Genesis 49 this evening, Genesis 49. And last week we finished at Judah. I don't think we finished it completely, but we made some remarks about him. And if you remember the context of this chapter, old Jacob's 147 years of age, and this is his last will and testament. But unlike most wills and testaments, which is about yourself and about what you're going to give to your descendants, remember, Jacob's a patriarch. He's a prophet. He's God's man. He's a priest for his home. He speaks for God. And as God's prophet, he has the ability to discern the future, not just for his children, but for his descendants. And here in this chapter, Jacob reveals the future plan, God's future plan for his family and for the generations to come. And we noted even in passing last time that this goes all the way to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a messianic prophecy of the coming of the Lord. So it's a good job we sung that hymn. Because old Jacob, his eyes could see the glory of the coming of the Lord. We're going to pick up the reading in verse 16. And it says, Dan shall judge his people. Now the word Dan means God is my judge or judge. Daniel means God is my judge. Dan means judge. So there's a little play with words. If you remember, Judah was a play with words. The word Judah means praise to God. And Judah were told, verse eight, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. So old Jacob took the name and almost played with the name to give it a slightly different slant to it. And here in Dan, he does the same. He takes the name Dan, which means judge. And he says, Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward. And then there's a real prayer from the heart of a father. for a son that's outside of Christ, or a daughter that's outside of Christ. Jacob just says, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Maybe there's someone here and you're still praying for a son or a daughter to be saved, or a grandson. Jacob knows what you're going through because he was going through that. As he was dying, he was still burdened for the salvation of Dan, and he says, I've waited, for this boy's salvation. It says, God, verse 19, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose. He giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful bough. even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence he is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Even by the God of thy Father who shall help thee, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of thy Father have prevailed, above the blessings of my progenitors, and to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. "'They shall be on the head of Joseph, "'and on the crown of the head of him "'that was separate from his brethren. "'Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. "'In the morning he shall devour the prey, "'and at night he shall divide the spoil. "'All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, "'and this is it that their fathers spake unto them "'and blessed them, every one according to his blessing. he blessed them. And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for possession of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost. And this last statement is a wonderful statement, and was gathered unto his people. It's always good to know you have your people. The devil has his people, and his people go to their place, but God has his people, and they go to a different place. And old Jacob, as he took his last breath, he just said goodbye here, and opened his eyes in the glory with his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, and all the saints that had gone before him gathered onto his people." What a way to go. Well, let's just go through this. We finished off really with Judah, and Judah was, we noted, was given a tremendous amount of praise in many ways. He says in verse eight, his hand shall be on the hand of the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. And you know, when you look at the lives of these 12 sons and the character of these 12 sons, we would all have thought that Joseph would become the royal tribe. But yet God said, no, God says it's going to be Judah. And Judah became the one that would crush the neck of the enemies of God's people. And through the line of Judah came a great legacy. You'll discover Caleb came from Judah, what a man he was. Boaz came from the tribe of Judah. King David, of course, the greatest outside of Jesus Christ. Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and just so many great leaders from the nation of Israel. And God says, the royal tribe's going to come from this family. The leadership is going to come from this family. And then he says about him, he will not only be prominent, but he will be exalted. The scepter, and then the Shai unto Shadow come. And there's a hint there straight away. that Jesus Christ, the greatest descendant of Judah, is coming from this tribe, the Messiah, the King of kings. As we saw on Sunday evening, if you've been paying attention, that Jesus Christ hasn't finished reigning. In fact, his reign on earth hasn't begun yet. He reigns in his church. He reigns spiritually, of course. He reigns in our lives. He's the head of the church. He's the head of our lives. He's the head of our homes. That's true right now, but he's coming back to this earth to reign and rule, not just for the thousand years, but forevermore, because a thousand years of the millennium eventually give way