Amen. We come back to Hebrews chapter 11 after taking a week off for Easter last Sunday, and we've been speaking for a long time about this chapter. It's about faith, and it speaks about not only the characteristics of faith, but the blessing of faith, and how faith in some sense allows us to grasp, not just understand, and not just believe, but even grasp the promises of God. And I think we're going to see again today some examples that we read a moment ago or been read a moment ago that very quickly explain that to us. How do we grasp things that are promised to us? And so we're going to look at that. We've been given numerous examples of faith and of people who are examples of faith. We saw Abel, and we saw Enoch, and we saw Noah, and we saw Abraham, we saw Sarah. Certainly these are people of great faith. They lived in that patriarch era, didn't they, of the early days. In fact, when you think about it, all of them accounted for in Genesis. Today we're going to look at the last few examples from that era that are given to us in this text, and they are, of course, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, three pretty towering figures in the book of Genesis. So we want to see what it says about them, so I'm going to read the text one more time, and then we'll get right to it. So it says, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff. And by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. Now, as we think about this today, the outline is pretty simple. We're gonna talk about the faith of Isaac, the faith of Jacob, the faith of Joseph, and we're gonna consider what the author here wants us to dwell on or to think about in terms of understanding faith and our need for faith if we are to live out the will of God as his people. And so before we begin, let's have a word of prayer together. Father, as we have just read your word, And as we seek to speak about it and to think about it, Father, bless us, we pray, that we might know the truth of your word and see the glories that you give us in your word. Father, help us, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. So beginning first with the faith of Isaac, we see immediately that's where our text begins. It shouldn't surprise us that we begin with Isaac. We've been looking at Abraham and we've been looking at the promise, as it were, of a seed, an heir. Now we know that Paul says ultimately that spiritual promise is fulfilled in Christ in the new covenant, but there is a seed, a physical seed that must be born that he can have descendants as numerous as the stars and as of the sand on the shore. This promise is to be taken as serious and therefore he believes there'll be an heir. And we've walked through all of that. We've walked through how he waited and how maybe he misunderstood at times or tried to fulfill the promise on his own. And how God told him over and over again, no, it cannot be by what you do, but this will be my gift. You will receive a child that can't be explained in any other way than God gave us this child. And that will be Isaac. And so we saw then what God did after that. After he has Isaac, he is called to bring Isaac to Mount Moriah and to be willing to put him to death. And how that was held up in Hebrews and in James as the ultimate example of the faith of Abraham that he would do that, not just thinking, well, God wants me to do it and I'll do it, but that he believed the promise of God so outstandingly that he said, if I take his life and if God made the promise through Isaac, then God must necessarily raise him from the dead. And we looked at the two disciples on the road to Emmaus last Sunday. They should have had that same faith, right? If Jesus is the Messiah, and if he was put to death, then he must necessarily be raised again because you know, the story shouldn't end with him in a tomb, right? That just, it's obvious. And so again, we recognize that we see all this and we see Isaac in that way. And we even spoke briefly, just barely touched upon it, that Isaac was of an age where he would have had to probably cooperated in this. And in amongst the Jewish fathers, if you will, they often talk about that being a test of the faith of Isaac, that he trusted what his father said was what God said. Now we come to look strictly at Isaac, And when you think about the book of Genesis, the things that we're covering in these three verses are spectacular. I mean, really, when you think about it. the book of Genesis is 50 chapters. And you can kind of divide that up as like creation, fall, flood, dispersion, the call of Abraham, and then it kind of tracks with Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. That's kind of the major points of the book of Genesis. And as you think about it, these three people we're gonna look at today, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, are about half the book of Genesis. And we're going to try to cover them in three verses. So we'll just have to look at what our author is having us look at as a summation of their faith. But when we think about them for a moment, he deals with them in chronological order. Isaac is one we've already segued into through the event at Mount Moriah. And we want to think for a moment about the life that Isaac lived or how his faith was demonstrated. And notice that the author comes to one event and says, if I want to talk about the faith of Isaac, I'll point to this event, what would seem to be a small event in the book of Genesis. And in fact, if you think about what you've just heard read twice this morning, it's very parallel with each of these men, what's looked at, a scene near their death of blessing future generations or speaking about what will happen in the future. And so beginning first with Isaac here, we want to realize that He's speaking about something that he has not himself seen, but he's heard and it's been promised to him by God. It says here that, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob, and he saw his two sons concerning things to come. Now immediately you'll notice the future orientation of the text. And that's really the orientation of everything in Hebrews chapter 11. For these men and women that we read about in the text of Hebrews 11 are standing before the fullness of the promise that's given to them. They have been guaranteed the promise, if