{"id":25840,"date":"2024-12-28T16:34:26","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T22:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/genesis-185-prophecy-and-inheritance\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:18:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T15:18:40","slug":"genesis-186-prophecy-and-inheritance","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/genesis-186-prophecy-and-inheritance\/","title":{"rendered":"Genesis 186 \u2013 Prophecy and Inheritance"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[12],"series_event":[511],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-25840","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-genesis","series_event-genesis","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Genesis 186 \u2013 Prophecy and Inheritance","sermon_date":"20241229","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2024","sermon_notes":25838,"sermon_slides":25842,"sermon_mp3":25845,"sermon_id":"12292411483310","series_or_event":511,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":12,"chapter_and_verse":"48:21-22","sermon_transcript":"

Genesis 186<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Genesis 48:21-22<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Prophecy and Inheritance<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

December 29, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Dr. Andy Woods<\/strong><\/p>\r\nLet's take our Bibles this morning and open them to Genesis 48:21-22.\u00a0 Hopefully we'll be able to finish Genesis 48 this morning.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is \"Prophecy and Inheritance.\"\u00a0 If you've been tracking with us in our verse-by-verse teaching through Genesis, we are in that section where Joseph is the main character.\u00a0 We're towards the end of that section where Jacob, Joseph's father, is blessing Joseph's sons\u2014those would be Manasseh and Ephraim, born to Joseph in Egypt, that Jacob until now has never met.\u00a0 So Jacob adopts them, Genesis 48:1-17.\u00a0 He blesses them, Genesis 48:8-20.\u00a0 And then Genesis 48 ends with a prediction.\u00a0 There's some short-term prediction here, and there's a long-term prediction.\u00a0 The long-term prediction pertains to something coming yet future: the Exodus.\u00a0 So Genesis 48:21 is the Exodus prophecy that Jacob gives.\r\n\r\nThen just before Jacob dies, he does one other thing for Joseph.\u00a0 Jacob adds to Joseph's inheritance above and beyond what the other brothers will receive.\u00a0 And you'll see that in Genesis 48:22.\u00a0 But notice, first of all, this Exodus prophecy, Genesis 48:21-22.\u00a0 There's a short-term prophecy here\u2014short run.\u00a0 Jacob makes a prediction about his death; and then a long-term prophecy yet to be fulfilled, about 400 years into the future, in which he will predict a major event in Israel's history called the Exodus.\r\n\r\nNotice, first of all, this short-term prophecy, Genesis 48:21, \"Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Behold, I am about to die.' \"<\/em> Now these predictions that Jacob is making are going to fit really well, as you'll see next week, because next week we start Jacob's final words to his sons\u2014the Twelve Tribes\u2014just prior to his death.\u00a0 The twelve sons will become the Twelve Tribes.\u00a0 Genesis 49:1 (to be covered next week) says, \"Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, 'Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come.' \"<\/em> So lots of predictions and prophecies are coming in Genesis 49.\u00a0 So it's not a big shock that we should find more predictions and prophecies, to introduce the subject, at the end of Genesis 48.\r\n\r\nJacob here makes a prediction.\u00a0 He says, basically, \"I'm going to die.\"\u00a0 We know that that prediction happened because over in Genesis 49:33, it says this: \"When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.\"\u00a0 <\/em>The fact that Jacob makes a prediction about his death that happened in a relatively short period of time, a short-term prophecy, certainly gives us confidence that the long-term prophecies that are recorded in Genesis 49 will come to pass as well.\u00a0 This is how your Bible is set up.\u00a0 Your Bible does not expect you to believe God's long-term prophecies just because they're in your Bible.\u00a0 Now, if you believe them, then praise the Lord.\u00a0 But the Bible has been written in such a way that it's not a leap into a dark chasm, but gives us a prophetic track record.\r\n\r\nIn other words, if I'm standing at the free throw line and I make nine shots in a row\u2014and my coaches would be shocked if that ever happened, but let's just pretend\u2014nine shots in a row, nothing but net; and then I say to you, \"Can I make the tenth one?\"\u00a0 Well, you say, \"Of course, because you've got a track record to look at.\"\u00a0 That's essentially how your Bible is set up.\u00a0 The short-term prediction in Genesis 48:21 is going to give us confidence that the long-term predictions at the end of Genesis 48 and in Genesis 49 will materialize as well.\r\n\r\nJesus did this kind of thing constantly with people.\u00a0 In the Olivet Discourse given on the Mount of Olives, Jesus made some predictions about the temple that the disciples were impressed by.\u00a0 It says in Matthew 24:1-2,\r\n\r\n\"Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.\u00a0 And He said to them, 'Do you not see all these things?\u00a0 Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\nThe temple was going to be torn apart, brick by brick, stone by stone, which happened at the hands of the Romans about forty years after Jesus made that statement.\u00a0 We know from extra biblical sources like the writings of Josephus, that when the Romans came in the horrific events of A.D. 70, the temple caught on fire.\u00a0 The gold within the temple began to melt, and it oozed down between the stones and dried there.\u00a0 And the Roman soldiers, to get their hands on the gold, took the temple apart stone by stone, exactly as Jesus said would happen.\u00a0 You can visit Israel today and see the remains of that prediction.\r\n\r\nSo that is a prophecy in the short run that happened.