Please open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 49. We'll be reading verses 1 through 28 this evening. Genesis 49, verses 1 through 28. Hear now the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word, Genesis 49, beginning in verse 1. Then Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. Reuben, you were my firstborn, my might and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence. because you went up to your father's bed, and then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel. O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness, who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at side him. Issachar is a strong donkey crouching between the sheep folds. He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naphtali is a dough let loose that bears beautiful fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the morning devouring the prey and that evening dividing the spoil. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. The grass withers and the flowers fall. The word of our Lord abides forever and ever. Let us pray. Our Lord, Our God, we come before you now with your holy scriptures open before us, and we ask you, oh Lord, that you would give us the illumination of your Holy Spirit, that we might understand things here that are somewhat enigmatic, perhaps difficult. We ask you, oh Lord, that we would see Jesus magnified through the pages of your word, even this evening. Take what I say in weakness and use it to great effect in the hearts of all your people. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Of the many benefits of hiking to a mountaintop, physical fitness, mental toughness, a psychological sense of accomplishment perhaps, I think maybe the most enjoyable and immediate benefit of climbing to a top of a mountain is the view from the top. You see things in an entirely different perspective just by getting up higher and looking at things near and far in one all-encompassing view. You see the relation of one place to another in an entirely different way. You can see the short distance and the long distance all in perspective, all in one glimpse. This passage in Genesis 49 is doing something quite similar in the final days of the patriarch Jacob. Jacob gives the final prophecy and the blessing to his covenant descendants. And here on his deathbed, He prophetically peers out, as it were, over the future landscape of the destinies of His sons and their descendants. Here is the divinely inspired, prophetic perspective of the future of God's coveted people. In view are some things that will take place in Israel's history. In Canaan. and also in view are some things that will take place far, far beyond Israel's history. What is happening in Genesis 49 is that through Jacob, God is giving us a picture of the future to give his people hope. In Genesis 49, we see the faithfulness of God to bring about all his purposes for his people. And what I want you to see this evening from this text is that the faithfulness of God to bring about all of his purposes for his people should cause us to always hope in the Lord. The first thing I want you to see, to point out from this mountaintop perspective of Jacob's prophecy is the sad reality of the consequences of sin. Jacob really begins this whole prophetic utterance with a perspective on the past. And his retrospect reveals a bit of the horror of sin and sin's consequences. Reuben, of course, was the firstborn son of Jacob. Jacob's language as he describes Reuben is even all the more heartbreaking when you realize what he's done. Being the firstborn came with much Privilege, he came with immense privilege in the ancient Near East and in the biblical economy. There was a majestic and glorious terminology here being used by Jacob to describe Reuben, his firstborn son, a preeminent in strength and dignity and might and honor. What great hope this father had for this firstborn son of his. But in an event very abruptly described for us back in Genesis chapter 35, Reuben forfeited all of it. In the aftermath of Rachel's death, Jacob's beloved wife were told this, while Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. All we're told in Genesis 35 is the deed that Reuben did, and the fact that Jacob was aware of it. But here, the heinousness of Reuben's sin is made crystal clear. Jacob uses the language of shock in this blessing. You did this. And then he changes to the third person and exclaims to all who were there, he did this. Such promise, such potential, Such glory all ruined, forfeited by a single act of immorality and a lack of self-control. Unstable as water, you will not have preeminence. A moment of lust and conquest has resulted in far-reaching consequences. Jacob's language of his son here reveals just how sad and tragic the reality and the danger of sin can be for God's people. There is a tremendous warning here for God's people as to how severely sin can wreak havoc, even for years to come. Simeon and Levi in verses three through seven. Jacob deals with them together as a result of their tag-team effort back in Genesis chapter 34 in their act of angry vengeance and cruelty against the