Now go with me back to the book
of Genesis chapter 49. We continue tonight considering
these prophetic words of Jacob. I know it was a great comfort
to the heart of Jacob to see all of his sons gathered around
him. You remember earlier, and we
studied this earlier, when he assumed that Joseph had passed
away, and Simeon was being held in Egypt, and then the ruler of Egypt, who was Joseph,
who was in charge of the granaries of Egypt, he had kept Simeon
there. So, and he insisted, that man
insisted that Benjamin come. and showed that would be the
proof, the evidence that these fellows were not spies. You remember
that Jacob said, Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and will you
take Benjamin also? And now here are all of his sons
around him. And I said all of that to say
this As the people of God, we often
say some very foolish things. Jacob, like many of us, like
all of us from time to time, looked on things with a very
negative attitude. He even said, all of these things
are against me. Do you ever feel that way? And
maybe you don't say those things out loud, but you say them in
your heart. And Jacob now lives to see and
to regret, I'm sure, that he ever said that. Why did I ever
say that? Why did I have such a negative
attitude? Why didn't I believe the Lord?
Why didn't I trust His good providence? And now here He is. And here's
all 12 of His sons around His dying bedside. What a blessing. What a great
blessing it was to this old patriarch that all of His sons are there
to hear him say some final words to them. And Jacob speaks not
merely of physical things, and even not merely of physical things
that would happen to the different tribes of these sons, although
he did address those things, but we know that in speaking
of those things that would befall the different tribes of Jacob
of Israel. that He is teaching us, the Spirit
of God is teaching us spiritual things because it's a spiritual
book. We know that historically these
prophecies did come to pass. And like I said Sunday night,
we're not so much interested in learning all of the history
of Israel, though certainly there are lessons to be learned and
there are examples to us. In fact, 1 Corinthians chapter
10 says all of these things happen to them for examples. But not
merely, we're not looking for just the letter of accuracy pertaining
to what would befall them physically. What we're looking for, the spiritual
lessons regarding our Savior, our relationship to Him, and
what life will be like for us as the children of God. So we
finish up studying these things, the prophecies of Jacob to his
sons. And they're written by and spoken
really by the very inspired tongue of Israel. Because he even says
that in the second verse. He says, gather yourselves together
and hear ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father. I speak to you not only as your
physical father, but I speak to you as the one who has power
with God. As one who is a prince with God. I speak with the very authority
of God, is what he's saying. And so then he begins to address
each of his sons. Now we're down to verse 20. To
Asher. Asher. And Asher means happy. That's what his mother named
him. Happy. Asher is the second son of Zilpah. Leah's handmaid. He's the full
brother of Gad. His name means one who is happy,
one who is very blessed. You remember that his mother
said, happy am I for the women will call me blessed when Asher
was born. And the land allotted to Asher
was very rich and fertile. So here's what Jacob has to say. Here's what Israel has to say.
Out of Asher, his bread shall be fat. and he shall yield royal
dainties, delightful things. That land allotted to Asher was
the most fertile of all of the land of Israel. And it was said
that all of the crops, especially the wheat, was so wonderful that
when prepared, The bread was, it exceeded and excelled all
the breads that anybody else cooked within the nation of Israel.
Royal dainties came forth from the land of Asher. That is the
very best delicacies. In fact, the idea of Asher is
not only happy, but it's the idea of things that were delightful
to eat. And he pictures to me, to me,
he's a picture of our Lord Jesus, who is the bread come down from
heaven. The Savior is the royal dainty. He's the very bread of God. He's
the very best that God can give us. He's the food for the soul. We feed on Him daily. And every time we come in here,
we feast upon the bread of life. Our Savior said in John chapter
6, I am the living bread. He that eateth of me shall live
forever. such as the wonders and the greatness
and the majesty of His very person, as the bread come down here from
heaven, who was baked, as it were, in the oven of God's wrath,
to become food for our souls, speaking of His death, of course,
as He underwent the very fire, the cruel indignities of Calvary,
and yet endured the wrath of God. And He did that to become
our Savior, and we feed on Him who is the living bread. He's
not dead bread. He's the living bread. He said, the bread that I will
give is my flesh. That's what He said. My flesh. And we eat of Him and live forever. You remember in Luke the second
chapter when Simeon said of the Lord Jesus, My eyes have seen
Thy salvation. There was a woman there whose
name was Anna. Scripture says she was a prophetess. She spoke of redemption to all
those that looked for Messiah. She was from the tribe of Asher. The tribe that would produce
dainty things, delicacies. The finest food that anybody
could eat came forth from the land of Asher and our Lord Jesus. I tell you, when you dine on
Him, and this is what we do when we come in here, It is my responsibility
to set a table, as it were, before you and before those of you who
are watching. And I set before you royal dainties. Delicacies. And the food that
is prepared and set before you is the very best food that you
could have. And it's very rare. It's unusual. Because the message of pure,
sovereign grace, of redemption by blood, of salvation by God's
work alone, that is a message, that's food that we feast upon
that isn't set forth everywhere. Just here and there, you'll find
spiritual restaurants. with a chef who puts forth the
royal dainties of the gospel. Secondly, look in verse 21. Naphtholah is a hind, a deer
set loose. He giveth goodly words. The people of Zebulun and the
people of Naphtholah became Galilee of Israel, the northern part
of Israel, and they mingled very freely with the Gentiles. It was in this vicinity that
our Lord Jesus was raised. He traveled through the area.
