Genesis chapter 47 will be beginning near the end of the chapter, verse 28, and reading through the end of chapter 48. We found on page 52 in your few Bibles this evening. Again, that's Genesis chapter 47, beginning in verse 28, and reading to the end of chapter 48. Please hear God's word. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life were 147 years. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, if now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. He answered, I will do as you have said. And he said, swear to me. And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. After this, Joseph was told, behold, your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, Your son Joseph has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. And I'll make of you a company of peoples that will give you this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Rumen and Simeon are. And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers and their inheritance. As for me, when I came from Padan to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? Joseph said to his father, they are my sons whom God has given me here. And he said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold, God has let me see your offspring also. Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. He blessed Joseph and said, the God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys. And in them, let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac. And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, not this way, my father, since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day saying, by you Israel pronounced blessings saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. Then he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, behold, I'm about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword. and with my bow. Thus far, God's holy word is read to us this evening. Let us pray. Lord God, we do pray that you would attend to now this word that you have promised to attend to with your spirit, with your son's presence by that spirit, that we would know our savior more, that we would love him deeply, that we would be in awe of who he is and what he has done, even now leads us as our King on high. May his word to us convict, console and confront our hearts. We do pray this in his name. Amen. Well, a scene like this at the end of Genesis is of course a well-known picture. We can imagine How many times in cultural artifacts do you see a man near death gathering his family around him to dispense final words of wisdom? It's become something of a stock scene, a cultural trope from high culture to low culture. Wagner couldn't finish an opera without the fat lady coming out and singing her Teutonic Swan song before she shuffled off the mortal coil of the stage. or lower culture. I once heard a comedian joking about how he was wandering around Value City Furniture wondering where the deathbed section was. You see the point. It's become such a standard scene that we say, oh, I know what's going on here. And then when we come to the end of Genesis, astute readers will know that there are actually three scenes. We see two of them this evening. Jacob dealing with the bones, then with the brothers in the final third of these three scenes. Next week we'll see in chapter 49 dealing with his sons. But tonight, when we come to this scene, don't dismiss it as just another one of these pictures. For in this climax of the book of Genesis, and it is the beginning of the climax of this book, This is not merely an old man getting his affairs in order, but it is God declaring to us that he is a God who keeps his promises often in surprising yet wonderful ways. Our God is a God who keeps his promises often in surprising yet wonderful ways. We'll have three points this evening. They'll kind of be concentric widening circles. We'll begin with the two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Then we'll widen out and look at the two tribes that those sons represented. And then we'll widen out thirdly and look at all of God's people, the greater family of God, all believers. But we begin with some background as we approach these two sons. This is, of course, as chapter 47, verse 28 tells us, the end of 17 years of life in Egypt that Jacob, or Israel, as he is called in this text, has enjoyed. He's nearly blind. You may have picked that up from chapter 48. He cannot see who these people are before his face. He's near to death, as verse 1 tells us, and he knows it. He remarked as much to his son, Joseph, in chapter 47, verse 29. So as his thoughts turn to the Lord's blessing on his progeny, just as he received blessing from his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, he gathers his strength, verse 2 tells us, for this last act. Now, like I said, there are actually two scenes here, one dealing with his bones, one dealing with these two brothers, We'll return to the bones in a minute, but as he carries out this act, the main act that he actually takes, you may have noticed in verse 5, is one of adoption. Usually not what you're thinking of when someone is on his deathbed. Hey, let me adopt two more sons. Well, that's exactly what happens in verse five. You may wonder later in verse 12 why the text told us that Joseph removed them from his knees. Well, placing the child on your knee was part of the symbol that you are adopting them. It was a sign that these are mine. I am, as it were, rearing them. We know what it means to be on daddy's lap, on daddy's knees. This is what Jacob is doing. He is making Ephraim and Manasseh his sons, just as Joseph and his brothers were. We know he didn't have to do this. You know, this is an act of sheer grace, of sheer mercy towards these two boys. But as he's going about this act of placing the two sons under his personal care, protection, and blessing, He does something very interesting, doesn't he? Joseph notices that his father has his hands crossed. The text is very careful to tell us that Joseph put the right sign on the right side and the left sign on the left side so that the older son would receive the right-handed blessing. The left hand, the sinister blessing, would go to the younger son, but Jacob immediately crosses