The Faith Of A Dying Man

I ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Genesis chapter 48 as we continue the saga of Joseph. Genesis chapter 48. You follow as I read this chapter. After this Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, Your son Joseph has come to you.

Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob had said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me in 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 people, and will 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. And the children that you father 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.

When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these? 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 him, 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 them from his knees, 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, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. 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 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 into a multitude in the midst of the land. When Joseph saw 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, No, 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 make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. Then he put Ephraim before 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, this mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you that we can gather together to witness these baptisms, to welcome these folks into our fellowship, and to hear your word. Lord, give us insight now. Help us, Lord, not to learn this just as some history far away and long ago, but rather you speaking to us today and your intention in this passage to change us. So help us, we pray now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Jacob is dying and he knows it. Now the last, you can sense he knows it because he's starting to get his affairs in order and he's starting to say his last goodbyes. The last time we saw Joseph, he takes, as he takes his leave, we saw that he wants his body buried in the land that God has promised to his descendants. He is so confident in God promises that even though his people don possess the land yet his request shows that he considers Canaan their country Now once more now as this scene is open we find ourselves with Jacob in his last days What's on his mind?

In the twilight of his life, what does he think is most important? Well, you'll find the answers to those questions as you observe what happens in the quiet of this room When he blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, who are standing at his bedside. Now this is a picture of faith. A picture intended us to help us to understand the nature of what faith is and to move us to live by faith.

Now we know this because the divine commentary on this is found in Hebrews chapter 11, part of our reading this morning. The writer is encouraging his readers to live by faith. All of chapter 11 is written to people who are supposed to live by faith in face of the trials that they're facing. They are to live in light of the promises of God. He's mentioned the patriarchs in that passage you heard today.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having the knowledge that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. And then, speaking of those who had not received the things promised, he says this about Jacob. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

So this scene, with its strange and unfamiliar ceremonies, is singled out by the writer of Hebrews as an example of living by faith. So as we come to this chapter, we're told by God himself, this is all about faith. This chapter is all about living by faith. And so that's how we need to understand it. If you want to see what it means to live by faith, he says, then look at this quiet scene where Jacob blesses his grandsons.

God wants you to live by faith like Jacob did. Now at the end of his days you don't find a conniver, a schemer, a manipulator, but you find a man of mature faith. And so you see this story unfold, you learn something of what it means to live by faith. Now if you going to live by faith then know the promises of God You got to know the promises by which you live Now I was tempted to as I go through each part of this sermon to read the section but I not going to do that because of time So you have to refer to it.

I'll tell you, you look down as I talk about it. In those first seven verses, you find this. Know the promises of God. If you're going to live by faith, you need to know the promises of God. The scene opens with Joseph receiving news that his father was ill, implying that he didn't have much time to live. And so Joseph heads to his dad's house with his two oldest sons in tow.

And when they get there, Jacob is informed of their arrival, and so he gathers his strength and he sits up in his bed. Now Joseph brought Manasseh and Ephraim with him because he already knew what Jacob intended to do. Jacob intended to adopt his two oldest sons as his sons. This is part of an adoption ceremony. Now look at verse 3. Verse 3 can be translated this way, and I think it fits the context better, when it says, And Jacob had said to Joseph.

And so what you find in verses 3 through 7 is a conversation that they had had before. This is not happening in this scene. This is something that Jacob had already said. In this previous conversation, Jacob had expressed his intentions. I don't know, maybe they got together for coffee one morning and Jacob said these things to him. But it's clear that Jacob had said these things to him.

And therefore, when Joseph received word about his father's failing health, he brought his sons along because he knew the time had come for this adoption ritual that we see recorded here. Now, in that previous conversation, Jacob recounts the promises of God. And so when you read, look at verses 3 through 7, in this conversation that they had had previously, he recounts the promises of God.

