of our attention to the reading of God's holy and inspired word, Genesis 48, beginning in verse one. After this, Joseph was told, behold, your father is ill. And so he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. And 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. And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers and their inheritance. As for me, when I came from Paddan to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? And Joseph said to his father, these are my sons whom God has given me here. And he said, bring them to me that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold, God has let me see your offspring also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and he brought them near him. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, 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, and in them let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joseph saw that his fathers laid his right hand on the head of Abraham, It displeased him, and he took his father's hand to move 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. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will pronounce blessing, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, 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. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would help us as we seek to hear these words and understand them rightly in light of Jesus, your son, the true firstborn of all creation. We pray, Lord, that through him and by the power of his spirit, you would remind us of your holy gospel and word and strengthen us in it, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. One of the beautiful things about the Bible and one of the things that makes the Bible most intriguing to me, at least, is that it very seldom is what's right there on the surface all that is going on. In other words, you can read the passage like this, and it seems almost like a quaint grandfatherly blessing being passed on to his grandsons. It could almost be read as that. This is a grandfather who very much loved these unexpected grandsons, ones that he did not expect to see. He didn't even expect to see Joseph's face anymore. But yet now he gets to lay his eyes, dim as they might be, on these two who came from Joseph. in the land of Egypt and on the surface it could be seen as a simple just a grandfather caring for his grandchildren and rejoicing in the Lord and passing on a spiritual blessing. However, it's far more significant than just that it is that in a way there is. A sense where here you have this like familial bond strengthened here, that bond that was once thought to be severed when Joseph was assumed to be dead. And so there's a recognition of, even here, God's involvement providentially in bringing all this about. Joseph confesses that, these are my sons whom God has given me here. Jacob confesses that, that God really was the one who worked this out, God has let me see you. Joseph and your children. This is a marvelous testimony to God's faithfulness here. But what we want to see in this chapter that is very near the end of Genesis, you see it as so rich with not only theological meaning, but with gospel hope, which what, with a revelation of what God is working for your good, for my good, like the foundation of the gospel that we cling to, that brings us eternal life, that announces Jesus Christ as the firstborn of all creation, as the savior of all his people, as the God of the ends of the earth, like all that is found here in this scene between a grandfather and his grandchildren at the really the hour of his death, very close to when he goes to be with the Lord. There are three main things I want us to see from this chapter as we go through it. You find these in your bulletin, they're the outline for this sermon. First, we'll see a strong confession of God's covenant loyalty, and then a very surprising, really a shocking account, in a way, of the grace of God on display here in what Jacob is doing with Ephraim and Manasseh. And then finally, a steadfast, or you could say a reminder to be steadfastly dependent on God's guidance and care in this chapter. So let's jump right in. Let's consider all this unfolding as Jacob finds himself near death. Now, this is where Jacob has found himself previously in a number of occasions, but this is truly the moment where he will expire, where his earthly life will come to its conclusion. He is ill, the news reaches Joseph's ears, and so Joseph goes to be with him, and he brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Remember, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by the daughter of the priest, of Egypt, really, in a way, Potiphar, the priest of Egypt. In other words, one of the most important, famous women of the whole land becomes Joseph's wife, and she bears to him these two sons, and probably more. Notice that there's an indication that Joseph had other children in the land. But these two sons stand out, in a way, because they are joined to the covenant people of God. Now, as they're brought to Jacob, Jacob is very ill. Notice the language here of verse two, that Israel or Jacob, and we're just the same person, summoned his strength and sat up in bed. He found himself in great weakness here, but yet you could almost say for this one last time to not only bless and welcome into the covenant Manasseh and Ephraim, but then in the next chapter we'll see as he blesses his 12 sons here, he is concluding his life in this way. This is like the ultimate act that Jacob is is doing here. This is where his faith