his arms. And perhaps Joseph thinks, oh, my father, he's a little old. He doesn't quite know what he's doing. He can't really see. So he tries to fix it. And in these beautiful words, Jacob says, I know. I know what I am doing here. He knew that, for one, he knew that he was in clear violation of the social custom of the time, that the elder son was to receive a double inheritance. So if he was giving an inheritance just to these two, then the older son would have two thirds, double the one third of the other son. But it's Jacob's blessing to do with as he sees fit. And that's what he does. The actual blessing comes There's a lot of background that he gives. There's a lot of discussion that he gives around the blessing. But the actual blessing itself, did you hear it? It's in verse 20. It's near the end of the chapter. It's in verse 20 that Jacob actually pronounces the blessing. And what a blessing it is. So he blessed them that day, saying, by you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. It's basically this, may you become so blessed that your name becomes synonymous with blessing. That when somebody says, wants someone to be blessed, they don't say, I want you to be blessed. They say, I want you to be like Ephraim. The name itself carries the weight of blessing. And we know this in small ways. After all, no one goes to the first aid kit looking for an adhesive bandage. No, they say, I want a Band-Aid. But that's a brand name. But it must become so attached to the adhesive bandage that everybody knows what you mean. You go and you look for a Kleenex. No one says, I want a facial tissue. No. But the word Kleenex is so attached to the object that it's a correspondence. with the blessing on these two sons. Now someone wouldn't say, I want you to be well-blessed. They would merely say, I want you to be like Ephraim. And people wouldn't know, ah, blessing. Blessing and honor and acclaim that I have received from the Lord. See a literal example of this, didn't we, in verse 6. they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance." They are given the share of all blessings. You may have noticed that this text, and I don't think it's unintentional, manages as it goes through the scene to mention, to highlight, to include every aspect of the blessings of God's people that have been passed down ever since chapter 12. And even from chapter 3, when the Lord first came to Adam and Eve and their son. And then when he came to Abraham, as he was an idolater in that far land, and promised him blessing. Where do we see this? Well, first look in verses 15 to 17. That poetic quote that the ESV sets off for you. The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. Jacob is saying, may that line of blessing that is straight from the Lord. It's not because my fathers were successful businessmen, although they were, that's not why they were blessed. It's not because they were great warriors, although it was clear that Abraham was, that they were blessed. No, it's because the Lord had shepherded them, had put his hand of good blessing upon them, that they were blessed. Similarly, in verse three, Jacob remembers how that happened in his own experience. How God Almighty appeared to him at Luz in the land of Canaan and did what? And blessed me. And what's the next element of that blessing? Verse four, and said to him, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. We recall how the Lord came to Abraham and said you could go out to the night sky and attempt to count all the stars. You couldn't, but even higher than that number. So shall your offspring be. And then later in verse 19. When Jacob is speaking to his brother about how he's blessing both brothers, he says what about both brothers? The firstborn shall become a people, he shall be great. For the secondborn shall be a peoples of peoples, a multitude of peoples." So we see the Lord's blessing, we see his provision, we see his giving of descendants. Remember the other part of that blessing that the Lord gave to Abraham was what? It was land, wasn't it? And that actually gets us to the bones, to Jacob's arrangements for the bones at the end of chapter 47. Why is he so insistent? Why does he make his son swear to him? That's what this interesting language in verse 29 about putting his hand under his thigh, that was like crossing my heart and hoping to die. That was the way you did it in that day. He says, don't bury me in Egypt. Why is this? Is he, you know, objecting to Egyptian funerary practices? Does he not want to become a mummy? No. He knows that the deposition of his bones in the promised land is an act of faith. It's a testimony to the world that this is the place the Lord has promised to put his name. To put his blessing, yes, he's reminiscent of the fact that he had to bury his wife there, the wife he actually loved, Rachel. But it's not merely wanting to have twin tombs there, no. It's reflecting on that promise that the Lord gave to his grandfather, that there would be a place for God's people to dwell with him. to receive blessing, to allow the nations to stream in and to see that theirs was a God who had given them all that they needed for life, an abundance. His hope is not in Egypt. Sure, his temporal hope had been. He moved there so that he could survive. But his eternal hope is not in the riches of Egypt. It's not in the good governance of Pharaoh and his prime minister Joseph. It's not in the fertile land that provided food for seven years so that they could live for the seven years of famine that followed. Now don't hear what I'm not saying. Worldly provisions and good governance and food on your table are wonderful blessings. But those things come and those things go. But Jacob's hope was in the promised land, the land where the Lord had sworn that he would be with his people forever. You know, a thousand years later, when John is writing his gospel and Jesus comes to the well at Sychar, he actually makes a note that this was part of the land that was given to Joseph. The people of God had not forgotten. the Lord's promise. They knew that he had promised to be with them. And we too must recognize that those promises extend to us as well. The Lord is continuing to build his people. He is continuing to populate the population that is greater than the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. He's not doing it simply through the bearing of children, though that's often one of the main ways he works, is it not, as believers raise covenant children? But as the gospel goes forth from pulpits such as this, the Lord continues to build his people, continues to bless them, he continues to shepherd them, as Jacob recognized in his own life. And oh yes, he continues to prepare us for the promised land. He continues to prepare us for a place where he has sworn to be with us forever. And it's not Israel, or the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip, or East Jerusalem, or West Jerusalem. It's the new heavens and the new earth, when he will return and make all of this world his promised land forever, as he dwells with us. That was the hope of Judah. That must be our only hope as well. Our response to the promises of God is a grateful faith. You know, in Hebrews chapter 11, when the preacher, the writer of Hebrews is seeking to exhort his listeners to faith, actually points to this scene in chapter 11 verse 21 and he says, by faith Jacob when dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph and gave instructions about his bones. And we wonder, what does that have to do with faith? I mean, wasn't he just, you know, getting his will in order so that he would know how to dispose of his corpse? No, the writer recognized what we must recognize, that that was an act of faith. Relying not on his own merit not on his own wealth to get him where he needed to go, but on the Lord. So that's the blessing that is delivered to these sons as they stand in the line of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph, of Ephraim and Manasseh, that line that continues on into Israelite history. And that brings us to our second point this evening, that the two tribes that came, that sprung from these two sons. And if you trace them throughout the Old Testament history, you see that indeed our Lord is one who keeps his promises. Already by Moses' time, when they were known for their strength, Moses at the end of Deuteronomy has his own, as it were, deathbed scene, Deuteronomy chapter 33. When he addresses these two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, he says, a firstborn bull, he has majesty. His horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth. They are the 10,000s of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh. You see those references to 10,000s and thousands. The Lord is keeping his promise to these two sons. In fact, This is supported by the first census in Numbers chapter 1, where Ephraim, the younger, has surpassed Manasseh, the elder, in number. The Lord twice in the psalms says, Ephraim is my helmet. That piece of armor that protects the most vital part of the body. One of those psalms is Psalm 108, which we will sing at the conclusion of our sermon. Come quickly, Lord, I know you're thinking. In fact, Ephraim becomes a nickname for the northern half of Israel. You recall after the death of Solomon when his son rashly ostracized and antagonized the northern ten tribes of Israel, they broke off. It became known often in history as Ephraim. You read Hosea again and again in Hosea or that importance, Hinge chapter of Isaiah chapter 7, they refer to as Ephraim. Or in Jeremiah chapter 31, where he always says, I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. The Lord says that of Ephraim. Ephraim was my firstborn. Ephraim wasn't the firstborn in this family. But that's the sort of God that we have, to elevate the younger, to elevate the one in the world's eyes who receives less honor. less prestige, who doesn't carry on the family farm, as it were. The Lord so often works unexpectedly in elevating the lowly, the despised. He goes on in that chapter, Jeremiah 31, is not Ephraim my dear son? The child in whom I delight, my heart yearns for him. I have great compassion for him. But Jacob was right in his blessing. What greater blessing could there be than for the Lord to declare that he is a compassionate God for you? That his heart, yours, the heart of the Lord, the creator of the universe moves for you, his people. This son who now represents five-sixths of the chosen people. Indeed, Jeroboam, the first king of the northern tribe, is an Ephraimite. Ephraim has gone from being the second son of the second youngest son of Jacob to being the successor to Solomon in the north. 1 Kings 12.25 actually tells us he builds up Shechem. which was the very site of the bequest that Jacob makes at the end of our text. It's kind of hard to see. You have to look at your footnote in verse 22. Moses is giving us a play on words, as it were. When he says, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope, you see your footnote says that's Hebrew shechem, which is the word for mountain slope, which sounds like the town and district called Shechem. And what does this first Ephraimite king do? He builds up Shechem as the center of his rule. Samuel was an Ephraimite. Joseph was an Ephraimite. Gideon was a Manassehite, a tribe renowned for its valor, just as Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 33. You may remember what Jacob said about these two sons being a byword of strength. In Joshua 17, we read that Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, you are a numerous people. You have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to the farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong. Joshua says, I know it won't be easy. The Canaanites have chariots of iron. They have some of the greatest military technology of that day. But the Lord has promised to be with you. And that trumps any chariot of iron that the Canaanites could concoct. In fact, in the book of Judges, the Lord is said to be only with two tribes. He's said to be with the tribe of Judah. If you're wondering why, come back next Lord's Day evening. But he also, in Judges chapter one, is said to be with the house of Joseph. The Lord was working. The Lord was working. The Lord was working to fulfill his promises. The blessings pronounced, even in these very verses that we have read this evening, even unexpectedly, as we have seen. That brings us to our third