Good morning again, Rhema Community Church family. It's an exciting day. We get to Genesis chapter 48. This is crazy. We're already at chapter 48. This has been a little over two year journey that we have taken in our verse-by-verse study of the book of Genesis. I know many of you thought we'd never get to this point. We are in the tail stretch. This is exciting stuff. When we last left off in chapter 48, we are in the tail stretch.

chapter 47, Jacob brings in Joseph and he tells him, look, I'm going to die. I don't have much long here on this earth. And Jacob makes Joseph give him a promise. Don't let them bury me here in Egypt. Take me back to the land of Canaan. Bury me there with my fathers, with Abraham and Isaac. That's where I need to be. And so we talked about that last week that they make this promise. He makes a, Joseph makes a covenant promise that he will take his father back home.

And there's also a hint in here as well, too, that Jacob is a little bit fearful as well, too. He knows, he remembers the promise that God gave to Abraham back in Genesis 15, that there's going to come a point in time when your people are going to be sojourners.

They are going to be in a land that is not theirs. They're going to be slaves for 400 years. And so Jacob obviously remembers this promise. And as they go down into Egypt, that has to be in the back of his mind. Is this when that's taken place? Is this when this is coming to fruition?

Our people are going to be here in the land of Goshen, flourish, multiply. And for 400 years, somehow, some way, they were going to end up slaves.

He sees this coming. And somehow or another that his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren are going to even like it here in Egypt and not want to go back because it's a land of plenty.

And once this famine goes away, will they want to go back home to the land that was promised to them and given them by the Lord God Almighty?

Will they want to stay here in Egypt? So there's this pull, and we talked about last week, that sometimes we are a little too comfortable in the wrong place.

And how God brings about a shaking in our lives as well, too, because we get too comfortable in the wrong place.

And there's an awakening that happens in our lives as well, too.

And we ended in chapter 47 with that, and we begin chapter 48 with a great adoption.

A great adoption in chapter 48.

And as we come to the end of Genesis, so far that we have seen that Genesis really deals with two things primarily.

It deals with four great events and four great people.

Four great events and four great people.

The four great events come first.

And the four great events are this.

First of all, the formation of the universe.

God creates the heavens and the earth and all that's in there.

And then we have the fall of man.

And then we have the flood.

And again, the flood was not a little geographical thing.

It was universal.

It happened everywhere, okay?

This flood that fell upon the earth.

And then the fourth great event is the fallout from sin of man over the earth.

The fallout of sin.

And so those are the four great, great events or notable events.

And then we get a beginning in chapter 11 and the bulk of Genesis.

We have four great people that we really deal with.

We have Abraham.

We have Isaac.

We have Jacob.

And now we move into Joseph, who has a large part of Genesis written about him.

Joseph takes up a majority part of Genesis.

And we begin chapter 48 in verse 1.

It says,

I will make you a company of peoples.

And I will give you this land and give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.

And now your two sons 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 mine.

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 Padam, to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way.

When there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, I buried her.

Hallelujah.

Thank you.

He brings them in to Jacob who will bless him before he dies. And Jacob's like, well, by the way, I am promoting your two sons, my two grandsons, and I'm elevating them to the status of patriarch, okay? Just like I have with Judah, and Levi, and Simeon, and all the other, the twelve tribes. And I'm giving them this status, and they shall become mine. They shall become mine.

And this is probably one of the most important verses in the Bible. And it answers the question, the whole tribe question, because people ask, excuse me, how many tribes are there in Israel? The common answer is twelve tribes. Well, actually, there's thirteen, if you break it down.

Because Levi will become the tribe that hosts the priesthood, and they won't get any land allotment at all, whatsoever. They would just get certain cities within all the other tribes, because God will say to the tribe of Levi, I will be your inheritance. I will be your portion. You don't have to worry about land. You'll be taken care of.

You just officiate the priesthood. And that, plus the land allotment, that puts the land allotments back to twelve. But because there are thirteen, now Jacob takes on the two sons of Joseph and elevates them to the same allotment status as his own children.

And because of that, you have in the Bible twenty different listings, alright, of the tribes of Israel. And they're all slightly different, if you look at them.

And they can be. So, if you were to say Ephraim, Manasseh may be included with that, because it's a reference to Joseph, as one of the sons of Joseph.