\u00a0 So when the Lord beginning in Matthew 24:3, all the way through the end of Matthew 25, starts making long-term predictions, we say to ourselves, \"We had better pay attention to those, because what Jesus said in the short run happened, and His abilities to be a prophet did not switch horses in midstream.\u00a0 He is one hundred percent accurate in everything that He says.\"\u00a0 This is why these verses are set up the way they are.\u00a0 You have a short-term prediction of Jacob's death, which is going to happen in Genesis 49:33.\u00a0 Jacob at this time is 147 years old: Genesis 47:28 says that.\u00a0 And when we see that short-term prophecy happening, we can say, \"Well, everything that's coming at the end of Genesis 48 and into Genesis 49, we had better pay attention to.\"\r\n\r\nYou know, we're all moving into this new year, New Year's resolutions, new goals, new reading material.\u00a0 I'm going to keep suggesting to you this book to work your way through in the new year.\u00a0 It's by Dr. John Walvoord.\u00a0 It's called Every Prophecy of the Bible<\/em>, and it's a tracking of all of the short-term prophecies that have happened in Scripture.\u00a0 And you read through that book and you say, \"Wow, God means what He says and says what He means; I had better pay attention to the long-term prophecies, because the short-term prophecies sure had a tendency to take place exactly, literally.\u00a0 Can I use that word as God said?\"\r\n\r\nAnd so here is just a short-term prophecy.\u00a0 \"Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Behold, I am about to die.' \"<\/em> Why is it that we keep going through the Book of Genesis and it keeps talking about people dying?\u00a0 I mean, that's kind of depressing, isn't it?\u00a0 You might recall that when we were back in Genesis 5, that pre-Flood generation, it just kept saying over and over again, \"And he died,\" \"And he died,\" \"And he died,\" \"And he died,\" \"And he died.\"\r\n\r\nWell, the reason people keep dying is that that's what God said would happen.\u00a0 That's another prediction in and of itself.\u00a0 God is not the author of death.\u00a0 Death is looked at in the Bible as an unwanted intruder into what God originally designed.\u00a0 But God was very clear to our forebearers that if you eat from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.\u00a0 In other words, if you use your free will to rebel against me, death will envelop the human race.\u00a0 That command was given in Genesis 2:16-17.\r\n\r\n\"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\nSpiritual death, separation from God, happened at that point.\u00a0 And that's not the end product, because physical death quickly followed.\u00a0 Genesis 3:19 says,\r\n\r\n\" 'By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\nAnd ever since that point in time, physical death has plagued the human race.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 says,\r\n\r\n\"For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.\u00a0 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nThe reality in our world is constant death.\u00a0 I mean, we do whatever we can to ignore this because it's an uncomfortable subject for us.\u00a0 You know, we can put our bodies through all kinds of programs to make us look better.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is, we're all dying.\u00a0 Even as I speak, we're dying.\u00a0 Why are we dying?\u00a0 Because God said that would happen.\u00a0 \"Well, wait a minute, pastor, you know, I drink all that green stuff every morning.\"\u00a0 \"Well, congratulations.\u00a0 You've got a bunch of green stuff going through a dying body.\"\u00a0 Romans 5:12 says, \"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.\"\u00a0 <\/em>Romans 6:23 you know well, \"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nAnd consequently, every person within the sound of my voice is going to die.\u00a0 The mortality rate is still one hundred percent.\u00a0 Now, we may be fortunate, like Enoch in the Old Testament, who escaped death because he was taken to heaven in a personal Rapture (there is an event yet future that God promises called the Rapture.) I'm going to be trying to do a Rapture seminar on January 10, if you're interested\u2014it should be live streamed\u2014for the 3DTC group, of which my daughter is part.\u00a0 We're going to be talking about the Rapture.\u00a0 It's kind of interesting that it's going to take all day to talk about the Rapture, whereas the Rapture is going to take place in an instant.\u00a0 What will take place in an instant requires an all-day discussion, right?\r\n\r\nIf we are the Rapture generation, we may well escape death.\u00a0 I hope we're the Rapture generation.\u00a0 I have a tendency to think we are, but I can't guarantee that, of course.\u00a0 If we're not the Rapture generation, then all of us will face physical death.\u00a0 When the clock or the calendar changed last year, you know, my father was alive, my father-in-law was alive.\u00a0 And here I am at the end of 2024 and both have passed on to be with the Lord.\u00a0 I didn't expect it nor anticipate it, but that's what happened.\u00a0 And given enough time, all of us will die.\r\n\r\nHebrews 9:27 says, \"And inasmuch as it is appointed.\"\u00a0 <\/em>Notice that it's like going to the grocery store and you got a stamp on the carton that says, \"Not good after such and such a date\"\u2014the expiration date.\u00a0 All of us have been stamped with an expiration date.\u00a0 \"And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nNow, the world out there has virtually no explanation for this, other than crazy ideas like survival of the fittest and Reincarnation\u2014you know, if you die, you come back as some kind of prominent person if you were a good boy or girl in the first life.\u00a0 I noticed that all these people that believe in Reincarnation always say that they were Cleopatra, or something like that, in the prior life.\u00a0 Nobody says, \"You know, I was a gas station attendant,\" or anything.\u00a0 They all talk about these prominent roles they once had in the prior life.\r\n\r\nBut the truth of the matter is, that's just man's folly\u2014man's finite philosophy\u2014trying to get comfortable with an idea that the Bible says will be an absolute reality once sin enters the picture, which it did in Genesis 3.