Big idea: The God of grace charts His people’s story through struggle to eternal blessings.
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Good morning. Welcome to all of you new if you're new with us, I'm so glad that you're here with us. I'd love to meet you, get to know you, and connect with you. So after the service, we'd be able to do that. We have the visitor lunch, and I'll be there also, and my wife's out of town, so I need the cooking. So we're going there for for lunch. But I would love to see you all as we go. We're in Genesis 49 we're coming to the end of Genesis, and as you turn there and start getting ready for that tonight's the members meeting, I would encourage members come. It's going to be a great time. The finger food potluck starts at five, the regular meeting starts at six, but come early and share some way God is changing you or people around you, as we study Genesis, or just as you do life at Faith, Bible Church. I think it'd be a really encouraging thing. What I hear are so many of you, growing, maturing, handling difficult circumstances in a way that pleases the Lord, all kinds of things going on, and I'd love for you to share that. And then we have other member matters tonight that are just something to celebrate and look forward to stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We're in Genesis, 49 it's just long enough you can just short enough you can stand can stand for it if you need to sit. That's okay. I understand that. But we're rounding the end Jacob, also called Israel, is giving something of his last will and testament in versions of blessings to his sons. So imagine the 12 sons gathering around, thinking, What's dad going to say to us? This is it. Then Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel. Your father, Reuben. You are my first born, my might and the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity, preeminent in power, unstable as water. You shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel. O My Glory Be not joined to their company. For in their anger, they killed men, and in their willfulness, they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger for it is fierce, and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brothers shall praise You. Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion, and as a lioness who dares rouse him, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him. And to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples Binding his fold to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine and his vesture and blood, the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine. His teeth whiter than milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. Issachar is a strong donkey crouching between the sheep folds. He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor. Dan shall judge his people as the one, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way of a fight in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. I wait for your salvation. O Lord, Raiders shall raid gad but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bow by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The Archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From there is the shepherd the stone of Israel, by the God of your father, who will help you by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of. The Deep that crouches beneath blessings of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents. Up to the bounties of the everlasting hills may they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of Him who is set apart was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the morning, devouring the prey, and at evening, dividing the spoil. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. Then he commanded them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron, the Hittite in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah to the east of memory, in this land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife. And there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people. This is the word of the Lord O Great God, Yahweh, eternal, everlasting and covenant, keeping God, we praise You and worship you this morning from our opening songs, exalting Your Holiness, your faithful and steadfast love, you showed that through Abraham Isaac Jacob all the way to the end of his life, You gave him prophecy by your Spirit to bless his sons. We see Israel's future, his history from now. From our perspective, we see it in the past and what is yet to be fulfilled. We pray that You would help us understand Jacob's closing words. And I pray Father, that You would be at work among us and recognizing your sovereignty as you chart our our way and our life according to your good plans, we thank you for many answered prayers. One of the answered prayers that we heard this week as Jared and Claire are in Czech Republic serving as missionaries that Jared led his first Bible study in check so his speech and language is coming along. Thank you for that. Thank you for the fact that you approved josiah's visa. Thank you that you are working in Spain. Nathan is on his way to go to Tenerife and to Madrid to encourage Nathan Lee, one of our missionaries, and Joe the other thank you for the opening of the new building. Nathan gets to be there for it, and we pray that it would be used to your glory. Thank you for the work that you're doing among us. I hear lives changed, impacted, people sorting out conflicts, people growing in faith. Pray that you would continue to do that, even through this passage in front of us. We do. Pray for our nation. Thank you for protecting our president last night and other people at the attempted assassination, and we pray that you would continue to give wisdom