Now you remember that when Jacob fled home to save his skin from his vengeful brother Esau, he had met with God at Luz, or which he named Bethel, which means house of God. Now you remember what happened. This is in chapter 27. You remember it's the story of the man who died. With the stone pillow, right? It's fascinating that chapter 27 says he makes a stone as pillow.

Important for some reason. And he makes a stone a pillow, and remember he falls asleep, and he has a vision of the stairway that goes to heaven, and that there are angels ascending and descending on that stairway, and he sees up there, and there's someone at the top. It looks like an angel. It is a theophany of God, and that's when God makes those promises.

And you recall that decades later, when he returned to Canaan, God summoned him back to Bethel, which you heard in the reading today from Genesis 35. There God appeared to him again and made the promise that Jacob recites here in verses 4 and 5. It is that second trip to Bethel and those promises that he recounts here to Joseph. I will make you fruitful and multiply you.

A company of nations will come from you. The land will be an everlasting possession for your descendants. He's reaffirming the covenant he had made with Abraham. So, in that conversation over coffee, he says, your two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, born here in Egypt, before I even knew you were alive, will be mine. They will be as much as mine as Reuben and Simeon are, and they will replace them as my firstborn.

He essentially makes Ephraim the head of the whole tribe. Now we know this because centuries later, in 1 Chronicles 5, verse 12, written centuries later, we read this. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son.

Though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph. So here is where Jacob intends to recognize, if you will, Ephraim as his firstborn. And he says to Joseph the children born after these two will be considered your children However their inheritance will come through their brothers as if they their fathers You follow?

That's what he says there. Okay? I'm adopting them, and so all the sons that you have after them, they now get their inheritance from your two brothers as if they were their fathers. Okay? So he's elevating them to this place. You had two sons, however.

As for me, my Rachel died on the way before she could give birth to more children. And so with this plan in mind, Joseph arrives with the boys for the adoption ceremony. Now you can already see the faith of Jacob, right? Jacob recites almost word perfect these promises made to him so many years ago. Living by faith at least means this. You know the promises of God.

If you're going to live by faith, you have to know what God promised so that you can believe Him. Don't think you're going to live by faith if you're ignorant of the Scriptures and the promises of God. If you know the Scriptures and the Scriptures are filled with promises from God, if you don't know them, you're not going to live by faith. In fact, your growth will be stunted.

I was thinking earlier today that the core, surprise, surprise, the core of the Christian life is faith. It's believing the promises of God. That's the essential, that is the very core of our faith. And so you see faith here in this sense. Jacob knows the promises of God. He knows what he should believe.

Okay? Now, if you're going to live by faith, you have to act on the promises of God. You have to act on the promises of God. And you see this for the rest of the chapter. In verses 8 through 22, you see that you have to act on the promises of God. That is, you have to exercise faith.

Now, verses 8 through 12. The adoption ceremony reveals Jacob's faith. The very ceremony of adoption reveals Jacob's faith. Joseph and his sons arrive before Jacob. And the ritual begins with Jacob asking, Who are these? And Joseph replies, They are my sons whom God has given me.

Now Jacob certainly can see very well But this is not a case of who are you He knows he knows Joseph is standing there with his sons This is part of the ritual Look when I say in a marriage ceremony who gives this woman to be married to this man Do you think I confused about the bride parents Right Hey who are you No you know that not the case That part of the ritual That what going on here Who are these? Who are these? They are my sons whom God has given me here.

Okay? Now Jacob's eyesight is bad enough that he can't distinguish the boys, and he asks Joseph to bring them near, and he kisses and embraces his grandsons. Something I can understand. Right? He's thrilled to do this, since as he says, he never expected to see Joseph again, and here he is, with the grandsons of the boy he thought he'd never see again.

This is amazing to him. He's thrilled to death about it. Now, it appears that part of this ritual is to place the boys between the knees of Jacob, not on their knees. These guys are probably about 20 years old. They're placed between the knees to show they, if you will, came from him. And so the ceremony ends with Joseph prostrating himself before his father.

