We're going to read Genesis 49. I'm not going to read the whole chapter tonight, because we're not going to cover the chapter tonight. But it's one of the great chapters that reveals the sovereignty of God, because only God could see what's about to happen through these 12 sons of Jacob. And you can't go far in the Bible until you run into the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Well, Mr. Spurgeon says that the sovereignty of God is the pillow that every child of God should rest their head upon and go to sleep at peace at night, knowing that God not only knows the future, God's in control of the future. Because the only way you know perfectly the future before it happens is if you control that future. Just common sense. And right from the very first verse in the Bible, we hit this great truth that God's sovereign, God's in control. God acts without anybody telling him what to do, anybody advising him. Because what's the first verse in the Bible? In the beginning, God, God alone. You're going to see it in this chapter, through the words of Jacob. Now, old Jacob is dying. He has very few hours, days left on the earth. He's 147 years of age, and he has words to say. He spoke already to Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. God has used him to reveal the future of these two boys. And now in chapter 49, he's going to speak to all the sons of Jacob. Let's read just 1 to 15 only, and then God willing, next time we'll look at verse 16 to 33. And Jacob called unto his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength. The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Well, what an introduction to Reuben. He must have felt good until he heard what's coming next. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, thou then defilest thou it, he went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brethren, instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly? Mine honour be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man. and in their self-will they dig down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his asses colt unto the choice vine. He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea. He shall be for an haven of ships, and his border shall be unto Zidon. Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two burdens. And he saw that rest was good and that the land, it was pleasant and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto tribute. We'll stop there just for tonight because we'll never get through all these tribes. And I want to take time and go through them. Now, this is a deathbed scene, but it's the death of a patriarch. The patriarchs are different from all the other types of governance in the Old Testament, because these men were not just head of their homes, families. They were also prophets, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God gave them the power to foretell the future, see into the future. God revealed things to them that he didn't reveal to others. They were also priests of their family. They were there to offer up the sacrifices and lead their families in worship. But Jacob's really the last in that line because after him will come a nation. And then when the nation comes, there'll be a very a very strict distinction between the kings from the tribe of Judah and the priests from the tribe of Levi, and then the prophets from different tribes. So everything's about to change. So this is the end of that kind of era or dispensation, whatever way you want to call it, period of time. And it's a very significant moment. And Jacob is going to be used of God to speak to his sons, not just about their character, and their past mistakes, but also about their personal futures and the future of their descendants. Because verse one says, he gathered them together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last day. So it's not just speaking about the immediate lives of Judah or Reuben or Benjamin. This is going to go right through generations, right up, we believe to the return of Christ even. For example, you're going to see a Benjamin. That Benjamin, we're told in verse 27, shall be like a wolf and devour the prey. And certainly we don't see that characteristic in Benjamin in the story so far. But if you were to trace the line of the Benjamites, you'll discover they became vicious fighters. In fact, they became the commandos of the Israeli army. The first king of Israel came from what tribe? Benjamin, Saul. He was a warrior. The Benjamites took on the whole of the other 11 tribes in a civil war at the end of the book of Judges. They were a vicious, violent, strong, determined tribe when it came to fighting. Saul of Tarsus was one of the most vicious, ruthless, bloodthirsty haters of Christianity. And which tribe was Saul from? You remember? He said, I'm what? I'm a Benjamite. He's from the tribe of Benjamin. So what you're about to see in this chapter, the characteristics will go through many generations. Now let's Look at this carefully. Now these are not educated guesses by Jacob, just because he lived 147 years. This is God speaking through this old patriarch. And Moses clearly understood these were very significant remarks because he recorded them all. And some of them were very embarrassing for those tribes and the son who was the head of the tribe to hear. Moses himself, if you remember, was