you will, but they haven't seen it. In fact, oftentimes it's things that are almost impossible to imagine. Abraham, you have no children, but look this land you will possess. Ignore all the tribes, ignore all the peoples in this land. Your descendants will possess it. Okay. I believe you, Father. I believe you. And what about promises of many things even beyond that? Of a coming Savior? How about the promise to know of a flood? No frame of reference for that. And yet they believe. So again, there's always a future orientation, as it were, in this text to have us think about the fact that they are believing things they cannot themselves see. They cannot directly see. Well, that's no different here with Isaac because Isaac is believing in something that is yet to come. Something that is in the future of a promise that God has made to him that in some sense he knows but he doesn't possess in any real way. What land does Isaac have in the land of promise? Only what his father bought and handed down to him. He has a gravesite. That's what he has. You know, but he believes the promise, he believes what God has said. And so as you think about this, I want us to turn to Genesis chapter 27, to the original text that's being referenced here. And I'm sure most of you know this account, but it is important that we think about it for a moment. It's a little bit long, but listen, it's familiar to us. It says, Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son, and said to him, My son. And he answered him, Here I am. And then he said, Behold, now I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and make me savory food such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. Now, Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau, his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. So Rebekah spoke to Jacob, her son, saying, Indeed, I heard your father speak to Esau, your brother, saying, Bring me game, and make savory food for me, that I may eat it, and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. Now go to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. And then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.' And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am smooth-skinned. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him. and it shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing. But his mother said to him, let your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice and go get them for me. And he went and he got them and he brought them to his mother and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. Then Rebecca took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. And then she gave the savory food and the bread, which he had prepared into the hand of her son, Jacob. And so he went to his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done just as you told me. Please arise, sit, and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said, because the Lord your God brought it to me. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come near that I may fill you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. And then he said, are you really my son Esau? He said, I am. He said, bring it near to me and I will eat of my son's game so that my soul may bless you. So he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank. And then his father Isaac said to him, come near now and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren. and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be anyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you. Now it happened as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out of the presence of Isaac's father, that he saw his brother came in from hunting. He also made savory food and brought it to his father, and said to his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me. And his father Isaac said to him, Who are you? And so he said, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled exceedingly and said, Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him, and indeed he shall be blessed. Now we know the story continues on from there through about the 40th verse that Esau is upset and wants himself to be blessed and Jacob does in fact bless him. It's a blessing that's subservient to the blessing that he has given to Jacob. But it's a reminder here as we think about this story This is an event, by the way, we've heard, I'm sure, our whole lives. An amazing account. But as you think about it for a moment, it tells us that Jacob was blind, right? Jacob was unable to see at this point. His eyes were so dim that he could not see. Isaac was not able to see. And so, at this moment, this is, of course, of service to the plan of God and the will of God. Because as Isaac sits on his bed and is seated up at the coming of his son for the blessing, and he takes his staff, as we're told here in Hebrews, and he leans upon it. Imagine him sitting on his bed with this staff under his arms as he looks to his son and begins to bless him. He's unable to see. Without that account, this story is going to be difficult, isn't it? This is going to be a difficult history, but it's clear this is in the providence of God. It's intended that the blessing go not to Esau, but to Jacob. And so we see that many preachers often speak of the blindness of Isaac here being representative of spiritual blindness. And I don't think that's fair, really. Because when you think about it for a moment, the author of Hebrews is making the point that he could see, maybe not with human eyes, but with eyes of faith. He was able to see something out beyond That doesn't mean that he was without some misunderstanding, right? He thought the blessing should go to Esau, the eldest son. He believed that what is normal and right in their culture should happen here. My eldest son should get the blessing. If you were to say, wait a minute, what about providence in this? He would have said, well, maybe the providence is that God had Esau be born first. But that isn't what's happening in this story, is that it's not for Esau to receive this blessing. And so the entire thing is upset. What would seem to be human scheming, right, on the part of Rebekah and Jacob actually brings together the will of God. This is things that are mysterious to us. You might think about the person we're