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Good morning. Welcome to May 11th, 2025.
The year’s going quick. And today we wrap up our series in the Patriarchs right before Pastor Dave brings us through church history 102. Uh which should be really interesting as as I thought about that.
And that’s going to kind of cover the dark ages so-called. Uh and I reflected our our lesson today. We see God’s faithfulness shining through, don’t we?
regardless of the times. And so that is probably our biggest theme as we walk through today’s passage. So let me give us a just a few verses to uh to get us going. Key verse here from Genesis 49.
Uh then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Gathered together that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days. Assemble together in here, oh sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father. So someone’s last words as they are facing death have a particular weight, don’t they? Have you noticed that in in some maybe some of your families and friends? Um I had particularly noticed this um as a young man uh serving and and doing some hospital visitation. And my counsel to people is if you know an older godly saint who is dying and you have a chance to visit them, drop everything and do it because uh what God gives them to say as they’ve got eternity in view is gold.
It’s gold. It’s not scripture necessarily, right? Unless they’re quoting scripture, but it’s so profitable. And so, uh I would just encourage you if you have those kinds of opportunities to do that. And that’s the kind of scenario we have here today with Jacob with his sons. Now, one of the things I’d like to do today is God is so good in his word, not only to to give us the whole flow of scripture from Genesis to Revelation, but at certain times to reflect back and help us to understand its significance and its meaning. And there there are several passages like that that I’m going to point out today.
But I’d just like to highlight a couple before we pray. Psalm 78. Now, Psalm 78 is a is a long psalm that gives something of a history of Israel that’s so profitable that I’m going to recommend actually that you read this uh after our lesson.
But let me just read this for you. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and recount them to their children, that they should set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but observe his commandments, and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its and whose spirit was not faithful to God. And I’ve highlighted several words there. These are we see that that that these are statements of purpose, right? These are the reasons for which God acted in the way he did in history. And I would just challenge us this morning. Do you and do you and I think about that? Do you and I understand God’s purposes as we face the many challenges of our lives?
Have you made your purpose, his purpose, your purpose? Right? Um revolving everything we do around what he wants. God’s purposes are always accomplished. And so to the extent that we revolve our purposes around his, we will be successful because God is at work. So I commend that to you today.
Another one a little bit further on in Psalm 78. But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved, and he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth, which he has founded forever. He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds from following the nursing use. He brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them with his skillful hands. And I highlighted the words chose. And I think we we’ve seen this in our series. We’ll see it as we wrap up today that God chose his people in a way that we would not.
Amen. Uh for his purposes and for his glory. And we’ll see that theme continuing today. God chose has God has chosen a flawed and unworthy people nations and he’s chosen us even who are flawed and unworthy. So there’s a sense in which we don’t want to follow their negative example, but there’s a sense in which we can be really encouraged that God would use people like that and people like us.
All right. And then there’s the ultimate so that that I see in Ephesians 2. God has worked all of these things in salvation so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
That is the point of all of creation.
God is showing off himself. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m sometimes not thrilled at all the ways that he does that. But we’re not his counselor. He is ours. And with that in mind, let’s pray. Father, praise you for your purpose from eternity past into eternity future. That we might know and love and put our confidence in and glorify you for our good, the good of our families, our communities, our workplaces, our schools, our nation.
Father, help capture our hearts with these wonderful realities that we might live with newfound energy and that we might live in response to your will and call in our lives. May we live in the light of your presence and act in alignment with these glorious purposes.
Would you transform us even this morning by your word unfolded in Jesus name?
Amen. Amen.
All right. So, our lesson outline, it’s really always the same. We’re trying to demonstrate and teach for you good inductive Bible study methods. And so, these are things that you can apply as you interact with passages of scripture, right? Uh we’re going to give you the scriptural and historical background.
We’ve already started to do that just a little bit. Uh we’re going to make some observations. What does the text say? Uh interpretation and correlation. What does it mean? and how do other scriptures clarify its meaning? And we’ll have a bit of Q&A. We’re going to save that toward the end. Um, if you’ve got some questions, um, I may ask you some specific questions throughout, but we’ll do that primarily at the end today. And then, of course, the most important part, application, right?
That’s part of our great commission.
What did Jesus say? That we might teach everyone to obey all that he commanded.
Not just simply know it, but to obey it.
And I’ll be honest with you, I I I love how, you know, there’s a lot of complexities in scripture. There’s a lot of questions that are even remain unanswered. But I believe that what we are to do and how we are to to obey is not confusing, right? Particularly if we are willing to obey, that just opens up the meaning to us. And so, may we be encouraged by that today. All right. Turn in your Bibles if you would to uh Genesis 49. Genesis 49.