to our leaders and our government, that they may rule wisely. Bring those who don't know you to faith in you, and by doing that, that they would rule in a way that honors Christ and we would benefit. It would be peaceful for us, so that we can be about gospel business. Help us be faithful to it in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. Well, I think I found the secret to golf. Golf courses are beautiful places we love walks on the paths in golf courses. I've long said that I don't play golf because I already have enough things that I'm terrible at. For me, the old book title, golf a good walk spoiled, has been my mantra. But what if the struggle of golf could be balanced with the beauty of a golf course? That sounds so good, I'm in you'd think that. You'd think the secret is practice? I know some people have come to me over the years when I've talked about golf and basically said, If you golfed with me, you'd be really good. And I've had my doubts. I don't learn anything quickly. My new friend Jeff, a new member of ours, Jeff Gullickson, gave me the secret. Do you want? What the secret is, don't keep score. He's a superintendent of a golf course and a scratch golfer, and he says, so just don't keep score. And if you don't like where the ball is when you hit it, move it somewhere else. Since you're not keeping score. To just throw it somewhere easy and give it another hit. I'm like, you can do that. I mean, you're paying for the course. I mean, now all I need are some extra long golf clubs. I'm in the market. If you have a deal, what if I told you that there was a secret for the Christian to follow the course of life with hope and optimism no matter what situation you're in, to milk the golf metaphor, which I will do shamelessly the whole time wherever the ball lies, play it. Wherever life takes you, you can find peace and hope. Because here's the deal, the God of grace is charting your course through life, and He does it through striving. He does it through blessing. He is charting the course of your life. Jacob is giving a prophecy blessing. The beginning, hear the words and he starts to predict things. It's kind of a blessing. In 28 he talks about blessing them with the blessing appropriate to them. And there's two stunning things about this list. First, Jacob was renamed Israel in chapter 32 it's referenced Jacob and Israel's both, and he gets the title because in a wrestling match with a man who turns out to be probably Jesus. It's an amazing thing. Back in chapter 32 he asked this man for a blessing. The man says, What's your name? My name is Jacob. From now on, it will be Israel, for you have striven with God and with man, and have prevailed. His name became Israel, meaning this was going to characterize him and the nation that came from him, striving with God, for good or bad. When you read 10 out of 12 of these, there is a context of striving. There is a context of a contest, of a struggle, and this plays out for the next 3800, years in the nation's life. When they go down to Egypt, they become imprisoned. They are enslaved. They are released. The history of Israel is filled with constant struggle, inward, outward with other nations, and there is also a sense of blessing both occur. You. The second thing that stands out is that God is directing them to their eternal destination. There is side by side in Israel's history, striving and blessing like any time you're on the golf course. Only real. What stands out to us, as Jacob predicts this, is that it does unfold. I'm going to use the phrase certainly, not absolutely, certainly in that God brings things to pass, not absolutely meaning people really do act or repent and God changes. There are there are various individuals, but these nations take on the characteristics of their patriarchs. And what this shows is that God's word accomplishes what it sets out to do. The old fashioned word for the Bible was infallible, meaning it doesn't fail. It accomplishes what it sets out to do. This is an amazing thing, and we see it. We watch it right here. Here are the predictions made. It's not very difficult to trace them into Israel's history, into the conquest of Canaan, or into various periods of Israel's life. And to think about these kinds of prophecies, don't think about specific moments. Think about specific principles, characterizations. They are, they unfolded. They will unfold. They will culminate. So far. To summarize a big idea for us as we think about this, the God of grace charts his people's story through striving to eternal blessings. That's what's happening here. Jacob charts their course. He says, what's going to happen? The sweet honey of the sovereignty of God and the providence of God is proven, especially from our vantage point as we watch all of this, 3800 years later, we make real choices. They made real choices. We make moral choices. They made moral choices. We make good ones. They made good ones, we make bad ones. They made bad it's the same kind of thing. Sometimes we are rewarded, sometimes we're not. Sometimes we suffer consequences. Sometimes we get off easy. Sometimes bad things and good things happen to us the same day, one phone call after another, the God of grace charts his people's story through striving to eternal blessings. Now, saying that is nothing new. If you've been with us through Genesis, we've been watching how God is unfolding his plan, I want you to walk away from the sermon doing one thing today, doing one thing wherever you are, whatever moment you're in, whatever the biggest thing that's facing you when you walk out of this room. I want you to direct your life under the direction of a sovereign and gracious God. I want you to say, I will seek to please God wherever I am, I found out the official PGA rule book. How do you deal