Genesis 48–50: On Genesis Fading to Black, Like the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Bible Talk, Ep. 19)

(upbeat music) Moses himself is making this case, because the promise that Joseph's brothers would bow down has already been completed in Genesis. - That's true, and then we ultimate, so we don't need an ultimate fulfillment for that. That's already happened. - Well, yeah, it's already happened, but that pattern is just going to happen again to another brother in this son of Judah. - It's a promised shaped pattern, isn't it? (upbeat music) - Welcome to episode 19 of Bible Talk, a podcast brought to you by Nine Marks. Nine Marks exists to equip church leaders with a biblical vision and practical resources for building healthy churches. For more, visit Nine Marks. - Dot org, my name is Alex Duke, and with me, are my two friends, Samaladi, Jim Hamilton. - We have finally come to the end of Moses's masterpiece, the book of Genesis. It's the last week that we're going to discuss this minus a summary episode that we're going to release next week, and so far, guys, we have chatted for roughly 852 minutes. - Come about this book. - Amazing. - Now, about 10% of that is me, shoe horning, wrestling, or movie references, and the other 90% is you sort of politely fumbling over one another as you, if I might add one another. - But you know, we should tell everybody, there was a lot of minutes left on the cutting floor. - There's a lot more to say about Genesis. - Oliver Stone is working on the director's cut as we speak, 852 minutes. That's barely shorter than law season one, which is 25 episodes. Can you believe that? TV shows used to be 25 episodes, and just barely longer. - Are they longer now? TV shows? - No, the seasons are shorter now. - Oh really? - Much shorter, yeah. - Sorry, I interrupted you. - No, it's fine. And just barely longer than all three editions of Lord of the Rings extended editions, which is three movies, 722 minutes. - Wow. - And well, precisely like Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, the book of Genesis has a few false endings, you know, where it fades to black and you begin to dust the popcorn off your lap and start to get up, but wait, there's more. There's another scene because Genesis does not end with Joseph reconciling with his brothers and it, and it doesn't end with Jacob and his sons resettling in Goshen, and it doesn't even end when Joseph and Jacob finally reunite and cry. And Jacob says he can now die in peace, and he asks them, please bury me in the land of my fathers, not Egypt. No, there is still one more fade to black moment because Moses is not done yet, which brings us to Genesis 48 through 50 here. Jacob huddles his family up and offers to them final blessings before his life fades to black. But he doesn't speak to his own sons first, which is kind of strange. So Jim, who does Jacob bless first and is there prominence significant? Perhaps more simply, let me just ask the question, what does Moses want us to notice about these blessings in Genesis 48? - I want you to remind me of that question after I talk about something that I want to talk about. - I'm used to this, go ahead. - So you're talking about these fates to black, and I think we should notice the artistry of Moses, and what he's done is he's framed these two chapters of blessing in 48 and 49 with these death notices for Joseph. So in 47, 29 through 31, 47, 29, when the time drew near that Israel must die. And then if you look over at 49, 29, you get a very similar statement where Joseph is gonna command his sons and say to them, I am about to be gathered to my people, and then he gives burial instructions, which he had already given those back in 47, 30, carrying me out of Egypt and burying me in their burying place. So these two chapters of blessing in 48 and 49 are framed by these death notices, and I think that's a literary structuring device. - And so Sam, what is the main point of these blessings there that Jacob gives to them in verse 15 and 16? Should we note anything sort of unique that we haven't heard elsewhere in Genesis? - Joseph then is being put into the place of the firstborn. Rubin has disqualified himself, as has Simeon, as has Levi and Joseph is emerging into this position. And this whole ceremony here that they seem to be going through is like an adoption ceremony in sorts, where Jacob is receiving them as his own children. Then we come to the blessing in verse 15, the God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd, my life, long to this day. That's the first reference to God as a shepherd in scripture. The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, blessed the boys, and in them that my name be carried on, and the name of my father's Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. One thing that's intriguing about this blessing, you can see a number of the themes that have already come up in previous blessings like them growing into a multitude and carrying on the name of Abraham and Isaac. But in this case, you have a threefold reference to God, the God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd, and then the angel who has redeemed me from all evil. And we've seen this angel appear before. - I forgot about it. We haven't talked about the angel in a while, right? As you just argue about that. - So it's either an appearance of the Lord himself or it's the Lord's representative, which Jim has convinced me of. But you have here this, it's like a threefold formula of reference to the Lord. I'm just suggesting that maybe it's some sort of echo of later trinitarian developments that will happen in scripture. - Okay, so we've talked about this so far as a sweet moment, right, like Jacob is gathering Joseph and Joseph's sons, and he's blessing them. And if you didn't keep reading, you would think that this was like, sheerly a joyful moment. But then in verse 17, we read when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he took, I mean, this is crazy. And he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasse's head. Okay, so all this displeased Joseph, Jim, why? - So this displeases Joseph, but I think because Joseph is thinking in worldly ways. And the worldly expectation is for the blessing to go to the oldest son, this primogenitor cultural expectation. But all through the book of Genesis, this cultural expectation has been overturned. The Lord is pleased with able, the second born not Cain. And then it's not Ishmael, Abraham's oldest son by Hagar, but Isaac, the child