While I while I give some uh background to that. Now, you may have heard these four categories of how people describe how Christians have historically described the what we call the redemptive flow of history. And it’s normally four stages, right? We start with creation. Uh we go to the fall, which comes pretty quickly. Things went sideways from a human perspective pretty early on. redemption, which is most of the flow of the Bible, and then consummation, uh, the end times. Um, so I found those things to be really, really helpful. Um, I don’t know if you, you know, if you ever go to a large mall, I really don’t like malls at all.
I don’t like the shop, but when I go to one, I really like that big poster or banner that shows a map of where everything is and has a little dot usually that says, “You are here.” It’s super helpful, right? That’s kind of what we’re doing today with the redemptive flow of history and kind of walking through this. It’s very important whenever you read a passage of scripture to know where you are, right?
Where we are in redemptive history. And so hopefully this will help. I love this illustration from Answers in Genesis. Um I first became aware of this uh when we visited the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Kentucky, which if you haven’t gone, uh put that on your bucket list. It’s just amazing, amazing, and very um very clear about how the gospel comes through in all of this and God’s redemptive purposes. So they break it up into seven categories which I find really helpful. We have create creation, corruption, sin entered the world pretty quickly. Cata then later on catastrophe we have the flood. Um and then confusion the tab tower of Babel God’s means of dispersing the peoples creating languages and peoples to scatter throughout the earth because men were not obeying that command to scatter. Um, and then fast forward to Christ, uh, our redeemer, uh, the, uh, salvation, uh, the finished work of Christ on the cross, and then finally, consummation, his return, which we’re in Revelation right now. We’re hearing a lot about that from the pulpit. And so, um, seeing those seven categories, I think, is super helpful. And um whenever you read a passage of scripture, most of the time you’ll be in the uh um in the between Christ and cross and kind of the redemption aspect. That’s most of human history. But so helpful to know where you are when you read. And so these are just a couple passages that I recommend for you to get kind of that flow of history. I mentioned Psalm 78. Psalm 105 is similar uh Acts 7 where Stephen who is about to be martyed um kind of walks through the history of Israel um and then brings it right to Christ in the cross. Um these are great passages for you to reflect on as you think about redemptive history kind of cheat sheets if you will to help us understand the flow of scripture.
All right. So, as we as we hit our passage today, we recognize as we’ve gone through Genesis so far that God used a famine to bring Jacob and his family to Egypt where Joseph could provide food for them. So interesting. And you can even go back to the flood and the Tower of Babel. God has his ways of moving people against their will, if you will, right? It wasn’t their idea to scatter and move in those ways, but it was God’s plan and purpose. I think we do well to remember that as we walk through the minutia of our lives. God has his ways of moving us both physically and in our characters. So, Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years before he died. He blessed Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and named them as not named them as his own sons, giving Joseph a double portion in his inheritance. Israel also gave a special blessing to Ephraim, Joseph’s younger son, which displeased Joseph. We’ve talked about this. We we we see this pattern of God going against the cultural or natural order to choose and to favor as he will. and for his purposes. And we will see that continue in our passage today. God often chose, as we see here, a younger son to receive the blessing of the firstborn as he did with Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and Ephraim over Manasseh. This was against the cultural norms of the day. And as of course we see in the New Testament Jesus telling us very clearly the first shall be last and the last first. And so I think God does that so that we will not put our stock our confidence um in human achievement or human title but in the Lord himself. Right?
The blessings Jacob gave in Genesis 49 are prophetic regarding his son’s future tribes. We’re going to read that in just a couple minutes. Uh as he done before, God chose a younger son to receive a greater blessing. In this case, that younger son was Judah. An unlikely choice. I think if we see the history correctly, Judah had received the leadership position of the firstborn which did not go to Reuben because of his instability and his affair with his father’s concubine Bilha. So Reuben uh for he gave up that privilege through his actions.
Israel’s blessings warned that his son’s actions would affect their descendants. And this is very sobering to read. You saw in Psalm 78 the generational impact of the gospel. God has given his word so that we might teach the next generation and the next generation and the next generation. It’s the faithfulness of men and women who came before us, which is why we’re here today. And it’s very sobering to think that even when we’re gone, our actions and the seeds that we sew affect future generations for good or for bad. And yet in all of that, God’s purposes still stand. I’m I’m really banking on that because praise the Lord, he’s he’s enabled me to be faithful in many ways, but I’ve made a lot of mistakes as well, right? And the Lord is a gracious God.
