Chapter 48. We just sang that song. Welcome, Happy Morning. And the reason why it's happy is that's found in the section on the resurrection in our hymnal. And of course, that means that Jesus has conquered death. And that needs to be the context for what I'm going to say starting now. I want us to enter into some serious thinking for a little bit this morning as we begin this text today. We're going to think about death. All of us either have or will have to deal with death at some point in our lives, won't we? It is absolutely unavoidable. I can remember as a child being relatively spared from thinking about the Grim Reaper. other than maybe in my own thoughts or something. My first grandparent didn't die until I was 26 years old. My parents obviously are still both alive to this day. None of their brothers or sisters have yet died either. And so as a child, when I did have to face death, it was fairly far removed. Like a great grandparent or, you know, a friend of my parents or something like that. And I can remember being more frightened of hospitals and old-looking people than I was of death. Those were more real to me, because that's what I saw. You know, it's a great blessing not to be confronted with death on a personal level as a young one, if God should so grant that. I ought to consider that with so many of our brothers and sisters that are facing it at very young ages around the world this very moment. Nevertheless, I am now 45 years old. I've probably lived half my life. All of my grandparents have now fallen asleep. Add this to the fact that I am a pastor and I see my fair share of death from those close to me in the congregation. Each of us is one day closer to meeting our maker than we were the day before. And you only have so many days on this earth. Even the very youngest among us have a limited number of days. The purpose here is not to be morbid, on this little resurrection Lord's Day, this happy morning that we just sang about. And yet we are called to be sober minded when we come into the house of the Lord. We are called to remember our place as we consider our maker. The Bible presents us with death on a regular basis and it's part of its way to help prepare us for eternity. It gives us instructions on how we are to think about death while it also forces us to think about even if we don't want to, simply by reading the passages that are in front of us. Now, this week I've been thinking about death a little bit more than normal for a couple of reasons. First, as we speak, my first blood uncle is getting very close to meeting the Lord face-to-face. Although, I started writing that on Tuesday after I'd visited him with our family, but he was let out of hospice later in the week. Hospice is where you go to die. So he's hanging around. But we visited him in hospice. Even though he's one of the hardest fighters I've ever seen, he wants to stay around for his wife and his grandchild. But I could see in his eyes that he is growing weary. I spoke with him a little about dying. I read the scriptures to him. And my family has been thinking about death for this reason. Second, though, the passage today opens up the final three chapters in Genesis, and it begins with this theme, verse one. So after this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father has become ill. And it was such an overlap with reality that I read this chapter to my uncle in hospice. And from here, the passage will go on to tell us about the last words of Jacob, the last of the three great patriarchs of Israel. Two full chapters will give us his final words, but eventually, we come to the final chapter of Genesis, and Jacob will fall asleep, as will his son Joseph, and we will have passed out of Genesis, the Genesis of humanity, the Genesis of the nation of Israel, once and for all. So let us enter this sacred space now with Joseph, as we consider the last days of his father Jacob, and the beginning of what will be a lengthy final monologue from this most wonderfully colorful character in the book of Genesis. The chapter in front of us, chapter 48, is pretty straightforward, but there are some fascinating things in it to discuss, as we will see. It is the first of seven scenes that take us to the end of the book. There are two main concerns of Jacob in our chapter. First, He wants to be buried in a patriarchal tomb in the land of Canaan. Remember, he's in Egypt now. So that's very heavy on his mind. And second is the future destiny of his sons. Now this consumes Jacob because he knows that his days are coming to an end and he must see the covenantal promises come to pass to the next generation. So in our chapter, the focus is going to be on two sons that probably no one would have expected. The chapter begins with the words, after this. And we know in the last chapter Jacob was 130 years old when he was presented to Pharaoh. And we know in the last chapter that he was 147 when he dies. And so after this takes us approximately 17 years after the last chapter. He's lived 17 years of life in Egypt. And now Jacob has become very ill. So when Joseph, the mighty ruler of Egypt, hears about it, he takes his two sons, notice the order here, Manasseh and Ephraim, it says, and he goes to his father. Jacob is now told that Joseph has come to visit. Now he knows that it will be the last time that he sees his most beloved son, and therefore it says in verse 2, Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. Have you ever seen this with a dying person? I've seen it many times. You visit someone who seemed to those closest to them to be at the precipice of death, when suddenly news of visitors arrive and they come back away from the edge. Such is the power of the will that God gave to us. We fight with all of our strength not to die. Jacob cannot die yet, because he has business to attend to. Well, when the three men get here, and Manasseh and Ephraim are certainly men now, Jacob begins to talk. He begins by remembering an event long ago in his past when he himself was quite a bit younger. It has the feeling to me of a covenant preamble. He says to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan blessed me." There in verse 3. Now God Almighty is the famous El Shaddai, the God of the mountain, and it's a word that's only found three times in all of Genesis, and one was indeed when he met, when El Shaddai met Jacob on that mountain. It was the name that he took back in chapter 35 verse 11 when he told Jacob at Bethel, that was what used to be called Luz, he said, Back there, I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall come from your own body. That was what he was told back in chapter 35. And so that's what he tells Joseph here now in verse 4. Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. I will make you into a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. Now this in turn was told to Jacob so that he would understand that this El Shaddai is the same God and it is the same covenant and it is the same promises that were given to his grandfather Abram back in chapter 17. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of a multitude of nations. So do you hear the similarities of those three passages? There's much in this chapter that remembers past parts of Exodus or Genesis. And so God's name here serves to remind us one more time in Genesis of the covenant making God that we have seen so many times. the God of gods, the God of promises, the God of remembering, the God of the power to carry out what he has sworn. Now, Jacob may be old and Jacob may be in Egypt, but nothing is going to thwart God's plan. I want you to notice that word offspring. We've pointed out many times in the past year and a half that we've been in this book. Throughout Genesis, the word remains seed in some translations. God has not even forgotten his promises, remember, all the way back to Eve or to Noah, to give them a seed that would crush the head of the serpent or to overcome the torrents of death. And so the Bible, and Jacob in particular now, must find a way to continue the covenant promise before Jacob passes on into eternity. Do you see why that's so important to him? So this has to involve his sons, because it has to move down the line. Now the rest of his sons are going to join him in the next chapter, but for now, it is only Joseph and Jacob's two grandchildren by him and Asenath that are here. And remember, you should remember this, how many sons did Jacob have? 12 sons, right? It's a cosmic number, it signifies divine perfection. And that is why it is unexpected that Jacob would suddenly turn to Joseph and say, in verse 5, Now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are." Notice the word order of the two names there. So he's adopting the grandsons as his own sons. Now this was very common in the ancient Orient. We have texts from Ugarit and other places where a grandfather adopts his grandson to be one of the heirs The question is, why would Jacob want to do this? Well, it has to do with the inheritance that's mentioned in verse 6. The children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. In other words, Joseph actually has more than two sons here. But those other sons are going to be assimilated and assumed into the name of the two oldest. It's only the two oldest that are here. And we will find out later in the Bible what is going on with this little verse. You see, Joseph, who is again Jacob's favorite son, is going to have a double portion of the inheritance. And that's why it's Ephraim and Manasseh. But what is that inheritance? Well, in Genesis, the inheritance is all about land. Abram, go to the land that I show you. Those are the very first words that God speaks to Abram. And what was that land? It was the promised land. That's the land that Jacob had to leave in the last chapter. And so we discover later that there was not going to be any tribe of Joseph among the 12 tribes of Israel. Rather, there will be the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's two sons, and then that way Joseph gets a double portion. Of course, if you get rid of Joseph and you add his two sons, that gives you 13 instead of 12. So what's going on? Well, we learn later that Levi will be called out as a tribe of priests, and they will have no inheritance of the land because God himself will be their portion. And so you have 12 sons of Jacob, minus Joseph and Levi, plus Ephraim and Manasseh, and you get 12, and those end up being the 12 tribes of Israel. That's why this is one of the reasons why this is such an important chapter for later in the Bible. Now notice something else here in Jacob's words, though. He says, Ephraim and Manasseh. That's not what it said back in verse 1, is it? Ephraim and Manasseh is how most of us probably hear those two the most often, but the reality is Manasseh should come first because he's the oldest. And we're going to see more about this later in the chapter, won't we? Now to return to the land, these boys will need the covenantal blessing that only Jacob can give them. So remember, in Genesis it places extreme importance on the patriarchal blessing when, for example, Jacob, and remember who is Jacob? He himself is the younger, isn't he? Younger brother of Esau. Jacob stole that inheritance from Esau And Isaac tried to give the blessing to Esau. He thought it was giving it to Esau, but he gave it to Jacob, and so Jacob got the blessing. There's nothing that Isaac could do about it. So to prepare himself and us for this blessing, which is coming here now, Jacob reminisces some more. First he's reminisced about being in Luz and meeting El Shaddai. Now he reminisces about Rachel, and it's quite appropriate for Mother's Day. As