Forty eight, but I'd like to
read a verse in Hebrews 11. This is the writer to the Hebrews
description of what took place in this passage of Scripture,
we're going to look at, and I think it's interesting when God, the
Holy Spirit is going to talk about the faith of Jacob. He's going to talk about the
story that we're going to read about tonight. In Hebrews 11,
verse 21, we read, Thy faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed
both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the
top of his staff. Now this story that we're going
to look at tonight is what God the Holy Spirit calls faith. That makes it interesting to
me. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying. And he also called
this an act of worship. We're going to learn something
about worship in considering this story. Now would you turn
back to Genesis chapter 48. I want to read, beginning in
verse 8 of Genesis 48. I've entitled this message, The
Cross-Handed Blessing, and you'll find out why I titled it that
as we read this passage of Scripture together. Genesis chapter 48,
beginning in verse 8, And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, you remember
Manasseh and Ephraim, And Israel beheld Joseph's son, and said,
Who's of these? And Joseph said unto his father,
They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he
said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not
see. And he brought them near unto
him, and he kissed them, and he embraced them. And Israel
said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face, and lo, God
hath showed me also thy seed. This was an unexpected blessing. This was a surprise. And Joseph brought them out from
between 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 unto him. Now, he had a
reason for doing this. He put his left hand on Manasseh
because that would be lining up with Joseph's right hand.
Manasseh was the firstborn. He was the one that was supposed
to get the chief blessing. And he put his right hand on
Ephraim's head to line him up to Jacob's left hand because
he was going to get the lesser blessing. So he lines them up
so it'll work out just the way he wanted to. He was covering
all his bases. He was going to make sure nothing went wrong.
I want the right one to get the blessing. But what happened?
And Israel, verse 14, stretched out his right hand and laid it
upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand
upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly. He knew
exactly what he was doing. For Manasseh was the firstborn,
now here's the cross-handed blessing. He stretches this arm out and
puts it on Ephraim, the one that was not supposed to get the chief
blessing. And he stretches his left hand out like this and puts
it on the head of Manasseh. And he's the one who gets the
inferior blessing. Verse 15. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which
fed me all my life long and to this day, the angel which redeemed
me from all evil. Bless the lands and let my name
be named upon them in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac,
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And
when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the
hand of Ephraim, it displeased him. He didn't like what he saw.
And he held up his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head
and to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father,
Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put thy right
hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said,
I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people,
and he also shall be great. But truly, his younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude
of nations. And he blessed them that day,
saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee
as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And he said, Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Behold, I die, but God shall be with you, and bring you again
into the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to thee
one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand
of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow." The cross handed
blessing. Now, the first thing that I would
notice about this blessing is the gracious character of this
blessing. I love when Jacob says to Joseph,
verse 11, and Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to
see thy face. This was totally unexpected. I didn't have a clue I was going
to get to see thy face. And lo, God hath showed me all
thy seed. There's a surprise to it. It
was unexpected. You know, unexpected blessings
are the most wonderful. Unexpected blessings. All blessings
are great, but an unexpected, surprising blessing is such a
blessing. You know, if you expect it, or
if you think you have it coming to you, There just mightn't much
grace there, is there? But, oh, the unexpected, the
surprising, the amazing blessings of His grace that God gives. There's just glory in that. When you get something that you
didn't expect to have, you didn't even suspect it, and God gives
it to you. Jacob is surprised by all this.
I thought I'd never see your face again, he says to Joseph,
but not only do I see your face, but I see your children. There's
a double gracious blessing in this, as it were. I'm seeing
much more than I ever dreamed I would see, and this is something
that's very sweet to me to think about. Believer. God. Has an unexpected. special blessing in store for
you. And I bet a lot of you think,
I don't know about that. Well, he does. That's the way his grace works.
An unexpected special blessing. Now, I'd also like us to notice
the sovereignty of this blessing, and this is the starting point
of all things, God's sovereignty. Here is Manasseh, the firstborn,
the one who we would think had the blessing coming to him, and
God doesn't give it to him. And then we have Ephraim, the
one who we know was not going to get the blessing. He's not
the firstborn. He doesn't have it coming to
him. And that's the one God blesses. I see in this the sovereignty
of God in this blessing. God does. as he pleases, when
he pleases, with whom he pleases. Whatever he does is right, and
he does not do it because it's right. He's under no law. It's right because he Does it? Do you believe that about God?
