Blessings & Breath

Well, good morning, I’m Pastor Ben. It is my privilege to share from God’s Word with you this morning as we continue on in our Genesis Part five series. a special welcome to any guests that are with us this morning. And of course, welcome to those that are joining online to and maybe you’re you’re heading back from spring break or you’re watching us later. we’re glad that you’re joining us as we’re closing out here. Not this week, but next week we’ll be closing out this whole series through Genesis two and a half years. There’s this will, next week will be the 60th message in Genesis. And, I shared with you last week, that you’re not going to want to miss, the celebration as we close out this entire book of the Bible. Next week, not only to celebrate all that we’ve covered, all that God has done, as we’ve gone through Genesis. But also it’s your opportunity to share with us what book you would like to hear us preach through next. so we’d love to get your feedback on next week.

So we pray that you join us in that, to remind you just a little bit of where we’re at in Genesis and what’s been transpiring just last week. We heard this in Genesis 48. Then Israel said to Joseph, I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. So extending this promise that was originally given to Abraham, Isaac, now to Jacob, is also extending to Joseph. And we’ve seen this, that Joseph’s received a promise from Jacob. Then Joseph’s sons last week received blessing as well. And now this week we’re going to see Joseph or Jacob giving a blessing to all of his sons, all 12 of his sons, that this is going to be the moment this maybe some of you have lived out that around the bed as you’re about to take last rest, or someone close to you is about to take their last breath. So everyone’s going to lean in to hear what is going to be shared with them in that moment. And along that line of thinking, let me ask you this.

What are the things said about you that matter most to you? What things have been said about you and your life by others, that have made some type of mark, have left some kind of impression on you. And as you think about that, let me ask you this. What comes to mind are those positive words that others have said or negative? What leave a longer lasting impression? Sometimes the negative words, right. That is kind of hang with us. How could they say that about me? If you think about something a coach, sad, a teacher, something that came up, in a performance review or something like that, that that just hangs with you, you know, as I think back, it wasn’t said to me, but was said of me, my first grade teacher, talking to my mom, Mrs. Evans, letting my mom know that if Ben’s doing all right, my mom’s right over here. But he does enjoy the bathroom humor, right? You know, and that was something that still remains true to this day.

Being a father of three young boys, some kind of mark that I guess just carry for. But she’s spent time. We give some credence to words that are spoken about us or to us, depending on how close the other individual is. Right? Someone in passing giving you a negative comment, well, you can kind of brush that off, but if it’s someone who’s spent time with you, who knows you, who’s seen how you function in the world and they speak to you, it carries a greater weight based off the relationship, based off of what they know about you. One of the closest relationships that we all experience is the parent to child relationship. And several studies point to this fact that it’s estimated that parents give 5 to 7 corrective or negative statements for every one positive statement to their children. And I know what you’re thinking. That’s not right. It’s got to be like 20 negative statements, 25 negative statements to every one. Just just go through this like a simple morning, three young kids at home.

Well, what does a morning look like? Right? Get up. Why aren’t you up yet? Come on. Can you get to the table? What do you want to eat? No. Get your hands off your brother. Did you get anything to drink? Yeah. Go brush your teeth. Did you get some water? Why don’t you have socks on? We’re getting out the door. Did you fill up your water bottle? Get your back out. Get your hands off your brother. Like how many are we out already? It doesn’t go. Good morning child. How have long to see your face? How I love you so. Like. Right. We we don’t. We don’t naturally give as many positive comments, comments that build up and speak to the positive attributes of those around us. It’s so very simple to give negative or just simple corrective comments. Well, this isn’t just a simple good morning and getting ready to get out the door, but here Jacob has the opportunity to speak words that are positive or negative, that are going to carry weight, that are going to ring in the in the minds of his sons for the rest of their lives.

And so as he gathers them around, he calls his sons, and he said, gather round so I can tell you what will happen in days to come. Now this is interesting. This isn’t just simply his final words, his final wishes, or doling out the will. So who gets what? There might be a little bit of that, but even more so, somehow God is working in the mind of Joseph and through his words, that his blessings are also prophetic. That’s these things that are going to be spoken of his sons will become true of the tribes, that they are fathers of. And just to remind you, this is no small deal. He has 12 sons that he’s about to give blessings for that you just heard. If you thought to yourself that you have a hard time picking out Christmas presents, could you imagine? Okay, here are these words that I’m about to give that are going to hang with them forever. And I have to have 12 of them that are meaningful. And let’s just take a look at a few of these.