for me, when I came from Patum to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way. When there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. And why in the world would he care about talking about this all of a sudden? It doesn't seem to fit very well. Well, Jacob's doing two things. First thing is, I think, he's simply preparing himself to die to go meet his beloved Rachel, his wife. It's been a long, long time since Rachel died, giving birth to Benjamin. It has to be one of the things he looks forward to at this moment, seeing her again in the life to come. And so he starts thinking about Rachel. But that's not the only reason, probably not even the main reason, because you have to remember that Rachel is Joseph's mother and Ephraim and Manasseh's grandmother. And that's why I said Mother's Day. It's an appropriate verse, isn't it? So in mentioning her, what he's doing is he's drawing the boys closer to him. He's bringing up their mother. Rachel died. Come here, my sons. Boys, your mother is dead, and I will soon be with her. So now, what am I going to do with you? It really is a very touching and powerful verse, one that, while reminding us of the death of a kingly mother, also reminds me of the birth of a king, because there's a word in there, Bethlehem. which is the city where Rachel died and it's the city where Christ was born, isn't it? Now it tells us that Israel, that is Jacob, saw Joseph's sons and he asked the question, who are these? Now as you will soon see, Israel either knows exactly who they are, so he's kind of teasing them, or maybe he somehow finds out who they are. It doesn't exactly tell us But Joseph says, well, they're my sons whom God has given me here in Egypt. He replies to say, don't you remember your own grandson's father? And Jacob said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. So here now comes the blessing. And what will he tell them? And so the story is going to tease us a little bit, even as it reminds us of a long time ago in Jacob's life. I'm talking about the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob. So verse 10, here's how it begins to tease us. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. Well, that reminds us of something we've read before. This is the same thing we saw with Isaac when he thought he was about to bless Esau. So Joseph brought them near and he kissed them and embraced them. There's something that's dissimilar with Isaac because with Isaac, only one of the sons was present. because the other one was out hunting food when Jacob came in to steal the blessing. But Jacob has both of the boys present at the blessing event at the same time. And so Israel muses over his past one more time in verse 11. As he's about ready to bless him, he says, oh man, I never expected to see your face again, Joseph. And behold, God has let me see your offspring also. Jacob cannot believe how gracious God has been to him after all the trouble that he was for so many years. As I was reading this I was thinking Jacob understands depravity and grace and all of a sudden I switched over to Facebook and up popped something I just thought well that's just perfect. I came across a public school book passage that somebody posted explaining different groups of the Reformation. It said that Calvinism believed in predestination and quote, thought that people's destinies were revealed by their behavior. Those who behaved well were saved. Those who sinned were not. That's Calvinism according to the public schools. Now this is absurd and a gross misunderstanding of Calvinism that would have made Jacob cringe since he knew that God saved him in spite of his behavior. It is grace that saves us when we are wicked and when we are God's enemies, not because we are good people who do great things to make him happy. See, Jacob gets it. Most people don't want to, because that would mean they would have to admit their own sin and wouldn't want to do that. At any rate, Joseph takes his sons who are bowing down near the knees of their grandfather, and he himself bows down with his face to the ground now in verse 12. And then he prepares the sons to receive their grandfather's blessing, whatever it might be. So this is what it says, verse 13. He took Ephraim in his right hand, making it Jacob's left hand, and he put Manasseh in his left hand, making it Israel's right hand, and he brought them near. So keep that vision in mind. Joseph knows how he wants this blessing to go. The right hand is the position of power, the one that he's preparing for Manasseh to receive the greater blessing. Because Manasseh is the oldest. And that's the custom everywhere in the world. Except in Genesis. So Jacob does a double cross, literally. He stretches out his own right hand and he lays it on the head of Ephraim. And he stretches out his other hand and he goes like this. There's an old, feeble, 147-year-old man doing this, and he's blind as a bat, okay? Jacob, he's literally crossing his arms, and it makes you wonder, is this man going senile in his old age? Or maybe it could be, as Augustine says, that his hands were mystically crossed. I thought, that's quite a picture. Prefiguring something else, maybe? Well, he begins to pronounce the blessing, and the blessing is intended for Joseph. Look at verse 15, you see. He doesn't say Manasseh or Ephraim. He says, Joseph, even though his heads are on the suns. This is the double portion idea, right? And what he says is remarkable, and most people completely miss the next couple, maybe the next verse, and the profound value that this has for interpreting not only Genesis, but all of Scripture. And I want to camp here for a minute, all right? He says, let's look together, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys. Did you hear that? It is essentially a poetic utterance that repeats the same thought three