We've come to the 49th chapter of the
book of Genesis.
You have your Bible there, follow along with
us.
And in many respects, this chapter is one
of the more remarkable chapters of the Bible.
It certainly is a dramatic chapter.
It's the deathbed scene of old Jacob.
In fact, we saw him on that deathbed
last time.
You'll recall that when he saw his son
Joseph coming in, that he strengthened himself and
he sat upon the bed.
He just rejoiced to see his own son.
Then after their interview, the rest of the
sons came in.
And he has around him now all 12
of his sons.
And this is his farewell message.
Now, a farewell message is very important.
And he begins with his eldest son and
just goes right down the list.
And you couldn't have anything really more important
than this.
It is dramatic.
Anything that a man says on his deathbed
is important because you feel like at that
time he's telling the truth.
How many times have you heard of a
deathbed confession?
Man waits until he gets really on his
deathbed.
I was reading some time ago of a
man up in his 80s.
He was taken into a mission, almost delirious.
He was dying and he made a confession
of a murder that had been committed over
50 years ago in Mississippi.
Another man had been hanged for that murder.
They thought he was just delirious.
They began the investigation.
They found out he is guilty, that he
was the one who was guilty.
Man generally will tell the truth when he
gets on his deathbed, that is, if he
hasn't told it before.
Now we see Jacob on his deathbed.
And let me begin reading here at verse
1.
And Jacob called unto his sons and said,
Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you
that which shall befall you in the last
days.
Now, we come to an important expression.
There have been some folk that think I
use certain expressions too much.
And by the way, I agree with them.
But you're going to find out there are
certain expressions in the Bible that occur and
reoccur again and again and again.
Now, one is right here, in the last
days.
Now, the last days of the nation Israel
will be different than the last days of
the church.
And here again, where you have a sharp
dispensational distinction that needs to be made.
The last days now of Israel, that's what
he's talking about.
What's going to happen to his sons in
the last days.
I was in seminary with a young man.
He was a Lutheran boy, a very brilliant
young fellow.
In fact, the matter is, he became a
theology professor and a Hebrew professor.
And either one of them requires quite a
few brains.
And this young man certainly had the...
I always enjoyed talking with him because he
always had something new to offer.
Because he did a great deal of study.
He told me one day that he was
writing on the prophecies concerning the 12 sons
of Jacob.
And we'll see a little later on, we
get to the book of Deuteronomy.
They have become tribes then.
Each tribe with thousands in them.
And in those tribes, Moses has something to
say.
And he took those prophecies, one in this
chapter and the one that Moses gave, and
followed the tribes through.
Now, a great many people today talk about
the fact that there are certain prophecies concerning
the nation Israel.
Many of them have been fulfilled.
Some are yet to be fulfilled.
Now, that's all true.
But you can narrow it down even less
than that.
You can divide Israel into 12 parts.
And God has had something to say concerning
each one of these tribes of Israel.
And not only has the prophecy concerning the
nation been fulfilled, but the prophecy concerning each
tribe has been fulfilled.
And friends, that makes it remarkable indeed.
So this is what's going to befall them
in the last days.
Now, some of the prophecy has been fulfilled.
But most of it waits to be fulfilled.
Actually, more of what Moses had to say
to the tribes has been fulfilled than what
we have here.
But it's quite remarkable, and all of it
looks to the last days.