going to look at in a few minutes, Joseph. And how Joseph comes to realize that the scheming of his brothers and what they meant for evil, God used for good. God used for his purpose. He has a superintending ability to take what people are scheming and turn it, as it were, according to his will and plan. And that is a high view of providence. But it's what the Bible tells us over and over about our God. That he is not thwarted by the schemings of peoples and nations, but he rules and reigns over peoples and nations. And in fact, whether they realize it or not, are serving at times his purposes. Or I guess you could say at all times, ultimately his purpose. And so we want to see here, as we're looking at this, that these events take place and bring Isaac into this moment where he blesses Jacob. When you think about this for a moment, this entire pattern that you see in Scripture is reversed to what the world shows. Culture has its norm. The eldest son in Semitic culture should receive the double blessing or the greater blessing or the greater inheritance. And that's simply what he's doing here. Isaac is doing here. But God over and again upsets that norm. See, God is not constrained by our cultural norms. He's not constrained by what we think is right. It's kind of what we sang a couple of weeks ago, whatever my God ordains is right. It's a reminder, it's not our conventions that constrain God, right? But God tells us what is true and good and lovely and right. And we see that again here. In fact, it's a pattern that we see when you think about it for a moment. From the very beginning, it's not Cain, that is the one who is righteous or that God is working through, but Abel, the younger one. It's not Ishmael, the eldest son, it's Isaac, the son of promise. Here again, it's not going to be the elder brother Esau, it's going to be the younger brother. It's a way of God showing that that it's not according to our status or place or works or design, but it's according to His grace that these things move forward. We've talked about this often. There are many great resources, if you're interested in this, that I can point you to. But again, it's a reminder that God is keeping His promise. And Isaac recognizes that. And in fact, his desire to bless Esau, far from saying he doesn't believe the promise, shows that he does. He just misunderstands it. He misunderstands the recipient of the promise. But his desire to bless one of his sons according to the promise shows his belief in the promise and God's faithfulness to keep the promise. And so we see that in the faith of Isaac. But now we come to Jacob. This is the next generation. And in fact, it brings us again to the end of the life of Jacob. And maybe that's good because there's times in Jacob's life where it doesn't seem that he exhibits great faith, right? He's always kind of scheming to get the things that he wants. And we even talk about in the example of even his wives and how he was deceived by Laban, right? His uncle, that actually the wife he wanted was not the wife he needed. The wife he didn't want was the mother of the promise, if you will. She's the one that bore him, the son through whom the promise would come. And so again, it kind of goes back to what we were studying in Sunday school. Thank goodness God overrules the heart. Because if it was left up to our hearts, the promise would have been destroyed long ago. But God, in His sovereignty, keeps His promise alive by means of His providence. So when we come to this, we see that we jump, as it were, again to the end of the life of Jacob, to the very end of his life. And we're going to see the same sort of evidence. He desires to bless his children, which are effectively the tribes of Israel. If you look at that verse in verse 21, it says this, Now when you think about this for a moment, we know that he blessed the tribes. And it's making particular point here that he blessed the two sons of Joseph. And if you'll just turn for a moment back to this text, which is in Genesis 48, near the very end of the book of Genesis, We're going to look at it for a second. It says, Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Indeed, your father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob was told, look, your son Joseph is coming to you. And Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. Then 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 multitude of people and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Your offspring, who you beget, after them shall be yours. They will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. But as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. Then Israel saw Joseph's sons and said, who are these? And Joseph said to his father, they are my sons whom God has given me in this place. And he said, please bring them to me and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face. But in fact, God has also shown me your offspring. So Joseph brought them from beside his knees and he bowed down with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. Then Israel stretched out his hand, his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. "'Let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.' Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and so he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, "'Not so, my father!' For 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 great people. And he also shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh. Now, we see a lot of similarities again, don't we? We're talking about the very end of his life and the desire to bless his children, his descendants. Something that was very important in this culture in this time. You would gather your children around and you would literally bless them. You would give them a blessing. Something that's kind of fallen out of favor through the years, but this is an old way of doing things. And as he brings Joseph into proximity with him, and Joseph has his two sons, he seeks to bless them. And as you saw in the story, it's interesting. Joseph brings these two sons in the proper way. He sets them on the proper side of his father so that his father can place his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And as you know, to place your right hand, that's the favored position, to be on the