of promise. And then it's not Issa, the first born, but Jacob. And then even with Ruben, he disqualifies himself and now Joseph is receiving the blessing. And then even his sons. So I think this shows us that the God of the Bible is one who lifts up the downtrodden and one who blesses the unexpected. The God of the Bible is not one who operates according to worldly conceptions of power and conceptions of status and worldly expectations of how things should go. So the Lord is consistently overturning these things. - Well, and we see, I mean, this is one of the, I mean, I can't remember a moment where Joseph has done something so obviously sinful. I mean, this would be sinful to interrupt his father who's doing what clearly he feels the Lord has told him to do and shows that Joseph maybe, despite all that he's learned, he's still learning, right? He's not perfect. - Well, I'd be a little bit inclined to think that here, this is almost like an oracle, like a prophetic revelation and the prophetic. - From the Lord to Jacob. - Yes, so that Jacob is doing something revelatory as he blesses Ephraim in this way. - So maybe not sinful, but ignorant. - Yeah, not aware, his dad's old and making him. - That's right, that's right. - Which ironically is kind of what happened with his father. - Yeah, well, I think maybe not sinful. - Well, that's an interesting point that you bring up, Alex, because Jacob here is described as blind that his eyes are dim with age, which of course recalls what happens where Isaac blesses Jacob and Esau. And I think we're meant to see a parallel between what's happening in that story and what's happening in this story. And the way that things have now, again, at the end of Genesis, reversed and. - No deception. - There's no deception here, there's no foul play going on. And Hebrews 11 actually reflects on this story in Hebrews 1121. By faith, Jacob, when dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph bowing in worship over the head of his staff. And I think what Jim is saying is right. I think this is probably some sort of revelatory act on the part of Jacob that the Lord is giving to him. And I think part of the picture of what may be happening here as well is that Jacob himself is reflecting on how the Lord has worked in his own family and throughout history. And he's thinking about the very things that Jim just mentioned with regard to Cain and Abel, with regard to Isaac and Ishmael, with regard to himself and Esau. And he's now kind of willingly participating, in a way, in exercising faith in the God who chooses the lesser over the greater. - And if I could add, you can. - Thank you. I've just recently turned in this book to Zondervin on typology, in which I'm arguing that typology really consists of promise-shaped patterns. So patterns that get noticed, in part because of the wording of the promises that God speaks. And so I think here we see an instance of Jacob knows that God has made this promised Abraham that's going to be carried through his descendants. And he is going to communicate that blessing and that promise to the sons of Joseph. And the patterns of God choosing the younger son are shaping and influencing his action, his interpretation of what's going before and his expectation of what's going to come back. - The checker's not wrestling with the Lord's revelation here. He's like, oh, I guess this is how it goes. - Yes, you know, another instance of this that we're going to see of a younger son being unexpectedly chosen is when David is anointed King. Maybe I've mentioned this before, but it's always striking to me how Samuel shows up and he sees Jesse's oldest son and he says, behold, the Lord's anointed is before him. And the Lord says, you know, you are seeing as man sees. And then Jesse hasn't even bothered to bring it. and David from the field, but he's the one. - One last brief question on 48 before we move on. The last thing Jacob says to Joseph is a little strange. He says, you know, moreover, I've given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and my bow. - Sam, what's that about? - It's odd, isn't it? I don't remember this story. - Well, the story isn't recorded for us in Genesis, which shows us as much as we know about Jacob, there was actually more that happened in his life. That Moses chooses not to-- - That's in the extended workforce card of Genesis. - We'll get into it. - Maybe we'll see it in heaven. This word mountain slope is actually the word Shekom. And you remember, I believe it's in chapter 35 when they have the conflict with Shekom and Simian and Levi kill the Shekomites. So there may be some sort of dealings that happened there between the family of Israel and Shekom, but Jacob says, I took from the hand of the Amorites this mountain slope with my sword and my bow and he's giving this to Joseph. And perhaps here we see a foreshadowing of the Exodus and of the conquest, right? That they're gonna come by this land, that they're gonna seize from the Amorites and from the other inhabitants of Canaan with the sword and with the bow. - And just to add to that, there's a cross reference to Joshua 2432 where we read as for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from the Egypt. So this is the end of the book of Joshua, as they've conquered the land. They buried them at Shekom in the place of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shekom for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance for descendants of Joseph. - So moving on now to Genesis 49, Jacob goes from his grandsons if from in Manasseh to his sons and this blessing is recorded from verse 1 to verse 27. And in some sense, this provides a kind of guided tour of the last third of Genesis. We have both the highlights and the lowlights because what Jacob is reminding us here throughout is both of his sons' behavior and the consequences of it years or even decades later. So first things first with these blessings that Jacob gives to his son, Sim, you're Sim. - That's both of you, come on, the new portmanteus. - You mentioned the word oracle previously. So just help me in the people understand, are these prophecies that Jacob is giving, are they best guesses, are they wishes? Like what level of certainty that Jacob have in these pronouncements? - Right, if Jacob wasn't a prophet, which I think he is because the Lord has revealed himself to him directly and spoken directly to him, the Lord has wrestled with him physically. So I think Jacob definitely qualifies as a prophet, the Lord has made himself known to