I please God to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. We'll turn to the book
of Genesis chapter 49 and we'll read the blessing of Joseph which
commences at verse 22 down to verse 26. So the book of Genesis
chapter 49 from verse 22 down to verse 26. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot at him and hated him, but his bow abode in strength
and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd the
stone of Israel. Even by the God of thy father,
who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee
with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth
under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings
of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors. Unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph and
on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. The life of Joseph is given to
us in some detail in the Word of God and we're thankful that
it is so because in those details we're able to observe God's leading
and God's direction and to see how his faith was tried and tested
and also to realise how God was with him and God supported him,
and God kept him, God was round about him, and God indeed brought
him through all the trials and difficulties into that place
of eminence and continued to be with and guide him then indeed
down to his old age. So we should be thankful that
the Lord in his providence has given us an account of Joseph
so that we may realise that here is someone who the Lord wonderfully
favoured and yet also tested very greatly and we should realise
that in our lives we should never expect to sail through life on
a calm sea. We should never expect to have
an easy passage. The Word of God gives us no encouragement
to that end. But it does give us encouragement
to believe that we shall, by His grace, get safely home to
glory at last. But the journey may be exceedingly
difficult and exceedingly tiresome and very testing. Well, so it
was so in the life of Joseph. And here we have his father,
Jacob just about to pass out of time into eternity coming
and calling his sons together and pronouncing those blessings
upon them and coming down to Joseph and able to speak to him
of those things which God had done and those things which God
would do And it is surely encouraging for us to be able to trace out,
even in our little life, those things which God has done. And
to be encouraged, therefore, that God will do those things
that we need in the future. Not the things that we want. There's a big difference. But
the things that we need, the Lord will provide. without any
doubt. And so Jacob addresses Joseph
in this way, and says, Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful
bough by a well whose branches run over the wall. Well, of course,
it wasn't so at one time. There was no sign of any fruit. About the time came when God
came and indeed fulfilled those promises which he had spoken
to him of in those two dreams and indeed gave him sons in the
land of Egypt and sons, sons and prospered his way so that
in that place he became a fruitful bough even a fruitful bough by
a well. And of course it is necessary
that if we are to be fruitful, and if there is to be fruit in
our lives, we do need that water. And that water to enable our
spiritual plant, our spiritual vine, as it were, to grow. and to bring forth fruit and
perhaps we might think of that occasion in the life of the Lord
Jesus when he had that need to go through Samaria. The Lord
had a commission for him and that commission was to meet with
this woman of Samaria and to speak to her, and to tell her
of her condition, of her situation, and how amazed she was, and also
to direct her to the well. The Lord Jesus was sitting on
the well. He came to the city of Samaria
which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and
Jesus therefore, being worried with his journey, sat thus on
the well. And it was about the sixth hour.
Well, perhaps this was the well that Jacob was referring to. And here he was these years afterwards. And here the Lord comes, and
sits on this well and there came this woman of Samaria to meet
Jesus. She didn't know who she was meeting.
She wasn't aware of who he was. But Jesus asked her and asked
her to give him to drink. She was surprised. She said,
how is it? that thou, being a Jew, askest
drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria. For the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans.' And then Jesus answered and said
unto her, If thou knewest, the gift of God. It's wonderful,
isn't it, to see how the Lord directs us straight away to such
a great truth, the gift of God. He didn't answer the question,
if thou knewest, the gift of God, and who it is that saith
to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water. This was perplexing to
the woman. She said, sir, thou hast nothing
to draw with, and the well is deep, and whence then cometh
that living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. Now today, how you and I need
this well of living water springing up so that we might be in our
spiritual lives a fruitful bough. If there's no water, we shall
shrivel and we shall die. If the Lord sends us this living
water, then you see there will be that fruitfulness in our bough,
in our life, because it will bring forth those heavenly blessings
which will bring honour and glory to God. And he goes on to say,
whose branches run over the wall. We don't know any more detail
but we know that therefore there was apparently this tree against
a wall shielded no doubt from the winds and therefore in a
place of favour with a well and therefore it was producing this
fruitfulness. And so it was surely in Joseph's
life. He was indeed fruitful in the
things of God. Yes, the blessing of the Lord
came upon him, and he was blessed with that water of life, that
living water, and able to testify of that before the King. And it was not in himself, it
was the Lord God. who was able to give wisdom to
interpret those dreams. And so we have this statement
encouraging for Joseph to remember what the Lord had done for him.