If you say Ephraim, Manasseh might be just hidden or couched in there somewhere. But when the nations go to war, Levi will be exempt, and you don't see Levi listed.

In fact, you don't see the tribe of Joseph ever listed as a tribe of Joseph. It's the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, separate tribes.

So, Joseph gets two shares. Joseph is never mentioned as a tribe, except one place in the scripture, and that's Revelation chapter 7.

And that's the only time where you see Joseph listed as a tribe. And you find out why when you read the book of Revelation.

If we were going verse by verse, it might take us three lifetimes to actually get there.

But if you were to look at the tribes in Genesis, and then compare the tribes listed in Revelation, the tribes in Revelation mention Joseph.

But there are two tribes in Revelation that are not mentioned in the tribal allotments.

I'm referring to Revelation 7, where it talks about the 144,000 members that are sealed.

You got from the 12 tribes, you have 12,000 from this one, 12,000 from this one, etc.

And you also see in there that there's 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph.

The tribe of Dan is not listed. It's left out. That's one of the tribes that's left out.

Why is the tribe of Dan left out in the book of Revelation? We don't know why.

I believe, me personally, that Dan was the tribe that hosted the first false idol worship in the nation.

There were two calves that were set up. One was at Samaria at Bethel, and the other was at Dan.

And Dan was the tribe that served to first divide the nation into idolatry.

Ephraim also is not mentioned in Revelation 7, but the tribe of Joseph is mentioned.

Ephraim also helped to lead the nation of Israel into idolatry.

That was the central tribe where the other calf was.

I'm not going to go into too much detail because it's going to serve to just layer on some confusion in here.

But that's just a snippet of what you see that can help to tie the knot when you look at Revelation 7.

But here we have Jacob. He's told that Joseph has come just as he has requested.

And Jacob summons his strength, and he sits up in his bed, and Jacob says to Joseph,

God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

And then he extends the patriarchal blood.

For an everlasting possession. And that sets up verse 5 when he says, And now your two sons 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. Now what this means is that they are now to be recognized as Jacob's sons in matters of inheritance.

Alright? There's a precedence for this in the ancient Near East. And even though these are Joseph's sons, because of Joseph's favor in Jacob's sights, his sons are now ranking in inheritance as his brothers.

This is a massive act at the end of Jacob's life whereby he has had 12 sons and he is now going to expand that to 14. Your sons are now mine, even as Reuben and Simeon are mine. He has the right to do this as the patriarch.

And it completely upsets the dynastic structure of the family in the sense that the inheritance will now be 14.

And so, and if Joseph has future sons, those sons will be his in terms of inheritance. And the inheritance will be divided from Joseph's portion. Okay?

But insofar as Jacob's inheritance, Ephraim and Manasseh are now included in that inheritance.

This is an extraordinary act of generosity and recognition on the part of Jacob to Joseph before he passes.

And you know, and if you think about it, the story really began when Joseph's brothers were jealous of him.

And if you remember, they were so jealous of him, they couldn't even speak to him.

They hated him and despised him. They couldn't speak to him.

And all of that is brought around as Joseph reveals himself to them, or the second time he reveals himself to the brothers.

And when the shock of that recognition wears off, the scripture tells us that Joseph and his brothers conversed,

which was an amazing sign of God's grace on the other side of all of this.

And now, on the other side of all of this, the brothers who have been jealous of Joseph as one brother in the inheritance,

they are now going to deal with Joseph as three.

It's crazy.

It's like, it's almost like God is saying it's still spinning on the brothers, you know.

I know you thought this old, we'll see if you're really over this whole jealousy thing, you know.

I know you asked Joseph for forgiveness and he's forgiven you.

But you know what, now we're going to take that and we're going to divide that inheritance another two times in there with these other two.

So, I just see the hand of God all over this.

Verse 8.

When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these?

Joseph said to his father, these are my sons whom God gave 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 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 from his knee, removed them from his knees.

That expression, to remove them from his knees, is a Hebrew expression, giving over for adoption.

That's what that means right there.

And he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

And Joseph took them both.

Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand.

Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand.

And brought them near.

And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger brother.

And his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands.

For Manasseh was the firstborn.

Okay.

So, he puts his right hand on, supposedly, should have been the firstborn.

