We are drawing near the end of our
study of this great book, and today our
subject is the last part of the 49th
chapter, Jacob's great prophecy with respect to the
future of his sons.
And so will you turn with me to
verse 13, and we'll read the remainder of
the chapter.
Remember, just for the sake of background and
context, that last time we looked at the
first twelve verses, in which some of the
words of Jacob concerning some of the brethren
are set forth, but with great emphasis upon
Judah.
And Judah is particularly singled out for special
messianic blessing.
Jacob had said, the scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between
his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him
shall be the obedience of the people.
We pointed out that the word Shiloh, while
a personal name, is derived from two Hebrew
expressions, one related actually to Akkadian, but nevertheless
which means, to him to whom it belongs.
That is, everything belongs.
And the ruler's staff shall not depart from
Judah, nor the scepter from between his feet,
until this one to whom it all belongs
comes, and to him shall the obedience of
the peoples be.
Not to any other thing, the true gathering
place is the cross of Jesus Christ.
Now in the remainder of the chapter, Jacob
continues his prophecies concerning the other brothers, and
the stress of the latter part of the
chapter rests upon Joseph, as we shall see.
We begin with verse 13.
Zebulun shall dwell at the seashore, and he
shall be a haven for ships, and his
flank shall be toward Sidon.
Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between
the sheepfolds.
When he saw that a resting place was
good, and that the land was pleasant, he
bowed his shoulders to bear burden, and became
a slave at forced labor.
Dan shall judge his people, as one of
the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
a horned snake in the path, that bites
the horse's heel, so that his rider falls
backwards.
Incidentally, in this great chapter, the names of
the sons have significance, and the things that
are said about them often are things that
are related to their names.
Dan means, comes from the Hebrew word, to
vindicate or to judge.
And so we're not surprised to read, Dan
shall judge his people.
Now at verse 18, Jacob utters something that
is very much like an ejaculatory prayer.
And it's right in the midst of these
words concerning the brethren.
For thy salvation I wait, O Lord.
And students of the book of Genesis have
puzzled over this.
Why is it that Jacob interrupts the words
concerning the brothers with something concerning himself?
And in the exposition that follows, I will
suggest one of the reasons why Jacob may
have said what he said.
But notice that statement in verse 18.
As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but
he shall raid at their heel.
Four of the six Hebrew words in this
verse, verse 19, are derived from the same
root as the word Gad.
And so Jacob, on the spur of the
moment, but in an impromptu way, is giving
a remarkable poetic prophecy.
It comes, of course, ultimately from the Holy
Spirit.
As for Asher, his food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal dainties.
Naphtali is a doe let loose.
He gives beautiful words.
Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough
spring, its branches run over a wall.
The archer's billet bitterly attacked him, and shot
at him, and harassed him, but his bow
remained firm, and his arms were agile from
the hands of the mighty one of Jacob.
From there is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel.
From the God of your Father, who helps
you, and by the Almighty, who blesses you
with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the
deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts
and of the womb, the blessings of your
Father.
Jacob speaks about himself here.
The blessings of your Father have surpassed the
blessings of my ancestors.
That's Jacob's way of saying I'm a more
blessed man than Abraham and Isaac.
You can see that he has come to
understand something of the grace of God to
him.
I think every Christian, in the final analysis,
feels that God has surpassed himself in blessing,
in that he has blessed us who are
so wicked.
The blessings of your Father have surpassed the
blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost
bounds of the everlasting hills.
May they be on the head of Joseph,
and on the crown of the head of
the one distinguished among his brothers.
That word distinguished means separated from, in the
sense of separated from for special purposes.
Distinguished among his brothers.
It reminds us of the distinguishing grace of
God.
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.
We shall never understand the depth of that,
but it is an expression of the distinguishing
grace of God.
It's in the Bible.
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.
In the morning he devours the prey, and
in the evening he devours the spoils.
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel,
Moses continues, and this is what their father
said to them when he blessed them.
He blessed them, every one, with the blessing
appropriate to him.
Then he charged them and said to them,
I am about to be gathered to my
people.
Bury me with my fathers in the cave
that is in the field of Ephraim the
Hittite, in the cave that is in the
field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in
the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along
with the field from Ephraim the Hittite for
a burial site.
There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah.
There they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah.
And there I buried Leah.
Someone this morning after the 8.30 service
asked me in the parking lot, why was
Leah buried there, and Rachel, the wife that
Jacob loved, was buried elsewhere on the way
to Ephraim, on the way to Bethlehem.