from the tribe of Levi. And old Jacob didn't have a lot of complimentary things to say about the Levites, but Moses put it down. And if you notice of the tribe of Levi, Simeon and Levi in verse five, six and seven, were told they were cursed for their anger. They had this self-will, they had this fiery temperament. And Moses himself, if you remember, struggled with anger. It was one of his besetting sins. He murdered a man in anger. And later on, he smote the rock in anger. So it would be easy for Moses to cover this up, but he knew this was God and had to be recorded faithfully. Now, These 12 tribes, all the information is recorded, I believe for a number of reasons, I've written them down. Number one, to lift the eyes of the Israelite people. Remember, when Moses wrote this, they were slaves in Egypt and coming out of Egypt. So these facts about their future that God had unfilled here, Moses recorded to allow the Israelite people to lift their eyes above their circumstances as slaves and as pilgrims in the wilderness, to project them forward into the future, let them see that God had a great plan for them, had a great purpose for them. But also I think in the immediate circumstances, God allowed this information to be revealed to these 12 sons to let them see that their character was important, that their character had consequences, and their choices would have consequences not just for them in the immediate, but in their descendants. And no doubt Moses, and we'll see in a little while, God, sorry, revealing this through Jacob, was hoping that this would be a rebuke to some of them, would be almost an encouragement, a catalyst to them to change. Because as you read some of these things, they're not complimentary, but they're not just simply condemnations. They're warnings that if you don't change, If you don't get the grace of God in your life to change your character, this is the way it's going to be. But then there's other reasons. Moses is recording all of this. He's letting them know that they are part of a great kingdom of people, the Israelite people. And not only had God got plans for them as a nation, But as individual tribes, God had a plan for them and families, and they're not to fight over this. And when they get to the promised land, they're going to be given certain pieces of territory. And even in this prophetic unfolding of the future, it's mentioned, for example, Zebulun, verse 13, we read it, shall dwell at the haven of the sea. They're going to be the Lorne folk at the sea. And they're told, this is the way God has planned your future. You're not to argue, you're not to be jealous, you're not to say, I wish I had somewhere else. This is where God wants you to be. And if you know the history of the Israelite people, they fought with one another. They were jealous of one another. In fact, they ended up splitting the kingdom in the time of Rehoboam over jealousy. But then there's another purpose. Because what we're going to read here is going to be a witness to something far more important than simply the history of the Jewish people. You say, well, what's more important than the history of the Jewish people? Considering so much of the Bible is taken up, maybe 80% of the Bible is taken up with the Jewish people. What's greater than them? The Lord Jesus Christ. Because through the Jewish people is coming the greatest moment in history, the coming of the Savior of the world, not just the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews, but it's not exclusively for the Jews. It's through the Jews for the Gentile people. That's why everybody in this room is a saved Gentile. because salvation came through the Jews, but it didn't stay with the Jews. It went out to the Gentile people through the Jewish people. And it's referred to here in this chapter. And of course, as we read it, I think as well, as you read all this information that God has accurately planned and predicted and unfolded the history of the Jewish people before they even were a nation. What's God saying? It's letting you and I know that God has an interest in you as well and your families. And just as he had an interest in Judah, and Judah's descendants, and Reuben and Reuben's descendants, and he has a plan and a purpose for them, well, the application's not hard to see, is it? God also has an interest in you, and God also has a plan and a purpose for you and your family, and Lorne Mission Hall, the church family, and all of God's people around the world. So you gain all that information just by looking at this chapter in a careful way and reflecting, what did God mean? Why did he record all this? Now, old Jacob speaks to his sons here in a very deliberate order. You'll notice that the first six sons he addresses are the offspring of Leah. Now, he doesn't follow the birth order, he follows the family grouping order. Because if you know Jacob had one of these, Jacob was a very contemporary learned man. He had a blended family. You hear that today, don't you? I've got a blended family. It's not a badge of honor, but it's the realities because of sin. And Jacob had a blended family because he had two wives, and he had concubines, and he had children of all these different individuals, and it became a terrible snare to him. It became a terrible problem to him. But Jacob, he, when he came to die, he got the family in order. He