Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Genesis 48 - Blessings not Received

In this chapter we find Jacob near death. When Joseph learns of his father's condition, he comes to him with his two sons. Jacob received a blessing from God himself saying that he would have many descendants and inherit the land given to Abraham. All his life he never actually possessed the land and now dying in Egypt he would like never see the promised land again. 

Joseph introduces his sons and Jacob names them as his own and doubles the inheritance Joseph's family would enjoy. Jacob gives each of the boys his blessing but gives the greater blessing to the younger though tradition would have it fall to the oldest.  Joseph himself inherits a portion of land in Canaan that he will later be buried on. 

Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh would all live the rest of their days in Egypt as would several generations after them. In fact all the tribe leaders of Israel likely died in Egypt never seeing the inheritance promised. Even so, they clung to the promise and looked forward to the time of fulfillment. 

We can take a few lessons from this as we live out our faith. 

1.  We as Christians have a blessing to give. So often we keep our joy and our fullness all to ourselves. We have a hope that the world cannot offer and we have been tasked with sharing the good news that Christ has made it possible for anyone to have this same hope. We should be about blessing people and offering them a hope of Heaven. If we take no one with us into eternity what benefit will that be?  

2.  Our destiny is not determined by our birth. Certainly we in the United States have so much more opportunity than perhaps someone born in other nations, but even in that, there is no assurance of forgiveness and the hope of Heaven. We used to be known as a Christian nation and many believed that by virtue of their birth in this land, their eternity was assured, but that is not the truth. God alone is Master of our destiny and we are his to direct. If we do not yield ourselves to his direction He has every power to remove us from his blessing. 

3.  The blessing we have here is just a taste of our eternal blessing.  When we know the joy of fellowship with God. because of our standing before God (sinners saved by grace) we have just a taste if Heaven. In the same way Jacob's blessing gave his family a vision for their future inheritance; one they would not know personally this side of eternity.  We will not know the fullness of our inheritance here on earth. This is just a vision of our future. We take our blessing in faith, just as Jacob's sons did. 

Are you walking in the faith of your future blessing?  Is your satisfaction in Christ or are you still depending on temporal satisfactions? Jacob knew the bounty of the best the world had to offer in Egypt was not to be compared with what God had planned for him. Do you have Jacob's hope within you?

May God richly bless you as you seek him and as you serve him. 


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