200 |
My guess is, he remembers all of this and he said, "It's not a mistake. 00:13:23.040 |
He also will become a people and he also will be great. 00:13:26.320 |
However, his younger brother shall be greater than he and his descendants shall become a 00:13:32.720 |
He blessed them that day saying, 'By you Israel will pronounce blessing,' saying, 'May God 00:13:46.500 |
He was not being tricked, but clearly it wasn't just a whim of Jacob. 00:13:53.380 |
Since we got switched, I'm going to switch you too. 00:13:58.340 |
Clearly Jacob knew something that God wanted him to do. 00:14:05.660 |
I'm not trying to get you to be contentious and then create the older brother being angry 00:14:16.940 |
And part of the reason, it doesn't spell it out for us, but if you look at the genealogies 00:14:21.460 |
of Jesus, there are people in there that we would say, "That can't be the genealogy of 00:14:28.540 |
There's adulterers and murderers in that genealogy." 00:14:32.300 |
If we were to create a genealogy of our Lord and Savior, that is not the genealogy that 00:14:40.540 |
Does anybody looking from the outside, is like, "You worship a God who came from a prostitute? 00:14:47.900 |
One of the clear things that we see in scripture is that God does not follow the natural pattern 00:14:55.860 |
And part of the reason why he does that is to make it clear that his blessing does not 00:15:09.100 |
He's not submitted to man's desires, but his will. 00:15:14.340 |
I think Joseph should have known from the very get-go that this was God's plan, because 00:15:30.660 |
So I would think that Joseph, when he brought them, he's like, "I hope they don't live up 00:15:37.900 |
Maybe God had ordained this, that this is what he desired in order so that his blessing 00:15:44.060 |
But I also, I think we need to take a step back and understand what's going on here, 00:15:47.700 |
because if it was simply the blessing to pass the double portion of his property and his 00:15:58.100 |
Usually when the father or grandfather passes away, you're waiting because they have a lifetime 00:16:04.140 |
of accumulation of wealth that they're passing down. 00:16:07.140 |
And usually the older has more money than the younger, usually, right? 00:16:19.540 |
Remember, Jacob and his children barely survived through the famine because of Joseph. 00:16:25.060 |
So whatever Joseph had pales in comparison to what Joseph had had opportunity to have. 00:16:31.420 |
So Ephraim's two children were heirs of whatever Joseph had. 00:16:39.120 |
So humanly speaking, this blessing that's coming from Jacob really was nothing, humanly 00:16:45.820 |
A double portion or triple portion or everything that you had probably was just a drop in the 00:16:51.100 |
bucket to the wealth that they had an opportunity to have. 00:17:01.620 |
It was about the covenant blessing that was coming from God. 00:17:05.940 |
Far above any human wealth, far above any power that Pharaoh would have had or they 00:17:13.680 |
They're talking about the heir of what God has promised, God Almighty. 00:17:19.660 |
And Jacob understood that, Isaac understood that, Abraham understood that. 00:17:24.060 |
Now Joseph and his two children, Ephraim and Manasseh, is standing in line to receive 00:17:34.180 |
You could see God's sovereign hands when he says in verse 21, "By faith Jacob, as he 00:17:39.820 |
was dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph." 00:17:48.980 |
He wasn't simply passing on material possession. 00:17:53.740 |
But you know, we naturally ask the question, which Jacob would have also understood. 00:18:02.700 |
Clearly in Jacob's life, Jacob was, even though he was a schemer and he did all that 00:18:09.580 |
he did, Jacob's life was a constant reminder to us that God blesses those who desire it. 00:18:19.380 |
Jacob, simple answer, God gave it to him because he wanted it more than anything else. 00:18:28.660 |
And so God's blessing came down the line that, again, for the people who wanted it 00:18:34.540 |
Now he's passing it on, and then here's an interesting thing that he says. 00:18:42.140 |
Now in our, the way that we speak of worship, you know, typically we say, "What time is 00:18:47.740 |
Right, so we have one at nine o'clock, we have one at eleven o'clock. 00:18:52.900 |
Right, sometimes it ends at 10.15, sometimes when I go long it's 10.30, right? 00:19:02.300 |
And anything beyond that, you're frustrated, right? 00:19:11.900 |
Right, and that's the way we describe worship. 00:19:14.140 |
