Take your Bibles to Genesis chapter number 49. Tonight we continue pastor series in Joseph and this mini series on the blessings or from the blessings of Jacob to his sons. And tonight I have the doubly difficult task of not only preaching the word of God, which is certainly a very difficult task, but I also have the task of preaching in my dad's place as part of his series. I hesitate to say this, but there are a few preachers that I listen to around the country and particularly some that I listen to as I'm studying through a book. There are some that are really good at giving an overview of the passage. And so I oftentimes listen to, I'm thinking of one guy in particular that I listen to, and he's preached to the Bible multiple times already. And he's a wonderful preacher in my estimation. But when he goes out of town, or for whatever reason, he has other preachers preaching his place, you know, young men from the church or whatever. He assigns them the passage much as my dad has done me, he's assigned me this text. And I must confess to you, just being honest, when I'm listening to those digital audio files and I'm going from passage to passage, I skip the guest preacher sermons. I skipped those and go right over them to the next one. And so I'm sure if anybody is listening to this series through a digital audio file, they hear me come on preaching this sermon, they're going to skip right over it. But we'll see what the Lord's got for us from Joseph and Benjamin. Begin reading in verses 22, we'll read down to verse 27. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. But his bow, abode, and strength in the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from dense as the shepherd, the stone of Israel, 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, the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors under the utmost of the everlasting hills. They shall be upon the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning, he should devour the prey, and at night, he should divide the spoil. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would add your blessing to the reading of your word. We pray that you'd speak to us tonight through this blessing that is given from Jacob to Joseph and Benjamin, and may it be a blessing to us tonight, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Joseph is undoubtedly the most interesting and the most unforgettable of the twelve brothers. And so it is no surprise that here in Genesis chapter 49 that Joseph receives the most attention in this blessing from his father, more so, more attention than any other of his brethren. It's important to remember that in the previous chapter, Joseph and his sons were blessed by Jacob there as well. So here in Genesis chapter 49, we have a double blessing, an extra blessing of sorts. And we see, first of all, in verse number 22, Joseph's fruitfulness, Joseph's fruitfulness. Read verse number 22 again. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. In Jacob's blessing to Joseph, Joseph is compared to a plant, a fruitful bough. In fact, the repetition of this should cause us to take note. And you notice in the previous blessings that are given to Jacob's sons, and the next one as well, Jacob's sons are compared to animals. He's compared to a lion, a donkey, a serpent, a deer, and a wolf. But Joseph here in these verses is compared to a plant, a fruitful bough. And a bough would be a tree branch, but not just an ordinary tree branch. It would be a main tree branch from which other tree branches would spring and be fruitful. So Joseph is compared to a branch of a tree that is a dominant branch from which forth other branches can spring forth and produce fruit. And of course the fruit that was produced in Joseph's life was spiritual in nature. His spiritual character throughout his biography here in Genesis is refreshing. It is Christ-like and it exhibits the fruit of the Spirit. It reminds us very oftentimes of the fruit of the Spirit. Consider love. Joseph loved his father. He loved his brethren. He loved Benjamin, of course, but he loved his other brethren who had betrayed him. And we see this demonstrated when his brethren come to Egypt. He can barely stand before his brethren whom the last time he saw them were selling him into slavery. So he has love, joy. Joy is expressed when his father comes to Egypt, but joy is also expressed in what is missing in this biography of Joseph. We never see Joseph in despair. We never see Joseph in depression because of his circumstances. And that is the manifestation of persistent joy that transcends circumstance. So joy, joy, peace, peace. Joseph was an agent of peace. You think of he brought peace to Pharaoh when Pharaoh was troubled by his dreams. Joseph brought peace to his brethren and his family when they were famished during the famine. He was used by God to bring peace to Egypt during the famine as well, and to the whole world, really. He brought peace through that famine. We see also long suffering. Joseph suffered long without lashing back and how unprovoked he was by the injustice that he had received and how faithfully he pressed on. You think of gentleness. He had gentleness towards the butler and the baker. He had gentleness towards his persecuting brethren when they were standing before him. And we could go on through the remainder of the fruit of the spirit, but I think you get the idea. The fruit that was demonstrated in Joseph's life was the fruit of the Spirit. It was spiritual fruit that we see in his life. And surely he was a fruitful bough. But notice what else Jacob says about Joseph. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well. And here we find the true source of Joseph's virtue. Joseph was not the well, but he was situated by the well. It was not that Joseph dug deep into his own resources to find the nourishment to produce this fruit. It was that he was situated by a well that could nourish him so that he could provide fruit. And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit is. That well, that spring of refreshing water whereby our spirits can receive nourishment on a daily basis to produce consistent spiritual fruit. Fruitfulness cannot come any other way. If you're to be fruitful, you cannot rely on self. You must be situated by that well, by that spring, by the Holy Spirit. Notice what else Jacob says here in verse number 22. Joseph is even a fruitful bound by a well whose branches run over the wall. And we'll come back to this a little later as we deal with Joseph, but just here we see that these branches that produce fruit run over the wall. Walls, of course, primarily are meant to divide property. You divide your property from your neighbors, but also to protect your property from foreign invaders. But the idea here is that these branches were so healthy, they were so productive, they were so full, that they flowed over the wall into the neighbor's property, and they produced fruit for those that were beyond the wall. And this is, of course, historically true of Joseph. Joseph, his fruitfulness, not only blessed his family in the land of Canaan, but his branches reached beyond Canaan into the land of Egypt. When Joseph went into Potiphar's house, the Lord blessed everything that he did, and Potiphar's house benefited as a result of the fruitfulness of Joseph. And when he reached the palace, when he reached the prison even, his fruitfulness benefited the prisoners. When he reached the palace, his fruitfulness benefited Pharaoh and then it benefited all of Egypt and it overflowed and it benefited all the world, including back home to his homeland of Canaan. So Joseph's fruitfulness, his fruitfulness, it reached over those walls. It blessed those that were without the walls. And you know, when God saves someone, they are rooted and they are grounded in the love of God. There are wonderful personal blessings that come with this. You think of the joy, the peace, the sure-footedness, the satisfaction that is found in Christ and Christ alone. And that is a wonderful experience for the individual believer to enjoy and experience. But if those blessings remain on your side of the wall only, then I would suggest that your root is not situated by the well, by the spring that is the Holy Spirit of God. And Christianity is indeed personal, but it is not private. A true fruitfulness is proven by whether or not others share in our produce. And of course, the church is another way in which we should see this fruitfulness extend beyond our own walls, and in this case, literally our own walls. A healthy church will have fruit that abounds beyond these walls. An unhealthy church cares only about what goes on here, here, in edifying the believers. And I think according to this our church is pretty healthy. I wouldn't say that we're perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think of the printing ministry. We print Bibles for believers and unbelievers around the world. I think of the the prison ministry as well. We have a ministry there that reaches out to the incarcerated. You think of the church that we started in the neighboring area, a church that we helped revive also in a neighboring area. I think of Jim Showers who is in Paraguay ministering down there. And then of course the dozens of missionaries that we support around the country. That's all fruit that abounds outside of these walls. That's all fruitfulness that is produced beyond our walls, beyond those that are within and inside of these walls. Every healthy church is characterized by fruitfulness that abounds beyond their own walls and even their own immediate city, excuse me. So we see Joseph's fruitfulness, but then I want you to see in verse number 23, Joseph's fighting, his fighting. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. So the imagery here in verse number 23 shifts from a plant to now a soldier. He is now gone from being a fruitful bough to a soldier that is being greed by opposing archers. And Joseph's life demonstrates to us that those who are fruitful are not necessarily guaranteed to have an easy life. In fact, they're almost guaranteed to have a difficult life. And Joseph was undoubtedly a man upon whom God's favor rested. There's no doubt about that. But yet, the opposition to Joseph's life was incredible. And does it surprise us that the devil attacks primarily the healthy, the fruitful believers? I mean, think about it. If you are a deer hunter, You, when you go out deer hunting, you obviously are looking for a nice, juicy, healthy deer to walk across your crosshairs. You're looking to take home healthy, a lot of meat from a healthy beast. You're not looking to kill a scrawny deer. You think about insects. Insects don't, they don't infest barren trees. They infest healthy trees, because that's where the nourishment is. And so it is that the devil is occupied primarily with the believers that are healthy, with the believers that are fruitful. And you want criticism? Live godly. You want to be ostracized by this world? Be a fruitful Christian. I mean, think about Joseph. Joseph walked up to his brethren one day and they decided to kill him. What had he done to deserve that kind of treatment? He had done nothing. He had simply received favorable treatment from his father. He had received special love from his father. The brothers of course eventually sold him into slavery. He sold in order that he would never bother them