day 29 of heart dive 365 I'm your Bible study friend kenoi welcome to the heart dive [Music] podcast well today we are finishing the Book of Genesis coming to the end of an era but before we do so if you could please partner with us help us out by hitting that like button make sure you're subscribed hit that little bell icon which is the notification Bell which will tell you every day and notify you that this video has come out otherwise if you have any questions or if you're new here please make sure to check out the show notes or the description box or you can always head to our website heart.org also I did want to point something out today that if you do notice here in my notes these little printouts uh this was because I know somebody's going to ask and so before I need to go writing in the comments what this was this actually came from this teeny tiny little printer it prints these little stickers it's not the greatest quality but I love it because it keeps me from having to write 49 bullet point points and these bullet points today came from the enduringword.com commentary and so I just figured I would point that out to you I don't believe I have this Linked In Amazon um I can try to remember to put that in there today but it is called the Fimo printer again not the greatest quality but good enough for me to be able to stick something in my Bible real quick without having to go all the way down to my printer and print it out let's go ahead and pray and jump into the word on this Monday morning heavenly father thank you so much for this day Lord whatever day it is whatever time it is for whoever is watching we know that it is your appointed time and so we just set this time aside Lord to be holy and Sanctified and I just pray that you will silence all distractions Lord help us to put things aside even the things that are in our mind Lord that might be trying to distract us from this time with you will you open up our eyes ears and hearts to be able to hear from you to be able to see you clearly and with accuracy Lord I pray against any lies that might be whispered to us or anything that might take away from your 100% truth will you speak through me Holy Spirit I pray that it will be your words and not my own forgive us Lord where we have aired forgive us for our sins anything that we've done to hurt anyone and especially if we have hurt your heart also help us to forgive others Lord because we know that that is where we will find true freedom in this life and we will be able to live our lives out in peace with no anxiety or worry and so we just cast those things out in the name of Jesus and ask that your holy spirit will fill those spaces in our hearts and in our Spirits have your way today Lord I pray that your daily bread will give us everything that we need today we love you so much in Jesus name amen so we left off yesterday with Jacob nearing the end of his life today we will see him bless each one of his children before he takes his last breath so we start here in chapter 48 after this Joseph was told behold your father is ill so he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim and it was told to Jacob your son Joseph has come to you then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed and Jacob said to Joseph God Almighty appeared to me at l in the land of Canaan and blessed me remember L is bethl and he said to me behold I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make you a company of peoples and will give this land to your Offspring after you for an everlasting possession and now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Ruben and Simeon are so notice that he switched the names up here in verse one it was Manasseh and Ephraim now being spoken Ephraim and Manasseh on purpose because he will be blessing the younger son over the second born but even more beautifully he is inheriting them as his own Sons elevating them to Patriarchs and so these two children will become part of the tribes of Israel and the children that you fathered after them shall be yours they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance as for me when I I come from Paden to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way when there was still some distance to go to ephrath and I buried her there on the way to ephrath that is Bethlehem when Israel saw Joseph's Sons he said who are these and Joseph said to his father they are my sons whom God has given me here and he said bring them to me please that I may bless them now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see so Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them and Israel said to Joseph I never expected to see your face and behold God has let me see your Offspring also then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the Earth and Joseph took them both Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand so he's trying to put his second-born son in the Lesser hand and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand so that would be the stronger hand where the greater blessing would come from typically for the firstborn and brought them near him and Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim the second porn mind you who was the younger and his left hand on the head of Manasseh Crossing his hands for Manasseh was the firstborn and he blessed Joseph and he said the god before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day the angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the boys and in them let my name be carried on and the name of my father Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the life in the midst of the Earth so I love his Blessing here testifies to the grace of God and you know anytime someone of Merit passes away you will see for days I mean even sometimes Weeks news stories segments all over social media on Entertainment Tonight or TMZ all about their lives I mean every little detail that people can drum up about them but I love the Simplicity of the days of old where a testimony of Grace and