I invite you to turn with me this morning to Genesis chapter 48 as we continue on drawing ever nearer to the close of our consideration of the episodes of Joseph and history, God's redemptive history that we find there. Genesis 48, we're going to read the chapter together as you see if you've looked at the back of the order of worship that there's two points to this sermon and we're only going to consider point 1 this morning and the Lord willing point 2 next week. And so we'll read the entire chapter considering the first seven verses of chapter 48. And 48 of course starts out sometime later in that meaning sometime after. At the end of chapter 47, Jacob had asked Joseph to come and see him and asked Joseph to promise to bury him in the land of Canaan. So then we pick up at verse 1 of chapter 48, giving our attention to this word of God. Sometime later, Joseph was told, your father is ill. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, along with him. When Jacob was told, your son Joseph has come to you, Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed. Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me, and said to me, I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you. Now then, your two sons, born to you in Egypt before I came to you here, will be reckoned as mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours in the territory they inherit. They will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. As I was returning from Paddan to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, Who are these? They are the sons God has given me here, Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, Bring them to me so I may bless them. Now Israel's eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them. Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face again. And now God has allowed me to see your children too. Then Joseph removed them from Israel's knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh on his left toward Israel's right hand, and brought them close to him. But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. Then he blessed Joseph and said, May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, The angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth. When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head, he was displeased, so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to him, No, my father, 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 too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations. He blessed them that day and said, In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing. May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. And to you, as one who is over your brothers, I give the ridge of land I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, as we have heard your word read, As we bow before You at this time, we confess, O Lord, that Your Word in and of itself is meaningless to us because of our hard hearts, because of our blindness, because we are not able to understand by ourselves. And therefore, we pray in this morning hour that You would bless us. That You would bless us powerfully. That You would open our hearts, that You would illumine our hearts and minds by the power of Your Holy Spirit that we might hear Your Word to us this morning. That it might not be the voice of your weak servant that we hear, but that we might hear the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ speaking powerfully and personally to each one of us. Father, we desire your blessing. We pray for your blessing. Hear us, we ask, in Jesus' name alone. Amen. Beloved in Christ the Lord, it's not until the last act or scene of the play or the last chapter of a book or the last episode of a series that the whole story finally comes together. It's then that all that was anticipated up until that point is made clear. It's then that we find out who done it and how it happened. It's then that we see how the whole drama fits together, how the whole story then makes sense. it's then that we can go home or close the book with a sigh of relief because there's no cliffhanger. Jacob's life was a drama. There's no doubt about that. All we need to do is go back and read over the chapters of Genesis from the beginning talking about Jacob from the time he was born until this time. His life was a drama and he is now in the last act of his life. And we know that he is listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, especially verse 21, but of the whole of his dramatic life, what is it that is remembered there? The writer writes this, By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff. Borrowing from the end of chapter 47 and going into chapter 48 of all of the drama of Jacob's life, This is what the writer of Hebrews remembers. You see, beloved, here in Genesis chapter 48, we are given a powerful lesson of how faith works as we see God with Jacob as He faithfully prepares for death. And He doesn't just prepare Himself for death. Sometimes people prepare themselves as much as they're able to for death. They prepare themselves emotionally or spiritually or even mentally as best as they are able to. Jacob didn't just do that. But Jacob prepared his family for his death. And in doing so, Jacob prepared his family for another phase of redemptive history by calling them to remember whose they are and to remember from where they have come. He prepares them to be preserved by the grace of God. And therefore, in doing so, to preserve the line leading to the Messiah. Jacob faithfully prepared for death by recalling God's blessing and also by passing on God's blessing. As I said a moment ago, we're only going to consider this morning, from these first seven verses, that first point. recalling God's blessing. And as Jacob recalls God's blessing, we notice here that he remembers God's promise given. Beginning at verse 1 again, Sometime later, Joseph was told, Your father is ill, so he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, along with him. When Jacob was told, Your son Joseph has come to you, Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed. Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan. This is on his way out. as he's running from Esau. And there he blessed me and said to me, I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples. And I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you. Now again, we know that the end is near for Jacob. We have another chapter to deal with his blessing of all of his sons, but the end is near. We sense the urgency here as we notice the weakness of Jacob and as well the diligence of Joseph. Joseph brings his sons along with him to visit Jacob, possibly as a demonstration that Joseph had some sort of an idea of what Jacob would do and he knew that now was the time. But we don't know that for sure. But what we do see here, we can't help but notice a change in Jacob. He has a new attitude. We've talked about this a little bit before, that Jacob throughout his life was somewhat of a pessimist. But now we can't help but notice he has a new attitude. He has a calm spirit. In the face of death, at the climax of a life of drama, he has a calm spirit. Now as we think back a little bit, we know that Jacob's death was anticipated often. It was spoken of often throughout the chapters that deal with him. Esau wanted to kill him. And when Jacob is returning with his wives and children and he hears that Esau is coming to meet him, again, he's afraid for his life. His death is anticipated. It is spoken of in his mourning for Joseph. It's spoken of again when he will not send Benjamin along with the brothers to Egypt. His brothers speak of it as they're pleading with Joseph to send Benjamin back to his father. Jacob himself spoke often about his death, often in negative terms. He says, I will go down to the grave in mourning or you will bring my gray head down to the grave. And the brothers said too to Joseph, if Benjamin does not return, his father will die. And all of these references to his death point to the possibility that his death would be brought on possibly by the troubles of life that he was enduring. Sorrow, pain, disappointment. Any of those things might put him to death. And all of that, you see, added to the drama of his life so that we can't help but ask the questions, would his troubled matters be settled? Would Jacob die in peace? And now as we come to the last act of his life, the answer is clearly yes. he will die in peace. But someone might say, well, there's no wonder. I mean, look at this. His family was all together. Jacob had, as it were, found the gold at the end of the rainbow. His family owned a property in Egypt. They were fruitful. They were prosperous. Who wouldn't be at peace with all of those things going in your favor? But notice, beloved, those things are not the things that Jacob reflected on. That's not what Jacob recalled as he recalled the blessing of God. Indeed, he was grateful for all the blessings of God. And we know that because of what he says in verse 11. Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too. We can take that to mean that he was grateful for all of the blessings that he enjoyed at the hand of God. But those things, again, that we listed are not the cause of his new attitude. His calm spirit. The peace that he enjoyed. All of that came, you see, from recalling, remembering the blessing of God Almighty. From remembering the Word of God, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob's few and difficult days as he explained them to Pharaoh were erased as he recognized what? That God had kept His Word to be with Jacob wherever he went. And the other promises of God that indeed were coming to pass. All of that, you see, gave Jacob confidence for the future, for his future, but also the future of his family. See, Jacob at this time was still a living example. A living example to his family that God is indeed a God of His Word. And as believing parents and grandparents, we too, as we sit here today, we are still living examples to our children and our grandchildren that God is indeed a God of His Word. That's what Jacob could testify to, and he does so. He points his family, represented by Joseph, to that faithful God. And as he remembers God's promises then, he will leave Joseph with a proper perspective. In a sense, he draws his attention back to the comforts of Egypt, not by talking about those comforts, but by pointing him to something else. But the comforts of Egypt were all theirs. Jacob's family was indeed settled. Joseph, we know, enjoyed a powerful position. And Manasseh and Ephraim could have also been given positions of power. And as far as the particular promises that God had made to him with regard to the multitudes of people and the possession of land, those things which were also part of God's covenant promise to Abraham handed down throughout the generations, those things were enjoyed in Egypt. As Abraham said to the Lord, well, maybe Ishmael can be the child of promise. Here too, maybe Egypt can be the land of promise. All these things were enjoyed in