But it's the secondborn.

Ephraim. You know, why? What's he doing here? And Joseph's going to get upset. We'll see that. Why does Joseph get upset? And why does Joseph position these boys, his boys, where the eldest gets the right hand and the youngest one gets the left hand, for this blessing? Well, we've mentioned this before. And I really, really want you to understand that.

What's happening here is it's called the law of primogeniture. The law of primogeniture. And it's the law of firstborn is what it is. And what it means is that the firstborn has certain benefits that no other child gets. The firstborn son gets the authority passed down as the head of the family. They get the patriarchal nature is passed down. The authority of the family is passed down. The authority of the family is passed down.

They get twice the family. They get twice the land allotment. They get a double portion. The firstborn gets that double portion. The secondborn gets a blessing, but not like the firstborn. But he knowingly, Jacob knowingly does this.

He crosses his hand. He crosses his hand. And we say, well, why? Well, it's all a part of an act of faith. And we'll see when the chapter comes to a close here.

But there is a second law that supersedes the law of primogeniture. There is a second law and it supersedes it. And that's the law of preeminence.

The law of preeminence. And that means this. God has the sovereign right to choose whatever order or person or whatever reason whenever he wants to use them.

Okay? This is his sovereign right as God. And you notice something in the scriptures. God does that a lot within the scriptures. Right?

Okay? It was not Cain. It was Abel who receives the blessing from the Lord. Okay?

It wasn't Ishmael. It was Isaac who receives the blessing from the Lord and who gets the blessing. Not the firstborn.

It wasn't Reuben. It was Joseph who gets the preeminence. Who gets the significant role signifying that.

Later on we'll see that it's going to be Moses. Not Aaron. Not Aaron, the older brother. That's going to be the deliverer of Israel.

God does this a lot. We see that it's going to be David. Not his older brother. Who's going to be anointed as king to be God's anointed.

And so I'm bringing this up because, you know, God does this a lot. And the law of preeminence supersedes the law of primogeniture.

Okay? Firstborn. God has the right to do that. And again, I want to make this clear because there will be a group of people who will come by your house

and they will knock on the door and they will have some really nice little literature that they want you to look at.

And you may not know this. And actually they probably do. And if they don't, then they're hiding. If they say they don't.

But they're nice sweet little people called Jehovah's Witnesses. Okay?

And they will come to the door. They'll engage you with the conversation.

And you might start somewhere in John or something like that and start to talk with them.

But they will quickly pace you and move you along. Okay?

And they want to take you straight to Colossians.

They want to take you to Colossians because there you are in the middle of your day.

You're not expecting someone to come to your door with literature and begin to ask you all these questions.

And they'll ask you if you know the Bible.

And you'll say, well, yeah, well, Jesus is God. I believe that. Okay?

And the Bible does say that over and over again.

But they'll say, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.

And they'll quote Colossians chapter 1.

They'll say that he is the image.

He is the image of Colossians 1.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

But then it says right after that, he created all things, whether visible, invisible, in heaven or on earth.

He created all things.

And because it says that, they have to translate it a little bit differently.

And the New World Translation that's used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, it's the only translation that does this, by the way,

says concerning Jesus that he's the firstborn over all creation.

He created all other things.

And by him, all other things consist.

A deliberate insertion of a word that is not there in any Greek manuscript of any authority.

Okay?

And so what they will say is this, well, you see, it says that Jesus is born and he's firstborn, so he can't be God.

He can't be God.

And they'll say that God is born.

But then you turn them to Jeremiah 31. Turn to Jeremiah 31 with me real quick. Jeremiah 31, on page 735, just so you know. Beginning in, that's a joke. Verse 8. It says, Behold, I will bring them from the north country. I will gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them, the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman, and she who is in labor together.

A great company, they shall return here. With weeping, they shall come. And with pleas for mercy, I will lead them back. I will make them walk by the brooks of water in a straight path in which they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. And you say, well, wait a minute. You ask him this. How can you have two firstborns? You can't have, you can only be one firstborn. These children weren't twins.

And Manasseh was clearly the firstborn chronologically. So why does he say that Ephraim is my firstborn? Back to where we were. Simply this. It's the law of preeminence. The law of preeminence. What he's saying is that I am elevating him to be heir.