\u00a0 It's so heartening to discover that God has a plan and a program whereby death itself will exit the cosmos.\u00a0 Revelation 21:4 says,\r\n\r\n\"and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nThat's speaking of the final two chapters in the Bible\u2014Revelation 21-22\u2014where death will be a thing of the past because of the work of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So what is happening today and what has been happening ever since the fall in Eden is an abnormality: things related to death are not God's design.\u00a0 We brought that upon ourselves through our own rebellion against God, and God said that would happen.\u00a0 So Genesis 3 all the way through Revelation 20 is an abnormality.\u00a0 If you want to understand what's normal, read Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22.\u00a0 That's normal.\u00a0 And how different the perspective of the Bible is with the philosophies of the age which teach that destruction, war, death\u2014all of these problems that we have\u2014are normal.\u00a0 The Bible is saying that they are not normal, they are abnormal.\u00a0 And things are going to be set right in a city (called the New Jerusalem), as we rebelled against God in a garden.\u00a0 That's really the story of the Bible.\u00a0 It's from a garden to a city with a cross in between.\u00a0 The garden is normal.\u00a0 The New Jerusalem is normal.\u00a0 Everything in between is abnormal.\u00a0 And when you have that perspective, you realize that evil is limited\u2014it's finite, it's bound.\r\n\r\nI don't know if you saw that terrible story that hit the news\u2014I think that it was last week\u2014of a person that was burned to death on a New York subway.\u00a0 And you're wondering, \"What in the world is going on here?\u00a0 How could such a thing happen?\"\u00a0 What is encouraging from the Biblical perspective, is that things like that are on their way out.\u00a0 Because when God remakes our world and creates a new heavens and new earth, death and atrocities like that won't happen anymore.\u00a0 That's what gives us hope in the present age: when we see all of these atrocities happen, we just say to ourselves, \"These are abnormal.\u00a0 This is not what God designed.\u00a0 This is not what God intended.\u00a0 We brought these consequences\u2014sin and death\u2014largely on ourselves, living in this fallen world.\u00a0 But the day is going to come when those things will be a thing of the past.\"\r\n\r\nAnd so we can function with hope in a hopeless age when we have this perspective.\u00a0 The world can't function that way because they don't have the right framework.\u00a0 And if you don't have the right framework, you don't have any hope.\u00a0 We would call this eschatological hope.\u00a0 So the world tries to handle these kinds of things by trying to numb the pain.\u00a0 You know, give me more parties, give me more alcohol, give me more drugs.\u00a0 Give me anything to numb the reality that I'm seeing all around me.\u00a0 But the Christian need not do that because Jesus is the ultimate Victor, and what is happening now is an abnormality.\r\n\r\nSo Jacob is ready to die because God said that all human beings\u2014other than Enoch and the Rapture generation, etc.\u2014will die.\u00a0 And Jacob makes a prediction about his own death.\u00a0 Then he moves more to a long-term prediction about the Exodus.\u00a0 Also in Genesis 48:21 it says,\r\n\r\n\"Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\nNotice that Jacob emphasizes the fact that \" 'God will be with you.' \"<\/em> That's a wonderful thing as a Christian.\u00a0 Once you are a Christian and have trusted in the work of the Savior, you can't get rid of God if you want to\u2014He is inside you forever.\u00a0 Now, we can grieve Him when He's inside us.\u00a0 We can quench His power.\u00a0 We can get out of fellowship with Him.\u00a0 But we can't get rid of Him, because \"once saved, always saved.\"\r\n\r\nJesus Himself talked about this in the Upper Room.\u00a0 He said, \" 'I will ask the Father' \"<\/em>\u2014to the disciples who were panicked about Jesus leaving\u2014\" 'I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper,' \"<\/em>\u2014the Greek there is Paraclete [parakletos<\/em>], the one who comes alongside to assist\u2014\" 'that He' \"<\/em>\u2014that's the Holy Spirit\u2014\" 'may be with you<\/em> for 24 hours' \"\u2014it doesn't say that\u2014\" 'forever.' \"<\/em> Forever <\/em>is the Greek word aionios<\/em>, used to describe God Himself as the eternal God in Romans 16:26.\r\n\r\nIn other words, just as God Himself is eternal, once a person has trusted in Christ, their body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit forever.\u00a0 That is the basis of Paul's treatment of morality in 1 Corinthians 6, where the Corinthians were suing each other.\u00a0 They were going to the pagan temples to have these sexual experiences in the name of religion.\u00a0 And Paul, when he deals with that moral problem, he doesn't say, \"You guys need to get saved,\" because they were saved.\u00a0 Their body was the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 What he says is, \"Do you not understand?\"\u2014meaning, \"Do you not know that when you involve yourself in these things, you're dragging Jesus and the Holy Spirit with you into those activities?\u00a0 You're grieving the Holy Spirit within you, because the Holy Spirit is within you forever.\"\r\n\r\nThis is a different way of looking at morality, rather than constantly threatening people: \"You're going to hell.\"\u00a0 \"You never were saved.\"\u00a0 \"You lost your salvation.\"\u2014all these kinds of things that we hear about all the time from the world of religion.\u00a0 Paul says, \"You just dragged Jesus with you into that sin and you're grieving his heart.\u00a0 Don't you know this?\"\u00a0 In other words, \"You should have learned this a long time ago\u2014this doctrine of eternal security.\"\r\n\r\n\" 'I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\nOnce a person gets saved, the Holy Spirit is with that person forever, and He's inside of them, and their body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 So no matter where you go or what you do, God is always with you.\u00a0 That's what I'm reminded of there, when Jacob says to Joseph, \" 'God will be with you.' \"<\/em> You couldn't lose God if you wanted to.