And I gave a very wise answer.
I said, I do not know.
I think that one thing we can say,
and this is not to answer that question,
it is obvious that for Jacob the most
important thing is not that either of his
wives were, was buried here, but rather that
it was the burial place of Abraham and
Isaac.
Because he sees the covenantal connection as the
most important thing, even more important than the
relationship to Rachel or Leah or of the
others.
The cave, the field and the cave that
is in it, purchased from the sons of
Heth.
When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew
his feet onto the bed, into the bed
and breathed his last, and was gathered to
his people.
May the Lord bless this reading of his
words.
This is the same subject as the subject
of the message last Sunday morning, Jacob's Last
Words.
And this is the second installment and final
installment of the treatment of the great prophecy
that Jacob made with reference to the future
of his sons, and also with reference to
the future of the messianic age.
For the third time Joseph visits Jacob's death
chamber.
He's one of the twelve bearded men who
are around the aged form of his father.
And how awe inspiring it must have been
as these men hear their names called out
by the trembling voice of the old man.
He reviews their past and also prophesies concerning
their future.
And when they remember that he is truly
God's man for the revelation of God comes
through him, it was a solemn occasion for
them.
It was in a sense his swan song
and it is a true swan song.
Ancient writers used to say that the swan
never sang in its whole life until it
was just about to die.
And that's how we use, that's how we
obtain the expression, his swan song.
A person is leaving a ministry or leaving
some work or he's dying and the last
thing that he says is his swan song.
Paul's swan song was 2 Timothy.
And this is Jacob's swan song.
But in this case it really is a
song because it is a poetic piece.
Genesis 49 is a prophecy in poetic form
and so this sonnet or this poem that
Jacob gives is one that is beautiful.
And particularly beautiful because it is the last
word of this well known and highly regarded
patriarch.
It's characterized by tenderness and severity.
And I stress the fact that it is
characterized by severity.
We have today if it is possible over
emphasized the fact that God is love.
God of course is love and the Bible
states it very plainly.
But he is not only love.
Last week I was preaching in Denton every
night at a Baptist church and in the
course of the studies which were largely around
the prophetic theme.
I had occasion to refer back to the
Magnificat of Mary and pointed out that the
Virgin Mother.
If you examine the statements that she makes
in that Magnificat laid stress not only on
the mercy of God in giving the son
for the fulfillment of the promises of the
Old Testament.
But also upon the fact that God is
going to judge his enemies.
And some of the strongest statements of that
particular gospel are made by the Virgin Mother
Mary.
You see there is a note of astringency.
There is a note of severity.
There is a note of strictness in the
biblical revelation concerning God.
We express it theologically by saying that God
is holy and God is just.
He is not only love but he is
love.
He is just and therefore he must punish
sin.
Our age is made entirely too much of
the love of God in the light of
the fact that it is so overlooked the
other side of the character of God.
There is that note of astringency in him.
Well if Jacob has been glorious before.
Glorious at Bethel when he was sleeping and
saw that great vision of the angels and
the latter.
Glorious at the brook of Jabbok when he
wrestled with the one whom he thought at
first may be a representative of Esau but
who.
Whom he discovered later on was the angel
of God.
Glorious at the halting place of Penal.
He is at his best here in this
particular song.
Few biblical stories of deaths are more beautiful
in their simplicity than Jacob's.
We see the power of faith.
And that was stressed in the last chapter
because it is of course the blessing of
Manasseh and Ephraim that the writer of the
epistle of the Hebrews singles out as the
great example of the faith of Jacob.
He thinks that that's the highlight of the
faith of Jacob.
But we see the power of faith here
when he requests the sons to be sure
and bury him back in the land with
Abraham and Isaac.
Because he recognizes that the promises of God
are promises that pertain to the land.
And therefore to desire to be buried there
is an expression of his faith in those
promises.
We see also the glory of the exercise
of divine love in Jacob.
Because after Joseph was lost he never seemed
to have trusted Joseph's brothers.
But now there seems to be much more
openness.
In fact some of the commentators speak of
a reconciliation as having taken place.
And if that is true there is a
glory of love and tenderness that shines forth
in the remarks that he makes.
But nevertheless truthfulness too.
And there is the expectation of reunion.
In the last chapter we have had reference
to the gathering to his fathers.
Or the forty-seventh chapter near the end
of that chapter.
And here we read he breathed his last
and was gathered to his people.
The burial looked to the possession of the
land.
So he was buried back in the land.
But the gathering to his people suggested the
reunion that he looked forward to.
