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Genesis 47:4-10 Genesis 48:8-12
4 They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” 5 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6 The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”
7 Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
(ESV)
8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.” 12 Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Good evening. Tonight's scripture is from Genesis chapter 47 verses 4 through 10. They said to pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in the land for there is no pasture for your servant's flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then pharaoh said to Joseph, your father and your brothers have come to you.
Speaker 1:The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought to Jacob his father and stood him before pharaoh, and Jacob blessed pharaoh.
Speaker 1:And pharaoh said to Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life? And Jacob said to pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojournings are a 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojournings. And Jacob blessed pharaoh and went out from the presence of pharaoh. This is the word of the lord.
Speaker 2:Genesis 488 through 12. 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.
Speaker 2: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 younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the first born.
Speaker 2: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 lifelong 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 earth. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of a head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, not this way my father, since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.
Speaker 2: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. Thus, he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
Speaker 2:Then Israel said to Joseph, behold, I'm about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our father, we thank you for your word that you've given us. It enables us to know you. We thank you for your spirit. We thank you for the gift of your son, the word made flesh.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I pray right now as we we take a look at the words we have just heard, Lord, that you would open up our eyes, open up our ears to to hear from you, give me great clarity. These are important things. We've read a lot of things this week, but nothing like this. So allow us to focus in. I pray now that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but lord may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, after 26 weeks now, we come to an end of our study in Genesis. For the next 4 weeks after this, we're gonna be looking at different sections of Colossians leading up to Easter. After Easter, we're going to look at 2nd Luke or the book of Acts.
Joel Brooks:And taking a break in July or so to study another an epistle. So that's that's the months that we have ahead of us, but tonight we're going to finish Genesis. And I I hope this has been a beneficial study for you. I hope it's deepened your understanding of God, that it's deepened your worship. And although there's not a lot of action in the end of Genesis, not the stuff that makes, you know, children's picture Bibles really interesting and exciting.
Joel Brooks:There's it's actually some of the richest chapters we have in Genesis. When we started off our series, I said that you could pretty much see all of Genesis through the lens of blessing. Blessing. Everything revolves around this blessing, and you certainly see this when you get to the patriarchs. It's how we started with the call of Abram.
Joel Brooks:And Abram was called to be blessed and to be a blessing to the entire world. Joseph, who we just looked at, became a real physical blessing to the world, and that he saved the world from starvation. And here, in the passage that we just read, we see Jacob blessing. Jacob blesses pharaoh twice, and then he is going to bless his grandchildren. And these final two blessings are important for us to understand, not only as individuals, but for us to understand as a church.
Joel Brooks:And so, first I want us to look at the scene of Joseph's brothers as they come before pharaoh in chapter 47. Joseph brings his brothers before pharaoh, and and notice what the brothers ask for and what they are given. Look at verse 4. Verse 4 says, they said to pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in the land. So they ask to be sojourners in the land.
Joel Brooks:And then look what pharaoh offers them in verse 6. He says, the land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of land. And so they come to Pharaoh and they say, we we are here just temporarily, just to be sojourners. And pharaoh says, no.
Joel Brooks:The best of the land is yours. Settle here. You don't have to leave. This can be your home. And it's a temptation for them.
Joel Brooks:We're reminded here just early on things we have looked at in Genesis, how God does not want us to be too comfortable here in this life, that our citizenship is not here, but our citizenship is in heaven. Jacob sees what's going on here and he wisely makes Joseph and his brothers promise to go back to the promised land. And I love actually, if you, if you go forward one chapter to chapter 48, the last words of 20, verse 22, we didn't read these. But this is the last thing he says to Joseph. He says, moreover I have given to you rather to than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.
Joel Brooks:Just this this little seemingly throwaway verse. But what Jacob is doing here to Joseph, he's like, Joseph, I know that you have risen in command. You're now second over all of Egypt. You could settle wherever you want. All the choice land is yours and I know you have all of that, but I'm giving you a teeny little slope in the promised land.