\u00a0 And what is this God going to do for you?\u00a0 \" 'God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhat does it mean here when it says \" 'the land of your fathers' \"<\/em>?\u00a0 It's the real estate that God promised Abraham all the way back in Genesis 15\u2014attractive real estate from modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq, from the Nile to the Euphrates.\u00a0 God made this promise over and over again: \"You're going right back into Canaan.\"\u00a0 And at the time this prediction was made, they weren't in Canaan.\u00a0 They were in the land of Egypt.\u00a0 And yet, Jacob says, \"It's just a matter of time before God brings you back into the land of your fathers, because you have that as the nation of Israel by way of covenant.\"\u00a0 He doesn't say, \"You might make it back in.\"\u00a0 or \"You could make it back in.\"\u00a0 He says, \"God'will bring you back.' \"<\/em> \" 'God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers.' \"<\/em> God has to keep this promise because that's what He promised to do in the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 By the way, you'll notice here that the land that is promised to them is not called Palestine: it's called \"the land of their fathers.\"\r\n\r\nThe name Palestine<\/em> is a word that was given to the Land of Israel after the Israelis were evicted from the land at the hands of the Romans.\u00a0 That name was developed in the second century A.D., Palestine<\/em> being a derivative of Philistine<\/em>.\u00a0 In other words, Hadrian, Emperor Hadrian, who came up with that term, used an anti-Semitic slur naming the land of promise after the Philistines to mock the Jewish people and pretend that there was never a Jewish presence in the land.\u00a0 And yet your Bible never uses the word Palestine<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, when we use the word Palestine<\/em>, we're actually using an anti-Semitic slur without fully understanding it.\r\n\r\nThat is why one of the things that has added to my gray hair (which is more frequent these days than it used to be, like when you look at some pictures of yourself a few years back) is seeing all of these study Bibles use the word Palestine<\/em>, which is a non-biblical word.\u00a0 It's an anti-Semitic word.\u00a0 Why would you even use that in a study Bible?\u00a0 It's not Palestine.\u00a0 This is the Land of Israel.\r\n\r\nAnd so the youth of America today, as they're protesting on the campuses, think that it is the land of Palestine.\u00a0 And they chant, \"From the river to the sea.\"\u00a0 What river, what sea?\u00a0 The Jordan to the Mediterranean.\u00a0 \"From the river to the sea, the land of Palestine will be free.\"\u00a0 And what they're essentially arguing for is that the Jewish presence today in the land needs to be eradicated.\u00a0 They don't belong there.\u00a0 And I say, \"Nonsense.\u00a0 God gave them that land.\"\u00a0 That's why we came up with our own slogan.\u00a0 I think we have some of these in the back.\u00a0 You can put these on your car, by the way.\u00a0 We've experimented.\u00a0 Wouldn't it be great if we drove in here next week and every car had this on it?\u00a0 It says, \"From the river to the sea, the Land of Israel will always be.\"\u00a0 That's our counter to the idea, \"From the river to the sea, the land of Palestine will be free.\"\r\n\r\nSo the promise is that you're going to come out of Egypt and you're going to go right back, not into Palestine (which is a fictional name) but you're going to go back to the land of your fathers.\u00a0 You're going to go back into the land that God specifically gave in the Abrahamic Covenant to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\u00a0 This is a promise that is featured over and over again, and it's actually a prediction of the Exodus.\u00a0 Genesis 46:4 says, \" 'I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will close your eyes.' \"<\/em> God told Jacob, \"You're going to go into Egypt.\u00a0 It's all right.\u00a0 Your people aren't going to stay there forever.\u00a0 There's going to be about a 400-year time period, and then you're going to come out of Egypt, and you're going to go right back into the land of Canaan that God granted to Abraham.\"\u00a0 And the process of them leaving Egypt and going back into Canaan is a very significant event called the Exodus.\r\n\r\nThe Exodus is the greatest redemptive event in human history other than the Cross of Christ.\u00a0 Other than the Cross of Christ, there is no greater act of God involving redemption.\u00a0 What does redemption<\/em> mean?\u00a0 Redemption<\/em> means to release from bondage: in the Exodus, through the sacrificial blood of an innocent sacrifice\u2014the Passover lamb.\u00a0 The Passover lamb, as we will study in the Book of Exodus, is the blood that was spilled because it broke Pharaoh's back ultimately, and allowed him, forced him, really\u2014impelled him\u2014to release the Jewish people.\u00a0 The blood of the Passover lamb: plague number ten.\u00a0 God said on Passover, \"I'm going to kill all of your firstborn all over Egypt.\u00a0 But the ones that I see that have the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost\u2014they'll be exempted from plague ten.\"\u00a0 And once God did that, Pharaoh said, \"I quit, I give up.\"\u00a0 It broke his will.\u00a0 And he released the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage.\u00a0 Now, he had a change of mind, of course.\u00a0 God fixed that through the Red sea drowning.\u00a0 But initially it broke his back.\u00a0 It broke his will.\u00a0 He released God's people.\u00a0 They were released from bondage en route to Canaan because of the blood of the innocent sacrifice, the Passover lamb.\r\n\r\nThat's what redemption is.\u00a0 You have no greater treatment of redemption than in the Book of Exodus, second only to the Cross of Christ.\u00a0 The New Testament is going to come along, and it's going to throw this word redemption<\/em> at you, but it will not redefine it.\u00a0 It's expected that the reader already understands redemption by studying the Old Testament that we call Hebrew Bible.\u00a0 God did the same exact thing in your life.