in Revelation 21 and 22 to the eternal golden age, which is the new heaven and the new earth. And he's gonna reign and rule forever and forever. Now, although Jacob predicts that Judah will become the royal tribe and that Judah will become a leader over the other tribes, It doesn't happen immediately. In fact, many centuries will pass before Judah takes the leadership. For example, Moses, their greatest leader in many ways, was from the tribe of Levi, not from Judah. And we discover that many of the judges that followed, Joshua was from Ephraim, Gideon was from Manasseh, Samson was from Dan, Samuel was from Ephraim, and then their first king Saul was from Benjamin. So it's going to take some time. But eventually Judah will come to the fore, even though it may look unlikely. For many centuries, God will keep his word, God will keep his promises, and Judah will come to the leadership of the nation, and they will stay the royal tribe throughout the rest of the history of the Jewish people. Now, we then turn to Zebulun and Issachar just for time. And he says of Zebulun, verse 13, he shall dwell at the haven of the sea. I said to you last time, well, this is the Lorn crowd. They're the ones down at the coast. That's where they're going to be. And then Issachar, they're told they're going to be like a strong ass couching down between two burdens. Now, having described Judah as roaring like a lion and a ruler and a scepter and a royal, this great beast, he says, Issachar, You're just going to be like a donkey, carrying burdens for other tribes. And really, Issachar is going to be the down-to-earth, the working class, in a sense, in the tribes. And I always say this, not everybody in a society can be a leader. Isn't that right? We have a school system that divides between certain categories of people. When I was in Singapore, it's even more pronounced, the division. Everybody goes to selective schools, even in primary school. And even within the selective schools, there's lots and lots of selective streams. And the Asians love all of this. What school did you go to? What stream are you from? And here in our country, we divide pretty much between grammar schools and secondary schools, don't we? And the problem with grammar schools and the problem with streaming schools is in order to have selection, somebody has to lose. You can't be an elite if everybody's elite. It's no longer an elite. And sometimes those who don't make it to the elite feel like they're inferior, feel like they're second class. And some people carry the scars of that. to this day. I don't know why, because most of these grammar schools are useless too, nowadays. Most of these universities, you don't know, I've been to university. They always say you come out dumber than when you went in, and most of them today. I remember the first day we came out of law school, we've arrived to the law firm and the guy said, listen, I want to tell you, he says, whatever you learned the last three years, forget about it. It's of no use. That was a very humbling experience and chastening experience, having wasted all your money for three years. But you know, not everybody can be at the top of the tree, isn't that right? Not everybody can become the top guy in a business In politics, even in a family, there's always going to be one child doesn't grow as tall as the others. There's always going to be one that's not as strong as the others. There's always going to be one that's not as capable as the others. It's just life. And it's not a bad thing. We just have to learn that even in God's work, people have different roles. A husband has a different role from a wife. and a son and a daughter have a different role than a parent. And even in the church, all of us have different roles to play and different gifts and talents. And it's learning to accept the differences. Someone put it this way, it's not unity in uniformity, it's unity in diversity. That's the work of God. Unity in diversity with people of different talents, different backgrounds. And here in Lorne Mission Hall, we have people of all different types of talents and backgrounds. Some people are good at IT and design and PA. And other people are good at standing at the front door of the church and welcoming people. Other people are better at music and singing and all kinds of different talents people have. And the church is a blessed union when everybody knows their place. And everybody's content. Not everybody can be Judah. Somebody has to be Issachar. And Issachar is not inferior to Judah. It's just Issachar has a different role to play, and God decides. This is the thing. You know, Issachar, I'm sure, wasn't thrilled to hear, well, Judah, you're the lion, you're the royal tribe. By the way, you're the burden bearer. You're the ass that everybody's going to be taking advantage of. Wow. But you know, being a burden bearer, being a servant, is really the highest honor of all. Because when a person is a servant to others, he becomes more like the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the greatest servant. It says in Mark's gospel, you remember, he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And the greatest act of servanthood was to give his life as a ransom for sinners. The greatest act of sacrifice. And basically, Christ said when he washed the feet of his disciples, if I could do this for you, if I could die for you, if I could sacrifice my life for you, then there's nothing that you should be afraid of