Joel Brooks:Remember your calling, Joseph. Remember, you're not to settle here. And so even in that gift, there's that reminder, Joseph, I didn't give this to your brothers, I'm giving it to you because you have the most to give up here. But I'm asking you to give it up and to go back to that little slope. It's yours.
Joel Brooks:Do not forget your calling. Jacob is not forgetting his calling. He knows that he is to be a blessing to the world. And and so one of my favorite scenes of the Bible, and you just have to picture this, you have you have Jacob, who is old. I mean, he has been this this old, essentially a traveling gypsy his entire life.
Joel Brooks:And he's walking with a limp, you know, he's walked with a limp ever since that encounter with the angel. And he and he comes before the mightiest person in the land whom the Egyptians thought was their god. And this old traveling gypsy blesses pharaoh. I love it. When, when pharaoh is confronted with this man coming before him, the only thing he could say is, how old are you?
Joel Brooks:How old are you? I mean, he says, I've been sojourning for a 130 years. He's older than that. And it says a whole lot that when Pharaoh saw him and just his tremendous years and looked at him and could see such wisdom and something so unique about him that pharaoh, the god of the land, allowed himself to be blessed by this man. It's unbelievable.
Joel Brooks:It's exactly what Jacob does. And then after Jacob blesses pharaoh, he blesses Joseph's sons. In chapter 48. And you're gonna find this event recorded in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11/21 says, by faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
Joel Brooks:This is the pinnacle of the faith of Jacob. And for anybody who's familiar with Hebrews chapter 11, it's one of the most famous chapters in all of the Bible. It's kind of somewhat cheesy, cheesily called the Hall of Faith. It's when all these, you know, heroes of the faith are kind of paraded before us, and which the author of Hebrews, you know, mentions things like Noah and Noah's obedience. Mentions Abraham, and out of faith, Abraham left everything behind to go to a land that he did not know.
Joel Brooks:How his wife, Sarah, believed God's promises that she would have a child despite being so old. How Abraham, you know, in great faith was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Moses refused to live or to be treated as Pharaoh's son, but chose rather ill treatment with the people of God. Then he goes on to things like the walls of Jericho and how they fell down in faith. Stories of Daniel in the lion's den.
Joel Brooks:Stories of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego going into the fiery furnace. Goes through all of these, you know, things that really are what picture Bibles are all about. You know, you you have that, the action scenes, the amazing faith scenes. And then when you get to Jacob, this is what he pulls out about Jacob. I mean there's a lot of material out there wrestling with the angels, seeing the staircase go up to heaven.
Joel Brooks:And he says, Jacob blessed his grandchildren in faith. That's the pinnacle moment in Jacob's life. Yesterday, 2 days ago, Georgia, my 3 year old, she almost 3 year old, came to me and, she was screaming and yelling, saying how I had to just look at something. I mean, she's just like, come, come, daddy. Look at this.
Joel Brooks:And I was like, in just a second. She goes, now daddy, now. And So I came downstairs, I went outside and she pointed to me a dead carpenter bee. And she's like, look daddy, look. And I'm waiting for something else.
Joel Brooks:Some some big revelation. And that was it. I mean, that's all she wanted to show me was there is a dead bee. And I was like, you interrupted everything. You're so passionate and excited for for this thing right here.
Joel Brooks:And she is just thrilled with it. And in some ways, I kind of feel like the author of Hebrews is doing that. It's like, look at this, all these great acts. Look, look at the most boring thing that you can imagine. A blessing.
Joel Brooks:It's like, we've seen all these blessings. What's so special about this? Why are you pointing this out? But it's actually a big deal. This is a very big deal in Genesis and all of the Bible.
Joel Brooks:Because here we see after almost a lifetime of disobedience with Jacob, an occasional shining moment but mostly a consistent life of disobedience, Jacob finally gets it. He finally understands God's heart and what God's doing. He he understands grace and he wants to now be become a vehicle of grace, a vehicle of blessing. He gets it. I mean, he's, he's old at this point.
Joel Brooks:He is much older than any person alive today. And he has now been reunited with Joseph for 17 years. This actually makes him about a 147 years old at this point. And now before he dies, he wants to bless his grandchildren. Remember, this blessing is a big deal.
