20261004 Genesis 45: 25a-47: 31 God’s Blessing now, for all, for Eternity.

 Genesis is fascinating. It is Christian Holy Scripture. It teaches us about our God, our identity, our meaning of life, our sin problem, and God’s redemption. I have found it fascinating how the story of Adam and his sons in Genesis 1-5 is repeated in the life of Noah and his sons Gen 9-11. Then, the same cycles repeat in the life of Abraham and his sons, then Isaac and his sons, and now Jacob and his sons. These repetitions are such a gift because they teach us to identify the same patterns in our own lives. The sin common to every generation in Genesis is common to us. We still see and take what is not ours to take as we pursue joy and happiness without God with false Edens, or idols. Sin remains but so does God’s promise of salvation. The pattern of God’s promises and salvation to each generation still stands for us. We turn from God, we seek life without him, we cause havoc in our lives, and God still promises to save those who turn to him. The repetitions of these patterns, invite us to turn to the book of Genesis as Scripture. It is not just the origin story of the people of Israel. Genesis is more than a collection of epic stories with some moral applications. Rather, Genesis is Holy Scripture. It is God’s word to his people to convict us of our sins that we would trust in Him to find life in Him.

We have identified lots of patterns already in this account of the sons of Jacob.[i] In Genesis 45:25 to Genesis 47, the main theme is God’s Blessing. Our text repeats three foundational lessons concerning God’s Blessing. First, God blesses his people. Second, God’s people are blessed to be a blessing to others. Third God’s blessing extends even beyond the grave. The blessing to Israel is presented by connecting the threads of the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, and the land of Goshen. The theme of blessing the nations has occurred in every generation from Adam, to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Third, the idea that God’s blessing that extends beyond the grave is seen in the death of Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob.

In one sentence, Gen 45:25-47:31 is about God’s Blessing for Israel, for the nations, for beyond the Grave. This applies directly to us as we see God’s blessing for us, God’s blessing and our mission, and God’s blessing for our life beyond the grave.

Gen 45:25b-46:30 God’s Blessing for his People and our Blessing

Gen 45:25b-46:30

In Gen 45:25, Joseph’s brothers follow his instructions. They go up to the Promised land to get their father, Jacob. Gen 45:26 sums up the state of Israel from doomed to die to finding life. In Gen 45:26, Joseph’s brothers told Jacob that Joseph was still alive. His heart became numb or stopped. But when they told him the words of Joseph and he saw all they had brought up out of Egypt, Jacob revived![ii] What was true of Jacob will be true of his family. They were to die in the famine, but they will live and grow under God’s protection in Egypt.

Gen 46:1-30 is about Jacob and his family going down to Egypt and Jacob and Joseph’s reunion. On the journey down, Jacob offers sacrifices at Beersheba. God speaks to Jacob in a vision in Gen 46:3-4. In this vision, God repeats three promises to Jacob. These are the promises of offspring, when God says, “I will make you into a great nation,” the promise of presence, “I myself will go down with you to Egypt,” and the promise of Land “I will also bring you up again.” These promises of offspring, presence, and land were the same promises God made to Abraham, and Isaac.[iii]

Application

For us, the repeated promises teach every generation of God's people that God is faithful to his promises. These promises are repeated to every generation and so they are true for us. As Christians, we find ourselves on the other side of Christ’s coming. The blessings promised to Abraham were the promise of the reversal of the consequences of sin in Genesis 3. In Christ God fulfilled these promises, so we now enjoy a sort of return to Eden. We enjoy Edenic blessings of Harmony with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. We understand that Jesus is the offspring who was promised. The Land promised to Abraham that echoed the Edenic blessing is fulfilled in Christ as well. While our text shows God’s faithfulness to the descendants of Abraham, it reminds us of God’s faithfulness to us, who are descendants of Abraham by faith.