doing for others. You should be ashamed to do for others. And Issachar here, He has a blessed position too, a very important position too. And one of the things you should do as a parent, especially to young people, is remind them of that. That you may be different from another child in the family, but you're not unimportant. God has appointed you your role, as he has appointed another child their role. He has given different gifts to different people. We all look different. We all are different. I remember when I was going for a medical in Singapore, a little Filipino nurse, she was very small, about the size of my wife, and they had to stand up to be measured, and she said, oh, she says, I wish I was as tall as you. And I said to her, well, I can tell you I had nothing to do with it. It wasn't my choice. I'm quite happy, by the way, that I was that height. I wasn't going to take her place, but it wasn't to be proud of her. I didn't do anything to earn it. My parents didn't decide it. They didn't fill in the form and say, we'd like a son of such and such a height. It was God's sovereign appointment. Some people will live 10 years on this earth, 20 years, 40 years, 60 years. Some will live 80, 90 years in very good health. And so some people are in bad health almost all their lives. All right. God has a different appointment for us all. The Christian has to learn to say, whatever God's purpose and plan and position, I must accept. He knows best. And Issachar had to accept that he knows best. Now having dealt with the sons of Leah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, and Issachar, Jacob now turns to the sons of Bilhah, Dan, and Naphtali. Now, verse 16 starts off really well for Dan. A bit like Reuben. Remember Reuben started off, first verse. And he says of Dan, he shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Wow, I'm sure Dan was thinking, that's good. Not Judah, but eh. Was expected worse. But then the next verse, oh, things go downhill very, very quickly. But before we get to that next verse, God kept his word to death because Samson, one of the greatest judges, most famous judges, most famous leaders in history, sometimes for all the wrong reasons, but he was a famous judge. If I was to say, which of the judges in the book of Judges do you remember? Everybody knows Samson, don't they? I remember a guy was telling some of the folk, I led to the Lord in London, he was called Samson from Kenya. And he passed away there just a few weeks ago at 50 years of age. He was a great person, wonderful convert. And he went back to his own people as a missionary and he served the Lord right till his dying breath. And after he was saved, He went along to a Bible conference with me and a number of others, and there was a number of preachers, and one of them was Dr. Ray Paisley. And Dr. Paisley said to him, what's your name? He said, Samson. And he said, Samson, watch out for Delilah. He says, watch out for Delilah. And then he signed his Bible, be a strong man for the Lord, Samson. And Samson went on to be a great disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Samson had great potential, didn't he? But he failed to realize the potential. And the tribe of Dan, really, there's a warning here from Old Jacob. Remember I said there's a warning in these things. They're not just prophecies, they're warnings in the prophecy that you can feel to live up to your potential. Dan, you're going to be a ruler. You have the potential to be a great man, a great leader in your nation. But Dan, beware. There's a side to you that's dangerous. And Samson discovered that. He had such potential, but ultimately he failed. as a leader and as an example and as a judge of his people. And notice what he says about Dan, verse 17. Here comes the sad part. He shall be a serpent by the way. That's about as low a description, that's about as fearful a thing that he could have said about Dan. He's like the devil. There's a side to him. that's dangerous for Dan and for his people. And you know, the tribe of Dan proved very troublesome. Dan was the place that Jeroboam put up the altar to the false gods, his golden calf. Dan in Judges 18 was the first tribe that we read to be heavily involved in idolatry, turning the nation away from God. They were a serpent to their people. had the great potential, but didn't realize it, and by and large became a snare to their nation. And Jacob in verse 18 cried onto the Lord, and it's a cry of a father for a son. He says, I've waited. I think Jacob saw more of himself in Dan than any of the other sons, because Jacob was a long time before he became a believer, do you remember? Jacob himself was a serpent to Esau, his brother. He cheated his father. He lied to his father. He divided his home. He caused a split in his home that never really was reconciled. And even with his sons, he never really set a great example. And Jacob became like Dan, a serpent, an adder, a divider. I think as he looked at that son of his as he was dying, he saw so much of himself and he cried, Lord, save him, like you saved me. Then he speaks of Gad, verse 19, doesn't say much about him. He calls him a troop. The word Gad means a troop. So he's, again, he's playing on the word, the meaning of the name. He says, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. And the Gadites took their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, a very vulnerable part, because the other side of the Jordan, the majority lived on the west