Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to the book of Genesis.
! Our passage this morning will take us from Genesis chapter 48 all the way through chapter 50 verse 14.
! I told you that these narratives in the Joseph section of Genesis kind of run a little bit longer
and so it's harder for us to break them up into smaller chunks.
And normally what we do is have you stand up in honor of the reading of God's Word,
but I will be merciful to you in these longer sections and you may remain seated.
And I won't read the whole section ahead of the sermon.
Instead, as we've done over the past several weeks, I will instead read them in the content of the sermon itself.
We've been working our way through Genesis for about a year and a half now.
This is sermon number 45, I think, out of 46.
Lord willing, we will complete this series next week.
And we have seen so much of who God is and His great faithfulness and His sovereignty.
All of these things that we've been praying about and singing about this morning, even.
A big look at who our God is.
So as we prepare to hear from the Word of the Lord this morning,
would you bow with me and pray once more?
Great is your faithfulness.
Oh God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Father, You are good and You are sovereign.
You are faithful to all Your promises.
And You have chosen by Your grace to bless us in so many ways in Christ.
And so we pray now, Lord, would You open our eyes to see how deeply we are blessed by You.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thomas Chisholm wrote the now famous hymn,
Great is Thy Faithfulness, towards the end of his life,
as he looked back and reflected on all the many ways that the Lord had been with him and blessed him.
If you know anything about Thomas Chisholm and his life,
you would know that his life was not easy.
He dealt with constant sickness.
He dealt with great loss.
He dealt with financial hardship and struggle as a result of his ongoing sickness.
It put a great burden on him and his family.
His life, like many of ours, was filled with a lot of ups and a lot of downs.
His were mostly a lot of downs.
But as he looked back and reflected towards the end of his life,
he was able to say that in all of it, he was blessed.
I love the last verse of the hymn where he lists out several blessings in particular.
Knowing his faithful God, he says,
Now I wonder, as you look back and reflect on your own life,
as you look at your own circumstances even this morning,
do you consider yourself to be blessed?
This morning, as we look at our passage this morning,
we come to the end of Jacob's life.
And what we've seen over the past several weeks is that Jacob's life was not easy.
Jacob suffered tremendous loss.
Jacob has been tested.
And yet, through it all, the Lord has been faithful to Jacob.
And the Lord has blessed Jacob tremendously.
And now we see in his old age, right before he dies,
he passes that blessing on to his children.
So here's the main idea for us this morning.
I hope you've caught it already in the songs that we've sung
and the prayers that we've prayed.
This is all about the blessing of God.
And the main idea for us this morning is that there is incredible blessing
for those who are in covenant with our faithful God.
There is incredible blessing for those who are in covenant with our faithful God.
To say that another way, if you are in Christ, you are blessed.
So let's take a look.
And this morning, we'll see three ways God blesses his people.
This is going to be our outline this morning.
I know it's a longer passage.
This ought to help you follow along this morning.
Three ways that God blesses his people.
First, we see that God blesses his people in surprising ways.
God blesses his people in surprising ways.
Look there to chapter 48.
It says, after this, that is sometime after Jacob and his family come into Egypt,
now towards the end of his life,
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.
I've heard it said before that last words are meant to be lasting words.
You think about what you might want to share with your own family members,
your own children, in your final moments.
Whatever those last words will be for you,
I'm certain that you'll want to think carefully and share what's most important to you,
what's most important for them to hear.
Well, Jacob, in his last moments, here at the end of his life,
he shares about the most significant moment of his life.
He shares about how God has met with him and spoken with him.
Verse 3, Jacob said to Joseph,
God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
And he 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.
He says, God appeared to me.
I need to share this with you, Joseph.
God appeared to me, and God spoke with me, and God blessed me,
and God made promises to me just like he did with my father Isaac and with his father Abraham.
But now I need you to understand I'm coming to the end of my life.
And now, son, it's time for me to pass that blessing on to the next generation.
Now, all of this, up to this point, all of this makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
But then he does something surprising.
Look there to verse 5.
He 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.
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 Paddan to my sorrow,
Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way.
And when there was still some distance to go to Ephraim.
And I buried her there on the way to Ephraim.
That is in Bethlehem.
Did you catch what just happened?
Jacob formally adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own children.
