Let me invite you once again to turn toward the front of your Bibles to the very first book within the canon of our Christian scriptures, the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, this great foundational book within the scriptures. And we have of late, been looking at this last part of Genesis, chapters 37 through 50, which is the inspired record of Joseph. And we're hastening very quickly to the end of this series. Today, we're in Genesis and chapter 49. And God willing, we'll look at the entirety of this chapter. But for our purposes now, I'm just going to read a few portions of it. I'm going to read the opening verse. Then I'm going to read verses 8 through 12, and then I'm going to read the very last verse, verse 33 of Genesis and chapter 49. So let me invite you, as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and the hearing of God's word. Again, we're in Genesis chapter 49, beginning in verse 1, in which Moses faithfully records And Jacob called unto his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. And then from verse 8 to verse 12, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion who shall rouse him up. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal under the vine and his ass's colt under the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk." And then the final verse, verse 33, and when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people. May God bless today, once again, the reading and the hearing of his word. And let us join in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we stand before and under thy word. We ask today for the illumination of thy Holy Spirit Open our eyes that we may see thy truth, unstop our ears that we might hear thy word, and loosen our minds and hearts that we might receive it and apply it to our lives. We ask this in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Well, I noted last time that Genesis chapters 48 and 49, as we're very quickly hastening to the end of the book of Genesis, they lay out Sort of the last scene in the life of Jacob, one of the patriarchs. There had been Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Jacob had 12 sons. And they become the foundation for the 12 tribes of Israel, Israel established as a nation. Jacob is aging. His body is so weak that he can barely sit up in his bed when Joseph comes to him. His eyes are so weak that he can barely see. to determine whether Joseph has brought Ephraim and Manasseh, his sons, to him to bless him. And we saw last time in Genesis 48 how Jacob had blessed Joseph, the son that he thought was dead but found out was alive. And he said, God has blessed me. I've not only have seen Joseph, but I've seen his sons. I've seen my grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and he blessed them. Now, in Genesis 49, the blessings continue as Jacob will bless again Joseph, but beyond the blessing of Joseph, he blesses also his other 11 sons. Again, those who will be the nucleus for the 12 tribes of Israel. And really, what's happening is the fulfillment of the promise that was given to Abraham, Father Abraham, back in Genesis 12, 1 through 3. God told Abraham, if you leave the land where you've grown up and you go to the land of promise, I will bless you. I will make you into a great nation. And through your seed, through your offspring, there will be a blessing for all the nations. And God is working out his plan of salvation. He has been faithful to keep his promises. And now Abraham's seed is being established, will be established as a great nation. through these 12 sons of Jacob, who, again, be the foundation for the building of the nation of Israel. In his final act of his long life, Jacob will act not only as a patriarch, but also as a prophet, predicting the destinies and giving blessings to his sons. including a prophecy that will come when he speaks about Judah, that from Judah there will come the Messiah. And then, having successfully completed this task of blessing his sons, Jacob will give final instructions to them as to what they are to do with his body when he dies, and then he will give up the ghost or the spirit and he will go the way of all flesh, and as it says, he will be gathered to his people. As it says in Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. And so, Jacob, we get to see the last scenes here in Jacob's life. One of the things we sometimes say as Christians is that we want to finish well. It matters how we start, it matters how you start the race, but we want to finish well. Paul said we are to run with perseverance the race that is set before us. What good would it do if you went to, you know, a marathon race or some competitive race and you had a good start but then You got maybe within sight of the finish line and you got distracted and you went off the trail and went somewhere else or you got tired of running and you stopped or even you had a cramp and you couldn't, a pain and you couldn't struggle through to the end. What good does it do to start the race if you don't finish it well? And we say that's what it's like in the Christian life. Yes, perhaps you have professed the faith. Perhaps you have been obedient in baptism. Perhaps you have been diligent in reading the scriptures and in serving the Lord and in prayer. But everything can be lost if one does not persevere in the