He's God. He doesn't answer to you and
I. If He sees fit to give the special blessing to Ephraim,
it's best. If He sees fit to not give the
special blessing to Manasseh, it's best. He doeth according
to His will. In the armies of heaven, and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand. None can stop him from doing
whatever he's pleased to do, or saying to him, what doest
thou? He giveth no account of his matters.
And I like it that way, don't you? I mean, when I think of
the absolute sovereignty of God in all things, I just love it. It's worthy of God. This is who
He is. And Joseph was displeased with this. You know, sometimes
you and I are pretty displeased with what the Lord does, aren't
we? I mean, it's a shame, it's wrong, but it's the case. I don't
know how many times, Lord, why do you let this happen? Why did
this take place? Have you forgotten? All the objections that come
into our minds. Why are you allowing this to
take place? Why did this happen to this person? Why does this
happen to me? He's displeased. He doesn't agree
with this. He actually tries to stop it.
He stops the hand of Jacob. He says, don't do this. This
is not what I wanted. But verse 19, his father refused. His father, you see, God's will
shall be done. God gave the blessing to the
one who didn't deserve it, and he withheld it from the one who
thought he did. Now. If we object to this. God's way of blessing. All we
prove by that is we think we deserve it. That's all we prove
any objection. We're saying I got it coming
to me. Manasseh may have resented this, and I probably, if I was
Manasseh, it's supposed to be coming to me. But you know who
rejoiced in it? Ephraim. Ephraim's glad. And I'm glad. You know, the only hope I have
of getting the blessing is for God to just sovereignly decide
to do it. If He had to find a reason in me to do it, I wouldn't get
it. But thank God in His sovereign, glorious choice of whatever He
does, He chooses to give the blessing to the unworthy and
to the undeserving. Thank God for that. And I want us to notice the order
of the blessing. We're going to consider what
the blessing itself is in just a moment, but notice the order
of the blessing. First, Ephraim. He gets the blessing
first, he gets the chief blessing and then Manasseh. He comes along
behind that first Ephraim, then Manasseh. God is a God of order,
and this is more than just some arbitrary choice. Now, I want
us to be reminded about what these boys names meant. Turn
to Genesis 41. Genesis 41. Verse 50. And then to Joseph, Genesis 41,
verse 50, and unto Joseph were born two sons before the years
of famine came, which Asenat, the daughter of Potiphar, priest
of Owen, barren to him. And Joseph called the name of
the firstborn Manasseh. For God, said he, hath made me
forget all my toil in all my father's house. His name means
forgetting. Forgetting. He forgot about the
fact that he had to spend all that time in prison. He forgot
about all the time he had to spend toiling in slave labor. He just forgot about it because
of God's blessing that made him forget everything else. Verse
52, in the name of the second, called the Ephraim, for God had
caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. Caused. Ephraim means caused. Caused
to be fruitful. And notice the order. God gives
the Ephraim the first blessing, the one who he caused to be,
and the second blessing, forgetting, comes to Manasseh. Now, there
is a reason for that order. Now, you think of who God is.
God's the judge of the earth. Now, God doesn't just up and
forgive our sins. He doesn't just, well, I forgive
you, and I'll forget about it. That's not the way God forgives
in any way. As a matter of fact, if that
is the way He would forgive, He'll be unjust, wouldn't it?
What would you think of a judge? Let's say someone committed a
crime against you. Let's say somebody robbed your
house, or somebody did something even more evil. I don't even
want to bring up it. You know, just some horrible, wicked crime.
And they're brought before the judge, and you want justice to
be done. And what if the judge says, well, I'm just going to
forgive you and forget it? How would you feel about that? Be
wrong, wouldn't it? Justice wouldn't as a matter
of fact, that judge would lose his job, wouldn't he? Judge is not allowed
to do that. A judge must first be what? Just. He's got to be just before he
is anything else. God doesn't just up and forgive
your sins and just say, well, I'm going to forget about it
and go on. You know, we'll just pretend like it didn't happen.
