We have followed Joseph in Egypt to where
finally he has revealed himself to his brethren.
Remarkable, remarkable record.
And then sent his brothers back to Canaan
with treasures and carriages and horses and jewels
and gold and presents and said, go up
and tell Jacob, my father, that Joseph your
son is alive and God hath made me
ruler of all the land of Egypt.
And now he's called for Jacob and his
sons to come down into Egypt, fulfilling the
promises that God made to Abraham in chapter
15.
God said he would take them down into
Egypt for four generations, 400 years and make
of them a great nation and bring them
out.
This process is beginning.
But before Jacob goes, he heads to Beersheba,
which is about a two-day journey from
where he is to seek the Lord.
No doubt remembering that God had told his
father Isaac no more to go down to
Egypt.
Don't go there anymore.
And now he has this beck and call
from his son and from his own heart
yearning to see Joseph to go down to
Egypt.
No doubt he knows of the promises and
the prophecies made to Abraham, but he will
go to Beersheba and there make sacrifices and
seek the Lord.
He needs to hear from God before he
begins this journey.
So that's where we pick up in chapter
46.
It says, and Israel, Jacob's new name, took
his journey with all that he had and
came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices unto the
God of his father Isaac.
And he is 130 years old at this
time.
And God spake unto Israel in the visions
of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob.
And he said, Here am I.
And he said, I am God, the God
of thy father.
Fear not.
Now, evidently there was a hesitancy, a fear
in his heart.
God is saying to him, fear not to
go down into Egypt, for I will there
make of thee a great nation.
I will go down with thee into Egypt,
and I will also surely bring thee up
again.
And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine
eyes.
The idea is at death, Joseph will be
there and close your eyes.
And no doubt that's part of what was
on his heart as he made his sacrifices
there in Beersheba before God.
He wanted to go to Egypt, but God
reads everything in our heart.
And no doubt part of what was on
his heart is I'm longing to see Joseph.
Oh, God, you know, let this happen.
Father, accept these sacrifices.
And Jacob rose up from Beersheba.
And the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their
father and their little ones and their wives
in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to
carry him.
And they took their cattle, their goods, which
they had gotten in the land of Canaan.
And they came into Egypt, Jacob and all
his seed with them.
Now, just imagine this.
All the kids, all the grandkids, all the
wives, all the servants, all imagine the toddlers
screaming.
Just imagine all this.
You know, sometimes on Sunday morning we have
one baby at a dedication that's screaming and
carrying on.
And he upsets all of us, you know,
just trying to get through.
Imagine just traveling for days on end with
kids upon kids upon kids and wives and
down into Egypt.
How amazing.
His sons and his sons' sons with him,
his daughters and his sons' daughters and all
his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
Now, I'm not going to do this to
you, but I will highlight it so we
can see what it's saying to us.
Verse 8, these are the names of the
children of Israel.
Now, as we're hearing of the children of
Israel, remember, Israel is the name that God
gave to Jacob after he wrestled with them.
So the children of Israel are the children
of Jacob.
The tribes of Israel are the tribes of
Jacob.
So you know that at times we hear
Israel, at times we hear Jacob.
Don't be confused by that.
We're speaking about the same person.
And the nation now will become known as
Israel because of Jacob and the children of
Israel, the children of Jacob.
And in your own study, you might take
note sometimes as you go through the Old
Testament, the times it seems when God is
speaking about the nation and their positive attributes
and their faith, he refers to them as
Israel.
Many times in their rebellion, God calls them
Jacob.
And it's interesting to take note as you
study on your own.
So now he comes, the children of Israel,
which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons,
Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.
And it tells us in verse 9, these
are the sons of Reuben.
Verse 10, these are the sons of Simeon.
See, this is easy.
Verse 11, these are the sons of Levi.
Verse 12, these are the sons of Judah.
Verse 13, these are the sons of Issachar.
Verse 14, these are the sons of Zebulun.
Then it tells us that all six of
these men and their sons are, verse 15,
the sons of Leah, which she bear to
Jacob and Padnerim, with his daughter Dinah, and
all the souls of the sons and the
daughters were 33.
