Genesis 48 The Double Portion

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service. This message is by Lead Pastor Don Filsepp and is a part of the series Beginning with God, Walking Through the Book of Genesis.

If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com. Here's Pastor Don. We have a great day planned. How many of you know it's Church Picnic Day?

Hooray!

I'm excited about that. We'll actually talk about that a little bit more in just a second. As always, hopefully you got one of these when you walked in. This is your worship folder. Please look through this, read it.

It has important announcements that we don't take time up here on the mic to go through, but important to know. Also, if you have a gift to give, and we we encourage that to be something between you and God every Sunday, and if you want to take the initiative to give something to the church, there's a black box right back there on that table, and you can drop it right in there.

Also, you can fill out a connection card, which should be in your worship folder. That's a great way for us to get to know you and to get your contact information and get you on the email list, things like that, and that can go in the black box as well.

Lastly, if this is the first time you've been here, we want to welcome you by giving you a mug. So if you like coffee, or you just like stuff to stay cold for a long time, you can get a coffee mug, and those are on the back.

Feel free to take one if you'd like, and that's our way of welcoming you. So as I mentioned, today is the church picnic. That's going to happen right after church, probably about 12 -30. We'll all mosey out there, and it's at the playground behind the early elementary back this way, and the gazebo is where all the food is going to be set up.

Feel free to grab any spot in the lawn to spread out, and then we'll have some music going, and we'll have a couple grills fired up, and then you can set all of your food there in the gazebo, and we'll kind of do like a circle through that, and we'll just have a great time.

That'll go till 3 p .m. Bring your own chairs and blankets, all that good stuff, and then part of what we're doing different this time at the church picnic is that we have guests with us, Wings of God.

How many of you are familiar with Wings of God or heard of it? Awesome ministry in Pawpaw that helps basically women get back on their feet, and so it's a transition house. They come, they live there, they work together with counselors and with house managers, and the Lord blesses them.

They get their life back on track, and they're doing a new thing where they're helping out with church picnics and actually catering some part or all of the meal, and they're doing our meat. They're cooking all of our meat in the main dish this afternoon, and so we're excited to have them do that.

We would ask that as you go through the line that you would give them a donation for the work that they're doing for us, and it's a way to bless them. We've actually covered the cost of the meat and the supplies, so everything that you give to their donation basket is going to go right to their ministry, and we really want to bless them today.

We want them to walk away glad that they made some burgers and brats for us. You know what I mean? So we're excited to have them with us, and actually to get you more familiar with them, we have a couple of ladies here with us, and Megan and Alicia, if you want to come up, I'll introduce them.

We want them to talk just a little bit about the ministry so that you can be familiar with them. Recast supports them out of our budget, and we're happy to do that and partner with them. A few of us volunteer on occasion, and we just love being a part of their ministry, but they're going to tell us a little bit more about what they do and why it exists.

So Megan, take it away.

Hi, everyone. My name is Megan. I am in charge of the church development at Wings of God, so I'm in charge of the relationships with the churches. This is my first time doing it by myself, so I'm a little nervous.

Sorry about that. But yeah, like he said, Wings of God is a transition home that's in Pawpaw that helps previously incarcerated women from the Kalamazoo and Van Buren County Jails. We believe that the best way for you guys to truly experience what Wings of God does is to hear from our residents.

With me, I have Alicia. She is a resident with us, and she is just going to share with you guys how the Lord has worked in her life and how he's been using this ministry to move mountains in her life and to pursue a healthy, godly lifestyle.

So here is Alicia.

Okay, I am nervous as well.

Hi.

My name is Alicia.

I.

Started attending Wings of God June 19th of this year, and it's helped me tremendously so far, and I haven't even been there that long. My story actually starts back in 2012. November 13th, my two and four-year-old daughters along with my cousin, who is more like my sister, were killed by a drunk driver, and.

I.

Didn't handle that so well. I decided to turn to all the wrong things, and I believed in God, but I didn't like him very much then. And so yeah, through my trying to do things my way, I ended up in jail last December, and they do Bible studies in there, and I knew I had to do something different, and I'm just sitting there, and I was kind of being stubborn.