with your golf ball? You play it as it lies. It could have been a bad hit on your part. It could have been the wind. It could have been a tree. You play it where it lies. David Gibson, in his book Living Life backwards, which is really about Ecclesiastes, essentially, says this, stop looking at life as gain, like I'm going to work to gain something rather look at life as gift, as gift, wherever you are is by God's gracious hand, by his gift. Live with life as gift. Take the moment where it is, learn from what happened to you to get here. Do what pleases God, the best you can take it as gift. Maybe the reverse way of saying it is, stop being shocked that they're striving every time a fiery trial comes, Peter says, stop being surprised at the fiery trial that you were undergoing, like did you think life was going to be different? Stop keeping score of what others have done to you. Stop thinking of life as gain or loss. Start thinking of life as good, as a gift. As we walk through these stories, you're going to see the various components, and there is something to identify for each of us in each of these sections. And these predictions for us, we're going to lay out five scenarios, five scenarios that will help us entrust ourselves to God's direction, God's sovereign plan for us, whatever circumstance we have come into. Let's look at the first they're going to be in chunks. So we're going to take Reuben Simeon and Levi chunk number one, chastened, but still chosen. Chastened, but still chosen. Certain sins of Reuben Simeon Levi weren't dealt with. There's no evidence of repentance for them. The consequences of their sin and their character is going to go forward hundreds of years. There's a principle, Old Testament, principle, you'll find it in the 10 Commandments about the sins of the father being visited on the third and fourth generation. That sometimes just happens because of consequences. Sometimes that happens because the character doesn't change. It's not absolute. We'll talk about that in a minute. But but notice this, Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. He who strives with God this last will and testament, he starts with Reuben. And what we have are the sons, first born to Leah, then the concubines, then Rachel. That's where we end with Joseph. So this is where it starts. Reuben, you are my first born, my might, the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity, preeminent in power. You'd think Reuben's head's lifted. Dad's not mad at me anymore. I am strong. Hmm, till the next verse, unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence. This is going back to the scene in Genesis 35 where Reuben could not control his passions and slept with his father's concubine, his stepmother. He says, Because you went up to your father's bed, you defiled it. He defiled my couch. This was an egregious sin in the future, Reubenites would be powerful, numerous. They would be excellent in battle. They would be pivotal in their help in conquering the land, but they would never have the lead place the sins of the fathers passing down for generations. John, but he's still chosen. He's still of the tribes of Israel. He is not excommunicated, chastened, still chosen. In Genesis, 34 Simeon and Levi had an episode. They took revenge on the whole city of Shechem for the rape of their sister, Dinah. And instead of just punishing the rapist, they took vengeance on the whole city. Had every man killed, and according to this, hamstrung the animals, and so their vigilante justice made Jacob odious in the sight of all the people. And he says in verse five, Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul not come into their counsel. O My Glory Be not joined to their company. For in their anger, they killed men, and in their willfulness, they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. There was going to be a consequence for Simeon and Levi and their out of control anger. It was going to shape the tribes that came from them. They would be divided. There is a lesson here. There is a lesson here. They fail to repent in their lifetime, and the consequences remain heavy. And about this point, you might be thinking, well, the third or fourth generation pays for the sins of the father. There's, there's an appropriate answer to this question in Ezekiel, chapter 18. This is hundreds of years later, after exiles come upon Israel for Israel sins that the children of the sinning parents say, hey, this isn't fair. How come we're suffering for our parents' sin? Well, it does happen in a fallen, cursed world that you get wrapped up into what your parents do sometimes, but he actually says this, oh no, that's not how it is the soul that sins shall die. God says, I don't have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord, rather that they should turn from his way and live. When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? No, none of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered for their treachery of which he is guilty, and the sin he has committed for all them, he shall die likewise when a wicked person sees the sin in His ways, repents of those he's restored. So we use this idea of these prophecies being certain characteristics of them are certainly going to play out, but not absolute any person, any time with repentance and faith can be restored to God. But it doesn't mean all consequences go away. It doesn't mean all consequences go away. I think the two things that encourage me most out of this section is all three of the brothers are chosen of God, and something happens in God's grace and favor, Simeon is given the tribal land right next to Judah, joins with Judah, who is a very powerful tribe. Levites don't get an inheritance. They're scattered among the land, but they are also the priest who is the most famous Levite in the Bible. Give me, give me a guess. Famous Levite in the Bible, Moses. Yeah, Moses, the law is named for Moses. So God's blessing, slash chastening, was certain, but it wasn't absolute. How do you deal with your consequences in a way that is humble, if you're if you found that you're the one who created the situation that creates the trouble, how do you deal with that? Many years ago, a man started attending our church with his wife. He was an ex con in his 70s. One day before I knew all of this, he asked to meet in my office. He came and he just related the story. In his late 20s, early 30s, he was dealing drugs, and in a drug dealing crime, it got violent, he shot and killed a man. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. About 10 years later, he trusted Christ in prison was radically changed, and another two or three decades passed by, and the warden always looking for space in a prison said, Why are we using up space for a guy who so obviously changed. So they release him on parole. The reason why he wanted to meet with me is to tell me the story of God's mercy, how he got saved. And he said this, if anyone's uncomfortable with me being here, I understand if somebody finds out what I did and I'm sitting in the pew at them and and they want to move away from me, I I deserve that I did kill a man a long time ago. That kind of humility is profoundly rare. It's profoundly rare. God helps the humble. He restores the humble, and by His grace, he helped this man. If you're caught the place, play it where it lies, if, if the reason you're in the situation you're in is your fault, own it through humble repentance. Seek to please God. From here on out, I'll get to where I think this happened as we round out the Joseph story. But let's move on to number two. We have this, the second scenario with a ruler over the ruler over the nations. And now we move to Judah. Judah is promised a descendant Who Would Be King over the nations from Judah's line is going to come the Christ. This is one of the early promises of this Judah. Verse eight, Judah, your brother shall praise You. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness who dares rouse him. I mean, the rest of the tribes are going to honor Judah. It's fitting to the theme of struggle. Judah was going to be like a lion, strong and fierce. Now notice there's, there's a question you should ask. What about his sin with Tamar you have, you have Simeon and Levi having a curse, blessing, a consequence blessing. You have Reuben having a consequence blessing. What about the story of Judah and Tamar? I preached it just before Christmas, which was a great idea. Hey, come to see our church before Christmas. I'm going to preach about Judah, the man who had two really rotten sons, refused to marry off his third one to the proper wife, and then he thinks that she's a prostitute because she's disguised herself, slept with her, and then she gets pregnant. He wants to kill her because, you know, she's she's not supposed to get pregnant, and then she exposes him. That's a great story. Merry Christmas. Actually, what was very precious to me is how many people were thankful we just preached the next passage, which we're doing here. Do you know what he says there? When he's caught, she is more righteous than i That's the turn of the tide for Judah. You find Judah being the one who offers himself. He, like all the brothers, admit their sin before God in the presence of Joseph, even though they don't know it's Joseph, yet, he is the one who offers to stay behind so that Simeon, I believe it is, could no so that Benjamin can go free. He offers his life and something. Has changed for the brothers, for Israel, Judah has become the leader of the family. This idea of him getting the scepter is not by his deserving it, but by grace. And here's the promise, and this is the one of all the 12 that apply most directly to us, because this is the promise about Jesus, verse 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to Him and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples. One of the things that we love at Christmas time is the birth of the baby. The thing that we love even more is the birth of the baby king. The thing we love the most is the birth of the baby who will return to vanquish all evil and wickedness and establish peace. That is the prediction here. He will do this some future date Jesus will come be the emperor of the world. Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy. The Apostle Paul describes that future day like this, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. And the most pressing question in the middle of this whole sermon is, what are you doing with King Jesus, who's come, died, risen, reigning and ready to return to judge? What are you doing with the one who is going to reclaim the Earth? Have you repented from your sin, admitted your terrible guilt, trusted on him alone for forgiveness, because he did come and die and Rose and will return. Have you turned to him when we were singing holy forever. All the lines come from. Many of the lines come from Revelation, four and five, where the angels and the saints are bowing and worship. And I thought of it man, the most fitting thing to do would be to bow down and worship, but it'd be really awkward in our chairs, but that is the heart attitude of someone who is rescued by Jesus. That is the heart attitude. Have you been rescued by Jesus? There are some things that happened in time for Judah. Remember, Judah has the godly line. David comes from that line. So Jesus is descended from Abraham, Jacob, David. And in David, in Solomon's time, there was incredible wealth and opulence. Verse 11 and 12, Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments and wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes, grapes, which is all a picture of opulence. If you take a donkey or a foal and you tie it next to a heavily laden vine of grapes, what will the donkey do? It will eat all the grapes. It's a picture of such opulence that you don't mind feeding your horses or your donkeys from the grape vineyards. This picture of fine clothes in the darkest and richest colors. Eyes, darker than wine, teeth whiter than milk, is a picture of bounty and health. There was a time David and Solomon and other key kings where that kind of thing was true. There will be a time when Jesus returns and reigns on the earth that the abundance in farming and agriculture and in health, will carry the kingdom for hundreds of years, and then move on to the eternal state he's going to be ruler over the nations. So first we have the chastisement and chosen. You might be the cause of the circumstance that you're in. If you've trusted Jesus, like I just talked about, you're still chosen. You're still his. He has not left you. There is a ruler that was to come, that did come that will come again. Three, we have a series. It's, it's the lesser known brothers, like Zebulun, Issachar, Dan gad Benjamin, and there's a series. And they're, in a sense, all encapsulated in this struggle blessing theme. I. Zebulun. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. The size of the tribes ebbed and flowed over the years. At first this was North, not very far from the territory of Sidon, not directly on the sea. One day they are going to have the whole north east, northwest corner, and they will be a hub of trade, Zebulun and the map had, for a time, had much of the land not far from Galilee, and then on West to the port at what we call Joppa today, Issachar. Issachar is a strong donkey. Now there's a compliment. Issachar is a strong donkey crouching between the sheeples. The idea is that beasts of burdens, donkeys were super useful. They'd be like your big pickup truck. I know most of you have big pickup trucks and rarely do anything with them, but you have them if you need them. Never know you need that. This is a cars the I don't know. You could pick your you could pick your favorite truck model and say, This is the beefed up version, and it's useful to the sheepfolds, useful to the enterprise of ranching. He saw that a resting place was good, that the land was pleasant. Is a car settled northern section of Israel, not again, far from Sea of Galilee. He saw that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear. That's what the truck carries cargo, donkey, carries bear, and became a servant at forced labor. There was a time for Issachar. Yes, they had fighting men. Yes, they had wise men who knew the times, but there was a great deal of their history where they were compromising with Canaanite worship and would rather bow in service then be faithful to their god so that they could keep their their good resting place. Dan Zebulun is a car Dan. So Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan means to judge. And here's this description of it, he shall be a serpent in the way of Iper, by the path that bites horse's heels so that it's his rider falls backwards. And like most of these blessings, Israel's striving with God has good, has bad. The bad is Dan frequently fell into Canaanite worship. The tribe frequently was overrun by the nations who God brought in to chastise them, but Dan was the northernmost city, and they would be overrun by conquering nations, but like a snake, they'd bite back. Here you have the picture of the conflict, and here you have the picture of a serpent in the road ready to fight back against the horse that was going to try to trample it down when the Philistines had the upper hand in Israel, he was empowered by God. Samson was empowered by God to defeat them. Remember, Samson, the great warrior, and he was a mix of immorality, uncontrolled passion and judgment for Israel. Here is the tension, internal, external, and right about this time, we're a little more than halfway through the prophecy, Jacob steps back, seeing all the strife, all the difficulty, and says, I wait for your salvation. O Lord, there was a blessing out in the future. Jacob knew there was something better to come, and he even at his deathbed, was waiting for a full salvation, which was going to be spiritual, material, national just according to the promise to Abraham, moves to gad. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Gad is just on the east side of the Jordan River, modern day Jordan and they were able fighters, but they were on a highway, so to speak. Don't think of highways like we think of highways. Enemy kings would often run on the east side of the Jordan River. Run over them, but he would fight back a great, constant conflict would characterize gad at the entrance into the promised land. Reuben and Gad fought valiantly together to bring the Israelite kingdoms, Israelite nations into. Their proper place, we have the two blessings, just blessings. Asher's food shall be rich and he shall yield royal delicacy. The location of Asher, that Asher would settle, is among some of the most fertile in Israel north. When we toured Israel in the in 2019 all around the Sea of Galilee were avocado plantations, banana plantations, or avocado orchards, banana orchards, citrus orchards, up into the hills to the West were some of the premium vineyards in the world. Asher Asher's area was known for some of the best produce in the world. When they were conquered out of discipline because they had turned to idolatry, foreign kings would confiscate the best of the food of Israel, the best of the food of Israel, when there were times of faithfulness, were sent to the kings of Judah Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns. How would you like this one? You're like a doe. And now we're talking not talking about them, the man. The man is like a doe. Love that one. You could imagine all of these things, the brothers teasing each other about Naphtali is a doe let loose, that bears beautiful fawns. It's a picture of a settled security that would even allow the game to find a freedom or a security. Let's jump all the way down to Benjamin. Jacob is following the son's birth order, generally, not absolutely. Generally, he's going to talk about Joseph in a minute. But let's jump down to Benjamin. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the morning, devouring the prey at evening, dividing the spoil. His tribe would be small, but fierce. And here's the thing about wolves in the north, far north, wolves are probably more deadly than any other predator as pack animals. They're ferocious and brilliant. Benjamin is going to be the tribe where Ehud comes. Ehud is the left handed judge in the book of Judges. And this is a great story. Israel was oppressed for their idolatry. Ehud comes along, and he eventually gets entrance into the enemy king Eglon into his has an audience with him, and he straps a sword, I think, if it works, right inside the right leg, because when you get frisked, most everybody's right handed. They check your left leg. So he long robe. He brings in a long sword. Apparently, it passes by the palace guard. The metal detector doesn't work, and the gunman rushes in, oh, that was last night, sorry. He says, I have a message from God, from you. And Eglon says, All right, everybody out. I want to hear the message from God. Apparently, this guy's a prophet. They close the door, they lock them tight. He pulls out his sword, and he thrusts it through fat king eglon's belly. So far it comes out his back and the fold, he's really fat, the folds of his fat cover over the long sword, and he dies. That's a fierce warrior, bold, brave. We reenacted the story in it was cubbies at the time, but it was back when we had a wanna and it was, I think we had like, kindergartners, and a kindergartner went home and said, Mom, Pastor, Dan, killed Santa. Some things don't translate for little kids quite as well as other things. Also a lesson we did not very far from Christmas. I don't know why we did that. He he is going to be a mighty warrior. Saul comes out of this line. Benjamin comes out of this line. Fierce fighting, small in the era, era of the judges, they could out fight three times the armies that were arrayed against them all in the theme of struggle, we come to number four. So we have the blessing and struggle. Then we have this blessing and fruitfulness. We come to the longest of the blessings. It's to Joseph and. For good reason, Joseph had rescued the family rescued the nations. He was a special son to Jacob. He says this, Joseph is a fruitful bow, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. Again in an agricultural context, Joseph was a high producer by a spring meant that there was well, well watered, very fruitful branches running over the wall. Picture a great fruit tree, or very long vineyards and a walled garden protected, but there it is so robust that the branches spread over the wall, and they go to the other side, that those outside of the garden could enjoy. And it's a perfect picture for what Joseph had done, because him being in Egypt, interpreting the dream, getting placed over seven years of abundance produced so much abundance that Egypt Canaan and much of the world were saved. He is a fruitful bow. The Archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile. Jacob turns the story with his brothers and future stories with other enemies into military terms. Joseph wasn't literally attacked by archers. He was betrayed by his brothers. He was sold as a slave into Egypt. He was betrayed by potiphar's wife, and through it all, he remained faithful. How his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile. How did he fight, which wasn't a physical war? How did he fight the spiritual war, to remain faithful and to honor God. If we're using that phrase, play it as it lies. It wasn't his fault that he was in prison. It wasn't his fault that he was brought up to pharaohs. It was God who was at work in all of it. What did he do at every turn, whether an injustice or now a great privilege, he trusted the Lord, and this is what he talks about. And this is the point for you, wherever you are, if your consequences brought you to the situation, if God's Grace brought you the reward, here's where you are. You're in a place where you need to look to the God in this passage, notice the names by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. How did Joseph remain faithful? By the powerful hand of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, which is the first time or second time in all of Genesis. This is used Jacob used it the first time. The origin of the idea of Psalm 23 the Lord is our shepherd. Comes from Jacob naming his God a good shepherd. He is powerful. He is a shepherd the stone of Israel. He is firm and stable. He helps his people by the God of your father, who will help you by the Almighty that's the all sufficient one, the Shaddai word, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, there will be an abundance. All of this is by the hand of God. So what do you do in a moment? In a scenario, you find yourself extremely blessed. You find yourself in a great interpersonal conflict. You find yourself at war. What do you do? This is the God you rely on with the determination like Joseph did, tempted by potiphars wife, Lie with me. Lie with me, she says. And he says, I will not sin against God. I will not sin against your Master, my master. He would rather be thrown in jail than to sin. This characterized his life, and