Big idea: God blesses His people so that they can share His blessing with others.
Application
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Welcome to all of you, church family, it's so good to see you. Good to be here with you. My name is Nathan, and thankful I get to preach this morning. Thankful for those of you who are visiting us too and our prayers that you would be encouraged in your knowledge of Christ, your relationship with Christ through our time together. Today, we're continuing in Genesis chapter 48 we're going to see how Jacob is blessed to be a blessing. He has. He has received a great blessing from God, and he's now passing that on to his family. So stand with me if you're able. Genesis 48 is a little bit shorter than the other chapters that we've been recently. So if you need to stay seated, that's fine too. But those of you are able to stand and read God's Word together in Genesis 48
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Genesis 48 starting in verse one. After this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, your son, Joseph, has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed, and Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you, make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. And now, your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine, Ephraim and Manassas shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are, and the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers and their inheritance as for me, when I came from Padan, to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way when there was still some distance to go to ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to ephrath, that is Bethlehem, when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these? Joseph said to his father, these are 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 he could not see. 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 the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands. For Manasseh was the firstborn, 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 life long 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 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, but his father refused and said, I know my son. I know he shall become a people. 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. 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. Moreover, I have given to you, rather than to your brothers, the mountain, one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together, God, we thank You that You are a God who blesses you speak and it comes to pass. And you are gracious and generous. You give good gifts to your people, and the best gift is you give us yourself. We might know you, that we might worship you, that we might love you, we might drink fully from who you are. And I pray that this morning, as we look at Jacob and this chapter in Genesis, that you would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in your law. Help us to see how great you are as the God who blesses, help us to see how wonderful it is to be your people, your family. Help us to see how your blessing is given by grace and is meant to be shared with others. God, thank you for your amazing blessing and bounty you give us through Christ. I pray for all of us here who know you that our hearts would be strengthened to trust you, to delight in you, to enjoy you, to share you with others. I pray for any here who don't know you that you would open their eyes to see their need for you as their Savior Christ, help them to trust in you. God, we pray for all those suffering and different kinds of trials, that they would see that you are enough. Pray for those being tempted. They would see that you are enough for them. And I pray that You would help all of us to love and worship you through this passage, we pray for our world right now. We think of our leaders, of our nation. We pray for wisdom for them, that You would bless them, strengthen them, help them to make good decisions relating to domestic policy and foreign policy. We pray especially for the situation in Iran, that you would bring peace, God. We long for you to come back. We pray the Lord Jesus come come back and establish your peace, your reign on the earth. And in the meantime, God, we pray for peace that the gospel might go forward, that it might flourish. We pray for the leaders of Ian and Israel and United States and all the other nations involved, that you would be mightily working carrying out your goodwill. We pray that you would strengthen those who know you in Ian and other nations over the Middle East, help them to persevere in the midst of great difficulty. Pray that their testimony would be strong and faithful, that you would build your church in those places, God, we pray for churches around our city. We pray for connection point, church where Barry Smith is ministering and Roger and Carol Weber and many other brothers and sisters that your word would powerfully encourage them this morning, we pray for Holy Covenant Church where Andre folks is ministering and where Steve and Cheryl bland are now. And we ask that you would minister through Your Word, by your Spirit, to that group of believers there, God, we want you to be glorified in this city and in our world. We commit our time to you right now. Pray in your name Christ Amen. May be seated.
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Well, it's springtime in Spokane. I don't think I have a cold. I think it's just allergies, but there's lots of lots of stuff growing and spreading right now, right? So one thing that grows close to my house is the arrow leaf, balsam root plants, otherwise known as the Oregon sunflower, actually swiped these from the hill over here on posts coming down because I forgot to grab my other woods by my house. But this plant, it grows bountifully. It spreads and spreads the woods close to my house. Riverside State Park on this side of the river, the side closest to where everybody lives, is full of these arrow leaf, balsam root, plants and they spread. Nobody that I know of goes in there and plants them. Nobody is cultivating them. No one is sprinkling fertilizer on them. No one is watering them, other than God, and they grow. And they're beautiful. And I bet if we let them, they would take over my entire neighborhood instead of grass, we could have these. Wouldn't that be great? No watering, no fertilizing? Maybe not great. The cool thing about these, though, is that they can be eaten. They're actually nutritious. So I learned that the Native Americans used to eat them, and so they actually have lots of nutrition and value and other things. So you could research that. And if your food budget is running low, you could probably go find some somewhere. But whether it's these Oregon sunflowers spreading around, or dandelions or Clover or moss or mint or raspberry plants or tomato volunteers. God created vegetation to spread, to multiply. God is generous. He created the plants in such a way that they they spread, they go all around and fill the earth. And it gives God glory, and is a blessing for his people. The animal world is no different, right? What happens with rabbits, with mice, with dogs, with cats, with fish, with ants, they spread and spread and spread until there's so many of them, right? It's amazing how God created his world to be multi, to multiply, to be fruitful, and His blessing for his people is no less abundant and fruitful and able to spread and multiply. God blesses. He gives good gifts to his people, and that blessing spreads from one man to another, man and woman to the to the whole earth. Right? God blessed Abraham, and then through Abraham, he's spreading that blessing all around in our chapter today, in Genesis, 48 we see Jacob is blessing his grandson, zephraim Manasseh, who he adopts to be his own sons, the blessing of God is spreading into God's people, with the goal of it spreading to the whole earth. That's what God keeps telling Abraham Isaac and Jacob, this is for the whole earth. What do we see in Colossians? One the gospel is increasing and bearing fruit and the whole earth. That was true in Paul's day when he when Colossians was written. It's true. Now, God's blessing is spreading like the waters of the flood came down in the time of Noah, and the waters covered the earth and impacted everything. God's blessing, through the gospel of Christ, is spreading, impacting everything, filling the Earth with the knowledge of God. And you and I were created to enjoy God's blessing, to know God, to love Him, to be blessed by Him, in that relationship with him, and then to bless others. God created us not to be a reservoir, but to be a sprinkler, right? What does the reservoir do? Receives the water and holds it in. What does your sprinkler do?