The reunion with Abraham.
The reunion with Isaac.
And the reunion with others.
Such as Rachel and Deborah who were faithful
souls.
You see for Christians the grave is not
really the goal of our lives.
The sky and the fellowship and communion with
the saints is really the goal of our
lives.
This old piece of poetry gathers round two
sons.
Judah in the first part and Joseph in
the latter.
All of the twelve sons are mentioned.
But nevertheless the emphasis rests in the first
part on Judah.
The emphasis in the last part rests upon
Joseph.
And the blessing for Joseph the latter.
The son of Jacob's beloved Rachel is fuller
of tender desire and glad prediction than that
for anyone that precedes.
You see you can see even in Jacob's
blessing the shining forth of the human being
in the midst of the prophecies of God.
For scripture comes to us from the Lord
God.
It is the word of God.
But it comes to us through men.
And it is preserved from error by virtue
of the activity of the Holy Spirit.
But it is human.
And you can see the human aspects of
scripture in the fact that right here Jacob
gives this great blessing for Joseph.
For he was the son of his beloved
Rachel.
Enshrined in these words to Joseph that we
want to stress is the truth that strength
for conflict comes from contact with the strength
of God.
In fact that's a teaching of Holy Scripture
that is found all through scripture.
In second Samuel I believe it's chapter twenty
-two and verse thirty-five we find an
expression for it of it very early.
There we read he trains my hands for
battle so that my arms can bend a
bow of bronze.
And the picture that is given there is
of a person handling a bow and arrow.
But of God doing the training.
So that the one who really shoots the
arrow is the Lord God.
Now in the New Testament the Apostle Paul
expresses this most fully and most completely.
And I think standing near the end of
the progress of divine revelation we should expect
this.
When he says finally be strong in the
Lord and in the strength of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that
you may be able to stand firm against
the schemes of the devil.
So be strong in the strength of God's
might.
Put on the whole armor of God.
You see the picture of a solitary man
who has a bow and arrow in his
hand.
And the enemies are about him and the
arrows are flying thick and fast around him.
But his bow remains firm because well there
are two people to reckon with not just
one.
For standing back behind this individual who is
trusting the Lord God is the Lord God
himself.
Who has his hands also upon the bow
and arrow and is really firing it.
So that the enemies of the Lord discover
when they fight with Christians that they are
fighting not with one man but with two.
That's the truth that is expressed in that
prophecy of Joseph most plainly it seems to
me.
Now let's lead up to it by turning
to consider the last words that Joseph utters
to the half brothers.
That is those that he has not yet
mentioned.
He has already given some prophecies concerning Reuben,
Simeon and Levi, and Judah.
But now he begins with Zebulun and has
some words for him.
And we're going to just look briefly at
this because we don't have time to consider
these half brothers in very much detail.
I want to spend most of my time
on that more lengthy section or lengthier section
which has to do with Joseph.
He says something about Zebulun in verse 14.
Zebulun is a, Zebulun shall dwell at the
seashore.
Now someone immediately if he knows something about
the way the tribes were placed in the
land will say wait a minute Zebulun didn't
even touch the seashore in the, his territory.
And that is true.
That little preposition rendered at in the New
American Standard Bible is one that in Hebrew
is just as easily rendered toward.
And this of course it surely should be
rendered here in that way.
Zebulun shall dwell toward the seashore and he
shall be a haven for ships and his
flank shall be toward Satan.
He was close but he did not touch
the sea.
Issachar is next mentioned.
Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between
the sheepfolds.
When he saw that a resting place was
good and that the land was pleasant he
bowed his shoulder to bear burdens and became
a slave at forced labor.
So Issachar is mentioned as strong but mentally
lethargic and unambitious.
One of the commentators has made a rather
interesting statement.
He has said that this reference to between
the sheepfolds suggests something else.
It was the custom of the shepherds to
throw the manure out between the sheepfolds and
so between the sheepfolds was the place where
the manure was lying.
And it was customary for donkeys to lie
down there because it was much warmer than
elsewhere.
And if that is the force of that
then the reference is to Issachar wallowing in
filth for his own comfort.
That's possible.
It's impossible it seems to me to be
sure about that.
But Dan is mentioned next.
Dan shall judge his people as one of
the tribes of Israel.
This is a complimentary statement but the remainder
about Dan being a serpent.
Well there is doubt about that.
If it is a complimentary statement the reference
is to Dan's ability to overthrow those who
wrongfully antagonize him.
And just as a serpent often terrifies a
horse so Dan would terrify those who sought
to antagonize him.
