A Blessed Adoption

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

1 view

0 comments

00:02
Well, if you would take out your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 48 and hold your place at verse 1.
00:17
The title of today's message is A Blessed Adoption.
00:26
And for those of you who are wondering, am I preaching this message in regard to what has happened this week? No, not at all.
00:33
You know I've been in Genesis now for three years.
00:36
I never know where I'm going to be on a given Sunday as far as landing, but this is a wonderful thing to talk about on a day like today.
00:44
I'll never forget on November 18, 2006.
00:53
Now for many of you, that day was just a regular day.
00:56
For those of you who are alive, I know some of you weren't even born in 2006, some of you little ones.
01:01
But on November 18, 2006, which was a regular day for most everyone else, for my wife and I, it was a day that would change our lives forever.
01:13
We had been married for seven years up until that point, and we had not yet been able to have any children.
01:23
A foster mother had visited our church.
01:28
She was actually a member here, I'm sorry, she was a member of our church, but she had been bringing children in that had been staying in her foster home, and they had been visiting our church.
01:38
And two very beautiful children came with her one day, and we fell in love with them almost immediately.
01:48
We decided to become foster parents so that they could come and live in our home.
01:52
They came and lived in our home, and after over a year of legal wrangling and procedures, we finally came to the all-important day, November the 18th, 2006, Adoption Day.
02:08
We celebrate it every year.
02:11
The judge carefully explained that these two children were going to now be our children, not our foster kids and not our adopted kids, but our children.
02:28
They were kids.
02:30
The birth certificate would be changed forever, and the birth certificate would remove the birth parents and place our names in the place of the birth parents, and our children even had their name changed, not just their last name, but Ashley Marie Blaylock and Cody Lee Blaylock became Ashley Ann.
02:58
She took Jennifer's middle name, Ashley Ann Foskey, and Cody Lee Blaylock became Medford, which is my first name, Medford Cody Foskey.
03:15
The judge explained to us during the court hearing, which it was a hearing, about the rights of inheritance, and how we had to be willing to take an oath that our newly adopted children would not be treated any differently than any other child that we may have through natural means, and that that child that we accept through adoption would have the same rights, privileges, and inheritance as our other children.
03:56
Now, I did do something.
03:57
I don't normally do this, and I don't want to make this sermon about myself, but I want to show you something.
04:01
I brought a couple of photographs.
04:03
I just had to do this.
04:04
This first one, this is us on the day.
04:08
We're walking into the courthouse.
04:10
Now the next one, that's the judge that we stood before, and I want you to see the last one.
04:16
This was the one that's most important.
04:18
Now our family stood along with us as a solidarity thing, but Jennifer and I had to raise our right hand and make an oath before God and the state that these children were our children, that they were being received as our own.
04:41
Now the reason why I brought that to show you is because the right of inheritance is the focus of today's message.
04:52
Because Jacob, you can take it back to the screen now, the opening, Jacob, Israel, is on his deathbed, and he has brought Joseph in before him with Joseph's two sons that had been born in Egypt, half Egyptian through their mother, Potipharah, and she brought in these children, or he brought in these children, Ephraim and Manasseh, and he brings these two boys in to adopt them as his own.
05:31
And what he does in doing so is he establishes two new tribes in Israel, the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh, which would have the same rights as all of the other tribes.
05:51
Let's stand and read the text.
06:04
After this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill.
06:08
So he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim.
06:12
And it was told to Jacob, Your son Joseph has come to you.
06:16
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 you this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.
06:35
And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine.
06:41
Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are.
06:46
And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours.
06:49
They shall be called by the name of their brothers and their inheritance.
06:53
As for me, when I came from Padan 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.
07:07
When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these? Joseph said to his father, These are my sons whom God has given me here.
07:16
And he said, Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.
07:20
Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see.
07:25
So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
07:28
And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.
07:35
Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
07:42
And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him.
07:49
And Israel stretched out his 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.
07:59
And he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom my father 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.
08:21
When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him.
08:26
He took his father's hand and moved it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
08:33
And Joseph said to his father, Not this way, my father, since this one is the firstborn.
08:38
Put your right hand on his head.