And as we look at them and you just heard them like, what? What would you want to hear? Would you want to hear this blessing for yourself? Would you want to give this blessing to one of your loved ones if they were gathered around you? As you’re about to pass Zebulun, you will live by the seashore. That’s nice. Become a haven for ships. Is the car is a raw boned donkey. Oh, that’s not I don’t I don’t know if that’s a great one. Then we’ll provide justice for his people. Dad will be attacked. Oh, but he’ll attack others after this one. I do like Asher. Food will be rich. He’ll provide delicacies fit for a king. Naphtali is a dough set free and bears beautiful fawns. I don’t know exactly what it means, but sounds nice for Benjamin. And this is not a great name. What a great name! Benjamin is a ravenous wolf and is mourning. He devours the prey in the evening. He divides the plunder. So there’s something going on here, and it’s somewhat prophetic. And so you have to, like, look at the history and you see that this actually plays out for each of these tribes, that Benjamin is going to fight with those around him.

So as Gad, Dan, we’re going to see judges rise up in the book of judges. We see Samson come from that tribe. So there’s something happening there. And you can see already to this point that many of these things are fairly quick and to the point. But then it’s Joseph’s turn, the one who gets the cold and he gets this amazing blessing. Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful veneer, a spring whose branches climb over the wall and he just pours out this blessing to his favorite son. And could you imagine just being like dad? Or damn like, yeah, okay, we get it. You’ve loved him more since the very beginning. And now here in your last dying breath, you’re just going to give him more blessings than anyone else. And all these were the tribes of Israel. And this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. I find that so interesting, appropriate to him that there’s something prophetic happening, but there’s also something speaking of the character of each of his sons.

And we can kind of see it in Joseph because we hear more about Joseph. We don’t have as many details about some of the other brothers. But there’s only two types of blessings that are given out. There are these good blessings that we heard, but we have to go back. We haven’t heard all the brothers quite yet, have we? And how is Jacob deciding what is appropriate for each of them? Well, we get a glimpse of it as we go back to actually the first few blessings. The very first blessing, in fact. Reuben, Reuben, you are my first born. My might, the first sign of my strength, excelling and honor excelling in power. If I was Reuben like, that’s great, just stop right there. Don’t say anything else. This is a great blessing. I am powerful oh eight turbulent as waters. You’ll no longer excel. You went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch, and you defiled it. If you’re not familiar, this is not that. Reuben had some snack on a couch and left a stain. In chapters earlier, we see that Reuben actually sleeps with one of Jacob’s wives.

And what that relationship is exactly because it’s not his mom, but it’s one of his mom’s sister wife. I mean, it’s not a good thing while Jacob is still alive, really trying to steal the authority that Jacob had over the family, could you imagine you just that all these other blessings are going to happen and they’re all just kind of nice and they’re kind of, kind of confusing in the fact of the prophetic. But here Reuben is, as he’s leaning in as he knows his father is about to pass, and he’s going through his process of mourning. And as he leans in to hear what his father is going to say to him with his final words. Is the very worst thing that Reuben had ever done. It doesn’t just stop with Reuben either. Actually, we see this continue on with Simeon and Levi. The next two blessings that take place, Reuben being the first and now the second and third. That Simeon and Levi, our brothers, their swords, our weapons of violence. If you don’t recall, one of our pg13 messages speaks to this. That in response to something that happened to their sister, that they go and they essentially kill every man in the city, first tricking them and then killing all of them.

And then the same way as Reuben, as they’re gathered there. They don’t get a portion of land. They don’t get to be told that they’re going to have delicious food, or they’re going have beachfront property. They get reminded of the very worst thing that they’ve done. And because of that, they don’t get a blessing. I’m not sure if you’re thinking in this vein, but I’m almost certain that Reuben, Simeon and Levi, after hearing their non blessing blessings, but then hearing everyone else’s blessings, they might have thought that’s not fair. I mean, they’re siblings for goodness sakes. Could you imagine? Like they hear this awful blessing that they get that they’re basically cut off or they’re going to be spread out throughout all the other tribes? And then they hear Joseph. Of course, Joseph gets a great blessing and and they get this land and they get this and they get that. But then in their hearts, they have to be thinking, well, dad, you don’t know what dad did. He did bad things to or Dan. Dan said something about you dad like that you don’t know.