again. Joseph ended up in Potiphar's house where the Lord blessed everything that he did. And what happened as a result of that? Potiphar's wife begins to tempt him on a daily basis. And so the devil is shooting arrows, these arrows of enticement at him on a daily basis. But what happened to Joseph when he resisted the temptation, when he resisted the enticement, his integrity ended up putting him in prison. He ended up in prison as a result of his integrity. And there Joseph lived year after year unjustly accused, living in a dungeon, a forgotten man, forgotten by Potiphar, forgotten by his brethren, forgotten by his father. And what got him there? It was virtue. It was godliness. It was fruitfulness. And there's a reason that men of Joseph's impeccable character are unique, because the devil will do everything he can to topple a virtuous, godly, fruitful believer. The battles to win never stop and in fact only intensify. The heat only gets hotter as the fruitful Christian continues to bear more fruit. And so we see Joseph's fruitfulness, we see Joseph's fighting, but then I want you to see in verse 24, Joseph's fortitude, his fortitude. but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from thence is his shepherd, the stone of Israel." Though Joseph endured attacks for so long, Joseph was not overcome. He fought back gallantly and victoriously, and in the end, he was the victor and he wasn't the victim. But I want you to see here, his bowed abode in strength. His bow remained steady day after day ready to fire at the moment's notice. He didn't allow himself to become a victim of depression or despair. And you think about how difficult that is, that imagery is. If you've ever picked up a bow and arrow, you know that it requires a decent amount of strength to pull back and be ready to fire. And then to hold that position requires a certain amount of stamina and stability. And this is yet to be the posture of the believer. The posture of the believer is to be always ready to give a defense of the faith, always prepared for the day of battle, always prepared to pray, always prepared to share the gospel. The fruitful Christian always has his arrow pulled back, ready to shoot it whenever the opportunity arises. You see also that this was his bow. He was personally prepared for the day of battle. It's not enough that your faith be your father's faith. It's not enough that your faith be your church's faith or your pastor's faith, but it has to be your personal, personal faith. And just because your father was a marksman with a bow does not mean that you are going to be a marksman with a bow. You have to work at it. You have to practice and prepare yourself. But I want you to notice something here in verse number 24, and this is obviously key. This is not Joseph's strength. Joseph is not the one with the bow ready for the day of battle. Look at it again, his bow abode in strength. The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. And boy, can you and I attest to that. We are weak and we are feeble. We're not even going to be able to pull the bow back. In order for us to be able to do that, it's going to require some divine enablement from the one who has the ultimate strength. And in order to be prepared, to be continually, persistently prepared, we must abide in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. That is, in fact, the only way that we can be prepared for the day of battle. What was Joseph strong at? He was strong at trusting God. That's what he was strong at. When betrayed by his brothers, he knew he was not betrayed by God. When he was locked in a dungeon, he knew that God was with him. He was not forsaken by God. God was his strength by day. God was his hope by night. And that's really what we're called to do, is to place our trust in the one who has the strength to enable us to be ready, to be prepared for the devil's attacks. And so we see that trying to be fruitful in our own strength would just produce frustration and failure. But if we trust in God, if we rely on His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, then we can be fruitful and we can be prepared and strengthened for the day of battle. But you see here in verse number 24 that God is given two titles, two descriptions here at the end of verse number 22. or excuse me, 24. From thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel. The shepherd, the shepherd, that's the first characteristic of God or the description that Jacob gives to God here. So God is the shepherd. He's the shepherd of Joseph. And of course, you think about sheep. Sheep are obviously defenseless. They must be protected and cared for. And could there be a more helpless case than Joseph sitting in that dungeon? He's totally helpless. He is totally defenseless. He can't do anything to lift himself out of that prison. Yet God took care of him as a shepherd would take care of a sheep. And then you see that God is described as the stone of Israel. First the shepherd, a personal caring picture, and then immediately the stone, picturing a solid foundation. The Lord is unchangeable. And here we have reference to the stone of Israel. And I imagine that as Joseph was being carted off to the land of Egypt to be sold there by the Midianites, after he was sold by his brethren, I can think of Joseph as his thoughts wandered back to his great-grandfather Abram. As Abram left his kindred and his hometown to go to the land that God promised him. He didn't know the land at the time, but he knew that God promised him. And I think Joseph took comfort in that. And Joseph took comfort in how God prepared and how God cared for Isaac and for Jacob. And he knew that because God cared for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, so God would also care for Joseph, even if he was going to Egypt as a slave. And by the way, the same God who was the shepherd of Joseph and who was the stone of Israel, as Jacob refers to him, that is our God. He is our shepherd. He cares for us as we are his sheep. And he is our solid foundation upon which our lives are built. So we see Joseph's fruitfulness, we see his fighting, we see his fortitude. But then I want you to see finally Joseph's favor in verse number 25 and 26. Up until this, let me read the verses. 