So that's Genesis chapter 49,
and I just want to read verse 28 through to 33, rather than
read the whole chapter at this time. By all means, feel free
to go and read the chapter at your leisure, but just from 28
at the moment. So Genesis chapter 49 and verse
28. All these are the twelve tribes
of Israel, and this is it that their father spake unto them
and blessed them. Everyone according to his blessing
he blessed them. And he charged them and said
unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with
my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite. in the cave that is in the field
of Machpelah which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan which
Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession
of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and
Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah
his wife. There I buried Leah. 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 and yielded up the ghost and was
gathered unto his people. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this short reading from his word. Jacob has reached the end of
his life and knowing that he was growing weaker and that his
time was nearly completed in this world, he calls all of his
sons to him in order to bless them. Now, perhaps you will remember
that last week we spent a little bit of time thinking about Jacob's
blessing of Joseph, and in particular the two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh was the older, Ephraim
was the younger, and do you remember that Jacob crossed his hands
and blessed Ephraim before he blessed Manasseh, or at least
he gave the preferment to Ephraim. and we understand that he did
so giving Ephraim the benefit of the birthright and thereby
honouring Ephraim before Manasseh. Joseph wasn't altogether pleased
about that but he accepted it as Jacob's and ultimately as
the Lord's will. And having blessed Joseph and
the sons of Joseph in that way, Jacob now calls the rest of the
brothers together. And the earlier part of this
chapter 49 speaks of the blessings that were given to all of the
brothers individually. Although, if you read some of
those blessings, they are a little bit more like curses than blessings. and particularly we note that
a number of evils are remembered at this time of the death of
Jacob and that in itself is testimony to us that these things are indeed
remembered and that it is only in the Lord Jesus Christ that
our sins are forgiven and forgotten and completely removed. So we've already seen that the
birthright was given to Joseph or Ephraim in particular and
here we learn too that Judah was honoured above his brethren
and so we find these two, Ephraim and Judah seem to have the preferment
in Jacob's mind as far as the dispensing of his blessings are
concerned. And we find that to be confirmed
in 1 Chronicles chapter 5 verse 2 and we can read there these
words where it tells us, for Judah prevailed above his brethren
and of him came the chief ruler. but the birthright was Joseph's. And that's a lovely verse as
well because it tells us that this chief ruler was to come
from Judah and Many people might think that that is a reference
to David, but we who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ understand
that there is a greater than David to be viewed in the chief
ruler who came from the tribe of Judah. There are two moments
in Jacob's speech and in his blessings to his sons that I
want to just touch upon and while we didn't read them together
you can find them in verse 10 and in verse 18. The first one
is a reference to Judah and the promise that kings would rise
from him and that the scepter or the scepter is like a little
stick that is perhaps richly ornate in some way as a sign
or a symbol of royal power and authority. And when we speak
about that scepter, you'll often see pictures of kings holding
scepter as a picture of their authority. And here we have a
reference to a scepter. And we're told here that the
scepter or the royal power will not depart from Judah, until
Shiloh is come. And that's a really interesting
statement because Shiloh in the Bible is a name for the Lord
Jesus Christ and it seems to refer to peace or the peaceful
one which is a very appropriate name for the Lord Jesus Christ. and a good name for the Messiah. And so what was being told to
the children of Israel, or the sons of Jacob here, and to Judah
in particular, was that they were to await the coming of the
Messiah, and that the royal line or the royal power would not
depart from Judah until the Shiloh or the Messiah would come. And
that is what happened at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a prophecy of Jacob's
that was fulfilled because the nation of Israel lost all legal
power and all military power, and all self-determination under
the Romans at the time of Christ, or when Shiloh came. And so we see that these two
great themes come together. The Lord Jesus Christ coming,
or the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, and the loss
of Israel's royal authority, the scepter departing. That's
the first interesting thing that I wanted to draw your attention
to. The second one is in verse 18 where we find Jacob referring
to waiting upon the Lord for salvation. And it's almost as
if it's a little break in his list of blessings, we sometimes
call that a parenthesis. It's almost as if he takes a
breath, he's wearied by all the things that he is saying and
all the work that he's doing and all the blessings that he's