comes to a head. This is where he is presented as spiritually mature, where he acts as a prophet, and he acts here as a covenant mediator, even before his own children. And he summoned his strength to do that. Really, you could say he summoned his strength here to make the good confession, to die well. Notice his words here in verse three. God Almighty, which is a significant name here, El Shaddai in Hebrew. This is the name that is often attached to God's working with the patriarchs, his promises to be the God of the covenant to them. And it expresses his power, his strength, that he is strong to save. He is God full of all might, almighty. And here Jacob says, this God appeared to me in the land of Canaan and he blessed me. And he said, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and a company of peoples will come from you and I will give this land to your offspring after you as an everlasting possession. The very same essence of that promise that he made with Isaac and that he made with Abraham all the way back in the beginning, back in Genesis 12. In other words, the promise of the covenant is being passed down from generation to generation. And Jacob here recounts this and he expresses boldly that God is loyal to his covenant and he has been loyal to his covenant head, his covenant servant here, Jacob himself. This is a strong confession that God's grace has been, it's belonged to him in the past. This is seen in a number of ways, not only in that statement, but if you read on. In verse 15, as he actually speaks the words of blessing over Ephraim and Manasseh, notice how he describes the Lord, the God of, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd. Now, notice, if you know your Bible well, a little bit of Bible trivia time, that is language that appears in multiple other places in scripture, most notably among them, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack. or John 10, where Jesus himself proclaims himself to be the good shepherd who has come to lay down his life for his sheep, like the ultimate fulfillment of that shepherding imagery, but then it even goes beyond that. At the end of the year, usually, when we reflect upon the incarnation of Christ, there's the prophecy in Micah 5, too, that out of Bethlehem, by the way, the Bethlehem where Rachel is buried next to, that is mentioned in this chapter, that out of Bethlehem will come who will be a ruler, a king, who will shepherd my people Israel." And here Jacob confesses that truth, that God has been a shepherd to me. Notice, all my life long to this day. Now, We have spent a lot of time on Jacob's life. It's been a tumultuous life. It's a life full of sin. It's a life full of suffering. It's a life full of grace. And God has been with him the whole way as a shepherd to faithfully lead him. Even in the times where Jacob himself wasn't the most willing of sheep, the Lord was still directing and guiding his path. And we'll see how he then entrusts Joseph and his sons and the rest of his sons into that hand of this shepherd at the end of this chapter But notice that good confession. It's a strong confession of God's covenant loyalty Not only to him individually but to his people as a whole and then verse 16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil Now when he uses the word angel there, it's like he is referring also to the Lord but to the Lord as appearing to him. Remember that key significant moment in Jacob's life when he wrestled an angel? Think of the angel of the Lord, whom in scripture is likened unto God himself. Most likely an appearance of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity in his pre-incarnate glory, coming as a messenger from God to bring the covenant. And the angel of the Lord in the Old Covenant, by the way, the word angel simply means messenger, like a messenger from the Lord, who brings the Lord's authority and the Lord's word, who is the Lord's word, appeared to Jacob, wrestled with him, blessed him. But notice the words of Jacob here as he recognizes what God has done through his angel, through his son, you could say. He has redeemed me. It's the first place in scripture where the word redemption or redeemer applied to God is found. And it's on the lips of Jacob, a former scoundrel, and God had done a great work in his heart. Here, Jacob is making the good confession on his deathbed, this is my God, this is what he has done. He's shepherded me my whole life long, even in the times of sorrow and sin, even in the darkness of the night and the valley of the shadow of death, and he has redeemed me from all evil. Even, you could say, his own. This is a strong testimony to the God of grace and the God who is loyal to his promises. This is true for Jacob. How much more is it true for us? How much more can we say, looking back on our lives, even in the moment of our death, which we anticipate one day we should live in light of that fact that each of us, should the Lord not come to claim us in his return to judge the living and the dead, we will face death. How do we die well? How do we die with reliance upon the faithfulness and mercy of God? Well, look to Jacob here, one whose life has been far from an example of spiritual success. He is one who has, in many ways, lived the life of a great sinner, and yet the Lord is a great Savior, and he humbly recalls and recognizes that. And he has a, compared to us, Very little to go on, yet he still makes this good confession. We have the whole scriptures. We have the gospel, not just in type and shadow, but in full blazing light through Jesus Christ that we can