And so that’s not fair. That’s not fair that I don’t get a portion of anything based off of this one action over here that, you know, you’re bringing up years and years and years later, and that’s how you’re going to remember me. That’s how you’re going to determine an A and give a portion of your blessing. I gotta get no nothing based off of that. For us, modern day, that would be essentially like going to the reading of a will and a lawyer, letting you know that your siblings get everything, and your parents only left you a single note that says, you know, you did. You know, what did I do? I could have offended my parents so that they give me nothing except this reminder of just how despicable I am. But that’s what Reuben Simeon Levi received. There are only two types of blessings that are given out. And then we heard Jacob dies. This is an interesting two. He gives instructions to his sons where to bury him. He doesn’t want. They’re in Egypt still. They’re still living in the land of Goshen, and he wants to be buried in a very specific spot, the same cave where his parents, Isaac and Rebecca, are.

The same cave where his grandparents, Abraham and Sarah, are buried. And it also it’s the same cave where his wife. Leah, who is his favorite wife, Rachel. She’s is buried beside the road somewhere in Canaan. I mean, he honored her. He loved her. But it’s so interesting that his less loved wife, the one who struggled her entire life with being loved less than Rachel, was, is now going to be buried beside Jacob. This cave, of course, like I mentioned, it’s not Egypt. It has to be back in Canaan. And and not just because that’s where he had a funeral plan. This is because it’s where God promised that his descendants would continue to grow. This is God’s promised land. He wants to go and be buried in God’s promise, not outside of God’s promise. He wants to be there. So we see this. Joseph threw himself on his father. He wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph directed the physicians to embalm his father. And we see this morning, even by the Egyptians, taking place for 70 days. Then there’s a great company, very large company going, indicating that it actually draws attention of all those that live around to the point that they change the name of the place.

This is no small thing, but it’s an interesting there’s just some Hebrew guy that has a few wives and a bunch of sons, yet all of this pomp and circumstance is happening for him that he’s getting all this recognition. I mean, for us here today would be similar to when a former president passes away, or in recent years when the Queen of England passed right. You couldn’t turn on the TV at any station without seeing that funeral procession. Everybody stops what they’re doing. They watch, they recognize this, this significant figure. But here it is. This. Seemingly insignificant. No one that God has used and is going to continue to use in significant ways. Now, getting all this recognition in his passing and after bearing his father, Joseph returned to Egypt together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father, and again buried there with his less loved wife, Leah. Which we’re going to see is significant for for a particular reason why Leah. Has anyone been keeping count? How many blessings have we covered?

11. Okay, no one’s going to keep cash. So if you’re watching a movie, especially like a, one of the Marvel movies and the credits start to roll, do you do you pack up and you leave the theater? Why? There’s more to come, right? There’s more to come here. So I’m doing this out of order. But this is this is, I think, very similar to that.

Like, there’s there going to be this bonus scene. The bonus scene is going to show us what’s next, what’s coming, what’s going to happen next. And here’s this bonus scene inside of all of these blessings that’s given, these blessings that are going to be about the sons, towards the sons about their character, but also, more importantly, prophetic and pointing to something. And we have to see again that Jacob himself is judging his sons. He’s judged Ruben, he judged Simeon, he judged Levi, he judged Joseph and gave him more. And so before we see the blessing, let’s go ahead and remind ourselves of some of the actions of this individual we have. Judah, we’ve covered this before. He’s the one who led his brothers, the group of brothers who wanted to murder Joseph. He leads them to the conclusion it’s better to sell him to make some money after he sells his brother. Then he abandons his family while his father’s mourning, and he goes, and he marries a Canaanite outside the family. Then two of his sons die because they’re so sinful. Then he mistreats his daughter in law, and then finally he is caught in his own sexual sin.

