If you will open your Bibles
with me today to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, and I'm
going to read verses 17 through 22. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that
in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able
to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received
him in a figure. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he
was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped,
leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he died,
made mention of the deporting of the children of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones. These verses that we've
just read, we have five generations, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,
and Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's two sons. What a heritage. What a heritage of men who believed
God. But I want to call our attention
this morning, especially to the words in verse 21, where we read
about Jacob, by faith, when he was dying, blessed both the sons
of Joseph. He blessed both the sons of Joseph. Robert Hawker, in one of his
devotionals this past week, spoke of right-hand blessings and left-hand
blessings. And he was commenting on Proverbs,
a verse in Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 16, which tells us, length
of days are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and
honor. Now the hands in that verse are
the hands of wisdom. And we know that in Proverbs,
wisdom is personified. That is, it speaks to us of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the power and the wisdom of God. His right hand blessings, life
evermore, even life everlasting. His left hand blessings, including
all temporal good. Robert Hawker said the left-hand
blessings include afflictions, sorrow, bereaving providences,
sickness, and the like. Even these left-hand blessings
are wisdoms, appointments, and will bring with them his or her
blessings. And I thought about the verse
in Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 10 where God told the prophet,
say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him. Say
ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him, always. Always, when receiving right
hand blessings, it shall be well with him, and in receiving left
hand blessings, it shall be well with him. It's always well with
the righteous. Say ye to the righteous, those
we know who are made righteous by the saving work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those who are declared righteous,
justified, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, his obedience
being imputed unto everyone that believeth. But this made me think
of Jacob. Jacob, when he blessed the two
sons of Joseph, he crossed his hands. And I turned to Genesis
chapter 48, and I want you to turn there with me now. Genesis
chapter 48. And I have two thoughts that
I want to bring to us today concerning right hand and left hand blessings. Two thoughts, Genesis chapter
48. The first thought that I want
to remind us of is to see that Joseph took his two sons to the
place of blessing. He took his two sons to the place
of blessings. In verse one and two of chapter
48, we read, and it came to pass after these things. Now that
these things, we won't take the time, but in the chapter before,
the verses just before this, Jacob had called his son Joseph
out to him. Remember Joseph, he's the prime
minister of Egypt. He's a very busy man, very important
man. But Jacob called him out to him
to where he was living and made him swear, put his hand under
his thigh and made him swear that when he died, he knew his
death was near, that Joseph would make sure he was not buried,
his bones were not buried there in Egypt, but that they were
carried back to the land of Canaan and buried in that cave where
Abraham and Isaac's bones were also buried. Verses 1 and 2 we
read, And it came to pass after these things that one told Joseph,
Behold, thy father sick, he's close to death, he's sick. And
he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. And one
told Jacob and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee,
and Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. It was
with much difficulty that Jacob now was able even to set up in
bed. He was 130 years old when he
came into Egypt. Jacob was 130 years old when
he came into Egypt, and now 17 years had passed. He's 147 years
of age. And by our standards, we would
say that's a long, long life. But in reality, the same words
that Jacob spoke to Pharaoh when he first came into Egypt, he
could still say. When he first came down into
Egypt, Joseph presented his father Jacob to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh
asked him, how old are you? And Jacob responded like this,
the days of the years of my pilgrimage. And remember, that's true of
every person. Our life in this world is just
a pilgrimage. We're just passing through. Everything
in this world is temporal. Our life and everything around
us is temporal. And Jacob recognized that, that
his life in this world had been a pilgrimage and was a pilgrimage. And he told Pharaoh at that time,
or 130 years. He was 130 years of age when
he first came in to Egypt. And he went on to say, few and
evil have the days of the years of my life been. Now he could
still say the same thing about the years of his life. Even though
he was 17 years older, few and evil have been the days of my
life. Few in comparison to the years
of his grandfather, Abraham, who lived to be 175 years old. And few in comparison to the
years of his father, Isaac, who lived to be 180 years old. And listen, few in comparison
to the years even of Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years of
age. Few are the days of our life
in this world in comparison to eternity's days, or I should
say, eternity's day. No matter how long you or I live
in this world, the days of our pilgrimage here are going to
be few in comparison to all eternity. Can you imagine that? A day that
never ends. Never ends. Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh
would be in their twenties. The point I'm making is that
Joseph took that's what the word says here in verse one and it
came to pass after these things that one told joseph behold thy
father's sick and he took here's a father and he took his two
sons ephraim and manasseh with him that they might be blessed
by their grandfather jacob Now Joseph's sons at this time would
be in their twenties. They would be in their twenties
because they were born to Joseph before Jacob came into Egypt. We know that. And yet when you
read, if you look down in verse 12, when you read these verses,
We almost, without exception I suppose, visualize these two
young men as two lads of maybe 12 years old or something like
that, six or seven years of age. In verse 12 we read, and Joseph
brought them out, that is Manasseh and Ephraim, he brought his two
sons out from between his knees, that is, between Jacob's knees. He brought his two sons out between
his knees, and lo, and he bowed himself with his face to the
earth. Now the reason we think that
they were younger than they really are, really were rather, is because
we fail to realize that out of respect to their grandfather,
And Joseph, out of respect to his father, they were on their
knees. Jacob is in the bed, they are
on their knees, and their face is toward the ground. But these
were young men. These were young men in their
20s, as I said. But the lesson, the point I want
to make is a very simple point, but a very important point. And
that is in the fact that Joseph took his two sons, his children,
to the place where they were to be blessed. Wouldn't it be
wonderful, wouldn't it be wonderful if every person who, every man
who says that the Lord Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior,
that every man would say the same words that Joshua said when
he said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will
serve the Lord. Fathers, men are the head of
the family. That's God's order. And we're
living in a time, it's no different from any other time in many ways,
But in some ways we're living in a very degenerate and the
depravity of man is being flaunted in our nation and in our time
like maybe at no other time. The husband, he's the head of
the wife, he's the head of the family. Wouldn't it be wonderful
if every father would determine by the grace of God to always
take his children, his sons, his daughters to the place where
they might be blessed and to never, ever take them into a
place where there surely would never be any blessing. A place
of blessing where they might hear the word of God, where they
might hear God's word. Parents are very particular and
rightly so about having their children in school that they
might learn, that they might be educated for this world. But what about the world to come?
What about the world that is an eternal world? To have our
children in the place where they might be blessed, where the word
of God is proclaimed and where many times God is pleased to
call out his elect. The scripture still says, train
up a child in the way that he should go. And when he is old,
he will not depart from it. That's God's word. And what a
responsibility. I think sometimes because maybe
of my age, but I think sometimes of the great responsibility of
young men, and there's a bunch of young men here this morning,
and I encourage you to think about these things. First of
all, pray that God will give you a godly wife, a wife who
believes the word of God in the place of the woman according
to God's word, that God will give you a godly wife to be the
mother of your children, And those of you young men here who
have children already, what a response, what a blessing, what a blessing
to have children. Children are an heritage of the
Lord. The scripture says, what a blessing,
but what a responsibility, what a tremendous responsibility. And you, you don't get a second
chance. You don't get to repeat. Whatever
the Lord, whatever you do today, in the next few years, as you
are raising up your children, training up your children, educating
them both for this world and the world to come, you'll never
have another opportunity. And I read this many years ago,
and I think I still can quote it, but one old preacher said,
I'd rather my children learn their ABCs in heaven than to
read Greek and Hebrew in hell. Amen. There's no reason why children
may not have a good education, a formal education in this world,
but it should not deter from a spiritual education. That's
just a very simple truth. But I want us to go on to my
second thought, my last thought. Jacob blessed, that's what the
scripture tells us there in Hebrews. By faith, Jacob, when a dying,
blessed the two sons of Joseph, leaning, worshiping, leaning
upon his staff. And I looked at this chapter
and I thought, well, there's two ways. There's two ways that
Jacob blessed Joseph's two sons. Number one, he blessed them with
his testimony. Jacob blessed these two boys. He was talking to Joseph, but
they were there. They heard, these two young men,
they heard what he was saying. And I'm convinced that first
of all, Jacob blessed them with his testimony. Number one, I
want you to notice in verse three, they heard him testify to God's
grace. Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty
appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me
and said unto me, behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply
thee and I will make of thee a multitude of people and will
give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting covenant. They heard Jacob testify to God's
grace. When this took place, we won't
go back there, but it's recorded in Genesis chapter 28, but Jacob
was fleeing. He was running. He had deceived
his father. Remember how he made up like
he was his brother, went in and told his father that he was his
brother. He had deceived his father. He
was running, he was fleeing. He had deceived his brother,
Esau, as well. And there he was out in the middle
of nowhere, so to speak. I mean, nowhere. He had to use
a stone for a pillow. That's pretty well nowhere, right?