him in unique ways. So if Jacob wasn't a prophet, then we could say maybe these are just best guesses. He's looked at his past, he's thought about his present, and he's projecting into the future. But I would argue that he is receiving prophetic revelation and he says in 49-1 to his sons, gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. So it's a pretty overt statement that this is revelatory of the future. - So Jim, I want you to give us some high-level comments for a moment on the sons who are not Judah and Joseph. So Judah and Joseph kind of get longer treatment here, and we'll get to them in a second. But from verses three to verses 27, he covers the other sons, you know, Rubin, Simeon Levi, Zebulin, Instacard Dan, Gad, Asher, Nephtali, and Benjamin. And it's a little enigmatic, these things. So do you just want to kind of click through those? - Well, the first thing I'd like to do is talk about how this passage is structured. And so, you know, earlier, all the way back in Genesis, at the end of 29 and chapter 30, as these children were born, we got them presented to us in birth order, in the order of their birth. And then later, in Genesis 46, we got them listed according to their mothers, and it was kind of the. - That was the procession into each other. And now here, what we have is a literary arrangement of the names of the sons. And first and last are Leah and Rachel. So, Leah and Rachel form the outer frames of the chiastic structure. So, Leah's children are in verses three through 15. And then Rachel's children are in verses 22 through 27. And of course, Rachel only has Joseph and Benjamin. And then between that, you have first Bill Haas sons, second in verses 16 and 17, and second to last in verse 21. And then you have Zilpa's sons in the middle. So, it goes, Leah, Bill Ha, Zilpa, Bill Ha, Rachel. A lot of chiasms will center the main point. This is not suggesting that Zilpa's children are the main point. That's not what's going on in this chiasm. I think in this one, the two that are going to be sort of placed prominently, are Judah and Joseph and their first and last. - Interesting. So, he did it just to make it more artistic. - Yeah. I think it balances Judah and Joseph at beginning and end. - And chiasms can often function as pneumonic devices to help people remember the content. - Mimic in. - You're right. - Memory. - Strange word. - Yes, memory wise, the M there. - I don't know. - It's a Greek word. I think the goddess is pneumasune or something like that. - She's the goddess of memory. - Like, see an eminence. - Yeah, there you go. (laughing) - That'll be memorable. - That's good. That's how memory works. - The crazier it is, the more it sticks. I always remember. K is for potassium because K is for bananas. - Nice. - That's how I remember K on the periodic table chart because that's what May 3d teaches me. - I don't get it. - Well, because it's nonsense. You remember it because it's nonsense. - Roy G. Biff. - Okay. (laughing) So, a lot of these guys, it's not so much a blessing as it is a kind of repudiation of their actions. So, Ruben, Jacob is disgusted with him and there's this sort of exclamation at the end of verse four. Like, I can't believe he invaded my bed with one of my women and then Simian and Levi, you know, he curses them in verse, or he curses their anger at least in verse seven and he doesn't want to enter into their counsel. He doesn't want to deal with them. I'm gonna pass over Judah. - Well, for a second, so Simian and Levi though, it's interesting. So, for what they did in Jesus 34, they get repudiated. - Yes. - And yet they're also the priests? - Well, the priests come from the line of Levi. - Yes. - Surprising. - Yes, it is surprising. And I can't remember offhand why the Lord chooses Levi other than that he's just replacing the first born of Israel. There may be a reason that we'll get to as we work our way through Exodus. - It is just a comment on Ruben and Simian and Levi really quick. With regard to Ruben, it is interesting in the rest of the biblical story that there's no prophet, no judge, no king that comes from the line of Ruben. He just utterly disappears in the story. And then with regard to Levi, this final line in verse seven is interesting when you consider that priests come from Levi. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And of course, the Levites aren't given a plot of land in the way that the other tribes are. - Yeah, maybe this is a. - The biblical story is scattered all through the land, yeah. - Okay, yeah, skip Judah. - Right, so then we come to Zebulin. You know, we're told just a little bit about him about where his territory is going to be. And that's about it. And then we move on to Issaqar. We're told just a little bit about him about what his servitude is going to be. And these folks haven't been mentioned. So it's, again, pointing to the fact that. - Well, they're mentioned when they're born. - Yeah, but then they don't come into the narrative so much. - Yeah, so again, there's a lot we don't know about him. - They seem to like plays on Dan's name. Dan's mean, Dan means judgment. And it's interesting in Genesis 30, when Dan is born by means of her servant girl, Rachel says, God has judged me. And I think that's actually, you know, Rachel means God has vindicated me. And I think Moses means you should not have made your husband even more of a polychemist and God has judged you. And so here, you know, Dan shall judge his people in a serpent, that's. - Right, and doesn't Samson come from. - I think Samson's the line of Dan. I think they were rabbis who suggested that the comment in verse 18, I wait for your salvation, O Lord, was in response to Jacob foreseeing that Samson would not be the Messiah. So it's like, I mean, who knows, right? But if that's the case, if he bites the horse's heel, so that his rider falls backward, he looks like he's gonna triumph, but then he winds up dying himself. When the temple of day gone, falls on him and he dies in that. - What's a beautiful little pause? It's as if he's giving these blessings and he's just like, I wait for your salvation, O Lord, 'cause this not going well for most of these guys. - Right. And then you get that just one inigmatic line about God, and it's interesting about God, that his name sounds like fortune when he's named and so Leah exclaims, this is good fortune for me at his birth, but here, his name also sounds like Raiders. So there's a different play on his name. - Give us a little Hebrew lesson, like very little. Like