He performed many miracles. And guess what? He gave forth
goodly words. Goodly words. Words that were
full of good news for sinners. Why, the best words you have
ever heard have got to be that salvation is for sinners through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The best word you've ever
heard is that the Lord Jesus Christ has fully accomplished
the work of redemption. There's nothing for you to add.
He did it all. He finished that work. He even
said that in His high priestly prayer. He said to the Father,
I've finished the work that You gave Me to do. And it is interesting
that out of Naphtali, out of Galilee, there's where all the
apostles came forth who were truly gospel preachers. Because
you see, Judas Iscariot, he wasn't from that area. He wasn't from
Galilee. He was from Judah. And he wasn't
a true gospel preacher. But the other men were, and that
which they said before their hearers can well be described
as giving goodly words." Oh God, let me say goodly words pertaining
to our Lord. And then Israel speaks of Joseph. And he gives the longest and
richest benediction to his son Joseph, whose name means adding. These words tell us the blessedness
of Joseph. Look at verse 22. Joseph is a
fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough, by a well, there's water
involved here, whose branches run over the wall. His branches,
it just keeps on branching out further and further. There can
be no hindrance to how far the branches go out. There's no hindrance
to how much fruit that Joseph will bear. And of course, Joseph,
he bore more fruit than any of the other sons because from him
came forth two tribes. Double of any of his brothers. But this is even more true and
accurate regarding our Lord Jesus. He's a fruitful bough. He bore
much fruit for the glory of God. when He died upon the cross of
Calvary. The people that He saved were
His fruit. We are His fruit. And nothing
can hinder the growth of His church. He said, I will build
My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
They will make an attempt to prevail, but they can't, because
the branches of our Lord Jesus Christ shall go on and on and
on, and He shall always be fruitful. Because you see, He is Himself
the well of water. All other religions are dry pits
wherein there is no water. But the gospel of the grace of
God shall continue to prosper. And it will go forth unhindered
by satanic forces. It will run over the wall and
keep spreading because no one can stop the work of our Lord
Jesus and no one can hinder Him from bearing fruit. He is the water of life. He is indeed the spring of living
water. Look at verse 23. The archers
have sorely grieved Him and they shot at Him. and they hated him. And of course, this was true
of Joseph physically. The enemies, his brothers, they
went after him. They hated him. But his bow,
verse 24, bowed in strength. Have you noticed this in studying
about the life of Joseph? Though he was reviled, He reviled
not again. And though he was attacked, he
didn't attack back. And though he was verbally abused,
he did not verbally abuse back. And though he was horribly mistreated,
he did not horribly mistreat anybody. There was no vengeance
in him. And isn't He a picture of our
Savior there? The Scripture says He was led
as a lamb to the sheriff, and He opened not His mouth. Of the
Savior, Peter said in 1 Peter 2, when He was reviled, He reviled
not again. When they spit in His face, He
didn't spit back. When they hit him, he didn't
hit back. Oh, there's coming a day of judgment. There's coming a day of revenge. But the first time, he said,
I came not to condemn the world, but to save the world of my people. Judgment is later. Vengeance
does belong to the Lord. But not when He was here. He is the one who is ever faithful
to God. And though the archer sorely
grieved him and hated him, he didn't strike
back. His bow abode in strength. And the idea is his bow abode
still. Still. And it says here, the arms of
his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of
Jacob. Joseph had no strength of his
own. You have no strength of your
own. In that little course that most
of us learned when we were little, even though we didn't understand
it and many times people sang it who had no business singing
it. But Jesus loves me. One of the lines goes like this,
I am weak. What's the next line? But He
is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. See, God's
people can sing that. We can sing that. Yes, Jesus
loves me. I am weak. I've always been weak. But I have a mighty Savior. A
mighty Savior. In fact, it says here, the arms
of His hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God
of Jacob. I know there's no strength to
you, but you see, His strength is made perfect in your weakness. You say, I can't do it. I can't
do this which is expected of me. I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me. I well remember when my father
passed away, my brother would take the eulogy and he did and
I would bring the message. I was 24 years old. Never had
a funeral. And I went ahead and preached
my dad's funeral out of Isaiah 53. And people said, I don't
know how in the world you did that. I was weak, but he's strong. The mighty God of Jacob. Don't
ever say what you can't do if God's in it. If God's in it,
you can do it by His might, by His grace, by His strength. You