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Right? It makes water spread all around. That's what we were meant to do. We receive God's blessing through the knowledge of Christ, and we spread it around to others. So I want you to see today how wonderful God's blessing is. I want you to see the who of the blessing, which is the best part, the God who blesses. I want you to see the what of the blessing that God makes His people fruitful and multiplies them and fills the land with his glory for their good. And we want you to see the how of God's blessing. It's by grace, not by merit, not by earning, not by working, but by grace. It's a gracious gift of God. But Jacob is going to teach us how good God is, how good his blessing is. And I want you to be encouraged today to enjoy the blessing of God and to share it with others. Have you tasted and seen how good God is? Have you tasted and seen how good it is to belong to Him, to be loved by God? God's blessing is, it's amazing. It's more amazing than this, but it's an amazing lot like a ribeye steak is amazing, right? Have you ever had a really good rib eye steak grilled for the perfect amount of time, the perfect amount of pinkness still in there, maybe reverse seared, rested, perfectly seasoned, perfectly just tender. Mouth watering. You're getting hungry now, right? It's 1108, I'll be done soon. Don't worry, ribeye steak. And imagine you have dozens of them. You can't eat them all. They're just share. God's blessing is so much better than ribeye steak, and it's meant to be enjoyed and to be shared by others, to be shared with others. And so I want you to see God who blesses Behold, the God who blesses us, who blesses His people, enjoy the blessing of God, what is the what of the blessing, and then give that blessing of God to others, the three points, behold, enjoy and give spell the word beg. And I want you to think about how none of us deserve this blessing. We are beggars, as it were, coming to God and He gives us this blessing. But it's not that we have to twist God's arm. It's not that he's stingy or reluctant to give his blessing. God is eager. He's generous to give. And so behold that God who gives a blessing, enjoy his blessing and give that blessing to others beg. Remember how gracious God is. We do not earn it. It's by grace. So first, let's behold the God who blesses, as we see in Genesis, 48 Jacob shows us some beautiful things about God, the God who blesses and Genesis. Indeed, in all the Bible is God revealing Himself to His people. In Genesis, we've been seeing this amazing account of broken, sinful people that God has chosen to love and to make his own. As you look back at the story like how great were these people? Was Abraham, an upstanding, just deserving guy was Isaac, was Jacob, or Jacob's sons, we've seen their flaws right as we've gone through the story, and it's encouraging, because we see that God has chosen them and loved them, and he's redeeming them and teaching them and shepherding them and using them despite their sins and their flaws. It's by His grace that he's working in Jacob's life. And now we see that God has used Joseph, Joseph's brothers, selling him into slavery, Joseph being a slave and a prisoner for 13 years. And now God is using Joseph to save his people from the famine. And God has brought like we saw last week in Genesis 47 the people of God Israel to Goshen, where there's lots and lots of yummy grass for their livestock to eat, and they're taking care of their livestock. And God's providing for them. He's fulfilling His promises he made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob multiplying his family, providing for them through his sovereign care. Now look at Genesis 48 and we see what God is showing us about himself through Jacob's testimony. Genesis 48 verse one after this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, your son, Joseph has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed like Dan said last week. Jacob's been talking about dying for a while, and he's actually dying now, like he's so sick he's having a hard time getting out of getting up in bed. He summons his strength and he sits up and listen to what he says in verse three about the God who blesses Jacob, said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me. Allah is in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. God Almighty appeared to him. Remember the story in Genesis 28 God showed Jacob a picture of a ladder with angels ascending and descending on that ladder. And what was God showing Jacob, he was showing I am working. I am with you. I am providing for you. I'm caring for you. I'm doing things in your life. I am here. And then in Genesis, 35 God appears to him. Again, 20 years later, again, God says, I am God Almighty, and I am working in your life. I'm carrying out my promises. What does this mean God Almighty. You could translate it the all sufficient God El Shaddai. God is the all sufficient God. He is enough for Jacob. He is what Jacob needs. God was enough for Abraham and Sarah and their barrenness to care for them. God was enough. He was God Almighty to Abraham and Sarah for Hagar and Ishmael when they were out in the wilderness, kicked away, kicked out of the family. God was enough for Hagar and Ishmael. He was sufficient. He was enough for Isaac and Rebecca and their challenges. God was God has been enough for Jacob now in all of his journeys, going to Laban with nothing and coming back with a huge family and all kinds of livestock and possessions, he was enough for Jacob when he meets Esau, his brother, and he's afraid Esau is going to try to kill him, God is enough. He's sufficient for Jacob, when his sons kill all the shechemites, and then he's afraid everyone around him is going to want to kill his family, God is enough. He protects them. He gives them the fear of the Lord, and so they don't attack Jacob and his family. God is enough for Jacob, when he loses his son, Joseph, and thinks he's dead for 13 years, he's enough. When Jacob thinks he's lost Simeon, and he fears losing Benjamin, and all these things Jacob has seen, that God is El Shaddai. He is the all sufficient God. He's enough for Jacob to be okay. He is He is Jacob's provider. His God. His glory is enough. God's love is enough. God speaks and blesses and carries out what he's promised, and it's enough. God gives grace and forgiveness, and it's enough. God justifies and makes righteous, and it's enough. He cares and he shepherds, and it's enough. And Jacob is testifying to us today that God is all