The Lord Is My Shepherd

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 48:1-22

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Well this morning we complete chapter 48 and we are coming toward the end of our time in Genesis rather quickly and Chapter 48 is a very special Passage for me personally as I'll explain later on this morning
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Of course up to this point. We've seen Joseph resettle his entire family that is the entire household of Jacob his father in the land of Goshen and It's been somewhere along the path of 17 years now where Joseph recognizes
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His father is on his deathbed desires the blessing of his father not only for himself
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But more importantly for his sons and so that begins chapter 48 and we're reminded that this death of Jacob is drawing us even closer to the end of Genesis and The the next stage of God's work in this unfolding drama of redemption
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Genesis 48 beginning in verse 1 Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told indeed your father is sick
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And he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim So the report comes that his father is sick.
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It's been a long time that Jacob has been suffering and struggling throughout his life
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This isn't the first time that it seemed that his end was nigh but of course now he knows perhaps by divine revelation that it is indeed time to gather his sons and to pass on the
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Patriarchal blessing and that will take not only chapter 48 but chapter 49 to accomplish
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This news prompts Joseph to leave his post and bring his sons to his father
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On his deathbed there in Goshen. We remember that these two boys were born to Joseph through his
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Egyptian wife Asenath Manasseh the firstborn meaning to cause to forget or forgetfulness and Joseph of course when
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Manasseh was born said look how the Lord has dealt with me He's caused me to forget the troubles of my home to forget my homeland and my siblings all together
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But of course in the ironic unfolding of God's dealing Joseph was remembered by God and God brought about a great reconciliation and Ephraim who was the secondborn son which means
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Fruitfulness and it's a dual form in Hebrew. So it's like double fruitfulness. And of course
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This also was a recognition that not only had Joseph been exalted in Pharaoh's court
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But was married and indeed has sons of his own that God had blessed him with fruitfulness even according to his goodness
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Verse 2 and following Jacob was told look your son. Joseph is coming to you
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And Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. I love details like that in a narrative
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It really does paint the picture for us just how weak is Jacob on his deathbed But he girds himself and strengthens himself to sit on the bed
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So he can address his son and his grandsons and Jacob said to Joseph God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and he blessed me and he said to me behold
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I will make you fruitful and multiply you I will make of you a multitude of people and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession so land descendants
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Possession remember these are the key themes that we've been tracing from the very beginning of Genesis land seed dominion land
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Descendants possession the desire of Joseph to receive Jacob's blessing is matched by Jacob's desire to bless
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Joseph is eager to come and receive the blessing for himself and his sons But notice how eager
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Jacob is to bless his son. This is very reminiscent of how God the Father deals with his children We come to the
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Lord eager for a blessing but we can never outmatch the Lord's desire to bless
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Jacob is dwelling. Of course in the midst of Egyptian splendor He doesn't have the heart of his uncle
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Esau. Does he not at all? He doesn't say Blessing what could you give me?
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What what blessing? Do you know that you're living off my coattails right now? You know, I have everything
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I need here as governor over all the land of Egypt There's really nothing that I need to inherit from you
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In fact, I'll come to give my condolences, but I really need nothing from you father. That's the farthest thing from Joseph's faith
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Joseph says not only do I want the blessing I want my sons these princes of Egypt to have the blessing of the
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God of Canaan I want to have them be blessed by their grandfather because I want them to walk in the faith of their grandfather and his father and his father before him and So, of course
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We're reminded of this language that we see in verses 2 and 4 3 and following when
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Jacob tells Joseph God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and then we have a rehearsal of the
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Promises that God made when he appeared at Luz Luz of course was given the name
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Bethel house of God in Genesis chapter 28 when Jacob had been on the run and felt that he had lost
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Everything his homeland everything that he sought he had this inheritance from his father, but it was all for nothing
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He's an exile now as he runs her refuge toward his uncle But of course now here at Bethel God had found him
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God had revealed himself and had affirmed that the promise indeed Had been passed on to Jacob that he would be
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God to Jacob And the Abrahamic covenant being confirmed to him included the idea of an everlasting
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Possession and so there in Goshen in the land of Egypt Jacob reminds his son
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God promised to me that my descendants would be fruitful and that I would enter into the land of an everlasting possession now again
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Jacob not only Joseph, but Jacob himself is now dwelling in the midst of Egyptian splendor
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But even he looks beyond these things even he says this is wonderful.
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I love ostrich fin I love, you know grapes and olives on demand. I love platters of pistachios at my feet but I wish
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I could go back to my tent in Canaan because that's the land that God promised to me and As he's there dwelling as a shepherd abominable to the
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Egyptians He will not forget the promise that God had made to Abraham the promise that God had confirmed to Isaac the promise that was confirmed to him the everlasting possession in the land and So Jacob's faith is anchored in the
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Abrahamic covenant and out of that Covenantal promise he seeks to bless
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Joseph and Ephraim and Manasseh In other words Jacob knows the ground of any blessing is the promise of God and that's true for every believer
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Do we know that that's the case the ground for any blessing is in the promise of God There is no ground for blessing in any other way
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Another way of putting that is there is no blessing unless God maintains his covenant if God fails in his covenant
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Then we cannot be blessed but because God is faithful to keep his covenant. We will be forever blessed verse 5
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Now your two sons Ephraim and Manasseh Who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they are mine as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine
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Joseph brought his son so that they'd be blessed, but he wasn't expecting a blessing like this He was hoping for a blessing some good word some good notion
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He wasn't thinking that his sons would enter into the inheritance of Jacob after all
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They're half Egyptian and they've only ever known Egypt. They've never even met
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Abraham or Isaac They've they've never really formally understood what the family dynamic was.
