we're going to consider the first 28 verses next week we come back Jacob dies and is buried and then the following week we conclude it as Joseph says God meant it all for good what a way to end Genesis so Genesis chapter 49 beginning at verse 1 this morning then Jacob called his sons and said gather yourselves together that i may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come assemble and listen oh sons of jacob listen to israel your father reuben you are my firstborn my might and the first fruits of my strength preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power unstable as water you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed then you defiled it he went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul not come into their counsel. O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. judah your brother shall praise you 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 from the prey my son you have gone up he stooped down he crouched as a lion as a lioness who dares rouse him the scepter shall not depart from judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes from him comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes his eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea he shall become a haven for ships and his border shall be at sidon issachar is a strong donkey crouching between the sheep folds he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant so he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of israel dan shall be a serpent in the way a viper by the path that bites the horse's heel so that his rider falls backwards i wait for your salvation oh lord raiders shall raid gad but he shall raid at their heels asher's food shall be rich and shall yield royal delicacies naphtali is a doe let loose that bears fruitful fawns joseph is a fruitful bow a fruitful bow by a spring his branches run over the wall the archers bitterly attacked him shot at him and harassed him severely yet his bow remained unmoved his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. By the God of your father who will help you, by the almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the beasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them. Blessing each with a 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 of Machpelah to the east of Mamre in the land of Canaan which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. The most remarkable phenomenon in Genesis is that from beginning after the fall, Genesis 3, God has been absolutely determined to bless his people and bring his people back to him. I mean, this has been the story that has unraveled throughout Genesis, and it has been beautiful and powerful to study. It's remarkable because Genesis began on such a negative note. It began on such an awful note. The fall of man into sin and how man wrecked everything and the mess that we created. And yet, what have you studied in the first book of the Bible? Over and over and over and over, you've studied. And now as we come to the 49th chapter of Genesis, the Lord's relentless pursuit and desire to fulfill the blessings that He promised to Father Abraham. Remember all the promises? I will make you a great nation. and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. You shall be a blessing. You will bless them. I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. I mean, just wonderful that he said that. But as I opened up the 49th chapter and I read that today, did you think at all, what in the world is he going to say about all this. That's how I felt. I was stuck. I got stuck last week. I had to mow the lawn to get out of my study. And as I got stuck, I wrestled with what in the world is Jacob doing here? I mean, it's somewhat confusing. You have a prophetic explanation of the covenant blessings and curses, how they're going to develop throughout history. And initially I thought, well, you do see in this god's desire to bless you see god's desire to bless this is a book about god returning blessing on our heads instead of cursing the last words of genesis you're going to see the last section there uh joseph's going to say god meant it all for good what a way to end a book that began with a fall into sin and then say god meant it all for good powerful stuff but there's something he desires for us to understand, it's been the kind of believing heart that He is after from us as He fulfills His promises, as He fulfills His good word. And as I came back to Genesis 49 and I looked at it, I thought, that's exactly what He's teaching us he is showing us belief and he's showing us his promise but he's also showing us the peril of unbelief and how in history covenant blessings and curses work out according to that in verse 1 of chapter 49 you'll notice here jacob summoned all his sons and he gathered them together and we read something fascinating in verse 1 that he said gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the days to come some translations say and I think it captures because it really is something the scriptures emphasize I'm going to tell you what's going to happen to you in the last days it's a fascinating statement because I'm going to tell you, says Jacob, what is going to be the outcome of history? He speaks as a prophet. It's fascinating. You sons of Jacob, you sons of Israel, you're forming history. You are going to be the ones that form