The patriarchs died without seeing all of God’s promises fulfilled, but they had faith and hope that these things would come to pass. And we see that in Jacob’s words to his sons. And the good of Israel’s message to his sons was to encourage them. The goal, I’m sorry, the goal of Israel’s message to his sons was to encourage them to live their lives in purity and holiness for God. and their future generations, not comfortably in Egypt, but to Canaan to claim God’s promises. And the growth of the tribes and their enslavement in Egypt were steps in God’s perfect plan to prepare the Israelites to be his chosen people, a nation of priests. Again, while it was great that God had preserved their lives to be in Egypt, I think they thought that was great. But the future enslavement was not necessarily something that was prophesied, but I don’t know that it was really kept in mind. Certainly, in many ways, was not appreciated or um thought of in terms of God’s redemptive plan.
It’s interesting as we think about God’s promises, you know, there’s blessings and there’s curses. There’s positive and there’s negatives. We tend to focus on the positive. Well, God keeps his promises. Great. God keeps his promises.
Be very soberly warned as well because there are consequences uh to the warnings that he gives. With that in mind, let me go ahead and read I’m going to go ahead and read um Genesis 49. I’m going to read all the way through verse 27. We’re going to dive deep into just a selection of those verses today, but I thought it would be helpful for us to hear the whole flow and all his words to all of his sons.
Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Gather together that I may tell you what will befall you in these last days.
Assemble together and hear, oh sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.
Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my vigor, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in strength, uncontrolled as water. You shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father’s bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch.
Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are implements of violence. Let not my soul enter into their counsel.
Let not my glory be united with their assembly. Because in their anger they killed men, and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them amongst Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, as for you, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s welp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches. He lies down as a lion and as a lionist. Who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. He ties his fo to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine. He washes his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are dark from wine, and his teeth white from milk.
Zebulun will dwell at the seashore, and he shall be ashore for ships, and his flank shall be toward Siden. Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds, and he saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant. So he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens, and became a slave at forced labor. Dan shall render justice to his people. And as one of the tribes of Israel, Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. For your salvation, I hope, oh Yahweh. As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels. As for Asher, his food shall be rich, and he will yield royal dainties. Naftali is a dough let loose. He gives beautiful words. Joseph is a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a spring. Its branches run over a wall, and the archers bitterly attacked him and shot at him, and they bore a grudge against him. But his bow remained firm, and his arms were agile. From the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. From the God of your father who helps you and by the by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath. Blessings of the breasts and of the womb and blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors. Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. May they be the head of Joseph and on the top of the head of one distinguished among his brothers.
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning, he devours the prey, and in the evening, he divides the spoil. So, you see a combination of both blessings and warnings in those words.
And I I like to think about, you know, what how would those sons have heard or received those words, right? They might have been surprised. They might not have been surprised. My father’s reminding me of some things that I’ve done that were sinful in the past to warn me. I I see, for example, Simeon and Levi. Boy, I can really relate to the warning of anger there. That’s a that’s a stern warning.
Um and interesting. We’ve talked about how Joseph, there was really nothing negative said. That’s really interesting. And so, you would think that he would be the most likely uh to be the ruler, but God had different plans. And so, uh, as we think about this, let’s just dive deep into, uh, several of these for our purposes this morning. What is the purpose of Jacob calling his sons together? And we’ve alluded to this. He intended to tell them what was going to happen in the future. He was going to prophesy over them. And I think you can start to see in this passage that he’s not talking just about their lifetimes, but their descendants as well. And um as dads and moms, that’s really something to think about. Um for good or bad, uh our words, even more importantly, our example impacts future generations. And so I’ll just say a few words personally about that.
um that keeps me really dependent upon the Lord, really leaning on him because I know, and I’ve known this for a long time since the kids were little, that I don’t have everything that it takes to be the kind of dad I need to be. So, I lean on him. And then to be very honest about where we sin, right, dads and moms, you can do that, right? You can you can confess and repent and ask your kids for forgiveness. That’s that’s gospel, isn’t it? That’s sewing seeds of the gospel into their lives. So sorry that’s not on my notes but it’s on my heart to say to you today in each is each of these ideas talking about Judah himself and we’ve um and this is we’re referring right now to verses 8 through 12 Judah specifically right and we’ve we’ve alluded to this so the answer is not necessarily but they refer to Judah’s descendants the tribe that will come from his lineage we’re going to actually go to Revelation in a bit where it unfolds that quite specifically for us. What was promised to Judah in verse 8 and you can look at it and see his brothers would praise him. This is interesting because they had already experienced this with Joseph. This seems unlikely but this was God’s plan. His brothers would praise him. This is actually a po poetic play on his name since his name means praise, right? And and we’ll see I think we’ll even see in our sermon today the term Judah. It’s repeated throughout the scriptures. What did the prophecy indicate about Judah’s relationship to his enemies?