And he gives them the status of his two oldest sons, Reuben and Simeon.
Jacob claims them as his own.
And so now these two children of Joseph, who were born to an Egyptian mother, born in Egypt,
they're now being formally brought in to the blessings of the covenant that God made with Jacob.
And we see it play out here in verse 8.
When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these?
Joseph said to his father, They are my sons whom God has given me here in Egypt.
And he said, Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.
Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see.
So Joseph brought them near to 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.
And then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
See, Joseph realizes the magnitude of this moment.
Putting these two children on the knees of Israel is a sort of formal adoption ritual.
And he knows that the blessing is coming.
He knows that this moment of imparting the blessing is near.
And so what does Joseph do?
He sets them up in the way that makes the most sense to him.
He puts the oldest towards Jacob's right hand and the youngest towards his left hand.
Because the right hand would ordinarily go with the older as the sign of the greater blessing.
But look what happens.
Verse 14.
Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger.
And he takes his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands.
For Manasseh was the firstborn.
And he blessed Joseph.
He really is blessing him through this blessing of his two children.
And he said,
Ephraim and Manasseh said,
This is an incredible grace.
But Joseph is confused by all of this.
Verse 17 says,
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 over to Manasseh's head.
He thinks that this is all a big mistake.
I mean, maybe it's because his father is going blind.
And maybe it's just because it's a slip up of old age.
So Joseph said to his father,
It's not this way, father.
This one's the firstborn.
Put your right hand on his head.
But his father refused and said,
I know, my son.
I know.
This is no accident.
Accident.
This is entirely intentional.
He says,
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 Manasseh.
Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
And then Israel said to Joseph,
Behold, I am 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,
one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites
with my sword and with my bow.
He's still not done playing favorites, is he?
Do you see how God blesses in surprising ways?
Did you notice the surprising ways in which God blesses here?
I see three here that I want to draw your attention to here
before we move on to the next point.
Three surprising ways that I see God blessing here.
And I want you to see these,
because you should know God still blesses in these three ways.
In fact, if you are in Christ,
then he has blessed you in these three ways.
For one, we see God blesses through adoption.
Ephraim and Manasseh were not Jacob's kids,
but now they are.
Why?
He has adopted them as his own.
They once had no claim to the blessing,
but now they have full claim to the blessing.
They once had no share in the inheritance,
but now they have a full share in the inheritance.
Do you realize, Christian,
the same has happened with you in Christ.
You were strangers,
and you were aliens.
You had no claim to the blessings of God,
but God by his grace.
What he's done for you in Christ
is he has taken you from being an outsider,
and he has adopted you into his own family
as sons and daughters of the living God.
That's what it means to be a Christian.
The Apostle John says,
see what kind of love the Father has given to us
that we should be called children of God.
And so we are.
Are you surprised by this?
Another surprising way we see God blessing here,
we see that God blesses through election.
God blesses through election.
We keep seeing this over and over and over again
in Genesis, don't we?
God chose before they were even born
to put Jacob before Esau.
God chose to make promises to Abraham,
this pagan man out of all the men of the earth.
God elected Abraham.
He chose to make promises to Abraham.
And so now, yet again,
God chooses Ephraim
to receive the place of preeminence over Manasseh.
This is election.
God chooses.
And Christian, if you are in Christ,
it is because God chose to bless you in him
from before the foundations of the world.
This is election.
Ephesians 1 tells us,
In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons
through Jesus Christ,
according to the purposes of his will.
Christian, are you surprised that God has chosen you?
You should be.
We're not the obvious choice.
But that's because one final way,
one final and third surprising way that God blesses here,
God blesses according to his wisdom.
According to his wisdom,
which is almost always contrary to the wisdom of this world.
And we should really stop expecting God to work
according to our ways, shouldn't we?
He loves to run contrary to our expectations.
Why?
Because in so doing,
he magnifies his power,
his glory,
his wisdom,
his knowledge.
Where do we see this most clearly?
Beyond the cross of Christ.
Who would expect that the greatest blessing to the world
would come through the death of the Son of God?
Who would expect that in this moment of apparent victory for sin
and victory for the grave
and victory for the devil himself,
that that exact moment would be the moment of their undoing?
Who would ever expect that he would become sin for us
so that in him we would become the righteousness of God?