look back on and say, look, here is my redemption. My Redeemer lives. My Redeemer is the one who redeemed me from all evil, from all my sins. He's the one who has been my shepherd all my life long, even to the hour of my death. The Lord is a good shepherd for his people. He is loyal to his promises. He is loyal to his covenant. He calls us to reflect on that and to confess that boldly, not only when we die, but at every moment that we're alive, especially this morning. One of the purposes of our gathering together is to confess, to confess the truth that God is our God. and we are his people. One of the purposes of the supper, which we'll celebrate together this evening, is to declare and proclaim the Lord's glory and to proclaim that Christ will come again in fulfillment of his promises, to confess that he is ours and we are his, to make this strong confession. Let us all not only just make the confession but truly believe it in our hearts that God is for us a good shepherd and our faithful redeemer. Now the second thing we see in this chapter is that flowing out of this strong confession of God's covenant loyalty comes really an account that is shocking, that is a reversal of all expectation here of God's amazing grace. And I fear that, and in my own heart, I fear that for all of us, we tend to grow so accustomed to the thought of grace that we fail to be shocked by it. It truly is amazing that God is good to us And though he knows every thought we've ever had, he knows every action we've ever committed, everything we've ever done, every sin we've ever spoken, every word we've spoken to others in evil, every time we've cursed him. The Lord knows all of this intimately and yet he still loves us and still seeks us out and still is gracious to us. It's astounding. But we see this grace on display in this chapter here. in a number of ways. First, you see it in adoption. That's what's happening here. And it really helps us to see some of the, I mean, there's some oddities about this chapter. But yet what is occurring here is Jacob is adopting the sons of Joseph as his own. That's why he says here in verse three, and now your two sons, the ones who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you, they are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are. And there's significance there as well, because Reuben and Simeon are the first and second born. And here, in a way, Joseph's children become the firstborn. especially Ephraim, and in a second we'll see how that itself is surprising. But this is an adoption ceremony, and it helps explain why, if you've read this chapter closely, it seems that Joseph's kids here are just that, kids. He takes them from his knee. He embraces them and kisses them, but if you remember, if you're reading Genesis carefully, Joseph had his children. in the time of plenty before the time of seven years of of lack of the famine. So if you add up the numbers and Jacob lived he came to he came to Egypt in the time of famine and he lived there for another 17 years. So Joseph's sons here Ephraim and Nasser are probably in their 20s. I mean, they're grown men. And yet you read this chapter and it almost seems like they're children, that they're taken from between the knees of Joseph. And that's because this is a legal ceremony. This is a legal, like something that's unfolding before them. It's almost like a marriage. If you're thinking of marriage, there are words that are spoken. that are legally binding, right? And even if you consider, say, a marriage that is done in a traditional Christian way, there's a liturgy to it, there's a pattern to it, there's a service that is unfolded, the giving away of the bride, you know, the vows, the exchange of the rings, the declaration, the kiss, like these are all parts of the wedding ceremony that are there, and the same thing is unfolding here. not a wedding, but an adoption ceremony here. As Joseph's sons are claimed by and called into the family of Jacob himself in fullness here, Joseph's sons become the sons of Israel. And this is more than just for their good in Egypt. I mean, in a very real way, they have the world before them. They were sons of the highest most important and powerful man in Egypt except for Pharaoh himself. They would have grown up perhaps with Egyptian teaching just like Moses. They very much are in kind of way like Moses grown up, you know under Egyptian dress and sort of lifestyle and yet here they are called out from that and made members fully of the covenant people of God here. They are adopted. into the family of God. These two Egyptian-born children. So there's grace there, just an adoption. These two kids are brought into the covenant family, which we'll see in a little bit, this mirrors our own adoption into the Lord's family, but there's a lot more going on here as well. Many of those who reflect on this chapter throughout church history, all the way back to the church fathers and to the reformers themselves, to present-day commentators, show or express how this is a foreshadowing here of what God will do when his covenant expands in the new covenant to include the Gentiles. Because these children here born to Joseph are, well, they're half Gentile. They're half pagan, you might want to say. They themselves are, they're like Ishmael. And yet, Ishmael was not included in the covenant, but they are. It shows God's grace, and it's how it expands to include the nations themselves, even Egypt, the nation that will become synonymous with the enemies of God. Here, it foreshadows that God's gospel is not confined to one nationality