sufficient. He's sufficient when things are abundant. He's sufficient when things are scarce. God is sufficient when there's joy and unity, and God is sufficient. He's enough when there's conflict and fighting and sorrow. God has been with Jacob. He's with Joseph now, and He is God Almighty, the all sufficient God who's able to keep his word and create a great people out of one man and fulfill all of his promises he can bless he can keep. When we make a meal for someone, we want to make sure there's enough, right? Like, if you're going home today for lunch and you're having somebody over, you want to make enough food. The same is true. If you go to McDonald's, there's zips and you want to buy french fries, you want to make sure there's enough. So you buy the tub, right? You know there's enough fry sauce at zips because there's like a VAT right there. You can just keep pumping as long as you want. It's going to be enough. But there may not be enough fries. You might run out. But if you go to Red Robin, you get bottomless fries. There's always enough. Those little baskets keep appearing and keep appearing until you finally say that's enough. Can't do anymore. Do you know there's gonna be enough with Red Robin and the French fries? God is way more generous than Red Robin. Like you're actually paying Red Robin quite a bit for that hamburger, and then you get the Free French fries, right? But God is so generous, he gives us more than enough. And the blessings keep coming. The Grace keeps coming. The God who can multiply fish and bread, who can multiply stars, he's enough. He always gives enough. God is enough. You're not going to go to God for grace, for the trial you're facing today. You'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have any today. That's not going to happen. You're not going to go to God and say, I'm facing this temptation to sin, and I feel like despairing. I feel like throwing in the towel. This is hard. He's not going to be like, sorry, I don't have anything for you. That's not going to happen. God always has what we need. He's sufficient. He is sufficient for Jacob, for Joseph, for all of his people. God further reveals himself through Jacob's testimony. If you look down at verse 15 and 16, we're going to get to this more in the line of the story in a minute. But I want to highlight first what we see about God here Jacob says in verse 15 of Genesis, 48 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 life, long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the boys. Who is the God who blesses we see first that he's the God before whom Abraham and Isaac walked. How do you walk before somebody? They have to be with you, right? You're not walking before someone who's 5000 miles away and isn't there, right? They are with God. God is with them. Abraham and Isaac walked before God. Jacob now is walking before God. He's living life before God. God is with him, in relationship with him, and he's living before him. Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden. Noah walked with God. And now Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have walked with God. God has had relationship with them, had mercy on them, and is with them, walking with them. The God who blesses is the God before whom we walk, who is with us. Not only is he with us observing, he's not sitting there indifferently. We see in the second line here, in verse 15, the God who has been my Shepherd all my life long. To this day, God has been Jacob's Shepherd all his life long. What does a shepherd do Shepherd cares for, protects, teaches, trains, guides, leads. What do we know about sheep? Are sheep very good at defending themselves? Like some animals have spines, they can shoot out at you. Other animals have a really bad stink. If you get close to them, they'll shoot you with a stink. Some animals are venomous. Some animals can hide really well. What do sheep have
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like they're not very good at themselves. The wolf comes along and like mutton, this is great. There's not a lot of things they can do to defend themselves. They're not fast like a gazelle. They're not gonna hide, they're just there. They're vulnerable. They need a shepherd to protect them. What about eating? Are sheep good at finding good food? Like they have a hard time finding good grass. They get scared by water that's moving. They need someone to feed them, to lead them. Are they good at taking care of themselves as they fall over? What happens if a sheep falls over and they're laying there like this on their back, they can't get back over. They're like, you know, there's just those legs are too little. They can't they can't get back and then another sheep might try to headbutt them, but they're not going to be able to get them back over. They need a shepherd to put them back upright. What about those little bugs that lay eggs in their ears and then they things hatch inside them, and like they need someone to protect them, to anoint their head. So they're not having a good idea, and they realize it was bugs in their head hatching. They need someone to shepherd them. And we're like that, right? Physically, we're capable of more than the sheep, but we need someone to shepherd. Us. We need God to be our shepherd. Jacob needed that. We see all the mistakes Jacob makes, Abraham made, Isaac made, all the mistakes you and I have made. We need a shepherd to protect us, to care for us. And Jacob is saying, God has been my shepherd. He has led me, he has disciplined me. He's been with me in the abundance and the sorrow, and now he's with me. Finally, we see, in verse 16, another thing about God, the God who blesses. He's the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, the angel who has redeemed we see three different descriptions. Here. We see the God before whom Abraham and Isaac walk, the God who shepherds Jacob and the angel who has redeemed him from all evil. And then he says, that's three different subjects. One verb, bless the boys. So all three of those subjects are referring to the same the same entity, the same person, the Triune God, blessing those boys, right? The god, the god and the angel. The angel is talking about the angel of the Lord. If you look back at Genesis 16, when Hagar was in the wilderness with Ishmael, the angel of the Lord appears. And in Genesis 16, verses seven through 13, four times, the angel of the Lord talks to Hagar. And then in verse 13, it says, so she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are the God of seeing Elroy, the