This is not man's wisdom.
The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved,
it is the power of God.
And so we see, first,
God blesses in surprising ways.
Not only this,
second,
we see God blesses in sovereign ways.
God blesses in sovereign ways.
Look there to chapter 49.
Now, chapter 49 is incredible.
And it shows us all of these blessings
that Jacob gives to his children.
And in each one,
in each one of these,
these blessings are prophetic.
And they speak of future blessings
that will come on these children
that we can look back in history
and see that these have all come true in time.
And just like with all the other biblical prophecies,
skeptics of the Bible will look at this and say,
this is all too realistic sounding, right?
This describes things a little bit too well,
and so therefore,
it must have been some later addition, right?
Somebody years later must have just come back in
and seen how all these tribes developed,
and then they went back
and they added in this little bit
to explain the history of these tribes.
That's the only explanation, right?
That's one possibility, I guess,
outside of there being no evidence whatsoever
of that sort of thing happening here.
May I present another possibility,
one that we've seen all throughout the book of Genesis,
is where the book of Genesis begins,
and it's the fact that our God
is totally and completely sovereign over all things.
And therefore,
He is able to speak blessing
well in advance of it ever coming true in time.
Because our God is the sovereign author of human history,
He is able to reveal the future.
That's what's happening here
through these promises,
these blessings that Israel gives over His children.
I want to just look at each one here briefly,
and you'll notice they're not in order of birth order,
they're actually arranged here by birth mom,
and the first six are Leah's kids.
So let's take a look here.
Chapter 49.
Then Jacob called his sons and said,
Gather yourselves together,
that I may tell you what shall happen to you
in the days to come.
I mean, wouldn't you like for somebody to do that for you?
Assemble and listen,
O sons of Jacob.
Listen to Israel, your father.
First up is Reuben.
Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might,
and the first fruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity,
and preeminent in power,
unstable as water.
You shall not have preeminence,
because you went up to your father's bed,
and then you defiled it.
He went up to my couch.
You notice there is no blessing here for Reuben.
And the reason why is because apparently Reuben,
Jacob's firstborn,
slept with his concubine, Bilhah.
And so this becomes his legacy,
and that phrase actually,
the first fruits of my strength.
Do you see that there?
Reuben is the first fruits of my strength.
That can also mean the first of my pain.
He's the first of my suffering.
Reuben was a source of great pain for Jacob.
And so as a result,
he is not blessed.
He's essentially left out of the blessing.
And eventually,
we can look ahead and see,
eventually,
Reuben's tribe would settle east of the Dead Sea.
And they're basically,
they just kind of fade out of history.
They're really not a part of Israel's story.
You all maybe have that one family member
in your own family, right?
Maybe more than one.
Maybe you are that one.
Something went down,
and they're just never heard from again.
They disappear, right?
That's Reuben.
Next up is Simeon and Levi.
They're grouped together here.
Verse 5.
Simeon and Levi are brothers.
Weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul come not into their counsel.
No, 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.
Simeon and Levi,
they're the only ones that are grouped together.
And why is that?
It's because of their actions of vengeance
in that whole horrible episode with their sister Dinah.
Do you remember that?
Dinah, their sister, was defiled,
and so how did they respond?
They responded by tricking those who sinned against her,
having them circumcised,
so that when they were sore,
they went in and they destroyed them all.
Do you remember that?
And do you remember what we asked at the end of that?
We asked,
was that the right response?
Jacob seems to answer that question pretty strongly here,
doesn't he?
He says he doesn't want anything to do with these two sons.
He says,
let my soul not come into their counsel.
I don't want my glory with their company.
He curses their anger.
That's the same curse language that God uses against the serpent in Genesis 3.
Jacob speaks some heavy words here against Simeon and Levi.
And as a result, he says,
you are going to be scattered and divided.
And again, as you look ahead in history,
their descendants,
they basically just filter into the other tribes.
Simeon is essentially absorbed into the tribe of Judah.
Levi, on the other hand,
you probably know,
Levi, they don't get an inheritance of land,
but the Lord does seem to restore them.
He makes them the priests of the people of Israel.
The Levitical priesthood will come from the people of Levi.
Judah,
Judah's the first one to actually get some real blessing here.
Look there to verse 8.