I didn't want to do the Bible studies, but I got really bored, so I decided to see what they were about, and I was doing them, and something that stuck out to me was, it was asking if worry was a sin, and I was like, that's really interesting, because I'm all worried about all the wrong things, worried about how I'm going to get out, worried about...

So I just started focusing on God. I started reading the Bible, and found some very interesting things in there that spoke to me, and.

I.

Just prayed that... I had court, and I just prayed and had faith that God's will would be done with me if he felt that I needed to be in there a little bit longer than... But I ended up getting out that day, and I was just sitting around, not really doing too much, but I started attending Bible studies on Wednesdays, and going to church regularly on Sundays, and I'm like, something... I got to do something different.

I wasn't really doing anything with it, so that's whenever I found Wings of God. The program is amazing. It's absolutely amazing. It's added structure, and it's just stuff that I really needed in my life.

I actually got a job last week. I start Wednesday.

Whoo!

Thank you. I'm really excited about it, and getting back into society. Yeah, but it really is truly an amazing place. It's a year minimum, and I definitely see myself being there for maybe a little over a year.

I got a lot of things I need to work on, but it's an amazing, amazing program, and God has used Wings of God to help out my life so much so far, and I haven't even been there that long. It's a wonderful program, and yeah, I'm happy to be here, and share my story with you guys.

Thank you.

I have... Really, it's an honor, and it's a privilege to go and do a morning devotional with the ladies a couple times a month, and been hanging out with Alicia, and it's just... It's amazing to see God transforming lives, and it takes a lot of sacrifice.

It takes a lot of work. Karina, the executive director, a lot of vision to make sure that this house keeps happening, and that the things are there for the ladies so that they can have this opportunity, and you know, none of us can do it alone, can we?

None of us. We all need family. We need help, and this is providing an intensive community for them where they can get healed up, so please bless them today. When you go through that line, maybe dig a little bit deeper, and just make sure that they go away with some resources this afternoon from the picnic.

Genesis 48 and the Double Portion

All right, Don has entrusted me with the intro this morning, so I'm gonna actually intro the sermon, and then read the scripture, and then we'll have the worship team come up, but if you would open your Bibles, if you have them, and if you need one, don't have one, we got Mark back there, and Mike, and they'll hand you a Bible, and Jay, so just raise your hand, and we can hand you a Bible.

Don loves it when you have that thing open,.

And.

You can follow along because he uses the the text as an outline, but we're in Genesis chapter 48 this morning, and we're getting to the end of Genesis here. Don has been preaching straight through Genesis.

I think it's one of the great things about recast is that we go right through the scriptures, so bare minimum, you're gonna hear the Word of God right on through whatever he's preaching every Sunday, and we're in Genesis 48.

Now this is a scripture that maybe you're not very familiar with, maybe you've been reading, have a Bible reading plan, and you've been going through the Bible in a year, and this is one of those where maybe you just kind of like cruise on through, don't really know what's happening, something about blessing sons, maybe you don't have a lot of highlighter marks in your Bible here, or have much of this memorized, but everything in the Bible is there for a reason.

The Holy Spirit has inspired this to be written down, and we'll see that some of the things that come from this portion of scripture get referenced later on, because it's all about lineage, it's all about God's plan of using His people to unfold His ultimate plan, which was to bring the Messiah, and these people here that we're gonna read about this morning are a part of that plan, so everything is important.

So as we read it, just keep that in mind that even sometimes as things don't make sense, they're all critical to what the Lord wants us to know, so join with me as we read Genesis 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 Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a 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 Reuben and Simeon are. 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 came from Padam, 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? 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 on his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on the head of Ephraim, 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 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 in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

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 blessings, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.

Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. 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.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this word. We thank you, God, that you've left this story for us to understand you, to know of your plan, to see how you've been unfolding your perfect plan throughout the ages.

We thank you, God, that it's not always up to the traditions of men, that it's not on our shoulders, but it's your sovereign choice that's making things happen, God. And even in this scripture, as we see the younger placed before the older, once again, Lord, you are saying that you will do things your way and that you will accomplish them.