God who sees me. Hagar rightly calls the angel the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord God. This is God. Jacob is saying, God, the angel of the Lord Jesus, has redeemed me from all evil, from evil without, from enemies that would attack me, from evil within, from my own sin. He is his Redeemer who has redeemed him. What is redemption? It's like when you pay the quarter and you get the claw to try to get that toy out. You want to redeem that toy, Little Claw, and then you're trying to, like, grab the toy and make it your own. You want to take it for yourself, right? That's redemption. But we weren't stuck in a machine. We were stuck in the miry pit of sin. God has redeemed us. He's redeemed Jacob, and if you trust in Jesus, he's redeeming you from that pit of sin, from the miry pit of hell. He's redeeming us. He doesn't pay a quarter, right? What did Jesus pay? He paid his life to redeem us. That angel, the angel of the Lord, is the one who has rescued Jacob from all evil, evil without, evil within. This is the God who blesses this is the God that we need to behold and look at. He is the all sufficient God. What about us? Now, this is true for Jacob. We might be thinking, what about us. Now, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, like Milana described, if you have confessed Christ as your Lord, and believed in your heart that He died for your sins and God raised Him from the dead, then you have this God as your all sufficient God. He is all sufficient for you. He has enough more than enough for you. His love is more than enough for you. His grace is more than enough for you. His kindness is more than enough for you. He is your the God before him you walk. He is your shepherd. He's the one who redeems you. If you haven't trusted in Jesus, then you need to trust in Christ for God to be your God who blesses you. The blessing of God comes through trusting in Christ. Listen to Psalm one, verse two, Blessed are all who delight in his law and his rule, they will be like trees planted by water. Blessed are all those who take refuge in the sun. Psalm two, verse 12, says, The Blessed One is the one who takes refuge in Christ. All of us have sinned against God. All of us are like sheep. We've gone astray. God has given so many good gifts, and we reject Him and worship ourselves. We want to be in charge. All of us have broken his law. None of us are deserving of his blessing. We all deserve his wrath. And yet, what did Jesus do? Right? Jesus came from heaven to earth and lived the perfect life. He perfectly loved God and obeyed the law of God, perfectly loved his neighbor, perfectly fulfilled all righteousness. Then he died on the cross in our place, taking the full wrath of God,
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and then he rose again, conquering death and sin. And now you can trust in Him. You can get a blessing way better than a ribeye steak, way better than any earthly thing you could receive. It's to have Christ as yours, and for you to belong to him. So I would beg you, if you're sitting here today and you haven't trusted in Christ, there's no better decision you could make than to submit to Christ, to look to Him, He is Generous. He wants to give you forgiveness, life, love, a relationship with him, by grace, by faith in Him, He is sufficient. And if you have trusted in him, you have what you need. God is else. He's all sufficient. He's the El Shaddai for you, his grace is sufficient. Colossians two, nine and 10 says that in Jesus, the fullness of God dwells, and he has filled you. So whatever trial you're going through today, Christ is enough for you. He can give you the grace, the strength, the perspective, the hope, the peace that you need, whatever sin temptation you're facing, you don't have to get into it. Christ is strong enough to help you to deliver you. He is with us. We walk before him. He's given us His Spirit, right? You drive before him. You cook food before him. You do dishes before him. You parent your kids before him. You live a life alone before him. You. Single before him. You're married before him. You work before him. He is our audience. He's with us. And so remember that we live life before God, the God who blesses and he is our shepherd. What does John 10 say? Jesus is the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He shepherds us by His Spirit, by His Word, through our brothers and sisters who speak to us His Word. He's shepherding us, and he redeems us. He's redeeming us from all evil. Ephesians, one seven, right in Christ, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And he didn't pay with money or gold or silver. He paid with his own blood to purchase you, to make you his own. That is the God who blesses and that's the one we need to behold. Jacob had learned, through much sorrow, through much difficulty, through many trials, to look at God, to trust God, to behold Him, and I encourage you, that is what we need to do, Behold God, the God who blesses. And then as we behold Him, we enjoy the blessing of God, seeing, of course, first of all that he's the best. The best blessing is God giving us himself, right? There's nothing better than himself he could give us. But he does give Jacob a blessing. And then Jacob passes that blessing on to Ephraim and Manasseh. Let's look at what that blessing is. Enjoy the blessing of God, the what we've seen, the who now let's look at the what. Look at Genesis, 48 verse three again, and Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. What was the content of that blessing? Look at Verse four, and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. And I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. So we see that God promised Jacob to make him fruitful and multiply him like that, Oregon, sunflower, right? You have to multiply to spread around the earth. God promised to make him fruitful multiple. Is that the first time. That the first time we've seen God promised to make someone fruitful and multiply them. No, go back to Genesis. One, right? Genesis, one verse 28 What did God tell Adam and Eve? He blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with my image. What did God tell Noah when he gets off the ark in Genesis? Nine, one, he blessed him and said, Be fruitful and multiply. What did God tell Abraham in Genesis 17, verse one and two. Let me turn back and look at that one. God has been telling his people that he wants to multiply them. Genesis 17, verse one. Pick it up. In the middle of verse one, he says, I am God Almighty. I am the all sufficient God. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Turn over to chapter 22 verse 17, after God has told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and then God provided a ram instead Genesis. 22 verse 17, God says, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you've obeyed my voice. And God tells Jacob, or Isaac, the same thing in Genesis, 2624 that he's going to multiply him and make him fruitful. Genesis, 28 verse three, Isaac tells Jacob, you're going to be fruitful and multiply. And then God tells Jacob, in Genesis, 2814 I'm going to multiply you and make you fruitful. And then again, in 3511 God tells Jacob the same thing. Do you see a pattern here? God is saying, I'm going to make you fruitful and multiply you. Why is God doing that?