So it lists Leah, his wife, and her
six sons, we just read their names, and
all of their children and wives, 33 souls.
Now we go to the sons of Zilphah,
who is the handmaid of Leah.
Verse 16, the sons of Gad are these.
Verse 17, the sons of Asher.
These two sons, verse 18, are the sons
of Zilphah, whom Laban gave Leah, his daughter,
and these she bear unto Jacob, even 16
souls.
Now we come to the sons of Rachel,
Jacob's wife, Joseph and Benjamin.
In verse 20, it says, unto Joseph, and
we know because we're studying now, in the
land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim,
which Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of
Onn, bear to him.
Interesting, in Benjamin, verse 21, we have 10
sons listed.
Then in verse 22, it says, these are
the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin, which
were born to Jacob.
All the souls were 14.
Now it goes to the sons of Bilhah,
Rachel's handmaid.
Verse 23, these are the sons of Dan.
Verse 24, the sons of Naphtali.
And these two are the sons of Bilhah,
verse 25, which Laban gave unto Rachel, his
daughter, and she bear these unto Jacob.
All the souls were seven.
And all the souls that came with Jacob
into Egypt, which came out of his loins,
besides Jacob's sons, wives, all the souls were
three score and 10, 70.
And wives and children, grandchildren, there were more,
but naming those that are heads of tribes
and so forth as we go through.
And the sons of Joseph, by the way,
in Acts chapter 7, it mentions 75.
That's because Acts is quoting the Septuagint, which
gives us another son of Manasseh and two
grandsons, two more sons of Ephraim, two sons,
and deletes two of the ones that we
read, just in case you're wondering.
Verse 26 says, all the souls that came
with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of
his loins, are 70.
Now millions now come from that as they
are in Egypt.
And the sons of Joseph, which were born
him in Egypt were two souls.
All the souls of the house of Jacob,
which came into Egypt were three score and
10.
And he sent Judah as they are approaching
now, the land of Egypt, evidently having word
from Joseph that they would settle in Goshen.
They are Hebrews.
Haburi is the word.
Again, the Egyptians detested shepherds.
The Egyptians, besides, again, all the magnificent civilization
and the pyramids and the architecture and the
science and the sophistication of Egypt were steadfast
farmers.
They had developed irrigation systems that were incredible,
and they detested the nomadic tribes that would
come with their sheep or cattle and sometimes
ruin their fields.
And again, they portrayed in their hieroglyphic shepherds
as crippled and dirty and small in stature.
They detested the Haburi, which was not a
proper term applied to the Hebrews as of
yet, but a word that spoke of nomadic
people that were shepherds.
So he sent now Jacob Judah before him
unto Joseph to let Joseph know he was
close to direct his face unto Goshen.
And they came into the land of Goshen
and Joseph made ready his chariot.
Now you have to imagine this day for
Joseph.
His heart is pounding, getting dressed.
Do I look okay?
How's my armor?
Has my chariot been shined?
Has somebody put minwax on it?
Does it look good?
I mean, just, you know, he has been
waiting 22 years to see his father.
Many of those years filled with heartfelt agony,
wondering if he'll ever see him again.
But God is faithful, isn't he?
Joseph made ready his chariot and he went
up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen
and presented himself unto him.
You have to imagine the scene, Jacob, 70
souls standing in Goshen and the chariots of
Egypt and the wonder of its majesty.
Officers, Joseph, second prime minister of Egypt, pulling
up in his chariot.
I have to believe that he pulled that
chariot to a stop and looked first that
his father had aged 22 years.
Jacob, we know from the text, can't see
well and probably saying, what's going on?
What's the big fuss?
Jacob, his eyesight is almost gone.
And then it tells us that Joseph approaches
him and falls on his neck and they
begin to weep together.
How incredible.
He presented himself to him and he fell
on his neck and wept on his neck
a good while, a long time.
And Israel said unto Joseph, now let me
die since I have seen thy face because
thou art yet alive.
The idea is I can depart in peace
now.
My life is restored.
He would live 17 more years.
But I think how incredible and how faithful
God is and how I think he is
moved by our infirmities, as it tells us
in Hebrews, that he understands our pain and
the reuniting of a father and a son
and how God Almighty would look forward to
that moment after he would hear his own
son, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?
In a mystery we may never fully understand,
even in eternity.
When the sin of all of the world,
the sin of Adolf Hitler and the sin
of Charles Manson and the sin of every
tyrant, pervert, my sin, your sin, the sin
of our unborn children would come on Jesus
and the Father would turn away.
And in some great mystery, for the first
time in eternity, Jesus cut off asking the
question why, so that we never have to
ask it.
And then God firing his wrath down upon
all of that sin on his son.
But for the glory that was set before
him, he endured the cross and he would
ascend.
He would say to Mary Magdalene, let go
of me.
I've not yet ascended to the Father.
But he would take Adam's genes and chromosomes
back into fellowship at the throne of God
and present himself forever to be in a
carpenter's body.
And how the Father in heaven must be
moved at this scene because it is harking
of a scene somehow he had lived in
eternity already.
It was harking of something dear to his
own heart.
This again was the son rejected of his
brethren, sold into slavery as it were, crucified
and then raised in glory, taken a Gentile
bride, now revealed to his brethren, reunited with
his father.
How there's a wonder of God's own salvation
woven through all of this.
And I think how God must have respected
the heartache in Jacob and the heartache in
Joseph.
And anything we do for God, he pays
us back a hundredfold.
God will not be a debtor to any
of us.
He will not owe us anything.
And Joseph had endured difficult years.
And as we see, Joseph had trusted God,
though he struggled through those years.
And for that, this moment, this moment falling
into each other's arms and the weeping and
the emotion and the pathos must be paying
them back a hundredfold.
And God is the same, by the way,
yesterday, today and forever.
Maybe this evening you feel that there is
an impossible situation in your life that God
seems to be overlooking, that he worked that
way in ancient times in the Bible, but
no longer now that you're here treading the
planet.
He's the same.
Jack Founds happened to give me an article
this week, and I'll share it with you
because it reminds me so much of the
stories from the Jerusalem Post, April 17th, just
two weeks ago.
One of the writers there says, I know
a man who grew up in South Africa,
having been rescued as a child by Christians
during the Holocaust.
He lived in Johannesburg, turned religious under Chabad,
under the Chabad influence, and eventually became a
rabbi.
Once he found himself on a plane next
to an elderly gentleman to whom he felt
particularly drawn.
They spoke in Yiddish and talked about Israel,
politics, and the Jewish world.
When breakfast was served, the older man ate
the regular meal, sausages, eggs, milk, while the
rabbi ate his specially provided kosher breakfast.
The rabbi gently suggested that perhaps the elderly
man could do without the sausage.
The rabbi was told in no uncertain terms
that since he had lost his only child
in Auschwitz, the old man ate whatever he
liked.
They parted, but the rabbi could not get
the elderly gentleman out of his mind, was
deeply disappointed that he hadn't asked for his
telephone number.
Two years later, on a visit to the
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, the
rabbi saw a familiar figure near the entrance
of the building.
Rushing over, he said in Yiddish, do you
recognize me?
Do you remember our plane trip?
The man smiled and nodded his head and
said, and I still ate the sausage.
The rabbi wanted to see the exhibits and
asked if the old man would join him.
The old man said, I never go in.
He said, didn't I tell you that I
lost my only son in Auschwitz?
Something suddenly clicked in the rabbi's brain.
What was your name before the war?
He asked.
When the man answered, the rabbi whispered with
tears running down his cheek, Tati, dad, all
that I was given by the people who
adopted me was your name.
I am your son.
Now they both live together in Israel.
The father no longer eats sausages.
The only thing that the rabbi complains about
is that whenever he enters the room, his
father stands up.
Same God.
Do you have an impossible situation in your
life that you think he is unable to
deal with?
You know what?
If you do, why don't you stand up?
Why don't you just let us pray for
you right now?
Father in heaven, what a wonder you are
in the Lord.
There are times when we read your word
and our hearts are so drawn to your
work in the lives of others.