And God, we're grateful that you have. You are an awesome, sovereign God. You are powerful beyond all measure, and it's you that we worship here this morning. We want to lift you up, and I pray that as we sing, God, that you would be pleased with our words.

I pray that we get our heart right, so that we're not just singing to stay in tune or to make a noise or as just routine, but that we would be doing it out of grateful hearts to you, God, because you're worth it.

It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thanks a lot to the band for leading us this morning. I'm very grateful for the time and energy that they put in into leading us before the throne of God, and hopefully you were able to enter the presence of God and worship him in his majesty and in his holiness.

He is worthy. Amen. All right. I'm Don. I'm the lead pastor here, and thanks a lot to Kyle for kind of taking off the introduction there and kind of getting us engaged in reading the text. I would encourage you to have Genesis chapter 48 open in front of you.

I know that we maybe lost our places or whatever, but having that open helps you to be able to refer and reference to the things that I'm saying because I'm gonna walk us through this text. That's what we do every Sunday here at Recast Church is we believe that the power of changed lives comes through connecting with God's Word in a powerful way, and so that's why we take off a chunk of God's Word, read it together, study it together, that we might go out and live differently as a result of encountering God in the way that he has revealed himself to us in his Word.

So most of you that have been around for a while know that we've been talking through the the book of Genesis and particularly these last 11 or so chapters basically from 37 to where we're at now and all the way through the end of the book is really discussing the life of one particular individual, Joseph.

And really the climax, the high point of the Joseph story is a couple chapters behind us now. The climax of the Joseph story was when he had his big reveal to his brothers that he was indeed Joseph. Now remember that a few chapters before that his brothers had sold him into slavery.

They had actually said, you know what, this guy is dad's favorite. We can get him out of the picture. They were alone 60 miles north out in the fields with the shepherds. They had an intense jealousy of their brother and in the process of that jealousy they were going to kill him.

One of the brothers, Judah, had the idea, you know what, why be guilty of murder? We could just sell him. There's a wandering caravan coming through. We'll sell him and up to the point of where we were at a couple chapters ago, they thought he was dead or gone or a slave in some foreign country.

They were actually talking to him multiple times throughout the story in the text because they kept going back and forth to Egypt to buy grain during a famine and Joseph had been raised up to be one of the rulers there and actually raised up by God for the purpose of preserving his family during that intense worldwide famine where nobody was growing crops.

And so we know that he was reunited with his dad last chapter. They found out that he was Joseph. They moved the entire family up to Egypt to be preserved from the famine and they lived happily ever after.

Right? Is that the way the story goes?

No, just like that's only fairy tales, right? We know that. We know the reality of life. And so no, they didn't just necessarily live happily ever after. There were some happy times, but not forever after.

So the next three chapters of Genesis are wrapping up the life of really Jacob. Now, it isn't Joseph the main character, but it's actually talking about his father Jacob, this patriarch of the faith, this old ancient man who had really seen a lot of life.

And we need to be careful as we near the end of books or we start books of the Bible to not just think they're filler or that they're just transition. Every chapter has an intention. Every chapter has a purpose, a function, something that we ought to take away from it.

And they bear meaning and significance to the people of God. And so if you're a person of God, if you're growing in faith with him, then certainly this has something to do with you. So the famine is now passed.

As a matter of fact, it's quite a ways in the past because we find out later that Jacob actually lived for 17 years in Egypt. Now, there were only five years of famine left when he moved to Egypt. So if he lived 17 years and in our text he's nearing his deathbed, we know that it's probably 15 to 16 years removed.

He's probably 10 years out of the famine. Things are improving. The economy of the world is improving. There's food and things are growing again and things are actually looking good. Israel has enjoyed many years now under the protection of Egypt with all of his extended family.

They are caring for the flocks of Pharaoh as well as their own flocks and that's their job. But in the midst of everyday life, we find out right away in verse 1 that Joseph gets that call that every person who has aging parents dreads to hear but knows is coming.

And he gets that phone call, cell phone rings, he picks it up and it says, dad has fallen ill. Dad has fallen ill. He's bedridden. We think the end is near. You need to get up here to Goshen. You need to be here.