didn't leave any out. He had a message for each of them. Just let them know God has a plan and purpose for each of you. And the first six sons he deals with are the offspring of Leah. And then the next four are the sons of the concubines of Rachel and Leah. And then finally he'll speak to the sons, the two sons of Rachel. Now, as Jacob speaks to these sons, he's going to be very blunt with them. Because Jacob of all the patriarchs, knew the consequences of spiritual failure. He knew all too well the costs of making the wrong choices. And this old man, he just wants to get it off his chest to these boys and to all the grandsons, no doubt, that are listening, that don't make the mistakes I made. And I'm just going to tell you your character, but I want you to change. I want you to learn lessons from it," is what he says. Now, these sons were not young. The oldest, or sorry, the youngest by this time was close to 50 years of age, just a little bit younger than me. So when these sons are gathered around them, they're not children. They're probably grandfathers. Some of them may even be great-grandfathers. but they're all gathered around him. And Jacob has lived with these boys for many, many decades. He's observed them in the home. He's observed them in the workplace. Remember, they work for him. He's observed them at worship because he's the patriarch leading them in prayer, leading them in worship. And many of them have let him down badly, hurt him badly by their behavior. And Jacob understood passions that have got out of control because that's what happened in his life. And he saw it in his son's lives. And he's going to be very blunt with them because he wants them to change. And some of these boys, well in their fifties now, some of them maybe in their sixties, may have felt that Now dad's about to die. He'll have some nice sugary words, you know, to say to us. Maybe they even thought they got away with their sins. Not the time to bring it up. But old Jacob's a patriarch. He's not just a father. Please see this. He's a patriarch. He's a prophet of God. He's a priest of his family. And he is going to speak for God. and he's not going to dilute God's word. He did that before. He'd played games before with God and God's will, and it cost him. And now as he's coming to die, it is no surprise when we get to Hebrews chapter 11, it speaks of Jacob dying well, dying in faith, because he's gonna be faithful as he leaves this world. Now, at first glance, the first three sons he talks to may seem unduly harsh. You may think as you read these words that Jacob is just lashing out in anger, and he's just issuing these curses against these three sons. But if you read carefully, yes, he strongly rebukes them for their past sins, and yes, he predicts there'll be consequences, for what they have done, but yet properly understood these corrections that he makes are warnings. And while there are prophecies based on their characters and personalities, Jacob really is saying to the sons that this is your character, you watch yourself. You be on guard for these things in your life, because I can see them in you, and I have seen them in you, and you need to change. You personally, Ruben, you need to change before you destroy everything in your life and your family. Now, the first one that he begins, as I said in verse three, it sounds really good, doesn't it? Imagine you're sitting there and all 12 of the family around, you're not young, you're in your 50s, maybe in your 60s. And your father or grandfather, maybe great-grandfather, and the old man turns to you and he begins to describe you. No doubt Ruben was probably feeling a little bit uncomfortable knowing what he'd done in the past. Would dad bring it up? And it starts so well, he says, thou art my firstborn. So Jacob doesn't deny, because the firstborn one, of course, was very privileged. And Ruben, no doubt, starting to relax. He didn't miss me. You're my firstborn, my might. Oh, it's getting good now. The beginning of my strength. Remember before Jacob had any sons, he was a poor man, wasn't he? He was on the run from his brother Esau. He was working as a slave effectively for his uncle. And suddenly he has an opportunity to have his own family, to settle down, stability. And then when he has his first son, Reuben, well, it must have been such a joy to him. Because if you remember, he was away in Harran, many, many days away from the family. And he may never have seen his family ever again. He didn't know. Although God had promised to bring him back. Jacob wasn't a particularly spiritual man. So when he saw Reuben, his first son, he must've been thrilled. And he calls him Reuben, my beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellence. Oh, there's such potential in you, Reuben. Hoping for such great things. And Reuben had great potential and great privileges, but potential and privilege are just that, potential. And you have to keep reminding your children, it doesn't matter what talents they have, it doesn't matter what opportunities they have, that you don't get anywhere in life just with potential. You don't get anywhere in life spiritually or even materially or achievement-wise just by having talents. You don't turn up at the A-level exams and say, I've got all these talents, please give me my grades. It doesn't work that way, sure it doesn't. Or you don't