how is that? - Fortune and Raiders do not sound similar. - Well, it would be, it would be like in English, if you have a word that means, I don't know, bandit and bandaid or something like that. - You have similar sounds. - Got it. - And there, you can play on them in different ways. - Got it, that's helpful. - And then you have Asher, his name, when he is born, his surrogate mother, Leah owns Zilpah, and Zilpah gives birth to Asher, and Leah exclaims, "Everyone's gonna call me blessed." And this is the term that starts Psalm 1, blessed is the man, Asher, Haish, and Asher, you know. So Asher's food, she'll be rich. It's like he's gonna enjoy this blessedness that goes on. Naftali has a really sad name, because this is the one where Bilha gives birth to Naftali. Rachel says, "With mighty restlings, I have wrestled with my sister and prevailed." And so Naftali's name really memorializes the conflict between Rachel and Leah. Here, there's just a line that seems to point to his fruitfulness in the tribes of Israel, and how he's gonna multiply. And then we get to Joseph, and then there's, at the end of verse 27, there's just one line about Benjamin, and how he's gonna be a ravenous wolf, devouring and dividing the spoil, and it almost anticipates the murderous character of that Pharisee Saul, who was human. was out to get Christians or even the King. - Yeah, so that's right, yeah. - All right, so now let's focus on the favorite sons, Judah and Joseph. And Sam are starting with Judah for us and read 49, eight through 12 and tell us about the blessing he receives. And let me just sort of forefront how important this is. I was studying in my Crossway ESV study Bible and here's what the note said. It said, these verses set the tone for the chief aspect of messianic expectation in the Old Testament. The way that Abraham's blessing will come to the Gentiles will be by the ultimate era of David, reigning and incorporating the Gentiles into his benevolent empire. So that's a pretty important comment to make. - Was that the ESV study Bible? - Yes, we study Bible. - Good job, ESV study Bible. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful one. - I wonder who wrote Genesis, I can't remember. - Moses. - No, I mean who wrote the Genesis notes in the ESV study Bible? - Was it a study by Alexander? - Might have been, I can't remember. - I'd have to look back. - I'll read 49, eight and just kind of make some comments as I go. So Judah, your brothers will praise you. So that's a play on the name of Judah. Yahudah, your brothers will yada you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Now that sounds familiar. And that I think is picking up on imagery that we have seen as far back as Genesis 315, where we're gonna have a heal over a crushed head. And now we've got a hand on the neck of enemies. And so I think it's kind of connecting Judah to that messianic expectation already established in Genesis 315. And I would just toss in a Davidic interpretation of this in Psalm 18 verse 40. The ESV renders this, you made my enemies turn their backs to me, but then there's a footnote that says, or you gave me my enemies next, which I think they should stay with what's in the footnote, because I think David is alluding to this statement in Genesis 49, eight. And basically saying, I'm the future king from the line of Judah. - Psalm 18. - Psalm 18 verse 40. Then the third line here in verse eight, your father's sons shall bow down before you. You know, if you're listening, I want you to put yourself into the situation of an Israelite who's just been liberated out of Egypt, it's 1446 BC. Put yourself in someone's sandals. You know, they're in the wilderness as you're wandering around. And Moses publishes Genesis. Okay, and you get a copy and you're reading through it and you see all these messianic expectations that are building. And then you get to this story about Joseph. And he's a very prominent and interesting figure. And you kind of wonder, you know, is this a pattern of something? Should I expect something to be developing from this Joseph story? And then you come here to Genesis 49, eight, where Moses is talking about a coming messianic figure from the line of Judah. And how does he describe this figure? He says, "Juda, your brothers, your 11 brothers are gonna praise you and your father's sons are gonna bow down before you." Now, that's familiar language. Because in Genesis 37, three times in the dreams, it says that Joseph's brothers come and bow down. They hitched a hawa before him. That's the Hebrew word. I love that word. Then, that's one word, hitched a hawa. That's right. Sounds like something out of Star Wars, doesn't it? Then in Genesis 42 and 43, the brothers come in three times in fulfillment of the dreams, bow down. They hitched a hawa before Joseph. And now, this coming Judahite, this coming king, is gonna be someone whose 11 brothers come and bow down before him. So if you're a Israelite in 1446 BC, you're reading Genesis for the first time and you're asking, man, what's this, what's this king from Judah gonna look like? Well, what's the most immediate context in which to understand this verse? It's the story of Joseph. And you recognize, oh my word, this king from the line of Judah, it's gonna look like Joseph. And I think what Moses is doing us here is, is he's showing us that Moses himself is showing us that we should read the story of Joseph typologically, that it's part of a pattern, expecting some sort of fulfillment in the future, that Moses himself is making this case. Because the promise that Joseph's brothers would bow down has already been completed in Genesis. That's true. And then we ultimately, so we don't need an ultimate fulfillment for that. Well, yeah, and it's already happened, but that pattern is going to happen again to another brother in this son of Judah. It's a promised shaped pattern. That's exactly right. And we obviously don't read about his father's son because Exodus has like a 400 year jump, right? Well, you know what's interesting is that there are, as I was on the way here this morning, I had the ESV app open and I was listening to the end of Genesis and it continued into the beginning of Exodus. And I thought to myself, the description of Moses sounds just like the description of Joseph after it sounds like the description of Noah. So it's like as Moses narrates his own birth and rise to prominence in Egypt, it's like he's sounding notes from Noah and Joseph so that the audience is going to say, okay, he's going to be like Joseph and he's going to be like Moses. That's right. So then we come to verse nine. Judah is a lion's cub from the prey. My son, you have gone up, he stooped down, he crashed his alliance, so the lion is the animal that comes to be associated with Joseph. This is the kind of Genesis of where we get the idea of the lion of Judah. Do you want to say anything? I've been associated with Joseph, you met Judah. Excuse me, I met Judah, right? It's associated with Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Then verse 10, again, another very clear Messianic reference. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, right? The scepter that was once used, right? As a pledge for elicit sex in Genesis 38 is now a symbol of the reigning king of Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, which is euphemism for Judah siring a line of kings is what that means. Until tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. And you'll see a footnote in your Bible probably with regard to until tribute comes to him where that could be until he comes to whom it belongs, the obedience of the peoples. It's a difficult phrase to translate, but obviously it's a sense of, there's a Messianic king who's coming and the obedience of the peoples. And this is a widening of the obedience, right? So we've had brothers, father's sons bowing down, and this seems to be, we're all of the peoples of the nations, right? The blessing of Abraham is going to go to the nations and they're going to come to this king. And we're also, I think, meant to pick up on those, he shall possess the gate of his enemies, all those kinds of statements. We're to see those coming to culmination through this king. Then verse 11 and 12, just quickly, binding is full to the vine and his donkey's cult to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth wider than milk. So that's a strange few words. It's who is he talking about? Well, I think he's talking about this Messianic king. And the idea is, if he's using a choice vine to bind up his donkey, well, then this guy brings incredible prosperity wherever he goes. It doesn't matter if the donkey eats the best grapes. Right. And yeah, and there's grapes everywhere. There's wine everywhere. These are symbols of prosperity under the reign of the king of Judah. So this king is going to be a king who makes wine flow like water. And that sounds like John II. The illustration-- oh, that's interesting. The illustration I like to use with this is an article I read not long ago about Amari Stautamire. I don't know if he still does this, but he would fill hot tubs with wine. And then soak in the wine for the medicinal benefit with the wine heated and the air being pumped into it. And the reporter who got into the hot tub of wine with him said, how did you get this idea? And he said, well, me and some rich people were comparing notes about what we do. And the amount of wealth that you would have to have, disposable income that you would have to have-- It's not boxed wine. To fill a hot tub with wine. That's what this guy has, because he's using it as his laundry liquid. He's washing his garments in the wine, and it doesn't matter, because he's so wealthy. Your ticket for Amari Stautamire reference and Bible talk-- if you have that ticket, it just cashed. I'm not sure what the odds were, but it's great. So the summary there of these promises about Judah is, if I could just make perhaps at the risk of being, I don't know, simplistic is, Jesus is coming from Judah's line. That's right. OK, Jim, let's move on now to Joseph, because I think at this point, if you're just reading through Genesis, you would expect the Messiah to come from Joseph's line, given how we've talked about him as a type of Messiah, and just how righteous he is. But that's given what we just said about Judah, can't be the case. Obviously, so Jim read for us these promises about Joseph and verses 22 to 26, his final words to his beloved son. Right, so I'll do kind of like Sam did, and just read a line or two in the comments. So it starts in verse 22. Joseph is a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a spring. And this kind of sounds like a tree planted by streams of water. That's right. And so in the same way that the streams of water in Psalm 1 are a metaphor for the word, because this is what the man meditates upon. And that's what gives him life. And I think this points to Joseph's godliness and his perseverance and his faith. And so because God was with him, I mean, even in 48, 21, Israel said to Joseph, behold, I'm about to die, but God will be with you. That keeps getting reiterated with reference to Joseph. Because God was with him in spite of how, verse 23, the archers bitterly attacked him, which we could take as sort of a symbolical way of describing the way his brothers tried to kill him and then sold him into slavery and all the persecution and affliction he endured. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved. So he was steadfast and he was flourishing in spite of the afflictions that he dealt with. And it stated here, his arms were made agile in verse 24 by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. And so God is the reason for Joseph's ability to flourish for the way that everything that Joseph touched was blessed. It's all down to the Lord who was with him. And then when it says at the end of verse 24, from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. You know, some scholars, Alex actually do suggest that at the end of Genesis, it's unclear whether the Messiah will come from Judah or from Joseph. I think a good case, a better case can be made that it's clear the Messiah, the future King's gonna come from Judah, but we are meant to think of him in light of Joseph. as Sam was saying earlier, and that's why these symbols of shepherding and the stone, they're actually capitalized in the ESV. As if to indicate, you know, this is what the Messiah is going to be like. He's going to be a shepherd, like Joseph. He's going to be a rock, a stone, like Joseph has been for his people. And all of this is from the mighty one of Jacob, from the Lord. And then in verse 25, "By the God of your Father, who will help you." So this is the God of Jacob, "By the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings of heaven." And it's interesting how that term Almighty, it's only used in certain places in the book of Genesis. And so Jacob is calling upon his God, the Almighty God else should I. And then he gives him the blessings of heaven above, which