He says,
Judah, your brothers shall praise you.
Your hand 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 foal to the vine
and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine
and his teeth are whiter than milk.
Now this is a beautiful promise of blessing for Judah.
The promise of praise.
It's a play on words with the name Judah,
which means praise.
He says his brothers will praise him.
He'll dominate his enemies.
He'll be like a lion.
Kingship will come from Judah.
The peoples will obey him.
He's so prosperous and successful
that he's washing his clothes with wine.
It's an incredible prophecy of blessing
for the tribe of Judah.
Zebulun, verse 13,
they're the low country people.
They dwell at the shore of the sea,
shall become a haven for ships.
His border shall be at Sidon.
Issachar is a strong donkey
crouching between the sheepfolds.
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.
Issachar is incredibly strong.
He's a strong donkey, but he's lazy.
Y'all have friends like that?
I've had friends like that.
They had all the natural gifting in the world
to just be some awesome athlete,
but they wouldn't pick up a weight
or run a mile if you paid them.
Issachar is a strong donkey
that lays down with the sheep.
And as a result,
he winds up in lower Galilee,
where it's nice and cozy and fertile
and green and peaceful
until, just like is prophesied here,
until they wind up enslaved to the Canaanites
and just as Jacob says,
they become servants at forced labor.
Dan shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
It's a fitting job for someone
whose name means judge, Dan.
And Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
a viper by the path
that bites the horse's heel
so that his rider falls backward.
He'll be like a serpent in battle.
But Jacob reminds him, Dan,
that your salvation ultimately comes
from the Lord.
Verse 18,
I will wait for your salvation,
O Lord.
For Gad, he says,
raiders are going to raid him,
but he's going to raid back at their heels.
Gad's name means good fortune,
but it's not all good.
He's got raids going back and forth constantly.
Asher, which means happy,
he says,
Asher's food shall be rich
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
Asher's tribe will settle in the hill country
over to the west
and Galilee, again,
where it's very fertile.
And so he's able to provide royal delicacies,
that good food and rich drink
that makes him happy
and it makes others happy as well.
Naphtali is a doe let loose
that bears beautiful fawns,
verse 21 says.
I got no clue what that means.
Outside of probably he's just going to have
some beautiful kids, I think.
But then we come to Joseph,
verse 22.
And y'all know,
Jacob has some more to say
about his favorite son, Joseph.
He says,
Joseph is a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough 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 breast
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 was set apart
from his brothers.
And Joseph faced great obstacles,
didn't he?
Like a wall.
And yet his branches ran over the wall.
Joseph faced great enemies
like archers bitterly attacking him
and shooting at him.
Enemies like his own brothers,
his bitter brothers.
Enemies like the temptations
of Potiphar's wife.
And yet he remained steadfast.
How?
How did Joseph remain steadfast?
In the hands of the mighty one of Jacob,
the shepherd,
the stone of Israel,
sustained him.
Lastly, we come to Benjamin.
Verse 27 says,
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf
in the morning devouring the prey
at the evening,
dividing the spoil.
Historically, we can look and see
Benjamin would settle
between Ephraim and Judah
and his area was basically
always a war zone.
They were always in conflict.
But as a result,
Benjamin,
he becomes skillful in war
and that little boy
becomes a ravenous wolf.
Verse 28 says,
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel.
And 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
at Machpelah,
to the east of Mamre,
in the 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,
and there they buried Isaac
and Rebekah 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
and breathed his last
and was gathered to his people.
Then Joseph fell on his father's face
and wept over him
and kissed him,
and Joseph commanded his servants,
the physicians,
to embalm his father.
So the physicians embalmed Israel.
Forty days were required for it,
for that's how many are required
for embalming.
And the Egyptians wept for him
seventy days.
And when the days of weeping
for him were passed,
Joseph spoke to the household
of Pharaoh, saying,
If now I have found favor
in your eyes,
please speak in the ears
of Pharaoh, saying,
My father made me swear,
saying, I am about to die
in my tomb that I have hewed out
for myself in the land of Canaan.
There shall you bury me.
Now therefore let me please go up
and bury my father,
then I will return.
And Pharaoh answered,
Go up and bury your father,
as he made you swear.
So Joseph went up
to bury his father.