turn up at the job interview and say, look at all of my potential. You're lucky to see me today. That's not how it works. Potential and privilege are unrealized until they're realized, all right? Have to be achieved, have to be worked at. And Jacob's telling Ruben, Straight away, your potential is worthless unless it's accompanied with right choices and having the right character. And unfortunately for Reuben, that wasn't true. And Jacob's not going to hide it because look what he says in verse four, unstable as water. Oh boy. He says, thou shalt not excel. You won't excel. It's just your character, Ruben, over many years has been like this, always unstable, always weak, spiritually, emotionally. Your choices are always wrong. And then he picks one particular instance, how it manifested itself. He says, thou wentest up to thy father's bed, thou defilest thou it. He went up to my couch, Ruben, in an act of instability, went behind Jacob's back and lay with his concubines. Why did he do that? I don't think it was lust that drove him to do it. He was trying to seize the authority of the father, trying to let everybody know, I'm the firstborn. I'm the one who will take over. I'm the next patriarch. I'm the one to inherit the great money that my father has realized. And Jacob was a very wealthy man. And out of a selfish desire, rather than willing to wait on God to anoint him and choose him as the leader of the home, should God choose, Reuben wouldn't wait. And because he was an unstable character, because he had no confidence in God, because he had no real faith in God's sovereignty, he did this, committed this grossly immoral act. in order to try and win something over the other brothers. And Jacob here warns him that you'll never excel. And you know something? If you read the history of Reuben and the Reubenites, you will discover that the Reubenites were very unsuccessful as a tribe, like Reuben. You'll discover, for example, that no prophet ever came from the tribe of Reuben. that no king ever came from the tribe of Reuben. No judge came from the tribe of Reuben. And even their numbers as a tribe declined through the book of Numbers. They were just a very weak tribe. You'll discover that half the tribe of Reuben, sorry, resided on the east side of the Jordan. They were the first tribe to compromise. They were the first tribe to say to Moses, we don't want to go over and Joshua, to the other side. They always were a weak and an insignificant tribe. And in fact, in the days of the judges, they were the first tribe to turn to idolatry over the other tribes. So the warnings that Jacob gave them here were true warnings, faithful warnings, but sad to say, warnings that were not heeded. not heeded by the tribe of Reuben. What does that tell us? Great potential and great privilege and great gifts can be wasted. And even warnings like this. Reuben was told to his face by his own father, a patriarch and a prophet and a priest, that you're not going to succeed, Reuben, if you don't change. And yet, did he change? No. And his descendants lived just like him. But then he turns to the second and third son, Simeon and Levi, verse five. And Simeon and Levi were different in one sense from Reuben, but like him in another sense. They were like him in the sense that they had lusts, desires, passions that were out of control, not controlled by the Spirit of God, were not willing to let God lead their lives. So they were similar to Reuben in that instance. But they were different from Reuben in this way. Reuben was governed by his desire, his lust for power and no doubt immorality that drove him to do what he did, but they were driven by anger and revenge and the lust for bloodshed. And we notice what happened. Jacob looks at them, verse five, and he says, instruments, of cruelty are in their habitation. She says, I see a vicious, cruel spirit in both of you. And he says, oh my soul, come not thou into their secret, onto their assembly. He says, beware of them. Really, he seems to be telling the other tribes, now be careful of these two. These are explosive boys. These are two individuals you don't want to be too associated to. They'll get you into trouble. And he says, for in their anger, they slew a man, they murdered someone. In fact, they murdered more than one. If you remember in the story, after their sister was raped and was taken in by a man from Shechem, what did Simeon and Levi do? They went to the men of Shechem and signed a deal with them. And while the men were caught unawares, they were dead, and they murdered every single man, woman, and child, or they certainly murdered all the men, and they enslaved the rest. And they had no right to murder them. One man had harmed their sister, and they used that as an excuse to massacre everybody, to show their anger. And Jacob was furious with them, because he says, you've made my reputation to stink. in the whole area. People won't trust our word anymore. People won't trust Jacob's word and Jacob's reputation because of what you've done. And Jacob says, verse seven, cursed be their anger. Oh, these boys need to change. And he says, for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel. Oh, they were cruel. They butchered the little children and the women. Just because their pride had been hurt, just because their reputation as a family had been diminished by what had happened