times. Here though, each line begins this, the God, the God, the angel, what? Each line tells you something more than the first. The first line tells us that Jacob is thinking about the God of Abraham and Isaac, El Shaddai. They walked before him, it says in the ESV. Now, before him is literally the word face. It is the same word that we find throughout the book and it could literally be in front of their face. You could translate it that way. So other translations will say something like the God in whose presence or the God in whose sight even. Well, that's kind of strange. Say, well, what's the big deal about that? Maybe it just means before, maybe there's walking before God's presence because after all he's omnipresent, right? Keep that idea in mind. Walking before the face. Second line explains that this God was a shepherd. Jacob all the days of his long life now Jacob of course is a shepherd And God so is his shepherd and David says the same thing doesn't he in Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd Isaiah takes this and it becomes a messianic title in Isaiah 40 verse 11 and in other places And so it's no surprise that becomes a title that Jesus takes upon himself in John's gospel. I am the Good Shepherd So the people are sheep and God is the great shepherd. They hear his voice when he calls them. But where might Isaiah or Jesus have kind of discovered this title as being messianic? Are they just making it up? Is it brand new revelation? The third line is the killer as it regards the shepherd and the nearness of God, and most importantly, God himself. Suddenly, Elohim, that is the word for God, becomes malak, angel, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil. See, Jacob is remembering several events in his past where he spoke with the angel and even physically wrestled with him. Remember that story? But powerfully, the angel is called Jacob's God. Now, This is as explicit as it gets in terms of identifying the person Gerhardus Vos calls, quote, the most important and characteristic form of revelation in the patriarchal period. Jacob is telling us that the angel of the Lord, whom we have seen so many times from the Garden of Eden to Noah and the flood to Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, this angel of the Lord is the Lord. He is God. Jacob may also have in mind a kind of plurality in the Godhead here, and it's certainly not impossible to see God the Father and God the Son in the way that he puts these three lines. But as far as it involves interpreting the Bible, it is vital to recognize that Jacob is calling the angel the God of Abraham and Isaac. In fact, He is the God who always speaks to people or prophets throughout the Old Testament. When a prophet says, the Lord said to me, who do you think that is? It's consistent with Genesis. It's not a disembodied voice. It's hearing from the angel of the Lord. If you miss this, you will end up perverting in your head the way God comes to people throughout the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, And this has effects on your doctrine of God. I've seen it in Arbka with impassibility. Your doctrine of Christ, he becomes less important rather than more important. Your ability or inability to see Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament throughout the Gospels and so on. Let me give you a couple of good quotes here. Commenting on this verse, Calvin writes, He was always the bond of connection between God and man. There was always so wide a distance between God and men that without a mediator, there could be no communication. And because God formally manifested himself in no other way than through him, he is properly called the angel. Calvin got it at the most important point that you can. There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus. The testament, whether you're in the old or new, it doesn't matter. The form, whether it's an angel or a human, doesn't matter. But if we have no Jesus, then we have no mediator. God does not just come to people in his bare essence, ever. I don't even know what that would mean, since God is incomprehensible and ineffable apart from Christ. This is the great problem of all forms of Unitarianism, Islam. modern-day Judaism, Unitarian Christianity. They don't have a mediator. Luther writes, this angel is that Lord or Son of God whom Jacob saw and who was to be sent by God into the world to announce to us deliverance from death, the forgiveness of sins, and the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, one must note carefully that Jacob is speaking about Christ, the Son who alone is the angel or ambassador born in a man in time from the Virgin Mary, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit, for he makes a clear distinction among the three persons. Yet he adds, may he bless these lads. According to Luther, Jacob is asking for Christ to put a blessing on his grandsons. Then finally, Athanasius. None of created and natural angels did Jacob join to God their creator, nor rejecting God that fed him, did he from any angel ask the blessing on his grandsons, but in saying, who delivered me from all evil? He showed that it was no created angel, but the word of God, whom he joined to the father in his prayer, through whom, whomsoever he will, God does deliver. For knowing that he is called the father's angel of the great council, he said that none other than he was giving the blessing and delivered from evil. So the great defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism in the early church realizes that the Word of God is the angel of God. Just as we've seen throughout Genesis. Sadly, so many in the old church didn't get this. Athanasius basically stands alone in my searches of this. And in contemporary Christianity, you read the comments, you aren't going to see what I just told you. But we've got