No, God's first just. So notice the first blessing
is Ephraim, what he caused. Ephraim to be. I'm going to cause
you to be fruitful. The first blessing is God causing
us to be what we're not. You know what that is? It's called justification. Before God does anything else,
he causes us to be. And God can do this. He's God.
He's God Almighty. If God justifies me, you know
what that means? I'm justified. I'm just, if God doesn't, what
are you going to say about it? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's election? God justified him. Now, he caused
me to be what I, I'm not just. Not in myself, I'm a simple man
in and of myself. But God justified me through
the work of Christ on the cross. He causes me to just, to be just. He causes me to be fruitful.
I become what I'm not. I've become what God causes me
to be, perfect in God's sight, accepted in God's sight, just
in God's sight. And then he says, I'm going to
forget your sins. I'm going to forget they're gone. The reason
he forgets them is because there's really nothing there to remember.
He made me just. He caused me to be what I'm not.
So we see the order. Why? Ephraim comes first. God
is the God of order. First, justice is satisfied.
He causes us to be what we're not, actually. He causes us to
be that. And then he says, I'll forget your sins. That's why
Ephraim comes first and then Manasseh. But now let's consider
the blessing itself. Let's read verses 15 and 16 together
of Genesis 48. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which
fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed
me, from all evil, bless the lads. And let my name be named
on them, and the name of my father is Abraham and Isaac, and let
them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." Now,
there's the blessing. There's the blessing stated. Now, we
see the surprising nature of grace in this blessing. I mean,
it's gracious. We see God's sovereignty In this
blessing, we see God's order in this blessing, but here's
the blessing. And here's the first part of this blessing is
this, the blesser. The blesser. Now, if God blesses
you. Remember who he is, we saw this
last week, he's the almighty God. Almighty, if he blesses
you, look at the way this reads in verse 15. God, and he blessed
Joseph and said, God, Before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk. The God which fed me all my life long. The angel which
redeemed me from all evil. Bless the lads. God bless the
lads. The almighty God bless the lads. If God be for you, who can be against you? If God's for you, this is the
almighty God. Who can be? against us. Nobody can. And the first blessing
I see is the blesser, God being the one doing the blessing. Don't
you want God to bless you? You know you don't deserve it.
You know you don't have it coming, but you know Christ does. And
you want His blessing. I want the blessing of the Lord
upon me. I want Him to bless me. And you
know, here's something that's even more wonderful to think.
If I'm a believer, you know the things I want, I've already got
them. every one of them. He hath blessed
us, Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, he hath blessed us with, anybody
know the next word? All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. He hath blessed us. God bless the boys. Notice what is involved in this
blessing. Look in verse 15. And this is
so wonderful. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God, before whom... Pay real close attention to this.
Don't miss this. God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk. Now, here's the blessing. To
be enabled. by the grace of God to walk before
God. Enoch walked with God. Abraham was called the friend
of God. He said, He's my friend. Oh,
this thing of walking before Him. To walk before God, They didn't
simply know things about Him that were accurate. They walked
before Him. In Genesis 17, verse 1, when God appeared to Abraham,
He said, I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be thou perfect. What's that mean? Just what it
says. Walk before Me and be thou perfect. Now, there are a lot
of people And this is a sad thing to think about, but it's true.
There are a lot of people that believe a lot of things about
God. They can argue for the sovereignty of God. They can defend the doctrines
of grace. But you can't say they walk before
God. They know stuff about God, but
they don't walk before God. Your walk is your life. It's
your conversation. You see, Christ is the Lord of
the believer's life. He's my Master. I walk before
Him. He is the Lord of my life. I say with Thomas, my Lord and
my God, I walk before Him. So does every other believer.
I'm not talking about just a few of the more spiritual. I'm talking
about every true believer. Well, here's what they do. They
walk before God. That's their conversation. Does
that mean they always feel God's presence? No, but they always
walk before him. That's my life. This isn't just arguing for A
few doctrines I'm trying to defend. No, a believer walks before God
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Enoch walked with God. And what a blessing that is.
And look at this. Let's go on reading in verse
15. He says, God, before whom my
fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk. I think this is interesting.