And so for looking at it so Reuben was judged for his poor actions. Simeon was judged for his. So was Levi. And yes, we know a little bit more about Judah, and he did some good stuff. But how are the scales looking right now? If you were to guess? Is Judah about to get one of those great Joseph type blessings, or is he about to receive one of the Reuben Simeon Levi non blessing blessings? Well, based off of his track record, he deserves a a non blessing. Could we agree? Yet this is what his father says to him. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. And if you look down further, Judah, you return from pray, my son, like a lion that crouches like a lioness who dares. Rousing the scepter will not depart from Judah. One of the most significant lines in this whole blessing, the scepter point of the fact that he is going to have a king come from him. And even more than that, when in the Old Testament, when it talks about praising, giving adoration, worshiping someone, you don’t worship a person, you don’t worship a king.

You only worship God. But here’s Judah with a terrible track record. We don’t know everything about the guy, but what we do know is he’s not great yet. He gets arguably the best blessing. What’s the that’s a raise. The question what is so important about Judah? What makes him so significant? What makes him stand out among his brothers was given away? As you continue forward with his blessing that Judah will tether his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choices branch, he will wash his garments and wine, his robes and the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. If you’ve been in church for a while and you’ve been through a few holy weeks, you may have heard this verse before. It might sound a little bit familiar because I’m Palm Sunday. This is a verse that we typically read because this points to the fact that Jesus will come through the line of Judah, that the most significant thing about Judah, while he’s receiving a blessing from his father, has nothing to do with his track record.

But the most significant thing about him is Jesus. Just like the most significant thing about you. Is Jesus. I thank God that it comes through the line of Judah and not the line of Joseph. You follow with me for a second, because if it came through Joseph, right? If this blessing was given out, and the father loves Joseph more, and Joseph gets all the things right, and he’s the most loved brother, and he’s saved everybody, and he was so smart that he saved the world from a famine. And and dad loves him more and he gets everything just right. It only makes sense that Jesus has to come through the goody two shoes. Joseph. And so if I want to be blessed, just like Joseph was blessed, then I had better be like Joseph. Yet I stand up here at Judah, speaking to a room, a Judas, and I thank God that the blessing that comes to him is based off of his works, but it’s based off of Jesus’s works. What about you? What would you want to say to your loved ones right before they die? Would you want to base it off of their works? Would you want to remind them of the worst thing that they’ve done? Would you want to give them some kind of pointer saying, hey buddy, when you when you’re throwing a football, what you’re really going to want to do is you’re going to want to grab the laces, like, like you’re not going to waste your breath on some sort of nonsense, like some kind of pointer of how to live a better life, or how to improve things, or or remind them of the worst thing to them.

What about this? What? What would you want loved ones to say to you? Would you want them to approach you with a list of grievances that they have against you? Try to settle a score. And now here, as you’re about to pass, remind you of all the things that you should have done, that you didn’t, or the things that you did do that you really shouldn’t have done. Yet these encounters, these blessings that could be given to one another, they pale in comparison with this. When you stand before God Almighty, what do you want God to say to you? How about this when you stand before God Almighty, what do you really deserve? If we look at the test that that Jacob is running his sons through, we see that Reuben, Levi and Simeon, they’re they’re judged based off of their works. They’re judged based off of what they’ve done. And if we really come to terms to come to terms with ourselves and ask ourselves, well, what do I really deserve? Because, you know, I try to be pretty good. But we know that the wages of sin is death, that all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that anything that is outside of the will of God, where we are not loving God with our whole heart, mind and strength is a sin, and every sin is punishable by death and separation from God. To come before him is a terrifying thing.

Like what do I? What do I ultimately deserved? Am I going to receive a blessing or am I going to receive a non blessing blessing? What is he going to speak over me and what is the basis going to be for what he speaks? Just as last week I had the privilege to go with my family on a spring big break vacation and one of the things that we did is that we went to a battleship, because that’s what you do when you have three little boys, right? You go and you go to a battleship because it’s cool. It’s a big bow. There’s cool, big guns on it. They’re sitting on a giant anchor. and they had a fantastic time. And on our way up the ramp, we buy our tickets and we’re headed on to the ship. And there’s a gentleman there who immediately stops us because he sees that my oldest son has a lion’s hat. My youngest son has a lion shirt. I’m wearing a lion shirt. And he is a fellow Michigander. And so we strike up a conversation. He talks to us briefly, and then he pulls a card out of his pocket, and he begins to scribble on it a little bit, and he hands it to one of my boys, and he says, make sure that you use it at the gift shop on your way out.