And then he directs him to this statement, the archers have sorely
grieved him and shot at him and hated him. does not think, therefore,
that such a condition is reserved only for Joseph and a few people
like him. Joseph had been blessed. God
had blessed him with those two dreams, very clearly indicating
to him what would occur. And of course, the devil then
is very active. You see, the Word of the Lord
is brought before us and tested, tested greatly as to whether
it is the Word of the Lord and the devil will do all he can
to shake us out of any security of relying upon God's Word. Don't give up. Remember that
Joseph was blessed with the word granted to him of that which
would occur, and yet how there were these arrows, spiteful arrows,
first of all by his own brothers who hated him. They hated that
which had been revealed to him. They weren't willing to accept
it. And therefore, instead of accepting it as a message from
God, they hated him so much, the arrows were shot at him,
so that he was taken, stripped of his coat of many colours and
cast into a pit and then sold into the Midianites. Well, what
a painful experience that was in itself. And again, how testing
for him to have his religion really, as it were, thrown into
the melting pot. This wasn't what he expected.
No doubt he expected everything to turn out very quickly and
very well. But God had a job. for Joseph to do. And Joseph had to be prepared
for that job the Lord had in store for him. And Joseph had
to be brought into a low place so that he might be raised up
into that place of eminence. God was dealing with Joseph And
we should not therefore be surprised in our life when things appear
to be going sorely wrong, not working out at all as we might
have anticipated. Yes, the arrows are being shot
at us and we find hatred toward us. And of course it didn't stop
there, did it, in Joseph's life? sold to the Midianites, bought
by Potiphar, working in Potiphar's house. Again, things appeared
to have suddenly improved. He was placed in an important
position in that household, but not for long. What do we find? We find the hatred of this woman,
the wife of Potiphar, determined to have her way, her lustful
desires toward Joseph. We see the arrows continually
shot at him, we see the grace of God given to him to be able
to resist those advances made by that evil woman and indeed
to keep away from her and indeed to run away from her. Well these
things were painful arrows for him to bear and then when she
told her story to her husband, he believes her rather than obviously
the account of poor Joseph. So we find him now in prison. In prison, in chains. What's been the offence? No offence. But God is dealing with him. You know, as we consider an account
like this, we should not forget to realise the similarity of
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. How He was betrayed. He'd gone about doing good. He'd done His Father's will.
He spoke in the will of His God. And now He was sold. Sold, yes, and brought into prison,
really, in that judgment place where he was, confined. And what had he done amiss? No,
he lived a perfect life. But he was hated. Joseph was
hated. And my friends, the devil hates
you and me. Be very clear about that. He
hates us if we are his people. If we're not his people, the
devil will leave us alone. If you've got no temptations,
if you've got no trials, if you've got no difficulties in your life,
you should question whether there is the life of God in your soul. Because The people of God are
a follower of their Saviour and they understand something of
what the Saviour passed through and also of what Joseph was called
to pass through. Hated. The devil hates us and
sometimes he raises up people to hate us for no reason at all. And these situations are exceedingly
painful. Yes, painful to our flesh. But as the Spirit of God shows
us that he's dealing with us, not as aliens, not as enemies,
but as his friends. And he's dealing with us in love
to our souls. So as we may find that we find
arrows penetrate and they're painful to bear, to realise it's
the goodness of the Lord in dealing with our souls, And what a blessing
that is to then have the evidence that God is not dealing with
us, not leaving us rather, to ourselves, but is looking upon
us in love and favour and blessing. You know, God's servant Jeremiah
was a man who was indeed blessed and favoured of God, and yet
he had a difficult life and he tells us in the third chapter
of the Lamentations, something of the opposition that he had
to face and he comes down to the 12th verse or perhaps 11th
verse. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused his arrows his quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people and their song all the day." Well,
there's the testimony of God's servant Jeremiah. Not dissimilar
to the experience that Joseph had to pass through, although
we don't find Joseph really speaking in such terms, but nonetheless
we can imagine that it was a very difficult time that he spent
in that prison house. And let's remember that when
the Lord appeared for him in those dreams, he was a lad of
17. And when he came before the King,
he was 30 years of age. 13 years! had passed by in his life. No doubt 13 long years, 13 years
of difficulty, 13 years of trial, and yet, to know that the Lord