The idiom your hand shall be on the neck indicated Judah’s military prowess and how he would hold the life of his enemies in his hand. Right? So there is there is military strength here. Um there is uh there’s there is uh frankly um killing in the name of justice and some not always but certainly to do God’s bidding in terms of the nations.
What does the imagery in verses 9-10 tell us? And it’s just loaded loaded with imagery primarily of a lion and a scepter, both of which indicate strength, kingship, rule, and authority. You know, I think of um Western civilization, particularly in Britain. And if you see these these um coats of armor and these symbols of the kings, they most often have a lion because a lion is seen as a symbol of strength and of rule, right? He’s the king of beasts, right?
Um some strange lines are going through my mind about Lion King, my favorite Disney movie. I’ve never seen a king of beasts with quite so little hair comes to mind. So, he had to grow uh into that role. Uh certainly as as Judah did.
That’s not in my notes. That’s kind of fun. I like that. Um how long will Judah’s reign be? And this is really interesting.
Shiloh here is a proper name which literally means he’s he whose it is and is commonly understood to refer to the coming Messiah, not just the Judah himself. Revelation 5:5, we’ll get there shortly, reminds us that Jesus, yeah, this is a prophecy of Jesus. He’s the lion that is from the tribe of Judah. And this was prophesied in first kings where where God said to David that his throne would be eternal. So interesting. So interesting. What does the Did I lose my mic? Sorry guys.
Good. Can you hear me? All right. What does the imagery in verses 11 and 12 indicate about Judah? This is imagery of abundance and health. This is very interesting. I mean, we see some very interesting phrases here that are not necessarily royal, right? the imagery of abundance and health. If donkeys are allowed to eat your choice vines, you must have an abundance of food. Um, dark eyes and white teeth would be signs of health and vigor when contrasted to weak eyes and discolored teeth. So, we see many images here of strength with Judah. Now, let’s go to Revelation 5-8.
Turn there if you will. There’s some some rich uh nuggets we want to derive from there. Revelation 5:es 5-8. Let me go ahead and read those for us. And one of the elders said to me, “Stop crying. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Then I saw in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sits on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb and each one having a harp and a and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Isn’t it so interesting that our Messiah is represented as both a lion and a lamb?
Incredible. So, I’ve answered your question already. Who is being referred to as the one who can open the scroll?
Um, the elder speaking is referring to Jesus as the one who takes the scroll from the father seated on the throne. What three names are given to him? And we see this in verses 5-6. We see the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, and the lamb. What is a song that has Do we have a song that has this in it?
Um, I can’t remember the name of the song, but we do we do a song with this with these lyrics in it, don’t we? Who is worthy? Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? That song. Yeah, that’s directly directly from this passage. Beautiful.
And no one is worthy but the lion and the lamb. All right. How does this line reference relate to the passage in Genesis 49 9-10? I think it’s pretty direct, right?
It is relating Jesus as the line of the tribe of Judah and which is the direct language used in Israel’s prophecy. It’s almost as if this library was written by a single author. Isn’t it? It’s amazing how that comes together. Just beautiful. Really bolsters our faith. What do we learn about the connection? Let’s go to one other passage in just a single verse. 1st Samuel 17. It’s so interesting. Um, if any of you are uh reading through the Bible this year and you’re going through the Bible chron chronologically this year, you’re probably in a combination of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. And I think what you what you recognize there is it’s pretty messy, is it not? It’s really messy. Uh, and I think the message for us is to see the faithfulness of God in all of that. 1st Samuel 17:12. Now, David was the son of the Ephrothite of Bethlehem and Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons.