can do that which He calls you to do. You think I could get up here
and preach were it not for that ability, the strength that God
has given me? Sometimes I get nervous, not
because I'm standing before people, because I've done this hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of times. But that which makes me
nervous, that which gets me emotional, that which works on me, is I'm
speaking to eternity-bound people. And that's a heavy responsibility. You men who speak for me, always
remember that. Don't come up here with a cocky
attitude. Don't come up here thinking,
well, I can handle this. You can't handle anything. You get that kind of attitude,
if I had that kind of attitude, come up here and fall flat on
my face. I pray, Lord, don't ever let
me go up there by myself. Be my strength. Be my shield. Oh, made strong by the hands
of the mighty God of Jacob. And then he says this, parentheses. That doesn't mean this is of
little importance. But the Spirit of God came to
him and said, say this now. Write this now. Now remember,
here's his 12 sons all around him. And he's speaking of Joseph. And it says, from thence is the
Shepherd, the stone of Israel. That's two glorious titles for
our Redeemer. The Shepherd. That's why we sang that first
psalm. I picked that out based on Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. He's the good shepherd who laid
down His life for the sheep. His blood is the blood of the
shepherd which is the blood of the everlasting covenant. He's
the seeking shepherd. He's a persevering shepherd. He's the nourishing shepherd. He's the great shepherd. He's
the shepherd. Up until this time, the word
shepherd had only been used with reference to the Egyptians. And
the Scripture says, to the Egyptians, every shepherd was an abomination. Here for the first time we're
told. The Savior is the Shepherd who is the stone of Israel. He's
our Shepherd and He's our foundation stone. He's the rock upon whom
we stand. Of the foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. He's the
chief cornerstone. And then, in verse 25, Jacob says, even by the God of
thy father who shall help thee. And by the Almighty. The Almighty. Don't forget who your God is. He's the Almighty One. Who shall bless thee with blessings
of heaven above, Aren't we blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ and that from before the foundation
of the world? Who shall bless thee with blessings
of heaven above? He shall bless you. You have
been blessed. You are blessed. You shall be
blessed. We're a blessed people. Brother
Ron read to us back in the office tonight from Numbers chapter
6. There's the benediction and the blessing of the priest. Here
is Jacob blessing his sons in the name of the Lord before his
death. Reminds me of our Lord Jesus. He held out His hands and He
blessed His disciples as He was ascending back to heaven. Jacob says, the Almighty who
will bless thee with blessings from above. Blessings of the
deep that lieth under. What is that, Jim? I think that's
the blessings of divine providence that are deep and mysterious
and dark. and you can't understand hardly
what's going on with prophetess. What is the Lord doing? I don't
know, but I'll tell you this, it'll be a blessing to you. It
will ultimately be a blessing to you. Now watch this. Blessings of the breast and of
the womb. He blesses you from the very
cradle all the way to the grave. You say, I wasn't even converted
when I was a baby. No, you weren't. But you were
blessed then. He who gave you life, physical
life, undertook Himself to care for you. as He introduced you
into this world, into your family. He put you where He would have
you to be. And you grew up under the circumstances
that He would have you to grow up under. And to be in the environment
that He would have you to be in. And for you to have your
relationships that He ordained. He blessed you from your mama's
breast when you came out of the womb, and He will bless you all
the way to the grave and take you to glory, and you'll enjoy
the blessings of God forever. Well, I would just say we're
a blessed people, wouldn't you? We're a blessed people. What's
that song? Count your many blessings, name
them one by one. Impossible. Impossible. Every breath you receive is a
blessing from God. It says here, look at verse 26. The blessings of my Father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors under the utmost
bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be upon the head of
Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate
from his brethren. The blessings are going to keep
on coming. Jacob is saying, I was blessed
above Abraham and Isaac. And Joseph, you're going to be
blessed above me. And really, all of the people
of God since the coming and substitutionary sacrifice and then the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus are even more blessed than them because we
now can look back with the eye of faith and see fulfilled that
which they looked for by faith. Yes, we are blessed people. And by faith we see the crown
set upon the head of King Jesus. And then Benjamin, look at Benjamin. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning he shall devour
the prey and in the night he shall divide the spoils. You
say, well, what is he talking about here? Well, I think as
our Lord, you know our Lord used one good characteristic about