Joel Brooks:People fought for this blessing. They've lied for this blessing. They've they've done everything to to be blessed by their fathers. And Jacob, or Joseph puts these 2 kids, Ephraim and Manasseh on his knees. Jacob puts them on his knees, which is a really interesting thing because he's a 147 years old and these kids are their twenties.
Joel Brooks:But but he gets them on his knees. It's it's an unusual but very intimate moment here. And he embraces them and he kisses them, and then he puts them before him so that he might bless them. And and Manasseh, Joseph put Manasseh before his his right hand, and he put Ephraim before his left hand because the right hand is where you get your blessing. That is the the blessing for the firstborn.
Joel Brooks:And then Jacob does this. Switches. Switches his hands like that. And he does the blessing. I mean, look at, look at verse 14.
Joel Brooks:It says in in Israel, that's Jacob, 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 hands for Manasseh was the first born. Now, now why did Jacob do this? Now you, you don't have an angel telling him to do this. You don't have a prophetic dream. You don't have anything like that.
Joel Brooks:What's happening here is after a entire lifetime of seeing how God works and how God moves, Jacob is like, I get it. I get it. I understand god's purpose. I understand his plan. And so he's like, god's gonna work through the weaker, and he's gonna work through the younger.
Joel Brooks:And so he switches hands and Joseph is furious. Look at verse 17. It says, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him. That word displeased is a is a very strong displeasure. So strong that Joseph does the unthinkable and he actually interrupts the blessing.
Joel Brooks:It's like, woah, woah, woah. We gotta we gotta stop this. You know, I know your sight's not too good. Maybe you're getting a little see now. I don't know what it is, but we got to stop this.
Joel Brooks:Do you, do you realize that you switched hands? And I love verse 19, but his father refused. He said, I know my son. I know. He shall become a pea, a people and he also shall be great.
Joel Brooks:Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations. Now now why is Joseph so angry about this? He's angry because every every society has this, you know, a social norms, this way that you establish social status. And here, in this society, it is if you're the older, if you're the first born, you're the one who gets the honor, you're the one who gets the inheritance, you're the one who, you know, gets all the respect. That's the way it works.
Joel Brooks:That's why they call it the firstborn blessing, because it goes to the firstborn. But the thing is, you know, every culture every culture has those same kind of rules. The same kind of things that might we say will establish one's social status. For us, if I had to look around, I had to say it's probably looks. Your looks establish your social status.
Joel Brooks:You cannot tell me that if you are a good looking woman, that it is just as hard for you as an average looking woman going through life. It's not. You're given certain privileges. You can't tell me that it's just as hard for a wealthy man to go through life as it is for a poor man, or for an educated man to go through life instead of an uneducated man. We view those people differently.
Joel Brooks:It's the way we we assign their status, their social status in life. And here we see Jacob understanding God's heart, and he's going, woah, wait a second. God is saying, I don't see people like you see people. I don't evaluate people the way you evaluate people. It's like I I operate out of grace.
Joel Brooks:And Jacob sees this and he understands how God chooses the weak things of the world and so he switches his hands. And this is a common theme throughout the bible. I mean, even the very first story we looked at in Genesis, in which you have God choosing Abel over Cain. Then you have God choosing Sarah over Hagar. Isaac over Ishmael.
Joel Brooks:Mama boy Joseph over athletic charismatic Esau. Downright or downcast and ugly Leah, chosen over beautiful Rachel. You just see this. You jump ahead from here 2000 years, and you'll you'll see this in Jesus who was not born in a castle, you know, not a palace, not born into a lot of wealth, but born to a very poor teenage woman, and had to be born in a barn. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 1 when he says, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
Joel Brooks:God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world. Even things that are not to bring into things and to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And what Jacob is understanding here is grace is not just some theological concept that deals with our personal salvation. Grace is actually a lens in which we now see all of life.