history. The future of Israel, all that's going to come to pass, it will have to do with what happens to you now that's important it's a remarkable statement isn't it it's all the peoples that live on the face of the earth this is it this is where it all goes this is where god has his attention this is where god is working his plan out now it's important here because what we have is a series of blessings that are falling on his sons in fact if you look down at verse 28 did you catch at the very end even though some of it was shocking to us at the very end he says that this is a description these are the 12 tribes of israel and what moses wanted everyone to understand moses the author remember every last one of them is blessed did you catch that and he blessed them he blessed each one according to his own blessing every last one of them blessed i'm going to give you eternal life remember the promises like land seed multitude stars abraham in the heavens is what your descendants will be like you go out to the sand and you grab the sand on the seashore that's what your descendants are going to be like that's what's going to all happen through your sons but jacob now says let me tell you how this is going to go you need to understand this and the whole story of god's redemption his plan of redemption is here described for us the whole story as jacob is blessing his sons is learned here and seen here that's the scene he's dying it's the third and and final deathbed scene in this section he's about to breathe his last the first two deathbed scenes were glorious i i mean seriously that there's nobody else outside of christ himself who gets this kind of attention at death in the bible no one he gets three deathbed scenes and the focus is on it it's one of the most glorious deaths in the scriptures he had bowed in submission he had believed we had one of the most beautiful testimonies last time and then he begins now to bless and fulfill and show the design of what god promised to abraham how it's going to expand throughout history so he summons up enough strength to for the last time take these feet that had been running all his life places them down and he begins to bless he begins to bless we're probably not familiar with this kind of approach blessings and birthrights and blessings and all this that's in the Bible. We don't get this living in the United States, the blessings and how this all works. I mean, the other night I was sitting with my children and I says, well, maybe one day the Lord will arrange it so that when I'm on my deathbed and you guys are all gathered around and I get to say words to you. And I said to my children, I says, well, what do you think I'm going to say to you? What do you think I do at that time? And my daughter says, well, that's, Dad, when you start giving us stuff. You give us tables and stuff. She's so American. I told her I was going to do this, so she's okay with it. That's not what's going on here. He's passing on spiritual blessing. And you'll notice here in this section that he begins to bless each of his sons in order. Notice where he starts. Reuben. You'll see that there in verse 2. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power, unstable as water. You shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it, he went up to my couch. You imagine? I mean, you stand back from that and you're sitting there. That's not blessing. he's cursing he just cursed his son i i'm i i you see why i was struggling my might my strength my dignity you have shown no stability in your life son and guess what i'm yaking from you the right of the firstborn it's gone he just took it taken remember what he did well he went in and he when he went into Bilhah his father's that was remember the maid it wasn't a momentary fling he was positioning himself he was positioning himself to be the one taken right there you just saw the right of the firstborn ripped away from this man jacob then moves on simeon and levi simeon and levi are brothers weapons of violence are their swords let my soul not come into their council oh my glory be not joined to their company for in their anger they killed men and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Here's the word. Cursed be their anger for its fierce and their wrath for its cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. That's got to be the worst thing. He just cursed them worse. Stand back and you look at all this and you start to ask the question, what is going on here? Why is He doing this? Aren't His sons blessed? Isn't this about blessing? and then you think about jacob's own life and and maybe you think well this is a little hypocritical i mean this was the guy who stole the birthright this is the guy who lived a life of running from god and and jacob was the one who who didn't do it listen at all to the lord and a whole life of struggle was jacob's life and here he is now looking at his sons and doing this to them. So when you read this, you initially stop and you say, well, I'm a little bit puzzled here. Where's grace? This is cursing. Then you come to the worst center of all of them. The worst. Judah. Left the land. Ran out. Ran away. I mean, in our time, this is running away from the church, running out and shacking up with a prostitute. Marrying pagan. Trashing the covenant. Judah. Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah's a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you've gone up. he stooped down and crouched as a lion as a lioness who dares rouse judah and you say what in the world is that well as i this was the point i went out and started mowing by the way and as i was mowing i started thinking to myself what is the one thing that we saw from judah that we saw from nobody else remember what happened reuben's sin it says jacob heard about it that's all it said when reuben did the sin and jacob heard about it 40 years almost to a t absolute silence reuben demonstrated nothing it was reuben who tried selfishly to keep joseph alive for his own purposes no repentance i didn't see faith simon and levi silent after their sins nothing i mean nothing actually argued but something was different about judah remember remember judah judah was so remarkable in this whole thing after his sin was exposed with tamar something happened and remember what happened the first thing he said was you are more righteous than i he said to tamar because i didn't give my son to her judah never wanted to kill joseph he was the one that that when the whole test had come down on them and they were caught he was the one that led the brothers and remember what he did he offered himself as a substitute for benjamin because in love for his father he did not want to see his father suffer and the highlight of his life this great center the highlight of his life was when he said this before joseph how shall we clear ourselves god has found out the iniquity of your servants we're guilty we're guilty here we are at your mercy I can't do this to my father all intercede put me there send Benjamin back I don't want him suffering what do you have? you've got the gospel story the worst of sinners with the single great broken and contrite heart that we see from these sons the believing heart and gets the most remarkable of all blessings. As I studied this, I thought it's everything God's after from us. A believing heart. A turned heart. A confessing heart. And I think Jacob looked at his son and said everyone needs to understand this throughout history. When you study Judah, you need to understand this throughout history. History needs to consider the kind of broken and contrite heart God loves and He'll never despise. I don't know if we think enough about covenant curses. But God did say to Abraham, I'll bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. You have here the outplaying of covenant curses and blessings in history. That's what He's talking about, how that's going to take shape. And if you ever thought about the tragic outplay of the tribe of Reuben. You know, he was the one who summoned up, who Korah went to summon up in his rebellion. It was Reuben and Levi, the leaders of Reuben and Levi that headed up the Korah rebellion against God and Moses. It's a sad story. If you study that tribe of shrinking and shrinking and shrinking and shrinking to nothing, Simeon and Levi? Neither of these tribes were given portions in the land. Simeon dwindled out of existence and Levi was forbidden to have an inheritance in it. I'll come back to that. And I can't help, when I come to the New Testament and I see this outplay of curses and the New Testament says that many did not enter because of unbelief, that this is what the outplay looked like. And as Jacob looked forward to the development of Israel, this was going to be the struggle of Israel. This was going to be the struggle of Israel, isn't it? Would they turn to their God? Would they love their God? Would they confess their sins? What would they do with the law when it was published? Would it be a means of their own righteousness or would they humble themselves, bowing the knee and look to the one that is provided for their answer to their misery? And at this point, I think it's important to ask, well, what does our life show? If that's the struggle of history, it's our struggle. It's the struggle of whether we believe or our hardening our hearts and turning our hearts away from Him. And the first place you go with a text like this is God puts before you the greatest of sinners, the greatest of sinners, and you don't see that kind of heart. You see a broken and a contrite one. And so this was very strategic on Jacob's part as he's illustrating the principle of what he learned about rights. Think about rights. We're all about rights. Birth rights. Judah didn't deserve this. The unconditional promise to Abraham here comes out. Remember when Judah was born, Leah rejoices and names him Praise, which this is the one through whom the victory would come. His name meant it. And all of history anticipated it. And notice the language. All of your brothers shall praise you. Your father's children shall bow down to you. And he likens him to a lion. You know, Judah was the largest and the most powerful tribe in Israel. Right after Joshua died and they're entering, remember, the children of Israel are asked in Judges 1, who will go up first against the Canaanites and fight? The Lord says, Judah goes. Judah goes. Spotlight throughout history. Judah's a lion. And then he adds to this blessing something so remarkable in verse 10. A scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. Remember, a scepter was a golden staff that kings would hold. Power, dominion, symbolizing those things. From Judah will come kings. Do you remember what God promised to Abraham? Kings will come from your body. You're a lion, Judah. You're going to have a scepter. Warrior kings are coming from you. And where do you see that take shape? Now David was the son of that Ephratite of Bethlehem, Judah. whose name was Jesse, who had eight sons. David. In the midst of this, he says something that is stunning. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him. And to whom shall be the obedience of the peoples, binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and His teeth whiter than milk. Verse 10 is one of the most debated verses in the whole Bible. Notice it. I think every translation here has a little mark by verse 10. Now you'll see it. A little number. Until tribute comes to Him. It's really fascinating. The ESV has a little number there and you'll see alternate readings. old king james knew something was being said here and they didn't know what to do with it so they just left it and they left it with the hebrew word shiloh so so you'll notice in some of the old translations that until shiloh comes but nobody knew what to do with that it means that word Which to Him? Which to Him? A prophecy about a coming one which to Him the scepter belongs. Comparing the Septuagint and looking at all these things, here's what it would read. The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs. It's powerful. Someone's coming from you, Judah. And the one coming from you, the scepter will never depart. Everything will find fulfillment there. And his kingdom's not going to have an end. He will rule. He will set captives free. He is a king of peace. He will bind his donkey. Well, sound, you know this. His eyes are darker than wine and teeth. whiter than milk you know who this is it's christ jacob's speaking of christ and how much meaning then can you imagine when on the cross here the king had come and he denies himself and then as he's hanging there dying they put up over the cross an inscription King of the Jew to fulfill and say this is the one Jacob was talking about. What did Jacob see? The blessings of the covenant made with Abraham, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, all things would come through this one right here. He's the beacon. He's the light right in the middle of this. But I want you to think about this. The longest blessing is reserved for who? His favorite son, Joseph. Look at verse 23. It talks about Joseph being fruitful, his branches running over the wall. Listen to this. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. By the hand of God, your Father, who will help you. By the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above. Blessings of the deep that crouches beneath. Blessings of the, notice this, of the womb. Blessings of your Father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May all of these blessings be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. You may not have realized it. But last time, what he just did to Reuben right here when he stripped the birth right away. Remember last time one of you had walked up to me and said, I don't understand why Jacob grabbed Joseph's sons and says, these are mine. The rest are yours, but these are mine. Do you know what happened? Right then and there, he gave the birthright to Joseph and his sons. Stripping it from Reuben, the birthright went to Joseph and his sons. They're mine. That's who gets the birthright. May the God of Abraham, said Jacob, and Isaac, he invoked right there the Abrahamic blessing, may he bless these lads, let my name be upon them, and make my fathers Abraham and Isaac, let them grow. into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Listen to 1 Chronicles 5. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the sons of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son, ripped away from Reuben. Though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph. takes the birthright, rips it away from Reuben, gives it to Joseph. He rehearses the story. This one was assaulted by his brothers. Yet he remains strong. There is the shepherd. There is the stone. Every blessing that I have is on his head. He carries them. And you say, wow, what is this teaching us? Here's what I come up with. In the entire Old Testament, there is no figure that shows us the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ more than the life of Joseph. I can't, in the Old Testament, I just don't find it. Genesis begins with this fall, this first Adam, and then ends with this figure and there's nobody like him. I don't even find sins recorded of him. He was a sinner, but I don't find it recorded. Why is it doing this? Jacob understood something that ultimately the birthright belonged to the son of God's choosing. A righteous son. A son who would become a servant. A son who would be separated from his brothers. Who would be raised up as the savior of his brethren. Here's where it all comes together this morning. From Judah he comes. From Judah he comes. The amazing truth of our gospel is God promised an answer to us. God didn't leave us in our misery. And he promised a son to Abraham, the seed who is Christ. But that one would come from sinners. That one would come from the Judas. But when all the brothers looked back at Joseph and when all the brothers looked forward and they studied the life of Joseph, they saw what that son would look like. A servant among his brethren. Every blessing's on his head. All blessings come through him. And it's because of this larger story that would unfold at the end times, Jacob says, in the last days, all of you, my sons, will be blessed. This is a literary masterpiece to close this morning. Why do I say that? Look at the diagram in your notes. Jacob says, gather my son. Gather my sons. And then he gathers all his sons around him. And notice the structure of this this morning. Do you see it there? Notice the structure of this. He gathers all of the sons first in order of Leah's sons. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar. And then Jacob blesses Bilhah, first son, Dan. He doesn't do the sons together. And then the center of this, he blesses Zilpah's. That is, you understand, Leah's maid, Gad and Asher. Then he blesses again Bilhah's second son, and then he blesses Rachel's sons, and then you have him gathered to his people. The centerpiece there is the most of the insignificant of sons being blessed. The son of the woman he didn't love. The sons of the maid of the woman he didn't love. They're the centerpiece of blessing. Receiving the blessing. And why do I raise that point? It's the most insignificant of sons, here is the point, that God wants you to understand. He cares about, and He loves, and He blesses because of the Son that's coming. The only reason any of us are blessed today, the only reason all these blessings are lavished upon your head of eternal life and the promise of forgiveness of sins and where you're going is because of everything that you've been taught in the New Testament. In Him, in Jesus Christ, you receive in the heavenlies every spiritual blessing. It's the only basis. Jacob saw that. His sons were failures. And the beauty of all this is that the ones who received then, if you go throughout history, no land, Levi, God redeemed that and God says, I'll be your portion. The unloved sons of Leah, Simeon. Here's what happened to Simeon. The inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah. For the share of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore, the children of Simeon had their inheritance with the inheritance of that people. Blessing to every son here, all in anticipation of the coming of Shiloh. And I close with this thought. Two more minutes. I want you to turn to Revelation 7. When John looked up and saw the fulfilled number in heaven of every last one who was there, guess who he mentions? The 12 tribes. All their names are listed in Revelation 7. Do you see it there? And notice there that as he mentions them, John then says right after that, all these multitudes I saw in heaven that I could never number. I could not number them. There were so many there. This is right after the 12 tribes. And the imagery here is, in the 12 tribes, they all, the multitudes, were blessed. Guess what John saw there in Revelation 7? You. He prophetically, he saw in the future you standing there in glory, in white, clad in white, Worshipping God, all of it there following the listing of the fullness of the 12 tribes of Israel. Who's the first one mentioned there? Judah. Marvelous, isn't it? Notice the order. Judah's the first one mentioned. And so here's my closing this morning. The Lord showed you at the beginning of Genesis what He promised. He closes the Bible showing you it's all fulfilled not one of them was lost they're all there every last one of my children from the least of them to the greatest of them and the least of them made it into the greatest and what an encouragement the question i close with then is this you have a long struggle of israel in the scriptures many of them were cursed because they did not believe i hope that's no one here look at the life of judah this morning the worst of sinners in this bunch repentant turn to the lord in faith believe the promises humbled himself before his god and god says i want you to look at him throughout history and look at him standing at the front of line in revelation at the end that's the son that's the heart that's the contrite spirit i'm after from you you who believe for he's told us that the least in the kingdom whether you're a gad or an asher a little house mom who struggles with importance whether you're whatever the least in the kingdom are the greatest in his kingdom and he loves you And so may we all come to the Lord with that kind of belief and trust. And remember what He showed us in this list here of what He's after. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your marvelous blessings in Him and that throughout history You fulfilled Your Word. You did what You said You would do and that You've even showed us the end. You've even showed us what it looks like in heaven. You've even given us a snapshot of future glory. And there stands the tribe of Judah, the one whom the Lion of the tribe of Judah came and fulfilled all righteousness for us. And in Him, we have every blessing in the heavenly places. May we respond with the kind of trusting, humble, broken spirit that loves you, that believes, that rests in Christ, in Shiloh. And we believe and we trust that on that day we will all be standing there holding those palm branches decked out in white, praising our God who is faithful to the promise to Abraham that in Him all the Gentiles of the earth are blessed. Here we are, O Lord, a blessed and full people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.