And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men. And so this is a very important genealogical statement here for us. We see that David was in the tribe of Judah. It’s very clear. And how was Jesus connected to David? I think we’re establishing that, right? Jesus parents, both parents, earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, were from the tribe of Judah and the line of David. This explains the reference as Jesus being the root of David in Revelation 5. And I just I don’t know about you, I just have to stop and think about how amazing all of this is. You realize you can’t thwart God’s purposes and plans, right? God is working marvelously through all of that. And I’m sorry, I’m I’m, you know, I I’m probably violating what I should be doing as a teacher. I’m supposed to say stay right in the observation category and then get to interpretation. But um please bear with me as I make some comments that I hope are are edifying and helpful. And we go right into some interpretation and correlation. We know that God pro God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a land, a great nation, and a seed who would bless all nations. And that seed is Christ. That’s explicit in the New Testament. Of all of Jacob’s sons, we might have expected the seed, the Messiah, to come through the line of Joseph, who became Egyptian royalty. But that is not the case. And we’ve established that to this point here. We have a clear indication that it was through Judah that the Messiah would come. David’s kingdom ultimately fell and there is no man on his throne today.
There hasn’t been a king in Israel since 607 BC. So how is God’s promise in effect? It’s through the one who would come, the one in whom to whom tribute would come, the one to whom all nations will bow, who will rule over all people.
It’s Jesus. That’s how it will come. And I think about the interestamental period, right? The time after Israel fell. Um, and you had some 400 plus years before John the Baptist and Jesus came. And one can only imagine what was going through the leaders of Israel’s minds. Are God’s promises true? Are they true? And so, it is through Jesus, the Messiah, the line of the tribe of Judah, that the promise remains. He is seated right now at the father’s right hand, ruling from heaven, and one day he will return as king of kings to rule all nations. This is the consummation that was seen in the seven seas that we’re talking about. I love how it talks about um Jesus humiliation and exaltation in Philippians 2 which ends with that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. Now we bow now not completely or as fully as we should but we do all creation will bow at the consummation. And as Jacob blessed his sons, he prophesied over them. Yahweh revealed some elements of the future to Jacob and his sons. Through this blessing, some of the blessings were related to events from the past and continuing discipline for the son’s disobedience, and others bestowed favor for no apparent reason other than Yahweh’s sovereign choice. Right? We look at who we think is most qualified, and it’s not I think we know this, right? It’s not a matter of qualification, human qualification, right? Romans nine. It is not a man who wills or a man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Praise the Lord. The fact that Yahweh chose Judah’s line to both rule over Israel and produce the Messiah is a reminder again of his mercy and grace. We don’t always get what we deserve.
You know, I love it when I have a gospel conversation with someone. And we’re going to get into this a little bit as we talk about um the entry into Egypt and what’s coming. That God’s not fair. You ever hear this from people? That’s just not fair. I don’t think we want I don’t think you wanted to get into the realm of fair when it comes to God. Fair does not help us, does it? Right. fair condemns us. Praise the Lord. There’s a line from a from a Reliant K song.
Anyone remember the go the Christian band Reliant K? I love this line. Says, “The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.” Yeah, it’s not fair.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Here is yet another reminder that God works according to his plans and not ours. and that he uses cracked and broken vessels to dispense his grace.
Amen. That’s all of us. That’s all of us. Um and the Lord uses us. You know, I think about even um I was reminded of this recently, the example of the Apostle Paul and he had some very glaring weaknesses and I remember this one passage. I can’t summon the reference in my mind but the critici criticism of him was that his words are weighty but his his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech is contemptable great fantastic glory be to God right when we start being too impressed with people that’s a problem that’s a problem glory glory to God glory to God that he uses is broken and cracked vessels. So, just a little bit of history uh here um thinking about how these tribes were dispersed in the land of Israel. And you see this um you see in in Genesis 48-49, the origin of the tribes. We’ve read most of chapter 49 today.
If you fast forward to numbers 34 and 35 uh that that appoints and names the human leaders uh of all of these tribes and then you fast forward even further to Joshua 13-21 and you see the distribution of the tribes throughout the land. And this map uh simply shows that. What’s really interesting is if you look at a map of Israel today, it’s a lot smaller than this. In particular, modern Israel does not I don’t know if you can see the the bodies of water there. In particular, the Dead Sea probably can stand out to you most toward the bottom.
Um, nothing east of that today is part of the borders of Israel. So, it’s really interesting the borders that God has established versus what has been uh what has transpired throughout history.