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God is generous. God wants His glory to spread through more and more people. He wants to not only bless Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he wants to bless a multitude of people through them. God doesn't just want to share with a few people, like, if I'm going to have a dinner, I can't invite all of you over. If I'm going to buy Christmas presents, I'm not going to buy them for everybody in this room. It's a lot. God's so generous. He's so full of riches. His riches of mercy is abounding and bounding, and he wants to share with more and more people. So he promises and he commands to be fruitful and multiply, because he wants to grow his family. He wants to grow his people and bless more and more people. He wants to give them children. What does this promise look like? Specifically, they're going to have children, and their children are going to have children, and he's going to provide food for them and land and animals and in life, yes, there's going to be tragedies and people are going to die. He's not saying no one's ever going to die, but he's promising to make them a great people, to grow them. And the blessing that Jacob passes to Ephraim and Manasseh is the same thing he says in verse 16.
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In the end, he says, Let them grow into a multitude the midst of the earth, literally, let them be like fish teaming in the sea so many. Jacob is telling Ephraim Manasseh, God is going to make you numerous and multiply you and make you a great people. And that happened to Ephraim and Manasseh, right? If you look at the story the history books in the Old Testament, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were big. They got big territories. They had lots of men going to war. Whenever there was a war, they were they were massive, and God blessed them. His tabernacle was at Shiloh, which is in Ephraim. Ephraim became the most prominent of the 10 Tribes that split off from Judah. God blessed Ephraim and Manasseh. This promise was not in vain, but you see how generous God is. His blessing with Adam and Eve with Noah. With Abraham and Isaac and Jacob now with Jacob's sons. He wants to share his blessing with more and more people as they become part of his family, as they dwell on his land. Look at in back in Genesis, 48 verse four says, I will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. God provides for them a place to live. He provides them a place where they can be supported and live and worship him and know him. God is giving them what they need to be His people and to love Him and seek Him. Listen to Acts 17, where you can turn over to if you want. Acts 17 verse, 24 to 27 What do you see about God's kindness now to all humanity, says the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though He needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything, and he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. So Paul is telling us there, God has sovereignly allotted and ordained our dwelling places so that we would seek him. He places Israel in the land that he places them, and he's placed you and I where we are, here in Spokane or deer park or chaturoy or Spokane Valley or Post Falls, or wherever you live. He's placed us here, and his desire is that we would see his goodness around us, as you see the grass growing and the Oregon sunflowers blooming on the hillside, and you eat a nice hamburger and you have a salad, you give God thanks. This is his goodness to you in this land. So you would see him and know him. And even more than that, than the place we live, the point is him. He wants relationship with him. What did Genesis 12, verse three, say, God tells Abraham, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. How is it that all the families of the earth are blessed in Abraham? It's through Jesus, right? Jesus comes through the line of Abraham, and in him, everyone who trusts in Him is blessed. All the families of the earth, all the earth are blessed through him. Listen to Ephesians one, verse three, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, God gives us blessing in Christ. What is this blessing? It's being in the position of being God's sons and daughters receiving the same blessing that God the Father gives to his son. He gives to us. He loves us, He accepts us, He forgives us, He makes us His people, so we can serve him on the earth and glorify him. Has he changed his heart of multiplying and sharing this blessing? No, look at what Jesus says in Matthew 2819 and 20. I'll just paraphrase that. Jesus says, go make disciples of all the nations. He wants the blessing of being God's people to spread to all the nations as people hear the gospel and trust in Jesus. What do we see in Revelation five, nine and 10? Is God going to be successful in being in making his people fruitful and multiplying them around the throne, around the lamb? We see people from every tongue and tribe and nation and language worshiping the lamb, saying, Praise you Jesus for purchasing us, for making us your people. That's the blessing that God gives. He makes us his people through the grace of Christ. Which leads us to our third point. We want to behold a God who blesses, enjoy the blessing of God, and finally, give the blessing of God to others by grace. We need to see this by grace. And really this is the bulk of this chapter is emphasizing grace. Jacob is teaching us and how he passes on the blessing that God's blessing is given by grace, not by merit. Don't we like to earn things like we all like to earn what we get, right? But God doesn't give by earning by merit. He gives His gift of blessing by grace. It's a gift. Look at what happens in 48 verse chapter, Genesis. 48 verse five.