08:40
But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know.
08:44
He also shall become a people, and he shall be great.
08:47
Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.
08:54
So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, God, make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.
09:05
Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
09:08
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.
09:16
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 bow.
09:29
May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word.
09:33
And you may be seated.
09:52
Last week we had a visitor who was a dear friend of mine.
09:57
He is a pastor of a church in town, and he was on a sabbatical from his church.
10:01
So he visited with us.
10:03
And afterward I could not help but ask him for his thoughts on the message.
10:09
You know, here having another minister, I wanted to hear what his thoughts were.
10:13
And he said, Well, I'll tell you, the hardest thing was it was like parachuting into a battle.
10:19
You were already in the battle.
10:20
And I sort of felt like I came in the midst of it, because you've been in Genesis for so long.
10:25
You know, somebody who didn't know or hadn't been a part of this study may feel a little lost.
10:30
And so I took that to heart.
10:31
I said, you know, I asked for it.
10:33
I wanted to give me some feedback, you know.
10:35
So I do want to say, if you're new with us, we have been doing this a long time.
10:41
And for those who've been here, the study is, you know, it's just going from week to week.
10:46
And we remember where we were last week.
10:47
But if you're brand new or if you haven't been with us, let me just give you a quick overview of where we are.
10:54
Joseph is one of 12 sons of Jacob, who's also called Israel.
11:01
Joseph is also his father's favorite son.
11:04
His brothers hated him because he was the favorite son.
11:07
They sold him into slavery, and they told his father that he was dead.
11:13
After a series of providential events, Joseph was raised up in Egypt, where he'd been sold into slavery.
11:20
He was raised up to save the people from a great famine.
11:23
And God used him to interpret a dream from Pharaoh about the famine, whereby he was able to understand that over the next 14 years, 7 years of plenty and 7 years of lean, he was going to store food during the years of plenty.
11:39
And then he was going to use that stored food to save the people during the years of lean.
11:43
And so Joseph has been raised up to the second in command in all of Egypt, only second to Pharaoh himself.
11:53
His brothers came to him looking for food.
11:55
They did not recognize who he was, and he put them through several tests before he put them, or before he allowed them to know who he was.
12:07
And the final test was when he was going to imprison their youngest brother, his only full brother from his mother, Rachel.
12:15
And one of his brothers, Judah, stepped up and protected him, showing that he had been a changed man.
12:25
Now in our last sermon, last week, we looked at a pretty long chapter, and we looked at the fact that in that chapter, Joseph is seen administrating those 7 years of lean.
12:38
And we saw what Joseph did.
12:41
He took people's money and he gave them food.
12:44
When they ran out of money, he took their cattle and he gave them food.
12:48
When they ran out of cattle, he took their land and he gave them food.
12:51
Every time they came and had a need, he figured out a way to feed them.
12:55
He figured out a way to give them food.
12:58
But it was never free.
13:00
It was always an exchange.
13:01
And finally, they sold themselves into slavery to be able to have the food.
13:07
We talked about how difficult that is for us to understand as Western minds.
13:12
And there was something I meant to say last week, and this is the one benefit of sequential exegetical preaching, is if I forget to say something, I can say it now.
13:21
And the one thing I forgot to mention at the end of last week's sermon is this.
13:25
It would have been foolish for anyone to die of starvation when they had Joseph there to save them.
13:32
All they had to do was go and sell themselves into slavery and give themselves up and he would have fed them.
13:37
And it would have been foolish for anyone to die of starvation.
13:43
It is equally as foolish for anyone today to die without Christ.
13:49
Joseph stands offering salvation.
13:52
Christ stands offering salvation to all who will believe.
13:56
And it is just as foolish for anyone to reject Christ today as it would have been for anyone to have rejected Joseph then.
14:05
So at the end of that chapter, Jacob calls Joseph, this is the father calling the son in, to talk about his death, to prepare for his death.
14:15
And he makes Joseph swear an oath, don't bury me here, don't bury me in Egypt, but after I die, bury me in the promised land.
14:27
Well, we're going to see that happen.
14:29
That does happen later in chapter 50.
14:31
But I want you to understand, the moments between what was going on before and what happened when Jacob was on his deathbed, that is separated by a decade of time.