And so the prophecy is of his successful
reply to attacks against himself.
On the other hand the word Dan means
vindication.
And so if this is an uncomplimentary reference
Dan is to be a serpent and the
serpent is often an uncomplimentary type of animal.
Then the reference is to the fact that
there is no vindication in Dan but rather
violence and treachery just like we should expect
from a serpent.
Incidentally the rabbis making a note of the
fact that Dan was a serpent thought that
possibly the Antichrist should arise from the tribe
of Dan.
And some Christian expositors have fallen for that
interpretation because in the book of Revelation in
chapter 7 when the prophecies with regard to
the 144,000 are mentioned there.
It is said that 12,000 of each
12,000 from each of the tribes should
make up the 144,000 Israelites who are
Jehovah's Witnesses there.
And the tribe of Dan is missing.
And so some have thought well the reason
for that is because from the tribe of
Dan there comes wickedness and apostasy and therefore
it is left out in that chapter of
the book of Revelation.
Now if you'll go back and look there
are think about twenty references in the Bible,
maybe more, which lists of the tribes are
given.
And I believe that it is rare to
find any one order and any same names
of the tribes being listed in any of
those places.
There is a great deal of variation in
them.
No contradiction but a great deal of variation.
So we make nothing of that.
In the midst of this there comes this
ejaculatory prayer in verse 18, For thy salvation
I wait, O Lord.
These are the words of Jacob.
Now I wonder why Jacob said this right
in the midst of these words to Dan
and to Ged and to Asher and Naphtali.
Why did he suddenly break forth in this
word of prayer, For thy salvation I wait,
O Lord.
Well did you notice the mention of the
term heals in verse 17.
And did you notice the mention of the
term heals in verse 19.
And did you notice the mention of serpent
in verse 17.
Now what would be suggested by a man
of God, the man through whom the revelation
of God comes.
God's representative at this point for the patriarchs
were that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
He spoke to men through those men in
those days.
What would that have suggested to them.
Well they knew about the prophecy of Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 15.
About the serpent and about the woman and
about the heel.
And it seems to me that it is
possible that that is what Jacob has in
his mind.
As he is giving these words that have
to do with heels and have to do
with the serpent.
He remembers and I will put enmity between
you the serpent and the woman and between
your seed and her seed.
He shall crush your head and you shall
crush him as to the heel.
And so it is possible that Jacob here
in the inspiration of the guidance of the
Holy Spirit utters this petition.
In acknowledgement of his faith that he is
waiting for the salvation of the Lord that
is to come through the seed of the
woman that is to crush the head of
the serpent.
But who in the process will have his
own heel, a reference to Calvary and the
suffering there, have his own heel crushed by
which he offers the redemption.
Well I suggest that not that that is
certainly the interpretation but I just suggest that
that would account for Jacob's expression of praise
and prayer.
Now he says some words about Geth in
verse 19 and he uses over and over
again one Hebrew root, Gath.
He says, Gath, Gethu, wehyehguvena, wehyu, yageh, yaguth,
achev.
And you can see that four of the
six Hebrew words in this sentence are derived
from the one root Geth or Gath.
When I was studying many, many years ago
I've told you many times that I was
a major in Latin in the classics and
I took eight years of Latin, four years
in high school and then again four years
in college.
And when I was in high school we
studied Virgil.
And I can still remember one line in
Virgil that made a great impression on me
and it stuck with me down through the
years.
You see these terms Gath and Gethu and
so forth are designed to be in Hebrew
expressions verbally of the thought that is involved
in them.
What it has to do with gallop, it
has to do with galloping horses.
And so Gath, Gethu, Yehguvena, Yehguvenu, etc.
is supposed to sound like that of which
it speaks.
Sound like galloping horses.
And if you say it fast enough you
can see that there is that play on
words.
Well in Virgil there is a famous line
which I remember at least it's quadrupedantiputremsonituquatetungulacampum.
And it too has to do with galloping
horses and you can just hear the horses
gallop when you say it.
Quadrupedantiputremsonituquatetungulacampum.
Now I know you'll remember your Latin and
you'll know exactly what I'm talking about there.
But that is exactly the way this is
written here.
It is designed to express verbally the thought.
Then he comes to Asher.
Asher's name means happy or lucky.
And he is to have a fruitful area
north of Carmel.
Not in California incidentally though that would be
right fruitful too Carmel along the sea coast.
But this is Mount Carmel.
But it was a fruitful area and Asher
or lucky or happy is to have that
area.
