Old Testament - Genesis 48:1-22 - (Blessing of Joseph's Sons)
Channel: Calvary Chapel Windward
Date: 2016-05-29

Old Testament - Genesis 48:1-22 - (Blessing of Joseph's Sons) - CC Windward - Pastor Tim

Old Testament - Genesis 48:1-22 - (Blessing of Joseph's Sons) - Calvary Chapel Windward - OAHU, HAWAII - Pastor Tim Newman - From Local Olelo / Oceanic / Time Warner Cable show "A View from Calvary" - Episode #: - Original Air Date: .

PASTOR TIM's NOTES:

Genesis 48:1-22
The Blessing of Joseph’s Sons
Heb 11:21
1. Jacob PREPARES to bless the sons of Joseph.
Vs. 1-7
1a. Jacob PREPARES to bless the sons because he is very ill.
The Hebrews 11 reference describes it as worship.
This is because to believe God’s word, and to base everything in the future upon
his word, is worship!
Notice that Joseph’s humble presence was itself an act of submissive faith
because he had come to personally identify his boys with God’s people.
1b. Jacob PREPARES to bless the sons because of the promise.
God had appeared to Jacob twice in Luz, the old name for Bethel.
The first appearance was when Jacob was fleeing the wrath of Esau. Gen 28:12–14
The second appearance was again at Bethel when he returned after a twenty-year
absence. Gen 35:11–15
1c. Jacob PREPARES to bless the sons because he will count them as his own.
The literal Hebrew reads, “Like Reuben and Simeon they will be to me”—that is,
these boys would become the firstborn sons of Jacob.1
1 Chronicles 5:1, 2
1d. Jacob PREPARES to bless the sons as he remembers Rachel.
Remember that Joseph had a likeness to his mother.
Now notice vs. 8 and the question that he ask,
Vs. 8 Then Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are
these?"
Many scholars believe that the principal details of the interaction between
Jacob and Joseph and his sons in verses 8–13 are specifics of a formal
adoption process that began in verse 8 with Jacob’s question,
“Who are these?”
2. Jacob PLACES his hands on the sons of Joseph in order to bless them.
Vs. 8-16
2a. Jacob PLACES his hands on them as they draw near.
2b. Jacob PLACES his hands upon his sons and pronounces the blessing.
The blessing in the name of the God is meant to be practical.
The God who has fed me
The Angel who has redeemed me
The blessing is in the name.
And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;

1 John Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), p. 710.
The blessing involves the future.
And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."
3. Joseph does not want to accept the PREFERENCE given to his younger son.
Vs. 17-22
3a. Joseph is angered because of the PREFERENCE.
His anger is indicated by his reflexive action, because the phrase
“so he took hold of his father's hand to remove it” (v. 17)
describes a firm grip, and his abrupt command,
“Not so, my father,” (v. 18) exudes exasperation.
Joseph was appalled.
His father had transgressed every tradition from the Nile to the Euphrates.
3b. Jacob assures Joseph the PREFERANCE is no mistake.
We have already seen that blessings once uttered could not be undone (cf. 27:34–
37).
Jacob could not reverse it, even if he wanted to.
Heb 11:21
In Egypt and at the exodus, Ephraim and Manasseh were great tribes indeed.
Indeed, the last are often first, even for Christ.

John 1:11-13
1 Cor 1:27-29
We hold out in our right hand the things that we want God to bless. He chooses to
bless something else. And like Joseph we feel that God has made some mistake.
Like Joseph we are angry and appalled.

Heb 11:24-26
In giving his two sons to Jacob, he was virtually consenting to their being rejected
in respect to a future and position in Egypt.
3c. Jacob assures Joseph that he also will have a PLACE in the land.
Jacob had purchased a plot of land from Hamor, the king of Shechem, for a
hundred pieces of money. (33:19)
Jacob’s faith on his deathbed was the singular triumph of his life.
And there, while he did nothing that today is commonly referred to as worship, as
there was no prayer or song, he intensely worshiped.