But the word for worship here, about 80 to 90% of the New Testament translation of the 00:19:20.420 |
word worship comes from this one particular word, proskuneo. 00:19:24.700 |
And the word proskuneo literally means to be prostrated, to bow down. 00:19:30.580 |
And the picture of this is clearly seen in the book of Isaiah chapter six, verse three 00:19:36.860 |
to five, when Isaiah is given a glimpse of God's glory in his throne. 00:19:42.580 |
And you have the three creatures who are circling around his throne, day and night, declaring, 00:19:53.580 |
And they were praising God, and the foundations of the threshold trembled at the voice of 00:19:57.380 |
him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. 00:20:01.100 |
Then I said, and this is Isaiah's response to seeing his glory, "Woe is me, for I am 00:20:08.220 |
ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. 00:20:13.380 |
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 00:20:17.940 |
It doesn't describe that Isaiah bowed down and he was prostrated, but you could tell 00:20:22.620 |
by his words that's exactly what was going on. 00:20:26.100 |
Because he could not lift his eyes to see his glory, in fact, he was terrified. 00:20:30.860 |
Because something that was so magnificent, something that was all inspiring, that he 00:20:35.620 |
was in front of, and naturally he bowed down and said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined." 00:20:40.620 |
The word proskuneo literally means to be prostrated, to be bowed down, and leaned forward. 00:20:47.500 |
In fact, another meaning behind this is to lean forward to kiss. 00:20:51.800 |
To kiss the feet of somebody who is much bigger than you, much higher than you. 00:20:57.100 |
I think we see this spontaneous worship, again, in sports arenas, or maybe you're watching 00:21:06.780 |
As an example, if somebody, let's say LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, whoever you're a fan 00:21:10.820 |
of, comes and he does a double, triple flip, back flip, behind the back, and he does a 00:21:21.900 |
As an example, I'm just trying to exaggerate for the purpose of the illustration. 00:21:26.220 |
You see something magnificent, and what do you see? 00:21:28.460 |
A lot of times, his other players or the fan that's watching this are so affected by what 00:21:36.020 |
he did, you see them getting up, and what do they do? 00:21:46.580 |
This word proskuneo is a description of that. 00:21:50.660 |
It's a description of when you're confronted with something so bigger than you, beyond 00:21:55.620 |
you, that all you can do spontaneously, you burst out. 00:22:05.660 |
Again, it is not wrong to say, you know, our gathering of worship at 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock, 00:22:11.620 |
but when we limit, when that's our whole idea of understanding, it is a trivial understanding 00:22:19.720 |
Worship is something when our eyes become open to His glory, and we recognize there's 00:22:24.620 |
something so much more tremendously above that you and I could possibly comprehend, 00:22:30.060 |
and we spontaneously respond in worship and adoration and awe and fear, all at the same 00:22:37.760 |
That's that word proskuneo, and that's how surrender happens. 00:22:42.140 |
Surrender is not us trying so hard to make Jesus my Lord. 00:22:47.820 |
Surrendering happens as you recognize He knows better than you. 00:22:53.540 |
He's much more important than you, and so when you are confronted by that, you end up 00:23:05.180 |
There's nothing that you understand that goes beyond what you have just seen. 00:23:12.260 |
That's the word that is described when He says, "After He blesses them, He proskuneo, 00:23:17.660 |
Now, we have to understand when it says He worshiped God, right, remember Jacob's life. 00:23:35.020 |
Humanly speaking, we're going to look at that and say, "Well, that guy shouldn't be getting 00:23:40.980 |
However you look at the circumstance, he gets the blessing. 00:23:44.580 |
He comes out, and remember the dream that he has, the Jacob's Ladder? 00:23:48.020 |
He sees the angels going back and forth, and God speaks to him, "What is this?" 00:23:51.020 |
And then God reiterates the blessing given to him. 00:23:54.740 |
Genesis 28, 13-15, "And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, 'I am the Lord, the God 00:23:59.580 |
of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. 00:24:04.340 |
I will give it to you and to your descendants. 00:24:06.120 |
Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the 00:24:10.340 |
west and to the east and to the north and to the south. 00:24:13.860 |
And in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 00:24:17.420 |
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, 00:24:22.860 |
for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.'" 00:24:27.740 |
Now even though he schemed, even though he manipulated, and even though he lied, because 00:24:33.740 |
he desired it more than anything else, God blesses him and he reiterates, "You have my 00:24:41.980 |
If I heard this, I would automatically think, "I'm going to just start any business, right? 00:24:52.300 |
I would automatically assume that I'm going to have 70,000 children. 00:24:59.100 |
You're going to have triplets and ... because you've got to populate the world, right? 00:25:04.820 |
I would assume that you're going to be the owner of the largest piece of land. 00:25:08.700 |
It's just going to plop down, that you would expect that. 00:25:17.020 |
In fact, Jacob lives most of his life afraid of his older brother, Esau. 00:25:22.660 |
He's constantly running in fear because his brother was so angry that he got ripped off 00:25:28.820 |
and every opportunity he had, and that reason, like after he gets the blessing, he has to 00:25:35.780 |
Remember what happens after that, after the Jacob's Ladder? 00:25:44.800 |
He falls in love and he has to work to get her. 00:25:49.460 |
That story is mentioned in Genesis 29, 17 to 20. 00:26:05.180 |
He falls in love with Rachel because she was beautiful of form and face, but Leah was, 00:26:17.140 |
Why does the author mention that she has poor sight? 00:26:21.300 |
Most commentators believe it's a euphemism to say there wasn't much to look at, right? 00:26:30.220 |
I mean, this is politically incorrect, but the Bible just spells it out. 00:26:34.780 |
This is the circumstance behind what happened, right? 00:26:38.340 |
So again, next time you go on a date and you come back and your friends ask, "How was 00:26:43.580 |
Instead of saying she has a great personality, just say, "Her eyes were weak." 00:26:49.660 |
And hopefully they read the Bible, they know what you mean, right? 00:26:54.460 |
There's not a lot to behold, but he falls in love with Rachel because she was beautiful. 00:26:59.660 |
Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, 00:27:05.780 |
And Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man. 00:27:12.500 |
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because 00:27:25.660 |
If at the end of seven years I can labor and live like an indentured servant, if I can 00:27:37.220 |
And then on his marriage day, Laban, her father, tricks him and sends in Leah because he's 00:27:44.580 |
probably concerned because her eyesight was not good. 00:27:48.900 |
But maybe this is the best chance for him to get his daughter married off. 00:27:56.140 |
So he tricks him and has him lay with Leah instead. 00:28:01.900 |
And when morning comes, he said, "Well, you took Leah." 00:28:10.940 |
And he just simply says, "It is not done in our land to have the younger married before 00:28:15.060 |
the older, so you have to take the older one." 00:28:24.060 |
It was like every year, every day, it's like one more day, one more month. 00:28:28.220 |
You know, can you imagine on the seventh day, the last day, boom, I did it. 00:28:37.460 |
Not for Rachel because of the bad-eyed girl, right? 00:28:43.520 |
Can you imagine what the next seven years was like for him? 00:28:47.620 |
If seven years went by fast, the next seven years probably was like torture. 00:28:53.340 |
Bitterness and anger every single day, another day because I got tricked. 00:28:59.140 |
This is after God blessed him and said, "You're going to multiply. 00:29:03.580 |
Everybody else is going to be blessed because of you." 00:29:05.900 |
And now he's 14 years in labor because he got tricked. 00:29:09.300 |
And then after the 14 years are done, he's ready to go. 00:29:17.500 |
So for 20 years, he's living as an indentured servant after he received the promise of God. 00:29:24.820 |
Well, after the 20 years, you would think that it would be done, but you know what happens, 00:29:31.180 |
After 20 years, there's another disaster that happens. 00:29:35.500 |
One of his daughters gets raped and his other sons get angry. 00:29:42.180 |
And that family, they're much more powerful and richer than he is. 00:29:45.500 |
And so again, he has to pack up all his bags and he has to leave and run away to Bethel. 00:30:01.220 |