\u00a0 He released you from satanic bondage, and He transferred your citizenship into the kingdom of His beloved Son through the blood of an innocent sacrifice, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That has already been pictured or portrayed in the Book of Exodus, the Exodus event, which is the greatest redemptive event in history, second only to what Jesus did.\r\n\r\nWhen you get to the New Testament, you should be able to say, \"Oh, that's what it's all about, because I've already read the first book and I go to Sugar Land Bible Church, where the pastor spends five years in Genesis.\u00a0 I get it, I understand it.\"\u00a0 This is how God desires to work.\u00a0 And so all the way through the Book of Genesis, we've been seeing predictions and prophecies of this coming Exodus event.\u00a0 We saw it as early as Genesis 15:13-16, which says,\r\n\r\n\"God said to Abram, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.\u00a0 But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.\u00a0 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.\u00a0 Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"There's going to be some squatters in the land.\u00a0 And Joshua, you have permission to go into the land and execute every single one of them, but not yet, because I'm giving these people in the land an opportunity to repent 400 years.\"\u00a0 That's what it means here when it says, \" 'The iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.' \"<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"Oh, and by the way, these predictions are so specific that when you come out of the land of Egypt en route to Canaan, you're going to come out with many possessions.\u00a0 Here is the predicted route that would happen 400 years in advance.\u00a0 You're going to be released through plague number ten out of Egypt.\u00a0 You'll make your way to Mount Sinai to receive the law.\u00a0 And then from there, you'll make your way into Canaan.\u00a0 And by the way, when you come out of Egypt, you're going to come out loaded.\u00a0 You're not going to have to worry about finances or provision in this sense that the Egyptians are going to voluntarily give you their possessions as you leave.\"\r\n\r\nIsn't that amazing?\u00a0 I mean, who could orchestrate something like this other than God?\u00a0 Look at the language of this prophecy again in Genesis 15.\u00a0 \" 'They will come out with many possessions.' \"<\/em> Guess what happened?\u00a0 They came out with many possessions.\u00a0 Exodus 12:35-36 records the fulfillment of this.\u00a0 It says,\r\n\r\n\"Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request.\u00a0 Thus they plundered the Egyptians.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nThey took their money, a big chunk of it, with them.\u00a0 Now this plundering of the Egyptians is very misused today because people say, \"Well, they took their philosophies with them.\u00a0 They took their theology of the Egyptians with them.\"\u00a0 And that becomes the basis where people try to mix the Bible with worldly philosophy, humanistic psychology, Darwinism.\u00a0 You know, let's kind of mix it all together, you know, because after all, the Israelis plundered the Egyptians.\u00a0 Well, that's not what the Bible says.\u00a0 The Bible says they didn't take the philosophies with them.\u00a0 They took the metal.\u00a0 And even some of that wasn't helpful to them because they used it to make a what, a golden calf.\u00a0 That's where the money came from to make this golden calf.\r\n\r\nAt this point, just recognize that this Exodus is a big deal because it foreshadows what Jesus would ultimately do.\u00a0 And all the prophecies involving the Exodus, right down to the plundering of the Egyptians were fulfilled exactly like God said\u2014the power of predictive prophecy.\u00a0 So Genesis 48:21 is this Exodus prophecy.\r\n\r\nGenesis 48:22 is something else Joseph got out of this walk with God.\u00a0 He got an additional inheritance that his brothers did not get.\u00a0 And so we read about that in Genesis 48:22, Jacob's gift to Joseph, first part of Genesis 48:22.\u00a0 And then how did Jacob get his hands on this thing that he gave to Joseph?\u00a0 Second part of Genesis 48:22.\u00a0 So notice, if you will, Genesis 48:22.\u00a0 Notice what it says, Jacob now still speaking to Joseph prophetically.\u00a0 In the midst of that he says this, \" 'I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.' \"<\/em> \"So you get something else.\"\u00a0 I'll show you in a minute that it's something called Jacob's Well in the land of Canaan, given to Joseph.\r\n\r\nNotice how the Joseph story starts all the way back in Genesis 37, and notice how the Joseph story ends all the way in Genesis 48.\u00a0 I mean, what got Joseph in trouble with his brothers to begin with is that Jacob gave Joseph an extra gift.\u00a0 Remember the coat of many colors?\u00a0 Genesis 37:3 says, \"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic.\"\u00a0 <\/em>So because Joseph got something beyond the rest, that provoked jealousy on the part of Joseph's brothers which led to Joseph's sojourn in Egypt, which is what all these chapters are about.\u00a0 And then notice how the story of Joseph is ending here, with Joseph getting more than the rest.\r\n\r\nWhy does Joseph keep getting more than the rest?\u00a0 Because Jacob made a sovereign decision.\u00a0 He loved Joseph perhaps a bit more than the others, Joseph being a very, very special son.\u00a0 And that provided a lot of jealousy for the brothers.\u00a0 So before the brothers figured out that Joseph was still alive in Egypt, when they didn't really know Joseph's identity, Joseph was constantly testing them in this regard and giving extra blessings to Benjamin, whom they thought was the youngest because they thought that Joseph had died.\u00a0 Are these the same brothers that got jealous and betrayed me so many years ago?\u00a0 Joseph is trying to figure out\u2014that's why these extra blessings from Joseph keep coming to Benjamin.\u00a0 You might recall Genesis 43:34,\r\n\r\n\"He took portions to them from his own table, but Benjamin\u2019s portion was five times as much as any of theirs.\u00a0 So they feasted and drank freely with him.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"Hey, why does Benjamin get five times the food we get?