Incidentally in Deuteronomy when Moses is talking he
mentions oil there.
But the oil there is not the pipeline
that goes through that area at the present
time in spite of some of the things
that prophetic Bible students have said.
This is olive oil not the kind of
oil by which your little car is operated.
And finally he comes to Naphtali before he
comes to Joseph and he says with reference
to Naphtali.
Naphtali is a dough let loose he gives
beautiful words.
The meaning of that is very obscure but
since our Lord came to the borders of
Naphtali according to the book of Matthew and
preached the gospel there it's entirely possible that
encompassed within the meaning of the beautiful words
are those goodly beautiful words that our Lord
spoke when he came and ministered the gospel
in his day.
Well now that brings us to the last
words to Rachel's sons Joseph and Benjamin.
He has just a word for Benjamin it's
a word about Benjamin being a great fighter.
Benjamin is the tribe from which Saul came
and then the Apostle Paul.
But Joseph is singled out for long and
significant mention.
There is an impressive eloquence in these words
addressed to Joseph because they range over the
present back into the past and then not
only back into the past but they move
to the one who stood behind Joseph in
the past.
God and the specific mention of some of
the great titles of the Lord God.
And then he ranges on from the past
into the future.
And so it's a beautiful prophecy and very
significant.
He says Joseph is a fruitful bough, a
healthy thriving fruitful vine.
And that fruitful bough is designed to express
the depth of character of Joseph and also
the wide influence of Joseph.
Isn't it striking that Joseph here is likened
to a fruitful vine.
And that suggests all of the things that
are suggested by our Lord's use of the
metaphor of the vine.
He said I am the vine ye are
the branches.
And then he unfolded the ways in which
a believing man may become fruitful.
But it's all found in essence here.
As he says Joseph you are a fruitful
bough.
And we think of all of the things
that are necessary for the bearing of fruit
in the grape vine.
There is of course the necessity for careful
pruning.
That's probably the most important thing in vine
culture.
Proper pruning.
And proper pruning is probably the most important
thing in the culture of the saints of
God.
And the experiences of life which the Holy
Spirit takes us into and through are designed
to be the means by which he prunes
us that we may bear more and significant
fruit.
The vine bears fruit when it abides in
the root.
And of course we bear fruit, the Lord
Jesus says, when we abide in him.
We don't struggle and we don't work and
we don't fight and we don't scheme in
order to bear fruit.
We bear fruit when we rest in him
and allow the life that flows up from
the root to manifest itself in and through
us.
A person abides when he dwells.
And he doesn't have to go around noticing
whether he's abiding or not.
Abiding simply means to dwell.
Now all of you in this room probably
dwell in some particular place.
Most of you in some home.
You don't go around your house all the
time and trying to be sure that you're
in your house.
You don't say, am I in the house
now?
I'm in the, in the living room, in
the dining room.
I'm in the house now.
I've got to keep reminding myself I'm in
the house.
No.
You know you're in the house and you
take that for granted.
And you notice it when you go out.
Not so much while you're in.
Well now when we abide in the Lord
Jesus Christ we rest in him.
We don't have to struggle to be sure
that we are in him.
We rest in him and we allow the
Holy Spirit to work.
For the Holy Spirit works in every single
believer to sanctify them.
That's one of the great promises of sovereign
grace.
That is that when we believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ every single believer is immediately
indwelt by him.
That's the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 1.
It's the teaching of Paul in Romans chapter
8.
It's the teaching of the book of Acts
and several of the chapters there.
It's the teaching of our Lord Jesus in
the gospel of John through the ministry of
the apostle.
It's the teaching of the New Testament.
The moment that we believe in Christ we
are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
And we are also taught that just as
our salvation is of the Lord, so our
sanctification is of the Lord.
And therefore it is a sovereign activity of
the Holy Spirit which he carries on and
he carries it on if you're a true
believer.
And not only that my dear Christian friend
but he is going to successfully carry it
on.
Because every single believer is going to ultimately
be conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now you may struggle and fight and make
it as difficult as you possibly can for
the Holy Spirit.
But let me assure you if you really
belong to him he is going to win
the battle.
And you're going to be conformed to him.
Now if you're not a believer well that's
another matter.
But for believers the Holy Spirit works sovereignly
and continually.
He carries his work out through the Word
of God, through the experiences that we have,
through the ordinances, through the sitting at the
Lord's table, through the work of baptism.
All of these things are means of sanctification
but it is the Holy Spirit who carries
it out.
What a beautiful figure, a fruitful vine.