And this in itself is stunning. One of the most powerful men in the world is prostrating himself before Jacob. But he recognizes that Jacob mediates the blessings of their covenant God, and that is greater than all the power and the riches that anyone could give. Now here is Jacob acting on the promises of God, showing that he believed that God would fulfill his covenant promises.

Well, how in the world do you see that, you ask? Well, think carefully. If Jacob did not believe that God would cause these boys to be fruitful and multiply, if he did not think that God would give their descendants the land, he never would have adopted them to receive the inheritance. He actually believes that God's going to do with them what he says.

And so he blesses them and tells them they're going to receive the inheritance. He officially recognizes them as part of the covenant family recipients of the covenant promises Now the question is how do you act on the promises of God How do you exercise faith Right I want this to be ringing in your head when you leave today. Do I act like I believe that God's promises, that God will be true to his promises?

He does. Because he gives them, he blesses them. Or he says, you're going to get the inheritance. Now, verses 13 through 22, you see that the blessing ritual, there's the adoption ritual, now we come to the blessing ritual. How does he show his faith here? How is it that the writer of Hebrews can look back and say, there, look at that, there's an exercise of faith.

Right? How do you see that here? All right, well, let's think about it. This now is the second part of the ritual where Jacob pronounces a blessing over the boys. Again, Joseph brings them to Jacob, guiding Manasseh toward Jacob's right hand and Ephraim toward his left. Why?

Manasseh's the oldest. He goes on the right. Ephraim's the youngest. He goes on the left. That's normal, right? That's part of the normal ceremony, just like wedding ceremony, right?

You know what's coming. Jacob and Joseph know what they're supposed to do. So Joseph puts Manasseh on Jacob's right, Ephraim on his left. Jacob doesn't need to see them. He knows what's going on. If he can't make them out, which one it is, he knows what's going on.

He knows Manasseh's going on the right because he's the oldest. That's part of the ceremony. But Jacob crosses his hands, puts his right on Ephraim and his left on Manasseh. Right? To bless not the firstborn, but the younger. Now, Joseph gets downright cranky about that.

Do you notice that? This did not sit well with Joseph. Our translation says it displeased him. Translated literally from the Hebrew, it was evil in his eyes. He's not happy about this. So he switches his dad's hands and says, Dad, you've got the wrong boy there.

It's wrong to disrespect the custom of the firstborn. At least that's what we can surmise from the fact that he's very displeased. Now this might look like a replay of the Isaac story. Right? With Grandpa blessing the wrong guy because he couldn't see well enough. But Jacob makes it clear that he knows.

Jacob, he knows exactly what he's doing because he crosses his hands, doesn't he? He knows what he's doing. It's not like, oh, Grandpa's old and senile, doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing. He says, I know, my son, I know. I know I'm doing what's not customary.

But he says, the younger will be greater than the older, but Manasseh will also be great. So don't worry about it. In fact, Jacob asserts these two will be so blessed that they will become the standard of blessing. As it says in verse 20, By you, Israel will pronounce a blessing, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. Right? They're going to grow so great, he believes God's promise is going to multiply them and make them great, that he says, you know, they're going to become the standard of blessing.

People are going to say, man, may you be blessed like Manasseh and Ephraim. By the way, he also has a blessing for Joseph in verses 21 and 22. 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.

It's interesting, the irony here, that this conquest is not recorded in Scripture. You know, there's a lot of stuff that isn't recorded in Scripture, but this isn't. Jacob evidently had taken some land in Canaan when he was there, or as they're there, he had taken some land. But the irony here is this, Joseph, I know that you're the most powerful man in the world, In charge of an empire that stretches over vast lands and nations.

But I got this little piece that I conquered. I got this mountain slope. It's for you and your descendants, right? Again, what does that tell you? It tells you that Jacob believes that they will get to Canaan and Joseph's descendants will get that little piece of land. God had promised it Now what does he say to the boys He says let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land He's so convinced that God will fulfill his covenant promises that he asserts, you boys will carry on the family name.