\"\u00a0 I don't think Joseph did that because he wanted to put his brothers on a diet or something.\u00a0 He just wanted to give an extra blessing to Benjamin to see if these are the same jealous brothers that betrayed him years back.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 What's interesting about this is that the brothers passed the test.\u00a0 They weren't going to let jealousy control them.\u00a0 That's why it says here, \"So they feasted and drank freely with him.\"\u00a0 <\/em>And you would think the brothers would rise up against this situation.\u00a0 But they don't, because they've grown.\u00a0 They've matured.\u00a0 This is not the same jealous, murderous crowd that they were years ago.\u00a0 Their character has changed.\u00a0 And isn't that what it's all about?\u00a0 You know, \"I'm not the man that I should be, but I thank God that I'm not the man I used to be.\"\r\n\r\nThis is what I want the Lord to do in my life in the year 2025.\u00a0 \"Lord, take me to a different level of maturity.\u00a0 Help me not to be dominated in 2025 by the exact same sins that controlled my life in the walk of sanctification that dominated my life last year.\u00a0 You know I want to be different.\u00a0 I want my character to be different.\u00a0 I don't want to be motivated by jealousy or whatever particular sin you find knocking at your door: bitterness\u2014resentment\u2014anger.\u00a0 I don't want to just keep going back to these same thought processes over and over again.\u00a0 I want to mature.\u00a0 I know, Lord, I won't be sinless, but work in my heart in such a way that I will sin less.\u00a0 Sinlessness probably isn't going to happen this side of eternity, but I want to sin less.\"\r\n\r\nAnd that's the type of growth that you see here in these brothers who would become the progenitors of Israel's Twelve Tribes.\u00a0 These guys were terrible to Joseph, but they weren't the same later, as God was at work in their lives.\u00a0 And this shows us that we can all grow as Christians.\u00a0 This is one of the problems I have with these kind of personality profiles that you can take, you're this personality, you're that personality, and they put you in a box as if you're in that box forever, as if God can't change your personality\u2014if you're impatient, God can't make you a patient person.\u00a0 What's interesting about the walk with God is that you're not in a box.\u00a0 I mean, how could you be in a box when you're dealing with an all-powerful God, who has the ability to work in our lives and change us in such a way that our character is morphed and changed into the image of His Son.\u00a0 That is not a justification issue or a birth issue\u2014that's a growth issue.\u00a0 And what a great time to think about that as we contemplate the new year.\r\n\r\nJoseph here got a portion.\u00a0 In fact, if you look at Genesis 48:22, \" 'I give you one portion more than your brothers.' \"<\/em> Actually, in Hebrew, from that word portion<\/em>, you get the word Shechem<\/em>.\u00a0 Arnold Fruchtenbaum says this,\r\n\r\n\"In 48:22, Jacob gave a special inheritance to Joseph: Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brethren<\/em>.\u00a0 This may refer to the double portion given to the firstborn; and therefore, instead of being the father of one tribe, he became the father of two tribes.\u00a0 The Hebrew text reads shechem<\/em>, translated as portion<\/em>, but it is also the name of the City of Shechem.\u00a0 Therefore, this word might very well be a reference to the City of Shechem where Jacob bought a parcel of ground (Gen.\u00a0 33:19).\u00a0 Thus Jacob gave that parcel of ground that he bought by the City of Shechem to the ownership of Joseph.\"\r\n\r\nSo for whatever reason, Genesis 33:19 records Jacob purchasing a tract of land in the land of Canaan: \"He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem\u2019s father, for one hundred pieces of money.\"\u00a0 <\/em>In other words, \"As you make your way back into the land, there's something very special that you and your lineage receives, Joseph.\u00a0 And that's this portion of land that I purchased from the Shechemites going all the way back to Genesis 33:19.\u00a0 In fact, that word portion<\/em> there is actually the word for Shechem<\/em>, where this transaction was made.\u00a0 In other words, Joseph, you have an inheritance.\u00a0 You have an inheritance above and beyond the rest.\u00a0 And your inheritance is not just your nation going back into the land of Canaan, but it's also a reception of a very special plot of real estate which will be owned by you, meaning you can give it to whomever you want.\"\r\n\r\nIs that not a beautiful picture of our inheritance?\u00a0 Joseph and Israel, traveling back to Canaan to receive an inheritance given to them by God.\u00a0 That's exactly what you have as a Christian.\u00a0 You're passing through a foreign domain.\u00a0 You're passing through pagan domain.\u00a0 We're living in a world that, although God created it, is not functioning the way God ordained, because of original sin.\u00a0 We're passing through the devil's world, but we're headed to a better place.\u00a0 And as you're moving towards that better place, what the New Testament promises you is an inheritance that cannot be defiled.\u00a0 Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 1:3-5.\r\n\r\n\"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhat is an inheritance?\u00a0 An inheritance is something that's legally yours, but you have not yet entered into the enjoyment of it.\u00a0 You will enter into enjoyment of it, but it's legally yours.\u00a0 \"To obtain an inheritance.\"\u00a0 <\/em>\"Well, how do I know it's not going to be stolen?\u00a0 How do I know inflation won't erode its value?\"\u00a0 Because it's a heavenly inheritance that man can't touch or distort or monkey with.\u00a0 It's \"an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"I don't know, Lord.\u00a0 Things are pretty tough down here.\u00a0 How do I really know I'm going to make it to heaven to get this inheritance?\"\u00a0 Glad you asked.\u00a0 1 Peter 1:5, \"who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.\"\u00a0 <\/em>You will get your inheritance.\u00a0 Your life will not run off the rails to such a degree that you'll become disqualified for the inheritance.