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Jacob says, And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt, before I came to you in Egypt, are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are he says, the rest of your sons will be named under them, under you. But Jacob is adopting Ephraim and Manasseh. This is Grace. He's making them part of his family as his sons. So the place that Reuben and Simeon would have had as the first born and second, now he's giving out to Ephraim and Manasseh. He's legally making them his adopted sons, so he can pass that blessing to them as he's first born. And that's grace. They didn't earn it by being born first, not that Reuben did much to make that happen. But they didn't earn that spot. They were grandsons and God, and Jacob adopts Ephraim and Manasseh and makes them his sons to pass on the blessing. Then he recounts how sad he was about Rachel dying in verse seven. And it seems like Jacob is celebrating his love for Rachel. He's celebrating his love for Joseph by adopting Ephraim and Manasseh and saying, I'm going to multiply the blessing, not just blessing to Joseph and Benjamin as the two sons of Rachel, but I'm going to bless Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin through this promise, he's making this blessing, he's passing on. Look at 48 verses, eight through 12. It's like an adoption ceremony. Some commentators say that when Jacob says in verse eight, who are these well, he knew who Ephraim. NASA were right, but it's kind of like when the officiant of a wedding says, who gives this woman to be married to this man? Right? It's a formal ceremony of adoption, where Jacob is adopting Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons, and then he takes them, he embraces them, he kisses them, he hugs them, and then after Joseph removes them from his knees. These are like 20 year old men, young men. So I'm not sure how you did that exactly, but he gets them off, off Jacob's knees. And then Jacob, I think this is Jacob who bows himself to the earth in verse 12, Jacob is bound to the earth and worshiping God. This is all part of this adoption ceremony where Jacob is adopting Ephraim and Manasseh and giving them the blessing through that adoption. And it's now hard to think about how this carries over to us now in the New Covenant, is there anything about adoption for us in Christ? Yeah, we just read Ephesians one three. What does Ephesians one five say? In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons and daughters. And in the Roman world, when you adopted someone, that adopted child has all the legal rights and status of a biological son or daughter. Even more, it's not like they're second class kids. They're fully full status children, and that's the case for us in Christ like we have the full status. Ephraim and Manasseh as adopted sons have that full status. Sometimes people say talking about adoption like, is that you're a real kid or adopted kid? And that's a bad question, right? Because adopted kids are real kids, like you're really making them your kid. When people might say, Do you have any of your own kids? Or are they all adopted? No, like adoption is making them your own right, and that's the same way it is with us and God, like God adopts us, He makes us his real children. He makes us his own children in every way, which is what we see in Galatians four well, we just we read one verse. We could read a lot, but let's just look at Galatians four verses, four through six. How we are adopted in Christ, it says Galatians four, verse four. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father.