Egypt. Jacob's family had it all in Egypt. But that wasn't the promise. Egypt was not the land promised. Egypt was temporary. Canaan was the land of promise. Canaan would be the everlasting possession. Egypt was only a foretaste of what God will do for them in Canaan. And therefore, Jacob draws Joseph's attention away from the splendor and the power of Egypt. Sometimes it's so hard to follow God's will when we think that God may be leading us in another direction, but yet we have it so good where we are at. We are enjoying things going just our way that we don't want to see that God might be drawing us in another direction. Jacob draws Joseph's attention away from the splendor and the power of Egypt to God's covenant promise. As if to say, Joseph, don't look to the possessions and the promises of Egypt and her kings. In other words, the world. And that's for you and I. Don't look at the possessions and the promises of the world, but set your sights on the divine promise. Set your sights on the heavenly inheritance. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 18, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. God's promises preserve hope. God's promises gave Jacob hope throughout his pilgrimage. He didn't always show it, we know that. But yet now we see that his faith had matured and God's promises now were also to give hope to his family. God's promises were to preserve that hope of the nation of Israel. God's promises are dependable because it's the sure Word of God. As Isaiah 40, verse 8 says, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever. Brothers and sisters, Jacob was about to die without receiving himself, the promised land of Canaan. But that didn't trouble him. As he came throughout his life to understand the ways of God, he had a greater promise to look forward to that he would enter by death. He had hope beyond the grave. And therefore, with full confidence in the covenant God of promise, Jacob prepares for death by preparing his family through his testimony by pointing them to the only wise God. Well, what about us? What about our preparation for death? Do we prepare for death? You see, we know that unless the Lord Jesus Christ comes first, death is certain for each one of us. Yet the truth is, we don't think much about it. We don't want to think about it. We don't prepare for it. You see, in the mind of the world, death is a morbid thought, and in some ways we kind of adopt that idea that we don't even want to think about it until we have to. We enjoy what we have right here, right now, so why worry about that? You see, beloved, we have something great. Something great. Death is still that last enemy. And we do face that with some fear, but we have something great beyond the grave. You see, it's so easy as we come to the end of life, or even at any point that we are at in life, it's so easy to reflect back over our life so far, and it's easy to boast about our achievements. Or on the other hand, it's easy to lament and be sorrowful because of our difficulties and the troubles that we have had to endure our whole life long. Boys and girls, you can look at your shelf and you can see all the little trophies and the little ribbons and the little mementos that you have from all of your achievements and all of your accomplishments and all of your activities up until now. And young people, you can look at your achievements too. Maybe your GPA or getting into the college of your choice or maybe your achievements on the athletic field or on the stage or in music. And we can boast in those things. But they're in the past. And they're meaningless all by themselves. And it's sad, beloved, if all we have is the highlights of life in the past. But we have nothing to look forward to. It's all meaningless. Jacob did not die a frustrated old man with only past memories, which were bad. He enjoyed future hope. And we too, by the grace of God, can testify that God is always with us. He is always preserving us. He is always providing for us. He has given us something to look forward to. And also, as Jacob recalled God's blessing, he prepared his family by reminding them for whom God's promises were given. He recalled those promises and he reminds them for whom God's promises have been given. Verses 5 and 6, Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours. In the territory they inherit, they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. We have here an adoption process going on, which will be ratified a few verses later, as we'll consider next week, as Jacob ratifies, through a blessing, he ratifies this adoption process. But he adopts Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own. It may seem strange to us, but really it wasn't to them. You recall that Leah and Rachel took the sons of their maids as their own sons, called them their own. But Jacob adopts Joseph's sons, and in doing so, he elevates Joseph to the position of the firstborn and gives him firstborn blessings. Ephraim and Manasseh are elevated to the status of Reuben and Simeon, who were Leah's oldest sons. And then through them, Joseph receives a double portion, which is reserved for the firstborn. Now why did Jacob do this? Was it just to have Canaan eventually parceled out into twelve pieces? He had twelve sons after all. We know that Levi will not be given a portion, and Joseph himself will not be given a portion under his name, And therefore, Ephraim and Manasseh make up 12. That nice round number 12. Is that why? I don't believe so. I don't think so. As Jacob recalls God's promise and reminds them