side. And those on the east side were isolated, a bit like those kibbutz on October the 7th that were right next door to the Gaza Strip. They're vulnerable to attack. And the Gaddites were like that. They were out on the edges of the nation. They were vulnerable to attack and they got attacked. But it says, the Gaddites in the end became great warriors. You read the book of Joshua, And the book of 1 Chronicles, you'll discover that the Gadites became fierce fighters. Probably living on the border areas made them independent, made them resilient and tough people, and people who were willing to fight for their rights. And the Gadites became in many ways a great tribe. But then it says out of Asher verses 20, shall his bread shall be fat and he shall read royal deities naphtali is a hind let loose he give us goodly words well asher means blessed or happy and moses tells us that they had lots of food they produced lots of food olive oil did oil in their inheritance Naphtali, he says, is like a hind let loose, mighty, fast. And Deborah and Barak, the great judges, they were from the tribe of Naphtali, and they were powerful warriors. But then verse 22, and I know I'm jumping through this a bit because of time, he comes to Joseph, and he's going to spend a long time with Joseph. Joseph's a very significant son. Joseph's son was going to get the birthright and have two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. And Jacob looks at Joseph and he says of him, he's a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough. He says, he's a son that brings forth fruit. He's a real blessing to me. He's a real blessing to the family. He's a real blessing to everybody that knows him. And he uses a metaphor of a vineyard, like a vine, he says, that feeds so many. And to emphasize in the metaphor just how great Joseph was and the great blessing he was, he describes him as a fruitful vine. And notice what it says in verse 22, whose branches run over the wall. In other words, they go beyond the natural boundaries that they would naturally be thought to impact and go into other gardens. Remember the life of Joseph? He was a man who was a blessing in the home. He was a blessing to his father. He was a blessing to his brothers. And you would say, well, that's what you would expect a godly person like Joseph to have an impact. But Joseph went much further. He went beyond the family boundaries to be a spiritual blessing, not just to the home, his immediate family, but into other homes. indeed into other nations. Tell me if you go to Egypt today, one of the most popular names is Joseph. You know that, still Joseph. And his legacy and his memory still lives on as a blessing. And Joseph not only saved his family from dying in the famine, he saved a nation. He saved an empire. And he became a great blessing to other places. And let me pause and say this, that's a great prayer to pray for your life, to pray for your children's lives. Lord, make us a blessing in our home, sure. Make us a blessing in our marriage, sure. Make us a blessing in our family circle. Pray for that, absolutely. But say, Lord, make me a blessing in my neighborhood. Make me a blessing in the workplace. Make me a fruitful person in the community. Make me a blessed person to learn, to my country, and even to the corners of the earth. Maybe God will use you to help and reach and be a blessing to people all over the world. God can do that, just as he took Joseph's life and he made Joseph a blessing to so many. Now, in order to have such an impact and to have such a blessing, there's always a price to pay. And old Jacob mentions the price. Notice what he says, verse 23. The archers, oh, archers don't tickle you, do they? They fire arrows to hurt you. They fire arrows to wound you. They fire the arrows to slay you, slay your reputation, slay your character, take your life even. And he says of Joseph, he says, the arrows shot at him, they sorely grieved him, they hated him. He had to bear a tremendous attack, a repeated attack. that went on for a long time in Joseph's life. In order for him to become fruitful, in order for him to be used of God to be a blessing, not just to his family, but to other nations, he had to pay a terrible price. And the Bible doesn't cover this up. It says he was grieved. He had to face grief. He had to face hatred. He had to face pain and loss. But then in verse 26, speaking to Joseph, he says, the blessings of thy father. Notice the word blessings isn't plural. You know, 17 years before his death, Jacob appeared before Pharaoh for the very first time. Do you remember the story? And he really, When he was speaking to Pharaoh, he said, few in evil have the years of my life been. He says, my life's been a hard life, Pharaoh. You may look at me, Pharaoh, and say, this guy's 130. But he says, I've had to live a hard life. And most of the hardness in his life came from his bad choices. We notice that all the time. Jacob made a lot of bad choices. But now at the end of his life, 17 years later, Having lived with Joseph for the last 17 years and no doubt enriched by having such a godly spiritual fellowship with Joseph and seeing the change in Judah and some of the other sons as they began to repent of their sins and become spiritually mature. Old Jacob has a different perspective 17 years later. Because this time he doesn't weep about his hardness, hard days, difficult days. Notice how he ends his life. He says, the blessings of life, Father. Oh, he says, there's