We're not going to end. You boys will carry on the family name. God's promised that. Not only that, but God promised me that I would be fruitful and multiply and that you will grow into a multitude in fulfillment of that. And you're going to grow into a multitude in the land that God has promised. Now, you notice I said land instead of earth.

The word for earth is the same word in Hebrew for the word land, eretz. Okay? Erez means earth or can mean land, like the land here. Okay? If you go online, you can find an Israeli newspaper called Ha'aretz, which is the land. But since God promised this land in verse 4, I think that's what he means down here in verse 16.

They will multiply in that land. You will for certain grow in the land that God has promised us. He is so convinced that God will keep his promise that he even tells Joseph that his descendants will get a piece of land when they arrive there. This is Jacob exercising his faith. The question is, how do you exercise your faith? How do you exercise your faith?

I remember talking to a young woman in a very, very difficult situation. And I told her, you have to live in light of the glory that God has promised. When things are so hard for you, when things are so hard for you that it's almost overwhelming, how are you going to get through? You know what comes to my mind oftentimes, and it comes to my mind since I'm getting older, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 through 18, which essentially say this.

The Apostle Paul is writing, don't lose heart. He says, we do not lose heart through these light and momentary afflictions. Light and momentary afflictions. You know what Apostle Paul went through, right? He calls them light and momentary, which just blows my mind. But why are they light and momentary?

He says, because our gaze is fixed on what's yet to come. There something better coming And we do not lose heart in the fact that we are beaten shipwrecked hated pursued persecuted We don't lose heart because there's something better coming where there will be peace and everlasting love and it will all be great. So I can say these are light and momentary troubles.

You think of glory. You remember what God has promised. Do you think, do you go to work each day with the promise of an eternal inheritance waiting for you? Do you remember what it says in Colossians 3? God says to the workmen, you go and you work your best. Don't work for men, work for God.

Why? Because you have an inheritance. God has an eternal inheritance for the guy who slaves away in a blue-collar job. Do you think about that? Do you believe that? When you find that your life has changed since that accident and nothing is the same again, Do you believe the promise of God that he's working everything out for good?

He's not saying the accident is good. He is saying that he's going to work all that out for your good. When you had those vacation days, you had your vacation all planned, and you step out your door and you see the tree has fallen in your neighbor's yard and crushed his porch. Right? And then you remember what Jesus said, that he who loses his life for my sake will gain.

And so you say, first day of vacation, I'm going to be next door with my friend, hacking that tree up, getting everything squared away so they can get the porch. That's living by the promises of God. When given the choice between giving more to the Lord's ministry or buying that vehicle, Do you remember the promise in 2 Corinthians that a person who is generous will have a harvest of righteousness?

Do you remember that promise? Even though things are tough at home and you're really trying to work on the marriage, there's a real attractive woman at work. And she likes you, which doesn't seem the case at home with your wife. Do you remember the promise that Jesus made that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied? Do you believe those promises?

You see, do you live by faith? That the bottom line You can live by faith if you know God What is God like You see that in verses 15 here 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, Well, that God, let him bless these boys. This God is no stranger for us, for he is the God who by grace, he says, chose us from all mankind to love.

He called Abraham, right? Abraham and Isaac. He called Abraham, out of all the families of the earth, he called Abraham. And decided to bless him and his descendants. Jacob says, I can look back and see how the true God provided for our family. He called Abraham from his homeland with great promises, especially promising a son through Sarah.

And guess what? He came through. He promised my dad, Isaac, that he would be with him, particularly in the midst of a famine. You read that in the earlier chapters. He not only kept him alive, but he enriched him. He got richer through the famine.

God came through. And it says, this is the God who shepherded me from the time I was a scheming fool to the present. Do you see that? He's been my shepherd all my life long. He was with me when I was on the run from my brother, guiding me and protecting me from my brother's bloodthirsty vengeance. He shepherded me then.

