THROUGH THE BIBLE - Genesis..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. The book of Genesis, beloved brethren, we're going to be reading together as we every Lord's Day do. We're going to be reading the chapter and giving a brief overview of it.

So let's pay much attention to each one of the words and with reverent hearts let's approach the word of our Lord and Savior. This is Genesis chapter 49. Then Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power, and as stable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed.

Then you defiled it, He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel, or my glory be not joined to their company. For in their anger they kill men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

Curse be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you.

Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of peoples. Binding his fold to the vine and his donkey's coat to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. Zebulam shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a heaven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidan.

Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, as he bowed his shoulder to bear and become a servant at forced labor. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Then shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward. Wait for your salvation, O Lord.

Riders shall raid God, that he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naphtali is a doe let loose, that bears beautiful fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above. Blessings of the deep that crouches beneath. Blessings of the breast of the womb.

The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a revenue's wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and in the evening dividing the spoils. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.

Then he commended them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people. 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 at Machpelah, to the east of Manri, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from the Hittite to possess a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife.

And there they buried Leah, the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people." Amen. This is the Word of God, a very, not only interesting, but very challenging chapter, the one that we have in front of us, in which Jacob is going to bless his 12 sons, but brothers and sisters, I want us to divide this chapter in three important sections. And then I will try to explain those sections to to the best of my ability.

Three sections that we can see clearly in Chapter 49. And that's the first one in which Jacob, who is about to die, is going to bless his 12 sons. He's going to provide or give these blessings to the 12 sons. After blessing his sons, he's then going to command them to do something. And that something is to take his dead body from the land of Egypt and bring it back to the land of Canaan, where he came down with his sons, with his 11 sons.

And the third thing that we see clearly in this chapter is, of course, the death. of Jacob. Jacob had been 17 years in the land of Egypt, and now he is going to die. We have these blessings, then we have the commandment of Jacob to his sons to take the body back to the land of Canaan, and also we have his death. Now, why do I want to point your eyes and your mind to those three aspects of these three categories of these three points that we can see in this chapter.

Because I think that here in this chapter 49, we see the fulfillment, and especially in these three things, in the promise that God gave to Jacob back in chapter 46. You might remember that it's Joseph, the one that requests through his brothers, his father to come down from the land of Canaan. Jacob was in Canaan with his brothers or with his sons, and then he came down from that land to Egypt. When he was coming down in chapter 46 from Canaan to Egypt, he was afraid. He had fear of the things that he was doing, because he was departing from the promised land, and now he was going to the land of Egypt.

But there, the Lord, who knew that he was afraid, he's going to appear to Jacob, and he's going to give him a promise. He is going to give him, Jacob, a promise. And that promise, it is related to his coming down to Egypt. Jacob is going to hear from the mouth of God himself when he appears to Jacob. He's going to say, the Lord, Jacob, do not be afraid.

You can find that in chapter 46, verse 3 and 4. Jacob, do not be afraid. Why? Because I will be with you. The first thing that God promises to Jacob in his coming down to Egypt is that God was going to be with him.

That is the first thing that he promises. Now, the second thing that he's going to promise is that he was going to make of Jacob a great nation. I'm going to be with you. And going down to Egypt, I'm going to make of you a great nation. The third thing that God is going to promise Jacob is that he was going to bring him back from Egypt.

I will bring you back to the land of Canaan. And then the fourth promise that God is going to give to Jacob in chapter 46, verse 3 and 4, is that Joseph was going to be the one that closed the eyes. of Jacob, that he was going to die in front and in the presence of his son, specifically in the presence of Joseph. Beloved brethren, here in chapter 49, we see the fulfillment of those things. God is fulfilling that promise that it was given to Jacob back in chapter 46.

He had spent 17 years in the land of Egypt. And as our brother explained last week in chapter 48, Jacob says, who speaks of God as the shepherd who was with him throughout his entire life and the time that he was also in Egypt. God had been the shepherd of Jacob because his presence was with him all the days of his pilgrimage, as he will say to Pharaoh, even the days that he spent in Egypt. I promise was fulfilled that God was going to be with Jacob in the land of Egypt. But then, not only that, because he is going to come and see Joseph, his beloved son.

And he is going to die in the presence of his son. In the presence of Joseph, Jacob is going to die. This is another fulfillment of the promise given in Genesis chapter 46 verse 4. And the third promise is, of course, through the commandment of Jacob. Jacob is going to command now his sons to take his body back to the land of Canaan to be in the cave where his fathers Abraham and Isaac were.

And this is how the Lord is going to also fulfill that promise that was given to him that I will bring you back to the land of Canaan. And there is a fourth promise. This is the one that I jumped. And it's that God promised Jacob that he was going to be a great nation. That he, by going to Egypt, that he was going to be a great nation, that God was going to make of Jacob a great nation.