right hand and to be able to place your right hand there. And as he does this, what would seem inexplicable to Joseph is Jacob crosses his hands. He crosses his arms to bless them in reverse, to put his right hand upon the younger son. And it tells us very clearly in the text that he did this intentionally, right? With intention, he did this. And yet Joseph objects, that's not right, father. For your blessing, the younger son, the blessing goes to the older son. And yet again, how many generations in a row does this make that God blesses the younger son? elevates, ordains the use of the younger son. Now, we do want to say that there is a difference here, isn't there? Before, when we talk about the ones who are chosen, these are the ones through whom the direct promise will be kept. That's not so here. Joseph is not the son of Jacob through whom the promise will continue. That's, of course, for another to do, right? But the point here is, it's a reminder, and I think maybe even suits the purpose of Hebrews 11 better in a sense, To not speak of, again, the line of the Messiah, but to say here, even in this case, God upsets the order that would be expected, as he does over and over again throughout Scripture. And we've already spoken about the significance of that, but it's a reminder that God works in his own ways and to trust him. To trust him. We don't read that Joseph continued to argue But Joseph recognized in some way that his father had wisdom in what he was doing. He recognized what he was to do and that though he couldn't fully understand the purpose of it, he understood in some way this was God's will. So again, even where it's not speaking of Judah, which is who the promise is coming through, it's a reminder that God is working in a way that we need to accept by faith. Recognizing the providence of God. Even here again, where he elevates the lesser son in terms of position. Well, that brings us to Joseph, the next generation, and we have one more verse to cover Joseph. And if you read Genesis, it's quite a long account. And when you think about Joseph for a moment, you think of all that his life exemplifies, you would say faith or faithfulness is one of the, or faithfulness, I should say, is one of the key characteristics of Joseph, isn't it? You'd say Joseph was a man of faith and he was faithful over and again. You can think for a moment about his life. Even as God gives him a dream at a very early age that he will rise up above his brothers, he believes it. You know, maybe he doesn't have good discretion in not sharing it with him immediately, but he does believe it. He believes that they will bow down to him. And of course, that starts a chain of events, doesn't it, that are sad, but ultimately bring good because he sold into slavery. They're gonna kill him first, then they sell him into slavery. And then you think about his life of faithfulness as he goes to Potiphar's house, and is lied about, right, and mistreated, and he wants to walk pure before God, and he wants to not engage in adultery, and he's lied about, and he ends up in prison. He could have ended up dead again, right? Potiphar could have had him killed. I think it says something about Potiphar's knowledge of his own wife that he didn't have Joseph killed, but he is thrown in prison, and you can imagine there, languishing in jail, that Joseph would give up hope. I've tried to do everything the way you want, God, and nothing good has come of it. I shared the prophecy that you gave, and I'm here in Egypt. And then I tried to do what was right in Potiphar's household, and now I'm in prison. But that isn't at all the story of Joseph, is it? Joseph says, well, I'm in prison. Now what do I need to do? I need to do the best job I can do in prison. So I'm going to work hard. I'm going to do whatever the jailer wants me to do. I'm going to be efficient, proficient. I'm going to do whatever I need to do. And everywhere that Joseph is, you'll notice something about him. He's shown favor. And in fact, it says that God gives it for him to be shown favor, right? So in Potiphar's house, Potiphar gives him favor. He gets raised up to where he's like second in command over Potiphar's house. In jail, he's shown favor. He's raised up to be kind of the prisoner that's over the jail, under the jailer himself. And he never gives up. When that incident comes where you've got these two men from the royal court in prison with him, he's telling them, remember me. He doesn't believe he's supposed to languish in jail forever. God has a purpose and a plan. He believes it. And then in a day, he goes from the depths of jail to something like a regent, vice regent of Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth at that time. God gives him visions again of how to save Egypt from the misery of a famine that's coming. But it's not really to save Egypt, is it? It's really to save Israel. Because they will come into this land according to the promise that God made to Abraham, that your descendants shall be strangers in a strange land. They will dwell there for 400 years. And then when the iniquity of the Canaanites is full, I'll bring them back." And Joseph believes all of that stuff. He believes every bit of it. And when he comes into this position, he knows that God is at work and one day, somehow, I don't know if he understood all the pieces or he's just waiting to see how it all unfolds, but he knows one day his family will be reunited to him. And when they are, we know the events. You'd have many sermons just on the life of Joseph. It's such a beautiful story. But when the brothers have it revealed to them who he is, they're terrified. This man is so powerful now, and it seems like his dream kind of came true, that we are now kneeling at our brother's feet. They're terrified he's going to kill them. But he's come to understand something about God's will and God's way of working. He says, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. You sold me into slavery. It was despicable what you did. And yet God used that as the means to deliver his people. Blessed be the name of the Lord. What do we see here? We see Joseph as a man who is faithful so many times. You could point to so many times where you could say, let's use this as the example of Joseph's faithfulness. And yet the author of Hebrew says, no, I'm going to