race. This is one way we show that we are among the elect. is that we persevere in the faith and it's God who sustains us and helps us to persevere. And so we see Jacob finishing well. And it's interesting, Jacob's an interesting character. Some of us were talking about this last Sunday over lunch, you know. In the beginning he's the trickster, he's grasping the heel of his brother and He's deceiving his own father when his father was aged and taking his brother's birthright. But we noticed last week spiritual growth in Jacob, that by the end of his years, by the time he ended his life, we saw wisdom, we saw virtue coming. And that's the way it ought to be in our lives, that the further we go along, there are more exhibitions of piety, of virtue that comes out of persevering in the faith. And so let us learn today from Jacob's prophecy and let us learn from his example. Let's turn to our passage, this 49th chapter, and we can divide it into three parts. First of all, there's the introduction that is in verses 1 and 2. And it describes how Jacob gathered his 12 sons to give them this prophetic blessing. The second part is really the major part of this chapter. It's verses 3 through 27. And it simply describes how Jacob administered this blessing, this final blessing, from his deathbed to these 12 sons. And then the last part, the third and last part, is verses 28 through 33, where Jacob issues a final charge to his sons regarding his death and his burial. So let's walk through these three parts of our passage together. We begin looking at verses 1 and 2, the introduction, how Jacob gathers his son to give them his prophetic blessing. And so we start in verse 1. It says, and Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Notice that Jacob gathers or assembles his sons. He serves as a convener. He's something like a pastor or minister gathering a flock for worship. He is also acting as a patriarch, a head of household. How sad it is when there are families and households where the men are passive and apathetic. And they let the wives lead. There's a place for women leading and serving. Men and women are absolutely spiritual equals. But how sad it is to have a family where there's not a man who's willing to stand up and say, let's get ready and go to church. Where there's not a man who says, let's sit around the table. Before we have this meal, let's read the scriptures and pray together. Let me assemble the household, assemble the family together. And so not in a tyrannical way, not in a hypocritical way, but in an earnest and a sincere manner. And this is the sense we get here with Jacob. And we're seeing, again, his maturity. We're seeing his growth. Maybe this wouldn't have been the way he had acted much earlier. But we're seeing him, again, towards the finish line of this race as he's gathering his own family together. And notice he says he's going to tell them things that shall befall them in the last days. I know this was a long time ago. This was many years before even the birth of Christ, the Lord Jesus at Bethlehem. By the last days, he means in this period of time in which we're living now, he's going to, again, he's a patriarch, but he's also a prophet, and he's going to prophesy if things will happen to his sons. That's not something we ordinary fathers can do, but Jacob was not an ordinary man. He was a man used of God, special used of God. And notice that in verse two, he gives a threefold set of instructions to his sons. He says, first, gather yourselves together. Gather yourselves together. Guess what? You will miss out on every message from God's word that you fail to assemble to receive. You'll miss out on every, you ever thought about that? Maybe sometime when we've missed an opportunity to attend a meeting and to hear the word preached or taught that perhaps we missed out on a message we needed to hear that would have encouraged us, would have promoted our growth and faith and godliness. So first, he says, gather yourselves together, much as Paul said in Hebrews 10.25 that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Secondly, in verse 2, he says, and hear, ye sons of Jacob. Listen to, in this case, what Jacob was going to say, but it was also a special revelation from God. Listen to what God says in his word. And then thirdly, in verse two, he says, and hearken unto Israel, your father. And so listen, not only hear with the physical ear, but hearken, heed, obey, hear spiritually. So the issue here is not just a fifth commandment issue. He does say, listen, hearken to Israel, your father, but remember, Israel or Jacob here is also acting at this point as a prophet. So listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Hear it and hearken to it. We just read, didn't we, from James 1 that we are not merely to be hearers of the word, but doers of it. And so that's the introduction. Let's move on to the second part. And again, it's the longest part of the passage. And that's verses 3 through 27, where we get the record of Jacob actually administering this prophetic blessing to each of his 12 sons. And he goes through the 12 sons. He's going to start with the oldest, who was Reuben. He's going to go all the way down to the youngest, who was Benjamin. Although, if you go back and look at Genesis chapters 29 and 30, where there's the first record of the birth