\u00a0 Because currently you're being protected not through the power of a church, not through the power of an elder board, not through the power of a pastor, not through the power of a parent, not through the power of a boss or of a mentor, but through the power of God, which you entered into by way of \"faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.\"\u2014now, their salvation is being used in the future tense of our glorification.\r\n\r\nDo you want something in your life that you can really feel good about?\u00a0 We all want that.\u00a0 Well, this would be it.\u00a0 You're on a fast track that's unalterable to receive your heavenly inheritance.\u00a0 And it can't be derailed because God Himself is protecting you as you move into that wonderful time when we will arrive into heaven.\u00a0 I think it's amazing how the Bible, in typology, with Joseph receiving this inheritance in Shechem, is used as sort of a prefigurement, or a type, if you will, of our heavenly inheritance.\r\n\r\nBy the way, when Peter wrote these words, you know what this audience that Peter is dealing with here was about to suffer.\u00a0 Flickering into existence was the Neronian persecution, A.D. 64.\u00a0 (when this was written, it had most likely started), which was the first formal persecution of Rome against Christianity.\u00a0 And there was a madman named Nero on the throne that burned Rome to the ground and blamed it on the Christians.\u00a0 Christians were at fault for everything that went wrong in Rome, including Nero's arson project.\u00a0 And this is what launched this terrible wave of persecution against Christians: Nero in his chariot with his under-aged homosexual lover or lovers, would light Christians on fire and say things, as he's moving through Rome on his chariot, like, \"Ah, these Christians, they call themselves the light of the world.\u00a0 Look at them now.\u00a0 You want to be the light of the world?\u00a0 I'll make you the literal light of the world.\u00a0 I'll light you on fire.\"\r\n\r\nIt was Nero who put together the whole concept of the Christian Colosseum, where Christians were thrown to these ravenous beasts and gored to death in front of the cheering masses as a sporting event.\u00a0 That's who Peter is talking to when these words are written.\u00a0 And in that context, he reminds them that they're destined for an inheritance that can't be taken away.\u00a0 Nero can't take it away.\u00a0 Persecution can't take it away, because you're being preserved for it by the power of God.\r\n\r\nThink about that as you move into 2025\u2014your inheritance.\u00a0 Inflation can't take it away.\u00a0 Bad stock market can't take it away.\u00a0 Political events can't take it away.\u00a0 High gas prices can't take it away.\u00a0 Layoffs can't take it away.\u00a0 Personality conflict with someone higher than you in the corporate chain can't take it away.\u00a0 Because it's not they that gave it to you.\u00a0 It's God Himself.\u00a0 And this is the heart of Peter as he's seeking to comfort his flock.\r\n\r\nHow did Jacob get his hands on this parcel of land, anyway?\u00a0 We read a little bit about that earlier in Genesis 33:19, \"He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem\u2019s father, for one hundred pieces of money.\"\u00a0 <\/em>So he had this piece of land, and it was in Shechem.\u00a0 His acquisition of it is in Genesis 33.\u00a0 And he bought it.\u00a0 In fact, the word portion<\/em> there is where we get the word Shechem<\/em>.\u00a0 And here, Jacob, at the end of his life, says to Joseph, \"Here's something you can have above and beyond your brothers.\u00a0 You get this piece of land later called Jacob's Well, because there was a well on that particular property.\"\u00a0 And it's on that particular piece of property that Jesus met a woman from Samaria.\u00a0 The New Testament records this exchange with the Samaritan woman.\u00a0 John 4:5-6 says,\r\n\r\n\"So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob\u2019s well was there.\u00a0 So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well.\u00a0 It was about the sixth hour.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhen you study this in John, it's very interesting.\u00a0 Jesus went way out of his way to get to this well, because He knew that the Samaritan woman was going to be there\u2014a woman that had all the strikes against her.\u00a0 She wasn't the right race because she wasn't fully Hebrew.\u00a0 She was part of this hybrid Samaritan race.\u00a0 She was secondly, a woman.\u00a0 Women in this culture were treated like dirt.\u00a0 That's why the disciples say, \"What are you talking to her for?\"\u00a0 Beyond that, she was immoral, having had five husbands\u2014and the one that she was currently shacking with, she wasn't married to.\u00a0 So you're dealing with someone who is trying to fill the void in their life through promiscuity, which is what we do as human beings.\u00a0 If I don't have the living water of Jesus inside of me, I'll try to fill that void with anything and everything.\u00a0 And the two best artificial substitutes that people go for are power, and or pleasure.\r\n\r\nJesus heads to this well, because He knew that this woman was going to be there.\u00a0 And He makes this statement, \"If you drink from that water, you'll be thirsty again.\u00a0 If you drink from the water that I give, you'll never thirst again.\"\u00a0 In other words, \"All you're doing in your life is you're trying to fill your life with all of these artificial substitutes when you were actually made and born to have a relationship with God.\u00a0 And it's not until you live within your intended design that you'll ever be fulfilled in this life.\u00a0 And as long as you don't have it, you're going to spend the rest of your days trying to find meaning and significance in your life through artificial substitutes, power, pleasure, whatever it is.\"\r\n\r\nIt's just an amazing conversation that takes place.\u00a0 The woman at the well gets saved.\u00a0 She believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the living water enters her.\u00a0 And the whole background for that conversation is this well that Jacob bought from the Shechemites and bequeathed legally to his son Joseph.\r\n\r\nAnd as you read John 4, it's not going to go back into the history and tell you where this well came from.