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, the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitor and to 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. And up until these words, The blessing pronounced upon Joseph is largely historical. It's descriptive of Joseph up until this point. And you can see this in the past tense language. Verse 24, but his bow abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. But here in verse number 25, we see that language shift. Even by the God of thy father who shall help thee. So we move from the historical into the prophetical. And look again, for generations to come, God would lay his hand of rich grace upon the descendants of Joseph. In fact, when it came to territory, to the number of great leaders, I think of Joshua, Deborah, Gideon, Samuel, and overall fame, the tribe of Joseph through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh were miles ahead of the other tribes. Now look at verse number 26 with me. The blessings, boy this is a mouthful, the blessings of thy father had prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be upon the head of Joseph and on the crown of him, the head of him that was separate from his brethren. Boy that is a mouthful. Huge blessing. It's almost as if he elevates the blessings of Abraham, or elevates the blessings of Joseph, above the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A huge, huge blessing there. It reminds you that Joseph was separated from his brethren, and that's obviously who Jacob is referring to here. And God keeps score. He keeps score of that. He never misses a thing, and He rewards the righteous. And those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake have a great reward that is stored up for them. And you'll remember that in Genesis chapter 37, Joseph had a dream that he would lead and he would rule over his family members. And here in Genesis chapter 49, I think we see a glimpse of that. And indeed, God fulfilled that against all human odds. I mean, if you just think about Joseph as he was sitting in a prison cell in the land of Egypt, how could God take him from there to ruling over his brethren? And yet, God did it. God did it. And what we see here in verse number 26, the crown that should be upon his head, it reminds me of Jesus. You know, the Lord Jesus was singled out to suffer at the hands of the family of the human race. And like Joseph, Jesus reported on our bad deeds, our evil deeds. He forthrightly showed us that we have a bad report before Almighty God and there is literally hell to pay. In love, he honored his father. He, too, was treated as an outcast. And in his case, he was not sold into slavery, but he was sold to death, the death of the cross. He was singled out by evil men. But like Joseph, his mistreatment, his death, led to the salvation, this time not of just the known world, but of the entire world, provided salvation to all those that believe upon him. And also like Joseph, though he was forsaken for a time, he was not forsaken forever. And there shall be a crown that will be placed upon his head, and he shall reign forever and ever. He will be Lord of all. But then I want you to see one more blessing from the life of Joseph, from this blessing of Jacob upon Joseph. And this blessing is, I find the church in this blessing. I remind you again of what we see in verse number 22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. And I want you to think about the Gentiles. And of course, Joseph was a blessing to those in immediate Egypt and those that were neighbors to Egypt and those that were in the Middle East during that time of famine. But the blessings that Jacob prescribes upon Joseph, here in verse number 25 and verse number 26 specifically, It reminds me of what is coming, of what is coming in the New Testament. I remind you that we are participants, we benefit from the New Covenant. Of course, the New Covenant is primarily applied to the Jewish nation, but we as Gentile dogs are also grafted into that. We are benefits of the New Covenant. And this fruitfulness over the wall, this is exactly describing our blessings. In fact, if you look at some of these words, even by the God of thy father who shall help thee, I mean, do these words mean anything to you? You know, if you were living before Joseph's time as a Gentile, they really wouldn't mean much to you. But because we are partakers of the new covenant, the same God that helped Joseph and that would help Joseph and the tribes of Joseph in the future is the same God that helps us. You see also what he said, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above. Do heavenly blessings apply to you and I? Well, I'm reminded of the words of Paul in Ephesians chapter one, that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Salvation, heaven, eternal life, all of that is because of the new covenant. You notice also here in Genesis 49, with blessings of the deep that lieth under. mysteries that cannot be comprehended in our current capacity. And I'm reminded of what Paul said in Romans 8, that we know that God worketh all things for good. And we don't always understand, but just like Joseph, we can have confidence that God worketh everything for good to those that love him. And you see this, this bow, this branch of Joseph reaches over beyond the walls of the Israelites and it blesses even us who are living many, many, many thousands of years later. So that's Joseph. I want us to turn our attention for a few minutes to Benjamin, the son of unyielding pursuit. Genesis chapter 49, verse 27. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. And you'd be forgiven if you read this verse and were a bit perplexed by Benjamin's description. Benjamin does not, what we know of him up to this point, Benjamin does not seem to be one who is a ravenous wolf. In fact, quite the contrary. Benjamin is oftentimes referred to as the lad, the little one. Even Psalms refers to Benjamin as little Benjamin. And Benjamin is always, up to this point, he is always being taken care of. His father won't let him go to Egypt at first, and then when Joseph sets him up, Judah speaks up for him and pleads for him, pleads his case. And there's something about everything in Scripture that points us, or what we found up to this point, that puts in our subconscious A picture of Benjamin that he is anything but a ravenous wolf. One that needs to be cared for. One that is little. One that is weak. One that is small. Yet, Jacob here describes Benjamin or blesses him as a ravenous wolf. It seems to me to be a contradiction. And really, all of Benjamin seems to be a contradiction. You think of Benjamin's mother, Rachel. She died when she was giving birth to Benjamin. And she named Benjamin Benoni, which means son of my sorrow. And his life came as a result of her death. So she thought sorrow would be attached to his identity all of his days. But Jacob, I believe, wisely changed his name to Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. So seeming contradiction, a son of sorrow, a son of my right hand. And interestingly, when we look at the mighty warriors that come from the tribe of Benjamin, it's interesting to note that they are usually left-handed. I remind you of Ehud, the judge. In the book of Judges, the second judge, he was a left-handed warrior. He came from the tribe of Benjamin. In Judges chapter number 20, the warriors of Benjamin are described as left-handed. Every one of them could sling stones at an hair breadth and not miss. And that seems contradictory for the son of my right hand, who the tribe was known for, the notable left-handed warriors. But I want us to look at another contradiction in Benjamin, but we'll come back to that. So just keep that thought in your mind. First, let's consider what Jacob says about Benjamin here in Genesis chapter 49. He says that he will raven as a wolf. He will devour by day and he will divide the spoil by night. And this prediction would come true in the tribe of Benjamin. Like a wolf, Benjamin would be relentless in the pursuit of his prey. Benjamin would become known for their warriors. They were relentless in battle. Benjamin would eventually settle between Judah and Ephraim in an area which would eventually become a perpetual war zone. And another piece of context here is that Benjamin is one of, if not the smallest tribes of all these tribes. In terms of land, they were the smallest tribe. In terms of number of descendants, they also had far fewer numbers than many of the other tribes, were one of the smallest, if not the smallest tribe of all the tribes. And yet, despite this, When war showed up on the horizon, there seemed to be an abundance of Benjamites on the scene. And just one reference to illustrate this, 2 Chronicles 14.8, Asa had an army of men that bear targets and spears. Out of Judah, this was a big tribe, out of Judah 300,000. And out of Benjamin that bear shields and drew bows, 204,000. All these were mighty men of valor. So Judah One of the bigger tribes had 300,000 soldiers and Benjamin, one of, if not the smallest tribe, had 280,000 soldiers at this time. And time and time again we find this that Benjamin has warriors when Israel needs warriors and they were skilled and ready for battle. And the song rings true in my mind, little is much when God is in it. God can take those that are small, those that are weak, those that are feeble, those that are little, and he can make much of them. And though Benjamin was small and he was externally unimpressive, he was unusually powerful. And that's exactly who God uses. Because that's how God gets the glory. If he uses the strong and the mighty, then the strong and the mighty get the glory. But if he uses the weak and the feeble, then there can be no credit to the weak and the feeble. The credit can only go to the one who can only do the miraculous, and that is God. And this is certainly true of you and I. You may not have many talents, I certainly don't. You may not have much influence in the grand scheme of things, but You may be unimpressive but God can take an unimpressive person and can do impossible things. Let me return to this idea of a contradiction of Benjamin because here in Genesis chapter 49 we have Benjamin described as a ravenous wolf. Now go to Deuteronomy chapter 33. In Deuteronomy chapter number 33 Moses is basically doing the same thing that Jacob is doing in Genesis chapter 49. He is prescribing blessing to the tribes of Israel. And we find in Deuteronomy chapter 33, this is what he says in verse number 12 to Benjamin. And of Benjamin he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him. And the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders. This imagery that we get here is not of a wolf. It is anything but a wolf. In fact, it's much more like a lamb than it is a wolf. You see, shall dwell in safety