this is what Isaac had spoken over Jacob, the blessings of heaven, and the blessings of the deep that crouches beneath. So we've got heaven above, we've got the deep beneath, and then the blessings of the breast and of the womb. So his wives are going to be fertile and fruitful, and they're going to nourish his children. And then he, it's like he goes beyond this in verse 26, "The blessings of your Father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents." So it's like he's saying, "I am bestowing upon you blessings that surpass those bestowed upon me by my Father Isaac up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers." And so again, I think that what we have here is like a precursor, a typological prefiguring of the blessing that will be enjoyed by the blessed man. Well, and you also have, I mean, Joseph is the second in command, perhaps the most powerful empire in the world. And Jacob doesn't even mention that and points him, you could say, heaven worked, and say, like, that's your inheritance. Not all the stuff you surely enjoy in half. Yes, that's fascinating. Well, guys, in with that, Jacob, you know, who we've been with since Genesis 25. Finally, after many, many threats to die, he has finally died. Jim, any summary comments on the life of this remarkable man and how it sort of sets us up for the last few parts of the book of Genesis? Well, I would just note that here again at the end of 49, we have that other end of the bracket that we saw at the end of 47, bracketing the two chapters of blessing. summary comments on the life of Jacob. I'll just make one. And that is that, you know, a couple of chapters ago, we saw Jacob say in chapter 47 verse nine, few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. And I would mark that down from from my study of Genesis to Jacob largely not responding the way that Abraham did. The Lord told Abraham to do it, and he was on it immediately. And Abraham walked with the Lord, and he built altars to worship the Lord. And it's like Jacob tries to resist the Lord his whole life. And then finally, God overcomes him with his grace. And then he looks back on his life. And he says, I resisted the Lord. And that made my days few and evil. So, you know, as a point of application, I would say, don't resist the Lord, you know, embrace, embrace his call on your life and live for him. The other thing that I think is fascinating here in this account of his death really comes at the beginning of chapter 50 when we read at the end of verse two, so the physicians, these are the physicians of Egypt, embalmed. And then he's called Israel. And it's almost as though Israel is dead in the land of Egypt, about to be raised from the dead in the Exodus. I think that Moses has intentionally chosen to use the name Israel, not Jacob here, as if to say, you know, the Egyptians have tried to put their death wraps upon the people of God. And then as we start into the book of Exodus, we're going to see how God repeatedly overturns all Pharaoh's attempts to kill the children of Israel. And it says, though, these resurrection overtones are being, the groundwork is being laid for them here. And then they're going to, the seeds are going to, they're going to blossom into life at the beginning of the book of Exodus. When I think, you know, I mean, when we arrive in Genesis 50, it's, it's like, we've come a long way, right? I mean, Genesis 1 begins with the miracle of life in Genesis 50 begins with the morning of death, right? Genesis 1 gives us the flowery paradise. Genesis 50 gives us a funeral procession. And it's a massive one. I love the little note in verse nine, Moses says, it was a very great company because they're taking Jacob back to the cave. They're on their way to that cave of Machpilaw, you know, the, the place of no notoriety, except that just a few of God's people were buried there. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Leah, and now Jacob. And so Sam, again, why are we spending so much time on this funeral procession getting us to this cave that just keeps getting mentioned over and over again? Yeah, well, I think you look excited that this is a foreshadowing of the Exodus. So similar to what Jim just said. Yeah, I think, I think Jim's comment was beautiful. And I think what we have going on here. So listeners, remember, Sam has what we call Exodus fever dreams. And so if you, you want to learn more about those, I think episodes eight and 10 give you a nice little taste of Sam's fever dreams. Yeah. So, so what happens is that they embalm Jacob and then Joseph goes to the servants of Pharaoh and ask for permission to lay Jacob in a tomb in Canaan. And you can understand the difficulty that request might be as in kind of the political difficulty it might pose between him and Pharaoh, because Pharaoh might think, you know, what my tombs aren't good enough for you. You want to go back to some dirty cave and clean the majestic tombs of Egypt. That's right. Yeah. But that's not how Pharaoh responds. Pharaoh responds with benevolence. And he actually wants to be a part of this in Egyptians company Israel wild on the way to Canaan before we discuss that. Let me just mention that the path that they take back into Israel basically follows the path of the Exodus. Because where do they end up? You can see there in verse 10 when they came to the threshing floor of a Todd, which is beyond the Jordan, right? So they're in the trans Jordan area, which is exactly where Israel is going to be when they come into the land in the conquest. So I think there's an Exodus type of route that's being taken here. It's interesting in line with what you're saying that the end of verse 8 says only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. So they all go up. Right. But they leave the kids and you know, during the Exodus Pharaoh's going to say, okay, you can go, but you have to leave your children behind. And Moses is like, nope, we're taking everybody. Right. Yeah. But what's interesting with this story is that the Egyptians joined them. They joined them not only in grieving over Jacob, but they joined them in this trip to the land of Canaan. And the whole story, I think, is kind of a counterfactual replay of what's about to happen in the Exodus. Egypt should have joined Israel, right? The appropriate response to Israel was not resistance, but they should have said, the Lord has blessed you. And you're speaking of the Exodus. They wrote this is what Pharaoh should have said, right? There arose a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, right? Which