My father, sometimes we forget that you have
preserved this record so that our faith might
grow Lord, that their lives are gone.
But the record of how you work in
their lives is preserved for us.
Lord, we pray for those who have stood
each with their own impossibility.
Lord, maybe many times doubting that you love
them or that you will bring a suitable
closure to whatever painful or impossible situation it
is.
Lord, we love you.
Those of us that are seated, those of
us that are praying, Lord, we lift our
brothers and sisters to you, Lord, that they
would discover, as your word says, underneath are
the everlasting arms.
And Lord, that one day they will fall
upon your neck and weep with their arms
around you and thank you for your steadfastness,
your faithfulness.
In whatever situation they're standing to pray for
now, Father, we put their lives before you.
Stir in their hearts faith, Father, and trust
towards you that you are the same now
as you were when you brought Jacob and
Joseph miraculously, wondrously together into each other's arms.
Father, we put their impossibility before you in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
And Joseph made ready his chariot and went
up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen
and presented himself unto him.
And he fell on his neck and he
wept on his neck a good while, long
time.
And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me
die since I have seen thy face because
thou art yet alive.
And Joseph said to his brethren and to
his father's house, I will go up and
show Pharaoh and say unto him, My brethren
and my father's house, which were in the
land of Canaan, are come unto me.
And the men are shepherds, for their trade
hath been to feed cattle, and they have
brought their flocks and their herds and all
that they have.
And it came to pass when Pharaoh shall
call you and shall say, What is your
occupation?
Now Joseph knows Pharaoh well, that you shall
say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle
from our youth even until now, both we
and also our fathers, that ye may dwell
in the land of Goshen.
For every shepherd is an abomination unto the
Egyptians.
Now, by God's grace, that is a situation
that is established.
And because of that, it would cause the
nation of Israel to remain separate in these
400 years in Egypt instead of being amalgamated
with the civilization, with the society there.
If shepherds were esteemed or embraced as an
honorable trade in Egypt, no doubt they would
have spread through Thebes and Memphis and the
cities in Egypt and have been absorbed in
one way or another.
But because that particular lifestyle was looked down
upon, they lived in the land of Goshen
separately.
And yet there, the nation of Israel learned
math, learned science, learned things that would be
part of them becoming a nation at some
point in the future.
And during this era, and we're not sure
exactly what takes place, and neither are archaeologists,
there is an era of what is called
the Hyksos dynasties, the Hyksos kings, which is
literally the shepherd kings.
They believed that they had Phoenician roots and
that they came to northern Egypt, which is
the lower part of Egypt, but it's northern
towards the Mediterranean.
And they took over that area and defeated
the pharaohs and the rulers in that area.
And that for several hundred years, the shepherd
kings ruled in that part of Egypt and
then no doubt had favor towards the shepherds,
the Jews that were there.
But one day, hundreds of years after this,
those southern dynasties would again make war with
lower Egypt, with the northern part and would
overtake them.
And then a pharaoh who knew not Joseph
arises and the bondage begins.
But there is a very interesting thing that
begins to take place here that no doubt
in eternity we'll learn more about and wonder
at in God's wisdom.
It says, And Joseph came and told Pharaoh
and said, My father and my brethren, their
flocks and their herds and all that they
have have come out of the land of
Canaan.
Behold, they are in the land of Goshen.
And he took some of his brethren, five
men, and presented them to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your
occupation?
And Joseph knew exactly what Pharaoh would do.
They said in the Pharaoh, Thy servants are
shepherds, both we and also our fathers.
They said, Moreover, unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn
in the land are we come.
Now they're saying to Pharaoh, We are here
temporarily.
They're going to say because there was no
pasture land left in Canaan because of the
drought and the famine.
We are here for a temporary stay.
For to sojourn in the land are we
come.
For thy servants have no pasture for their
flocks.
For the famine is sore in the land
of Canaan.
Now, therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants
dwell in the land of Goshen.
And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father
and thy brethren are come unto thee.
The land of Egypt is before thee.
In the best of the land make thy
father and brethren to dwell in the land
of Goshen, which was in the Nile Delta
area, a very rich area.