With him went all the servants
of Pharaoh,
the elders of his household,
and all the elders
of the land of Egypt,
as well as all the household
of Joseph,
his brothers,
and his father's household.
Only their children,
their flocks,
and their herds
were left in the land
of Goshen.
And there went up with him
both chariots and horsemen.
It was a very great company.
When they came to the threshing floor
of Atad,
which is beyond the Jordan,
they lamented there
with a very great
and grievous lamentation.
And he made a mourning
for his father seven days.
When the inhabitants
of the land,
the land of the Canaanites,
saw the mourning
of the threshing floor
of Atad,
they said,
This is a grievous mourning
by the Egyptians.
Therefore,
the place was named
Abel Mizraim.
It is beyond the Jordan.
Thus his sons did for him
as he had commanded them.
For his sons carried him
to the land of Canaan
and buried him
in the cave of the field
at Machpelah,
to the east of Mamre,
which Abraham bought
with the field
from Ephron the Hittite
to possess as a burying place.
After he had buried his father,
Joseph returned to Egypt
with his brothers
and all who had gone up
with him
to bury his father.
You ever wonder
why we need to know all this?
Why do we care
about these kids
and what their grandpa
has to say about them?
It's because
in all this,
God's sovereignty
is on display.
It is stunning,
really,
when you stop
and think about it,
isn't it?
The future
is written
in advance.
Jacob says,
Come here,
let me tell you
what's going to happen to you.
How are you going to,
how can you,
how can you speak
with such certainty
about blessing
that will happen
in the future?
He says,
here's how you're going
to be blessed,
future.
Here's what God
will do in your life.
That's only possible
if God
is truly sovereign.
And we see here,
God is sovereign
over every single individual.
He is sovereign
over their families.
He is sovereign
over their tribes.
He is sovereign
over their countries.
He is sovereign
over all the world.
And in his sovereignty,
he guided Jacob
and his family
here into Egypt.
And just as he promised,
his son Joseph
closes his eyes.
This is God's sovereignty
on display.
Do you realize
that the great faithfulness
of God
depends on his
great sovereignty?
If God is not sovereign
over every detail,
everywhere in his creation,
every contingency,
every second
of every day,
past, present, future,
something somewhere
might swerve him
off of his plan.
Praise God.
We see here,
our God
is absolutely
sovereign.
And because
he is sovereign,
our God
is able
to distribute
blessings
as he sees fit.
How amazing
is it
that he's created
each and every one
of us distinctly
with unique
giftings
and different
abilities
and what a comfort
it is to know
that he's already
planned out
all of our days.
If you have any
blessings in your life
whatsoever,
you have a sovereign
God to thank.
And you need not worry
about what the future
holds.
We have a sovereign God
who holds the future.
We have strength
for today
and bright hope
for tomorrow.
Blessings all mine
with 10,000
beside.
Jacob blesses
his children
and then his story
here comes
to a close.
And you know,
when you read
this,
I wonder if you
wished,
man,
I just wish
I could receive
blessings like this.
I wish
that someone
could just tell
me for certain
the ways
in which I
am blessed
and the ways
in which I
will be blessed.
I mean,
what a privilege
it must be
to be one
of God's
covenant people.
Do you ever
feel like that?
What a privilege
it would be
to have access
to this sort
of incredible
blessing.
I remember
a sweet old lady
that I got
to pastor
and we were
talking about
the Old Testament.
I can't remember
what I was
teaching on that day
but we were
talking about
Israel and all
these promises
made to Israel
and she said,
you know,
sometimes I just
get a little
jealous of Israel
and I get a little
sad and I
wish that I
could be blessed
like that.
I just wish
that some of
these promises
would come to me
and I got to say,
oh,
would you please
sit down for a minute?
Do you have a
couple years to
go through Genesis
with me?
All of the
blessings,
all of the
promises,
all of the
benefits of
being in covenant
with the Lord
are all
ours by
faith in
Jesus Christ.
Christ.
This is our
third and final
point this morning,
third.
We see God
blesses His
people in
His Son,
Jesus Christ.
The great
question that
we've asked
over and over
and over again
as we've walked
through Genesis
ever since the
Garden of Eden,
the question has
been,
how can sinful
man receive
blessing in
place of cursing?
how can we
be blessed
when we
deserve judgment?