You know, Jacob, we saw this a few weeks ago. He didn't feel
like his walk measured up to the walk of his father's. It
did not, but I love the humility of Jacob. You know, when I talk
about walking before God. Am I? Well, I walk before God. Well, I hope I do, but I don't
feel good about my walk. I like to think about Abraham
and Isaac's walk. I'll commend their walk, but Jacob doesn't
commend his walk. But look what he says next. The
God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which
fed me, verse 15, he fed me all my life long until this day. Now, this is not talking about
breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although it is included, but
this is not talking about he's the one who provided me with
my meals and my sustenance and so on. Turn with me for a moment
to Psalm 23. This is a psalm we're familiar with. Psalm 23. Verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. And that word shepherd is the
same word that's translated fed in our text. The God who shepherded
me. every single day of my life. That's the God I'm speaking of,
the God who shepherded me. And I love Psalm 23. Let's read
it together. Here's what it is to have the
Lord shepherding you. The Lord is my shepherd. Jehovah
is my shepherd. Can you say that? Jehovah, the
Lord God, is my shepherd. And because my Shepherd is the
Lord, I'm not going to lack. I'm not going to want. What a
Shepherd I have! In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, and you are complete. You're not
going to lack a thing. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall
not want. I'm not going to want rest, because
He makes me. to lie down in green pastures. Isn't it a wonderful thing to
simply rest in Christ, where there's really nothing to do?
Nothing to do, just rest. He did it all. Nothing to strive
for. He did it all. Just rest. They which have believed do enter
into rest. Oh, the rest of simply trusting
who he is and what he did as everything in my salvation, I
will not want rest. And I'm not going to want peace
because he leaves me beside the still waters, waters of quietness,
waters of peace. I'm not going to lack peace.
I lay beside the Still waters, what what peace there is in simply
trusting him. Don't you find peace in knowing
that everything God requires of you, he looks to Christ for
everything you find peace in that. Such peace. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want forgiveness. He restores my soul. How many
times has the Lord restored your soul? You go off in the wrong
direction, you go off in the wrong attitude, you go and the
Lord brings you back. He restores your soul. You're
not going to lack forgiveness. You know, every time you sin,
you know what happens? You're forgiven. And His forgiveness
is such forgiveness, it's not like He still holds you suspect.
And, you know, if you sin against me, I'll forgive you, but I'm
going to watch out for you. Wait for you to do it the next
time. You know, just watch out, not Him. It's a complete restoration. He restores my soul. Because my shepherd is the Lord,
I'm not going to want righteousness. He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for His namesake. I always have His righteousness. And that's my confidence. I have
the righteousness of God. It's my righteousness. I will
not lack righteousness. And I'm not going to lack help
in trial. He says, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I'm not going to lack help in
whatever trial comes my way. I'm going to walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, but he says, thou art with me. I'm
not going to lack companionship, am I? Are you lonely? Well, if you're a believer, I
understand people being lonely, feeling isolated and so on, but
the Lord's with you. at all times. There's not a second
when He's not with you, whether you're aware of it or not. Thou
art with me. And I'm not going to lack comfort.
He says, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And I'm not going to lack provision,
for He says, thou preparest a table for me. All provision. I don't
care whether it's material, spiritual, whatever it is I need, He's going
to provide it. I'm not going to lack provision. Thou prepares
the table for me in the very presence of my enemies. I'm not
going to lack assurance. You know who my enemies are?
You know what I think of my enemies? I'm not thinking of any human
being. I'm thinking of my sins. And
you know the Lord prepares this table for me, this table of grace,
in the very presence of my enemies. My sins, as horrible as they
are, do not make me lose my assurance of His favor, because my assurance
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He prepares a table for me, a
provision for me, in the very presence of my enemies, my sins,
those who would bring me down. And then he says, I'm not going
to lack joy for you anoint my head with oil. My cup runneth
over. Oh, the cup of his blessing,
it runs over. I'm not going to lack joy. Oh, there's such joy
in simply being found in Christ. I'm not going to lack anything
in this life that I need. Surely, he said, goodness and
mercy shall follow me, shall pursue me. I may be trying to
get away, but they'll be right behind me and they won't let
me go. Goodness and mercy are God's watchdogs on my heels all
the time. Goodness, goodness and mercy. They're right on my heels. They
won't let me go. Surely, He said, goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I'm not
going to lack anything in the life to come because He says,
I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever. He fed me, Jacob said. He shepherded
me. This Psalm 23 is yours. It's
mine. The Lord's my shepherd. He fed
me all the days of my life. Now back to our text in Genesis
48. Verse 16. Now, he speaks specifically of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel. The angel, he's the Lord's angel.