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How could they then enter into the inheritance of it? But Jacob formally adopts his grandsons
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Manasseh and Ephraim He says now they're my sons in other words now They like all of my sons have an inheritance that the land that was promised to us
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They will have a division in that land. They will take their place as my sons like Reuben like Simeon in Other words as if they are the firstborn
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Reuben Simeon being the firstborn sons of Leah and here we're led almost ironically to the
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Bypassing of Reuben and Simeon for the sake of this blessing Joseph receives a double portion in other words
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Joseph is is hoisted over Reuben to have that firstborn status the double portion inheritance but Ephraim and Manasseh Take the portion as it were of Reuben and Simeon and so we see in the unfolding history of Israel how
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Ephraim becomes synonymous with Israel the ten northern tribes after the Solomonic divide are simply called
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Ephraim Isaiah 7 Isaiah 11 Hosea 5 Ephraim is
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Israel. And so we see that already here in Genesis 48 Ephraim notice is mentioned first, but he's the second born
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Manasseh is the firstborn So already we see this ironic reversal that's about to come being hinted at it is said
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Ephraim and Manasseh who were born to you Joseph lets it pass the old man.
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He must mean Manasseh and Ephraim. He must be getting forgetful in his old age verse 6 your offspring whom you begin after them will be yours in other words
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Any other children that are born to Joseph will will take their inheritance as through the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh They will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance
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Verse 7 but as for me when I came from Padan Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way
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When there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath that is
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Bethlehem verse 7 almost comes as a parenthetical statement
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It really adds nothing to the core of Genesis 48 It's information that we do not need rehearsed it adds nothing to the blessing that's given to Joseph Ephraim or Manasseh, but it's included
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And I think we get here the sense that as Jacob knew he had fallen ill unto death he had time to review the whole course of his life all of the low valleys all of the high mountaintops and Everything that he's rehearsing now to his sons are the things that he's been viewing in his mind reflecting on in his memory
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He's thinking of God's faithfulness first and foremost But right underneath that is the sorrow of losing
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Rachel even still decades later He almost spontaneously brings up Joseph's mother
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Rachel as for me, he says Rachel died beside me He still can't let go of that loss
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And it's almost as though he's seeking to bless Ephraim and Manasseh in a tribute to his beloved wife
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He wants Joseph to know I loved your mother so much see this is why I bless you
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This is why I adopt your sons as my own now Rachel has three sons. Not only two then almost
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In a way we can see Many waters cannot quench love scars remain.
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I think God wants his people to see that in his word He's sympathetic to that the scars of loss remain even when
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Saints live by faith and look for the great transcendent Hope scars still remain verse 8
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Israel saw Joseph's son and said who are these? Joseph said to his father.
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They are my sons whom God has given me in this place And he said please bring them to me and I will bless them now the site
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Prompts to question who are these which to us seems strange? He already knows Ephraim and Manasseh over the course of these 17 years
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He probably would have met them quite often Grandpa as they would have clutched his his feeble knees as he brought out buckets of Legos or whatnot to play with them
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But more likely this is actually formal ritual language You have rehearsed questions like this that are commonly part of ritual in the
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Old Testament We see that for example in Exodus with the Passover What is the meaning of this the formal questions that are part of this ceremony and it seems with this adoption here
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Who is this is the question that gives this ritual response? These are my sons whom
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God has given me It reminds us of Genesis 27 when Jacob himself was seeking the blessing
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Deceitfully and there was sort of this formal engagement formal interaction between his father
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Isaac and himself Joseph just like Jacob though Jacob did it sinfully
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Acknowledges God has brought me here. God has given me these sons as a blessing
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Verse 10 now the eyes of Israel were dim with age So that he could not see and Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and he embraced them
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Once more we see this ironic parallel with Genesis 27 now like father like son even
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Jacob can't see that well Who is it? My son come near no goat hair arms, but still dim eyesight
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The godly grandfather he embraces his newly minted sons now. They're his sons he like Joseph understands that children are a heritage from the
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Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward and Though these boys had been growing up as princes as as rulers in the land of Egypt Jacob's heart is just like Joseph's heart for them
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They want them not to be raised to be like the Egyptians but to be raised to be like those who follow
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Yahweh I love what Barry Horner says here Joseph so much more desires that they be princes of Israel rather than princes of Egypt How many fathers today have such a right sense of priority?
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Most fathers today would their sons be princes of Mammon rather than princes of righteousness.