a blessing like this one of Jacob's was the Legacy that they would leave so heart check if your life were to end today would it be a testament to the grace of God what would the reporters say about you verse 17 when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him and he took his father's hand to Move It from ephraim's head to manasseh's head and Joseph said to his father not this way my father since this one is the firstborn put your right hand on his head but his father refused and said I know my son I know he also shall become a people and he also shall be great nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of Nations so he blessed them that day saying by you Israel will pronounce blessing saying God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh now we can look at this blessing in one of two ways either we are going to take the immature route and say that isn't fair or we will choose to see God's heart in assuring that his ways are higher and when we do that we are able to sit back and just we can just exhale and we can be at peace trusting that what he is doing is the right thing and the best thing and not only that but we might even be able to be like I spy with my little eye a blessing in it because when we filter Through the Windows of Heaven it's almost as if God is showing us that our lives on Earth are like the firstborn it's wonderful and it is blessed but it's that second life that is yet to come that has an even greater blessing upon it so heart check do you see that the blessing of the eternal life is greater than the first or are you unable to see past what is here on Earth verse 21 then Israel said to Joseph behold I'm about to die but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers so it's almost like he's passing the torch here 22 moreover I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the amorites with my sword and with my bow so he is in a sense giving Joseph a double blessing a double portion that's what he means by the mountain slope because in other translations it actually says one portion of the land so this continues that theme of God blessing the younger over the older over the firstborn other places we have seen that of course was Abel being blessed over Cain Isaac over ishmail Jacob over Esau Joseph over Reuben and then we will see Moses being more blessed than Aaron and of course David more than the firstborn eliab chapter 49 then Jacob called his sons and said Gather yourselves together that I might tell you what shall happen to you in the days to come so he is going to give out his Blessing to each one of these children but it acts more as a prophecy and notice that it won't be in birth order assemble and listen oh sons of Jacob listen to Israel your father Ruben you are my firstborn my might and the first fruits of my strength so he had great promise on his life I mean high hopes for Ruben here preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power unstable as Waters so there we see the shift in the narrative you shall not have preeminence there will be no centralized power within the firstborn here he will not have the spiritual and social leading that firstborn typically will have and it's because you went up to your father's bed then you defiled it he went up to my couch remember he defiled bilha the concubine and it was that uncontrolled passion that leads to this saying that he is unstable and someone actually commented before when we were talking about Reuben and him defiling BHA and they said why are you only blaming Reuben and I said well it's because Reuben is the only one who gets rebuked in the end I mean it is possible that Bill had something to do with it but the Bible never says that but Jacob does say that Reuben was at fault verse 5 Simeon and Levi our brothers weapons of violence are their swords because remember they were the ones who plundered sheam let my soul come not into their counsel oh my glory be not joined to their company for in their anger they killed men this was unrighteous anger of course they were very cruel and excessive in their killing 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 so Simeon is indeed scattered in the end and absorbed by the tribe of Judah whereas Levi actually redeems itself a little bit at the incident of the golden calf so we will later see God redeeming that tribe and they will be blessed whereas Simeon receives almost like a curse verse 8 Judah your brothers shall Praise You Remember Judah means praise and let's not forget that he tried to defraud his daughter-in-law Tamar and also sell Joseph into slav y but again God redeeming his life because of the way that he changed over time and he stepped up as a leader your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies your Father's son shall bow down before you Judah is a lion's Cub a lion would have been a symbol of royalty from the prey my son you have gone up he stooped down he crouched as a lion and as a lionist Who Dares Rouse him the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler staff from between his feet and so this speaks of royalty once again the lion the scepter and we will see also the staff which all points to the Royal lineage of course of Jesus coming until tribute comes to him now this is translated to until Shiloh comes to him and this is a little bit obscure but what some Scholars have said is that this points to the coming of Jesus as well because Shiloh means sent or he whose right it is or whom it belongs and to him shall be The Obedience of the peoples binding his fo to the vine and his donkey's Colt to the choice fine he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in Blood of grapes his eyes are darker than Wine and his teeth are whiter than milk so I read in I believe the new King James version Study Bible that says this speaks of the Warfare that will take place against Jesus the wine being a symbol of his blood eyes are a symbol of Vitality teeth being a symbol of victory of course we know the color white is Purity and milk possibly