14:45
People don't realize how quick time passes in the Bible because it goes from story to story and it doesn't say, oh yeah, and after 10 years.
14:52
But I want you to think about this.
14:56
Joseph was in Egypt for over 20 years.
15:00
When Jacob went to Egypt, he was 130 years old.
15:04
Now I don't have my white board here so I need you to do a little math in your head.
15:06
He went to Egypt when he was 130 years old.
15:09
How do we know that? Because that's what he said to Pharaoh.
15:11
Pharaoh said, how many years are your life? I'm alive 130 years.
15:15
His deathbed happens at 147.
15:20
Now he comes two years into the famine.
15:24
So that means when he comes, there are still five years of famine left.
15:28
So he has been in Egypt for 17 years.
15:32
Twelve of those years are the post-famine years.
15:38
So he has lived with his son for 17 years.
15:42
And relative prosperity in a land that is no longer being eaten up by the famine because the famine has been over for more than a decade.
15:52
And now we come to the point of his death.
15:57
And in chapter 48 and chapter 49, we are seeing him give his blessings right before he dies.
16:07
This week we are going to see Ephraim and Manasseh, the blessing of adoption.
16:11
Next week we are going to see the blessing of ten of the other sons.
16:18
We are going to look at the blessing or not really the blessing, the prophecy.
16:21
Not all of it is good.
16:22
But there is prophecy of the ten sons and then we are going to take a whole week on Judah only.
16:28
So that's the way we are going to break down the next few.
16:30
We are going to look at the ten and then we are going to look at Judah because Judah has a very specific and special blessing that is tied to the Lord Jesus Christ, a special prophecy.
16:38
We are going to look at that prophecy.
16:39
So that's how we are going to break all this down.
16:42
But today we are looking specifically at this moment where he has Joseph in his house.
16:48
He has got these two, we could call them boys but they are not boys by the way.
16:55
These were born prior to the famine.
17:00
So it is likely that all of these, at least 16, 17 years old, maybe over 20.
17:06
In fact Rembrandt has a painting of this moment of the adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh and it has got the crossed arms and all.
17:15
It is a very beautiful painting.
17:16
But the boys are little boys sitting on his knees.
17:19
That's not the picture.
17:22
When he talks about them being on their knees, what is likely they are probably down on their knees in a prostrate position with their head on his lap.
17:30
But they are not little tykes sitting on his legs.
17:33
These are grown boys.
17:37
That sounds like an oxymoron.
17:39
These are adolescents or young men.
17:43
These are big fellows.
17:44
This is not two little boys.
17:49
So with that in mind, here is the outline for the text.
17:52
We are going to first look at the reminder of the covenant promises.
17:55
That is verses 1-4.
17:56
We are going to look at the statement of adoption that is 5-12.
17:59
We are going to look at the exchanging of the primogenitor rights.
18:02
All that means is the right of the first born from verses 13-19.
18:06
Then we are going to look at the words of prophecy verses 20-22.
18:12
So let's look quickly at the reminder of the covenant promises looking at verse 1.
18:17
It says, After this, of course this is that time.
18:22
We don't know how long it was, but there was a time between the time he asked Joseph to bury him in the promised land to the time that he is on his deathbed.
18:31
We don't know how long that time was, but that is the after this moment here in the text.
18:35
After this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill.
18:39
So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
18:42
And it was told to Jacob, Your son Joseph has come to you.
18:47
Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.
18:49
Now this is, it loses a little something in English.
18:53
But the idea here is he is dying, but yet he is going to exert the effort to sit up on his deathbed.
19:04
I don't know if you have ever been with anybody who is on their deathbed.
19:09
Unfortunately I have had, well there is a blessing in it too.
19:12
I have been at the bedside of believers who pass and there is a blessing in that.
19:16
But very rarely do people sit up on their deathbed.
19:21
Because it is a time of pain and your body is hurting and everything is sore and everything, you are ready to pass away.
19:27
But he summons the strength.
19:28
That is the idea that the Hebrew is sort of getting at.
19:30
He gathered all of his muster and he pulled himself up so that he could present this moment, not from a reclined position, but from a position of preeminence over his children.
19:49
He summons his strength.
19:52
He sits up in bed.
19:54
And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan.
20:03
By the way the word God Almighty, if you have ever heard the term El Shaddai, the Hebrew El Shaddai, there are songs about El Shaddai, that is the word.
20:10
The God of power, the God of might, the God who has been my strength.
20:18
He appeared to me at Luz.
20:22
Now if you don't remember that is the time when Jacob was fleeing his brother Esau because he had stolen his blessing and he was going across the desert and he found himself in a place where he laid his head on a stone and he went to sleep.
20:37
That was in the place of Luz.
20:38
And it was in that place that he had the vision of the stairway which met heaven and earth.
20:46
And it says angels of God were ascending and descending on that stairway.
20:51
And he said he looked up to the top of the stairway and there he saw the Lord.
20:58
And the stairway was as it were a conduit between he and the Lord.
21:03
And he said this is Beth El, this is the house of God.
21:09
So he is remembering this moment.
21:13
He says God Almighty El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, and now get this part, please don't miss this because this is the covenant.
21:23
He says behold I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.
21:36
That is a restatement of the Abrahamic promise.
21:42
The Abrahamic promise had two parts for the people of Israel, seed and land.
21:52
There was also an eternal blessing to the whole world.
21:57
We will see that later.
21:59
But he is reminding them that he is a recipient, not just from the promise of his father or his father's father, but he is a recipient of the promise from the mouth of God.
22:11
God has spoken to me.
22:13
God has given me this promise.
22:14
God has told me you will have a land and a seed.
22:26
Now the reminder of this covenant is key to this narrative.
22:30
The reason why I say it is key to the narrative is one thing, the understanding of the covenant is key to the Bible.
22:36
Understanding that that is how God enters into relationship with us.
22:40
We are part of the covenant.
22:41
We are part of the new covenant.
22:42
We have been brought in, grafted in to the new covenant by the work of Jesus Christ.
22:47
That is how God operates.
22:49
That is how God fundamentally has a relationship, is through covenant.
22:53
But what makes it so important about this chapter is God is about to do something amazing through Jacob.
23:00
He is going to add to the tribes of Israel, Ephraim and Manasseh and bring them in to this blessed covenant.
23:08
Not to the third generation, but to the first generation.
23:12
By first I don't mean Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, but the first generation of Jacob.
23:17
Rather than being after, they are going to be part of that first generation, that first line of tribes whereby there will be twelve tribes, two of them Ephraim and Manasseh.
23:27
You might say in your mind, I can do math and if I take one away and I add two, that turns into thirteen, right? Yes, you are right.
23:36
Your math is good.
23:39
But from a biblical perspective we have to understand that within the twelve tribes of Israel, Levi was the tribe that did not receive an inheritance within the land because they were priests dispersed throughout the land.
23:52
And therefore Levi comes out as one of the ones who receives a portion of the land and Ephraim and Manasseh take the place of Joseph and Levi.
24:01
Therefore still being twelve tribes.
24:05
So we have the twelve tribes of Israel.
24:08
Now I don't want to get into it right now, but there is a weird little change in the book of Revelation where Dan is left out, Joseph is put back in and don't even ask because I don't want to go there right now.
24:17
But there is a little, some of these numbers get a little weird when we start looking at end times and how that is going to work and how those things function.
24:24
But the ultimate goal of understanding this is these boys are coming in to that same line as in what we are going to see in a moment as Simeon and Reuben and Levi and all of these they are going to be right there with them.
24:40
Not a next generation, but a first generation adopted tribe.
24:46
And they are brought into this covenant.
24:48
Alright, so now let's look at the statement of adoption.
24:51
Looking at verse 5.
24:54
It says, And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt, that's important, they were born in Egypt, they were born to a half, well born to an Egyptian mother so they are half Egyptian, which is important with adoption by the way.
25:09
I don't want to jump too far ahead real quick, but understand this.
25:13
None of, well I don't want to say none of us in this room, but I would say very few of us in this room were born Israelites, but we have been made partakers of the family of Abraham through Christ.
25:25
Even though we are not born, you know what I am saying? We don't have Israelite in us, but we have Christ who is the perfect Israelite and in Him we are made partakers of the promises of Abraham.
25:38
And that's the point, right? These are not, these are half Egyptian boys, but they are made full tribes.
25:45
You see, that's the blessing.
25:49
And it says, And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine.
25:57
Notice he didn't ask, hey can I adopt your sons? He ain't there to ask, he is there to proclaim.
26:05
He says your two sons that you had in Egypt before I came are mine.
26:12
And the children that you fathered after them, by the way he mentions other children.
26:16
Joseph does have other children.
26:18
We talked a few weeks ago about the line and how the numbers are a little, we believe he had seven other children, that Joseph had seven other descendants.
26:26
But he says, notice what he says, the children you have had after them shall be yours and they shall be called in the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
26:35
Meaning it's like this, you got the twelve tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh should be in the second generation, but they are being moved up here and every one of the other brothers is going to come under them.
26:46
So they will be a part of those tribes, of Ephraim and Manasseh.
26:51
And then he says, As for me, when I came from Paddan to Mysore, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath.
27:04
And I buried her on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem.
27:08
Now notice what he says, he says this, he says, They are mine as Reuben and Simeon.
27:14
I didn't mean to jump over that verse, but I did.
27:16
He says, They are mine, Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are.
27:23
Who are Reuben and Simeon? First born son, second born son.
27:28
They are being brought in, in the same position as the originals.
27:35
And the children you fathered shall be yours, they shall be in the name of the brothers of their inheritance.
27:39
As for me, and in verse 7 it seems kind of out of place, but it is not, because what he is doing in verse 7 is he is reminding from a historical position where Joseph falls in this line of brothers.
27:55
He falls as a son of Rachel.
27:58
There are only two sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin.
28:02
And what he is saying here is he is saying you and your sons are going to be brought as basically where you are and they are going to be put in a position of preeminence.
28:17
Now I want to show you something very important.
28:20
Hold your place in Genesis and turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 5.
28:31
While you are going there let me just mention this.
28:33
First born sons often got a double portion.
28:36
First born sons were given a double portion because it was their responsibility to take care of the family once the father got too old to take care of himself.
28:43
The first born son was given a double portion so that he could be the one who took care of the family.
28:48
And 1 Chronicles 5, now this is written centuries after Genesis, but this is a Holy Spirit inspired interpretation of the events.
29:02
Understand what I am saying.
29:03
The Holy Spirit is the one who is responsible for writing the Bible ultimately.
29:07
I mean we know they had writers, but the Holy Spirit is the one who inspired.
29:10
Listen to what 1 Chronicles 5 verses 1 and 2 says.
29:14
The sons of Reuben, the first born of Israel, for he was the first born, 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 eldest son.
29:32
Though Judah became strong among his brothers, and a chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph.
29:41
Why did the birthright belong to Joseph? Because it is a double portion and the double portion was divided between Ephraim and Manasseh so they would both have an equal portion in the twelve tribes.
29:54
Now Judah is still preeminent.
29:57
Kings will come from him.
29:59
It says that in the text.
30:01
It says, in fact it says specifically, a chief came from him, speaking of the kings.
30:07
But the birthright, which originally belonged to Reuben, was lost when he sinned by taking his father's concubine, and that birthright was given to Joseph, divided between Ephraim and Manasseh, so they both have an equal portion among the twelve tribes.
30:26
Now this is how the adoption is functioning.
30:33
Joseph brings his sons in.
30:37
His father says, these two will be, are mine, and I'm making them equal to your brothers.
30:49
Now I do, I have to mention this because I just, sometimes time doesn't let me say everything I want to say, but I do have to mention this too.
30:55
He mentions Rachel's death and he mentions that she was buried on the way to Ephrath.
31:02
Now Ephrath would later be called Bethlehem.
31:06
Obviously that has huge significance, especially from a Christian perspective.
31:10
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but so was David.
31:13
So David, this is the city of David.
31:16
This is an important place.
31:17
But Ephrath comes from the same root as Ephraim.
31:22
The word Ephraim, both of them mean fruitful.
31:26
So there is a tie here.