And the
glorious answer
that we're
given is that
it's in Christ
that we're
blessed.
It is in
Christ that
we're blessed.
You are
blessed in
Christ.
This is the
eternal plan of
God from before
the ages began.
He planned to
bless you in
Christ.
Ephesians 1
again tells us
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.
Even as He
chose us in
Him before
the foundation
of the world
that we should
be holy and
blameless before
Him.
In love He
predestined us
for adoption
to Himself
as sons
through Jesus
Christ according
to the purpose
of His will
and to the praise
of His glorious
grace with which
He has blessed
us.
in the beloved.
Christian this
was God's
plan from the
very beginning.
Haven't we
seen God has
been unveiling
and revealing
steadily this
plan to bless
His people
in Christ.
When God
promised a
snake crusher
all the way
back in Genesis
3 who will
come and destroy
the powers of
sin and darkness
He promised
His Son
Jesus who has
conquered all
the powers of
sin and death
who has
destroyed the
powers of the
devil at the
cross and at
the empty tomb
when He makes
promises to
Abraham you
will be a
blessing and
in you all
the families of
the earth will
be blessed.
He is promising
His Son Jesus
Christ who is
the blessing to
the world.
And when Israel
here when God
through Israel
gives this
prophetic blessing
to Judah
He is promising
Jesus Christ.
Would you look
there again
with me?
Did you notice
all the ways
this prophecy
promises Christ?
Points us to
Him.
Chapter 49
verse 8
when He says
Judah your
brothers shall
praise you
ultimately we
are looking
ahead to
Jesus from
the tribe of
Judah the one
who is deserving
of all praise.
When He says
your hand will
be on the
neck of your
enemies your
father's sons
will bow down
before you we
are looking to
Jesus who will
crush the head
of the serpent.
When He says
Judah is a
lion's cub from
the prey my
son you've gone
up we are
looking to
Jesus the lion
from the tribe
of Judah.
When He says
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.
We are looking
ahead to King
Jesus the King
of kings and
the Lord of
lords to whom
every knee will
bow and every
tongue confess
that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the
glory of God
the Father.
When He says
Judah is binding
his foal to the
vine and his
donkey's colt to
the choice vine
he's washed his
garments in wine
and his vesture is
the blood of
grapes his eyes
are darker than
wine his teeth are
whiter than milk
we are looking to
Jesus who's the
rightful heir of
every treasure of
heaven and who by
His grace shares
that inheritance with
sinners like us.
Do you see
Jesus is the
blessing God has
sent to the
world?
Any who come to
Him in faith
any who come to
Him in faith
will be blessed
now and into
eternity beyond
their wildest
dreams.
Your sins will be
forgiven.
You will be
adopted as sons
and daughters of
the living God.
You will be given
an eternal hope
ahead of you that's
guaranteed by the
great faithfulness of
our sovereign God.
God as we read
earlier this morning
Peter tells us
according to his
great mercy he has
caused us to be
born again to a
living hope through
the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from
the dead to an
inheritance that is
imperishable
undefiled and
unfading kept in
heaven for you.
Friend do you
realize how blessed
you are in Christ?
Do you know the
blessing of knowing
God?
Have you come to
Him in faith?
Have you been
adopted as a son
or a daughter of
the living God?
Have you received
blessings upon
blessings in Christ
Jesus?
If not then friend
what would keep you
from coming to Him
in faith this morning?
And if so
in church
would you rejoice
in the blessings
that God's given
you in Christ?
Would you rejoice
in the great
faithfulness of our
God?
You have been
brought into
covenant with
Him at the
price of His
own blood.
Matthew Henry
says as long as
we have an
interest in God's
covenant a place
grace and a name
among His
people and good
hopes of a share
in the heavenly
Canaan we must
account ourselves
blessed.
Father we are
blessed and it's
only in Christ
that we are
blessed and it's
only by your
sovereign grace that
we are in Christ.
So we pray now
Father if there are
any here who are
not in Christ would
you give them the
gift of faith this
very moment.
Would they call
out to you and
ask God please
bless a sinner like
me.
And Father for
this church we ask
that we would
rejoice in the
blessings that
you've given us
undeserved,
unmerited by us
but freely given
by the sacrifice
of your Son.
We praise you for
this in Jesus name.
Amen.