And because Joseph has a dream that God had ordained that blessing was going to come through 00:30:09.740 |
His brothers get angry and they get jealous and they beat him and then they end up selling 00:30:16.900 |
So he loses his loved child most of his life. 00:30:27.200 |
That was his life after he received the blessing. 00:30:31.780 |
Now, you would think at the end of his life, he's like, "Well, I'm going to bless you." 00:30:35.980 |
He's like, "I don't know if you want this blessing." 00:30:39.420 |
Because after I got this blessing, you know what happened to me? 00:30:41.660 |
I don't know if I want to pass on this blessing. 00:30:53.700 |
What was it that he knew that caused him to be prostrated? 00:30:59.660 |
By this time, what Jacob knew, that the blessing was far beyond land. 00:31:09.580 |
It was about the sovereign God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob. 00:31:15.340 |
And the promise that he made was going to be passed down. 00:31:20.260 |
In fact, the time that has passed between the initial promise to Abraham to the passing 00:31:26.340 |
of the baton to Joseph's children, 200 years have passed. 00:31:31.620 |
No land, no nation, and they're not the superpower. 00:31:36.460 |
How many years pass, more pass, before they even enter their first step into the promised 00:31:46.220 |
So after he blesses, if Jacob's life was hard, after he blesses Abraham and Manasseh, they 00:32:05.460 |
I would scheme to get the other brother to be blessed. 00:32:11.660 |
Even if I was the older brother, give it to him. 00:32:16.460 |
Hebrews chapter 11, 39 to 40 says this, "And all these, having gained approval through 00:32:22.500 |
their father, through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had 00:32:28.020 |
provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect." 00:32:34.580 |
At some point in their journey, they realized it wasn't about the physical promised land. 00:32:46.620 |
It was about God's plan of redemption for mankind. 00:32:50.720 |
And so his blessing that he's passing on to them is that God of the universe who blessed 00:32:58.060 |
You know what's interesting is that he, Prosconeo, okay, that's why he worshiped, because they 00:33:07.140 |
They saw a blessing much far beyond this physical world. 00:33:11.020 |
That even in the greatest tragedy, God is still sovereign. 00:33:17.520 |
And when he recognized that, he was bound down in worship. 00:33:20.100 |
You know what's interesting is after he worships, it ends with leaning on the top of his staff. 00:33:29.420 |
And again, this is why inductive Bible study is so important, because when you just read 00:33:33.300 |
it through, you're going to say, "Oh, he was blessed and he had a staff." 00:33:37.700 |
And I don't know why that's there, but it's there. 00:33:41.100 |
And I was wrestling with this all week, right? 00:33:42.860 |
And I was trying to look at commentaries and listen to sermons and going back and forth. 00:33:48.580 |
Because, you know, some people will say that, you know, the staff in the Bible oftentimes 00:33:55.640 |
So in Psalm 23, verse 4, it says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 00:34:03.100 |
So a shepherd would hold his staff basically as a weapon. 00:34:07.800 |
So if the wolves come in, he would use that to protect and sometimes guide, right? 00:34:12.300 |
Guide the sheep to go to discipline and get them to the right place. 00:34:20.780 |
Why would he worship and then he leaned on his staff? 00:34:27.820 |
Think about what that staff meant, particularly to Jacob, right? 00:34:33.800 |
Think about what that staff meant specifically to Jacob. 00:34:42.780 |
For Jacob, it wasn't just because he was a shepherd and in the middle of shepherding, 00:34:46.500 |
he had to have that staff to protect his animals. 00:34:56.900 |
Because after all that scheming, at the end, he was about to meet his brother Esau, and 00:35:04.580 |
And so he encounters the angel of God and he wrestled, remember that? 00:35:11.700 |
So all night he wrestles with God, he said, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless 00:35:26.660 |
God could have just said, "Get away from me," and then that would have been it, right? 00:35:38.580 |
God dislocates his hip joint to remind him that this is the day that you wrestled with 00:35:48.420 |
And so when they took his hip joint out, he had a limp all his life. 00:35:57.780 |
And so God did that deliberately to remind him. 00:36:01.860 |