of the 12 sons, he doesn't strictly follow the chronological birth order, although it begins with the oldest Reuben, and ends with the youngest, Benjamin. Most is said about Judah in verses 8 through 12, and about Joseph in verses 22 through 26. And it's interesting, to each one of his 12 sons, he gives a symbol or a sign. Let's think about that. Just think about, if you're a father, your children, what symbol or sign would you give to them? What would represent their character, their strengths, or maybe their weaknesses? Well, again, Jacob isn't just musing on this. He's being directed by the Holy Spirit. And he gives to each one of his sons a symbol or a sign. So let's walk through these. Let's walk through, if we can, briefly, these 12 statements that he makes about his sons. But I'm going to skip Judah. Judah's going to be the fourth one, but I'm going to come back to Judah as the very last one. So the first son whose address is Reuben, and this is in verses 3 and 4. Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob with his wife Leah. And he's identified, in fact, here as the firstborn. Look at verse 3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. A father as a man often takes a special pride in his firstborn and especially, no offense to the daughters, to a firstborn son. He expects perhaps that this son will embody all of his best strengths and might excel him in all his pursuits and accomplishments. And so Jacob speaks so highly here of Reuben. He's his might, the beginning of his strength, the excellency of his dignity and power. But despite the expectations for Reuben, and despite this context in which they lived, where there was the law of primogenitor, where the firstborn son was the one who inherited, the wealth, and who would have all the power. Despite all these advantages and benefits that Reuben had been given, he also had great weaknesses. And one of the things we see through these 12 blessings, we're going to see in these sketches of each one of these sons, there are going to be great strengths for some of them, but also there are going to be things listed that were weaknesses that retarded that held back and in some cases wrecked their characters and reputations. And we begin to see this about Reuben in verse four. And it's also the symbol that Jacob gives to him. He says of Reuben, unstable as water. Reuben's sign is water. Water conforms to the shape of whatever it's poured into. It has no fixed and secure shape. And what this indicates to us is that Reuben, though he had many great advantages, as the firstborn lacked consistency. He lacked consistency. He lacked form and shape. I didn't plan this, but it was interesting that this morning we read again from James 1. And remember what James said there in James 1, verse 8? He said, beware the double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways. We probably know people like this, right? They're in one marriage and then they're in another. They're in one job and then they're in another. Theologically, they might be a Calvinist one day and are many in the next. They go wherever the wind blows. They are unstable as water. And they don't put down roots anywhere. Sometimes they're gypsies when it comes to churches. They go from church to church to church because they're always looking for that perfect church. And guess what? There are none. And so Reuben was unstable. Now, in his case, his particular act of instability was related to lust. Look at verse 4. Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defilest thou it, he went up to my couch. And the background for this is described for us in Genesis 35, verse 22, where it says, and it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard it. And so he had committed not only a sin against his father, but he committed this sin, fornication, with Bilhah, his father's concubine. And so this is a mark, Jacob says, of his instability. When you think about Reuben, you remember in Genesis 37, when we first started the account of Joseph, when the brothers were were hating on Joseph because of his dreams. And they decided when he came out to them that they were going to conspire against him. Who was the one who spoke up for Joseph? It was Reuben. And he spoke up in Genesis 37, verse 21. He said, let us not kill him. Let us not shed innocent blood. Man, that's the Reuben of Genesis 49 and verse 3. Might, beginning of strength, excellence of dignity. But then what happens in Genesis 37? He disappears. He did the right thing, but then he just inexplicably disappears. And he's not there when the brothers decide to sell Joseph into slavery. Judah speaks up for him, but Reuben disappears. And unstable as water. Maybe saying and doing the right thing on one occasion, but then being in absentee. on the next. Let's move on to the second and third brothers who are treated together in verses 5 through 7, Simeon and Levi. They too were the sons of Jacob and Leah. So after Reuben, Simeon and Levi. And here's the description of them in verse 5. Simeon and Levi are brethren. And then what is their sign? Instruments of cruelty are in their habitation. So their sign would be an instrument of cruelty, probably a sword or a dagger. And the fault with these brothers, these sons of Jacob, is that they had been unable to control their anger to such a degree that they violated