you might be at the point, because there's one missing piece, like, Doesn't anybody get in trouble? Aren't you asking questions? Doesn't anybody get in trouble for betraying Joseph? Doesn't Jacob say anything about this? I would surmise that from the first meeting, where Joseph starts to question them and they don't know it's him, the opening up of their hearts for the guilty conscience and the guilt that they've had before God, and eventually, as the story progresses, the admission to Jacob that they have sinned against. Their brother had to have conversations with Joseph about sinning against him, and in Jacob's mind and in Joseph's mind, those issues were resolved at this moment. If it's your sin that caused you to sit in the situation you're in humble yourself, humbly repent. Make the changes of repentance toward God. Make the changes of repentance toward your family. You might have consequences. They may not all go away, but you can rest assured, in the care of a forgiving God, all of the brothers do this. Nothing is said. They're going to ask a question next week when we see it after Jacob dies. Now, are you going to kill us? We'll come to that next week. We need to step forward to Christ. I think it's really important to remember that the principle of struggle and striving didn't end with Israel. Just because Israel was named he who strives with God, and that's the record of their history, 3800 years of it, what's still going on in the Middle East, struggle and strife. Think it's important to recognize that we do not escape this either. I mean, think about the successes and failings of the apostles. The apostles were sent out to proclaim the kingdom. They're given power over sickness and demons. They came back. They came back in Luke and said, the demons were subject to us. And Jesus says, Don't rejoice that the demons are subject to you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. It's not the privilege or the blessing that is the most important thing. It is having me and eternity with me that is the most important on the other side, think of Peter, who said, I will never deny you, but denies Jesus three times. After Jesus is raised from the dead, Jesus restores him. The most important issue is the relationship. Is your relation to Christ, not your success, not your failure. There are real world consequences for sinful failures. You can see how that plays out in this passage, but there are even greater, eternal rewards. The fifth scenario, the church in Christ, the church in Christ. Where do we come in? I told you where we connected here. We connect with the promise to Judah. The promise to Judah follows a path, eventually to David, eventually to Jesus. Jesus is born son of David. He is believed on rejected, crucified, raised, ascended and is going to return. What did Jesus say? Life was going to be like if you followed him, take up your cross and follow Me. Struggle and strife are the way in this world. It's not the only thing in this world. There is abundant blessing. Struggle is part of the New Covenant too. I mean, Jesus had to go through it from his baptism to the cross, and so he taught his disciples. He taught us. And what we should state say at a moment is, here we are. At the moment, the ball is where it lies. Somebody else did this to me. Jesus has words for us. Stop acting surprised. That's what Peter says, Why do you act surprised when the fiery ordeal overtakes you? John 16, Jesus says, In this world, you will have trouble. Fear not. I have overcome the world. Matthew, chapter five, Blessed are you when they persecute you? Ian, it. Jesus promised us difficulty and struggle, but he also makes his own declarations of who we are. He also talks about life of fruitfulness, and our fruitfulness depends on our trust in Him. The apostle Paul could go through life and struggle and great difficulty, calamity, rejection, persecution, jailing, sentencing to death by the Romans. And he could say this Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness with the Lord. A righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearing, I want you to direct the next big moment, the one that's caught you off guard, either by blessing or by difficulty, and recognize these truths by the scriptures. To you, first, Peter two nine, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, church. That's your identity. If you're in Christ, that's your identity. First, Corinthians, 12, you are the body of Christ. Each one a member of it. John 15, you are my friends, he says. John 112, opens up to all who believed in Him, who called on his name, he became he gave the right to become children of God. That's your identity. That's your identity in Him. God is better than your coach, your caddy, and he has the weather under control. Learn from the past. Play the next round, do the next thing directed according to what he's revealed to you, and trust him with where it's going to come, where it's going to land. Father, thank You for a really interesting set of prophecies. We do marvel as people, 3800 years after the prophecy, Israel is still the center of much attention in the world. We know you have a plan because of what you did with the Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, we thank you. You are the descendant of David. You fulfilled, and are fulfilling and will fulfill the promise that is showing up in our text, all the nations will one day bow and worship you. We do it joyfully and gladly now in thanksgiving for what you have given and we thank you for your work, your love and your faithfulness. It's in your name we pray amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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Main idea: Focus on promises kept now gives joyful endurance for promises kept later. ...