\u00a0 The Bible is not set up that way.\u00a0 The Bible expects you to understand the stories of the New Testament because you've already read the Old Testament.\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 Only in the Book of Genesis do you have any explanation as to where this well came from where this amazing conversation takes place between the incarnate Son of God and somebody that had multiple strikes against her.\u00a0 We would expect that, wouldn't we, in the Book of Genesis, to find the beginning point of that well?\u00a0 After all, the Book of Genesis is the \"Book of Beginnings\": beginning of the universe, beginning of life, beginning of man, of marriage, of evil, of clothing, of religion, of salvation, of language, of government, of nations, of Israel.\u00a0 It all comes to us from the Book of Genesis.\r\n\r\nThis is why Satan himself has attacked the Book of Genesis like no other book in the Bible, because he knows if you can get the foundation, the rest of the Bible will collapse.\u00a0 If you can obscure in the mind of the Christian what the Book of Genesis is saying, then you will steal from them the richness that they will read about in the New Testament.\u00a0 After all, Psalm 11:3 says, \"If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?\"\u00a0 <\/em>There's a reason that Satan attacks this book over and over again.\u00a0 He wants to rob from you the joy of studying the rest of your Bible.\r\n\r\nOne interesting thing, by way of closing, happens here in Genesis 48:22 as Jacob bequeaths this to Joseph. It says this, \" 'which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.' \"<\/em> Now, who are the sword and the bow?\u00a0 I think that they're a reference to Simeon and Levi that went into Shechem, Genesis 34, to vindicate the rape of Dinah, their sister,\u2014into the identical area where Jacob had purchased this piece of property.\u00a0 And they killed everybody.\u00a0 They wiped out the Shechemites.\u00a0 The massacre was so strong that Jacob was displeased with it and said, \"You have made me odious amongst the Canaanites.\u00a0 They're going to spend every single day of their lives trying to kill me.\"\u00a0 And that becomes part of the basis as to why Jacob finally saw the light and left the land of Canaan, and sojourned in the land of Egypt.\r\n\r\nSimeon and Levi, as the Bible portrays it, did an admirable thing in vindicating their sister, but they went way overboard.\u00a0 The punishment did not fit the crime.\u00a0 And this is why Jacob says, \"By the way, that whole area of Shechem has been cleared out\"\u2014I don't think he's proud of that\u2014\"and my sword and my bow did it.\u00a0 Simeon and Levi took care of it.\u00a0 That's why there's not going to be any encumbrances to you, Joseph, when you bequeath this piece of property and well to yours.\"\r\n\r\nWhat's interesting is that when you go to Genesis 49:5-7, you will see that Simeon and Levi did not receive the privilege of being the ones who would bring forth the Messiah.\u00a0 That privilege did not go to the firstborn, Reuben, because he messed up in Genesis 35.\u00a0 And it did not go to Simeon and Levi because they messed up really badly in Genesis 34.\u00a0 The privilege went to the fourth born, Judah, who would be the progenitor of the coming Messiah.\u00a0 And the story of Simeon and Levi tells us that yes, they will be in the Millennial Kingdom, Simeon and Levi, but they lost something.\u00a0 They lost their privilege.\u00a0 They lost a privilege that they could have had, because of their overreaction in Genesis 34.\u00a0 What a warning that is to us, because Paul frequently talks to us about the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ, not a judgment to determine heaven or hell, but a judgment of rewards.\u00a0 And he says this to us,\r\n\r\n\"If any man\u2019s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.\u00a0 If any man\u2019s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nThere are Christians that will arrive in heaven and smell the smoke on their garments\u2014glad to be in heaven, but not fully rewarded the way God wanted because they caved in to the sinful flesh during this life.\u00a0 In the same way, Simeon and Levi are part of that Millennial Kingdom.\u00a0 They didn't lose that, but they forfeited a privilege that they could have had.\u00a0 Keep that in mind as you move into 2025.\u00a0 \"Lord, I don't want to just make it into heaven.\u00a0 That's wonderful enough; I'm saved by grace.\u00a0 But once I get into heaven, I want to be fully rewarded.\u00a0 Help me not waste 2025 in fleshly, carnal pursuits.\u00a0 But help me live for You in a sanctified way under Your power, so that when I arrive in heaven one day, I will be fully rewarded once I'm there.\"\r\n\r\nAnd Jacob makes this bold bequeathment\u2014if that's a word\u2014of property at the end of his life to Joseph, because he knew that the Exodus would occur.\u00a0 And he knew that his nation would go back into the land of Canaan.\u00a0 And he's walking here completely and totally by faith, trusting God's promises, which is a good place to be.\u00a0 Hebrews 11:6 says, \"without faith it is impossible to please Him.\"\u00a0 <\/em>\"Lord, make me like Jacob in 2025.\"\r\n\r\nOf course, the greatest thing that you could do to rest on God's promises is to receive the Savior.\u00a0 The good news, called the gospel, in all of this is that Jesus stepped out of eternity into time 2,000 years ago and fixed a problem that we can't fix.\u00a0 That problem is that I'm separated from God because of my sin.\u00a0 My sinfulness puts me at enmity with God, and Jesus says, \"I'll fix it.\"\u00a0 And He did that through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.\u00a0 And what He asks us to do as lost human beings is to trust in His work.\u00a0 And I hope and pray that as we close out 2024 and look at 2025, many, many people within the sound of my voice, either in the building, or after the fact on archive, would respond to that convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit and place their personal faith for their eternity, the forgiveness of their sins, into the completed transaction of Jesus Christ.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t