the Sixth Commandment and took human life wantonly and unjustly. This is described in verse 6. Oh, my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly. Mine honor be not thou united. For in their anger, they slew a man. And in their self-will, they digged down a wall. They knocked over a wall of propriety, a wall of proper boundaries in committing murder. This is most likely a reference back to Genesis 34, if you were with us in this series. In Genesis 34, remember Jacob's daughter, Dinah, had been defiled by Shechem, the son of Hamor, and then he had gone and wanted to marry her and he had negotiated with Jacob and They had agreed to allow this marriage if the Shechemites would be circumcised. And they went through with this. But then in Genesis 34, verse 25, it says, and it came to pass in the third day when they were sore that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males. We talked about that before. On one hand, you might say it was a just action. They were defending the honor of their sister. But on the other hand, they were violating the command of their father. And Jacob was displeased. We can read in Genesis 34, in verse 30, he said to those sons, ye have troubled me. So Reuben's problem was instability. The problem with Simeon and Levi was they did not know how to control their anger. And in their excessive anger, they'd even struck out, not just with hatred and malice, but they had committed murder. And so they're given by their father not a blessing, but a curse. Look at verse 7. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. And then the punishment, the consequences, I will divide them in Jacob. and scatter them in Israel. The tribe of Levi, oddly enough, they were the priests, and they didn't have land. They would be scattered among the tribes. Whereas the tribe of Simeon would really be swallowed up by larger tribes like Judah when they went into the land, and so they would not have a place of possession. The fourth is Judah, verses 8 through 12. We're going to skip over him. We're going to come back to him. But let's go on to verse 13. The fifth blessing is upon Zebulun. And it says in verse 13, Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be for a haven of ships, and his border shall be unto Zidon. And Zebulun was the sixth son, rather, born to Jacob by Leah. We can read about that in Genesis 30 verse 20. His tribe would settle toward the north of Israel, and it would have trade with the Mediterranean seafaring city-states of Tyre and Sidon. And so the sign that Jacob gives to Zebulun is a haven of the sea and a haven for ships. So his sign is a ship. Then there is Issachar, the sixth son, who is blessed. And this is in verses 14 and 15. Issachar was the fifth son born to Leah. So he was born even before Zebulun. And so he is described in verse 14. Issachar is a strong donkey ass, couching down between two burdens. So this is his sign, a donkey. And donkeys aren't always positive signs. I'm not saying that politically. But it's stubbornness, right? And he's between two burdens. And it said of him in verse 15, he saw that rest was good. He's lazy, he's apathetic. And the land, that it was pleasant. And then because he's lazy and apathetic and stubborn, he becomes compromised and he becomes servile. Look at verse 15, and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto tribute. And here, like Reuben, like Simeon and Levi, Issachar is put forward as a warning sign. Don't be an unprincipled man. Don't be a compromised man. Don't be a sluggard. Don't be stubborn. Don't be apathetic. You'll become a slave. You'll be a slave to sin. You'll be a slave to others, rather than a free man in Christ. He moves on. The seventh of the 12 children is Dan, verses 16 through 18. Dan was the firstborn son to Rachel's handmaid, Bilhah. You can look at that in Genesis 30, verses 5 and 6. The name Dan means judge. And many are familiar with, in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel, and Daniel and the lion's den, and so forth. But the name Daniel, the first part of it is Dan. It means judge. Donnie L. Donnie means my judge and L means God. So the name Daniel means God is my judge. It's still a popular name today among Christians. But this son's name was Dan, Judge. And this is affirmed rightly as positive. Look at verse 16. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. The sign that is given to Dan is of a serpent by the way and that that could possibly be taken negatively but it could also be taken positively. Dan shall be a serpent by the way an adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward and so He's going to be given a gift of being perhaps a small tribe that still can use skill and cunning to defeat a much larger adversary. And so he's like a hidden adder. And then it's interesting, when you get to verse 18, this sort of comes out of nowhere. Jacob is sort of the overflow of his heart in praising God And we saw that actually in the last chapter. In verse 18, there's just kind of like something that's completely parenthetical and aside, where Jacob just says, I have waited for my salvation, O Lord. Then he moves on to verse 19. The eighth of the 12 sons is Gad. Gad was the firstborn to Leah's handmaid, Zilpah. You can read about that in Genesis 30, verses 10 and 11. The name Gad means a troop, a troop of soldiers. And