And if thou knowest any men of activity
among them, then make them rulers over my
cattle.
Give them government jobs.
If any of your brother they're as good
with cattle as you are with grain, you
know, I'll take more.
If there's more like you that are chips
off the old block, you can give them
some government jobs too.
Because Joseph is doing wonders for Pharaoh and
for Egypt and preserving life and so forth.
And Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, who
is, you know, I almost picture a little
bit like Mr. Magoo.
He's, you know, you know, he doesn't really
know what's going on around him.
Jacob doesn't see well.
So Joseph brings him in and he puts
him before Pharaoh and it says, Jacob blessed
Pharaoh.
The Bible clearly says the lesser is blessed
of the greater.
Here's the greatest ruler, according to human standards
in the world at that time.
And here's 130 year old nearsighted shepherd from
Canaan blessing him.
Jacob walks right in and he said, Dad,
this is Pharaoh.
I said, where is he?
You know, here he is right here.
God bless this man.
Your name is Pharaoh.
God bless him, Lord.
You know, you just imagine the scene.
And Pharaoh says to Jacob, how old are
you anyway?
First thing he says to him, he must
be a sight.
And Jacob will say they've been tough years.
You know, Jacob says that.
Jacob says to Pharaoh, the days of the
years of my pilgrimage, how wondrous I'm just
traveling through, are 130 years.
Few and evil have the days of the
years of my life been.
The idea is they've been hard.
Isn't that morally?
Jacob has been evil.
He's just saying they have been difficult.
And few is 130 years old.
Looking back, life is like a vapor.
It's like a dream.
Where is it gone?
How quickly it's gone by.
I'm 130 years old.
It's gone by like a dream.
Few and evil have been the days of
my pilgrimage.
Few and evil have been the days of
the years of my life and have not
attained unto the days of the years of
the life of my fathers and the days
of their pilgrimage.
Abraham lived to be 175.
Isaac lived to be 180.
He lives to be 147.
And we don't run into anybody else who
lives to be that old after this.
So he lives to be 147 years old.
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh again and went out
from before Pharaoh.
And Joseph placed his father and his brethren
and gave them a possession in the land
of Egypt, in the best of the land,
in the land of Rameses.
Now, there was no king as far as
we know at this point named Rameses.
The district was called Rameses.
After that there would be a series of
rulers in Egypt named after the district Rameses.
Moses takes note evidently in his day, in
Jacob's day, it was just known as Goshen.
By the time Moses writes the Pentateuch, it
has been identified as a particular area known
and he writes the note it is the
area of Rameses as Pharaoh had commanded.
And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren,
all his father's household with bread according to
their families.
They're at least the third year into the
famine now.
And there was no bread in all the
land for the famine was very sore.
So the land of Egypt and all the
land of Canaan fainted by reason of the
famine.
And Joseph gathered up all the money that
was found in the land of Egypt and
in the land of Canaan for the grain
which they bought.
And Joseph brought the money unto Pharaoh's house.
So for these first three years they keep
returning to him to buy more grain.
And it says basically it came to point
there's not coinage the way we would imagine,
but there's silver by weight or gold by
weight.
And Joseph has gathered all of the wealth
of both Egypt and Canaan and put it
in Pharaoh's treasury.
And when the money failed in the land
of Egypt and in the land of Canaan,
then all the Egyptians came to Joseph and
they said, give us bread.
Why should we die in thy presence?
Our money is gone.
And Joseph then said, well, give me your
cattle.
And I will give you for your cattle.
Uh, if the money fail, I'll give you
grain.
And they brought their cattle.
They couldn't feed them.
Anyway, unto Joseph, Joseph gave them bread in
exchange for horses and for flocks and for
cattle and for herds and for the asses.
And he fed them with bread for all
their cattle for that year.
When that year was ended, they came unto
him the next year and said unto him,
we will not hide it from my Lord,
how that our money is gone.
And you also now have all of our
herds and our cattle.
There is nothing left in the sight of
my Lord, but our bodies and our Wherefore
shall we die before thine eyes, both we
and our land by us now and our
land for bread.
We and our land will be servants unto
Pharaoh and give us seed that we may
live and not die.
And that the land be not desolate.
And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt
for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold every man
his field because the famine prevailed over them.
So the land became Pharaoh's.
And it's very interesting.
Archaeologists concur in early Egypt and much of
early Egypt is a mystery, but in the
records they've discovered in early Egypt, they speak
of private landowners quite often.
There is all of a sudden a point
when that changes.
And from then on, all of the land
in Egypt belongs to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh has the right to it.
No doubt that is Joseph's work.
We have the missing part of that here
in the scripture telling us how that took
place.
But archaeologists concur that there was a point
when all of the land becomes Pharaoh's verse
21.
And as for the people, he removed them
to cities from one end of the border
of Egypt, even into the other end thereof.
And evidently daily they went out, they worked
in the fields.
Only the land of the priests bought he
not.
For the priests had a portion assigned to
them of Pharaoh and did eat their portion,
which Pharaoh gave them.
Wherefore, they did not sell their lands in
Hierapolis in on there.
The priests were very powerful.
Pharaoh, currying their favor, left them with their
lands and gave them a portion of food.
Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I
have bought you this day and your land
for Pharaoh.
Lo, here is seed for you.
You shall sow the land.
So evidently now the famine has come to
the end of the seventh year.
And Joseph not only now gives them seed
for bread, but he gives them seed for
planting because the land is now Pharaoh's.
And rather than let the land go desolate,
he's giving them a portion above what they
need to eat so that at the end
of that year they can sow seed into
the ground again.
The rains will return.
The famine will be over.
The river is going to rise so that
the following year there is then a harvest
again.
So he says to them, Here is seed
for you.
You shall sow the land and it shall
come to pass in the increase that you
shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh.
Four parts shall be your own for seed
of the field, for your food, for them
of your households, and for the food of
your little ones.
Now he's got a great system.
Pharaoh is the land owner.
Each person works in the portion of ground
that they had given to Pharaoh.
They get to keep 80 percent of the
increase of the land, giving a fifth to
Pharaoh.
And with the 80 percent they keep, they
feed their family, they sell it on the
market, and they take care of themselves.
So this ends up to be a great
situation.
No wonder Pharaoh loved Joseph.
They said unto him, in verse 25, Thou
hast saved our lives.
Let us find grace in thy sight, in
the sight of my Lord, and we will
be Pharaoh's servants.
And Joseph made it a law over the
land of Egypt unto this day, the ideas
to the day that Moses is writing, that
Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the
land of the priests only, which became not
Pharaoh's.
And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt,
in the country of Goshen.
And they had possessions therein, and grew and
multiplied exceedingly.
And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt
seventeen years.
So the whole age of Jacob was 147
years.
And the time drew nigh that Israel must
die, Jacob.
And he called his son Joseph, and said
unto him, If now I have found grace
in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy
hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and
truly with me.
Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.
Now, he wants to be buried in Beersheba,
up in the cave of Mephila.
He remembers that God told him that Joseph
will close your eyes at your death.
He knows it's time for him to die,
so he calls for Joseph.
But he's asking him to make an oath.
He said, I will lie, verse 30, with
my fathers.
Thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and
bury me in their burying place.
Because he said he was a pilgrim.
He was traveling in the land of promise,
looking for a city whose builder and maker
was God.
And he said, I will do as thou
hast said, Joseph replies.
Then Jacob said, well then swear unto me.
So he puts his hand under his thigh,
and he swear unto him.
And Israel bowed himself upon his bed's head.
Now, the placing of the hand under the
thigh had to do with the reproduction, and
the family, and the next generation coming.
Some scholars say that part of that oath
was that by placing your hand under the
thigh, you were actually saying that the next
generation, if I don't keep the oath, the
next generation then bring vengeance on me and
my house.
That is in some of the ancient inscriptions
they found.
But the idea is he's making an oath
that in regards to him and his lineage
and everything, he would keep his word.
It's interesting, this is the scene that Hebrews
chapter 11 picks of all of the life
of Jacob, that he bowed himself on his
staff.