blessings that I have, have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, those who came before me. And he says, they shall be on the head of Joseph that was separate from his brother. Because Joseph lived a different life, a holy life, God's gonna bless them in a special way. And he says, I've lived life of blessings. He says, now, I see life different at the end of my life than I did it even 17 years previously. And he's testifying of that. He says, God blessed my father, yes, Isaac, and he blessed my grandfather, but he's blessed me, Jacob says. But then having finished with Joseph, he turns to Benjamin, and we know that last time, We really wouldn't have expected him to talk like this of Benjamin, because every time we've run into Benjamin up to this point, he comes across rather in a pretty positive way. And maybe Benjamin had thought, having heard what he'd said about Joseph, because he and Joseph were the only sons of Rachel, that he's going to get a very special blessing and a very positive prediction and prophecy. But God's sovereign. God sees things that Benjamin maybe didn't see. Maybe Joseph didn't see in his brother and his brother's descendants, and Jacob didn't see. Jacob's speaking the truth here. He's speaking God's Word and God's will, and he says of Benjamin, he shall be like the wolf, raven. He'll be ravenous. Now, When you think of the word wolf, no one thinks of it in a very positive way, do they? I know there's some eejits that keep wolves as pets, but by and large, most people, when they think of a wolf, it's not a positive feeling, is it? There's a fear almost. We regard them as a vicious animal, wild animal, ruthless animal, a determined animal, an animal that's cunning and crafty and dangerous to have near you. And old Jacob just turns to Benjamin and he says, you're like a wolf, a dangerous one to have near you. And he says, he shall devour the prey and at night he shall divide the spoil. Well, these are hard words for Benjamin to take, but you know, they were true words because the Benjamites became a ruthless people, a wild people. dangerous people. And you read the book of Judges, they started a civil war with the other tribes and they nearly prevailed. They were such great fighters and they were so ruthless in their fighting that the other tribes almost couldn't contain them. You'll discover that many of the descendants from the tribe of Benjamin as individuals were known for their cruelty and their ruthlessness. King Saul was a ruthless man. a cruel man. Abner was from the tribe of Benjamin, another ruthless man, another cruel man. And of course, Saul of Tarsus came from the tribe of Benjamin. He was a ruthless boy. He was a determined boy until God saved him. Now, Moses said this, in Deuteronomy 33, he gave a different slant from what Jacob said. He gave an extra word from God. Now listen to what he said, I'll just read it to you. He says of Benjamin, he says, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety, Deuteronomy 33, 12. And the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. In other words, Moses says there is a side to Benjamin which is gonna be very positive. It's going to be a strength to others, to the other tribes, a blessing to the other tribes. And of course, if you know the history of Benjamin, some of the Benjamites became a tremendous curse. Yeah. But not all became a curse. Some learned from this prediction and became a blessing. was from the tribe of Benjamin. Jonathan, the son of Saul, remember, was from the tribe of Benjamin. And Saul of Tarsus, after he was saved, after he had become the greatest enemy of Christianity, became then the greatest proponent of it. And having become the greatest curse to the New Testament church and the most hated enemy of the New Testament church, he became the greatest blessing of the New Testament church. He wrote more epistles than any other of the apostles. He planted more churches. He went more miles. So there's two sides to Benjamin. That's my point. And if you look at your life and you see a bit of Benjamin, you said to yourself, well, I could go one way or I could go the other. Depends on the choices. Depends if I let the grace of God work in me, change me, mold me, and shape me. Now, having said all of these things, verse 29 says, Jacob having blessed, verse 28, sorry, blessed them, everyone according to his blessing. So each one has their own blessing. Each one has their own plan in God's kingdom. Each one has their own journey in life. And you know, that's a good thing to remind each other. Don't compare yourselves with others because each of us have our own journey. Each of us have our own way to go. And yours may be different from the person beside you. Yours may be different from your sibling. Or the person who's a contemporary of yours. God may bless them with a particularly different way to live. Just accept it. And you know, that's always brought divisions in homes when God chooses one for a special blessing, a special responsibility. I'm sure King David's brothers never really could cope with the fact that their youngest brother became the king. Imagine, the wee boy at home, he became a national hero. He defeated Goliath. And all the other big brothers were afraid to go into the battlefield. And the wee fellow won and became a national hero. And then he married the king's daughter, Saul's daughter. Must have been hard for them. And then to make things worse, he became the king. And they had to bow