this is also his sign. As it says in verse 19, Gad, a troop, shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. And again, this might be a nice character signpost. The believing man is sometimes overcome. He's overcome by his temptations. He's overcome with despondency and difficulties. But if he is a true Gadite, he overcomes again. He gets up and he overcomes again. In verse 20, we have the ninth of the twelve sons. His name is Asher. Asher was the second born to Zilpah. We can read about that in Genesis 30, verses 12 and 13. The name Asher means happy. And it says of Asher in verse 20, Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal deities. The simple statement about Asher, it's another positive one, is he will be blessed. He will be full. He will be like a fat loaf of bread. And then in verse 21, We have the 10th of the 12 blessings upon the sons, which is Naphtali. Naphtali was the second son born to Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel. He was born after Dan. You can see this in Genesis 30, verses 7 and 8. The name Naphtali means my wrestling, which many an expecting woman probably would like to call her child. My Naphtali, my wrestling. But Jacob in giving this blessing says in verse 21, Naphtali is a hind or a deer let loose. And so he is like a hind, a deer, loose and running. We might think of Psalm 42 that the believer who seeks God is thirsty for God is like a deer panting for water. Like the heart, H-A-R-T, panting for water. And he says of Naphtali in verse 21, he giveth goodly words. So it's a very positive blessing for Naphtali. And then we have 11th and 12th are going to be the two sons of Rachel. Joseph first, verses 22 through 26. And finally, Benjamin in verse 27. Joseph, again, was the firstborn of Jacob's beloved wife, Rachel. His sign is a fruitful bough hanging over a well. Look at verse 22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. And so Joseph will be greatly blessed. He will be a fruitful bough. Maybe, you know, the grapes falling from this bough. It's by a well. It's got all this water. It's got all this fertility. But then in verse 23, it says the archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. What would you guess that means when it's describing Joseph and his life? What's happened to Joseph? Sold into slavery by his brothers. Cast into prison when he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. Many arrows shot at him, much hated by people. And yet remember what was the constant refrain, the Lord was with him. And so in verse 24, Jacob continues, but his bow bowed in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. And he's acknowledging that even when Joseph went through terrible difficulties and trials, that God was still with him. And there's even a prophecy that's lodged in there. I think about Christ at the end of verse 24. From thence, from this God, the God of Jacob, is the shepherd. I think it's Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want it. Then Christ came along in John 10, 11. What did he say? I am the good shepherd. And he calls him also the stone of Israel. Psalm 118, Christ is described as the stone which the builders rejected, which has been made the cornerstone. When Joseph was being helped and strengthened by God, he was really being strengthened and helped by Christ. He goes on then to speak in verse 25, even by the God of thy father who shall help thee, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings, of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb." Meaning his sons would be blessed, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they would become very populous. And we saw this already, didn't we, last week when there was a reference in chapter 48 and verse 19 to the fact that Ephraim, the younger brother, would be a multitude of nations, a very populous nation. And then it says in verse 26, the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, the older brothers, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph. and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." Though Joseph was separated from his brothers, God was with him. He had been raised up, and he had been crowned and been put in command in Egypt in the providence of God to save these brothers who had treated him so poorly from famine. And so that is Jacob's blessing upon Joseph. And then in verse 27, finally, a blessing upon Benjamin. Also, the son of Rachel, the younger brother of Joseph, Benjamin, shall raven as a wolf. His son is a wolf. In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. He will be a tenacious hunter like a wolf. And it's interesting that out of the little tribe of Benjamin, there will come the first king of Israel, Saul, although he will be a failed king. And who else will come from the line of Benjamin? The Apostle Paul will come from the line of Benjamin. And so this tribe will be used of God. Now let's go back. Let's go back to verses 8 through 12. We skipped over Judah. Let's go back and look at Judah. Judah was the fourth son born of Leah. We can see that in Genesis 29, verse 35. The name Judah means praise. And Judah is the kingly line. From Judah will come the kings of particularly the nation of Judah, and Jerusalem will be the capital. And this will be the kingly line. From Judah will come David, and will come Solomon, and will come the godly leaders like Asa. The leaders will not come from the older sons, from Reuben, from Simeon, from Levi, but from Judah. We talked before about the blessing of the second born or the latter born, perhaps reminding us that Judah will not prevail because of his own inherent good qualities, but because of the grace of God. As Zechariah 4, 6 puts it, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. In verse 8, it says that he will be at the neck of his enemies. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. That's interesting because previously they were bowing down before Joseph, but he's saying your brothers and their seed will bow down before you because he's going to be the ruler. And then what is the sign? What is the image for Judah? It is a lion. Look at verse 9. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down. He couched as a lion and as an old lion. So he's a young lion, an old lion, a vigorous young lion, a mature, wise, older lion. Who shall rouse him up? The ancient Hebrews knew this animal, the lion, as the king of the beasts, the most powerful and fearsome. Maybe you've heard the lion of the tribe of Judah. And then there's this prophecy that Jacob gives. Remember, he's prophesying, as it says in verse 1, things which shall befall you in the last days. The scepter, the staff of rule, shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, that is from his descendants, until Shiloh come. Jacob prophesied that the scepter of rule will not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from his line of descent until Shiloh comes. Some years back, we had a little girl in our church named Shiloh. What does the name Shiloh mean? Some suggest the name means peacemaker or savior. That was the opinion of Matthew Poole, the Puritan exegete. One commentator called it a cryptogram, meaning Messiah. Judah would rule until Shiloh, Messiah, comes. And indeed, from Judah would come King David and his descendants, who would rule in one form or another, all the way up to the time when Herod the Idumean, the Edomite, was made the king of the Jews by the Romans. And then at that time, Who was born? The Lord Jesus Christ, who is Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, the Peacemaker, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. In the Apostle John's vision of heaven in Revelation 5.5, one of the elders says to him, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And when John looks up, we're told in Revelation 5-6, he sees a lamb as it had been slain. Nathan the prophet prophesied to David in 2 Samuel 7-16 that there would always be someone who would sit on his throne, that it would be established forever. And this was finally fulfilled in the coming of Christ. Jacob says at the end of Verse 10 there, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Unto him, unto Shiloh, unto the Messiah will be the gathering of God's elect, Jews and Gentiles. In verse 11, it speaks of him binding his foal under the vine and his ass's colt under the choice vine. And it says he washed his garments in wine and His clothes in the blood of grapes." Some suggested this meant that He was so wealthy He didn't even need to wash His clothes in water. He washed them in wine. But others of us who see this through the lens of the New Testament, what do we see here? We see a figure anticipating the shedding of Shiloh's blood in His atoning death upon the cross. Just recently we were looking at Revelation 19 and its description of Christ's triumphant return riding on a white horse. And it says in Revelation 19.13 of Christ, He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God. I think that's a prophecy of Christ's atoning death and the shedding of His blood. It says of him in verse 12, his eyes shall be red with wine. And we might hear that and think, what does that mean? Drunken? Bloodshot eyes? No. What it means is they could think of nothing, the ancients, nothing better to describe something that was vivid and colorful and full than to say it was like wine. And what they're saying is the pupils of his eyes, his eyes are full and rich. It's like the darkness of wine. And then it says of him also, his teeth white with milk. Here is a spiritual picture of Christ who is the epitome of health and vigor, of purity and strength. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And this is indeed the apex of Jacob's prophetic blessing. Let's look briefly at the third and final part of our passage, which is verses 28 through 33. Having given this prophetic blessing to his sons, Jacob then gives them a charge relating to his death and burial. In verse 28, he says, all these are the 12 tribes of Israel. Actually, this is Moses speaking to us. And this is the first time in the scriptures we have the use of the term the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is? it that their father spake unto them and blessed them, every one according to his blessing he blessed them." Verse 29, and he charged them and said unto them, he gives them his final instructions from his sickbed, which will be his deathbed, I am to be gathered unto my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is in Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarai, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife. And there I buried Leah." And so he's