I am elevated. That's the idea of what the firstborn means. He's going to be an heir. I'm going to bless him. I'm going to bless him. And he is going to be a blessing. Ephraim is my firstborn.

I am going to bless Ephraim more so than I'm going to bless even Manasseh. In terms of position. Position. So back to Colossians 1. Jesus Christ. He is the firstborn over all creation.

The prototokos. Sorry. Prototokos in the Greek. He is the first. He is the highest in order. He is the highest in rank. He is the heir of all creation because he created everything.

He is therefore the firstborn. He is the highest rank and deserves preeminence.

All that to just tell you how you deal with those nice little people who knock on your doors.

So there you go. Back to Genesis 48.

Verse 15.

And he blessed Joseph. So this is the blessing that Jacob is going to speak

to his son Joseph.

And he blessed Joseph and said

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

and the name of my fathers

Abraham and Isaac

and let them grow into a multitude

in the midst of the earth.

And those are tender words.

Those are such encouragement.

Those are

that's a covenant blessing right there.

Tender words spoken to you.

You know I remember

I remember I was a very young boy

I was not even able to read

but I would get letters

I would get an occasional letter from my grandfather

I come to find out

it was probably my grandmother who wrote them

because at this time when I first met him

he was blind

he had diabetes

and he had been stricken blind.

But I remember I only met him face to face a handful of times

but he had a farm in Kentucky

and we used to go visit his farm

and I remember that

I remember fishing in his pond

I remember playing in the barn

I remember how striking blue his eyes were

and I remember singing

Jesus loves me

this I know

for the Bible tells me so

on his front porch with him

but he would send these letters to me occasionally

and my mom and dad would read them to me

and the words

I would hold them so dear to my heart

they were so encouraging

they were like a salve

to my heart

as a little boy

and I still remember that as a young man

but they are not in a sense covenant blessings

like what we're dealing with here

Jacob has the authority here

and he's given a covenant blessing

he is blessing Joseph

and in his blessing

it's his prerogative as patriarch

to discriminate

even amongst those who are his own sons

and grandsons

and now his two sons

that he's now treating them

cię is lancion

he's not in a row

so that that was tried

and he's been a seed

and he was

I still find it funny how how Joseph's two boys Ephraim and Manasseh are middle-aged men by by this this point and they're still called the boys the boys much like when we had Benjamin was in the story and Benjamin was referred to as the boy and he was in his early 20s and already had 10 sons but he's still the boy okay because of the order in the family verse 17 when Joseph saw that his father

laid his right hand on the head of his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him and he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head and Joseph said to his father not this way my father since this one is the firstborn put your right hand on his head 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 saying by you Israel will pronounce blessings saying God will make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh then Israel said to Joseph behold I'm about to die but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers moreover I have given you you rather than to your brothers one

mountain slope that I took one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and my bow so Joseph intervenes here and he intervenes physically and so his dad has crossed his hands and is saying the blessing Joseph reaches out and actually tries to shift the hands but Jacob says Jacob knows exactly what he's doing he knows exactly what he's I know what I'm doing here son this is intentional step back

what I'm doing is intentional and the irony is that every turn in this because it is Joseph who is doing this and he's speaking to Jacob trying to reverse this but it was Jacob who was the younger brother who got the blessing rather than his older brother Esau

okay it was Jacob who rested the blessing away from his younger brother Esau and now Jacob it's Jacob who is reversing the blessing when it comes to Joseph's own sons why why is he doing this we don't know we're it's never really revealed to us okay why it happened is a puzzlement that it happened that's revelation that's revelation and he goes on to say and both shall be

great nations this is a great nations this is a great nations this is a great nations this is a pattern that we've seen over and over we're told that Ishmael would be a great nation and that he would become the father of kings okay but the blessing would go to Isaac and so don't let the irony slip past you here because remember how Isaac was tricked okay it was because he was old his eyesight was dim okay and and and Jacob comes in with lambskins and on his arms and everything and his eyesight's dim

but Isaac's a little suspicious but Isaac's a little suspicious but not suspicious enough to figure it all out and and the blessing goes goes to Jacob and so as Joseph tries to stop his father Jacob says I know what I'm doing I'm blind I'm losing my sight but I'm not that blind I'm not that blind son okay and it's it's such an incredible narrative that shows