Joel Brooks:All of life, we see that. We see our whole world differently now through the eyes of grace, and we no longer see wealth and beauty and education and honor the same way. Not when we have lenses of grace on because we see people the way God sees people, which is utterly different than the way the world sees them. In light of all this, listen, listen to Jesus's words when, when he was on the mountain and he said this, blessed, blessed are the meek. And thirsty.
Joel Brooks:It's all about blessing and he's saying, what I see is blessed is completely the opposite of what the world sees as blessed, because I see it through a lens of grace. God does not see things the way the world sees things. And as the body of Christ, we need to see people the same way that Christ sees them and be that instrument of blessing. God doesn't choose the firstborn. One commentator that I read, it was a little parenthetical note that I just thought was so good.
Joel Brooks:He says this, he goes, you know, God also does not choose the firstborn in our hearts either. Let me explain explain. Maybe you've had this really long, or certain desire for a long time now. You've always had this one desire. It's the firstborn in your heart.
Joel Brooks:It's the eldest in your heart. This is something you've always wanted to do, you've always been passionate about, and you bring it before God and you're like, this is what I want. And God goes, No no no. But this is the desire I've always had. I've always, I've always wanted to do this.
Joel Brooks:And you bring it to him and he looks and he says. He's always blessing something else. And you keep bringing to him your your eldest desire, your firstborn desire. And God blesses something else, and it drives you crazy. But God doesn't distinguish between what is oldest in our hearts either.
Joel Brooks:He blesses what he wants to bless. And we have to recognize that and we have to bow to that. And some of you need to quit trying like Joseph to to get God to switch hands and bless what you want him to bless. Lauren and I realized this when, early on once I finished seminary back in 99. For over 3 years, we had been convinced that God was calling us to the mission field, start a college ministry at Trinity College in Dublin.
Joel Brooks:Gone through the whole process, application process, raised all our funds process. We're 95 percent there. This was our desire for a long time, and then God just didn't bless it. We're like, well, we're gonna make it happen anyway. You know, we're gonna still go.
Joel Brooks:And God just he just he just wouldn't bless it. He just kind of kept putting up doors there and just he wouldn't bless it right at the end. And, and out of frustration for staying in Birmingham, like, well, we're here. What do I do? Well, at least I'll do something.
Joel Brooks:I'll start a little college Sunday school class over here, which which we had 6 girls coming to this college Sunday school class. I was like, I'll do that while we're waiting, you know, biding our time to where we could do our real desire. Then God blesses the socks off of that. And it grows in the University Christian Fellowship, which was which was our ministry for 10 years here. Never saw it coming.
Joel Brooks:God blesses what he wants to bless and we have to yield to that. Well, how can we see others through eyes of grace? How can we become these, this vehicle of God's grace in other people's lives? I think we get a hint of that in the blessing itself and Jacob's blessing itself. Look again, chapter 48 verse 15.
Joel Brooks:Jacob 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. I'll just stop right there. This is the first time in scripture that God has ever called shepherd. And usually anytime you get a first in the Bible, you need to kind of stop and pause and be like, why is this term introduced here? What, what is, what is so important about this?
Joel Brooks:Some of your translations might say the God who has fed me. It's the same word as shepherd in Hebrew. And when Jacob is calling God his shepherd, the implication of that is what is Jacob? He's he's a sheep. That's what he's saying.
Joel Brooks:He's like, I see you as a shepherd and I see myself as a sheep, and it's not because I'm fluffy. It's not because I'm cute. There's there's there's something else. I have been to Ireland a lot over the years. I've probably spent about a year or more of my life there.
Joel Brooks:And there's there's more sheep than people there. So so you you you get to look at a lot of sheep really, up close and personal. And let me just tell you something, when when you're looking really close to a sheep and you're looking in their eyes, there's nothing behind them. There there there is there is nothing behind those eyes. There there's they're the dumbest animals on the planet.
Joel Brooks:They're also the most defenseless. You know, you can search the world over and you're gonna you're gonna find wild dogs, you're gonna find wild cats, but you know, there's never the dreaded wild sheep out there. You know, they they can't make it on their own. They can't defend themselves. They don't have any teeth or claws or, you never have to be scared about being confronted with a wild sheep and like, what do I do?