was with him. And so today, as we think of
our lives, sometimes we may be distressed and we might think,
well, surely I was wrong. Surely I was mistaken. No, but God is dealing with us
in love to our souls. What a good thing if perhaps
we find that arrows are being thrust at us and they're sticking
in us. And what's the effect? I'll tell
you what the effect is. The effect under the blessed
work of the Spirit is to bring us into conformity to the Lord
Jesus, to bring us out of ourselves, to bring down our pride. Yes,
you know Joseph never boasted, did he? of the things that God
had done for him. We know that he recalled that
when his brothers came before him. But you see, he was able
to boast of what God had done. What a blessing it is, therefore,
to realise that. And in the 38th Psalm, David
tells us, again, David had a lot of arrows to contend with, didn't
he, in his life. You think he'd been anointed
as king when he was a lad, brought from the sheepfold, and perhaps
again thinking things would run smoothly. What opposition David
had to find in his life. And he tells us, he says, O Lord,
rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure,
For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me
sore. Well, when the devil gets hold
of us, we're pressed down. We're pressed down. It may be
like this. Thine arrows stick fast in me,
and thy hand presseth me sore. And you know David goes on in
this 30th Psalm to expound something of his feelings in that trying
situation that he found himself in on so many occasions. He tells us again, there is no
soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin. Now it's good when
the Spirit of God directs us to observe our true condition
before a holy God, and to observe that there is sin within us. When we're sailing on smoothly,
we don't find the sin which is within us. We don't discover
it. But when the Lord deals with
our soul, when his arrows stick fast in us, then it is that we're
brought down. Then it is that we realise that
there's no soundness in us. And he goes on to say, for my
iniquities have gone over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My wounds stink. and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. That's the painful bit, isn't
it? When we realize that we've been brought into a situation
because of our foolishness, because of our foolishness, well, when
those arrows stick fast, then we'll be able to observe the
reason why those arrows have been fired at us, to make us
aware of our condition, or at least partly aware of our condition
before a holy God. And so David tells us, I am troubled,
I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long. It
wasn't a comfortable experience, was it? But it was a necessary
experience. And so it was, no doubt, with
Joseph. And so it is, no doubt, with
you and me in our lives. You see, the Lord deals with
us in love to our souls, to make us conformable unto his image. And that doesn't come about by
sailing along upon the smooth water. It comes about by the
gracious dealings of our God with our souls. And so he says,
Lord, all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not
hid from Thee. What a mercy that is! The Lord
knows. Other people don't know. It doesn't
matter, does it? It does matter that God knows. When you and I perhaps groan
out to God, because of our sins, because of those things which
have occurred in our past life. And we go mourning all the day
long. We don't go along on the mountaintop. There are those times of blessing.
There were those times of blessing, of course, with Joseph. There
were with David. But there also are those times
of testing when we're brought down to a low place. And we come down then, just like
the psalmist David did when he said, hear me, hear me. That's not just a theoretical
prayer then, is it? It's not a prayer out of a textbook.
It's a prayer that comes from our heart. Hear me, hear me. And David says, for I'm ready
to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me. Forsake me not, O
Lord, O my God. Be not far from me, make haste
to help me, O Lord, my salvation. In the midst of those trials,
David knew his God. And the Lord leads us into these
situations, so we do come And we find that we are, in fact,
standing upon the rock. And although the winds and the
storms of life are raging around us, we don't sink because God
is with us. And that's the same as it was
with Joseph when he was in prison, when he was being sorely grieved
and shot at and hated. Well, God was with him. God hadn't forsaken him. Yes,
God was with him. He was bringing to pass in his
time the vision that he'd given to Joseph those years ago. And
we're told by him, we're told the The archers have sorely grieved
him, and shot at him, and hated him. And he tells us, but his
bow abode in strength. His bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty
God of Jacob. From thence is a shepherd the
stone of Israel. God helped him. God was his strength. He didn't despair and God's people
don't despair. We may be brought, we might think
in our own view to almost despair, but the Lord does not leave us. He brings us down and then he
raises us up when we've dispensed with our own strength and we're
depending upon his strength. And so here we have his bow. You might say, what was that?