Now the next picture of Joseph is of
Joseph standing with the arrows of the enemies
flying by him.
The archers bitterly attacked him and shot at
him and harassed him.
Now Jacob is speaking about the treachery of
the enemies of Joseph.
Because when we think of a man who
is upright.
Well he comes and he takes his sword
out and says now I want to fight
with you a little bit.
He's like the Arminian who comes to the
Calvinist and says I'm an Arminian I'd like
to discuss things with you.
Well I don't mind that because I think
we can win all of those battles.
What I don't like is the Arminian who
hides over in the bushes and shoots an
arrow at you and you turn around and
say where are you?
Well now when a person uses a bow
and arrow the idea of treachery is involved
in it.
And so here are the treacherous arrows of
the enemies fired at Joseph.
The archers of envy, the brothers who had
been so envious of the blessing that God
had bestowed upon him through his dreams.
The arrows of temptation by which he was
tempted through Potiphar's wife.
Magnificent standing in the strength of the Lord
God.
A man is frequently able to withstand one
test and another single test.
But the constant daily test and temptation to
adultery was a tremendous test.
But Joseph by the power of God stood
firm.
Then there was the archer of slander.
When Potiphar's wife became angry because he did
not yield.
Reminds me of what one of the commentators
has said concerning George Whitefield.
Mr. Whitefield was a very noble man but
he stood in his den with the butt
of all kinds of jeers and scoffs of
about fifty years.
And his only answer was a blameless life.
Whenever anybody stands up and proclaims the sovereign
grace of God you can be sure there
are going to be some arrows fired at
him.
He's going to be the object of envy.
He's going to be the object of slander.
Anybody can think up some things to say
about people who are speaking the truth of
God.
It's very easy to do it and it's
very easy to spread them about.
Mr. Spurgeon has some good words here.
He says you know there is not a
man that stands at all prominent but what
any fool in the world can set off
about a float some bad tale against him.
It's a great deal easier to set a
story afloat than to stop it.
If you want truth to go around the
world you must hire an express train to
pull it.
But if you want a lie to go
around the world it will fly.
It's as light as a feather and a
breath will carry it.
Goes on to say some other things about
that but a lot of that is very
true.
Now in the midst of the arrows he
says concerning Joseph that his bow remained firm
and his arms were agile.
Now here he is strong and supple of
hand and arm and the arrows are flying
about him.
But Joseph stands firm and his bow remained
firm.
Now what is his secret?
Well his secret is expressed in the words
that follow.
His arms were agile from the hands of
the mighty one of Jacob.
And so the picture here is of a
man who is standing and the arrows are
flying about him.
But God is the source of his strength.
God is his champion.
And not only that there is a beautiful
figure here.
It reminds me of course of William the
Conqueror who had a bow that no one
could handle but William himself.
And this kind of bow is one that
apparently only Joseph can handle.
It's that strong.
But the picture is of God who comes
up like a father with a little child.
A father teaching a little child to handle
a bow and arrow.
And so he puts the bow down there
and he takes the little boy and he
says now son I want to teach you
how to handle a bow and arrow.
So he said you put your left hand
right here and then you put your right
hand right here with the arrow in it.
And then you pull it back.
And the poor little boy can hardly hold
the arrow, hold the bow up and he
cannot pull it at all.
And so the father reaches down over him
and he puts one hand over the father,
over the little boy's hand here on the
bow itself.
Then he puts the other hand on the
arrow above the little boy's hand and encompasses
it.
And he pulls it back for him and
shoots it.
That's the picture here.
He says his bow remained firm from the
hands of the mighty one of Jacob.
Reminds us of that story of Elisha near
the end of his life when he was
dying.
And he was in the bed.
He called for Joash, a wicked king.
They were going to fight some battles and
so Joash came and Elisha said get your
bow.
And so Joash got his bow and he
said now pull the bow back.
And then Elisha was, Elisha was very feeble
and old, very much like Jacob here.
In fact there's a lot of, there are
a lot of parallels between that incident and
this one.
Elisha goes over and he puts his hand
on the bow.
He puts his hand on Joash's hand and
he says now shoot.
Let it fly.
And so he shoots it out of the
window.
And he says the deliverance of the Lord.
And what he's trying to say to Joash
is that the battle is the Lord's.
And he's going to win some battles.
And he also tells Joash to do something
else.
And Joash throws some things down and he
stops before he should have.
And Elisha says you should have gone on.
You would have won a lot more battles.
You're only going to win a few now.
I think it was about three.
But the idea back of it is that
battles are won by the Lord God.