for whom God's promise is given as he adopts these sons, he's giving an announcement to them. He's giving an announcement of a place. Not the place where they are currently, but of another place. Jacob rehearses the covenant blessings handed down and in doing so, he reminds Joseph and his sons that they are a part of the promise. He reminds them that they are a part of his family. He reminds them that they are a part of the community of peoples that Jacob recalled in verse 4 that God said He would make of him. And therefore, they were numbered among those to inherit the land. It's an announcement of a place and also then an announcement of belonging. That they belong to Jacob's family. That they are a part of God's covenant people. See, some say that Joseph, in coming to Jacob on his deathbed, that that was an act of faith on Joseph's part because this governor, this second in command over Egypt, still considered himself as belonging to the house of Israel. And that he considered it to be a greater privilege to be a son of Israel than to be a king over the great kingdom of Egypt. And that he desired the same for his sons. And we can only speculate what may have happened if Joseph's sons had not been adopted by Jacob. They might not have become part of the despised to Egypt. They might not have moved over to the despised flock called the church. Instead, they might have been given permanent royal prestige and a place and power. And who knows what would have happened with Israel then. But that wasn't God's plan. You see, through this adoption, Jacob demonstrated Ephraim and Manasseh's true family. He demonstrated their true citizenship. And in doing so, he saved them from being absorbed and swallowed up in Egypt. And Ephraim and Manasseh must remove their eyes from all they ever knew, the grandeur, the splendor, the prosperity of the world of Egypt, to remove their eyes from that sure thing and to stake their claim in the promises of God. Young people, that's what you do when you stand up publicly to profess your faith before God and His people. You stake your claim in the promises of God that have been signified and sealed unto you in your baptism. Ephraim and Manasseh are given a share among Joseph's brothers. They are given an inheritance. And that too is an act of faith. It's a demonstration of the strength of Jacob's faith. He was so confident that God would indeed keep His promise in the future as he had in the past. It was as if it had already been accomplished and therefore he promises Ephraim and Manasseh an inheritance. And of course, that assumed that there would be something to inherit. But again, another testimony to the faith of Jacob in God. Brothers and sisters, as believers, we are adopted by God the Father for the sake of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We are His. We belong to Him. And as adopted children of the Heavenly Father, then Satan, the father of this world of lies, is no longer our father. And we too are to remove our thoughts from the grandeur of this world. From the possessions and the glory and the prosperity of this world. I'm not saying that we don't enjoy the things that God has given to us and use them. We do. Where we're to remove our thoughts from this worldly grandeur and focus on God's promises in Christ Jesus. Paul says in Colossians 3, verse 2, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. You see, this life and the things of this life serve only one purpose. Not your enjoyment, not my enjoyment. They serve only one purpose, and that is to serve to prepare us for the next life. If the things of this life that we enjoy do not serve to prepare us for the next life, we have no business to participate in them. We are to avoid them. As believing parents and grandparents, as we prepare for death one day, and we are to prepare for death one day, we must also prepare our children and our grandchildren for life. For life in a relationship with God through whom all blessings flow. Many, maybe many here have a last will and testament. That document that spells out how things will be parceled out among our children or among others. And we may want to leave our children with financial security. We may want to leave them debt free. We may want to leave them with all kinds of possessions. A great inheritance. But is that necessarily a good thing? I'm not saying is it a wrong thing. Is it necessarily a good thing? And the answer is no. It's most important to leave them with a legacy of faith. The greatest inheritance that we can leave to our children and grandchildren is a demonstration of true faith, a witness to the truth of Jesus Christ and to the promise of eternal life in Him. We can't give our children and grandchildren faith. We can't make them believe. That's God's business. But we can point them to and we can teach them about our only comfort in life and in death. Anything else we might leave them is really nothing. In fact, without teaching them about Jesus Christ, without modeling for them the Christian life, without encouraging them in the faith, any earthly inheritance we might leave them may only drive them further from the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, we must prepare for death with all that that means. And we can. Because we have such a great treasure beyond the grave. We have the hope of heaven. And Jacob demonstrates this as well as he rehearses the believer's obligation to God's promise given. What is our obligation to the promise of God? Verse 7, Jacob says, As I was returning from Paddan