use any of those. None of those. They're all great examples, but I want to use the example again, parallel to the ones we've just used of the preceding generations. And that is of near the end on their deathbed. And Joseph now is the one dying. And he calls the children of Israel, as it were, before him. It's amazing here. This isn't a blessing story so much, but it's an evidence of believing the promise. It says, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. It's amazing to think about. Joseph, at the end of his life, he's in this situation where he's considering what God is going to do. He knows we're not long for this land. I don't know if Joseph knew exactly if he's calculating out 400 years and trying to figure out when that would be, but he knows it's a while off, right? We know that Joseph will die and the children of Israel will have favor for a time and then a Pharaoh will rise that doesn't remember Joseph and doesn't feel any need to be kind to the children of Israel and recognizes that they're multiplying and they're becoming, in his eyes, a threat and then the situation changes. And then it's still a time until God will deliver his people from slavery in Egypt. But Joseph is looking forward to that even then. Even then he's got eyes to see past all of that history that will ensue and say, God will deliver us out of this land. Not, I think, I hope, although in the Bible when we say hope, it means assurance. So he could have said that, but he doesn't. He just says, it's this simple. He says, God will come and deliver the children of Israel. If we listen to the account in Genesis, it's in chapter 50. It's literally the end of the book of Genesis. It says this, So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation, the children of Machir, and the son of Manasseh, who were also brought up on Joseph's knee. And Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying, but God will surely visit you. and bring you out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then God took an oath, excuse me, Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." I want you to think just for a moment about this event. He says God is going to visit you. Now, this is the idea of coming in power, isn't it? It's an interesting way of phrasing this. God is going to come in might and power and by the strength of his arm, he's going to lead you out of this land and he's going to take you into the land that he promised our fathers. My father and grandfather and great-grandfather, he will keep his promise certainly. And when he does that, do not leave me here. This is not my home. You know, Joseph had lived from the time he was about 17 in Egypt. He says, this is not my home. My home is a land that we haven't yet received. But when we do receive it, don't leave me here. Remember, I was a part of this promise too, by shadow, as it were. Before it ever came to fruition, I'm included in that promise. Take me to the land that's home. Think when our Baptist forefathers talked about Canaan as a type of heaven and glory, eternal glory, this is the same thing. Joseph is saying, don't leave me in a land that's not my true home. Even Canaan where his body will be buried is not truly his home. He recognizes that. He's a traveler in this world, but ultimately he recognizes that it's important to say, I have a place in this promise. Why? He doesn't enjoy any benefits of living in the land of Canaan other than to be buried there. Descendants can visit his grave and put flowers on it, I guess, but that's not really much to him at that point, is it? So why does he care to make the point that he's a part of this promise? Because Joseph, like Jacob before him, And like Isaac before him, and like Abraham before him, as we've looked at all of these great figures of the scriptures, are looking to what even that earthly promise pictures. To be a part of that line of hope, that line of promise of what God is doing, takes us back to the original promise in Genesis chapter three of a Savior. Joseph, once he remembered, I'm a part of a greater promise Just as, why is it so important to read about the blessings that we read in this? Especially the first ones, right? Particularly of Isaac blessing Jacob. Because he recognizes in some way that the promise is coming directly through Jacob. You remember, it's the very thing that, for those who've been here on Wednesday nights, Cox is talking about when he says that he realizes his need of deliverance comes through the next generation. Not in that Jacob will die for his sins, but that the seed continues to come in generation after generation through these in which the line is carried until the coming of the Messiah through whom salvation comes. Now that's a little bit of a strange way of wording it, but he makes the point, right, that Abraham had to have faith in this promise of an earthly son, because if there's no earthly son, there's no ultimate seed, Christ. In the same way, Joseph is looking to this promise and saying, all my hopes are in this promise. But Joseph, that's nonsense. You're dying. We're gonna go through all this effort to carry your body all the way to the land of Canaan so you can have a nice grave there. It's not Canaan I'm looking forward to, he says. Yes, that's a great promise that God is making. And include me in it, take me there. But the promise I'm really looking to. is that seed of Abraham through whom all the nations shall be blessed." Not just our nation, but all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. I'm looking forward to the Messiah who will one day come. That's the real promise, the ultimate promise I'm looking to. If you want to say that there's anything that Hebrews is about, it's about that. As they put their eyes upon these earthly promises, what they were really seeing were those eschatological promises that God was ensuring along the way. My friends, as we look at these patriarchs, we recognize that it's a story of those who believe the promise of God. That's really what faith is, right? A wholehearted belief in the promises of God. And as they got older, even near death, and all human things began to fail them, as they do us all as we approach the end of our lives, they knew there was still something they could put their trust in. And that was the word and promise of God, which never fails.