They are won when we stand in the
strength of God.
Put on the whole armor of God that
you may be able to stand against the
evil one.
We stand in the strength of the Lord
God.
So he's strong and firm and his bow
is firm on account of the hands of
the mighty one.
Now notice he's described as the mighty one
of Jacob.
He's a real God.
He's a divine being.
He's a mighty one.
He's very familiar because he reaches over Joseph
and encompasses him in his arms.
Joseph has a personal relationship with him.
And then it's covenant strength.
Now I know some of my friends, particularly
my Arminian friends, they don't like that term
covenant because that suggests distinguishing grace.
But notice he says, from the hands of
the mighty one of Jacob.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
These were the patriarchs to whom were given
the covenantal promises.
And so this is covenantal strength.
It's strength that arises out of those unconditional
promises that God has given to ultimately to
all of his elect.
And then he goes on to say from
there is the shepherd.
That's the first reference incidentally to the noun
shepherd.
Jacob has said back in chapter 48, the
God who has been my shepherd, oh who
has fed me all my life to this
day.
And there it's the verb.
But this is the first mention of the
term shepherd in the noun, in the noun
form in the book of Genesis.
And it is the source of the Lord
is my shepherd I shall not want.
It's a beautiful reference to our Lord Jesus
Christ who is the shepherd.
When the true shepherd came on the scene
they let the errors of envy, the errors
of temptation, and the errors of slander fly
against him.
And the first thing that happened when he
appeared among the authorities of his day was
the Pharisees and the Sadducees took a good
look at him, the religious leaders of the
day, and said this is a false shepherd.
And they sought to put him to death.
But he is the shepherd.
What does a shepherd do incidentally?
Well he feeds the flock.
He guides them from pasture to pasture.
He also protects the flock.
He guards the flock.
And these are the things that this shepherd
does.
He's further described as the stone of Israel.
This is the first mention of the Lord
as a stone.
And ultimately it finds expression in the New
Testament statements both of stone and rock.
You remember when Peter was asked by the
Lord, Peter whom do you apostles say that
I am?
Who do you say that I am?
Peter said thou art the Christ the Son
of the living God.
Jesus replied thou art Peter a little pebble.
And upon this rock, upon this cliff, thou
art the Christ the Son of the living
God.
That great truth I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it.
The rock.
Well that's the firmness of foundation.
The foundational truth of the Messiahship and eternal
sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the saving work that he would accomplish
in doing the work of the servant of
Jehovah in shedding his blood.
So he's the stone of Israel.
And a rock was a place of protection
too.
They didn't have houses like we have to
which we could flee.
But if a great rock was over there
on the side of the hill and extended
out over the side.
When the storms and tempests came they ran
under the rock.
And there they received protection.
And they hid there.
Isaiah speaks about it in some of his
figures in chapter 32.
And we sing about it.
Rock of ages cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in thee.
So he's the stone of Israel.
And it is by virtue of his atoning
work that we may hide under him forever.
And then the last words are of the
rich blessings bestowed upon Joseph.
A magnificent view of the earth as the
source of all of God's physical wonders.
And so Joseph is to have fruitfulness.
Fruitfulness that comes from the rains.
Fruitfulness that comes from the waters and the
heart of the earth.
Fruitfulness in his family from his wife and
also from his children.
And then lastly Jacob speaks about the last
charge to them and then he dies.
It's a great lesson in that charge but
we've already said something about it.
I want simply to notice the death of
this great patriarch.
We read in verse 33 that he breathed
his last and was gathered to his people.
Now breathed his last is not, does not
have anything in common with our Lord Jesus
Christ's breathing of his last.
In the case of our Lord's breathing it
was voluntary.
You can see it in the way it's
expressed in the Gospel of John.
There the text says that he bowed his
head and gave up the ghost.
Men don't die that way.
Men die by the spirit leaving them and
their head collapsing.
But in the case of our Lord he
bows his head, gives up his ghost.
He's in full control of his death.
But Jacob is a man and he dies
as men die, involuntarily.
But the text says that he was gathered
to his people.
Now some of the Old Testament scholars of
our day say that we must not think
that the prophets and the patriarchs had any
understanding of what life after death really was.
I beg to differ.
In spite of the high regard that I
have for some scholars I think that we
cannot say that this means anything other than
that there was a recognition on the part
of Jacob that he would be conscious in
the life beyond this grave and furthermore that
he would recognize those with whom he had
come to dwell.
And so there is consciousness and there is
recognition.