That’s a whole another lesson. I was trying to look at various maps that would show that and they’re they’re really hard to find because it’s just so controversial, you know, politically. Um I found found that really difficult to find. And then just um this is really more for when you get the slides and look at the notes, you can kind of see how the the origin of the tribes um where they came from. This is from a book called Patterns of Evidence, which some of you may know about by uh Timothy Mahoney. I think we we showed one of the movies here at Calvary a number of years ago. It was excellent. Um and so you can see from there that um Moses and Aaron come from the tribe, the priestly tribe of Levi. But that’s just kind of put in there for for your reference uh when we send the slides out. All right, turning your Bibles to the next chapter uh of uh Genesis. We’re going to we’re going to just read the end of Genesis and the first few verses of Exodus. So, we’ll start with Genesis 50 starting in verse 22. Now, Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim
They came each one with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Napali, Gad, and Asher. And all the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were 70 in number. But Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. And a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Then he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it be in the event of war that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.” So they appointed task masters over them to afflict them with hard labors. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pitham and Ramsy’s. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. So the Egyptians brutally compelled the sons of Israel to slave labor. And they made their lives bitter with hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field. All their slave labor which they brutally compelled them to do. All right. How does verse 7 here in Exodus 1 relate to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15? And if you’d like, you can take a quick look at it. Look at Genesis 5-6. Again, God’s word, every word of God, as it says in Proverbs, every word of God proves true. Verses 5 and six.
And he brought him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” This is God speaking to Abraham.
And he said to him, “So shall your seed be.” Then he believed in Yahweh and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Right? And so we see that so interesting that you had a barren man for whom this became true. And so God is fulfilling his promises. And then look at verse eight. What function does verse 8 serve? A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And this creates a potential conflict since Joseph was the reason that the Israelites had received honorable treatment in Isra in in honorable treatment in Egypt. And that favor was about to end. It kind of swung in the complete opposite direction from Joseph being second in command to all of Israel being put into slavery. And then how much time had passed. And we don’t know that for sure.
Uh but Genesis 50 told us that Joseph was 110 when he died. And since he was 39 when Israel moved to Egypt, it has been at least 70 years, right? Uh for the new king to have forgotten Joseph. What might the term arose imply about this new king? Um he may have been the first in a new dynasty having risen to power. This also makes sense as he would not necessarily have the historical connection to Joseph. Um, it’s interesting that in these early days when Egypt is mentioned, the specific pharaohs are not mentioned.
That doesn’t come until later in Israel’s history. Um, so I I actually have a recommended uh reference for you to kind of look that up to see who it was, but it was quite likely not Ramsy’s as is portrayed uh in the Ten Commandments movie.
which if you know if you’re my age, you’ve probably seen that at least every year since you were a kid. It’s kind of seared in your mind and you have to have to kind of put that out. How many how many of you have seen um the Ten Commandments, Charlton H?
Okay, the majority of us. So, you understand what I’m talking about. How did the king describe the Israelites in verse nine? The too many and too mighty, right? the Egyptians.
They were scared at this point. They were scared. Um, and then what plan did the king implement to deal with the threat? This has been tried over and over and over again in history. He enslaved them, setting task masters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens in order to control their numbers. And how did the plan work out? Really clear.
The more they were oppressed, they more the more they multiplied as if according to plan. There’s a verse in Proverbs that says that a l a ruler who is a great oppressor lacks understanding. And I think this is an example of this. We’ve seen this throughout history as rulers have tried to oppress well they killed Christ, right?
The the the the rulers of the world killed Christ and have continued to oppress his people. Psalm two talks about that.
the the nations have taken their stand against the Lord and his anointed. Well, how does God respond?
Anyone remember what it says next? He laughs. He who sits in the heaven laughs. He will put them in derision. You know, I was reminded of a class that I took uh in college um called God and Man in the USSR. Anyone remember what the USSR is? The Soviet Union.
um really tried to keep Christianity under control. I think I may have mentioned this one time and they actually tried to come up with the right mathematical formula to keep them in check. They recognized that too much oppression and they would multiply. Too little oppression and they would multiply. They just wanted to find that sweet spot, right? And that we actually saw a graph from the Soviet leaders. They kind of showed how this worked just, you know, to keep them under control. So we know that um in history too much oppression actually is of a benefit a benefit to God’s people and what projects did the Israelites build and it says here the cities of Ramsy’s and Python going to kind of get back to that a little bit because that I think has led to some historical misinterpretations as I mentioned that has led people to believe that Ramsy’s too in this case was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, which we’re quite certain actually that he was not. So, not only did God fulfill the promise to grow them into a great nation, but there was another promise. And what is the promise that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-16? Let’s look at this. This goes back to something I mentioned earlier that when we look at God’s promises, we’ve got to look at the good and the bad, the blessings and the curses. And this is amazing. Uh Genesis 15 starting in verse 13. Then God said to Abraham, “Know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in the land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. But I will also judge the nation to whom they are enslaved, and afterwards they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace.