the serpent, didn't He? Nothing good about a snake. Nothing
good about a serpent. But, it does have one good characteristic. Wise as a serpent. That's what
the Savior said. You say, well, a wolf. A wolf,
does a wolf have any good characteristic? Yes. He's always after his prey and
victorious. You know Benjamin, it was the
very smallest of the tribes, but they were always ready to
fight. had never backed down from a fight. And our Lord Jesus had looked at him and said, who
are you? We know your mom and your daddy
and your brothers and your sisters. You don't even have an education
from one of our rabbinical schools. It's like you're the least of
all the teachers here. Well, like the wolf, he went
after the prey. He went after all the satanic
forces. And he was victorious. The seed
of the woman. And the Lord gives us the ability
to fight the good fight of faith. Because we wrestle not against
flesh and blood. but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Benjamin. And I remind you what
his name means. Son of my right hand. Right hand. Position of honor. First of all,
that applies to our Lord Jesus. Where is He seated? Right hand
of the Father as the reward for His faithful sufferings in death. And when we get to glory, where
are we going to be? At His right hand. Right hand. Honored. So, verse 28, all these are the
twelve tribes of Israel, and this is that their father spake
to them and blessed them, every one according to the blessing
he blessed them. All the tribes of Israel, now
I've heard from Jacob, the things that would befall their posterity,
and each one pictures our Lord Jesus. Reuben. Firstborn of many brethren. Excellence and deity. That's our Savior. Simeon. He was cursed. You say, how can
that possibly relate to our Lord Jesus? Cursed by the law. in order to save us. He was made
a curse. Galatians chapter 3. So we wouldn't
be cursed. Levi. Priesthood of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Judah. King. Lion of the tribe of Judah. Zebulun. Our Lord Jesus is the only safe
place, the only safe haven for poor sinners like you and me. Issachar, lowly servant. He's the righteous servant, but
he was a lowly servant. Isaiah 53 says that. Dan, he's
the judge. Gad, he was overcome seemingly
in the garden. When the mob came after him and
arrested him, it seemed like he was overcome by them. But
he overcame death, and he overcame all of his enemies at last. Asher,
Christ of the bread that came down from heaven. Naphthalene,
God's prophet who speaks goodly words. Joseph, The fruitfulness of Christ. Always adding to his church such
as should be saved. He'll bring many sons to glory. And Benjamin, a terrible warrior. None can defeat him. Bow and
worship now. Because you can't defeat him.
You can't defeat him. Lastly, We bid farewell to Jacob tonight. Notice what he says in verse
29. He charged them and said unto
them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Where are his people? They've
gone to paradise. They've gone to glory. Here is a reference to what's
going to happen to his soul I'm ready to be gathered unto
my people. I'm going to join them. That
ransomed church of God based upon the Lamb of God who was
slain from the foundation of the world. That's what's going
to happen to his soul. What happens to the soul of a
child of God as soon as this life is ended? It's absent from
the body and present with the Lord. And that's why we read
in the Psalms, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints. Well, then He says, bury Me.
Now that's His body. He won't bury the soul. No, the
soul is gathered to His people. But as for his body, he says,
Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of
Ephraim the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah,
which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham
bought with the field of Ephraim the Hittite for a possession
of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and
Sarah his wife, There they buried my father, Isaac, and my mom, Rebecca, Isaac's
wife. There I buried Leah. Nancy asked me tonight, she read
that and said, well, what happened to Rachel? Rachel wasn't buried
there. No, she wasn't buried there. She was buried near Bethlehem. because she died giving birth
to Benjamin. Remember, she said of her last
son born, Ben-Od-Ni, the son of my sorrow, Jacob said, no,
his name's not going to be that. His name's going to be Benjamin,
son of my right hand. Verse 32, the purchase of the
field and of the cave that is therein was from the children
of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end
of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed. It's
quite peaceful. And yielded up the ghost. Then his soul vacated, moved
out of his body, And He was gathered to His people. That's the way
it is when the people of God leave this world. We go join
our people who are with the Lord. And we shall be with our people
and we will be with our Savior forever and ever. No wonder Balaam said, let me
die the death of the righteous. Let my latter end be like His. Oh, I pray that for every one
of you. And for me as well. Let me die the death of the righteous. Let my soul be gathered with
the people of God who are all surrounding the throne of Christ
Jesus. and then put my body in the ground
to await the last resurrection. Farewell, Jacob. See you in glory. See you in glory. Israel, a man
who's a prince with God. Let's pray.