Shechemites. The Hebrew here is vivid language. It speaks of irrepressible violence against man and against beast. Unbridled anger, pure self-indulgence, pure, fueled by nothing but vengeance. to the point where they would even stoop to unnecessarily torture and disable innocent oxen for pleasure. Jacob, their father, even disassociates himself from them. He separates, as it were, his glory from them. Put another way, Jacob abhors what these two sons of his have done. Thus, they would be scattered and divided in Israel. In other places in this prophecy, we see future sins and weaknesses and consequences of those things as well. Zebulun and Issachar, both materially prosperous, yes, but at what cost? Of course, Issachar would be forced into labor at one point in their future. Anger, lust, greed, some sins more socially acceptable than others perhaps, yet they can all have ruinous effect on your own life. And the sad reality is that we often never realize the impact of our sin on others, our family, our church, our parents, our children. Until it's too late. There's a grave warning here of the sad reality of the consequences of sin. And yet, even as we're warned, we have to remember. That we are all a mixed bag of struggles and failures and successes and obediences and sins and victories. Who are God's people after all? We are all, to varying degrees, mixed up sinners like Judas and Zebuluns and Reubens and Simeons and Levi's. At the risk of ecclesial nepotism, I'll quote a local theologian many of you may be familiar with. Roland Barnes puts it like this, There is never enough obedience in my life to merit blessing. And there is always enough disobedience in my life to explain any chastisement. But thanks be to God, He is often pleased to bless me through my feeble efforts to obey. These 12 sons are those who would become the very foundation stones of Israel. Why? Because God's rich grace is taking to himself a people to be his own treasured possession. So the second feature of this view from the mountaintop that I want you to see this evening is the grace of covenant blessings. There will be redeeming grace even in the future of these sons and their descendants. In fact, the future actions of the sons of Levi during the incident of the golden calf as they supported Moses would turn this very curse into a blessing. Levi was scattered, yes, according to Jacob's curse in this prophecy, but they would receive the priesthood and cities and pasture lands throughout the promised land. Ian Duguid puts it like this, the story of the Levites shows that God can transform the effects of curse into an opportunity for blessing. He has the power to redeem our evil and bring good from it. Simeon would be scattered, but not cast out. They would receive an inheritance in the land, but in Joshua chapter 19, we learn that it would end up being within the very significant inheritance of Judah. In the southern kingdom, even in the consequences, there is mercy. And then in verse 28, we see that the blessing is the overarching theme and even the keynote of this entire passage. Really, blessing is the theme of Genesis. And here we see this explicitly stated. These are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. All 12 sons in totality, blessed, blessed, blessed. We'll be able to understand more on why that is in just a moment, but make no mistake, it is God who is blessing his people. And it's all of grace. These are covenantal blessings on all Israel. And there would be military success in Israel's future. We see this in the language of some of the other tribes. There will be rich, in fact, at points, unrivaled prosperity. Think of the land to which they were destined to return, flowing with milk and honey, rich and luxurious, full of God's blessing for God's covenant people. Of course, the royal line, as we'll see in a moment, will come from Judah himself. There will be a great united kingdom under David and Solomon, and all of this out of this unlikely group of brothers. in an unlikely place. Think of where this prophecy is even taking place in the land of Egypt. They won't return for another 400 years. It's an amazing thing. Think of the mess that they all got into to get them where they are now with their brother Joseph. What an unlikely group of men to found a nation upon whom God will pour out such amazing blessings. Blessings are all realized in the context of God working out his purposes. His purposes. Despite the messiness of this family, despite mine and yours, God will work out his purposes for his people. You think of the church, if you've been around the church for any length of time, you can know that it's often a messy place. Yet it shall ever prevail because God is blessing his church. Why is God blessing his people? Because he loves them. Joseph, of course, by way of his son Ephraim, we've seen this in the prophecy in Genesis 48, Joseph's descendants would flourish in Israel's future, the great northern kingdom, great yet entirely undeserved blessing would come to them. I want you to notice the ground that Jacob gives for the blessings of Joseph, though, in verses 23 through 25. Of course, Joseph was