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Isn't that true? Most fathers today would rather have images and paragons of success according to the world's eyes
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Rather than images and paragons of faithfulness according to God's sight And Israel said to Joseph verse 11.
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I had not thought to see your face But in fact God has even shown me your offspring I never thought
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I'd see you again much less see your own sons your own children Joseph brought them from beside his knees and he bowed down with his face to the earth
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And Joseph took them both Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him.
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So the word of Jacob again He's reflecting on his whole life as he's on his deathbed and he can't help but consider
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God's gracious providence to him I never thought to see your face. Look what God has done. Now.
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God has even brought these boys to me Here I am being provided for in the midst of famine and all of this is
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God God's Gracious dealing with his people the fact that my whole household has been saved is all because of God's gracious dealings with us
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Joseph draws nears with his boys Remember he has the bet the second best chariot in the land of Egypt outside of this dwelling place in Goshen Dressed in the finest linens who knows what kind of bejeweled bespoke
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Jewelry he has Servants attending to him ushering in him toward Jacob as soon as he sees his aged decrepit father
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Shaking as it were on his deathbed. He brings his sons to him and he bows on the ground. The servants must have been struck by that Here's the
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Lord of the land and he's he's prostrate on the ground before his elderly father Now this of course is just Christianity 101.
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This is just the fifth commandment in seed form. I love what? Interesting exchange
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Adam Clark who's an old 19th century commentator, and he very rarely
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Gets into a tussle with other commentaries that this is the first time I've ever noticed it But he reacted quite strongly to a man named
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Thomas Delaney who who basically said, you know When I see Joseph prostrate before God, I know that's his duty when
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I see him prostrate before Pharaoh I know he's respecting the office. But when I see him prostrate before his father here,
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I marvel here I wonder and Adam Clark says this is insufferable And I can't resist sharing this he says by the law of God and nature
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Joseph was as much bound to pay his dying father this respect as he was to reference any king or even worship
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God as To myself I confess there's nothing peculiar on this part of Joseph's conduct
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He simply did what God required of him what nature requires what decency requires what common sense requires of him
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You see this is what in Adam Clark's mind in the 19th century. This is what a son does to his father
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It doesn't matter how elevated how exalted that son is. The fifth commandment is the commandment of God Though Joseph lived and ruled in Egypt.
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He remained loyal to God's way to God's dealings. He had Covenantal piety and the duty of Children to their parents only ceases when the parents have passed
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When they no longer can exercise that duty to the parents maybe only in Remembrance or in testimony or in sharing or in being faithful to what the parents had been laying down before the
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Lord in front of them So circumstances may change Joseph's circumstances change but no change will take away the the impact of this commandment honor your father and your mother and Joseph here on display honoring his aged father
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Because of his reverence for God the father and that's true for every believer
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Whether we like that or not whether our fathers fail us or not That's true of every believer now you see this expected lineup
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Manasseh, of course is the older one And so being the older one Joseph maneuvers him to be in front of the right hand of Jacob Ephraim's the younger son and so as the second born son
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Joseph maneuvers him to be at the left hand of Jacob the right hand is the hand of power of Prestige if you're to receive the priority of the blessing you're at the right hand
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Think of Jesus being exalted to the right hand of the father think of believers Embraced in the church being extended the right hand of fellowship.
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This is a Hebrew way of thinking Jacob's of course has a very different understanding of what needs to take place verse 14
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Israel stretched out his right hand and Laid it over on Ephraim's head the younger and his left hand on Manasseh's head guiding his hands knowingly
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For Manasseh was the firstborn and he blessed Joseph and he said
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God Before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has fed me all my life long to this day
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The angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the lands Let my name be named upon them and the name of my father's
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Abraham and Isaac and Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth
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So now what had been hinted Bring Ephraim and Manasseh to me now it comes fully clear
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This is the first instance in the Bible of the laying on of hands This is the first time that we see the transfer of blessing or the identification of God's covenantal transfer being passed on through the laying on of hands
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That's a little trivia for our own second London Confession. It was adopted and amended in various ways over the subsequent centuries and a very significant revision was in 1742 what we call the
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Philadelphia Confession of Faith the Philadelphia Association of Baptists said we love the 1689
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We just want to add a couple things to it so they added a chapter on the singing of hymns and then they added a chapter on the laying on of hands and that was between baptism and the
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Lord's Supper between chapters 31 and 32 so the laying on of hands is actually very significant in our own tradition in our own understanding of not necessarily a transfer an impartment of of spiritual gifts, but rather a
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Recognition that you indeed belong to God and his covenantal blessing is upon you the significance to that Notice verse 15.
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He blessed Joseph. He has his hands on these boys, but verse 15 says he blessed Joseph So how is
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Joseph blessed? Joseph is blessed because his children are blessed. This is the blessing for Joseph Jacob essentially says son
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This is how I will bless you. I will bless your sons For so many Christians, that's the only blessing we want from God Lord.