You will be buried at a good old age.
Then in the fourth generation they will return here for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. There’s a lot here. Let me just briefly summarize it. So God told Abraham that his descendants would serve in a foreign land for foreign year for 400 years. And that was just about to happen here. And then what would happen after this period? They would come out of a land with great possessions as the enslavers were judged. You may remember toward the end of the book of Exodus. Well, not toward the end. Um, toward the beginning, the Egyptians were begging them to leave and were just giving them wealth to leave with after the plagues. What land is in view in the phrase, they shall come back here and the here Abraham was, which would become the promised land, land of Canaan, which is where they would return. And why was God delaying his return? And this goes back to God’s grace. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. So God must intend to judge the Amorites. This is a foreshadowing of what will happen during the conquest of the promised land. And this goes back to something I may have mentioned earlier that the conquest of the promised land is a is a big objection uh to the veracity of scripture and the nature of God. That God is a cruel and a genocidal God. I’m just going to say two things about this for your benefit that I think will help.
One, we see God’s mercy in waiting a long time before he judged these nations. If you look at the history of these nations, the cruelty, some of the cruelty and the things that they were doing was unspeakable, particularly with children and particularly sexually. So God was very very merciful. Um secondly, the curses that he brought upon that land are the same curses that he promised upon his own people uh if they were to disobey. The very same ones. And so we see that these curses, these blessings and these curses are not ethnic. They’re moral and they do relate to the character of God. So these are things to think about. There’s a lot to unpack there, but I think these are these are things we can to think about and to address directly when people give this objection to the scriptures. Some notes on correlation and interpretation. How is God’s faithfulness evident in this passage?
Right? Um, we see this as they lived in the land, they prospered, they grew, they they multiplied as God had promised, but they also found themselves enslaved as God had promised. Both things were true. Um, and again, when we look at God’s promises, we want to look at all of them and receive them all as for our benefit. Does the city, and I mentioned this earlier, that does the city of Ramsis in Exodus 111 indicate that this is the name of the Pharaoh of the oppression and of the Exodus? And he’s the name comes up several times in scripture. I’m going to say emphatically no. Um likely named after the Pharaoh Ramsey 2. This would have been a much later date than the time of the Exodus.
There’s a lot to unpack here. Uh patterns of uh evidence does a wonderful job explaining uh the evidence for the earlier or not the later date of the Exodus. And biblical cities. This is an interesting aspect of translation which is sometimes hard to get your head around but I’ll just say this. Biblical cities sometimes are cited by more current names and Ramsy’s was built later and over the city of Avaris which has archaeological evidence of the ancient Israelites. Again, the book Patterns of Evidence, and I’ll just show this graphic from that book shows that uh you you do see the storehouse city of Ramsy’s, but you see avarice underneath it. And there’s there’s abundant evidence there of the Israelites being there. And there’s some very specific evidence of Joseph in his palace, which is really really interesting. We don’t have time to go into it today, but I encourage you to uh to watch the movies or get the book uh Patterns of Evidence. It goes through through this in wonderful wonderful detail. Okay. What other attributes of God do you recognize in his promise to Abraham and what we have read here in the opening verses of Exodus, right? We see his justice and his judgment, do we not? Uh of both the Egyptians and later of the Amorites.
mercy and grace in providing relief for the Israelites and giving hopeful promises. Yeah. And also for on the Amorites as well, giving them time.
Giving them time. And then then wisdom and sovereignty in working out these things over hundreds of years. These are well beyond what people can plan could plan, are they not? It’s not like It’s not like Joseph and his sons or Israel and his sons just mapped this all out.
No, there’s no way that they could they could do that. All right, we’ve got a little bit of time, maybe 10 minutes, a little less. Um, and I’ve recommended some resources for you here. Um, in particular, one on the various pharaohs of the Bible, which I found really, really helpful also from Answers in Genesis. Any any questions or comments today?
He’s coming. We need Jeopardy music. Yeah. I just wanted to make a comment about uh Judah which is really interesting whether um the argument um on both sides but remembering that Judah um offered to be um the how can I say the his promise to his father that if he didn’t bring Benjamin back that he would take the blame for it. Yeah. And when you mentioned about Joseph not being um the one that the Messiah would come through, um there’s those that believe that there’s some sort of correlation where Judah makes the promise of bearing the blame for not bringing um bringing Benjamin back where Christ bears the blame Yeah. for the sins.
Yeah. of uh of Israel. You know, that’s a great point that I hadn’t thought of.