is why they received the Lord's judgment. But had they behaved like this Pharaoh, I think they would have received the Lord's blessing. Yeah. And it's interesting in Isaiah 19, which discusses, you know, the day of the new Exodus, right? That the Lord Jesus brings his people through. He describes the Egyptians as participating in the Exodus and uses the language of delivering them from oppression and slavery and bringing them into the Promised Land. It's the same language that he uses to describe what happens to Israel. So I think this is not only a foreshadowing of the Exodus, I think it's maybe even a foreshadowing of the new Exodus. And what the Lord is going to do in the end time in Isaiah 19. So you're saying in Exodus 20 or whenever it is, Pharaoh though chastised for his sin, you know, his sin and the generations of sin before them and slaving the Israelites, he could have said, you know what? This God is real and we're going to go with them. Yeah. And the Lord, it would have been exactly like this, but they would have stayed there. The promise of Genesis 12, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and Pharaoh put himself on the side of cursing rather than on the side of blessing. Not this Pharaoh to his own destruction, the to his own destruction. This Pharaoh in Joseph's time put himself on the side of blessing and they participate in this Exodus. So he forgot both Joseph that Pharaoh and his forerunner Pharaoh. Right. Yeah. So, you know, at this point, the story fades to black and we think it might be over, right? I mean, especially given the highs that we just kind of ended on, but, you know, there's still one more scene, right? Moses must have watched the return of the King before writing Genesis because there's still more to go and now it's just Joseph and his brothers. And they're suddenly wondering, wait a second, maybe Joseph only tolerated us for these last several years because dad was around. And maybe he is going to finally pay us back for all the evil that we have done to him. So Sam, what happens next here in these closing verses of Genesis? It's kind of like a thesis of the whole book, maybe in the thesis of all of human history. I don't know. I think so. And it's certainly the thesis of the Joseph story. There's so much happening in this passage. So as you mentioned, they think dad's gone, Joseph is going to get us. And I love Joseph's response. He weeps. And we've discussed before the seven episodes of weeping in the Joseph story. That's right. In verse 17, Joseph never weeps for himself. And here again, he weeps, but he weeps out of compassion for his brothers. And I think, again, reading, I think we have warrant to read the story of Joseph typologically is something that points forward to the Messiah. And I think we see here the largeness of God's own heart for us in Christ that he weeps over the idea that he would not be gracious to his brothers. That causes him such pain that it brings him to tears. You want to read for us verses 19 and 20 and just talk about their function. So then Joseph says to them, do not fear for him, I in the place of God, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive. So I want to just mention two. things here. Number one, my brother used this phrase in this sermon, he preached on Genesis 50, and I thought it was beautiful. Joseph was a mighty theologian who learned his theology in the seminary of suffering. And I think that is exactly right. Joseph's theology here is incredible, right? He is articulating what theologians now refer to as compatibleism, which is to say God governs and sovereignly orchestrates all of human history, but and is sovereign over all evil, but never forces anyone to sin or do anything evil. People always choose according to their own desires. Joseph's brothers here desire evil, but God sovereignly orchestrates these events to ensure that people are kept alive. And of course this reminds us of Acts 2 and Acts 4, where we find the early church praying that the Lord was sovereign over the death of Jesus on the cross, even as wicked men perpetrated that act, but the Lord does that in order to save many people. Now the second thing I want to notice just quickly is the way that this passage over turns what we saw in the Garden of Eden with Adam. We've already seen Joseph as an anti-Adam character, you might say, in Genesis 39 when he refuses to listen to the voice of Potiphar's wife, right? And Adam didn't do that. He listened to the voice of his wife and fell into sin. Well, here again, we have another anti-Adam story because what is Joseph doing? Notice what he says, "Am I in the place of God?" What was Satan's temptation to Adam and Eve? You will be like God. Joseph is refusing that status. Joseph is putting himself in a place of submission under God's authority, and then notice the Lexline, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. Evil and good, good and evil. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. Here, Joseph is saying, "I'm not in the place of God. God is the one who is sovereign over good and evil. God is the one who can bring good out of evil." And so I think it's this beautiful picture of how Joseph again resolves one of the major themes of the book of Genesis and brings this whole story to a beautiful conclusion. That is magnificent. And there's more. There's more because when Joseph says, "Am I in the place of God," these are the exact words that Jacob spoke to Rachel. So back in Genesis 30, Rachel says to Jacob, "Give me children or I die." And that picks up with that whole barren woman if she doesn't have children. Her line dies. And Jacob responds to her, "Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the power of life and death?" And there's this conflict between Jacob and his wife, Rachel, about Rachel's demand that he do something like God. And here, Joseph is, it's almost like he's taking that same question, but he's putting it right. And he's resolving the conflict as he says, "God is the one who will forgive and God is the one who will do justice." So he says, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God?" And then when he says, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive." That language of kept alive is the language that we saw in the flood narrative. So Noah was to build the ark to keep many alive. And now Joseph has been brought down into Egypt in his book on the Exodus. Morales compares Egypt to shale. And it's almost like Joseph has gone down into the place