His faith. God gave him living faith to
believe that the visions, the dreams that God had given him
would come to pass, even in what appeared to be an impossible
situation. But remember the things which
are impossible with man are possible with God. What a great truth
that is. How wonderful it is to have that
and to have faith which strengthens us in the midst of these deep
trials and temptations to know that the Lord is with us. Indeed, God was with Joseph in
that present house, and not only did he abide in strength, not
only was he blessed with that living faith, but also his hands
were made strong by the hands of the mighty God. Well, you
know, if God takes us by our hand and leads us on, what a
support that is, what a strength and a help that is. to realise
yes we are in the hands of almighty God and his hand makes our hand
indeed strong. What a blessing therefore to
know this favour and to know this blessing. And so then we're
told the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from thence is
the shepherd and stone of Israel.' Of course, Joseph was raised
up to be really the shepherd who provided for the people and
was a support, a stone, a support to Israel and a support to many
other people. And it was God's way, God's wonderful
outworking of his favour towards Joseph. So let us never be discouraged
in our life. And we might think things are
all against us. That's just what Jacob thought,
not Joseph, but Jacob. Remember when they wanted to
take Benjamin to meet Joseph, and he said, all these things
are against me. And sometimes we might feel just
like that. All these things are against
me. But of course they weren't. They
had been worked out for His good. They had been worked out for
the Lord's honour and glory. And they had been worked out
for the whole tribe of Israel to fulfil the promises. which
were given to Abraham and to Isaac those years before. Our God is a wonder-working God,
but my friends, His ways are higher than our ways, much higher. We just think in our own little
minds. We're very earthly, you know,
in the views which we come to. Let us realise that we have a
great God who is ruling and reigning, and God, If He is our God, He
is directing us and leading us in the right way. We're told
He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city
of habitation. That's how Israel were. That's
how God's people are today. We're led in that right way. And that right way is to bring
us, without any doubt, nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we don't come this way,
in this way of difficulty with arrows being shot at us, we won't
understand the way that the Saviour walked. We won't understand what
the Saviour endured so that we might be the recipients of that
great blessing of eternal life. We'll have no understanding of
the cost of our salvation. That's why the Lord leads us
in this way. The right way, not the wrong way. Even by the
God of thy Father who shall help thee. You see here was this testimony
of Jacob, this blessing spoken to Joseph. Even by the God of
thy Almighty who shall help thee. It's very strong and it's very
positive. And it's true of the Church of
God that the Lord will help us. He'll help us when we are brought
down so that we need his help. We're not then self-sufficient.
We don't think we're adequate. We think we're inadequate. And
it's then, you see, the Lord sends help. Help from one that
is mighty. Indeed here helped by the Almighty,
the Almighty God. He comes to us where we are and
he blesses us by the Almighty who shall bless thee with, and
this is wonderful, with blessings of heaven above, spiritual blessings,
and blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the
things on the earth. The Lord makes all his goodness
to pass before his people. All those spiritual blessings
are bringing us and drawing us nearer to the Saviour and so
that we know what it is to be favoured with that union and
walk with the Saviour and to anticipate the glory which is
prepared for the living Church of God when our time on earth
shall be ended where we should go to be with Christ, which is
far better. And so these, the blessings in
heaven above, what a prospect for the people of God. And I
think that the Lord is bringing us through this little world,
our little life, and ever, what a mercy, ever drawing us nearer
to Him, perhaps making the things of life gradually become more
dim. They may have appeared very bright,
but as we compare them with the brightness of glory, do they
not become rather dim because they're fading? The things of
glory become brighter in our view and in our estimation. shall bless thee with blessings
of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings
of the breasts and of the womb, you see. Feeding upon Christ,
that's the blessing, that's the favour, that's what you and I
shall need, and it will be because the Lord brings us into a hungry
condition. We don't then turn away the blessings
of God. We're satisfied to receive the
bread of life, satisfied to receive that which God sends. We're not
then choosy. We're not then picky. We don't
say, well, I want this and I want that. were brought down to happily
receive that which God sends, and to be grateful that he hasn't
cast us off. The blessings of thy father have
prevailed above the blessings of thy progenitors. Indeed, above the blessings of
the ancestors were granted to Joseph wonderful blessings, wonderful
favours, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills, they
shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head
of him that was separate from his brethren. Well, he was separated
from his brethren, but God was with him. So as we think of this
blessing that was granted to Joseph, that Jacob was instructed
to give to him, may we be encouraged to know that in Joseph's life
and in David's life, there were many difficulties and many painful
scenes to pass through. And yet, in their lives, like
it is today, in the lives of the people of God. This is true. And as Paul said, who also had
many arrows thrust at him, but came into a worthy place when
he said, but we know that all things work together for good
to those who love God and to those who are called according
to his purpose. So what a blessing it is for
us today if we can see God's hand upon us, walking through
trying and difficult testing times, to be brought nearer to
the Lord Jesus Christ, so that our bow abides in strength. We
are resting upon the glorious finished work of the Saviour.
We are blessed with that heavenly faith to trust Him for all things
and to believe He who has helped us Hitherto, can we not say that? I hope we can. He that's helped
us hitherto will help us all our journey through and give
us daily cause to raise new Ebenezers to his praise. Amen.