The application for us, is that we are a blessed people. We can get caught up in the hardships of life. We can struggle with friendship, heartbreak, financial struggles, and health struggles. We should not spiritualize these away with religious platitudes. These all require a strong community and friendships to offer us care. And, a Christian is one who even in the midst of hardship is blessed. We have every spiritual blessing in Christ. We suffer from temporary trouble, but no matter what comes our way, in Christ, we are blessed. We possess the Eden blessings. We know God as Father. We know the forgiveness of our sins which alienated us from God and others. We have personal knowledge of God’s love for us. This helps us love our neighbor and even our enemy. This is the divine blessing that no one can ever take away from us.

This was the first point, God blesses his people, so we are a blessed.

Gen 46:31-47:27 God’s Blessing for the Nations: We are Blessed to Bless

In Gen 46:31-47:27, God’s blessing overflows to others. God’s blessing extends beyond Jacob and his family. We turn to the theme of God’s purposes for the whole world. We could not be more wrong when we think that God only cares for the nation of Israel in the OT.

In Genesis 1, humanity was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with God glorifying image bearers. God wanted and still wants to bless human worshippers across the globe. This desire is repeated to Noah in Genesis 9. God blessed Abraham. He told him, that in him, all the families of the world would be blessed. He told him that he would bless all those who bless him. At times, Abraham failed miserably to bless the nations. At other times, he was exemplary, like when he interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 20, Abraham prays for the nations. In Gen 21, the covenant of peace between Abraham and Abimelech represents peace with the nations. We see that God does bless Abraham and Israel, but this blessing is always for the sake of the world.

Genesis 46:31-47

In Gen 47:6, Pharaoh tells Joseph that his family can settle in “the best of the land.” This is the land of Goshen.[iv] In Genesis 12:3, God promised Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you.” According to Gen 47:7, Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh. In Gen 47:10, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Those who bless Jacob will be blessed. Pharaoh lets Israel stay in the best land, in return Jacob blesses him.

Genesis 1-2 helps define blessing. A blessing is connected with life and fruitfulness. In Genesis 1, God’s blessed humanity to expand their rule to manage the fruitfulness and increase of life. So here, Jacob’s blessing expresses a desire to see Pharaoh know much fruitfulness and life. A blessing also expresses a desire that Pharaoh’s actions would cultivate fruitfulness and life in others. Not only does Jacob bless Pharaoh, but in Gen 47:13-27, Joseph provides food for all of Egypt. Joseph serves as God’s agent of blessings for the nations. According to Gen 47:13, there was no food left in Canaan, the Promised Land, or in the rest of Egypt because of the famine. According to Gen 47:14, Joseph gathered all the money in exchange for grain. According to Gen 47:16, when all their money is gone, Joseph takes all their livestock in exchange for grain. According to Gen 47:17, they brought in their horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys.[v] Following the livestock, the people only have themselves and their lands left. So they offer themselves as servants and their lands in exchange of grain, then according to Gen 47:21 Joseph sent them back to those lands to work the land. According to Gen 47:23, Joseph gives them seed to sow the land with the requirement that a fifth of their harvest would go to Pharaoh. It may sound like Joseph is taking advantage of people, but the people respond with gratefulness to Joseph in Gen 47:25, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh!”

Application

The lesson for us is that we see the pattern over and over in Genesis that God blesses the nations. Before sin, God wanted to see human worshippers that filled the world. After sin, God still wants to see human worshippers fill the world. God chose Abraham to be the agent of Blessing of the World.

In Genesis 14:13, the Canaanites Eshcol and Aner entered into a covenant with Abraham and they live with him on his Edenic Mountain Top by the oaks of Mamre. In Genesis 26 Abimelech made a covenant of peace with Isaac and they feasted together. The Joseph account summarizes redemptive history.