Athanasius, Calvin, and Luther who all saw it. And I'm so thankful that they did. You know, they're not the only ones. In the Bible, Hosea gets into the act. You might want to note this passage down. Hosea 12, 3 through 4. Hosea 12, 3 through 4. In the womb, he took his brother by the heel. So who's he talking about? Jacob. And in his manhood he strove with God, he strove with the angel and prevailed. You see, he does the same thing. He met God at Bethel and there God spoke with us. Scripture from start to finish is begging you to see what these great men of the faith and some inspired by the Holy Spirit like Hosea himself saw. If you will see this, I promise that it will revolutionize the way you read and understand your Bible. Christ is the living word of scripture. Now, before I move on, I want to note one more thing, which is that the angel is called the Redeemer. That's the word goel. It's literally a kinsman Redeemer. You've heard that one probably when you studied the book of Ruth or something. Luther again says, this angel is our liberator. He sets us free with perfect justice and liberates us from the power of the devil. who is subject to the law because he killed the Son of God. And now the law, death, and Satan are compelled to be silent and to stretch forth their conquered hands to the victorious and triumphant Christ. Welcome, happy morning. Hell today is vanquished. Heaven is won today. How incredible it is that this passage not only foreshadows the work of the Savior in human flesh, which some of the modern commentators will tell you, But it actually is the work of the Savior on Jacob's behalf in angelic flesh. He saved Jacob. The Old Testament really does prove God's power and existence, simply in how it shows you so much of Jesus Christ. Well, let's move to the blessing itself. With these thoughts in our head, let's consider the blessing. Verse 16, bless the boys. As Luther says, Jacob's asking Christ to bless them at this moment, but how? Let my name be carried on and let the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. So Jacob is essentially asking Jesus to continue the blessing he promised to give to his own grandfather, and he's doing it through his grandchildren. This is so unexpected that the blessing would not start with his own sons, but with his grandsons, and not only any old grandsons, but with half-Egyptian mutts. They are for all intents and purposes Gentiles born and raised in Egypt, sons of an Egyptian mother whose father was a pagan priest. Truly, through Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. What we know of these two tribes is that along with Judah, they would become the most populated and influential of all the tribes of Israel, Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Christ heard Jacob's prayer. But Joseph wasn't so happy with all of this. Verse 17 and 18, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand, and he moved it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head, and Joseph said to his father, not this way, my father, since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head. You see, Joseph had been gone from Israel for a long, long time. And even these past 17 years, he's continued living as an Egyptian rather than a Hebrew. He's forgotten the ways of God in the matters of election. Verse 19 kind of makes me laugh, but his father refused and said, I know my son, I know. Israel's not senile. He knows exactly what he's doing. Even though he's blind, he knows which boy is which. And in this, he shows more faith in his own father, Isaac, who wanted to give the blessing to Esau because he favored Esau. Remember, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Jacob has learned and has been changed into Israel. Isaac's God is now his God, and he knows the way God chooses to do things. After all, he's the younger himself. He shall also become a people, he says, and he shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall be a multitude of nations. As we see, at least in the book of Numbers, Manasseh becomes outnumbered by Ephraim. And so it becomes true. But the point has to be made to Joseph here. It is not Ishmael Joseph. It is Isaac, the younger. It is not Esau. Joseph, it is Jacob, the younger. It is not Zerah, Joseph, it is Perez, the younger. And one more time, it is not Manasseh, it is Ephraim, the younger, that God chooses in his purposes in election so that God might gain the glory and not anyone else. This is the way God is in election, as Calvin rightly says of this passage again, truly our dignity is hidden in the counsel of God alone until by his calling He makes it manifest what he wills to do with us. Meanwhile, sinful striving is forbidden when he commands Manasseh to be content with his lot. They are therefore altogether insane who hew out dry and perforated cisterns in seeking causes of divine adoption. Whereas everywhere the scripture defines in one word that they are called to salvation whom God has chosen and that the primary source of election is his free and good pleasure. Now this is a hard doctrine for many to swallow, but it should be a great comfort to those who are lesser, poorer, dumber, weaker, smaller, shorter, and otherwise looked down upon in this world. God comes to shame the wise and exalt the meek. Election is the great leveling field that says no one gets in by virtue of their brawn or their brains or their beauty or their birthright. But only by virtue of becoming last will anyone end up being first. Isn't that what Jesus says? That's the way it is in the kingdom of Christ. Therefore Jacob has humbled his son Joseph. And so he blessed them that day saying, by you Israel will pronounce blessings saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. Therefore he put Ephraim before Manasseh. And suddenly the blessing ends and Jacob becomes very