the knee to him. Just like Joseph's brothers weren't happy bowing the knee to him. And it's always difficult when God raises one up into a different path and plan, but each one has their own plan, their own path. And wisdom is accepting that. Humility is saying, that's God's choice. I accept it. God's way. And Jacob was far from a perfect father. He was far from a perfect example. But I like this about Jacob. As he's going to die, he's going to make sure he does it well. And he gathers all 12 sons and he tells them the truth. He doesn't sugarcoat it. He doesn't varnish it. He's straight with them. And then As he contemplates his last words on earth, it says in verse 29, he charged them and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. He knows he's dying. He knows this is it. But he's ready to go. He wants his sons to know. He says, I'm going to my people. I met a man just yesterday. He must be about 90 years of age, 80, 90 years of age, certainly is well, well on in years. Came out very well-dressed to the door. Well, I knocked his door and I said to him, I says, do you go to church? He says, not really. I could have sworn when I saw him coming, he's probably an elder in some church. I mean, he was so well-dressed. He had his little tie on, his wee jumper on, lunchtime it was. And I said to him, are you saved? He said, no, not saved. I says, are you ready for heaven then? He says, well, you just wait and see almost. And then he turned around and he says, are you ready for heaven? I says, I am. I am. And I says, could I tell you how you could be ready? And you know what he said to me? He said, my lunch is on. And he says, if you don't mind, I'm just going to go on. And here was a man hovering over the brink. You could tell just by looking at him, he hasn't long to go. on this earth, but he has no concern of his soul. He has no fear of eternity. He's only interested in what's on his plate. Couldn't even give five minutes, couldn't even give two minutes to think about his soul. And old Jacob here, he's ready to go, isn't he? He's thought it through. He knows between him and God, the matter is resolved. He knows there's a place waiting for him up there. And he says to his sons, I'm going to my people. I'm not going to hell. I'm not going out to lost eternity. I'm going to join the heavenly choirs. And he charged his sons and, you know, he says, this is really important to me. He says, don't bury me in Egypt. Egypt may have all the wealth. They may have these great pyramids, which are great tombs. And my son's a prime minister. No doubt Jacob could have got a great pyramid and a great state funeral. I'm sure Pharaoh would have thrown money at it. And Jacob being a beloved father of a wonderful son, I'm sure Joseph would have been willing to really send his dad off in style. And Jacob says, no, no, no, don't bury me here. He says, I want my funeral to be a testimony to all my sons, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, that my future and the future of my people is not in Egypt. is in the land of Canaan. God has promised us this land. And he says, take me back, promise me. He'll take me back after I die and bury me with all my relatives in the promised land. And how does he go? Verse 33, when he had made an end of commanding his sons, It's like one of these old men, just keep the authority till they die. He's there. He might be frail, but he's got it. He has the anointing of God on him, this old man. And he tells his sons, this is the way. This is what I want. You make sure you do it. You make sure you walk this way. And it says, he gathered up his feet into the bed and he yielded up the ghost, and he was gathered unto his people. Just as he wanted to be, he went straight to glory. What a wonderful way. He didn't live a great life for many years, but he died a great death. And sometimes it's not how you start, it's how you finish. And Jacob finished well. John Wesley came to Lorne, how many years ago? 300 odd years ago. And the one thing John Wesley said about the Methodists, he said, our people, they may not be the richest, they're not the most educated, unlike those educated Church of England folk. He says, we're not the aristocracy. The Methodist people will come from the working class, the despised classes. But Wesley says, we may not come from all of the aristocracy and have all the talents and the gifts and the opportunities that all those other folk have. But he says, there's one thing that defines us Methodists. He's speaking about the old Methodists, not the ones that run around today. He says, our people die well. That's what he said, our people die well. Because as he went to the funerals and the gravesides and the bedsides of the old saints of the Methodist movement, they were all ready to go, all born again, all walked with God. And when the call came, they were absent from the body, present with the Lord. That's the way to go. Jacob left this world well. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this great chapter with great lessons and great insights to life and our own families and our own character. May we purpose to be like old Jacob, to make sure we end the journey well. We may have had a few twists and turns like Jacob. We may even have had some spectacular failures in sin like Jacob. But Lord, get us back on the right track. And when we come to the end of life, may we be able to say, I want to be gathered to my people. For we ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.