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You've given me more than enough I have faith in you. My hope is fixed on you if you could bless me bless my children
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Give me my children. Let them know you let them walk in the faith of their mother and father
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This blessing is given to Joseph, but it's on Joseph's sons Jacob's eyes may have been dim, but his spiritual sense was crystal clear
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Now as we'll see Joseph is going to try to reverse this He's gonna try to peel back these wrinkly old hands and and get them on the right head
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But the man who had strengthened himself on his bed Regards himself and says no no, no
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Of course Joseph had been the one who was reversed over Reuben even when he was given the coat of many colors
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He was given that special appointment of his father's favor And we see here also in the way that Joseph dealt with Benjamin It was the youngest that received the greater blessing.
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So so Joseph is Reacting against this but his whole life has been marked by this ironic reversal of the younger receiving the greater blessing notice notice the blessing
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Jacob invokes God The God who has fed me all my life
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Now that's a translator's decision to use Has fed that verb fed because in in English the word shepherd is a noun
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It's not a verb, but in Hebrew, it's literally the God who has shepherded me So to get rid of rid of that awkward verb shepherded
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Translations just say the God who has fed me but it's significant that the one who had been a shepherd in Goshen because shepherds are
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Abominable to the Egyptians the one who's now living in Goshen among Egyptian splendor as a shepherd says
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God is the one who has Shepherded me the man who in Canaan had lived his whole life as a shepherd
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Sees himself as a sheep and says God has been my shepherd God has related to me as though I was a sheep that had often gone astray often
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Fallen into ditches and come among brambles and thorns often been in danger by ravenous wolves and beasts of the night by theft during the day by raids and God has protected me even as I protected my sheep a profoundly intimate understanding
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It wasn't just the hilltops that God was present and then the valleys that God was absent.
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No, no No, that's not how it is when you're a shepherd The shepherd has to retrieve the sheep whether he's leading them to greener pastures or leading them out of dangerous valleys
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The shepherd is it's constantly continually interacting with the lives of the sheep and so it is
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Jacob understands with God He was always present He's been my shepherd my whole life
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He didn't just appear when I was in a jam and he finally had to leave the throne of heaven and Come down to me in some manifestation.
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Okay, what have you gotten yourself into this time? That's not how God deals with his people Spurgeon says
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Because God would so much be a shepherd to his people despite their willfulness
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He shepherds as the God of the Covenant Dear Saints of God You to whom years are being multiplied give praise to your
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God for having been your shepherd Bear your witness to the shepherding of God For this may lead others to become the sheep of his pasture that certainly seems to be
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Jacob's desire. I wish you would know this shepherd Ephraim and Manasseh We read of David's great psalm the shepherd's psalm really the sheep's psalm
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And wouldn't this be true of Jacob's own experience throughout his life The Lord is my shepherd, that's what
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Jacob is confessing here in this blessing. The Lord has shepherded me my whole life even to this day in the midst of Famine there.
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He is in Goshen with food at his beckon call. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want
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I shall not need anything. There's nothing that I shall lack He makes me to lie down and green pastures this image of sort of peaceful pastoral setting and here
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He is in Goshen surrounded with a reconciled family. God has caused him to lay down in peace
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He leads me beside the still waters He restores my soul leads me in passive righteousness for his namesake and Jacob knows that it's his namesake
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This whole blessing is replete with testimonies about who God is and what God has done and what
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God has promised Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
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That was a long valley for Jacob not just here at the end of his life, that's how we use
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This phrase metaphorically the shadow of the valley of death meaning when you're on your deathbed, but in many ways
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For decades now Jacob has been in the valley of the shadow of death. I Will fear no evil you are with me.
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It's what he promises Joseph at the end. God will be with you Your rod and your staff they comfort me
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You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies Egyptians are around me And yet I have a table prepared before me you anoint my head with oil my cup runs over Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life you shepherded me my whole life even to this day and David takes a step farther
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Where Jacob stops? I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's where Jacob's gonna go
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Not only does Jacob invoke the God who has shepherded him his whole life long to this day He also invokes the angel who has redeemed him from all evil
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The angel here, of course is not merely speaking of a messenger, but the messenger the angel of God the
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Lord We're thinking of Genesis 32 where he wrestles with an angel of the Lord and yet he confesses that he had seen
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The Lord that he worships and bows down to his God and then he names the place the face of God And so in this place in pineal in Genesis 32, perhaps
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This is what Jacob is being reminded of God had in many ways Striven with Jacob so that Jacob named
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Israel could strive with God and in that way he redeemed he untwisted Jacob from all of the evil in his life and it was there in Genesis 32 at that divine encounter that Jacob walked away limping a completely changed man truly we could say he was redeemed and we saw from that point forward all
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Of the old habits and ways in his life began to substantially shift not perfectly because it's never perfect But truly it could be said
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Jacob was a new creation a limping creation Who had encountered the grace of God and the power of God and the mercy of God?