being lifegiving so of course through Jesus is where we find life and victory we are able to become pure and he gives us life verse 13 zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea he shall become a Haven for ships and his border shall be at siden so here we're seeing the fifth blessing but upon number 10 son and zebulun is being blessed over isachar issachar would have been the older brother and this prophesies to them being faithful they will actually be a large supplier of an army to David verse 14 isachar is a strong donkey and donkeys of course are stubborn 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 so they actually become the third largest nation which of course makes them big old Targets on their back and this will lead to a heavy enslavement that they will end up in verse 16 Dan shall judge his people now this is interesting because Samson who is a judge actually comes out of the tribe of Dan as one of the tribes of Israel Dan shall be a serpent in the way a Viper by the path now some Scholars say that this points to the Antichrist I feel like that's a little too speculative so worth mentioning but I don't agree with it but I do believe that this speaks of those who might abandon the faith and of course we know that the tribe of Dan is the one that introduces idolatry to the Israelites that bites the horse's heels so that his rider Falls backward which is what idolatry will do I wait for your salvation O Lord and some translations say I trust in your salvation O Lord and this word salvation in Hebrew is Yeshua and so it's as if Jacob is crying out I trust in your salvation O Lord right in the middle of these prophecies over his children verse 19 Raiders shall raid Gad but he shall raid at their heels so yes they will be attacked but they will have ultimate Victory they too are Big Supply s of troops to David verse 20 Asher's food shall be rich and he shall yield Royal Delicacies so he's going to be happy lots of luxuries within his tribe napali is a dough let loose which speaks of Freedom that bears beautiful fawns so another one that is of Hope and joy I like these two blessings I'm like can I be in the tribe of Asher and napali please Joseph is a fruitful bow a fruitful Bow by a spring his branches run over the wall I will be in the tribe of Joseph as well now we're about to see that Joseph's blessings surpass them all and I love how Jacob calls him a fruitful bow I mean it made me think again about what it means to be fruitful fruit of the spirit being love joy peace patience kindness faithfulness gentleness and self-control and I thought man am I bearing all of these things so heart check are you a fruitful bow what fruit can your tree work to bear and some might say well how in the world do we work on that well Psalm 1 talks about the blessing being upon the one who does not hang out with the ungodly but rather Delights in the word it says he will be like a tree that is planted by the river that will bear fruit in season and everything he does will prosper I mean don't you want to be like that I know I do so I think the best thing that we can do right now that we know is simply stay in the word stay rooted in it the archers bitterly attack him shot at him and harassed him severely yet his bow remained unmoved and of course we know that he was attacked by his Brothers as well as Egyptians his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob from there is the shepherd the stone of Israel notice how many different names he's using here for God by the god of your father who will help you by the almighty who will bless you with blessings of Heaven Above So showing that he is going to be protected blessings of the deep that crouches beneath blessings of the breast and of the womb the blessings of your father and 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 so here Joseph receiving the greatest blessing of all his brothers Benjamin as a ravenous wolf in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil this is one of those obscure blessings I can't remember uh any particular detail in the Bible that points to this specific thing if you know of anything let me know let us know in the comments cuz definitely welcome some conversation on that one verse 28 all these are the 12 tribes of Israel so this is the first mention of 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 then he commanded them and said to them I am to be gathered to my people bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the hittite in the cave that is in the field at mcpa to the east of mamry in the land of Canaan which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the hittite to possess a burying place there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife and there I buried Leah the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites when Jacob finished commanding his sons he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people and I circled his people and I asked myself who are your people this isn't a heart check but it's good to think about sometimes you know like if you were to get to the end of your life who would you want to be buried with like who are the people that you truly feel were the ones who were with you in this journey in this time of sojourning and I found it interesting that he chose to be buried with Leah once again it's almost as if he realized that she had such an integral part in the purpose of God and what he was doing I mean he never loved Leah her whole life but in the end here it's almost as if he is giving her that love that she so desired her entire life so in the end these blessings were more like prophetic words right with some of them being kind of obscure and then others evidently fulfilled in the Bible and we will see it played out but what we can see is that even though there has been redemption or even transformation within the Suns they're still facing the consequences of their actions and this is a classic definition of your sin will find you out even though we're forgiven we