It says that he held himself up and
he worshiped here.
It says that he worships at the head
of his bed.
Imagine the scene as Joseph now making this
oath, and Jacob then bowing his head and
worshiping God.
Here he is where he never thought he'd
be with Joseph with his hand under his
thigh.
He knows if he dies at that moment,
Joseph will close his eyes.
How remarkable his God has proven himself to
be.
It came to pass after these things that
one told Joseph, now evidently we don't know
a month, days, behold thy father is sick.
And he took with him his two sons
Manasseh and Ephraim.
Joseph is 56 years old.
The boys are in their twenties.
And one told Jacob and said, behold, thy
son Joseph cometh unto thee.
The person doesn't tell them that the two
boys are with.
And Israel then strengthened himself and sat up
upon the bed with great dignity.
He sits up now.
Joseph is coming.
And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared
unto me at Luz in the land of
Canaan and blessed me.
And I'm sure that Joseph had heard these
stories when he was a small boy before
he was ever carried away.
Time is short.
Jacob is reiterating the promises made to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
And he said unto me, behold, I will
make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I
will make of thee a multitude of people.
And I will give this land to thy
seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
And now thy two sons Ephraim and Manasseh,
which Jacob doesn't know, he doesn't know they're
standing there, which were born unto thee in
the land of Egypt before I came unto
thee into Egypt.
They are mine as Reuben and Simeon.
They shall be mine.
Now what's happening here?
He's going to tell to Joseph, look, you
know how Rachel died and Rachel, he says,
my wife, Rachel was the wife that Jacob
wanted.
And if Laban hadn't tricked him and slipped
Leah into the bed that night, he would
have taken no doubt Jacob.
I mean, Rachel as his only wife and
Joseph would have been his firstborn and would
have had the right of the firstborn.
Reuben had gone up and slept with Jacob's
concubine, one of his concubines, and Simeon and
Levi were guilty of murder.
And he's saying to Joseph now, Rachel was
the wife that I loved.
Joseph, you are the firstborn as far as
I'm concerned.
So instead of me giving you, Joseph, the
double portion, what I will do is I
will take your two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
Therefore, the double portion really does come to
you.
But through your sons, I will make them
tribes of Israel.
From now on, when you have children, they
will be yours, but these two sons will
now be mine.
And remarkably, Ephraim and Manasseh become two of
the twelve tribes of Israel.
Levi is set aside as a priesthood and
they have no possession in the land.
The Lord is their possession.
And Joseph, one of the twelve sons, is
mentioned sometimes, but normally it is Ephraim and
Manasseh mentioned as the sons of Jacob.
And he says, I'm taking them now to
myself and giving them each a portion.
They shall be mine.
And thy issue, verse six, which thou begettest
after them, shall be thine and shall be
called after your name and their brethren in
their inheritance.
And as for me, when I came from
Padnarum, Rachel died by me in the land
of Canaan.
Isn't it interesting?
This is the wife that he loved on
his deathbed.
He's remembering her.
He's about to see her again.
Rachel was the wife that I loved.
Rachel died by me in the land of
Canaan in the way when yet there was
but a little way to come to Ephrathah.
And I buried her there in the way
of Ephrathah, the same as Bethlehem.
And Israel beheld Joseph's sons and said, who
are these guys?
He doesn't know they're there.
His eyes are bad.
And Joseph said unto his father, they are
my sons whom God hath given me in
this place.
And he said, bring them I pray thee
unto me and I will bless them.
Now, there's a very interesting scene that takes
place here, and I'll describe it quickly, then
we'll read through it.
Joseph will take his sons and he will
put Manasseh on Jacob's right hand because he's
the firstborn and he wants the preeminent blessing
to be on Manasseh because you're firstborn.
And he will take Ephraim and put him
on Jacob's left hand to get the lesser
blessing because he's the secondborn.
Jacob, as he reaches out his hands to
bless them, crosses his hands and puts his
right hand on Ephraim and his left hand
on Manasseh.
Joseph says, no, dad, no, no, no.
He says, I know what I'm doing.
You know, I mean, still father and son.