31:28
There is a tie in all of this to what is happening.
31:33
And again, it all seems just like a reminder of the history, but this is actually a set up for an adoption situation.
31:41
Rachel is being brought up because she wasn't buried in the family's tomb.
31:45
She was buried on the roadside.
31:47
But she is being honored because her son's sons are receiving the double portion.
31:57
So even though she wasn't buried in the family's tomb, but rather she was buried on the roadside on the way to Ephrath, she herself is receiving a double portion of blessing because her sons, her grandsons are being made sons and being brought into this new order.
32:18
Verse 8, When Israel saw Joseph's sons, now this is a weird part.
32:22
It says, When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these? He said, Why? Wasn't he just talking about them? Why would he say, Who are these? Well, it goes on to say his eyes were bad.
32:37
But also, I have to agree with Bruce Walkie here.
32:40
Bruce Walkie, tremendous theologian and commentator on Genesis.
32:45
He says, When he says, Who are these? He's not saying, I don't know who these are.
32:51
But what he's doing is he's doing the same thing that is done in any court where there is about to be a moment of decision and proclamation.
33:04
Here's a good example.
33:06
When the two people come to me to be married, I always say, Who gives this man? No.
33:15
Who gives this woman to be married to this man? Now, I know who it is.
33:20
I came to the rehearsal.
33:22
I told him where to sit.
33:24
I know who is giving this woman to be married to this man.
33:28
But by asking it publicly, you're asking for a public proclamation.
33:35
Because what does he say? I do.
33:37
Or her mother and I do.
33:39
Same thing happens in those churches that baptize babies.
33:42
I ain't encouraging that.
33:43
But if you go to a church that baptizes a baby, when they hand the baby to the pastor, he will say, What name have you given this child? Now he knows very well.
33:54
He was there when the baby was born probably.
33:56
He knows the name of the baby.
33:57
But it's a proclamation.
34:00
So when these two boys are brought in, he says, Who are these? What does he say? These are my sons.
34:09
And notice what Joseph says.
34:10
Whom God has given me.
34:13
Love that.
34:14
Love that.
34:15
God gave me these boys.
34:17
And he says, Bring them to me that I may bless them.
34:21
Now it says, Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so he could not see.
34:24
So Joseph brought them near him.
34:26
He kissed them and embraced them.
34:27
And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face.
34:30
And behold, God has let me see your offspring also.
34:34
So Joseph removed them from his knees.
34:36
He bowed himself with his face to the earth.
34:39
And now we see this wonderful moment of the exchanging of the promogenitor rites.
34:47
Now the promogenitor rites, again, are those rites of firstborn.
34:50
That's all what promogenitor means.
34:53
It means the one who is firstborn receives the greater blessing.
34:57
And if you are not familiar with this, the Bible says that the right hand is the hand of blessing.
35:04
And so when Joseph brings his two sons in, he puts Manasseh on his left side so that when he brings them forward to his father, he will ensure that Manasseh, the older, will receive the right hand blessing and the younger will receive the left hand blessing.
35:26
But oh Jacob, he knew what he was doing.
35:30
And he did like a karate move.
35:34
And he crossed his arms and he put his right hand on the head of Ephraim and a left on the head of Manasseh.
35:47
And he says this, verse 15, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all the life until this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless these boys.
36:07
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.
36:16
That is the blessing given to Ephraim and Manasseh.
36:23
Note two things from the blessing.
36:24
First the parallelism.
36:26
He says first, he says, The God, the God, the angel.
36:31
That is interesting because what a parallelism is, synonymous parallelism is when the same thing is said multiple times in a row.
36:43
And what you see is the God, the God, the angel.
36:46
Now God is not an angel and an angel is not God, but there are times when God takes the form of an angel to address his people.
36:54
We see this when the angel spoke to Hagar.
36:56
That was the angel of the Lord.
36:58
We see this when the angel came and ate with Abraham under the oaks of Mamre.
37:05
That was God coming as an angel.
37:08
But probably the most specific time in the life of Jacob and the time that I do think that he is referencing here is that time that the angel came and whooped him all night long.
37:19
That is the Keith Standard version.
37:22
But that is what he did.
