Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20000604.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III: God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
KK. Round Thirty-Six - Testifying Of God's Unmerited Favor To All Generations
(Genesis 48:1-22)
  1. Introduction
    1. In our day, we like to testify of the unmerited grace of God in saving us by faith alone in Christ.
    2. However, since God is righteous, He is also perfectly consistent His long-term goals for man, and that means we should expect God to emphasize His grace throughout history -- even in the Old Testament!
    3. Yet, the idea that God is gracious in the Old Testament is countered much by Liberal Theologians!
    4. Well, Jacob discovered God's grace through His lifelong interaction with the God of Abraham, and revealed it in predicting specific blessings for Joseph's sons in an unusual way (as follows):
  2. Testifying Of God's Unmerited Favor To All Generations, Genesis 48:1-22.
    1. When Joseph heard that his aged father, Jacob was in failing health, he took his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh and appeared before Jacob for final family blessings of the patriarch to his son(s), Gen. 48:1.
    2. Jacob received Joseph and his sons, strengthening himself to sit upon his bed for a discourse, Gen. 48:2.
    3. That discourse and its rituals revealed Jacob understood God wanted to bless the younger over the older:
      1. First, Jacob claimed Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraem would be elevated to firstborn sonship over Jacob's oldest son, Reuben, Gen.48:3-7. (Bib. Know. Com., O.T., p. 97)
      2. Second, in giving the blessing of these "adopted" sons, Jacob favored the younger over the older:
        1. Contrary to Joseph's arrangement of the boys, Jacob crossed his hands over the boy's heads so that his right hand of preference rested on the younger Ephraem's head, Genesis 48:8-13, 14-16.
        2. When Joseph thought Jacob's hands had been mistakenly crossed due to his dim eyesight errantly viewing the elder as the younger (cf. Gen. 48:10a), Jacob insisted he understood what he was doing, and intentionally blessed Ephraem the younger above the older son, Manasseh, Genesis 48:17-19a.
        3. Jacob then went on to predict that Ephaem's descendants would be greater than Manasseh's, 48:19b.
      3. Third, Jacob then gave his favored plot of land gained by battle, the land near Shechem, to Joseph as a personal possession in place of giving it to his elder son, Reuben, Genesis 48:20-22.
      4. All of these moves on Jacob's part revealed he knew God would bless the younger over the elder, because this had been the consistent precedent to testifr of God's GRACE through patriarchal history:
        1. Jacob's reference to Rachel, the favored but younger wife he had in connection to his adopting Rachel's grandsons, Manasseh and Ephraem as his firstborn over Reuben revealed Jacob had given thought to how the younger was favored over the elder, cf. Gen. 48:5-7.
        2. Jacob knew this pattern had been repeated by God through patriarchal history, a pattern of grace: (a) The yet unborn Isaac was blessed by God over the living son, Ishmael in Abraham's day to reveal God would supply the promised seed by grace as opposed to Abraham, Sarah and Hagar's self-help works to produce Ishmael (cf. Gen. 17:18-21 with 16:1-16; Gal. 4:22-23, 28-29); (b) God continued this testimony of His grace with Jacob being blessed by God over his elder brother, Esau (cf. Gen. 25:21-26); (c) This emphasis on divine grace followed in Jacob's sons, Joseph having received divine dreams of his exaltation over his older brothers (cf. Gen. 37:5-11) though he had been born from Jacob's second wife and younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife (Gen. 29:15-30).
        3. Thus, Jacob knew what had repeatedly happened to reveal God's grace since Abraham's day would be repeated in Joseph's day, that the younger son(s) would be favored to witness of God's grace!
        4. Thus, in faith in God's character seen in historical precedents, Jacob worshiped God, blessing Joseph's younger son over his elder son this way as Hebrews 11:21 so perceptively reveals.
Lesson: God's CHARACTER of being CONSISTENT and thereby promoting His GRACE over sinful man's self-help works led to a constant REPETITION of favoring the younger over the older in the days of the Old Testament patriarchs. This repetition testified to EACH generation of God's grace to them. Jacob saw this, and blessed Joseph's sons accordingly to preserve God's witness of His GRACE.

Application: We can count that God wants US to CONTINUE to emphasize His GRACE with the next generation as He has with past ones, for God CONSISTENT LY operates with man in GRACE!