somber. and we return to that idea I brought up at the beginning. He turns to Joseph and he says, behold, I'm about to die. This is what I was talking about at the beginning of the sermon then. Death is the dark cloud that is hovering over Jacob. And it hovers over you, whether you want to think about it or not. It is unavoidable. And it must cause you to take stock of your life. Where will you go when you die? What are you trusting? Do you know Christ? Those are the most important questions you can ever ask yourself. My uncle, whom I mentioned earlier, was not a believer for a very long time. We prayed for him and prayed for him. But late in his life, God has gotten a hold of him. He now knows the Savior. Do not leave this hour without having found the one who is now seeking you through his word. I want you to see two words in verse 21, but God. You see, there's Jacob's hope in God again. And we've seen who God is, not just in God, like Americans say it on their coins, whatever that means, but God through Jesus Christ, but in God and his faithfulness and covenant keeping displayed in the past, confirmed by the angel, certain in the future, God will be with you and will bring you again into the land of your forefathers. It's amazing to me that so many people think that the faith of the Old Testament saints was only in future promises. It isn't only in future promises, it is, but it's also in the past work of Christ on their behalf. They're trusting in something that happened to them. And that's Jacob's hope. If Jacob thought Joseph would not die before returning to Canaan, he would have been wrong. Joseph would die in Egypt, but he was not wrong about Joseph in the tribes of his sons. God would bring them to the land of their fathers and this is what has been on the old man's mind since the beginning of the story. Nor was he wrong in terms of Joseph's body, which is what Joseph, except without the spirit, temporarily found out. So let's look at the last verse here. It concludes, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow." So he says in the verse before that God is going to bring you back to the land of your fathers and now I'm giving you one mountain slope that I took. Now there's nothing in Genesis that says exactly that Jacob took a mountain from the Amorites in a war. However, a few passages certainly are interesting to look at. There's a verse in John 4 Jesus comes to that woman at the well in Samaria, a town called Shechar, and says, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. That's right between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, 20 or so miles north of Jerusalem. Those are the two mountains where the two tribes of Israel would scream back and forth the blessings and the curses upon one another. It's also the ancient town of Shechem, where that horrible event took place early in the book with Levi and Simeon killing all the men of the town. Now before that event we learned that Jacob had bought a piece of land from Shechem's father for a hundred pieces of money and there he pitched his tent. So here it says one mountain slope but other translations say one portion. So I'll give you a portion of land. It's literally one shoulder or one Shechem is the word. And so it fits the geography of Shechem well. It fits what we know from John. That's what he's talking about. Joshua tells us the fulfillment of this. As for the bones of Joseph, when the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem in a piece of land Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. And that is how the chapter ends. It's kind of a anticlimactic. But it does end anticipating that God will fulfill the blessings given through Jacob. And Jacob's hope is not in vain. Indeed, it was fulfilled in ways that none of them would imagine. And that is why when death is near, one need not fear, for God is powerful to perform all that he has sworn. He has proven it in the history of Ephraim. and Manasseh and Joseph. He's proven that Jacob's faith in Christ is not misplaced. He's proven it in sending Christ in human flesh who calls you now to repent and to trust in him. Let's pray together. Lord, a very interesting passage you preserved for us in Genesis 48, one that we might be tempted to just kind of skip over get to the real good stuff with the blessings of his actual sons. But Father, we learn so much here in this chapter about your divine electing love, about you leveling the playing field, not allowing any of us to come away from it thinking that somebody deserves salvation because of a birthright or anything else. It is all in your hands and purposes. But also, it's not only in the hands of God our Father, but it's through Jesus Christ, our Son, your Son, who we have seen in the passage today, whom Jacob knew and pointed us to in this text. And I'm thankful that you have allowed some in the past in the church to see what we've talked about today. I would pray that you would allow all who are within the hearing shot of this word to come away seeing more of their Savior through this text. That you would illumine more of the scripture to them, that they read, by causing them to focus on the Son, even as Jacob did. And it is in the Son that Jacob put his trust. And I would pray that you would help all of us here to do the same thing. Because we have talked about some serious stuff this morning with death. And Lord, we would pray that you would not allow us to die without saving us. That you would not allow us to wander away from you. but that you would preserve us to the end, that you would see us safely through to heaven. We praise you knowing that you are a God who is powerful to be able to do all that you have promised to do, and we trust in that this morning, even as Jacob did in this passage. We thank you for your word, and we pray you would bless it. In Jesus' name, amen.