Joel Brooks:What do I do? It's just they exist. They're just kind of like white fluffy food. That's that's all they are for predators. They're not fast, not smart, no way to defend themselves.
Joel Brooks:They're just meant to be preyed on. And Jacob understands that. He's like, that's who I am. I'm a sheep and God's a shepherd. Notice what he says at the end of verse 15.
Joel Brooks:The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. All my life, he's been my shepherd. That's astounding for a couple of reasons. For 1, Jacob's life has stunk. He's had a horrible life.
Joel Brooks:I mean, he longed for affection from his father and he got none. He had affection for his mother, but he had to flee. He had a brother who wanted to kill him. He had a uncle who deceived him and tricked him. He married a woman he didn't love.
Joel Brooks:His own sons hated him. The one son that he did love, they betrayed and sold as a slave. He was crippled by God. The man has had a very hard life. But now as he's coming to the end of his life, he's looking back at it and he says, you know what?
Joel Brooks:You were behind all of that. You were shepherding me all my days. Not just now here at the end, all my days. All of that pain that was brought into my life was was brought in to teach me dependence upon you. Here here's the astounding thing about sheep.
Joel Brooks:I spent a long time looking at different shepherding websites. In case the whole pastoring thing doesn't work, I I can go into shepherding. I've I've learned all about sheep, and when you should shear them, the different parasites they have, how you should protect them. All this stuff that I hope I never have to use, but I wanted to do my research. But one of the things that stuck out to me about sheep, and you find this, in multiple shepherds describing them, they said when a sheep gets lost, they don't necessarily want to be rescued.
Joel Brooks:They could be tired, they could be hungry, they could be hurt, and yet when you go to rescue them, they run away. And so you usually have to sic a dog at them to kind of round them up and to get them in, or you have to run after and catch them. Sometimes to tie up their legs and bring them back by force, but sheep don't necessarily want to be rescued. And at a 147 years old, Jacob is looking back at all of the pain that God has brought in his life and he says, it was necessary because I didn't want to be rescued. I didn't want it.
Joel Brooks:And so you've had to pin me down at times, once physically wrestling me down and hobbling me, in order that you might teach me grace. And he gets it. And so when we look at the painful events in our lives, maybe a, you know, unloving parents or hurtful friends or just huge disappointments, I want you to see behind that God's shepherding hand. And he's he's doing these things in your life in order to teach you grace, in order to teach you dependence. He's not distance distant.
Joel Brooks:He's right there. And because of this, we now are in a position to give grace. We all know Psalm 23, at least we've heard it. You know, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
Joel Brooks:Which means when you call God your shepherd, you lack nothing. You lack nothing. And you know what that enables you to do? Become a vehicle of grace and blessing in people's life when you lack nothing? It means you don't have to pursue friends for what you can get out of it because you lack nothing.
Joel Brooks:I I don't have to, like, pursue these people because what they can offer me, because of the respect I might get when I'm around them, because of the way they make me feel. I don't have to have that because the Lord is my shepherd and I lack nothing. I don't have to get a certain job that's really prestigious and people will respect in order to have all this honor. Why? Because God has bestowed his honor on me.
Joel Brooks:I lack nothing. And so it enables us, when we see the Lord is my shepherd and and he has given me these things, I don't have to try to find those things in anything else in this world. And a relationship, and a job, and wealth, None of those things. Instead, I can freely give instead of always going to try to get. And we can become vehicles of grace.
Joel Brooks:And of course we remember our good shepherd, the one who has made this possible, the one who has laid down his life for his sheep in order to bless us. I pray that we would grow in such a understanding of God's gospel and his grace. Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your word. God, let it have its effect in our hearts.
Joel Brooks:We are so callous, so dull and cold, and we can hear the most profound truths in your words and in your word and it could just go right over us. It can fall on rocky soil, hard soil. So God, I pray that as your word says, your word goes forth like a hammer shattering a rock, I ask that it would do that. That your word would go forth and it would break even the hardest of hearts and transform us. Thank you for grace.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for being our shepherd. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.