mistreated, but in verse 25 we see, I'm sorry, verse 24, his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, the shepherd, the stone of Israel, the God of your father who will help you. Joseph overcame attacks, he prospered, almost incomprehensibly in the land of Egypt. And he did all this because of the help of the Almighty. God is here described as a God of power and might, the faithful God, the stone of Israel. He's described as the one who intimately cared for Joseph in every challenge of his life. Joseph prevailed in the midst of nearly incomprehensible trials. and grief, and he would continue to prevail. How? Through the help of his God. Listen to William Still comment on these verses. The fulfillment of God's prophecy, both to Jacob and to Joseph, in the teeth of bitter adversity, expands the old man's faith and hope. And he sees how the same God, in spite of every future opposition, is able to pour out manifold and superlative blessings upon the offspring of his favorite son. Christian, see the grace of God Almighty. to his people. Grace, grace, grace. Are there consequences for sin? Yes. Are they severe at times? Yes. Do they sometimes even last a lifetime? Yes. But is there grace and redemption and covenant love for sinners like this? Yes and yes and amen. Because of the faithful God's covenant promises to redeem a people for himself. And all of these sinners, and even their future sin-corrupted offspring, have become a part of the line of promise through the grace of God. Ian Duguid puts it this way. Unstable Reuben, violent Simeon and Levi, comfort-loving Issachar, and dangerous Benjamin are all included as part of God's saving purpose to have a holy people for himself. That is truly remarkable. If you are a Christian, yes, sin is terribly destructive, and the consequences are often tragic, but sin does not have the last word on your destiny. No power of hell or scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand. Grace is at the heart of the entire future of the church. What is God doing by preserving this people, built on such a mixed bag of bad and good behavior, What purposes is he working out? He's incubating the people from whom will come the one who will redeem them from all their sins. So the last thing I want you to see from this passage is the great hope of full and final salvation. I want to look at this under two subheadings. The first is this, the great hope of a full and final salvation will be accomplished by a coming king. This all centers around the prophecy of Judah in verses 8 through 12. And, of course, there's some level of fulfillment of the prophecy to Judah in Israel's history. You think of the conquest and the future kingdom under David and, of course, under Solomon, where there was unparalleled military success and then unparalleled wealth and prosperity, world fame, no less. And yet, ultimately, this would end in tragedy and the horrors of siege and exile. The language Jacob uses in chapter 49 of Genesis is never adequately fulfilled, even by the greatest point in Israel's history under David or Solomon. The language of this prophecy is never fulfilled by the Davidic Kingship or the Solomonic reign and think how brief the glory of those kingdoms were how tragically the United Kingdom became the divided kingdom and chaos ensued plunged into ruin due to their own sin and idolatry and yet God will never abandon his promises and in verses 8 through 12 is Specifically verse 10 is the key that unlocks how we understand all of this prophecy and all of the destiny of God's people. And all of Israel's future is tied up in what Jacob reveals about Judah. The scepter, verse 10, shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet. The scepter and the ruler's staff are very clear symbols of royalty, of authority, of judgment, The symbol of a reigning king from Judah's loins. Until. Translations are going to vary here and we have to talk about this for a moment until he comes. All of the blessing and all of the hope and all of the future destiny of God's people is bound up in the messianic hope. In the Hebrew here in verse 10, if you're reading the New American Standard, it's simply left, or the King James, it's just simply left as a transliteration of the Hebrew word, until Shiloh come. Other translations have translated it, if you will. It's probably a few different options here that we can choose from. is likely not a proper name, it's likely not the name of a place, even though there was a place named Shiloh. So really, the two best possible meanings that are generally agreed upon in evangelical scholarship, the English Standard Version that I read earlier says, until tribute comes to him. But better, I think, along with a great number of Reformed scholars, past and present, is the marginal note in the ESV, which is this, until he comes to whom it belongs. The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs. Until he comes to whom the rightful kingdom belongs. Think of Mark chapter one when Jesus emerges from the wilderness temptation victorious over the devil's test. And he says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. In other words, he's finally