saying, we're here in the land of Egypt. But when I die, take me back to the land of promise that God promised to Father Abraham. He says, verse 32, the purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And then in verse 33, Moses closes by saying, when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people. His spirit left his body awaiting the day of the resurrection. And when it says he was gathered to his people, it meant he went the way of all men before him, all sinful men before him, as Paul puts it, In Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well, friends, we've worked through the passage. I hope the Holy Spirit has already connected some dots for us. But let me hasten, if I can, to draw a few spiritual applications that might be of help to us. Once again, I think we can look at this chapter the way we looked at chapter 48. And we can see ways in which Jacob is a godly model for one who finished well. Friends, have you started the race? Have you trusted in Christ? How are you doing in the race? Are you still running? Have you been distracted? Have you fallen down and you're wondering whether you should get up and continue? Where are you in the race? Well, we're seeing Jacob. Will you contend to the end of your days? Will you run faithfully? Will you grow? Will you become more mature? Will you be, I've met many of these, adult people who've been in churches who are spiritual infants? Sometimes you wonder, how have you been Lord's Day by Lord's Day for 40 years in a church, and you have no maturity at all, spiritually speaking. Where will you be? How will you be? Jacob grew. Jacob wanted to serve as a patriarch for his household. Let me speak to my fellow men here today. Do you want to serve as a patriarch for your household? Do you want to serve as a leader for your household? This applies to our women as well. Do you want to serve as a matriarch for your household? A godly mother for your household? Will you gather your children to hear God's word and to hearken to it? And how will you end your days? Will it be in despair and with Prayerlessness and faithlessness. I went back yesterday and I read a little bit of Ian Murray, who is a minister in the United Kingdom, and he wrote a little biography, or a little biography, it was a big two-volume biography of David Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a great Welsh preacher in England, was preaching in London when they were being firebombed in World War II, was a very stalwart preacher of the gospel. And Ian Murray had worked under him there. And as Lloyd-Jones aged, he was in his sickbed and then in his deathbed. And Ian Murray says he went to speak with him. And he said, as he spoke there with Lloyd-Jones, Lloyd-Jones said to him, quoting the evangelical Daniel Rowland, I am nothing but an old sinner saved by the grace of God. And then Murray says that Lloyd-Jones paused and said with a broken voice, God is very patient with us and very kind. And he suffers our evil manners like he did with the children of Israel. And then Lloyd-Jones said, the love of God. He suffers our evil manners. like he did with the children of Israel. I imagine that Jacob's parting was like that. We can also look through this list of Jacob's son. I'm guessing you probably already started to do this for yourself. And we might start to examine ourselves. We might look at this list and say, you know, have I been like Reuben? Was I given great strength and promise, but have I been as unstable as water? Have I been overcome by lust? We might think of Simeon and Levi, and we might say, have I been waylaid and put aside by unjust anger? Do I have a trigger-like temper so that people feel like they have to walk on eggshells around me? Have I, as a father, provoked my children to wrath rather than raising them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? We might look at Issachar and say, have I been slothful? Have I been lazy? Have I been apathetic? Have I been compromised? But on the other hand, we can learn by the faithfulness that is spelled out here. Think, for example, about Joseph, who was shot at by his enemies, but he was made strong by the arm of the Lord. And finally, maybe most importantly, we can look at the prophecies of Christ here, and we can be reminded that God had a plan of salvation for praise that would come through the Lion of Judah. The lion would be the lamb that was slain. His garments are dipped in his own blood, and he still holds his scepter ruling over men's hearts. Who is ruling over your heart? Is it Shiloh? Whom do you serve? The old Bob Dylan song, you gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody. Will you serve Shiloh? Will you serve Christ? And so this is what is being placed before us today as we continue to listen to God's word. May he bless it. May he profit it to our hearing today. Let me invite you as you're able to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we do give thee thanks for thy word. And even in the Old Testament, even in the account of Joseph and Jacob, we see the foreshadowings of the gospel and the coming of Christ. especially in this season of the year as we remember his coming in humility at Bethlehem. Help us to listen humbly to thy word today and apply it not to others but to ourselves. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake, amen.