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Through Christ, God has redeemed us. He's purchased us, he's adapted us, He's given us His Spirit. So we cry out, daddy to him as his sons and daughters. This is a real relationship of us being sons and daughters and God being our father through Christ. And it's grace. The whole point of this is it's grace. Ephraim and NASA don't deserve to be Jacob's sons. They don't deserve to get that blessing, but he gives it to them by grace, and that's a great pointer for us to how God has given us great grace. He's blessed us by grace, through adopting us. It also describes us as being born like John three. Jesus talks about being born into God's family in John one verse 12, it says we're to all those who receive Him, to those who receive Him, to those who believe in his name, he gives them the right to become children of God, not born of man or born of the will of man, but born of God. So like we're born into God's family, we're adopting the God's family. We're we're in God's family. We belong to him. Like you're there if you trusted in Jesus, you belong to God. That's grace. We didn't earn that. God didn't look around the room and think, Okay, who would do the best job? Being my son and my daughter. Okay, I'm gonna pick you. He knows what a mess we are. He knows what sinners we are. Romans three, none of us seek after God on our own, but he has loved us by His grace. We continue to see this theme of grace in the giving of the blessing and the rest of the chapter. Look at Verse 13, as Jacob gets ready to bless Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph is kind of queuing this up real carefully, because to Joseph, in the ancient Egyptian world, first born was a big deal. The firstborn child got the rights they got. They got the bigger privileges, the bigger part of the inheritance. They got the blessing. And that was very important, that it was the firstborn. They were the ones that deserve that. So Joseph brings Ephraim in his right hand towards Jacob's left hand right and then he brings Manasseh in his left hand towards Jacob's right hand, because the right hand is the hand of blessing, the hand of the greatest blessing. And so he brings them there. And what does Jacob do? He crosses over and he gives the right hand to Ephraim and the left hand to Manasseh. He does it the opposite way that it's supposed to be, which Joseph doesn't like, and listen to what Jacob says. We've already read this one read again, the God before whom verse 15 of Genesis, 48 the God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked, the God who has been my Shepherd all my life, long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil. Bless the boys, bless them. And in them, let my name be carried on in the name of my father, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. He's saying, may God treat them the way that he's treated me and Abraham and Isaac. May they receive the blessing that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob have received from God, the way that God treats them he's going to treat Ephraim and Manasseh. You don't have to go very far in the Gospel to think about, how does God treat us, right? The way that God treated Jesus, the way that Jesus deserves to be treated. That's how God now loves us and accepts us, right? We have the position of Christ, the blessings in Christ. And look at Joseph says in verse 17, he says, This isn't the way it's supposed to be, Dad. Come on, dad. He tries to move his hand, and I guess Jacob still got some strength, because. Doesn't seem like he gets it over there, but it doesn't really matter, because Jacob already gave the blessing. We already learned from Isaac that when you give it, it's given, you can't take it back. So Ephraim is blessed first, and Manasseh second, they both get a blessing, but Ephraim is gets the greater blessing as the second born. What is this showing us? It's not by merit. It's a gift God wants us to see all throughout, who does God choose? Esau, the oldest, or Jacob? Chooses Jacob. Who does God pick between Isaac and Ishmael? Isaac the younger, when the Apostle Paul comes along and becomes the greatest apostle, did he deserve that spot as the persecutor of the church? Think about you and I, like did we deserve our spot in the body of Christ? God gives by grace. He doesn't look and see who's worthy, because it wouldn't be anybody worthy, other than Jesus. He goes by grace. He chooses through grace. What does Ephesians two, eight through nine say? For by grace, you've been saved through faith, that not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one should boast. And God is showing us through how he blesses Jacob, blesses Ephraim first and then Manasseh, it's by grace. It's always by grace. And so we need to remember first of all, two things. We don't deserve to Behold God. We don't deserve to be with God as His people and to live with Him on His earth and enjoy his good blessings. This is Grace. Therefore we must not boast. We shouldn't boast. We should be confident that we are secure in His grace. His choice is preeminent over our choice. He does not shift or change. We so badly want to earn what we get right, but God destroys our pride and our fear. Doesn't let us earn it. He gives it to us by grace, His blessing, and secondly, we've received this blessing as Jacob received his blessing, to pass it on to others, to give freely. God's design was that Abraham, Abraham would pass that on, that Isaac would pass it on, that Jacob would pass it on, and then Jacob's 12 sons would pass it on to others. That the whole world would see the glory of God and be drawn to him through Israel. And of course, Jesus has perfectly done that. He's shown God, shown the glory of God to the world, and he's drawing all people to Himself. Now think about the way the gospel is advanced, how this blessing has gone, right? Those 1112, disciples, and then there's 150 in the upper room, or however many there were. Then there's like 3000 and there's 10,000 there's 20,000 it's growing. And now today, what do we have, out of 7000 language groups? Maybe there's 4000 that have a Bible, or some part of the Bible where there are some believers, there's some church, over a billion people. Probably, I don't know how many are actually true believers, but there's, there's a lot. It's been multiplied more than the teaming fish. If you've gone snorkeling and you see all kinds of fish in the ocean, there's more and more. God has saved so many people. The blessing is spreading. And yet there still remain 3000 language groups that don't have the Bible. And so we need to share God's Word, we need to send people to them to go share the gospel with them, to establish a church among them. That's why Josiah and his family are moving away in a few weeks, because this gift of God must be shared. That's why you and I should pray for opportunities to speak of Christ with others, to show others by grace that God wants to share that blessing with more and more people, not because they've earned it or deserve it, not because they're really good neighbors or really good co workers