And so we go through the whole ship and, and when we get to use the gift card he had given us and he had just signed off on it, $10 for each kid. And as we get up there and each boy has now picked out a stuffed animal that, mind you, they would not have unless it was for that man. The young lady who’s working there, she pauses because she goes, I haven’t got it. I gotta ask a manager about this. And so she goes and gets a manager, and she has to put it in the code. And my wife caught something and she kind of said under her breath to her manager, she’s taking all this off, taking $30 off our total, which is why is he keep doing this. That it was given to our account just just by the simple connection, just by having this connection of liking the lions and being from Michigan and and he knew us and there was a connection made in that way that he wanted to give us that and that he continually does that for people that are coming through the line and that is credited to them. The exact same is true for all of us, that in the end, when Jesus is coming back to judge all people, we see in Matthew 25 three glimpses, three different stories that are given that tell us how are things going to be judged. The first is about virgins that have oil or don’t have oil. The last is about the sheep being separated from the goats, and the middle story, which often gets misconstrued, is a master giving away his wealth to his servants to manage.

And then he comes back to see what did they do with those talents? For follow with me for just a moment. In each of these three stories, there’s only two camps, because in the end, for each of us, there’s only one of two things that’s going to be said. Depart from me or well done. And oftentimes when we hear those words, well done, well done, good and faithful servant, and we look at that story of the talents where the manager comes back and he says, what have you done? Well, it has to be based off of works, right? It has to be based off of how well do they manage? Are they good stewards? Are they good managers? Are they doing good? Because that’s how God judges things. That’s how Jacob judged his sons was based off of their works. So that’s obviously how God has to judge people as well. So in the end, we’re going to be coming and we are hopefully the scales are going to be tipped and there’s going to be a little bit more on the good side rather than the bad side, but you have to look at every detail inside that story, because the one who is set apart and said, depart from me, said of his master, I knew you to be a harsh man.

The issue with the one who is pushed out, set apart wasn’t because he was lazy. It’s because he didn’t know his master. And the best thing about the two servants in that story who receive blessing, and the only way that they heard the words well done, good and faithful servant, wasn’t based off of their works. It was because they knew the master we hear, and there his master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful to a few things I will put you in charge of many. Come and share in my master’s happiness that the most significant thing about you is not all of the grievances that you have against other people, or that they have against you. All the baggage, all the sin, all the things that you’ve done wrong is do you know the master? Do you know him? Because to know him means now it’s been credited to your account. It’s been signed off. He’s scribbled down and he said, paid in full on the cross that Jesus has now given to you all of his righteousness, all of his holiness and everything that he deserves. The relationship that he experiences with the father is now your relationship with the father, because ultimately, when we stand before Jesus, you are judged off of works.

It’s either going to be your works or it’s going to be his works. And the only way that you’re judged off of his works is if you know him. And my prayer is that you do know him, know his deep, unfathomable love that he has for the you that he displayed on the cross for you cling to that trust in that. Have rest and assurance and knowing that it is paid in full. And live a life that shows that you are not striving to earn the love of your Heavenly Father. You know that’s already been given and it’s already been credited to you. Amen. Will you pray with me? Gracious Heavenly Father God, we thank you. God, we thank you for the immeasurable blessing that you give us through the gift of faith in your Son, Jesus. God. We pray that we would all continue to grow in the confidence of the finished work that Jesus has done for us on the cross, and that we would continually be reminded of it ourselves and point others to it as well, that they might have hope. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. On these next moments, we’re going to move into a time of worship, and I’ve asked the worship team to sing a new song for us, one that we haven’t sung before.

This song, it popped up on a shuffle playlist for me a number of weeks ago. It’s called Welcome Home, and what you’ll notice in the lyrics is every verse it speaks to that very phrase that we all long to hear and that we pray our loved ones will hear as well. Well done, good and faithful servant. And I want you to make special note of the third verse of this song, because it’s why I love it so much is because right before those words, well done, good and faithful servant, it adds the phrase by grace alone. Well done, good, faithful servant. And that is my prayer that you would walk away with today by grace alone, that your father looks at you and says, well done. So let’s sing this together.