to their sister, they lashed out at everybody. And they did it in a cold-blooded way. They planned it. It wasn't just an act of anger in the spur of a moment. This was something that they planned. This massacre like Hamas on October the 7th, it was all planned. And they went out and they indulged in it secretly and by deception. Jacob says, curse should be their anger. These boys need to change. And here's the consequence. Verse seven, I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And the judgment on these two men And it's interesting to note that their families and their tribe, that in the book of Numbers, between Numbers chapter one and Numbers chapter 26, the number of them declined by 63%. And the Simeonites and the Levites were scattered throughout the nation. In fact, the Levites, if you remember later on in the book of Joysera, they didn't get an inheritance. They were appointed to priests. And a group of them was to work in the tabernacle. But of course, there was a whole tribe. They couldn't all work in the one tabernacle. So what did God do? He put them in all various positions and cities and towns throughout the whole nation. And they were to be Levite towns and Levite cities. And effectively, what they were there to do was they were to be the pastors. Because people couldn't travel from, say, the tribe of Dan, or the tribe of Manasseh, all the way to Shiloh, and then eventually to Jerusalem all the time to resolve issues. They had questions about the word of God, and the tribe of Levi were there to explain, to even make decisions, to act as civil judges, and oversee the enforcement of the word of God. So they were effectively the pastors of little local churches scattered throughout the tribe. And in putting them in all these places, it was a judgment upon them. They didn't have like a central tribal area to live in. So God kept his word. It was a judgment upon them. But here's the upside with it. Because remember what I said. These were warnings, but these were also opportunities. for them to learn from their mistakes, and even learn from their punishment, and use it to be a blessing. Because what did the tribe of Levi do? Instead of becoming bitter, and like the Reubenites, useless, and even idolatrous, the Levites became great men of God. And even as they were scattered throughout the nation, many of the Levites became individuals who stood for God and became mighty prophets and priests of the Lord. And you don't need me to spell out some of the great descendants of the tribe of Levi, Amram and Jochebed, Moses' parents. What a couple they were. Got themselves into Hebrews chapter 11. We had Moses and Aaron and Miriam, what three sons and daughters of Levi they were. And then we had Phinehas, Ezra. We had John the Baptist, a son of Levi. The Levites learned from their mistakes and embraced this calling, this judgment, and used it to be a blessing. in the lives of not just themselves, but their own people, and the history of this world. So, although Reuben and the Reubenites never did much for God, didn't really learn from their mistakes, the Levites did, and the Simeonites did as well, because later on we discover that some of the sons of Simeon stayed with the tribe of Judah when the split happened, stayed with the descendants of David. And this is just a general application. You and I may have consequences to carry in our lives because of the failures and the bad choices of the past. And there's nothing that can be done about that. Maybe it's a health issue because of some addiction. Maybe It's a health issue because of some immoral act, or there may even be children or grandchildren that come because of that. And you have to accept those consequences. When the milk is spilled out of the jug, it can't be put back in the jug. Isn't that right? But what you can do is say, I accept the consequence because it was my mistake. And I thank God that he's allowed me to see that I made that mistake. That's sin. And I embrace the judgment of God, but I want to use it to be a blessing now. I want to use it to maybe warn others, to warn my own children, don't make my mistake. Look at the consequence, look at the mess it creates. And maybe use it as an example to other young people and say, don't walk in my footsteps. And who knows, God could turn what is the judgment and what is a consequence of your sin into something that could become a great blessing in your life if you embrace it and live with it and say to the Lord, Lord, I deserve it and I want to use it for your glory. Most people take the judgment of God and they just almost huff, don't they? I often use the illustration of Ruth and Naomi. Both suffered because of bad choices that their husbands made and their families made. Both lost their husbands because of bad choices. And yet when they came back to Bethlehem, one was what? Rejoicing in the Lord, seeking to serve the Lord. She got better through the suffering, through the judgment. But the other became what? Bitter. In fact, Naomi used that word, didn't she? She said, don't call me Naomi. And she arrived back at Bethlehem and called me Mara, the bitter one. And she explained why, because the Almighty have dealt bitterly with me. She says, I'm a bitter person. I'm angry with God. Instead of becoming a blessing through her punishment, she became worse. She huffed and sat at home. Whereas