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This word the angels redeemed me so significant This is the first time in the
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Hebrew Bible where we come across this language of God being the Redeemer of his people Exclusively one of the ways we think of what
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God does for his people on the cross. He redeems them So Jacob beginning to draw us even closer
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To Christology the blessing is theocentric. It's all about God the blessing is
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Generational covenantal it's a hope for his children It incorporates them into the promises made to Abraham and Isaac and even to himself verse 17
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When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him so he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head on to Manasseh's head and Joseph said to his father not so my father.
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This one is the firstborn put your right hand on his head But his father refused and said
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I know my son I know he shall also become a great people and He shall be great truly
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His younger brother shall be greater than he and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations
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And so he blessed him that day saying by you Israel will bless saying may
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God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
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So here's this Reversal again taken to its crowning moment Jacob blessed
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Ephraim even as he had blessed Joseph so long before What I love about this exchange is the tenderness of his father
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Picture Joseph as he's kind of prostrate on the floor gathering himself up from this this place of abject humility before his father and he sees the hands cross over on his sons and His heart drops to his feet and he rushes forward to to say
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Oh, it must be because you can't see it must be because you're confused you understand. This is a firstborn Here's this tender but firm response.
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I know my son. I know I Love that response. It's so Indicative of the way that God often counteracts our mistakes
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When he's doing something in our lives and and we say no No it's not supposed to be this way and we we as it were try to rest the hands of Providence to be the other way around and it's as though that divine response comes.
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I know my son. I know God so Steals his people.
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What can Joseph do but simply drop his hands and step back? Acknowledge that this is indeed what
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God has desired Jacob is tender toward Joseph But he says firmly
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Ephraim will be greater This is our family history Joseph This is what
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God has done from the very beginning appointing Seth over Cain Shem over Japheth Isaac over Ishmael even me over Esau and so it must be that Ephraim is greater than Manasseh and this is a principle of grace this is
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In premature form the principle of how God operates by his grace that it won't be
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By might by wisdom by power by strength by by gifts
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It will be against those things ordinarily in Extraordinary ways
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God desires that his grace will be seen to be all sufficient. His grace will be all sovereign 1st
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Corinthians 129 Therefore it is written let him who boasts boasts in the Lord God removes all
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Boasting and the way he calls people into a relationship with himself Divine grace makes mysterious choices
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We even as Christians look around us at times and and we see people who we think oh, they'd be a wonderful Christian They have so much worked out already and look how lovely their family is and they've got a booming business and great
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Instinct and and they're just so fun to be around. It'll be great if they were Christians and then then in come us
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People who are not that way and we're the ones that God and the mystery of his grace has chosen to compose
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His bride lots of wrinkles lots of blemishes lots of spots to iron out, but he's chosen us by his grace
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So we ought to I think I've shared this before we ought to have an eye for the unlikely as Christians I love what
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Lars said, you know, some someone pray please pray for my co -worker You know He's he's an abusive drunkard and you know
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His whole life is lives an abject rebellion against God if there's any man who's filled with poisonous blasphemy
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It's this man. I don't know whether to pray for him or you know Or just send him off to the devil himself and Lars would say that's a kingdom prospect
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That's a prospect for the kingdom. That's how Christians ought to view other people Verse 21 and 22 then
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Israel said to Joseph behold, I am dying but God will be with you and Bring you back to the land of your fathers
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Moreover, I've given to you one portion above your brothers Which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow in saying
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I am dying We must read that as Jacob being filled with peace
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Only someone I think who has truly peace from the Lord peace with their end can say
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I am dying and Usually in those situations, it's the family that can't wrap their hands their minds around that.
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No, no, you can't think that way Don't say that you don't know. Well, we got to call your physician on that. No, no, no, no, no,
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I'm dying It's okay And in fact, all
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I'm concerned right now is what needs to be shared with you And what needs to take place in your life?
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And I can't make up for the time that I missed to share these things now, but I'm going to use this opportunity
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It's truly those Who have peace with God peace to the end of their life that can say like Jacob here.
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I am dying Not gripping with white knuckles on to do you think
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I'll be okay. Do you think I'll make it? Not will God be with me, but notice I'm dying.
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God will be with you See God's been my shepherd my whole life. I trust him in this dark valley
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But more than anything I want I want you to know that God will be with you
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Joseph Ephraim Manasseh my children I'm dying but God will be with you
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Joseph is given the double portion and Again, the contrast is amazing
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He has a double portion of a twin dwelling inheritance in the land of Canaan The only deed is the cave of Machpelah and this possession
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Which is most likely Shechem that was taken from the Amorites by Bo and that's his inheritance
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It's it's kind of a downgrade when you're the lord of the land of Egypt and you have all of its might and Treasury at your disposal, but this is the inheritance that Joseph desires
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Is something about This is the land of my father and my grandfather and my great -grandfather.
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This is our land This is this is our soil. This is our promise This is our inheritance and it may not yet compare to the grandeur of Egypt But Egypt will be a backwater
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Egypt will be desolate God will make this land fruitful There's something about the pole.