of the dead, out of the clean realm of life, into the unclean realm of the dead, in order to preserve life. And this language of kept alive, again, is another point of contact between Genesis 3 and this passage. You will be like God, knowing good and evil, surely you will not die, right? And of course, their actions lead them exactly to death. But here Joseph in submitting himself to the sovereignty of God, by not putting himself in the place of God, by recognizing that God is the one with the power over good and evil, brings about life. What in the book? It's amazing. What a book. Well, it's not a book. And I want to note, and I want to note, the very last phrase of verse 21, he spoke kindly to them, which of course again reminds us of 37-4, where the brothers could not speak to. Hecibly to Joseph. But now Joseph speaks kindly to his brothers. And again, I think here a picture, this is a picture of the Savior who speaks kindly to those who did not speak kindly of him. And who provides for them. Exactly right. Well, we think it's over, but it, we got one more. It's like Mary and Pippin are just chatting. And it gets better. It's better. It gets better. Jim, here's the epilogue of the book there, in verses 22 to 26. And honestly, it is kind of bizarrely given what's come before, because Joseph dies, but he doesn't want to be buried in the cave you think he would. And so at least he doesn't want to be buried there yet. So Jim, read for us, verses 24 to 26. Well, I don't want to skip verse 23. Okay. So verse 23 says Joseph saw a Freyam's children of the third generation, the children also of Machia, the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. And I think that when Isaiah 53 tells us he shall see his seed. We're meant to think back to this passage. And we're meant to think of the servant. He will see his seed, his offspring, the way that Joseph saw not only his own sons, but their son's sons. And then verse 24, Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob." Now, I love that. What did Matt say? Joseph is a mighty theologian. And he learned to see the theology and the seminary of suffering. Yeah. I think he's also learned from what Moses has written to this point. He knows the story. And I think he knows that there was like a type of the Exodus from Egypt in Abraham's life. And then there was another a kind of type of the Exodus from Egypt in Jacob's life, and we could throw in. In over time, as well. There you go. Genesis 24. Yep. So Joseph knows God has promised the land. We are now in Egypt, but God is going to visit us. And he's going to do something like what he did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the life of their descendants. He's going to be. So the patterns of the past are projected into the future and activated by the promises of God for Joseph to essentially prophesy the Exodus from Egypt here. When it's important to remember that these opening five books are the of the Bible are one book. Yes, written by one author. So you know, it could maybe be like a bummer reading this thinking like, well, goodness, after all of God's magnificent promises and and providences, Israel's favorite son, you know, Joseph is just going to be in a box in a foreign land. Like he's going to be bones in a box in Egypt. And you know, there's a 400 year gap between Genesis 50 and Exodus 1. But for the people that it was written to, like, they're on the other side of this. So they know God's faithfulness in this moment. Well, in verse 25, Joseph made the sons of Israel swear saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here. So when it happens, you take me out of this shield, this realm of the dead and you put me in the clean realm of life where I anticipate being raised from the dead. As Jim said, Joseph's death signals the Exodus that is to come, right? It's it's almost in a way a down payment that the Lord is going to do this work. I think we see that not only in Joseph's words, we see Hebrews 11, 22 interprets these words as saying that very thing. But there's also something else interesting going on in this passage. The end of 49, the death of Jacob up into the end of 50 is basically a chiasm, right? So it's these it's these matching parts that go throughout the story. So at the beginning of that, you have the death of Jacob, which corresponds to the last words of Joseph. And they basically, in both the last words of Jacob and the last words of Joseph, they ask for the same thing. They ask that their bodies be taken back to the land of Canaan. Then you have a section where Joseph appeals to Pharaoh and then a corresponding section where Joseph brothers appeal to Joseph, so these dialogue sections. And then at the center of this chiasm is Jacob's funeral. So what you have is an Exodus story, right? The funeral of Jacob at the center of this chiasm. It's precipitated by Jacob's last words asking that his body be taken to the land of Canaan. Here we have, at the end of the story, Joseph's last words asking that his body be taken to Canaan. And just as Jacob's last word, last words ended with or resulted in an Exodus of his body going back into the promised land. So also Joseph's last words are signaling that the Lord is going to use his death ultimately to bring the people of Israel back into the promised land. And it's intriguing the immediate one. It's not an immediate one. It's in the future, but it is intriguing how Joseph's bones that he has to be taken back to the land are mentioned at the beginning and at the end of the Exodus story. So in Exodus 1319, Joseph's bones are exhumed and taken with the caravan that's heading into the land of Canaan. And then in Joshua 2432, as Jim read earlier, they're buried in the land of Canaan after the conquest. So it's like Joseph's bones frame the entire story of the Exodus. And I think what that shows us is that Joseph's request anticipates not only that God is going to save them from the land of Egypt. He anticipates that God is going to save them from sin and death because again, why would he want his bones taken to the land of Canaan unless he expected those bones to be back on that ground at some point in the future? He anticipates a resurrection that is to come. So this request isn't just anticipating a physical Exodus. It's anticipating an Exodus from sin and death. Joseph expects to stand on this earth. Friends with that, we close our conversation on the book of Genesis. And we do remember Psalm 111, verse 2. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Thank you so much.