Ruth got up and says, no, I'll go. I'll become a blessing to others. And of course we know the history, as Ruth went out and became a blessing to others, God started to use her and her witness. And whose field did she go in that day? Boaz. And through their relationship came a man who became the greatest king in the history of the nation of Israel, David. I think he's a great-grandson, isn't he, David, of Ruth and Boaz? And of course, through that lineage, Matthew chapter 1 tells us, came the greatest descendant of all, the Lord Jesus Christ. But then look at Judah. We're going to have to stop at Judah, because we're not going to get any further. And I think when I was reading this, Judah must've been really panicking now, because he just witnessed Reuben get a lashing, Simeon and Levi get another lashing. Certainly wasn't very positive for them. In fact, it was less positive for Simeon and Levi than it was for Reuben. And Judah knew he had done some terrible things, particularly with Tamar. in his past to be ashamed of. And he must have feared the worst, probably braced himself. Here goes, I'm number four. But instead of bringing up his sin, his terrible sin in the past, God does something amazing through Jacob as he looks at Judah. And instead of saying, Judah, you also are a great failure. You also have hurt me. You also have let the family down, and he had. But of all the sons of Jacob that had failed, Judah was the one who had changed the most, if you remember. He was the one that had acknowledged his sin. He was the one who had come to Joseph, if you remember, and had pleaded for the life of Benjamin. and was willing to lose his life for Benjamin's life. And old Jacob had learned something in that time about Judah, that Judah now was a son who was different from all the rest. Wasn't spiritually stronger than Joseph, but he was different from all the other sons in that he had learned from his sin and he had changed from his sin. And Joseph, Jacob has a great message for him. In fact, he has the greatest message. And you know, one of the things as you read this, you would think if you were God, and I say that with reverence, the one son you would choose to be the royal tribe where King David would come from, and ultimately the Messiah would come from, would be Joseph, wouldn't it? I mean, if you were looking at these sons, the one you'd say, well, Judah, I'm glad you've changed, but seriously, you're past. I think Joseph's got a far better record than you. He should be the royal tribe. He should be the one that the Messiah should come from. But God didn't see it that way. God chose one of the worst sons of Jacob to be the royal tribe. not only the royal tribe, but to be the tribe that the Messiah would come from. And even in this prophetic promises that are given here, there's more than a hint of it. God can do that in a person's life. If you're willing to change, if you're willing to truly repent, there's no end to what the grace of God can do in your life. And he says of Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Now I'm going to stop here. because I think it's going to take me too long. But the word Judah means in the Hebrew, the one who praises God. That's what it means, to praise God. And Jacob turns it around and makes a play on the name. And he says, Jacob, or Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Just as your name will bring praise to God, so your brethren will learn to praise you, praise God for you. Now that's a turn up for the books, because if you know the history of Judah's life, you'd never thought it would ever get to this point, where all the brethren of Judah would come to play, praise the birth and the descendants of the tribe of Judah, but they will. And today in Lord Mission Hall, We praise the name of Judah because we praise the one who's the Lion of Judah, the Son of Judah. And you know, throughout all of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ identifies himself with Judah. You say, are you sure? One last verse, Revelation 22. I think it is. If my memory is right, I haven't written this down. Verse 16, Revolution 22, it says, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of who? David. Well, who's David from? He's from Judah. Jesus Christ identifies himself with the people of Judah, the tribe of Judah through the greatest ancestor of Judah, the greatest descendant of Judah, David, the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah. So for all of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ connects himself to this tribe. What a privilege, what an honor. No wonder it says his brethren will praise him, because from Judah will come the Savior of the world. Our Savior. What a story of God's amazing grace. We'll look at it more next time. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this Genesis 49, and what a blessing it is to our souls. And also what a warning. We can see ourselves in all these characters, The choices we make and the failures and how those things weave through our family circle and even the consequences. We thank you that Simeon and particularly Levi and Judah learned from their failures and turned around what could have been a curse and made it into a blessing. because they were willing to change. And Lord, help us to have that humility to do the same. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.