or one people, but it will spread to all the nations of Earth, and it's foreshadowed here, even in Genesis 48. As well as it shows us that the covenant expands. It's more than just what God is doing in one small part of the world in one particular time in history, like the land of promise. In a number of ways it shows that. Number one, Israel isn't even in the promised land at this time when God is blessing him and he is being a blessing to others. And number two, here the inclusion of these sons of Joseph from Egypt into the covenant people of God anticipates the fact and the promise that God's land, what he will give to his people, it's not just that little piece in the Levant, in Palestine today, in Israel today, it is to spread throughout the ends of the earth. Romans 4.11 tells us this, that God made a promise to Abraham that he should be the heir of the world. And this is something that's unfolded throughout all the scripture, even in the Beatitudes themselves, that those who are meek will inherit the earth. Like this is a promise that God has made, that we would have as his people more than just a small piece of land, but a new heavens and new earth, where we dwell with the Lord, where he dwells with us. And this is anticipated and foreshadowed in this simple adoption ceremony with the sons of Joseph. Now there's a lot here. This reminds us of God's grace to us. and that he adopts us into his family. And it reminds us that through us and through the church and the gospel that goes forth, and as he adopts many more into his family, his kingdom is spreading from pole to pole, from east to west, throughout this entire world. His name is being hallowed. He is being worshiped. to the ends of this earth, this is why we have missions, this is why we pray for missionaries, because what is foreshadowed in a small way here in this chapter is coming to fruition. One of the greatest privileges we have as Christians is that we are adopted into the family of God. And I fear that we don't think on that enough. You know, as good reformed Christians, we love justification, we love to talk about sanctification, In justification, we're made right with God by the work of Jesus Christ, imputed, credited to our account, received by faith alone. It makes us right with God and it secures our place in God's kingdom. And then we usually just quickly jump to sanctification. which speaks of God making us holy, even though we've already been declared to be. It's the progressive work of becoming more and more like Jesus throughout our Christian life. But we skip over sometimes adoption. And even in what's called the order of salvation, you go from justification to adoption and then to sanctification. It's there in the middle. would do ourselves a great disservice to fail to realize that our adoption is secure and it's good, and just like justification, it's legal and it declares us to be the children of God, certainly, objectively, and truly. Just like Abraham and Manasseh become the children of Israel, legally, certainly, and truly, even to the point that they receive an inheritance in the land of promise. Here is a reminder that God is in the business of redeeming and saving and shepherding, and that includes adopting, calling to himself a people who would be his own, you and me. Our adoption is secured by the spirit of God, and he is poured out into our hearts, and he calls us his own. And you could make many applications from that, most especially the application of prayer. That if God is now our Father, we can pray to Him as such. The very Lord's Prayer itself is our Father in Heaven, which is built on the bedrock of adoption. One of the great applications of adoption is prayer. We can approach God as our Abba Father, as the one who knows our needs and cares for us and provides our needs as a good father would. Earthly fathers, Jesus says, care for their children, and yet they're evil. How much more then does a good father, full of heavenly power and might and glory and wealth, provide for his people true spiritual good, true treasure even in heaven? And the answer to that question is abundantly, exceedingly, more than we can ask or think. The Lord is one who is a good father to us. Many of you might have had very poor fathers, very miserable excuses for fathers, but you have a good father in the Lord who will never disappoint you. who always has your good in mind. He gave you his son, he's giving you redemption. He gives you himself. Let us receive and rest in that. Remember that God is our father by adoption. There's also another shocking aspect to the grace on display here, and the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, and it shocks Joseph. And so he brings his children before Jacob, and they're to be blessed, and the traditional ceremony would involve the right hand of the patriarch, on the oldest son, the left hand here, since there are two, on the youngest one. So there's a blessing for both of them, but the oldest gets the better blessing, gets the more responsibility as well, because he is the firstborn. This is not just something that is observed in God's people, but it's culturally. throughout the ages, sort of just a thing that the oldest, especially the firstborn son, has a position of honor and of responsibility and therefore receives a greater inheritance. and double what the other brothers received. And so as Ephraim and Manasseh are brought to Jacob, we read here that Jacob can barely see, he's old, he's feeble, he's sickly, and so he crosses his hands to Joseph accidentally, to the point that Joseph tries to