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I think we as Americans We're so severed from History in some unique ways
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We we don't necessarily trace our history as a culture as a society back as compared to many other nations where it goes back centuries and beyond centuries millennia and that sense of place is really significant in ways that as Americans, especially in our modern age of of Mobility we can move around so easily with no sense of belonging to a place to a land
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It's hard for us to connect to the significance of this Joseph is given a double portion in the land and even though most of his life has been lived in exile from the land
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That's the blessing that he desires. How do we know that that's the case? Because when in two chapters time when we get to the very end of Genesis, he says just like my father bury me in the land
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Don't bury me in Egypt That's not where I want to rest. That is not my rest
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Bury me in the land the land that I've been a stranger to for most of my life well moving toward application
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As I mentioned at the beginning this passage is very important to me From Genesis 48
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I preached my paternal grandfather's funeral sermon Because in my mind knowing him throughout his life, he was a very
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Jacob like man and It seemed to be in the last 20 years of his life that his faith really be became something to display
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I think he had had a evangelical faith ever since he got out of the
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Navy in World War two and and a friend had witnessed to him and brought him to the Lord and I think a lot of that was just somewhat straddled somewhat lukewarm somewhat uninformed and then in that last 20 years of his life when he buried his beloved wife my grandmother
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I Saw in his life year after year this increasing desire for the things of the
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Lord an increasing desire to gather his children around him and to testify to the
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Lord in their lives and One of the last things he did about a year before he died was bring one of my aunts to faith
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And she was baptized about a year before he passed He was known to the church.
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I grew up in as elder Bob rather than grandpa Bob One of the things
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I loved most is We would have these cookouts and all the relatives would be around us And if I sat next to grandpa
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Bob, we were just gonna talk about Knox Calvin Luther for the whole afternoon And then it would just be the two of us before long sitting on plastic chairs with you know
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Half -eaten hamburgers talking and oh, yeah, and then Luther did this thing and no one else wanted to be around that conversation
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There's something that I appreciate about him He used to teach church history for a Sunday school class And one of the things that people who study church history realizes we we all have giants and heroes in the faith that we look up to But when you understand church history and even kind of the way we've been looking at Genesis these real giants of the faith the patriarchs
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What you realize it's really not The Giants of the faith, but they're faithful God that makes the difference
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And so when I read Genesis 48 verse 15 the God before whom my father's
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Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day
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Can't help but be reminded that God is first and foremost on Jacob's heart
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Because unless God had been faithful Abraham would be lost unless God had been faithful Isaac would have been lost unless God had been
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Jacob's shepherd his whole life long to this day Jacob knows there's no chance for me
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There's no chance God had to be my shepherd and God was willing to be my shepherd and God has been faithful to be my shepherd
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No matter how far I've run astray. No matter how I've Recoiled from his hand from his leading his prompting in my life
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God has been a faithful shepherd to me to my soul God before whom my father's walked
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And he's saying that as a father to Joseph as a father now to Ephraim and Manasseh And so the first thing we see here is a generational confession
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It's a blessing of course, and we're just looking at the invocation of verse 15 But even in that invocation, there's a confession a testimony and it's a generational testimony
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He's saying look at me and think of my father and my father's father realize that you're standing in a heritage
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Realize that the path before you is not a path in Goshen. It's not a path in an Egyptian court
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It's the land that was promised to Abraham only in that promise Will you find the fulfillment for your life
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Jacob? In other words is passing down a legacy. He's impressing upon them a lineage You don't belong to zap not
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Panea you belong to Jacob and the God of Jacob Here is the weight of one man's faith on his deathbed yearning toward those
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Who will work as he worked Love as he loved stumble as he stumbled growled wrinkled and eventually clasped their grandsons
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And he's saying what matters most now Is that you would know the
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God of your father's that you would be faithful to walk in your lineage I'm seeking to raise you in the way you must go
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So that as you get older Ephraim as you get older Manasseh, you will not depart from it This is the godly lineage of your family
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We follow the God of Jacob So this is not just keeping up appearances.
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It's not simply to to carry along some Token claim on the next generation.
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This is supposed to how we're supposed to talk. This is just spiritual Christian East language We're saying no, there's
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There's something about this promise of God We Desire God's blessing upon our children because children are heritage from the
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Lord Jacob is not speaking in the abstract.
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He's not speaking from inexperience. He's not speaking Agnostically notice how personal this is.
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God has been my shepherd all my life to this day He's very tenderly
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I imagine taking hold of these boys and telling them that the maker the creator of the heavens and earth the one who stretches the galaxies abroad
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The one who only gives us the pinhead of what the James Webb Telescope can present to us in pixelated form the
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God who spoke that into being that he's been a shepherd a shepherd
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With his hands in the wool. He's been a shepherd to me my whole life long guarding providing protecting keeping the greatest thing
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That a father can leave their children the greatest thing That a father can leave their children is a godly heritage
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It's the greatest thing the greatest thing that a father can leave his children
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Is a heritage of being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord patient humble
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But urgent if you give him a godly heritage like that There is nothing greater and when you're on your deathbed like Jacob is here
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You will have no regret most Christians are on their deathbed saying I wish I had more time
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To speak in influence and guide and testify than I do now That's the wonderful thing about Jacob, isn't it?