Now, brothers, we know what comes after. We have the revelation in front of us, specific revelation. We have the book of Exodus and Israel. Everything happens to Israel apart from becoming a great nation. Actually, when you see the word great nation given in the promise in chapter 46 to Jacob, this great word means mighty.

The other nations will be submitted to Israel, but Israel is not going to become a great nation after the death of Jacob. Actually, This nation is going to spend 400 years in Egypt after they forget just. And then the land of Israel or the covenantal people of Israel are going to go into slavery and they are going to become everything except a great nation. How then is this promise given to Jacob fulfilled by the Lord? Well, the royal kingdom of Israel will not see the days of triumph and will not see the days of power and might in this land with the people of Israel.

Because there is going to be a person that comes from the offspring of Jacob that is going to be actually the one that is going to bring the covenant people of Israel to be the priestly kingdom that God had promised. Now, brothers and sisters, I could go through everyone and I try to go through each one of the prophecies or the blessings that God or that God through Jacob gives to his sons. And there are so many things that can be said about each one of the blessings that God gives through Jacob to his sons. But he said something very important when he gathers his sons and he's going to give the blessings. He said that he is going to speak of the days that are to come, the days that will come over the last days, speaking of the days that are after that.

And indeed. Jacob was speaking of matters and things that were not going to be fulfilled only with the immediate nation of Israel, but also in the last times. But now Israel is taking the visible and very clear image of a nation. He's not going to be an individual anymore, but now he's going to be a nation. And Jacob is going to speak of the things that are going to happen in the last days.

Now, let me just say another thing here just to finish. When this transition happens from the patriarchal fathers, from the individual into the nation, there is going to be things that the individuals had in and of themselves that now are going to be transferred and given to the nation as a whole. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in and of themselves as the covenant heads of their families, representing the covenant people of God, they were priests and they were the ones that rule their families and the covenant people of God. They were the ones that built the altars to offer sacrifices to God. They were the ones that were ruling these families that were representing the covenant people of God.

Once there is a transition from individuals families onto a nation that then later, 400 years afterward, will receive the law of God. These things, these offices, these roles that belong to this person are now going to be transferred onto the nation as a whole. And this, we can see it in the different blessings that are given to the sons. But I want to point your eyes to two people, because in those two people we see Christ. And in not only Christ, but we see the role of Christ in giving those blessings unto the church.

The first one is, of course, Judah. Judah is going to be, if you read there, beloved brethren, Judah is going to be after Reuben and Simeon and Levi. It is going to be the one that it is first in Leah's order of sons. And he is going to receive this glorious, this glorious blessing that speaks of the kingly. role and office of the person of Jesus Christ.

In verse 10, it says the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the people. Beloved brethren, we know that it's after through David from the tribe of Judah that God will institute the everlasting kingdom of God given through this covenant given to David. It's from Judah that the scepter will be forever. But the second person that I want you to pay attention to is also Levi, because Levi, even though he is receiving rather a difficult blessing from Jacob in this section, if you read carefully Deuteronomy chapter 33, which is a parallel blessing that Moses give to Israel just in the same way that Jacob blessed Israel. You will see, beloved brethren, that the Levites will become the priests of the people of Israel.

Now, why am I pointing these two things, the kingship aspect of the blessing and the priestly aspect of the blessing? It is because after this particular moment in which Jacob gives this blessing, the office of priest and the office of king are going to be separated in the history of Israel. The priestly vocation and the kingship vocation are going to be separated from this point. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they had in and of themselves, because they were the heads of their families, these roles in them. They were the ones that built altars and they were the ones that were ruling the family as representatives of the covenantal family.

But from this point onwards, Priests and kings are going to be separated. These are not going to be united in the history of Israel. They only come back again, beloved brethren, in the person of Jesus Christ. When Christ arrives, He then becomes the Messiah, who is now the King of the people, and He is the High Priest of the people, taking those two roles back again into one person. And then when by grace, through faith, we are united to Him, we become a nation of kings and a nation of priests.

So go to Revelation chapter 1. Speaking of Revelation, Rita, Revelation chapter 1. Why is the new covenant better? Because it has been established on better promises and blessings are given in fullness and in completeness. In the old covenant, Priests and kings were separated, and this was given to certain people within the people of Israel.

But now in chapter one, verse four, it says, John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who made us a kingdom, priest to his God and Father. Other translation would say, who has made us kings and priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, Christ is our King.

Jesus Christ is our High Priest, and by grace through faith and union in Him, we become the royal priesthood of the covenant people of God that was intended from the beginning of the redemption time, and that then by types and by shadows was promised through the people of Israel. May the Lord give us eyes to see and ears to hear the truth of the Gospel. Amen.