Recognition of the fathers Abraham and Isaac with
whom he would be reunited.
There are people, I mentioned this last week,
but there are people who say do you
think we'll recognize our friends when we get
to heaven?
And one Bible teacher that I know said
well of course you will.
Surely you'll have as much sense up there
as you have down here.
We're not going to have to be introduced
to everybody when we get there.
When I get to heaven I'm not going
to have to be introduced to the Apostle
Paul.
Peter's not going to come over to me
because we're members of the same family.
Remember his name was Peter son of Jonah.
Jonas, Jonas is John.
Peter son of John, Peter Johnson.
We're in the same family.
He's not going to come over to me
and say Lewis I want to introduce you
to Paul.
And so he's going to take me over
to Paul and he would say now Paul
you are the apostle of sovereign grace in
the first century I'd like to introduce you
to the apostle of sovereign grace in the
twentieth century.
Here is Lewis Johnson.
We're not going to have to do that.
It's just something that occurred to me on
the spur of the moment at the end
of the preceding message and everybody seemed to
get a great kick out of it.
I think they really thought that imagine you
as the apostle of sovereign grace.
I don't know.
But I think that Paul's going to say
well hello Lewis.
We're going to know one another there.
There will be something involved in the body,
the glorified form that we have that will
enable us to know who Paul is and
who Peter is and who Elijah is and
Jacob.
And I've grown fond of this man that
I've read and studied about so much in
the past few weeks.
When he was gathered to his people he
enjoyed the fellowship and the communion that he
had with those whom he knew and understood.
The critique of each one of these with
the recall of the salient points of their
past and of their future anticipates the judgment
seat of Jesus Christ.
It's a very solemn thing my dear Christian
friend to realize that there is coming a
time when you believers, you believers will have
to stand before the judgment seat of Jesus
Christ.
And the Lord God will go over your
life too.
And he will go over it in love
and mercy but also with the astringency of
the prophets of Mary and of Joseph.
And those things that are flaws that are
not produced by the Holy Spirit for those
you shall receive no reward.
Those things that are produced by the Holy
Spirit through you as you have abode in
Christ.
Then you shall receive a reward for them.
But you must stand and hear your name
called.
And you shall be called to account for
the life that you have lived.
It must have been a very solemn and
a thing that must have called it caused
a great deal of trembling for those brothers
to appear before Jacob.
How much more to appear before our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Well I close because our time is gone
on the note of the divine activity.
The strength that we have can only come
from contact with the strength of God.
And in the light of his names.
He's the mighty one of Jacob.
He's the shepherd.
He's the stone of Israel.
He's the God of the fathers.
We can trust him.
If you're in this audience and you have
never believed in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We remind you that if you do not
believe in him the scriptures say that your
destiny is the lake of fire.
The Bible does not mince words.
It states that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.
All therefore are under the judgment of sin.
Both the penalty and guilt of sin.
And if there is not some provision made
you shall die in your sins.
The Bible also tells that Jesus Christ has
died for sinners.
He has offered the blood sacrifice.
By which sinners may be saved.
And that sacrifice stands as a memorial of
the love and justice of God.
And through the Holy Spirit he moves in
the hearts of men convicting them of their
sin.
And they flee to the city of refuge.
The true city of refuge.
The Lord Jesus Christ and receive as a
free gift everlasting life.
You cannot work for it.
You do not join the church for it.
You do not pray through for it.
You do not come down front for it.
You don't raise your hands in a meeting
for it.
All of these things are devices of evangelists
not following Holy Scripture.
The scriptures say believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved.
We can trust his word and we can
trust his power to save as you are
brought to the knowledge of your sin by
the Lord Jesus Christ.
We invite you to come.
Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Receive the forgiveness of sins as a free
gift.
May God help you to come.
Let's stand for the benediction.
We are so grateful to thee Lord for
these ancient prophecies and chapters from the word
of God.
And we do pray that if there are
some in this audience who have not come
yet to the shepherd, the stone of Israel,
the mighty one of Jacob, may they come
this morning.
What better conclusion to the study of scripture
than for some soul to turn from sin
by the grace of God to the Savior
who died for sinners and receive as a
free gift everlasting life.
May they say oh God I know I'm
a sinner.
I have fled from you for many days
and weeks and months.
But I want to come and receive as
a free gift everlasting life.
By thy grace I come.
I do believe that Christ died for sinners.
I take the salvation offered through him.
How wonderful Lord for someone to come to
Christ right now.
May grace, mercy, and peace go with us
as we part for Jesus' sake.
Amen.