and final point this evening as we widen the scope of our lens to consider believers in general and really widen our lens to all of the sweep of this book. If you have ever read or are familiar with Genesis or the history there, how often is it that the Lord looks with favor on the second son, on the youngest son? Hain and the second son Abel. To whom did the Lord give faith? Well, clearly it was Abel, the second son. Or think of Isaac and Ishmael, or Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac being the second born of Abraham. Or Jacob being the second born of Isaac. Not the first born, that was Esau. Or think of Zerah and Perez, the sons of Judah, which we read about several weeks ago. Reuben, the firstborn, versus Joseph, the one who saves and rescues his people. And, of course, Manasseh, the secondborn Ephraim, who becomes one of tens of thousands, as Moses says. As I was thinking about this dynamic of the younger son being the one whom the Lord blesses with blessings, with faith, And I came to the New Testament thinking, what is the premier example in the New Testament of the younger son getting what the older son seems to miss? It might be the prodigal son, mightn't it? You know Jesus' parable, when the older son, who is sure because he's the older son, he's the dutiful son, he's the one who always, you know, dots his I's and crosses the T's, he's the one who in that parable represents self-righteousness, represents the Pharisees who think that they can receive the Lord's blessing by their own merit and their own work. But what about the younger son? That is not because the younger son is perfect any more so than Jacob was perfect in light of the way he treated his family and brother. But oh no, he was the one who came to the end of himself and recognized what his only hope was his father. The mercy of his father to receive him when his father had no reason to. And in fact, his father went beyond what he had ever dreamed. Not taking him back as a servant, but taking him back as his firstborn son, his beloved son, the one to whom he killed the fatted calf. And I must remember that Jesus told that parable to confront a sin that is often present even in my own heart. You can sometimes think, you know, I'm dutiful, educated, cross all the T's and dot all the I's. Therefore, the Lord surely must accept me, must love me. But what does the Lord actually tell us? You know, there's a very famous passage in Isaiah that is often taken out of context. And Isaiah 55, though, is actually a text about prodigals returning to the Lord. In the midst of that invitation for prodigals to return For from wayward sons to return to the Lord, the Lord says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. And now we often use that text and apply it to physics or something. You think you've got it figured out, but God really knows what's going on, and that's true. But in context, the prophet is calling out to the wayward younger son. He's calling out to the people of God who had turned their back on his promises and is saying, I know, actually know what I'm doing here, and I'm actually in the process of drawing you back. Because remember, Isaiah 55 comes in the part of the book where the Lord is speaking to those who would be in exile. He's saying, I haven't forgotten you. I haven't given up on you. My promises are not null and void. In context, that's a passage for prodigals to return to the Lord and to receive the grace, the double portion that may have been deserved by the firstborn, but never earned, given by the Lord's grace to those who are humble enough to receive it. Now, maybe we want to respond like Joseph. Wait, Dad, what are you doing? That's not right. That's not fair. That's why I love what the Apostle Paul says. in 1 Corinthians. He says, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, what is weak in the world to shame the strong, what is low and despised in the world, the younger son, even the things that are not to bring to naught things that are so that no human being may boast in the presence of God. So friends, there's no boasting about our high position for the older brother. There's no boasting about the fact and ourselves that we were chosen by God if we are the younger son. Remember again what Abraham was doing when he was called. He was a far country. He was an heir of the Chaldees. That's why And we'll close with this passage, that's why when the Apostle Paul is reflecting in the book of Romans, all the way to which the Lord's choice of younger sons, of those whom the world would not choose to be his beloved people, he says this in chapter nine. When Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born, had done nothing either good or bad. in order that God's purpose of election might stand, might continue. His purpose of choosing those who would be out of his own free will and love, he decided to choose. Not because of works, but because of him who calls. She was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Jacob lived that in his life. That's why he was able to bless his grandsons and make them his sons in that way. What shall we say then, Paul asks, is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have compassion. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. The Lord told Moses, I will have mercy. I will have compassion. Ephraim had no reason to boast. The only reason that he was chosen, the only reason his tribe increased was the Lord and his mercy fulfilled his promises in unexpected but wonderful ways. But friends, that's our boast too, not in ourselves, but the Lord and his mercy out of love for us and love for his son chose us in Christ. Fulfilling His promises to us in unexpected but wonderful, wonderful ways. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you that your purposes do stand. We thank you that when you promise something to your people, You do everything that is necessary to bring it to fruition, even giving us life, even giving us faith through your son, our Lord, who is our only hope. Pray that as we see the promises that you have given us fulfilled, we recognize that it is out of the riches of Christ's bounty that it occurs, that our satisfaction and fullness are found only in him. In whose name we pray, amen.