And the ironic thing is, here was Jacob
many years before this having to steal from
his blind father the blessing of the firstborn.
And the beauty now of Jacob, blind like
Isaac, but willingly giving the blessing of the
firstborn to the one that God had chosen.
Interesting scene.
I think of the things that must be
replaying in his heart.
Verse 10 says, now the eyes of Israel
of Jacob were dim because of age so
that he could not see.
And he brought them, Joseph brought them near
unto him and he kissed them and he
embraced them.
Oh, what a great scene.
And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not
thought to see thy face and lo, God
has showed me also thy seed.
And Joseph brought them out from between his
own knees, from from his own presence.
And he bowed himself with his face to
the earth.
And Joseph took them both.
Ephraim, he took Joseph in his own right
hand towards Jacob's left hand.
And Manasseh, he took in his left hand
towards Israel's right hand and brought them near
unto him.
And Israel stretched out his right hand and
laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the
younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head,
guiding his hands wittingly, for Manasseh was the
firstborn.
So he knows exactly what he's doing, it
says.
And he blessed Joseph and said, and this
is so wonderful.
God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk.
God, which fed me all my life long.
And the word in the Hebrew is a
compound word, but it's where we get Jehovah
-Rah, God who shepherded me.
It's the word for the shepherd.
God, all my life long unto this day,
the angel that he had wrestled with, which
redeemed me from all evil.
Now, notice what he's done.
He's just named the father, son and the
spirit, as it were.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jacob,
the God which shepherded me with his unseen
presence my whole life.
The angel, the personage which redeemed the redeemer,
the Goel, first mentioned all from all evil.
Bless the lads and let my name be
named on them and the name of my
fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow
into a multitude in the midst of the
earth.
And when Joseph saw that his father laid
his right hand upon the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him.
And he held up his father's hand to
remove it from Ephraim's head under Manasseh's head.
And Joseph said unto his father, Not so,
my father, for this is the firstborn, but
put thy right hand on his head.
And his father refused, refused and said, I
know it.
You know, you can see this.
I know what I'm doing, my son.
I know it.
He also shall become a people, Manasseh, the
idea is, and he also shall be great.
But truly, his younger brother shall be greater
than he and his seed shall become a
multitude of nations and how prophetic it is
and how Ephraim ultimately becomes associated with the
northern ten tribes in total.
And he blessed them that day.
What a great grandpa, you know, what a
what a great what a great scene saying
in the shall Israel bless, saying, God make
thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh.
And he said, Ephraim before Manasseh.
And what is what he says is, you
two guys, your tribes will be famous.
And when people in the want to bless
someone, they'll say, God, make you like Ephraim
or Manasseh, that that will be a blessing.
And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die,
but God shall be with you and bring
you again unto the land of your fathers.
Moreover, I have given to thee one portion
above thy brethren, which I took out of
the land of the Amorite with my sword
and with my bow.
Now, we don't have the details of when
that took place when he had the battle
with the Amorite.
And we don't picture Jacob that much as
a warrior, as a you know, a guy
that is scheming, making deals.
But he took up his sword and his
bow and drove the Amorites off a particular
ridge.
And it's a play on words here.
It's very interesting in verse twenty two, where
he says, Moreover, I have given to the
one portion that Hebrew word portion is Shechem,
which is the Hebrew word for Ridge.
But I have given unto the one Shechem
above thy brethren.
Now, of course, the remarkable thing is in
Joshua chapter twenty four, verse thirty two, when
Joseph's bones are finally brought up into the
land of Canaan, it says they put his
bones to rest in Shechem.
And it is there where Jesus will meet
the woman at the well at Jacob's well
in Shechem.
And it is there in Shechem when Jesus
returns and sets up his kingdom on the
earth that the bones of Joseph will stand
up again and walk to Jerusalem to worship
a king that makes Pharaoh pale.
What a remarkable, remarkable scene.
I have given to the Shechem, interesting, above
thy brethren, which I took out of the
hand of the Amorite with my sword and
with my bow.
I encourage you read ahead.
We have two chapters left.
Interesting chapters.