That’s actually um an important attribute of leadership is to take accountability. Yeah. Which he did.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Thank you, Steve.
Just just to repeat what you had said uh about the mercy of God and sometimes it seems like it’s unfair. Mhm. One of my favorite lines is from RC Sproul. What’s wrong with you people, right? I mean, you’re all laughing because I think you know what that means. So, I’ve quoted Sproul many times without realizing it, I think. Yeah. For those of you who don’t know, you know, it’s it’s you have the sinful man against a holy God. and why he didn’t just end it right there with Adam falling is just his mercy, you know, and we don’t I I don’t think at least I I hate to say I hate to compare and and and downplay other churches because I just know my own life, but you know, there’s this sense of which we overemphasize the grace and the grace of God and we don’t understand the holiness of God. You know, it’s it’s the it’s the one attribute that’s repeated three times in both the Old and New Testament.
Holy, holy, holy. Not love, love, love.
Not grace, grace, grace. Not mercy, mercy, mercy. It’s holy. That is a foundational aspect of God that pervades. He’s holy in his love. He’s holy in his justice. He’s holy in his mercy. He’s holy in everything. And you know, we we have to look at ourselves and what’s wrong with us when we don’t understand that. Amen. Amen.
Yeah. Any other questions or comments? We had another one from Arthur here and I think we’ll make that the last one. Was there some Was there someone else?
Okay, we’re doing good. Yeah. To tie into what was just mentioned about God’s holiness. Um I don’t I think that’s why you can’t separate grace from holiness.
We are undeserving Yeah. Yeah. of God’s grace. Yeah. And um as you mentioned even in God’s choice of um through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob although there were features of Abraham um which seemed to get less and less as we move further in history, characteristics that that were within the patriarch seem to be less prominent and and um Israel in general.
But when we talk about God’s grace, the fact that he chose he he it doesn’t say he chose Abraham because he was better than anyone. God chose Abraham because um of his sovereignty. And I think that’s one of the biggest problems with a lot of churches. They don’t understand that. They they really don’t understand.
They dismiss God’s sovereignty because somehow they want to put works, you know, they they want to feel like, well, look what I’ve done. You know, how can not how God how can God not save me or or um you know, allow me entrance into his kingdom because of the good I’ve done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. this whole idea that God is is smitten by me and can’t keep his eyes off me and uh you know me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me and uh the beauty of grace is that as we said it’s not fair and that he loves us because he loves us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Let me end with a couple thoughts because you just reminded me of something um two thoughts that the Lord brings to mind to end with just in terms of the of the promises and and how our and I’m going to put some application questions up there. I I’ll leave these to you guys to to work through at home. There’s some just some good things to think about.
But Galatians 6:7 and 8 says this. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sws this he will also reap. For the one who sws to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sws to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.
So every thought, every word, every action has a consequence, right? And so we have to just acknowledge that God is a holy and a righteous God and his word is true. And what you reminded me of um is gen is Deuteronomy 7:7. I’ll end with this and then we’ll pray.
Yahweh did not set his affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which he swore to our fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
I’m going to keep reading. This is good.
You shall know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and his loving kindness to a thousand generations. With those who love him and keep his commandments, but repays those who hate him to their faces to make them perish. He will not delay with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command you today. And what’s so interesting is we’re commanded to keep commandments that we can’t keep. I’m just going to pack this a little bit because this is really important. Some people um of the more Armenian persuasion will take me to the end of Joshua. Choose you this day whom you will serve. See that? Keep reading.
Do you remember what Joshua says? You won’t be able to do it. You will not be able to do this. Despite all the will and resolve that you can muster, you’re not going to be able to do it. That’s not very encouraging in one sense, but in light of the things that we’ve read today, it’s so encouraging, isn’t it? Because God gives us a new heart, right? I will cause them to walk in my commandments. I will give them a new heart. And that’s through the work of Christ. And that’s what all this leads to. And so, um, I just pray that we we think about our lives in that context and be be really energized and empowered, uh, to be content, be thankful uh, to fight uh, the good fight of the faith and to lead others to Christ. So, with that in mind, let’s pray.
Father, what a what a journey it’s been uh to study these very flawed and moderately faithful patriarchs. Um praise you, Father, for the truth of your word in and not sugarcoating their lives. Um but yet drawing attention to you and your eternal promises and purposes. Every word of God proves true.
We see that in the person of Christ. May we trust that in our lives today and this week uh to our good and your glory in Jesus name. Amen.
Next week we start church history 102.