He redeemed me from all evil. Doesn't say he will redeem me
from all evil. It says he redeemed me from all
evil. Now, when he made this statement,
the Lord hadn't died on the cross yet, had he? This was I think
twelve, thirteen hundred years before the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Yet he says he hath redeemed
me from all evil. Do you know when I was redeemed? Now, I know Christ had to come
in time. I wouldn't be redeemed if he didn't come in time and
put away my sins. But I was redeemed whenever it
was he became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
My standing has always been in the Lamb slain from the very
foundation of the world, in the mind and the purpose of God.
He's the Lamb slain already. And this was said 1,200 years
before the death of Christ, the angel of the Lord that redeemed
me from all evil. Now I want you to think of His
redemption. You were redeemed. I'm redeemed. Every believer
is redeemed from all evil. What if He redeemed you from
most evil? You'd be in trouble, wouldn't
you? But no, thank God He redeemed us from all evil, a particular
successful atonement. He redeemed me from all evil. You know, I love that hymn, Redeemed,
how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb, redeemed by His excellent mercy, His child forever, I am. He redeemed me. Is that a choice
blessing? He redeemed me. Go on reading, verse 16. The
angel which redeemed me from all evil blessed the lads. God's the one who blesses. And
then he says, let my name be named on them. Now, is he talking
about the name of Jacob? Well, I'm a Jacob. I answer to
that. But that's really not the name
he's talking about. Jacob, the name Israel. You know what Israel
means? We've seen this quite often,
a prince with God, as a prince. Thou, Jacob, in himself a heel,
a sinful, weak, conniving man. There just wasn't anything to
it. You read the life of Jacob, and there just wasn't much to
this fellow, was there? I mean, the Bible's very honest
about him, and there just wasn't much to him. Yet God calls him
my prince. My prince, as a prince, you have
power with God and you prevail power with God. So God hears
me. Do you know when I pray? God
listens. Hears. There's only one way I
can understand that. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ
makes me a prince with God. If Christ is a prince with God,
I am too. And that's my confidence. Let
my name be named upon these rising as that that's such a glorious
blessing to have the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That's my name. That's my name
and what a blessing it is to have his name upon me. Let my name be named on them
in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow. Verse 16. Let them grow into
a multitude in the midst of the earth. Growth. Now, please listen very
carefully. Where there's life, you know
what else there is? There's growth. And when somebody's not growing,
there's a reason. Where there is life, there is
growth. Grow in grace in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There's a growth in grace. There's a growth in understanding.
There's a growth in compassion. There's a growth in zeal. There's
a growth in the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. A growth in
love and joy. peace and gentleness and long-suffering
and faithfulness and meekness and temperance and so on. There's
growth. Where there's life, there is
growth. And if there is no growth, there
is no life. He said, in blessing these people,
the Lord caused you to grow. Look down in verse 20. He blessed
them that day, saying, And thee shall Israel bless, saying, God
make thee as Ephraim, cause you to be fruitful, and as Manasseh,
forget your sins. And he said Ephraim before Manasseh,
the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. And we're going to end where
we began with the sovereignty of God. And Israel said unto
Joseph, verse 21, Behold, I die, but God shall be with you, and
bring you again into the land of your fathers. I have given
to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of
the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow." That
almost sounds violent, doesn't it? He took something away from
the Amorites with his sword and with his bow, and it became his. It was a piece of land is what
he's talking about. It was a special piece of land
that he took away from the Amorites, and he gave it to Joseph. He
said, I'll give nations for thee and people for thee. That's his
absolute. He's going to do what he will.
And to every believer, he gives this special portion, the portion
of Joseph. What a special, special blessing
this cross-handed blessing is. I sure want to enter into everything
that's in it. We believe it's God's blessing,
it's gracious, it's sovereign, it's orderly, and it's real.
And you know what we do? We believe and we worship. May God give us the
grace to enter into that. Let's pray together.