or really good kids or really good brothers or sisters, but because of his grace, we want to share that blessing with others. That's why some of you host the dinner and invite people to it, to share with them the blessing of God. That's why Jim Green Up and the elders have sold that property over there, so we can use that money to fund missions to all the nations who haven't heard the gospel, yet this blessing must be shared with others, right? How has this happened? Already in our church? Think about the testimony of faith Bible Church. It's like a flood that flows and flows and impacts. It's like the sun shining and penetrating everywhere. Think about our own church. We have men and women like Jim and Helen Campbell who have invested in others and shared that blessing of God with others, and now we have that blessing through knowing Christ, Earl and Nancy, Dan Ian, Jim and Donna green up, John and Martha Smith, Fred and Sharon Williams, David Lewis, belch, Jim and Millie Moore. Many others that, many of you that are sitting here, I'm looking at you, you've invested in us, you've loved us, you've shared the blessing of Christ with us, so that we can then share with others. You've been impacted by others, and now, by God's grace, you keep impacting others with the gospel, with the truth of Christ. And because of that blessing of Christ that we get to share with each other and your ministry, we've been able to send out lots of people. Jared and Sarah gilcher Have Gone to Texas. Andrew and Carly Copley to Oklahoma, Isaiah, Melissa Mackler to Orange County, California. Corey, Laura Milliken to Shingle Springs. Joseph and Julie white in Hillsborough, Oregon, Chris and Ashley Mullins in Hood River. Matt And Brian cop in Maryland, John and Beth plesnick Spencer and Amy de Burgh. The list goes on and on. That's not an exhaustive list. There's so many people that by the blessing of Christ that you've shared with them, they're now going and sharing it and leading other churches and blessing other people. We're going to hear in a moment about Frank and Jacqueline rusho And the way that God is using them to share their blessing, the blessing of Christ, with people in the dang Papua, New Guinea and the Finisterre mountains. Hi, Frank and Jacqueline. By the way, when you watch this Monday morning in Papua, New Guinea, we're gonna hear about you in a minute and watch some pictures. So Dennis and Frank Dennis and Wendy, not Frank. You're Frank Dennis and Wendy. You're gonna share with us in a minute about going in. Visiting you, but that light that's shining in the darkness there that blessing of Christ that is a result of you continuing to share that blessing through your giving and your praying and your sending. On the other side of that same island, Philip and Laney are making possible the blessing of Christ to spread through aviation and education. Am based on GONA, a little bit to the north, is translating the Bible and following them that footsteps of film Denise so that the bomb bomb people can have the blessing of Christ. That's because of your giving and your care. Mike and Janelle are helping the same thing happen in their country, in South Asia, because you've shared the blessing of Christ here at Faith Bible Church. Joe and Hannah are blessing people at their church in Madrid and helping pastors be trained for all over Spain. Natalie Whitman and other Venom partners are following in David Lois belcher's footsteps and footsteps and sharing that blessing around Tenerife, Jared and Claire Milliken and marks Amy Danny are doing the same thing in condo, Czech Republic, Michael and Vanessa Ian are doing the same thing in London, at Grace life London, raising up a new generation of English men and women for evangelizing England and the list could go on and on. The point is, God is blessing us through Christ by His grace, and now we get to share that with others. And as we think about that, think about who is it in your life right now that God wants you to pray for, to show kindness, to to speak God's Word, to to bless by helping them, to see who Jesus is and to trust in Him and to grow in him. God wants you to be a sprinkler. Share that blessing with others. Be like this Oregon sunflower spread around the blessing of God. Share it broadly. Jacob was confident God was going to keep his promises and bring him back to the land. That's why he told Joseph, I'm going to give you this mountain slope. He was confident God's going to keep his promises. He's going to fulfill all that He has promised to do, because God is all sufficient. God is the one before whom we walk. God is our shepherd. God is redeeming us. And so Jacob was confident, and he blessed Joseph and Ephraim and Manasseh. And you and I can be confident today in God's blessing in our lives. Not that your 401 k is going to be great, or that your bank account is going to get bigger, or that all of your kids are going to be awesome, or that your health is going to be amazing. We know we're going to have lots of trials and difficulty, right? But the blessing of knowing Jesus better and trusting in Him and spreading the knowledge of him, we have that with confidence in that one day we're going to see him face to face, and we're going to become like him. So that gives us encouragement to strive right now, to be like Jesus, by His grace, by his sufficiency. I look forward to 20 years from now, where we can rejoice in God's grace and how he's blessed us. Some of us will be in heaven. Some of us will be here, still sharing the blessing of Christ around us, seeing new language groups coming to Christ, new generations of children being discipled and coming to Jesus, new believers who haven't heard yet being hearing about Jesus, and eventually, the whole earth being filled with the glory of the Lord as He returns one day. So let's thank God right now for his blessing in our lives. God, we thank you for how you have blessed us in Christ. I thank you for blessing Jacob and all of his journeys and showing him that you are the All sufficient God before whom he walks, the God who shepherds and redeems him. Thank you that in Christ, those promises are true. Now that really the fulfillment of your blessing to Abraham Isaac and Jacob is in part happening through the church now, as we are worshiping you and being part of your people, God, we thank you that you keep your promises. Help us to continue to look to you this week, to be a blessing to others. Help us with those who we don't feel like loving or being a blessing, to help us to remember your grace towards us, that you loved us when we weren't loving you. You loved us when we were not lovely. Help us to be proclaiming you and living your grace out towards those who are difficult and we thank you for loving us the way you do in Christ amen.
Nathan Thiry is the Growth Groups & Outreach Pastor at Faith Bible Church. He enjoys biking and outdoor activities, and has a passion to see the gospel spread throughout our community and the whole world!
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Main idea: Focus on promises kept now gives joyful endurance for promises kept later. ...