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Bro. Otis Fisher
All right, Genesis, we're going to finish it today, 48, 49, and 50. And it came to pass, after these things, that one told
Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
And one told Jacob and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee.
And Israel straightened himself and sat upon the bed. Can you imagine the thrill that fills the heart of this old man?
Here comes Joseph, his favorite son, with his two boys. Jacob never dreamed that he would see
Joseph again because he thought that he had been killed. Three, and Jacob said unto
Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee and will make of thee a multitude of people and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt, before I came unto thee, and the
Egypt are mine. As Ruman and Simeon, they shall be mine. And thy issue, which thou begittest after them, shall be thine and shall be called after the name of the brethren in their inheritance.
Jacob adopts these two boys. All the rest Joseph can have, but he will have these.
And as for me, when I come from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way.
When yet there was a little way to come to Ephraim, I buried her there in the way of Ephraim, the same as Bethlehem.
And Israel beheld Joseph's sons and said, Whose are these?
And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place.
And he said, Bring them, I pray thee unto me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see.
And he brought them near unto him, and he kissed them and embraced them. But he was not able to see, to distinguish who was who.
And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face, and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed.
And Joseph brought them out between 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,
Manasseh in his left hand, toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
Now we've changed Jacob's name. The verse, the chapter starts off talking about Jacob, but now it switches to Israel.
And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head.
What did he do here, Bill? Well, he blessed him. He established his position as his son.
Yes, but he did something else. Didn't Israel reach across?
Yes, he crossed his hands. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
The custom of laying on hands was a Jewish tradition, not by any divine authority, but by ceremony.
And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the
God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my father's son, father
Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when
Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, he displeased him, and he held up his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head unto
Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn.
Put thy right hand on his head. His father refused and said,
I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people.
He shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying,
God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And he said, Ephraim before Manasseh.
And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die, and God shall be with you and bring you again into the land of your fathers.
Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which
I took out of the hammerite with my sword and my bow.
And Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Now this is going to be prophetic. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto
Israel your father. This is Jacob's deathbed message. First of all, we find an expression used that will be seen throughout the
Bible, in the last days. The last days of the nation Israel will be different than the last days of the church.
Jacob is talking about the last days of the nation Israel, and not only that, but the last days of each tribe.
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.
Unstable is water, thou shalt not excel. Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defilest thou it.
He went up to my couch. Reuben was no great prize. He never did excel.
There are a lot of Christians like Reuben today. They are satisfied where they are.
They do not wish to be any different. Simeon and Levi are brethren, and instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
O my soul, come not thou unto their secret, unto their assembly.
My honor, be not thou united. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self -will they dig down a wall.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. You remember how these two boys went to Shalem and killed all the men.
It was the grace of God that could take a cruel man like Levi and use him as a head of a priestly tribe.
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.
Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp.
From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down. He couched as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse up him.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver, from between his feet until Shiloh come.
And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Who is Shiloh? The ruler.
The seed of the woman is confirmed right here. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his asses cold unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
How did Israel know all of this? His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
He is talking about Jesus Christ. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be for a haven of ships, and his borders shall be unto
Zidon. Ishkar is a strong ass, crouching down between two burdens.
And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
Ishkar became the backbone of the nation—the worker, in other words. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horses heel, so that the rider shall fall backward.
I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. The tribe of Dan will lead a rebellion that comes much later.
Gad, a troop, shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at last. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
Naphthel is a hind let loose. He giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty
God of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel.
Even by the God of thy fathers who shall help thee, and by the
Almighty who shall bless thee, with blessings from heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth underneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb.
The two tribes that come out of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, became very prominent.
In fact, so much so that it was by them that the nation was divided.
The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them.
Everyone according to his blessing he gave blessed them. And he charged them, and said unto them,
I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephraim the
Hittite. Who else is buried in this cave? Who else?
Let's see. In the cave that is in the field of Mephila, you've heard that before, which is before Mamre, you've heard that before, in the land of Canaan, which
Abraham bought the field of Ephraim the Hittite for possession of a burying place.
There they buried Abraham and Sarai's wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah's wife, and there they buried
Leah. The purchase of the field of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.
Why is that mentioned? The Jews don't, the
Israelites don't embalm. They bury right away. And the physicians embalmed
Israel. Now we could go into a long discourse on the embalming practice and how they did it, but it just takes up time, may make you a little bit smarter, but it won't contribute anything.
And forty days were fulfilled for him, or so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed.
The Egyptians embalmed the people. And the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying,
If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die.
In my grave, which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me.
Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according he hath made thee swear. And Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went all of the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house, only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company.
How many miles, how long was this possession? Got any idea?
At least fifty miles. I don't know of anybody that's had that follow them.
And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan. And there they mourned with great and very sore lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
And when the inhabitants of the land of the Canaanites saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said,
This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians, wherefore the name of it is called
Something, which is beyond Jordan. And his son did unto him according as he commanded them.
For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Mechphila, which
Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying place of Ephraim the
Hittite before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all went up with him to bury his father after he had buried his father.
And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said,
Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly require us all the evil which we did unto him.
Their conscience was still after them. They had never forgotten what they did.
It's too late to confess to their father, which they never did. Let's see what happens.
And they sent a messenger unto Joseph. They wouldn't go themselves. They sent a messenger, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying this.
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin.
For they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the
God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said,
Behold, we be thy servants. Now it all comes back.
These men are still paying for their sin against God in doing wrong unto
Joseph. I don't believe their story that they told to Joseph was from Jacob.
I think it was because of their own fear of what he had.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for I am I in the place of God.
Now what's he told them there? That's right.
The sovereign God, you'll have to answer to him. The 20th verse
I want you to memorize. But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.
Now, therefore, fear ye not. I will nourish you and your little ones.
And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt.
He and his father's house. And Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw
Ephraim's children of the third generation, the children also of Micah, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die, and God surely will visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from hence.
So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
So finishes the book of Genesis. Are there any questions?
It's been a good study. I thank you for it. If there is nothing, we'll stand and be dismissed.
Russell, would you dismiss us, please? Thank you.