the ironies that shows the ironies of God's covenantal dealings with his people and the people with whom the covenant is made and upon whom humanly speaking the covenant now rests

that's where the covenant rests now you know in some sense this shows us that Jacob was a conniver until the very end you know seriously he's he's manipulating things until the very end you know

and the strangest thing is that this this has puzzled the Jews for centuries how does how does such a conniver become honored as a patriarch you know it's hard to say

you

of just this is a strange thing you know that that that Jacob is doing this and Jacob is shrewd there's some shrewdness in here of what what he's what he's doing what he what's taking place here and in Luke chapter 16 remember Jesus is talking to his disciples and in the parable of the unjust steward he he's going to say that the children of this age are wiser in their own way than the children of light and the point of Jesus in that parable is that if his people

were as shrewd were as shrewd with opportunity as the world is shrewd with opportunity the world would be a whole different place you know if for the sake of the gospel we were as shrewd as the unjust manager was shrewd that shrewdness would be transformed from evil to good okay so when one man's life here Jacob 147 years Jacob's conniving has shifted from evil to good

from evil to good from evil to good even though it had a good effect in the beginning and that's all part of covenantal history and even though his mother was a co-conspirator in all this even as all of this unfolds all the irony now comes down in this book in Genesis chapter 48 where Jacob crosses his hands and he reverses the blessing he reverses the blessing between these two boys you know get the picture here

Joseph is bringing his sons up knowing his father is going to die Israel is going to die bless my sons he brings the oldest that will that will that will be at his dad's right hand places him there knowing that his father's eyesight is dim puts the youngest at the left hand so all his father has to do is reach out but his father does this and he crosses his hands and as we close this morning I want you to get this picture

I want you to see a picture of this moment and listen while I have no biblical grounds for doing this when I see this again I have no biblical grounds but I cannot help but be tempted to see the cross pictured in the crossing of Jacob's hands the cross of Jesus Christ because each one of us are sinners for all have sinned

and fall short of all have sinned and fall short of all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God the word the word tells us that clearly and it and our birth is reversed when we trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ it's not our first birth that the Lord accepts it's the second birth that the Lord accepts you must be born again you must be born again

you must be born again you must be born again you must be born again you must be born of the spirit it is that second birth that the Lord receives and all of this is made possible by the finished work of Jesus Christ your natural birth your natural birth there's there is nothing special about that that happens all the time your mom and dad had a part in that but the spiritual birth no one has a part that's the work of the Lord

that's the work of the Lord that's the work of the Lord that's the work of the Holy Spirit when you are born again and when we come to the cross and we receive the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus takes the hand there's a crossing that takes place he says that's the birth I will accept you are reborn you are a new creation behold all the old things have passed away and you have been made new and today if you are struggling

with something in your life you are struggling with something in your life you are struggling with something in your life you are struggling with something in your life you are having a hard time piecing all these things together you are growing weary of just chasing your tail time after time and this thing called life and everything seems to be caving in on you maybe it's time you allow the Holy Spirit to give you a new birth and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ I see a picture of this

in this moment

Father I just pray this morning for all those

who may be listening

Jesus of Nazareth to give them that new birth and it's as simple as coming to the Lord and saying Father I have sinned over and over again I am tired of chasing things in my life I am tired of trying to put my fingers in the in the in the in the in the dam and keep it from life from exploding on me I surrender my heart to you Lord I confess

confess that I am I am nothing Lord I am nothing Lord I am trusting upon your son Lord Jesus who died on the cross for my sins I repent from those sins I don't want to live that way any longer and I give my heart and my life to you

cleanse me today Lord I pray that someone is listening to this this morning that and that's their heart's cry that you would in in the quietness of wherever they are that you would minister to them Lord and they would make that profession

and for those of us who have made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are trusting in the finished work of the Lord I pray Lord God that we would be we would be renewed with

with the realization that that repentance brings new life for us and it's in that that we trust and it's in that glorious repentance that we find the strength to carry on to be his witness and to live out the gospel to live out the gospel

these are different days for us Lord God but none of this has caught you by surprise

these are difficult days for us Lord but nothing is too hard for you

we love you and we trust you Lord

come Lord Jesus come

minister to us as only you can and it's in your name we give thanks and praise

amen