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The excuse is well, what can I do? I'm in my 60s. I'm in my 70s I'm in my 80s that ship has sailed.
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What influence could I have on my my children now? That's what I love about my grandfather He was in his 80s and he said now is the time
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I can't make up for the time that I've lost. All I can do is be faithful now and Jacob is 130 and pushing 140 so you won't get an excuse from Jacob.
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You won't get a pass from Jacob a Heritage of the
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Lord What a tremendous gift for the children in this church That is so easily taken for granted.
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In fact, it's like can't we just look like the Egyptians? Do we really have to be the shepherds? Maybe you had to be the shepherds
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But can't we only be like half shepherd, you know Like we'll wear the shepherd cloak, but we'll also shave and and then maybe the next generation says well
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We'll shave but we're not gonna wear the cloak We're actually gonna live in the city now and before long within three or four generations.
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There is no influence There is no desire after Canaan. There is no sense that we're somehow called to something different from the
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Egyptians and So Jacob here is laying down this lineage to say you have been given a gift
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You have been given a heritage do not spurn it do not ignore it Do not think you can circle back to it
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Do not think you can straddle with the world for 50 years and then when you retire you can become a
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Christian That's not how it works. And so the calling for children is just as great as the calling for parents in this passage
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Jacob is a reminder that though we can fail greatly God is the one who redeems us from all evil.
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God will redeem our testimony. God will redeem our influence God will redeem wasted time wasted word mistakes wounds.
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God is the one who redeems his people Charles Spurgeon was once asked what accounted for the influence that God gave him in the world
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You know, your sermons are attended by thousands They're wired across the
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Atlantic printed in newspapers collected in books. How can you account for this influence of your ministry? And he said there's two things
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So the truth of the word It's not my ministry not my particular way of presenting.
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It's just the truth of the word And then the next thing he said was my mother my mother
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Spurgeon understood there was an influence on his life That made the difference for his whole ministry
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If I had had a different mother a different upbringing a different nurture Spurgeon is saying
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I might not have a ministry I might have no ministry at all. I might not be a Christian God blessed me with a godly heritage
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Like Lois and Eunice blessed Timothy What did
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God say in Genesis 18? verse 19 regarding Abraham I Have known him.
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All right. God says I have made myself known to Abraham. I have known him in order that he may command his children after him that they will keep the way of the
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Lord to do righteousness and Justice so that the Lord will bring to Abraham all that he has promised
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So what is God's concern is it ultimately for Abraham? No, we know it's ultimately for the seed
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It's it's ultimately for the descendants which will come to the seed Galatians 3 the seed who is the
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Lord Jesus Christ But alongside that is this desire and on the way toward that is this desire.
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I have called Abraham So that he will command his children after him in the way of the
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Lord This is not something we lop off and say well that was then this is now
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We don't command our children to the way of the Lord at all, right? We're a New Testament Christians red letter only We're no different than Abraham if we have the faith of Abraham We command our children in the way of the
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Lord. It's not easy Like Jacob's own sons, they buck against it. They hate the yoke.
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It's not it's not fun to kick against those goads. And So that's why we do it on our knees.
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I Think you start out more often with the wooden spoon in your hand When your children are rather small and then you drop the wooden spoon and you just do more of your parenting on your knees before the
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Lord Because you're commanding them in the way of the Lord You're leaving for them a godly heritage
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The amazing thing about Jacob's life in the gallery of faith in Hebrews 11 All right
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Well, you have recounted Abraham and Isaac and here Jacob and and all these great by faith
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Testimonies the gallery of faith and what is Jacob's great display of faith? Well, we've been looking at his life for half a year now
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There's so much we could point to right so many great episodes of his faith Was it when he wrestled with the angel of the
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Lord? Was it when he went before Esau and sent gift after gift wave after wave? Was it when he worshipped and sacrificed at Bethel?
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What was it? That was his triumph of faith according to the writer of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 11 verse 21.
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This is the great sentence of Jacob's faith by faith Jacob when he was dying
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Blessed each of the sons of Joseph. That's his faith
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That's what the writer of Hebrews is saying if there's anything that we're gonna commend from the life of Jacob If we're anything that we're gonna point you to say, this is what faith looks like faith that pleases
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God It is this here chapter 48 Jacob blessing the sons of Joseph and we say how is that faith?
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How is that walking by faith? Well, we understand it's the testimony of his faith. It's the desire of his heart
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It's the yearning for his son and his grandsons to walk in the way of the Lord that the writer of Hebrews says is the greatest testimony of his faith
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God who has been my shepherd all of my life long not a
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Shepherd all of my life not even the shepherd all of my life, but my shepherd
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It's personal it's intimate God has been my shepherd my whole life
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It's as intimate as Jesus in John 10 saying my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and I know them
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I Give them eternal life so that they don't perish No one can take them out of my hand
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You see Jacob understood something about God's grasp of grace upon his life And he could say
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God has been my shepherd down to this day. Is that a testimony that you have?
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Brothers and sisters. Can you say like Jacob? God is my shepherd. Can you say like David the
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Lord is my Shepherd the Lord is my shepherd. Can you confess like Jacob in so many words?
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Like David in so many words God has been good to me Remember what he said to Pharaoh my days have been few and evil
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Here he is on his deathbed grasping the sons grasping
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Ephraim and Manasseh and in so many ways blessing the God who is so Upheld him by grace and it's as if he's saying
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God has been good to me. I Was reading Interestingly, I didn't know that it would connect at all it was just sort of an interesting thing that I was reading a book about a nautical disaster off the
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Isle of Lewis and the Western Hebrides of Scotland and where my grandfather grew up and There was a famous disaster at the very end of World War one where HMS Isler which was a yacht for the
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Royal Navy and most of the men most of the sailors and fishermen from the Isle of Lewis Were on that vessel and 201 drowned in a stormy night
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Though they probably didn't know it at the time. They were only 50 yards from shore In fact the masts you can go see the tip of the mast to this day
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And There was a book that was written about it interviewing not the survivors but often the children of survivors and some of the children who remembered even that that night in the in the weeks and months and Years that followed so the book by John MacLeod called when
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I heard the bell And the significance of this is the Isle of Lewis is so remote
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I met my my great -grandfather grew up there and my grandfather visited as a boy and they still speak
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Gaelic up there They don't not many speak English easily, and it's just stone houses burning peat bricks
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And it's super remote and so 201 sailors to us. That's a Tragic loss, but even in a town like Barrie even a town like Hubbardston That's not that's not as significant of a dent as remote fishing villages in the
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Hebrides this wiped out a generation There was a whole generation of men missing a whole generation of widows and orphans.
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It was a complete tragedy and One of the sailors that died his name was John Murray and his wife was
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Delina Murray and The book interviewed her daughter Peggy And this is from John MacLeod Peggy Murray was well aware of her mother's dire straits.
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They had no croft of their own note No home of their own no corn or potatoes. No milk. No eggs
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The little pension they had from the Admiralty with the irregular givings from the disaster fund
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Minimized charity from others around them But they lived off of charity Delina Murray Would toil all day for neighbors on this or that shore of the season and unlike others lending assistance
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Would be rewarded at the evening's end with a scant bucket of potatoes or a creel of Pete's survival depended on wisdom resourcefulness careful budgeting
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We had to buy everything Peggy remembered 70 years later rye pride still evident everything depended on how we used the pension
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We were never well off, but we never starved Miss Murray Delina Murray Ended up losing another son in a torpedo off of Malta during World War two
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Her heart was such that she took two little old sisters two elderly sisters when they became too feeble to walk
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To the local church there the free free press church She simply had them live with her under her own roof because it was so close to the church
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The daughter Peggy by 1955 had become a Christian married a reverend named Donald Gillies Her mother was 64 still dressed in black
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She never she wore black every day of her life until she was buried in white because of the loss of her husband and As she moved in with her daughter
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Peggy and as grandchildren were born. This is what McLeod records She was so proud to live with them
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She rejoiced in the life of the home and the life of the church Growing in her growing doting grandchildren and one day she said, you know, my dear near the end of her life
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The Lord has been very good to me That's knowing that the
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Lord has been your shepherd your whole life It doesn't mean it's a bed of roses. It doesn't mean you go from hilltop to hilltop even in the most tragic inexplicable
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Losses that mar and bind your life if it's a life that has been upheld by this gracious shepherd you too will strengthen yourself on your bed and say the
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Lord has been good to me and My greatest desire is for you my children to know this
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God What power there is in this phrase the Lord has been? my
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Shepherd knowing that we were like sheep who had gone astray but the chief shepherd
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The overseer of our souls came and offered himself for us all is the
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Lord your shepherd That's that's the resounding question out of chapter 48. Can you say with Jacob?
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Can you say with David? Can you say with Delena Murray? Can you say with all the Saints the
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Lord is my shepherd? Let's pray father.
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We we are in awe of your faithfulness of your grace so Easily Lord, we're ignorant to it
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The pressures of life Lord often distract us from your hand the demands of the day and of the season they often
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Turn us from your provision your kingdom your righteousness help us
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Lord to to contemplate our end So that we can live
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Presently by faith and by hope that we can live seeking your kingdom and your righteousness that we can see the way the surprising ways you surprise us in the way you provide and Even be moved by faith to provide for others
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Knowing that we're always better off than so many Teach us Lord what it means to be your sheep and to hear your voice and to follow your leading
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Teach us Lord what it is to have this yearning heart to pass on our faith and raise a godly heritage unto you
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We pray Lord for the youth for the generations in this church generations that are generations that will come
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May you would strengthen the hearts of Moms and dads here Lord that are that are yet to be
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Enlarge our desires and give us the faithfulness. We lack Lord the consistency and perseverance
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We lack let us not be led astray by the deceiver to think our time is wasted. Our time has passed
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Let us remember that even in the closing sunset of life We have much influence and much testimony to bear perhaps even the most at that time
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We pray that you would answer the many prayers of your people Lord Knowing that this is all your work and we're utterly dependent upon you