take his father's hand from the head of Ephraim and put it on Manasseh. He says, Manasseh's the oldest, but notice Jacob's fatherly words here in verse 19, I know my son. I know. The younger one will be blessed also. But Ephraim will be the one who is considered the firstborn. And actually, this will become a saying throughout Israel, like, God make you like Ephraim and as Manasseh, and he put Ephraim before Manasseh. In other words, he reversed the expectation, he reversed the way things were done. The younger was blessed above the older, and that was not normal. I think that does show us the point that God's activity, the way God works, is often counter our expectation. We see this all the way back to the beginning. Abel was chosen over Cain. Now, there were reasons for that. There were ways that that worked out, and Cain's own evil, of course. Isaac, rather than Ishmael, but Ishmael was older. Jacob, rather than Esau. Now, they were twins, but Esau came out first. He's the firstborn. But Jacob, in God's providence, again, there's a lot going on in that interchange of blessing between Jacob and Esau, but in God's providence, it rests on Jacob. The same thing happens here with Ephraim as it would happen with David, who is the youngest of his brothers. And yet God chooses what is often seen to be the weakest. God chooses what is often unexpected to be actually the one who brings blessing. which is exactly what he does with Christ himself, the one who is unexpected, one who was crucified as a criminal, one who is seen as an upsetter among the people of Israel at the time, one who has no place to lay his head, one who is weak and poor and needy. One who goes to the point of a servant even to death itself, and yet he is the one who brings redemption. He is the true firstborn, you could say, of all creation, who saves a people for himself. This is the way God works. It's so counter our expectation. Not only in our redemption, but really in so many areas. His whole kingdom is one that's counter our expectation. The humble are the ones who are exalted, right? Those who are powerful are the ones who serve. There's this counter expectation to God's. activity and work in this world that you see here in this chapter as well. And so we've seen here a steadfast confession of God's covenant loyalty, personally made by Jacob, reminding us to confess that God has been good to us as shepherd and redeemer. We see here as well the amazing grace of God that we should never neglect to reflect on its truly shocking nature. and our own adoption, and the fact that God has brought through Christ one who was unexpected, you could say, our redemption. But the third and final thing we see here, and this is our final point, and it really just covers verse 21 and 22, is that we're called to have a steadfast dependence on God's sovereign direction and care, because he is a good shepherd to us. Where does Jacob leave his son Joseph and his new sons, Ephraim and Manasseh? He says in verse 21, I am about to die, but God will be with you. He will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I've given 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. What is this that Jacob's saying to his spiritual and physical offspring here? Emmanuel, God will be with you. and he will guide your steps, he will direct your path, and he will bring you back to the place where you belong, to where your citizenship is. I mean, he doesn't tell them all this now, but he will. We'll be certain. You will be exiles and strangers here and not in positions of power. You'll be slaves, but God will be with you. He will bring you out of bondage. He will return you to the land not just as a whole the people of God, but even Joseph here, and this is what we read in Hebrews 11, that Joseph, at the end of his life, gave instructions concerning his bones, that they would not be buried in Egypt, that they themselves would be buried in the promised land. And if you read Joshua 24, as the people go into the land of Israel, what do they do? They take Joseph's bones and they bury him in Shechem, which is exactly the word that Jacob uses here in verse 22, where he says, I've given to you one mountain slope, literally the word in Hebrew is. I've given you Shechem, where he would go and where Joseph would eventually be laid to rest here as he, in a way, anticipating resurrection as he receives his inheritance. What does Jacob do here? But he calls his children, he calls us, to look to and be dependent upon God's spiritual direction and care for us, because he truly is a shepherd, he truly is a redeemer, and he is Emmanuel, God with us, and he will always be with us and bring us into the land of our fathers. I didn't listen to Pastor Keller's evening sermon last week, but I read the text that he preached, and that whole text makes that very same promise, does it not? God will be with you, and he will bring you into the land of his promise, which for us is not that part of the world there. But again, that heavenly kingdom, that new heavens and new earth that is reserved for us, that Christ has gone beforehand to prepare and he will bring us into heavenly Canaan, which we await for, even though we might be pilgrims and strangers now. The Lord will be with us. He will guide us to the land where we belong. Let us look to him with a wholehearted dependence like a sheep looks to its shepherd. Let us look to him like one who has been redeemed, looks to the one who has given his own self to purchase our redemption. Let us be those who confess like Jacob. God is with us our whole life long. Let's pray.