can still sometimes deal with the consequences down the road and they can have widespread effects on our families so in this case the actions of each son affected the outcome of their entire nation so heart check do you consider the way you live and how your actions will shape your future chapter 50 then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him and Joseph commanded his servants the Physicians to embalm his father so the Physicians embalmed Israel 40 days were required for it for that is how many are required for embalming and the Egyptians wept for him 70 days a royal mour in Egypt would have been 72 days so he's only 2 days short of that and he may have actually had 72 days and maybe just the writer wrote 70 but regardless they were mourning over him and they did so for a very long time and in a sense this also gives us that permission to grieve you know when we hurt or when we lose someone that we love a lot of people will try to make you feel better right away and I believe it's always with good intentions because they know that there is a potential for you to spiral downwards and nobody wants to see their friends and their family do that but there is a time period for grieving there is a time for mourning and it needs to take place because it is a part of the healing process verse four and when the days of weeping for him were passed so there it is there is a time period but there is also a time for it to end Joseph spoke to the household of pharaoh saying if now I have found favor in your eyes please speak in the ears of pharaoh saying my father made me swear saying I am about to die in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan there shall you bury me now therefore let me please go up and bury my father then I will return and Pharaoh answered go up and bury your father as he made you swear so Joseph went up to bury his father and with him went up all the Servants of pharaoh the Elders of his household and all the Elders of the land of Egypt as well as all the household of Joseph his brothers and his father's household only their children their flocks and their herds were left in the land of Goan and there went up with him both chariots and Horsemen it was a very great company and when they came to the threshing floor of a had which is beyond the Jordan and by the way this is also the entrance of the promised land they lamented there with a very great and Grievous lamentation and he made a mourning for his father 7 days when the inhabitants of the land the Canaanites saw the M on the threshing floor at atad they said this is a grievous mour by the Egyptians therefore the place was named Abel misam it is beyond the Jordan thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of MPA to the east of mamry which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the hittite to possess a buying place after he had buried his father Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father so being buried here was actually an Act of Faith because remember they didn't have possession of this land yet they had only bought this small portion of it but they are acting upon the promise that God had spoken that this would be their land where their descendants would dwell now when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead they said it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him so they sent a message to Joseph saying your father gave this command before he died say to Joseph please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did Evil to you and now please forgive the transgression of the Servants of the god of your father and Joseph wept when they spoke to him and this word wept here is the Hebrew word that actually means quiet weeping so this was not the loud weeping where everybody in Egypt heard him and you can almost feel the sorrow that he must be feeling in this time like man why are they still questioning my character have they not seen that I've proven trustworthy at this point his brothers also came and fell down before him and said behold we are your servants but Joseph said to them do not fear for am I in the place of God As for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today so do not fear I will provide for you and your little ones thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them so Joseph knows that he is in no place to judge just the same way that we really are in no place to judge other people especially when it comes to their character that's God's job our job is to love them and then he will judge them we can most definitely be aware and be Discerning of people so that we know whether or not we are in good company or bad company and whether or not we should stay in that relation ship but it doesn't mean that we sit there and cast that judgment and go tell other people about them and start punishing them for something that they've done verse 22 so Joseph remained in Egypt he and his father's house Joseph lived 110 years so he lived a pretty long life as well and Joseph saw ephraim's children so notice he is speaking of Ephraim which by the way the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh will often times be referred to just as Ephraim but it does include Manasseh as well the children also of maker the son of manasse were counted as Joseph's own and Joseph said to his brothers I'm about to die but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob so this is Now setting the stage for the book of Exodus then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear saying God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here now it will be another 400 years before Joseph's bones actually get carried out of Egypt we'll see it happen in Exodus 13 so Joseph died being 110 years old they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt so Joseph trusted in the sovereignty of God more than anyone I mean this declaration right here that what his brothers meant for evil God turned it for good it proved that what an incredible Testament to his faith and this is