He's going to set things in order. He's still in his right mind. He's there. He's able to talk. You need to get up here while he's able to interact with the grandkids and with everybody. Some of us have had that phone call.

Others of you are dreading that phone call. And for some of you, it's near and others of you, you're just really hoping it's a long ways off. But at the same time, that's exactly what's going on here for Joseph.

And so Joseph responded. He hitches up the chariot, loads up his two grandsons and he heads off to Goshen to go to the bedside of his ill and failing father. So he takes his two grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.

Jacob is so sick and so elderly. Remember that he lives to 147 years old. Does anybody think that's an incredible lifespan? I think so. He actually had the gall to say to Pharaoh, we saw a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was just last week, few and evil have been the days of my life.

147 year old saying that. That's wow. That puts some perspective on life though, doesn't it? How many of you know that life feels like a flash? Did you guys feel that? That was a summer. Okay. It was just, do you know what I'm saying?

It's like, did any of you realize that it's August 10th already? I mean, it's just like, I mean, the leaves are going to change. Sorry. Some of you, that's a real downer.

I love the fall. I love the fall. I love the autumn.

But every season has its own glory. But what we have in the next couple of chapters are the final words and final blessings of the ancient patriarch who had really seen a whole lot of life. So chapter 48, chapter 49, his blessings on his children and his grandchildren.

And then finally he passes away and wrapping and things in chapter 50 that we'll get to. But he's so sick and elderly that he had to muster significant strength just to sit up on the edge of his bed. Just to sit there and engage with his son and grandson was work.

Now, and in this context, he's going to rehearse some things on his life. And how many of you know that if you've lived long enough, you actually gain the right to rehearse some of your life? How many of you have an aged relative that shares the same story over and over again?

Let me just tell you, endure it. Put up with it and be encouraged by that. I mean, that's going to be you someday. And you have the right to share some of your experience when you're there. So listen, listen, and learn, and engage.

But think about your own life. Right now, if somebody were to pin you down to the high points of your life and say, could you share a couple of the highlights of your life with me?

What would make the list?

What kind of things would you be sitting there on the edge of your bed? You've mustered up all your strength. Your son that you thought was dead is now in your presence. His two grandsons are there. His two sons are there.

And what are you going to share? Are you going to talk about promotions? Are you going to talk about the time that you got a big raise at work?

Are you going to talk about hardships that you've endured?

Betrayals by friends?

I think it's a significant question for us to all ask,.

Where would spiritual events occur in your list right now? Some of us, if we're honest, there's so much of the day in and day out material things that hit us that sometimes we have a hard time with the perspective of what's going on behind the scenes, the spiritual things that are happening.

Jacob begins with his ladder. How many of you have heard the phrase Jacob's ladder before? Have you heard that phrase before? Jacob's ladder is the significant, he's highlighting it. Number one, first thing he's going to talk to his son and grandsons about.

Is the ladder experience.

Remember that. It's called Jacob's ladder and I say that because it's a common phrase in English but the reality is it's probably Jacob's staircase and I mentioned that in the text when we were going through that a couple months ago.

But what he's referring to is that one night.

He was running from his brother Esau.

He had stolen his brother's birthright. His brother was angry enough to kill him and chased him out of town and mom said, you better split or else you're going to be dead in the morning. So he's run off in the night to escape from his brother to go to live with his uncle hundreds of miles away and in the middle of the night, his first stop off, he stops at a place called Bethel or later called Luz.

He actually names it Bethel, the house of God. And he goes to bed that night and it says he uses, I mean back then men were men, so he uses a rock as a pillow. You know, none of this soft stuff for me.

And how many of you, that sounds uncomfortable? Most of us. But he lays his head on a rock for a pillow and he goes to sleep that night. And he goes to sleep on common ground. Fearful, unsure, and virtually godless.

He has stolen the birthright from his father. There has not been any indication of spiritual life in Jacob at the point when he lays his head on that rock. And you can go back and read it yourself if you're kind of questioning that.

Go back and look and see what was his spiritual life like or what is attributed to him in relationship to God prior to this event. And when he goes to sleep, he sees a ladder, a staircase with its foot on the earth and its peak in the heavens, the top rung in the heavens, with angels ascending and descending.