We have already seen in earlier chapters, that following sin, Joseph foreshadows a righteous one will be betrayed by his brothers. He will go through trials and be tempted, pass the test. He will go through the pit of death, be exalted on high to rule the world and save the world. The famine in Egypt is a type of flood that foreshadows the final judgment. Joseph is a new Noah who foreshadows our savior Jesus. The house of Pharaoh is a type of Ark, it also foreshadows our shelter under the cross of Christ. Through Joseph, God is saving a remnant of mankind who are kept safe through their flood, on their ark, with food, and animals.[vi]

Joseph provides salvation and the people come to him bringing their treasures. For Christians we read this anticipating Christ’s work. God has blessed Israel, and now those of us who are Gentiles we come to our Joseph-like saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ with our treasures, our possessions, even our very self to be put to work at his service. For those of us who do not have Jewish heritage, we are proof that God blesses the nations. The picture of Egypt coming to Joseph with their treasure anticipates, the nations coming with their treasures to worship Christ as it is prophesied in the Bible (Isa 60:5-11; Hag 2:6–8; Zech 14:14). Today we desire for that blessing to reach more people. We desire for more people to bring their treasures to Christ.

We do this through planting churches, being involved in church. Being involved in the lives of others, caring for others, and sharing the hope of the gospel as opportunities arise and invite people into our church community. We have a Joseph-like role to play with the Great Commission. We can start really small by being kind to one another. As a church, 10% of the money that comes in, goes back out to support financially other Christian works. This is part of how we see God’s blessing of us overflowing to others. Our church supports a church plant in Romania, a French-speaking Christian ministry to university students, we have supported the Interaction Camps and a French language Christian Publishing House to help spread the gospel.

Gen 47:28-31 God’s Blessing for Beyond the Grave

God’s blessing is life and fruitfulness. We see that we have God’s blessing. We are blessed for the sake of blessing others. We also see that what we enjoy now, is not all there is. There is more to come.

While Israel enters into the Goshen Ark to be protected from the world-wide flood-like famine, this is temporary. For Israel, their new-Eden was not supposed to be in Egypt but in the Promised Land. God protects Israel during the famine, but they look forward to enjoying Eden in the Promised Land.

Jacob asks to be buried in Canaan. Jacob still hopes in God’s promises. Joseph shows the same hope at the end of Genesis. He will ask that his bones be taken up to the land of Cannan when God brings his people back in the land. They hope in something more than protection from the famine.

Genesis 47:28-31

According to Gen 47:28-31, Jacob’s death is approaching. He calls for Joseph and asks that he not be buried in Egypt, but with his fathers. Joseph promises to fulfill his wish.

In Genesis 23 that after Sarah’s death, Abraham bought a tiny little plot of land in the promised land. Abraham received a deposit of the land that would be his descendants. Jacob’s request to be buried with his fathers, is one of faith in God’s promises. Before Jacob went down to Egypt, God promised him, he would bring him back out.

God promised the Land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob wants to be buried in this land, where he knows his people will one day live. This burial site is Edenic. It is near where Abraham offered sacrifices so it is elevated and it was known for its trees. It is an Eden-like mountain top. The particular burial site was a cave called the Cave of Machpelah. A cave cave is part of the rock that is uncovered, exposed. And Machpelah means a couple, a pair, a doubling. Taken together, the Cave of Machpelah is in the Mountains surrounded with trees and means an uncovered or naked pair/couple. This all evokes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same way Abraham was gathered to his people in an Edenic place in Gen 25:8, and so was Isaac in Gen 37:7. Now, Jacob wants to be gathered to his people in an Edenic place. There is a sense in which we return to Eden-Paradise through death.

Application

Jacob’s wishes to be buried with his fathers express his Hope in God’s promise to bring his people back to the Promise land. This picture also teaches us as we benefit from God’s blessings in Christ until his second coming, that there is more to come. We have the hope of Glory and eternal life in the new Eden forever .