And the nation of Israel isn't called Abraham, isn't called Isaac, it's called Israel, after 00:36:10.260 |
In fact, this event was so significant in Genesis 32, verse 32, it says, "Therefore 00:36:16.540 |
to this day, the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the socket 00:36:21.400 |
of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip." 00:36:30.540 |
All the things that he experienced, all the scheming and his business savvy and all of 00:36:36.420 |
that he did, God made him limp all his life to remind him that the blessing came to you 00:36:49.180 |
Because you sought after me, you wrestled and you said, "I'm not going to let you go." 00:36:53.140 |
And then he named the whole nation, all the descendants after that, so that every time 00:37:06.220 |
He's the one who started, he's the father of faith. 00:37:12.460 |
Isaac's the one who was going to be offered." 00:37:24.780 |
So that they would tell their children, "It's because your grandfather, great, great, great 00:37:34.060 |
He wanted the blessing from God more than anything else in his life." 00:37:39.800 |
And so that staff that he was leaning on is a reminder of all that journey. 00:37:46.560 |
Because every time he took a step, it was a reminder that the greatest thing that he 00:37:58.060 |
That's a consistent lesson that we see all throughout scripture. 00:38:02.020 |
You know, whenever something goes wrong, we want to fix it. 00:38:04.020 |
If we do this and organize this, we have the right people, we have the right finances, 00:38:07.820 |
right program, right teaching, right discipleship. 00:38:10.480 |
If we do all of this, we can get it right and make a church and do all of this. 00:38:16.220 |
And at the end, when it works, what do we do? 00:38:18.180 |
Because I was smart, because I worked hard, because I was disciplined. 00:38:23.060 |
And all of that, if you're not careful, is man scheming. 00:38:27.500 |
That somehow if we're smart enough, if we're good enough, if we have experience enough, 00:38:31.540 |
if I know enough, if I'm talented enough, that somehow the blessing of God is going 00:38:38.380 |
Remember what Jesus said to his disciples before he left? 00:38:42.420 |
You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me. 00:38:55.300 |
Because you cannot bear fruit until you depend on me. 00:39:04.580 |
That sometimes even Bible study is our scheming. 00:39:08.140 |
If we know more, if we study more, if I exposit more, if I remember more, that somehow I'm 00:39:16.620 |
No, it's when we surrender more, when we recognize we are weak, when we recognize with 00:39:24.100 |
all the scheming that I had, he could not shake his brother. 00:39:29.020 |
All the effort, all the money that he had could not quench his brother's anger toward 00:39:35.060 |
And he knew that the only hope that he had is if God would protect him. 00:39:42.940 |
And that's why he was delivered from that, the only what God can do. 00:39:49.020 |
Salvation of mankind is not something that you and I do because we're clever. 00:39:54.660 |
That if you get the right gifted person who is rightly trained and give them right education, 00:39:59.700 |
read the right books, connect them with the right people, people will be saved. 00:40:07.380 |
The human arrogance of thinking that God is looking for smart people to do his work, program 00:40:19.100 |
The greatest, greatest place where God is always taking his people is for us to surrender. 00:40:30.900 |
And when I come before God and contend with God and surrender to God, begging God, asking 00:40:43.260 |
That's why he says, ask, seek and knock and it will be answered. 00:41:00.700 |
So in this short verse reveals to us his whole life, how a schemer became a worshiper of 00:41:24.780 |
Again, as we invite our worship team to come, let's take a few minutes to pray before God. 00:41:38.300 |
When's the last time you can honestly say that I wrestled with God? 00:41:45.940 |
This is just something that we just kind of prayer, something that we just kind of sprinkle 00:41:53.700 |
And even though we say glory to God, but in the back of our minds, we're taking most of 00:42:02.020 |
Let's take some time to really come before God. 00:42:03.940 |
And there might be tons of things that we don't understand. 00:42:08.420 |
They come before God, even that I don't understand Lord, but I believe in you. 00:42:15.140 |
So again, this morning to commit, to contend with God, that again, that the faith of Jacob