giving out to all of these sons who are gathered before him,
and he says, oh, I've waited for thy salvation, oh Lord. And that may exactly be what
we see happening here. You'll remember perhaps with
me that this is what old Simeon said in the temple when he met
the infant child Jesus, when Mary and Joseph took him up to
the temple to give thanks. Simeon met them there in the
temple and he was able to say something very similar, that
his eyes had seen the salvation of the Lord. And Jacob, of course,
was about to die. He did not live to see the Messiah
coming personally. It would be many, many years,
hundreds of years yet, before the Messiah would come. But by
those words, he rekindled this ongoing expectation that remained
with the Jews, the children of Israel, for the coming of the
Messiah, the coming of Christ. And it's my hope that all who
listen to these words today might be able to say with Jacob, I
have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. That is that our faith
is in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are trusting in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ to cleanse us from our sins just as Jacob was and just
as all God's elect and chosen people are. And then we read
of Jacob's death. Jacob's death is now recorded
for us in these closing verses of chapter 49. The old man makes
his wishes known to his family that he is to be buried in the
cave where Abraham and Isaac were buried with their respective
wives and this reinforces the importance of the land of promise
to the sons and to the family. This land was promised to Abraham
in covenant and it reminds the children of Israel of their inheritance. Here they are living in Egypt. In fact, they're going to live
in Egypt for quite a long time yet, several hundred years, and
it will only be afterwards that they return to Canaan. But they
never forgot that that was their inheritance, their promised land. However, there's also another
important aspect that I want to draw to your attention here
from this death of Jacob, and it's in what he says. He tells
us that he is expecting to go to be with his family, his fathers,
his people. I am to be gathered unto my people."
And that shows us that there was an expectation that Jacob
would be going to a place of life after death, a place of
happiness with God and for all his people, all the people of
the covenant who have faith in God, faith in Christ. So when
Jacob says, I am to be gathered unto my people, it is showing
us that that people yet existed with God and that God would gather
Jacob to be with all who, like Jacob, trusted in him. And that's a delightful proof
of our immediate entry at death into the presence of our Saviour. Some people have a different
view which says that our souls go to sleep for a long time until
they are awakened at the end when the Lord Jesus Christ comes
back. But that's not what Jacob is telling us here. He is telling
us that he will be immediately present with the Lord in the
presence of his Saviour in whom he trusts and the Holy Spirit
goes on to tell us that that is exactly what happened. Jacob then lifted his feet off
the floor into his bed and was gathered to his family, his people. Sometimes we might wonder about
these Bible stories and maybe the younger people in particular
who are listening, maybe we feel that the time of the Lord Jesus
Christ was so long ago and the time of these stories was so
long ago and we find it hard to know what to think about all
of these things which we hear in the Bible. Well, I want you
just to remember something. that Jacob here was talking about
the coming of the Messiah. And do you know it's almost the
same amount of time that Jacob was looking forward to the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ as we now look back to the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jacob looked forward in faith. He believed that the Messiah
would come and we look back in faith to the exact same event. He waited for Christ's coming
and we remember Christ's coming. a little while we're going to
have communion at the end of this service where we remember
the death of the Lord. Jacob looked forward in anticipation,
we look back in remembrance and we both have the same faith in
the Saviour, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jacob died and as Isa
had died before him and Abraham had died before him. So his soul
went to be with his Lord and with the Lord's people in heaven. His body was left in his bed. It was left behind to be put
into a cave, to be put into the ground, where it would decay
as Abraham and Sarah's bodies had decayed, where Isaac and
Rebekah's bodies had decayed, and now Jacob's and his wife
Leah's bodies would decay also and return to dust. And someday
we shall die as well, unless the Lord comes before that time. And when we die, we shall no
longer need this physical body and it will decay in the ground,
but our souls will live on. Jacob still lives with Christ
today, having found that salvation that he waited patiently for. And I ask God that the same Lord
Jesus in whom Jacob trusted will grant us the same grace and the
same faith that Jacob had, and that brought Jacob and every
believer to trust in that finished work of Christ on the cross. And then, someday, we shall go
to be with the Lord too. And there we will meet Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and all who believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. May it be so. Amen.