And there at the top of the ladder is who he calls El Shaddai.

That's the Hebrew word that is used.

In his recounting of this as he's sitting there. Remember, we're still talking about an old man at the edge of his bed recounting his life and he says, El Shaddai met me there. What does El Shaddai mean?

The Almighty God. The All-Powerful One was there at the top of the stairs superintending this interaction between heaven and earth. He is not removed from us.

But He is engaged in the realms of mankind.

He is involved in our lives.

Angels ascending and descending.

Coming from His throne at His Word doing His bidding, returning, getting more assignments and going back out. And Jacob's eyes at that point in history were open to the reality that there is an Almighty One and He is not distant but He is engaged and involved in the realm of mankind.

He is involved in our lives. And not just that,.

But He is a God who speaks.

Hear me carefully. He is not a God who has left us.

To guess who He is.

In our futility, in our gropings and wanderings in the dark.

For who He is.

He is a God who speaks and tells us about Himself. What kind of a God is He? He has shown us and He showed Jacob there. God spoke and He promised to be with Jacob. He said, I'm with you. Almighty God, and I am with you.

I will be there. God promised to multiply Jacob's offspring and God promised to give Jacob's offspring a great land. These are the things that this dying man wants to emphasize to his son.

God is with us.

God is giving us a great land.

And He will multiply our offspring.

I think there's intention. Remember that they are in Egypt. They are foreigners in a foreign land and he's highlighting to his son there on his deathbed, God has a different plan for you.

Egypt isn't the end.

I know that you're all Egyptian-ed up right now, Joseph, but this is not what you were made for.

There's more out there.

There's more for our people. And he wants to nail that home. Well, there in that context, that night in Bethel with the staircase to heaven, he wakes up in the morning and he immediately exclaims, Surely the Lord was in this place and I knew it not.

One of my favorite phrases in the book of Genesis. Surely the Lord was in this place and I didn't know it. I was unaware. Jacob got a first-hand view that God is indeed involved.

Where he went to bed.

And laid his head on common ground, he woke up recognizing that God's engaged and involved. And not only that, but this God, hear me carefully on this, this God entered into a unilateral covenant relationship.

With Jacob.

Unilateral means one-sided.

Now, when you sign a lease agreement, is that unilateral?

There's two parties involved in that.

And there's what the landlord claims.

He will do.

And if he doesn't accomplish.

Those things,.

Then you're in breach of that covenant,.

That contract,.

And as the person who's renting,.

Are there some things that are required on you?

Yeah,.

And then you're in breach. So it's not a unilateral covenant and not a unilateral agreement. But here,.

In this context,.

It is unilateral. What I mean by that.

Is that he approaches Jacob in a dream.

In the middle of the night running from his brother.

And says,.

Without laws, without rules,.

Without conditions,.

The law will be given.

Hundreds of years.

From this event. God made promises to Jacob there in that context. One-sided promises. I will do these things. Not like,.

Well,.

If you do this.

And you prove yourself.

To be the right kind of guy,.

You prove yourself to be good enough.

And worthy, then I will do this and this.

We know that Jacob was not worthy, right?

Those of you who have been studying this life,.

Was Jacob always awesome? You know that he wasn't, right? And his offspring certainly were not as well. So I want to take a moment.

To discuss.

A hot topic.

That's in the news right now and I don't do this.

Very often,.

But our text hits on it and that is the fact that he's rehearsing.

The fact that they've been given.

What? A land. Anybody think that that might have.

Something to do.

With current events going on right now and have any of you heard any banter back and forth on Facebook.

About how the Jews.

Have the right.

Because God gave them the land first.

And so it's theirs?

Any of you heard.

Any discussions.

Like that recently? You heard that.

Being kicked around?

It's very important that we get.

Some of this right,.

That we come at this.

From the right perspective.

As evangelical.

Bible believing.

Christians. We can get a little.

Crazy and carried away on things.

So the question.

That I want to pose.

To us.

And then try to answer.

Is,.

Is Israel justified.

When they surge into Gaza leveling neighborhoods,.

Destroying schools.

And killing.