37:22
They wrestled all night long.
37:26
And it says he was wrestling with an angel, but it was the Lord.
37:32
And so he says, The God, the God, the angel.
37:37
And he is talking about the God he knows and he is blessing them in the name of this God.
37:44
The second thing we see here is he calls God his shepherd.
37:50
I want you to just remember this.
37:52
And again, we could do this all day because there is so much in this text.
37:59
When the people or when the brothers of Israel were brought before Pharaoh, remember what Joseph said, Tell them that you are shepherds because the Egyptians despise shepherds.
38:18
But when Jacob proclaims who God is to him, he says, The Lord, my shepherd.
38:31
Many, many centuries later, David would write a psalm that says the Lord is my shepherd.
38:40
I shall not want.
38:41
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
38:43
He leads me beside the still waters.
38:45
He restores my soul.
38:48
You see, David was not the one who first had the idea of God as a shepherd.
38:53
But Israel said, God is my shepherd.
39:01
Now, Joseph is not happy with the crossing of the hands.
39:09
So he tries to take his father's hands and move them.
39:14
And I can only imagine what it must have looked like with a 147 year old patriarch who had summoned up just enough strength to sit up in bed and had pressed out his arms with all of his might so that he could grasp the head of the boys and have his son reach up and try to move his hands.
39:37
I imagine he was like, Don't you touch me.
39:41
Because he says in the English, I know my son, I know.
39:45
But I'm pretty sure it was more like, I know boy, I know what I'm doing.
39:50
Unhand my arms.
39:52
Because he knew what he was doing.
39:55
And what he was doing we must not miss.
40:00
Because he was doing what was done in the life of Abraham.
40:05
And in the life of Isaac.
40:09
Because you remember, Abraham had two sons.
40:14
But it was not the firstborn who was the son of the promise.
40:18
That was Ishmael.
40:20
It was Isaac who was the son of promise.
40:23
And Isaac had two sons.
40:26
He had Jacob and Esau.
40:28
Esau was the oldest.
40:29
But Esau was not the son of the promise.
40:35
It was Jacob.
40:37
And now there are two sons.
40:40
An older and a younger.
40:43
And by all rights and privileges of natural men, the older son should receive the greater blessing.
40:50
But Jacob extends his right hand on the younger son and reminds us all of the doctrine of election which says, God chooses not as man chooses.
41:04
Because it is God speaking through Jacob as he's choosing the younger rather than the older.
41:12
By the way, if you want to take some time this week, go read again Romans 9.
41:17
Where it talks about God not choosing the one that man chooses.
41:22
But choosing the younger rather than the older.
41:25
And he chooses Ephraim.
41:28
As receiving the greater blessing.
41:30
And by the way, I don't have time to go through the history of the Bible.
41:34
But Ephraim would raise up great.
41:37
And one great one who would rise up out of Ephraim would be Joshua, son of Nun.
41:44
Who would lead the people of God after the death of Moses.
41:49
And lead them triumphantly into the promised land.
41:55
Now, I've got to draw to a close.
41:58
Verses 20 to 22, we have words of prophecy.
42:03
The words of prophecy, it says, so he blessed them that day saying, by Israel we'll pronounce blessings saying, God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.
42:12
Then he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
42:14
Then Israel said to Joseph, behold I'm about to die.
42:17
But God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.
42:21
Now, I want you to understand that verse 21, that promise is not a promise for Joseph specifically because he will die in Egypt.
42:29
That is a promise of the Exodus that his descendants will be brought back to the land.
42:35
This is a promise of the Exodus which we see in the book of Exodus.
42:42
Verse 22 is rather confusing.
42:45
I'm going to give you the answer real quick because verse 22 says this.
42:49
It says, moreover I have given you rather to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and my bow.
42:58
There is nothing, well no, let me go back up.
43:04
That reference where Jacob says the land I took with my sword and my bow, there's no story about Jacob taking any land with his sword or bow.
43:17
The only story that we have anywhere close is when Levi and Simeon went in and took the land of Shechem by sword and bow.
43:28
And it could be that that's what he's referring to even though in the next chapter he's going to denounce them for doing that.
43:36
So it's kind of weird if that is.