one of my favorite verses for us to be able to declare that what the enemy is intending for evil God is going to turn it for good so heart check can you see past the evil of man to God's turning hand of goodness does your reaction to people reflect that so that wraps up the end of that era and we have just finished our second book of the Bible and Genesis gives such a rich Foundation of our faith I mean it began with creation it had so many accounts of God's grace his provision his protection throughout people's Journeys but also his forgiveness and his Redemption and it ends with the bones of Joseph who is a picture of Jesus being carried out of Egypt or at least we know they will be so this sets the stage for an even greater Redemption of the people leaving the world that they're currently in and heading toward their promise and it's all going to be done in faith because they will trust in God's promise they knew where they belonged and where they needed to go they looked ahead to the Future they proclaimed God's promises along the way and they were able to trust in the Unseen this is exactly what faith looks like so let's take a look at some deep dive questions how does the blessing of Jacob reflect today's writing of Wills or inheritances how do Jacob and Joseph's end of life dealings make you view death or the temporary nature of life on Earth do you believe the individual blessings may have invoked fear in Joseph's brothers what does this say about their spiritual growth was it just a lapse in faith how can we learn from Joseph's faith and trust in God's sovereignty and apply it to our relationships today and what are your thoughts on honoring the wishes of those who have passed on so Heavenly Father what a beautiful ending to the book of Beginnings thank you so much for those who have gone before us we honor not only these founding fathers of our faith but even our own family members and loved ones who have been called home anytime we experience these losses Lord it leaves such a hole in our hearts that can only be filled by you we know that the pain we feel is just as temporary as this time on Earth but it doesn't make it hurt any less so I pray for those who are still mourning or grieving a loss today surround them Lord with your love and your comfort and I pray that you will wrap your arms around them so that they can tangibly feel the warmth of your presence give them peace in their hearts please strengthen their hope that it is only a short time before they are going to be able to see them again we are so grateful Lord to be called children of God as we look at the blessings that were spoken over each tribe of Israel I pray that we will also be able to hear our own blessing that you speak over us may your promise to feed and guide and watch over us as our Shepherd be our testimony of Grace always we know that every good gift comes from you so we thank you for blessing us today I pray that we will be fully present and aware of our everyday dealings in life knowing full well that everything we do holds a consequence we want to walk in Holiness and honor you but we know that we will fail because everyone does so help us to always get back on track before we head down a road that leads to destruction and I pray that we can see past the point of both pain and pleasure with eyes focused on eternity and fixed on you we don't want to be unstable in any way the way that Reuben was or impulsive and angry like Simeon and Levi we want to be transformed like the child of Praise leading others into a life of worship of the most high God I pray that we will not be judgmental of others are grouchy but rather carry an Asher heart of happiness and joy we want to dance through this life like a dough in the fields of nathali and be a fruitful bow like Joseph I pray that you will continue to mold our hearts to the likeness of you when we're attacked or mistreated or even taken advantage of may we have hearts that are full of forgiveness and mercy just as we saw in Joseph help us to be more like him Lord which is ultimately more like you so that when we breathe our last breath it is one of peace knowing that we have left a legacy of Faith May every step that we take from this point forward be a step toward the promised land of heaven we love you so much we pray these things in Jesus name amen heaven and salvation is a Divine gift that is given to us by Grace none of us deserve it in fact the Bible says that the wages of sin is death and every single one of us have fallen short and then we desperately need someone to pay that price and Jesus did it he didn't do it because we are righteous on our own Merit he did it because he loves us and he wants to spend eternity with us but it won't happen if we don't receive him before we leave this earth as Lord and Savior hell is a very real thing and there is no second chance after we take our last breath here so I want to be able to give someone the opportunity today who is saying I'm ready I've never given my life to Christ I don't know where I'm going to end up after I die but I don't want to live another day without knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt where I am going to end up I see now that this is real and I want to believe so if that is you we're going to say a prayer and I'm going to put the words on the screen so that you can say them audibly with your mouth because the Bible says that when you believe and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that he died and rose again then you will be saved so we're going to say this prayer together believe it in your heart speak it with your mouth and know that this is indeed the day of your salvation dear heavenly father thank you for Jesus Jesus thank you for dying for me I believe that you came you died and you Rose again I confess my sins to you today and I turn from them and I now live my life for you I know that I am forgiven of all my sins so I receive you now as Lord and Savior and I Belong To You Jesus I pray these things in Jesus name [Music] amen