here. Jesus is at the center of Genesis chapter 49. This is a coming king to whom belongs the kingdom as a permanent possession. This is a universal king who will rule over all the peoples. to Him will be the obedience of the nations." This is more than merely a Davidic Israelite king. This is a worldwide reign. To Him shall be the obedience of the peoples. G.K. Beale says this, this is not some mere victory in a few local battles in Canaan, but rather decisive and ultimate victory over all possible enemies of Israel. What Jacob is seeing ultimately is the eternal reign of King Jesus. That was inaugurated in his first coming. And will be consummated in his second coming in the new heavens and the new earth. Look back with me at verse 1, when Jacob tells his sons to gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. The English Standard Version, I believe the New American Standard both sound similar right there. And I think it's a rather unfortunate translation of a Hebrew phrase that is used throughout the prophetic books of the Old Testament, translated in this way, in the latter days. The King James Version says this, Let me tell you what shall befall you in the last days. This whole prophecy, in a sense, if you could look at it in an analogy, is sort of like if you were looking at the planet Earth from far off in outer space. You can see the whole thing all together. The details are all in there, but you're looking at it all together in one package. And Genesis 49 is sort of like looking at the entire rest of the history of God's people in one package. If you were to move closer and closer to the planet Earth, you would begin to see more details take shape. You would be able to see mountain ranges and oceans and rivers and cities and roads and all of those details that were there the whole time. And in a similar way, the rest of the scripture as it unfolds, the New Testament in particular, begins to reveal how all this will take place. And as we'll see, how it will all end. which Jacob can see, even here in this prophecy, all wrapped up in one prophetic capsule. Greg Beal puts it this way. He coins a pretty fun theological term, an eschatological zenith. What does he mean by that? In the prophecy of Judah and Shiloh, this is a climactic and irreversible point in history. It is the ultimate end goal toward which God's eternal plan is moving and working out in history. It's his eternal purpose being fulfilled in time. In the latter days, this will begin to take place. The focal point of this prophecy is something that will, over time, actively unfold throughout the remainder of history, beginning with the first coming of the Lord Jesus and culminating in His return. So you can have, in the same prophecy, futures like Gad and Benjamin, and kings and prosperity and troubles and scattering. But in the very same view, you can have the coming king and a restoration and an irreversible victory and reign accomplished by the coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, until he comes to whom it belongs. The final point of history toward which all of Jacob's prophecy is focused, how can this complicated family be blessed? It's because of Judah's great descendant. Only through the son of Judah, the son of David, the son of God. You think of Judah, the father of Perez by Tamar. Would be the father of the one who would come to deliver his people from their sins and he shall reign forever and ever. All his enemies vanquished forever. Genesis 49, eight through 12, pictures a period in which the Lord Jesus Christ will defeat all his enemies. and bring about the obedience of all the nations. And the second subheading I want to think about this full and final salvation is that this coming king is going to usher in a kingdom of eternal prosperity beyond the wildest dreams. We have the nature of this kingdom described in verses 11 and 12, the prophecy to Judah again. There's some hyperbole here of a husbandman producing such an extravagant quantity of grapes, such that has never been seen. In fact, there are so many grapes and this prosperity is so rich that people will, this coming king will be able to tie his donkey to a grapevine. It's an absurd thought because grapevines are delicate. They need to be nurtured and protected. And what would a donkey do if you tied him to a grapevine? He would eat all the grapes and he would destroy the vine. No one would ever do this. But there's so much wine, it doesn't even matter. There's such rich prosperity. There's so much wine that you can wash your clothes in it, verse 11. This results in great health, healthy eyes and teeth, which is really language for us that might not be that shocking, but in the ancient Near East, this would be shocking language. It's like the agricultural version of lighting your cigar with a $100 bill. Alan Ross speaks of the prosperity prophesied to Judah here, bids adieu to the pinched regime of thorns and sweat for the shout of rejoicing and feasting. We only sing it in one season of the year, but I love the line, he comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found. Isn't this part of what was being pictured when Jesus performed his first public miracle at the wedding in Cana? Plenteous wine made, ridiculous amounts, pots of water for washing turned into 180 gallons of the finest wine. And yet this was but a glimpse of the coming kingdom, which had arrived in the person of Jesus and will be consummated when he returns. And all of these blessings All of the blessings of the kingdom pictured in this prosperity are only grounded in what this great King did in His first coming, in His humiliation. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus praying to His Father in John 17, I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. What marvelous words Jesus uttered from the cross. It is finished. And all the blessings of the kingdom become mine and yours. Because he loved us and freed us from our sins by his blood. And then in resurrection power conquered death itself. What do we say when we stand together and recite the Nicene Creed? And he shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end. The blessing of Joseph gives us more insight into this prosperity. Verse 22, Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. There's language here echoing the trees bearing fruit in the Garden of Eden. The language of creation and the blessings of new creation. The mandate and genesis of reproduction and fruitfulness we see here fulfilled in verse 25. The blessings of the breasts and of the womb. Blessings, the word is used six times in verses 25 and 26. The Almighty who will bless you with the blessings, blessings, blessings of this, the blessings of your father, the blessing of my parents, six times. This is super abundance. Adam failed to possess end time blessings that could have been his. But here we read that Joseph will receive end time blessings. Greg Beal again explains that this language in verse 26 of surpassing the blessings to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills is indicative of that future zenith point on the horizon of blessings beyond which no more blessing can be given and that will not be reversible. This is hyperbole for blessings that you and I cannot fathom. Blessings so great they can only be described in human, exaggerated, earthly creation language. Blessings so great you don't have a category for them. This is where we're headed. because of this king. This is what dying Jacob is staring off into the future landscape of his children's destiny for him and even for us. The curse will be reversed forever. As Tolkien put it so wonderfully, everything sad will become untrue. At the beginning of Genesis, Eden was lost. And now at the end, we look at a picture Eden restored. The ruined creation, the ruined humanity in the fall. Jacob sees all of this in one prophecy that culminates in the one who will ultimately restore that ruined humanity and that ruined creation. Liam Gallagher says this, the book of Genesis begins with a man living in a garden who is a virtual king of creation with dominion over every created thing and through sin, Adam loses that kingship and that dominion. Now at the end of the book, the promise is made more explicit that one was coming who would be king and have dominion, and that his kingdom would be more lavish and more wonderful than Eden ever was. I get emails almost multiple times a week from a group that updates you on the status of the persecuted church worldwide. And I confess that I often don't open them, to my shame. There's a situation in what used to be known as Burma and Myanmar where unspeakable things are being done to God's people. In 2018, think of what Boko Haram is doing in Africa to believers there and other places. And we wait with those saints who are suffering and we say with them, how long, oh Lord? We wait with Jacob in verse 18. I wait for your salvation, O Yahweh. He sees the trouble on the horizon, but he sees victory assured, and he waits. There are wars against God's people from ancient times, even prophesied here, until now. Enemies without, enemies within, from the earliest history of Israel, even until today, past, present, future. Troubles abound within and without for the church today amid toil and tribulation, and from tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. So we wait with Jacob. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. We wait with the Apostle John. Amen. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. May God help us to long for the day when all his people will be gathered From every tribe and tongue and nation and language, praising the lion of the tribe of Judah. And we will be like him because we will see him as he is. What is the hope for Rubens and Simeons and Trinities? Christians everywhere, it's the same confidence that Jacob saw from afar, the Lord Jesus Christ and his eternal kingdom. Amen, let us pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ's return. We thank you for his reign even now, and we wait for the full consummation of our great hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus. Help us to wait, to be fueled in hope by this assurance, even this week as we go out into your world. We pray all these things, and your blessing upon your word, in Jesus' name, amen.