If you're in a place where the only thing you can find for a
pillow is a stone, he's out in the middle of nowhere. Probably
the only thing he had was the clothes on his back. That's probably
all he had. And yet God appeared unto him. There was no worthiness on his
part. There was no merit on his part. No, it was God's sovereign grace. God appeared unto him, and God
said, this is what I will do. God didn't say, now I want you
to do this, or will you pretty please do this? No. God appeared and said, this is
what I will do. Jacob. The blessings are free. They're free grace blessings.
He's sleeping out under the stars. And God appeared to him and told
him what he would do. Now keep your place there, but
look over a few pages into the book of Deuteronomy. And this
kind of emphasizes what I'm saying here, that they heard him testify
to God's grace. If you look in Deuteronomy chapter
32, And verse 9, Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse
9, for the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot
of his inheritance. Now notice this, he found him. Now who found who? Someone said,
well, I found the Lord. He wasn't lost. No. The Lord found Jacob. And where was he? In a waste
howling wilderness. That's who found who. So the
first thing that I see here in the testimony that these men
heard, they were blessed in hearing Jacob's testimony of the grace
of God. This was the God of all grace. And that's one of his titles,
isn't it? the God of all grace. And this was the God of all grace
appearing unto Jacob, who had said, Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated. This blessing, first of all,
was a blessing by hearing Jacob's testimony of the grace of God. Number two, they heard him testify
to God's goodness. Look in verse 11. Genesis chapter
48 in verse 11. They heard Jacob testify of God's
goodness. And Israel, that is Jacob, said
unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face. And lo, God
has showed me also thy seed. Jacob, we know, had lived for
years, believing that his son, Joseph, had been destroyed, had
been killed by a wild beast. And he said, I never thought
that I would see you again. But the goodness of the Lord
is now I'm seeing you and your sons, your seed. Few and evil
have been the days of my pilgrimage. He lived for years believing
that Joseph had been destroyed by wild animals. I never thought
to see your face. I lived for years. Remember at
one time he said he would never be comforted. The reason that
Joseph was so special unto Jacob is because Joseph was the son
of the woman that he loved and served seven years for, Rachel. her first son. And many say Jacob's
legitimate wife, his first wife, Rachel, his legitimate wife. And Joseph was so special, and
yet he was taken away. He was taken away. What am I talking about, left-hand
blessings? Sorrows, afflictions, He was taken away. And yet, these
two young men heard their grandfather testify of God's goodness. I never thought I'd ever see
your face again, Joseph. And praise God, I'm looking at
you, and here are your two sons. God's goodness. You know in that
Psalm 107, four times, The psalmist said, oh, that men
would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works unto the children of men. There's just something about
our nature. We can grumble, we can murmur, we can complain. We do that quite easily, don't
we? And usually do a pretty good
job at it. But oh, to praise God for his
goodness. Jacob did for his goodness. And these two young men, they
heard their grandfather testify to God's good. That was a blessing.
That was a blessing. What if they'd heard their grandfather
complaining and moaning and murmuring and of all of the hard providences
that he had experienced in this life? Oh no, they were blessed
and hearing their grandfather Jacob tell about the grace of
God. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men. The gospel is preached
in all the world. And they were blessed in hearing
their grandfather testify of the goodness of God. And then
number three, they heard him testify to God's faithfulness. Notice in verse 15, and he blessed
Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk, the God, now notice this, which fed me all my life
long unto this day. He testified to God's goodness. The word, the English word there,
fed, comes from a Hebrew root word, which literally means to
tend a flock. And this verse could have been,
and some people believe maybe would have been better translated,
the God which shepherded me all my life long unto this day. Now Jacob was a shepherd. He
knew something about shepherding sheep. The God that shepherded
me. Yeah, he fed me. No doubt about
that. The shepherd looks out and finds
pasture for his sheep. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. The shepherd feeds his sheep,
but he does much more than that. He directs his sheep. And all
our life, as we go through this world, our pilgrimage, we need
to recognize who is directing our steps. Don't you love the
words of that hymn of Fanny Crosby's? All the way, my Savior leads
me. What have I to ask beside? What more could I want than to
have God as my shepherd to feed me, to pasture me, to lead me,
to guide me? Yes. Correct me when I need it. And
many times we do need correction, don't we? And God is faithful
to chasten us, to discipline us, and to guide us through this
world. They heard their grandfather
testify to God's faithfulness. Before Sunday school, Wynna was
playing the piano and she played several hymns, but she started
playing, Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. Oh, don't you
love that hymn? Don't you love to think about
the faithfulness of God? You're God if you know Christ
this morning. He's a faithful God. And then they heard him testify
to God's redemption. And this maybe is the most important
of all. In verse 16, he goes on there,
the angel which redeemed me from all evil. Now you notice that
word angel, that's not a created angel. That is the angel of the
covenant. That is the eternal Son of God,
who in the Old Testament appeared many times as an angel. When the Lord appeared to him,
you remember I mentioned him sleeping out under the stars.