He shielded me from a father-in-law who exploited me. Whose exploitation of me did not make me poorer, but made me rich in possessions and this huge family. He watched over us when all the people of Canaan wanted to destroy us. Remember you heard that this morning, right? He sent fear and terror on all those cities around so that they wouldn't go out and kill them.

And I can bless these boys because God blessed me. Our God is the angel who redeemed me from all evil. Now, he calls him angel because in all of God's visible encounters, and we see them in the book of Genesis, These are theophanies. They are physical manifestations of God, and they're in the form of an angel. And he says, he redeemed me. That's an intimate term about a relative who steps in, right?

Who steps in in times of trouble. Now, obviously, this faithful shepherd, this redeeming angel, had not really kept him from trouble, right? Of all the patriarchs, of the three patriarchs, who had the most trouble? He's a fugitive on the run. He's deceived into marrying the wrong girl. He's working for nearly nothing for a hard-driving father-in-law.

He loses a wife in childbirth. He loses a son for years thinking he's dead. He has sons who can't get along. He has a daughter that's raped and the neighbors are ready to kill you. That's what he's been through. Well, what does he mean here?

He says, here is God's grace to me. God used them to make me a man who trusts in him. He shepherded me. He redeemed me from evil. Instead of destroying him, those traumatic experiences, those traumatic experiences had been so redeemed by God that good flowed from them instead. None of Jacob pain had been wasted None of his sorrows had been a fruitless wandering in the wilderness His God had brought blessing and hope out of the darkest and most desperate situations And he is a God who works in the most unusual ways.

Again, verses 17 and 18. God is not limited to blessing through the customary means. He will bless the younger over the older. God is not limited in that. You see this through the entire book. Isaac, not Ishmael.

Jacob, not Esau. Joseph, not the older brothers. Ephraim over Manasseh. Shouldn't surprise us. This is the way God works. When it seems impossible that God would work, recall all the times that he has worked in amazing, uncommon, remarkable ways.

Do you know God? Do you know? Do you have a history with God? Can you recall how the God you know has worked in your life? You know, one of the greatest things that has helped me, I'm 71 now. I'm almost old.

And I can look back, I can look back over a life, a lifetime of a history with God. And I can see how he has worked time after time after time. And that is what we all need to do. You need to look at the God who has been your God over all those years that you've been with him. Look at the amazing things he done Look at the small things he done Right This week I was praying Oh Lord please make this go well Not a big thing but potential Right?

And? Went great? Those little things. The great things. Look how God has worked in amazing ways. And you will know God as you dig deep into his word And look for his words and his deeds.

You have a whole history of God in the Scriptures. You want to see his faithfulness? Read his story and his relationship to his people. Get to know God. Every page of Scripture reveals God to you in some way. You will live by faith if you know the God who is faithful.

The more you know him, the more faith you will have. Now, but it all, it all begins with Jesus. All of what I said starts with this. He came declaring that judgment is coming. Do you believe him? Yeah, sure you do.

He came promising that escape comes when you believe that the work he did is sufficient so that God's justice is satisfied and you stand before the throne of God with your entire life, with its entire record, wiped clean. Wiped clean. Because what Jesus did was sufficient And you can stand before the judge on Judgment Day with absolute confidence because of what Jesus did But you have to believe that And he says that he came to bring a good life for those who trust him.

Do you believe him? You see, it all starts there. That's the beginning of this faith in the promises of God. I've got to have faith in the person of those promises, the Lord Jesus Christ. And by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead, He guarantees that all that God promises, all those promises you find in His Word, He guarantees that God's going to keep them.

May God help us to believe and to live by faith. Father, you have been good to us in innumerable ways. And your goodness is expressed to us in the promises that you give. God, help us to be a people that are distinguished from the world by our faith. That we can stand. We can endure.

We can persevere. We can have joy. Because we believe that you will keep your promises. So Father, I'm asking, help us to know those promises, and then give us the grace to live by them. Thank you for your word today, in Jesus' name. Amen.