by him. The Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. In fact, that imagery is of a lamb. I'm reminded of Luke chapter 15. The parable of the lost sheep, where the Lord puts the shepherd, puts the sheep around his shoulders and carries the sheep. And that's exactly what we see here in Moses' blessing of Benjamin, that he shall dwell between his shoulders. So this comparison here that we get here is of a lamb, and in Genesis it's of a wolf. And a wolf and a lamb could not be further from each other. And the picture that we get here of Benjamin is that he is a picture of the dual nature of the believer. I don't know about you, but I can identify with the contradiction of being like a wolf and like a lamb at sometimes. And if you don't believe that I can be, ask my wife. It's certainly true. There are times where I would be much closer to a wolf than I would be to a lamb. From the description that we get in Genesis chapter 49, a wolf is a beast that devours. It can be a destructive animal. It can be a manipulative animal. It is a dangerous animal. And I think that's true of you and I. There is a part of me that is manipulative, that is dangerous, that is destructive. But what is a lamb like? It's almost embarrassing how careless a lamb is, how careless sheep are. The lamb looks only to the shepherd for provision for their needs. In fact, in Deuteronomy, the lamb is actually not even determining where it goes. It's being carried by the shepherd. The lamb follows the shepherd. And there's a part of me that follows the Lord. that obeys the Lord, that looks to the Lord with a certain carelessness to what's going on around me. And yet both the wolf and the lamb reside in me, just like Benjamin is described as a wolf and a lamb. And there are times when the wolf is winning that war, and there are times when the lamb is winning that war. And if you're saved, you can attest to the reality of this battle and the reality of defeat and victory times and maybe you can even reflect on parts of today and today you can remember there were times where the wolf won the victory and there were times when the lamb won the victory where you followed and obeyed the Spirit and that of course is the Christian life. There is a battle between the old man and the new man which is after Christ and I want you to think about a couple of characters from the tribe of Benjamin. Think of Saul, Saul the king of Saul started out as a young man. He was a good man, had lots of potential. We might describe him as a layman in this case. But by the end of Saul's life, he is wolf-like. He is a jealous man. He is a selfish man. He is a calculating man. He is a defensive man. But then think of Saul of Tarshish. Saul of Tarshish started out as a wolf-like figure. He was vicious. He persecuted the church. He was zealous of Judaism. But when you come to the end of his life, he writes in the book of 1 Corinthians, I will gladly spend and be spent for you. And at the end of his life, he says, I am now ready to be offered. And that is the progression that ought to be visible in our lives. There was a time where all you had was a wolf-like tendency, a selfishness, a jealousy, a manipulative part of you. But there ought to be a progression in your life. And so that at the end of your life, you are far more like Christ than you were when you began the journey. One more thing that I want to point out about Benjamin and then we'll be done. There is one tragic, disgusting event of which the tribe of Benjamin is center stage. That's found in the book of Judges in Judges chapter 20. Benjamin at this point, we find the scene in one of their cities, Gibeah. Benjamin at this point has gotten so perverse that even homosexuality was an open part of society. And this wickedness was displayed in Judges chapter 20. And in Judges chapter 20, there is an Ephraimite that is traveling through Gibeah and spends the night there. This Ephraimite has a concubine with him. And at night, some of the men come to his door and they demand that he come out so that they can do wicked and perverse things with him. And instead of coming out and turning himself over, he actually gives them his concubine. And that night, they sexually abuse her and eventually murder her. And this man, the next morning he comes out, he finds his concubine, she's dead. He cuts up her body into 12 pieces and he sends those pieces to the 12 tribes of Israel. And of course this is a cry for justice, a cry for war to the 12 tribes to execute justice upon the tribe of the Benjamites. And of course these other tribes, they band together, they are ready for war, they are about to take out the tribe of Benjamin. And what do the Benjamites do? The Benjamites, they prepare for war. They prepare to defend their brethren, even though these men are very wicked, very perverse men. They were too proud to repent. And in the end, at the end of Judges chapter 20, there's 600 Benjamite males that are left that have fled to caves. And we find in this story that their courage turned to self-sufficiency, their valor turned to pride, it became a source of pride, and it ultimately led to their downfall. And the warning is there for believers, for us believers, that past victories, we must be careful with past victories because they can become a source of pride. They can become a source, they can lead to self-sufficiency. And if you are leaning upon yourself for future victory, you are guaranteed failure. You are guaranteed frustration. Victory is not found even in past experience or wisdom. Victory is found in the Spirit of Christ and His Spirit alone. And the moment that we become proud or self-sufficient, we begin to drift from victorious living to vicious living.