He dreamed a dream, and in his dream he saw a ladder. A ladder
set up on the earth, but it reached all the way to heaven, and angels
were ascending and descending upon that ladder. And that was
a type, is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, he become
a man. He was set up here upon the earth,
but he leads, he is the way into heaven, the only way. He said,
I'm the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh under
the father, but by me. He redeemed me from all evil.
No doubt for many evils in this world, the Lord has redeemed
us and kept us, but the redemption that we're talking about is the
worst of all evils, and that is the evil of sin. The greatest evil, the angel,
the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed him from sin's power, from sin's guilt, from sin's
punishment, and then in just a few days from sin's presence,
because he would be with the Lord. So that's the first way. I said there's two ways I want
to mention that he blessed the two sons of Joseph. He blessed
them first of all with his testimony. Number two, he blessed them,
and this is what the verse in Hebrews is speaking of. He laid
his hands on them and pronounced God's blessing. Now, Jacob could
not bless anyone. You know, the people go to the
priest and go to the preacher and they give him a blessing. He has no blessing to give. God
gives the blessing. The blessing comes from God.
So all Jacob could do was lay his hands on the heads of these
two men and pronounce God's blessings upon them. But Jacob was almost
blind. If he was not already completely
blind, And so Joseph knew that when his dad would bless his
two sons, he would put his right hand out, he'd put his left hand
out. So Joseph made sure that, here's Manasseh over here, he's
the firstborn. When my dad puts his hand out,
he'll naturally put it on the head of this son. And when he
puts his left hand out, it'll go up on the head of this son. But what Joseph did not realize
until it happened is Jacob crossed his hands. He crossed his hands. And Joseph wasn't happy with
that. If you notice, he was not happy
with what he was doing. In verse 17, when Joseph saw
that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim,
Ephraim was the youngest. It displeased him, and he held
up his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head unto 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. But his father refused and said,
I know it. I know what I'm doing. You see,
Joseph wanted the blessing to go according to the order of
birthright, but Jacob, according to the spirit of prophecy, laid
his hand, his right hand upon the younger. Now, when Israel
was delivered, the nation of Israel was delivered from Egypt.
They numbered all the different tribes, and this tribe of Ephraim
was larger than the tribe of Manasseh, fulfilling this promise. But they were both blessed. Both
the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh was blessed. Notice in verse 20, He blessed
them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God
make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And He set Ephraim before Manasseh. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament
tells us, now these blessings, you say, get to your point, Preacher.
Okay. In the New Testament, the Apostle
Paul tells us that every child of God is blessed with all, A-L-L,
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And then he
names some of these blessings chosen in him before the foundation
of the world, to be holy and without blame before him, predestinated
unto the adoption of children, made accepted in the Beloved,
redeemed through the blood, and our sins forgiven. All of these blessings, whether
they're right hand or left hand blessings, they're all for all
of God's children. Now I want you to turn to one
other place. If you go to Luke's Gospel, You know that there was a prophet, there was
a priest, and there is a king, but who did the blessing? Did
the king do the blessing? No. Did the prophet do the blessing? No. It was the work of the priest. On the great day of atonement,
it was Aaron who came out and put the blessing of God upon
the nation of Israel. Now here in Luke chapter 24,
here's the point I want to make. When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back unto the father, the scripture says, he led them out as far
as to Bethany. And he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
was leaving this world, going back to the father, after he
had done the work of a priest, yes, and giving himself, but
he ever lives as our high priest and the point I want you to think
about that from that day until today and until he comes again,
his hands are still raised blessing his people. The priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is our great high priest and he blesses his
people day by day. We receive the blessings, both
the right-hand blessings and the left-hand blessings. They
all come to us from the same one, Jesus Christ our Lord. May the Lord bless this word. We want to say