43:38
But the word here where he says I've given them a slope, a mountain slope, the word in Hebrew there is the word shoulder and it's very similar to the word Shechem.
43:49
So it could be that that's what that's referencing.
43:51
But I'm not going to die on that slope.
43:54
I'm not going to die on that hill.
43:55
I'm saying that's what it could be.
43:57
But I do know this.
43:58
The people of Israel knew what it was because in the New Testament, you don't have to go there now, but if you go into the New Testament John chapter 5 verses 4 and 5 they call that place Sychar.
44:12
And he said this was the place that was given to Joseph by Jacob.
44:17
So that place, they knew where it was, they knew what it was about.
44:21
But if there is a story of him taking the Amorites, which could be another name for the Shechemites, if that story happened it's not in the Bible.
44:29
Unless it's talking about the story that happened with the Shechemites.
44:33
I didn't mean to take you for a right turn there, but I didn't want to leave that part of the text open ended.
44:38
There is a little bit of difficulty because it may be talking about something that's blank, the story may just be blank and we just didn't get it, or it could be talking about the story of the Shechemites.
44:47
Alright, I'm going to draw to a close.
44:50
The adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh by Jacob has major historical significance, but it also has important theological significance.
45:01
It establishes two genuine tribes within Israel alongside the other tribes.
45:07
It places them alongside their brothers as joint heirs.
45:13
Now you know that term.
45:16
They become joint heirs with the other tribes.
45:20
And it sets a precedence for a New Testament principle.
45:27
And the New Testament principle is this, that when we are adopted into a family, we become genuinely part of that family.
45:41
Now for a moment, I shouldn't have to spell it out, but I will.
45:46
Think about what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
45:51
We have been made part of the family of God through adoption.
45:58
Think of it like this.
46:00
Brother Mike preached on adoption several years ago and he said something that is true, and I'm going to repeat it.
46:06
Not that he, I mean, most everything you say is true.
46:08
That sounded like it was a big deal.
46:11
But he said something that was true, and this is what he said, if I'm paraphrasing.
46:19
Many of the Protestant writers wrote a great deal about the doctrine of justification, and that's true because they were fighting the battle with Rome and the argument was over justification.
46:30
But often what is written about less is adoption.
46:36
But we must understand that both of those doctrines are key in understanding who we are in Christ.
46:44
Because Christ dies and we are justified of our sins and we're made right with God as judge.
46:53
But then we are, through faith, united with Christ and we're made right with God as Father.
47:02
That's the blessing.
47:04
We not only have the judge who has declared us to be righteous, we have the Father who has declared us to be His.
47:13
And there are so many passages in the New Testament that I could bring you into Ephesians 1, into Romans 8, into all of these wonderful passages.
47:21
And go home this week, pull out your concordance and look up the word adoption.
47:25
Look up those New Testament passages and be reminded, beloved, of how blessed you are to have been made full citizens of the Kingdom of God through the adoption of sons that comes through Jesus Christ.
47:38
You are not half a citizen.
47:41
You are not half a citizen of God's family.
47:46
You are adopted as His Son.
47:50
And you are given full rights and privileges as a joint heir with Christ.
47:56
Let's pray.
47:59
Father, I thank You for the blessing of knowing that we have the adoption of sons which comes through Jesus Christ.
48:05
Lord, I could talk about it all day.
48:08
And so, Lord, I pray that by Your mercy and grace, You would just continue to remind us of the blessing that we have, that we may be called the children of God.
48:19
As Your Word says, it's so powerful, Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and we are.
48:30
Lord, may we trust in that.
48:32
May we live in that.
48:34
And Lord, for those who are here who have not received the Lord Jesus Christ, help them to know that apart from Jesus Christ, there is no fatherhood of God.
48:45
That for God to be our Father, Christ must be our Savior.
48:50
Lord, I pray if there is anyone here who does not have Christ as their Savior, let them understand that today they are an orphan.
48:58
They are spiritually orphaned.
49:00
They do not have a Father, but they can have a Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
49:04
If they receive Him by faith, they will be adopted into the family of God and made joint heirs with Christ.
49:10
We pray this in Jesus name.