to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath. And Moses adds, And that is Bethlehem. That's a strange verse. That's a strange recollection. that Jacob has of Rachel at a time like this, remembering her place of death, remembering her place of burial. Again, some say that it's possible that Jacob adopted Joseph's sons because Rachel died young. And he adopted them to make up for any sons she may have given to him if she had not died at a young age. A strange recollection, but yet it's a reminder to Joseph of his mother. And Joseph is to remember who you are. Remember the family to which you belong. Remember where you belong. The land of promise is your true home. You don't belong here. And we know that Jacob remembered that because he asked the children of Israel to carry his bones to Canaan. But in the light of God's promise and blessing, Joseph is to believe the promise. Joseph is to look for the promise. Joseph is to plan for the fulfillment of that promise. We know that the land of Cain and the promised land pointed to the heavenly promised land that Jacob would enter through death. Rachel's burial place, we know was not in the ancestral cave of Machpelah where Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah and where Leah were already buried, but her burial place was Bethlehem in Canaan to remind Joseph and his sons that their inheritance lay in Canaan, not in Egypt. And what a beautiful shadow for you and me pointing to the birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled the promise of God, who secured the heavenly promised land, in whom we are adopted as children of the Most High God. Brothers and sisters, Jacob placed the promise of God before Joseph. Not the promise of health and wealth and power and prestige and riches. He had those, we know. But that's not the promise that Jacob placed before Joseph, but the promise of God's presence eternally. Paul says in Philippians 3, verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven. Not here. Not in Egypt. but in heaven. And that's why believers have no need to fear death. Because any suffering or trouble that we endure here will be erased there. And even the glories of this life, no matter how glorious they might be, will not even compare with the glories of heaven. Jesus Christ has secured a place in His Father's glorious home for all who turn to Him in repentance and faith and trust in Him alone for salvation. And those who do, beloved, it's for only those who do, but for all those who do. And for those who do, we are called to live this life in preparation for the life to come. Indeed, prepare. And we are called to be used of God to prepare our loved ones for our going to be with the Lord one day. Well, there's no greater comfort. Those of you who have lost loved ones, especially recently, believing loved ones, you have that comfort. You do not grieve as those who have no hope, but you grieve as those who have the greatest hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, your loved one's soul is safe in the glory of heaven. We are called to be used of God to prepare our loved ones, our children, our grandchildren, for our going home to be with the Lord one day. And at the same time, we are called to pray that God will use us, that He will use our testimony, that He will use our witness, that He will use our teachings to prepare our children for glory. And people of God, we are called to look forward to, to anticipate, to long for that heavenly home promised by God and secured by Jesus Christ. To make it simple, we are called to believe that God will keep His Word. And each one of us, whether you are conscious of it or not, Each one of us has experienced that already in our own lives, that God has kept His Word to us. He's kept His Word by giving us strength in weakness, by giving us comfort in sorrow, by giving us peace in anxiety, by giving us encouragement in hopelessness, by giving us all of our daily needs, our daily bread, by giving us the assurance of His forgiving grace. And most of all, He has kept His promise to send the seed of the woman who has already crushed the head of the seed of the serpent, the cross of Jesus Christ. That is proof enough that we can take God at His word. This life is often confusing. It's a drama. Especially what we see around us doesn't always make sense. Yet when that last act, when that last scene begins, that is, Jesus Christ coming on the clouds of glory, then it all will be made clear. Then, we will begin the everlasting drama of being at home with the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray together. Our great God and Heavenly Father, It is with joy and comfort in our hearts that we not only bow before You in prayer once again to thank You for Your Word, but indeed to rejoice in the hope that You have given to Your people. A hope that the saints of old had. A hope that You prepared for through Your nation Israel leading to the Lord Jesus Christ. A hope secured alone in Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would be with each one of us, both young and old, that we would prepare for the day when you require our life from us here on this earth, that you would prepare us, even as boys and girls, to think about the glory of heaven, to desire to be there with you one day, to know that the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Father, we thank you for the joy that you give to us. Even in the midst of things that this world does not see as joyful, we thank you for the hope that you give to us in Christ Jesus alone. In his name we pray. Amen.