The concept of life after death in the NT is based on texts like this in Genesis. In Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16, like Isaac and Jacob, Lazarus his gathered to his fathers and goes to Abraham’s side. To the thief on the cross, Jesus said in Luke 23:43, today, you will be with me in Paradise. Paradise is the Greek word for Garden. Jesus tells him, you will return with me to the Garden, the Edenic place where you are gathered to your people. In the book of Revelation, death is described this way – in Rev 14:13, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeeed, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” This is Rest as in Eden/Paradise/Garden Rest. In Phil 1:23, Paul speaks of death as departing to be with Christ. In 2 Cor 5:8, he writes that he would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. The theme of being with God is as it was in Eden/Paradise. While we know God's blessing today, we still hope for more.

Around 125 A.D. a Greek by the name of Aristeides was writing to one of his friends about the new religion, Christianity. Here is a sentence from one of his letters: “If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”^[vii] God’s blessings extends to us even beyond this life.

Conclusion

God remains faithful to his promises so his chosen ones are blessed. We are blessed. We are blessed to be a blessing to see God’s blessing reach the ends of the earth. We are also blessed beyond the grave.

In our text, God reminds Jacob of the promises and blessing of his presence, the land, and offspring. God protects his people in the land of Egypt during a famine. God’s people extend their blessing to the nations. Jacob blessed pharaoh, and Joseph protects the Egyptians during the famine. There is also still more blessing to come. The house of Pharaoh served as a temporary Eden during the famine. It had an abundance of food, animals, and people are protected. But Jacob longed for God’s faithfulness to his promises. While he longed for the Edenic Promised Land, we also long to return to the Garden-Paradise after death by Christ’s side, and we long for the culmination of God’s promises to Abraham in the New Eden, the New Creation, the New Heavens and New Earth.

As benefactors of God’s blessing, we can live differently even in the small things. We are blessed to be a blessing. Let’s start small. A man, was passing along a street one day when a person begging stopped him and pleaded for money. The man searched through his pockets for a coin, but finding none he regretfully said, “Please don’t be angry with me, my brother, but I have nothing with me. If I did I would gladly give it to you.” The beggar’s face lit up, and he said, “You have given me more than I asked for. You have called me brother.”^[viii] We are blessed to be a blessing.

 

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[i] We see Joseph, the New Adam who anticipates Jesus the last Adam. In Genesis 1, God created humanity in his image to rule the whole world on his behalf. In Genesis 41, Pharaoh, a god of Egypt, appoint Joseph to rule over his world. This pattern anticipates Christ the last Adam, the image of the invisible God who reigns in righteousness. Joseph’s rule that saves the many foreshadows the saving reign of Christ. We saw parallels between Noah, the New Adam, and Joseph the new, new Adam. Noah’s flood and Joseph’s famine are described in identical ways. The same way those who found shelter with Noah were safe, so are those who find shelter with Joseph. This pattern anticipate this who find their shelter in Christ from the judgment to come. The ultimate flood and famine will be the final judgment against all sin, of which Jesus is a shelter. The parallels between Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph invite us to know what is true today. God is Holy and just. He punishes sin. He is also merciful and provides salvation to those who trust in him and seek a shelter under his wings.

[ii] The themes of death and life are combined together. V.30 ends like the section began. Jacob says, now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive!

[iii] Significance of the 70. Gen 46:5-27 numbers all of Jacob’s family. They are a total of 70. The last time 70 are mentioned, they are the seventy nations the descended from the survivors of the flood in Genesis 10. In Gen 12:3, God tells Abraham he will bless these 70 nations. Now in Gen 46, Jacob is 70 people. God will bless the 70 nations through this group of 70 people.

[iv] In Gen 46:31-47:12, Joseph secures Food for Israel. In Gen 46:31-34, Joseph speaks of his plan to get them to live in Goshen. They must say they are shepherds to guarantee they would remain separate from Egypt. It all works out.

[v] This listing of the animals is a reminder of how Pharaoh’s house serves as an ark-sanctuary in the midst of the famine/flood.

[vi] While Noah’s children went out an became the fullness of nations with 70 nation in Gen 10-11, now Jacob’s family is 70 and they are serving their purpose to bless the world.

^[vii]Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications.

^[viii]Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications.