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What follows is an automatically generated transcript with Apple Podcast's AI. To be sure of what I said, you'll need to listen to the audio. 

And as you are being seated, if you would please turn with me in your copies of God's Word to 1st Corinthians chapter 11. 1st Corinthians chapter 11, if you're following along in the Pew Bible, black volume that's in front of you, that's on page 1139.
1139, and we're taking a little detour from our march through the Book of Genesis as we get to remember and celebrate what the Lord has done through the servant Martin Luther on Reformation Sunday. Now we can tend to think that the Reformation, and indeed we'd be right to think so, that a big part of that was about recovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It's a doctrine that did not disappear. It's a doctrine that was not invented by Martin Luther, but was one that became less and less emphasized, less and less remembered accurately as we find it in his word. And so to recover this idea that it is not by your works that you're saved, but the free grace of Jesus that brings you in to heaven.
Because that's such a foundational doctrine, it can be easy to miss some of the other comforts that have come out of the Reformation.
The recapturing of these other doctrines. And since this is cohere d so well with our celebration of the Lord's Supper this morning, I thought I would take a moment of Sunday to take a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and see how this meal that we're about to partake in is such a blessing to us.
But one that we have to prepare for.
Indeed, that's what's going to be our main point this morning, is that communion is a blessing for our souls.
And it's a blessing that we must prepare for.
So, let's see how we do this out of 1 Corinthians 11, verses 20 through 29.
Since we're kind of jumping in right in the middle here, I want to take just a moment to set up our context. 1 Corinthians is the first letter that Paul sends to the church at Corinth. This was a motley crew. There was a lot going on at Corinth, because there was a lot going on in the city of Corinth. It was a very worldly place, full of a lot of assumptions of how things were to be done with money, sexuality, and such that things were awfully confused within the church, such that we don't have the opportunity to look back and say, well, I would like for the church to go back to the way it was in the New Testament times. Well, it looks a lot like it does in modern times, because people don't change, and Christians have struggled with a lot of the same things back then as they do today. Here in this particular issue in chapter 11, Paul, among his many corrections he offers the Corinthians, offers correction as to how they're approaching the Lord's Supper. Here in the church, this would have been a part of a larger feast, and what we had is people were very selfish and unmindful towards each other. The rich pushing their way up to the front of the line to clear through the Lord's Supper and not leaving enough for the poor, who are having to go away hungry, and the rich, who have plenty of food at home, are going away gluttonous. And it's here in this context that Paul is revisiting 1 Corinthians 11 and is taking a look at the Lord's Supper.
So with this in mind, let's start in verse 20.
Listen carefully, because this is God's word.
In light of the situation we have just said, verse 20, when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.
One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
What?
Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this?
No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God for his word.
Let's go to our God and ask his blessing on our text today.
Oh, Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this gift that you have given to us in your son and then this picture that you have given to us to remember and proclaim his death.
Lord, help us to understand this mystery.
Open our eyes to see your gospel, both in the things that we hear, even in the things that we see, even in the things that we taste this morning.
Help us to have a fresh grasp of the sacrifice that you have made for us today.
And it's in Jesus' name I ask these things.
Amen.
Well, as I began with, the doctrine of justification, important as that is, is not the only issue that was fought over. And in here, when we get to the Lord's Supper, we are encountering something of a mystery here. This is why there has been a lot of confusion as to exactly what this means.
What is it that we are doing?
One of the things that we want to take a look at as we'll go through here, is we'll take a look at a couple of common misunderstandings, how the supper was done and why it's important for us to see this way. The first thing that I want us to recognize and come away with, is that this is not a magic bread and juice that we are serving here this morning. In other words, there is not anything powerful in and of itself to make you grow as a Christian. If that were the case, if we could give faith to other people by giving special bread, well, then that's what we would do. We would line up and we would hand out communion bread that has been blessed by pastors and hope that this produces faith in people.
But that's not what this Lord's Supper is.
It's not magic bread.
It's not magic juice.
It feeds your faith, but it does not form it.
What I mean by that, it does not create faith.
Where, how, by what means, does God use to produce faith in us?
Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by what?
The Word of God. In every part of our worship, the Word of God is central.
This is why even in Protestant architecture, we have set up the worship space to be the way it is. What is quite literally front and center and elevated.
It's not supposed to be me.
I'm representing here the Word of God. Because that's where the power is. That's what builds our faith.
What this is, is a visual picture of that word.
This is the only authorized image that Jesus has given to us to say, here is the gospel visualized. But unless we explain what this means, if we were just to set up a table and I were to mime my way through the Lord's Supper and not say anything, no one would know what this means. They would just say, he's getting up, he's tearing apart some bread, he's pouring out some grape juice, and he's serving it out to people to eat it.
And if you have no context for what's happening, then you'll have no idea what this is talking about.
This is why God does not speak to us only in this image. He doesn't do so in vagary.
He gives us his word.
This is why even when Jesus is instituting it, he is explaining as he goes along, Jesus is not silent as he's tearing apart the bread. Remember, this would have been a part of the Passover Supper. So for him to begin speaking in this moment and say the things that he's saying was breaking protocol, was giving a new meaning to this meal. So the word is central to understand this. But it's not just intellectually understanding this. There are many people who have studied Reformation history, professors of theology, who can explain these things way better than I can. But do so from a position of saying that this is an ancient rite that gives comfort to some people but actually has no basis in reality. Does the supper benefit them?
They understand the word intellectually.
They know the meaning of what's happening here intellectually.
But they have no faith.
They have no connection point with God.
And without that, this again is an empty meal.
It's just bread and grape juice.
So there's nothing inherent in here to produce faith.
The word does that.
There's nothing in here that connects you with God on its own.
It's faith, and faith produced by the Holy Spirit.
These are necessary to do these things.
Now we can come away from this and say it's like, okay, all right, it's not magic bread.
So why do we practice this? What's the point?
While it's not magic, it's also not nothing.
It's not just a symbol. It's not just a prompt to remind ourselves about what Jesus is doing. Because we find that out earlier on in 1st Corinthians chapter 10. And 1st Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 16, it has a very interesting way of phrasing and talking about the Lord's Supper.
If you're there, it's just a page back, so go ahead and turn there, 1st Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 16.
It says, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
You see what he's doing here?
That this is a cup of blessing that he calls this.
And this word participation is a translation of the word koinonia, which we often translate as communion. We're having table fellowship with our Savior. And this is why later on in the chapter, he tells them, don't go to these other places of worship where you have meals with demons.
We don't participate with them.
We don't have communion with them. We have communion with our Savior. And it is a blessing to do so.
Not just, it's a blessing to prompt us to remind ourselves about the Gospel, but it in itself is an opportunity through faith, because of the Word, we're able to experience this blessing that we have with Christ.
Now, because this is such a mystery, there have been so many ways that people have tried to conceptualize that in Church history.
The Roman Catholic Church, what Martin Luther was dealing with, they thought that they were communing with Christ by very literally eating the literal body and blood of Christ. A process called transubstantiation, where the priest is calling Jesus out of heaven to be broken again and to be consumed by us physically. An over literal reading of this is my body. He also said that he is a vine and he is a door.
We don't take those quite so literally.
But what's the problem with that?
Well, one, this is asking us to take a contradiction here. This is bread, still tastes like bread, but we're supposed to say, but this is actually flesh. While we can argue on logical grounds, the real problem here is in what we're asking of Jesus. For his body to be broken again, for his blood to be poured out again, is to imply that the sacrifice he put on the cross was not enough. In Hebrews, we are told that this is a once-for-all sacrifice, and then Jesus sits down. We don't call him out of his chair every week to do more work.
The work is done. That's what's such the comfort about the Doctor of Justification. It's a one-time work.
With Jesus' sacrifice, it's over.
You put your faith in him, your sins are gone. But if we were to say, no, he has to be come back out of heaven again.
He has to be sacrificed again. We have to wonder, well, is it enough? Will it ever be enough for us to say, no, no, this is not calling God out of heaven to break him on our table again.
But this is a picture pointing back to the time in which Jesus was broken and his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of our sin.
And that's what we bless.
That's why this is a blessing for us.
But nor is it the other way. There were some trying to get as far away from that as possible. We'll say, no, no, no, no, this is just bread. This is just grape juice.
There is absolutely nothing going on here other than just what's in our head.
This is a reminder of this, and that's all that it is.
I don't think we can say that from 1 Corinthians 10.
It says that this is the cup of blessing, not the reminder of a blessing. And this is an opportunity, as it says, as participation with Christ, in some mysterious way, in a spiritual way.
We're communing with Him.
Now here at this point, the Lutherans want to make fun of us, and would say, it's like, well, He's physically present here. Something that they call real presence, which has some problems how Jesus is bodily able to be in multiple places at one time.
It's fraying His humanity.
But this betrays an understanding of saying, well, no, it's a spiritual presence here that makes it no less real.
Communing with Christ by faith is something really happening. No, we can't get out our scientific dials and watch the needles move around. A very materialistic way of looking at the world.
It's to say, no, Christ is spiritually present.
Not by Him coming down to us, but by Him bringing us up to Him, to have communion with Him.
Now, if that's what's really going on, and it is, how on earth do we get ready for something like that?
If we were going to have a face-to-face communion with some world leaders of our time, we would take a moment to kind of pull ourselves together. Try to figure out how to comport ourselves in the presence of greatness.
I went through this when I got to my first date, which happened to be with that young lady over there.
I had never been on a date before. I was 25, and all God's people said were not surprised.
I didn't have to laugh that hard.
But I had no idea how to comport myself. So I spent time preparing, and I still have the picture of an outline of a fictitious conversation that I was going to have with her, and how I was going to go from point one to point two so I wouldn't get lost and look unprepared. Unfortunately, I did not share the script with her, so by the time we got to point number one, we were always very off script.
So I was trying to prepare, and I give myself some effort for that. But a first date is one thing.
How do we prepare for a spiritual face-to-face with Christ? How do we get the most out of this that Jesus does for us?
Let me start by saying why do we prepare, and give you a couple of reasons as to why we are, how and why we're not doing this.
One, there are so many times, and this is something I've suffered with as a child, and don't want the same thing to be for you.
We talk about coming to the table unworthily. This does not mean that by our preparation, by having read our Bibles, by having prayed, by having avoided sin for this week, that we are worthy to come to the table. If that's what you're thinking, then you're suffering from another sin, and that's pride. That we could ever earn a spot at the king of the universe's table, that is only accomplished by grace through the finished work of Christ, which this celebrates. What a backwards way of thinking, that we come to a table meant to show for us that Christ has sacrificed himself for our sins, and we try to clean up ourselves on the way, forgetting this is a gospel. So never think as you're approaching this, saying, it's like, well, I've messed up this week, so I can't come here.
No.
We're made worthy by Christ.
We're made worthy by His work in our heart, that will, yes, show itself in good works.
But it's something that comes from Him and Him alone. This is why we don't prepare.
We've been made worthy by Christ.
But I also want to say why we do prepare.
In that preparing our hearts to come to this is not an automatic process.
This is not something where you just roll in and here we are.
But there is something that we can do.
There are some things to keep in mind.
And that's why I had us print up Question 171 from the Larger Catechism.
This would be something you can take home with you, take a look at, keep in mind for next month. Because it gives you an outline exactly how it is that we prepare.
All of these are being drawn from the scriptures themselves, and I can give you a list of what proof texts these things come from. But I wanted to go down kind of as an outline as we move into our application part of our message. Applying ourselves this command to examine ourselves, before we come to the table.
What does that look like?
Number one, when we examine ourselves, we are conscious of our sins. We're conscious of our sins. The point of doing this is not to just walk away from our time of reflection saying, well, I'm just the worst, the scum of the earth. That's not the point.
This isn't an exercise in self-flagellation, whipping ourselves so we feel appropriately bad enough.
The point of looking at our sins is to recognize why it is we need a table. Why it is that Christ had to come and die.
We can't get rid of these things on our own.
We need Jesus.
But by the same token, He doesn't just forgive, but He also cleanses and begins the lifelong process of having us hate our sin more and loving Jesus more. And once a month, as we come to Communion, it's a great opportunity to check in and see, how is this going?
When we're mindful of the things that we know we deal with, we have the opportunity to say, what steps am I taking to repent of this?
Or am I just hoping I'll just get better?
If you deal with anger and bitterness, are you memorizing Scripture that addresses those things? Do you have a structure of accountability to deal with that? If not, then that's a wonderful opportunity, a reminder to say, no, Jesus died to free you from this, not to give you a license to do it more. And he's given you his Holy Spirit so that you don't have to do these things over and over.
No one's ever going to be perfect.
No one is ever going to be every single month is one straight line straight up.
There's going to be setbacks. But having an opportunity to remind yourself, where am I weak?
Where does Jesus need to do more work? Gives you a wonderful opportunity once a month as we come to the table.
This is why we like to tell you a week in advance it's coming.
To check in, do some inventory of the soul, and see.
Here in 1 Corinthians 11, clearly we have some selfishness going on.
Would they would have examined themselves and say it's like where is this selfishness coming from?
How do I deal with this?
But it's not just a reminder or thinking about our sins. There's a second thing that we can think about to prepare.
Is where is your knowledge, faith, and repentance? This isn't just an opportunity to see how we're advancing morally. How are you advancing in what you know? Are you diving into the scriptures to learn more about your Savior? Do you know even just a little bit more about your Savior this month than you did last month? We're not able to find the comfort that God would give to us if we don't know what's there. We won't get to rejoice in the promises that Jesus offers to us if we don't know what they are. And we have an opportunity once a month to do an inventory.
What do I know?
How am I growing in my trust of Jesus?
How am I growing in my repentance from my sin?
And I love the next thing that they mention, instead of just the measure of the knowledge, faith, and repentance.
But the next thing is, is how is your love of God and neighbor?
This is a great reminder to those of us that would like to intellectualize our faith. That equate spiritual maturity with the amount of systematic theology textbooks you've read.
Because those are not the same.
You can know an awful lot and be very immature in Jesus. What is this knowledge of Jesus doing in your heart? Is it making a difference in your love for God and then your love for neighbor? If you don't love your neighbor, then you don't love your God.
How is this knowledge shaping you?
If it's just growing a lot more of what's in your head, Paul warns us that knowledge is just puffing up if that's all it's doing.
But your growth in love shows that it's having a real effect, that that is its purpose, a love for God and a love for neighbor.
And finally, Westminster pastors really touch on something here at the end.
It says, love to God and brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong. That's really hard. It's so easy to love neighbor that does well for you. It's easy to love those who are like you and who like you. But the real test of whether or not you love your neighbor is, can you forgive your neighbor when they have done you wrong? Not just when you feel offended, but when they have done actual sin against you, when they have offended God and how they have treated you.
Are you able to forgive?
Are you growing in that ability?
Remember, these are not things that you are building up in yourself.
These are not things that if you just white-knuckle it hard enough, eventually you'll be able to forgive people.
This comes from spending time with Jesus.
This comes by appropriating the means of grace that he has given to you in word, in prayer, meditation.
Lord's Supper.
These are the opportunities for us to see how is my soul doing under Jesus' renovation?
Am I fighting him with this process?
Am I tying him up with this permitting process as I can?
Oh, no, you can't touch that.
I haven't given you permission to look at that area of my life. You cooperating with this renovation that he's doing, and communion gives you this wonderful opportunity to be reminded.
And then if we see that we're lacking, not to hang our heads and walk away and saying like, well, I guess there's just no hope for me.
But it says here, by renewing the exercise of these graces, if you find yourself lacking, well, it's only been a month since you last checked in, get back on it. Take advantage of the gifts that God is giving to you, including this supper that we are about to receive.
Because it's a blessing for you.
It's a nourishment for your soul. That's how we prepare to take.
But we're only going to take in the next five minutes.
So let me spend just one moment telling you, how do you receive this now?
There is a mixture of recognition of the sacrifice that Jesus has done.
And the victory that we have been set free.
So how is one to emotionally process the Lord's Supper as we're taking it?
Imagine that you have been given a diagnosis.
You are in acute kidney failure.
Both of your kidneys are gone.
And your only hope of survival is that a donor kidney is made available to you. And before you can even wrap your head around what the doctor has just told you, he comforts you by saying, but fear not, a donor has come forward and is offering you their kidney. It's a perfect match.
We're going to go into the operating room right now.
You are not given any time to answer questions, to ask anything. You're suddenly wheeled into the operating room. And the next thing you know, you're awake to the surgeon saying, the operation was a success.
You have a new kidney, you're going to live.
You can see your children grow up.
You can live the life that you truly wanted to live.
It won't be cut short.
And you can imagine the gratitude that floods your soul in this moment and the joy that you are not going to die today of this failed kidney.
And then the doctor looks at you.
And he says, would you like to meet your donor?
They're in the next room.
You walk out the door, you come into the next room, they pull the curtain back, and there, pale and trembling, is your mother.
Now you still feel the joy that your life has been restored.
And you know, looking at her, that it has been her joy to save your life.
But you know what she's going through.
That though it was a joyful process, it was not pain free. And that she has made an enduring sacrifice for you to make this thing possible. And there, in that moment, we can't draw a neat line as to exactly what we're feeling here. There is this mixture of incredible humility, almost a tinge of sadness that this is what it's required, that my body has caused suffering for another.
But also this joy that I am loved and cared for and redeemed, given new life.
I think that's what we're looking at here in the Lord's Supper. The Lord went to the cross with joy, but not without pain, not without sacrifice.
So when we come and we eat and have table fellowship with our Savior, there is a mix of humility, sadness, and yet of great joy as we take of this.
So because of the profound nature of what we have before us, it is well worth the preparation.
And all it is is rehearsing.
Since this is a picture of the Gospel, you have an opportunity to ask, what has the Gospel done for me?
How is this practically working itself out in my life? Jesus died for my sins and rose again to promise me eternal life.
Have I taken it?
Is it making a difference for me? And if not, then this is the opportunity to get serious. This is the opportunity to come back.
This is the opportunity to do business with God.
And to enjoy the freedom that this very meal pictures. So if you're in Christ today, but you know you've been letting some things slide, here's an opportunity to come back, to renew your commitment to Christ.
If you find, you know what? I've always just like known the stuff of the gospel, but it's never really made a real difference in my life.
Well, here's the opportunity.
Put your faith in Him.
Turn away from your sin.
Put your full weight on Him.
All of your eternal expectations put in His hands.
And say, Lord, you are my King. Guide me.
Take me. Transform me.
And I promise you will never be the same again. And that you will be able to take this Supper in full gratitude and love for Christ.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come before you, to have communion spiritually face to face. So I ask if there are anyone here who are unsure where they stand with Christ, that today would be the day of salvation, that they would know you and the power of your resurrection. Lord, I pray for those who have been discouraged, that they would be encouraged by what we see here today. For those that are encouraged, that their joy would be strengthened by what we have here today.
Oh, I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Don’t you wish you could know the future? I think all of us if given the chance would love even a glimpse or a hint of what is to come in our lives. But as many popular stories tell us, how that future gets to us is often very confusing. 
Israel is about to die, but before he does, he is going to place his blessing on all of his sons. The last verse of our passage is going to reiterate that each blessing is “suitable” for each one, and we are going to see how that plays out for many of them here this morning. We will see that some of them, like Reuben, are getting “blessings” that are a result of what they have done. Some are getting blessings seemingly despite what they’ve done, like Judah. Others get blessings, but seemingly not the right ones, like Joseph. What are we to make of these things, how did they play out in history, and what does this mean for us today? We will tackle those questions as we look at our main point today: God’s blessings are suitable yet still need to be trusted. 
God’s blessings are suitable yet still need to be trusted.
 
Looking at the order, there is something odd in how they are listed. They are mostly in birth order (except for Zebulun and Issachar), in starting with the sons of Leah, then moving to the sons of the concubines, starting with Rachels, then finishing with Rachel’s sons. No one is left out among the sons. It is true that Dinah isn’t included here, but that is because only sons could inherit. Anyone that has come from Israel’s seed is given a blessing here instead of just one son. 
Now, that being said, not everyone is getting the same blessing. It appears that some are not getting the blessings that you would want because of their actions, specifically Reuben through Levi. That doesn’t mean things are unfair here. I’m reminded of a quote from RC Sproul who said something to the effect that, in our dealings with God everyone gets either mercy or justice. No one gets injustice. Even in the categories of justice amongst these sons, no one is getting tossed out of the family. Everyone is going to have a place in the land. Just not everyone is going to get the same amount of blessing while there. 
That is true for us as well. Not every Christian is blessed in the same way. We don’t all have the same marriages, the same health status, the same amount of money, or really anything that is exactly the same. Some of those circumstance are purely by grace. Others of those circumstances are the results of decisions made, good or bad. Following after Christ does not eliminate consequences of decisions in the past or in the future. Being a Christian doesn’t put life in easy mode or give a license to disobey God’s commands. At the same time, being obedient to Jesus doesn’t obligate Him to give you the life you want. Look at the life of Job. He lived, according to God’s perspective, a righteous life! Yet, he was subject to horrible circumstances for reasons known only to God. Part of that suffering was to relieve the suffering of millions who have read the account of Job. And here in this passage, we are given a warning that our actions can have consequences that can impact generations. 
Let’s look at Reuben as an example of this. Reuben’s sin in sleeping with his father’s concubine (a play for power in the family) is not forgotten when we get to this point. He was supposed to be the first born, the one who gets a double portion! But here, it is hinted that he has lost that portion, a hint confirmed by 1 Chronicles 5:1 “The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son;” 
Simeon and Levi are another example. They are said to be scattered because of their actions. Simeon’s tribe will be small, and live in the desert, however the tribe of Levi is going to become the assistants in the temple because of their later obedience, even if they don’t get a specific portion of land in the nation of Israel (Belcher).
On the other end of the spectrum is Judah. Now, we remember Judah. Here lately he has been a star. He is the one who convinces Jacob to let Benjamin go down to Egypt so they wouldn’t starve. He is the one who is willing to sacrifice his life for his brothers in Egypt. He is the one who leads the way in restoring Jacob and Joseph together! But has everyone forgotten who’s idea it was to sell Joseph in the first place? Was it not Reuben who tried to rescue Joseph at the beginning? Was it not Judah who left the family, had three sons with a Canaanite, and accidentally slept with his daughter in law? Where’s all this, “Your descendants are going to rule over everyone else” coming from? 
Grace. That’s where it is coming from. Judah is being shown grace here. Why? Not stated. While Reuben’s actions are cited as to why he isn’t being blessed, Judah’s actions are no where to be found. The text doesn’t say, “Because you have acted kingly, your descendants will be kings.” We assume that this is the reason, but God doesn’t tell us why. Judah cannot claim the throne on his own. 
Zebulon and Issachar aren’t given a lot of fanfare. One gets access to the coast, and the other ends up under slavery in a pleasant land, and that’s exactly what we see later (Belcher). 
One scholar had something interesting to say about Dan. He is said to judge the people and be compared to a snake, an animal known for being solo, not traveling in a pack. Ultimately, Samson comes from this line, the judge who acts alone and judges his people (Belcher)! 
The next three are given much shorter blessings. Gad will get raided but will fight back, as they later do. Asher does in fact end up in a very fruitful area of the land, and Naphtali will get lots of space to roam around in like a deer (Blecher). 
And now we get to Joseph, and it would seem at first that he should be getting the blessing of ruling! If there was anyone who could claim the throne it would be Joseph! He wasn’t just acting kingly, for all intents and purposes, he was! He has wisely administrated every single thing he was ever put in charge of. He would report on his brothers, he would run Potifer’s house like never before, goodness! he even ran the prison well, while being a prisoner! Do I even have to mention what he has done for the entire nation of Egypt and by extension the rest of the world? Yet all of that was grace as well, and Joseph told us as much when he stood before Pharaoh all those years ago. 
Yet, it is not as if Joseph is getting nothing, He gets a lot here, and through his two sons, he is getting a double portion. We saw last week how both Manasseh and Ephraim will be great people, and Ephraim most of all. He will become practically synonymous with Israel, to the point that when God will speak of Israel, He can use that name.  Hosea 5:3–4 “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord.” Yet, the Lord has compassion, for later in that same book Hosea 11:8–9 “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” 
Joseph will have his portion, but it is all of grace.
But I mentioned there some hints of judgment to come. How does that square with these blessings? All of these promises that God makes look like they are going to fail at some point (sometimes multiple points) in redemptive history. Almost every time you think you know what God is doing and where He’s going with this, you’re wrong. 
Let’s just take Judah’s promise. Here he is told that his descendants are going to rule. You know what happens for 400 years after that? Slavery. I wonder how that tribe felt about bringing up those promises during the slave years? Ok, Moses is coming! He is going to lead the people out! What a leader! There’s a son of Judah if I ever saw one! What? He’s from the tribe of Levi (Exodus 2:1)! What about Joshua? Ephraim (Numbers 13:8). Line of Joseph. We got Achen coming from the line of Judah, but his claim to fame was when he disobeyed God after Jericho, brought trouble on the whole nation, and execution site set up as a warning for future generations (Joshua 7)! Ok, let’s skip to when the nation is finally organized. Who is the first king? Saul. Tribe? Benjamin. Benjamin?! That’s not how it is supposed to work! Yes, things finally improve under David, also from the line of Judah, and his son Solomon in which the wealth and prosperity of united Israel lasts for all of eighty years total before the nation is split after Solomon, leading Jereboam (from the tribe of Ephraim) to lead ten of the tribes under him! Judah is the smaller one! Yes, Israel finally gets conquered by the Assyrians for their apostasy, but Judah itself is conquered by the Babylonians for the same sins! Even when we get to the time of Christ, the tribes are united but ruled by the Romans, ultimately, and ruled locally in Jerusalem by a descendant…of Esau! 
Except for a few bright spots along the way, if you were to flip through the Old Testament and put your finger down, it looks like the promises of God aren’t doing so well. We can either say that Joseph is a better administrator than God, or we can relook at those promises. Ultimately, this promise of an eternal Kingship is pointing to Jesus. Even then, for most of His life, He was a carpenter! Yes, He starts healing people and multiplying food, but He ends up being executed on a cross! The most shameful way to die reserved for prisoners and enemies of state! But then He rises from the dead! Does He establish His kingdom then? Nope! He ascends into heaven and commissions fishermen to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and we could go on and on. 
God’s ways are unexpected even when He tells you what He is doing. We never look to our present circumstances to determine God’s faithfulness to us. If you do, you will most likely be either delighted or despairing. Instead, look not to the present but the Person for your confidence. We trust in who is helping not what is happening on any given day. We trust in the character and nature of God, who we can see is faithful to His people down through the ages. He is worthy of trust. 

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
How do you think about God's promises? For Christians, they are the central hope of our lives, because God's promises can't be stopped even by death itself. Because of this, we want to be able to pass on these promises to our children, and a big part of our ability to do that is because of this passage right here. Abraham has been promised that there will be a seed that will bless the nations. Ultimately, that is Christ. The promise is going to outlive Jacob, and we will see the transfer of that blessing here. 
Now, our passing on of the blessing looks different. In this passage, the blessing comes ultimately from the Lord but only *through* Jacob. As we will see, the blessing is going to be extended to the rest of the nation of Israel with the tribes forming their own contribution to God's plan. Today, the blessing ultimately comes from Christ but is shared through every Christian that opens their mouth for the kingdom. 
We are to remember and pass on God’s promises. 
Genesis 47:29-31: Painful reminder of a Promise The passage opens with a scene that should remind us of the past. When we see Israel asking for an oath with his thigh, we are, of course, reminded of Abraham making his servant do the same in Genesis 24. His focus at that time was a marriageable wife for his son. But in this particular moment, it isn’t about a people but a place, a return of Israel’s body to the land of Promise. 
But here, I think we get to see a subtle reminder of another marking of God’s promises. The word translated “thigh” here in this passage is translated “hip” in Genesis 32:31 but it is the same word. This is the part of the body that God touched when He was wrestling with Jacob right before he was about to encounter Esau the next day. Because of this, Jacob limped for the rest of his life. I wonder if it was painful to lift up his hip to allow for this promise? Did he have to lift up the other leg because it was his “good one,” the one God didn’t touch? We remember that this event was also the place where Jacob got his name changed to “Israel,” the name that this land of Canaan will one day be known by. 
This is a powerful reminder of how faithful that God has been, and we have something to share in that. God no longer makes a permanent mark on our flesh that we can always see, but He has given to us a sign of His faithfulness: baptism. Baptism is God’s sign of His work of including us in His covenant. If you have put your faith in Christ, you can look back and remember your baptism. The fact that you were baptized means that you have heard the gospel, and at least at one point in your life, associated with a church that cared about your soul. That is a tangible expression of God’s grace to you. 
It is the same for infants who are baptized. Even though they aren’t able to express faith, that actually isn’t what the sign is for. It is God’s sign of God’s work on this child, and if a child is baptized then that means that at one point at least, that child’s parents were involved in a church and believed that God wants their child to believe as well and made vows to pass on to their child, as much as they are able, the faith that they have. 
If that is your testimony, you can look back to that baptism and say, “God is after me. He has blessed me with a background that not everyone has.” In this way, we are able to join Israel here in this passage. You have had a blessing, and it is time to pass that along.
This is a great privilege and joy as parents to pass on the sign of this promise to our children as Acts 2 tells us it is for. 

Genesis 48:1-4: Strength Made Perfect in Weakness But so often, we feel weak to the task. We come to verses 1 and 2 and find Israel, the wrestler of God, sick in bed needing to summon strength to sit up. He is a physically weak vessel indeed, but he serves El Shaddi, God Almighty. Israel doesn’t have to be physically strong. He is only going to be a conduit of blessing, not its source. God’s grace is strong, yet it can be passed on even in weakness. 
And what a blessing he is passing on. Verse 4 gives us this word “multiply” which has been on the heels of the announcement of God’s blessing since Genesis 1. It was said of fish, birds, and Adam and Eve. And though it was said of Eve’s pain in childbearing, it will be relieved in the multiplication of children, as was said of Abraham, Issac, Israel, and even Ishmael. Now, we have see it come to fruition here in 47:27, and promised yet again for the last time in Genesis in verse 4. We won’t see it again until in Exodus 1:7. 

Genesis 48:5-7: The Lost Boys Gathered InWe have to look carefully at what Israel is doing here. As one can see when the tribes are given their allotments in the promised land, there is no mention of the “tribe of Joseph.” Instead, the inheritance is split into the two tribes who are represented here in Joseph’s two sons (with Levi not getting a portion in exchange for being priests makes the math of 12 work out according to Belcher). Israel adopts his grandsons as it were to give them a place equal to his full sons, in fact, it would seem according to 1 Chr. 5:1-2, they are actually getting the inheritance that Reuben and Simon would have been getting had they not dishonored their father in such a way. This implies that their behavior has impacted future generations (Matthews).

Genesis 48:8-16: A Heritage of Blessing Verse 10 shows usJacob stepping into the role of Issac. How similar, and yet how different. He kisses and feels his grandsons, not because he suspects deception but because he is expressing love and gratitude that he has the chance to even meet them, much less pass the blessing of his fathers to them. Things are improving for the family. 
Now looking at the blessing proper, it is very simple. Jacob recalls the past provision of God to his grandfather, father, and now him. He thinks of God along Psalm 23 lines of being a shepherd. He has led him safely to this point, and now desires the same for his sons. Don’t be confused to the angel reference here. On scholar points to Genesis 31:11–13 “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ”” This is like the Angel of the Lord that pops up frequently in the Old Testament. He isn’t an Angel but God Himself. Possibly the Pre-incarnate Son. 
Along with remembering our baptisms as a central reminder of the goodness of God, we do well acknowledge the other blessings of God’s providences. It can be easy for us to compartmentalize God as needed for our salvation but our other blessings come from elsewhere. But we have to intentionally notice them. Richard Pratt in his book Praying with Your Eyes Open, talks about an exercise he would do with a kids class for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. He would ask the kids to list all the things their parents did for them. It would start out slow, but soon the list would fill up hard and fast! Kids would begin to notice all the things that their parents did for them once they got past the initial, “Well, they give me food.” God does even more than bring you salvation. He gives you food, too. 
But even as I give strategies to remember God’s work to help pass on the blessing of Jesus, we are reminded that it is God who decides who, where and when He blesses. 

We are not in control of where, who, or when He blesses.

Genesis 48:17-22: The Passing of Blessings Given We saw earlier that Israel crosses his hands before he blesses the boys. Joseph had set it up so that the right hand (a symbol of priority) would rest of the oldest’s head. That is the way things are done, after all. The oldest goes first! But God’s economy works different than ours. One commentator put it this way: “And is it not a perpetual encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature has successfully begun, that it is not the likely, and the naturally good, that are the most blessed, but that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise…” (Dods, quoted in Ross, 695). In other words, God is never stuck playing the hand He is dealt. He can do anything with you, regardless of where you start. Can you sin your way out of some blessings? Yes, Reuben and Simon did, but God’s grace can meet you even there. It is possible for me to sin in such a way that I disqualify myself for pastoral ministry, but I would not be beyond the saving grace of God. 
As much as we would like to control what blessing we get, we can’t! Joseph tries to influence who gets the greater blessing by moving his father’s hands. But there is no accident here. Israel’s eyes are bad but not that bad, and he has intentionally decided that the youngest is to be blessed, guided no doubt, by God’s will. 
Far from this passing of blessing being just a good luck wish, this actually plays out in the rest of the history of the nation of Israel. Ephraim was the stronger tribe of the two. Interestingly, when Moses dies, the nation is led by Joshua who happens to come from Ephraim (Numbers 13:8). And when the nation of Israel splits into Judah and Israel, can you take a guess from which tribe the first king of the new nation of Israel, Jeroboam, comes from? Yes, once again the line of Ephraim, 1 Kings 11:26-40. These aren’t things that Jacob could have had any control over, but they are things that God absolutely controls. 
This is another way in which we differ from Israel’s position here in this text. We can shape our children’s direction but cannot make sure their destiny. We are in Joseph’s position here. He tried to make things a certain way to follow the conventions he knew to follow, and all he had to do was set his sons in the right place. He did that, but God had other plans. Manasseh was still a great people. They still got inheritance, but it was up to God. 
Application To quote again from Dods: “And in the case of much that we hold, dear, the same rule is seen; a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make a little of, and are thrown back from continually, while something else into which we have thrown ourselves, almost accidentally prospers in our hand, and blesses us. Again, and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished desire to God’s right hand, and our displeased, like Joseph, that still the hand of greater blessing, should pass to some other thing.” (quoted in Ross, 695). 
That is a beautiful way of saying that as much as we would like to shape precisely what blessings we have in life, we can’t. But we aren’t here to be the captain of our destiny. We are here to follow the Captain of our Salvation. We can’t steer the ship of history precisely where we want it to go, we can only be obedient to our Captain. This isn’t a “let go and let God” approach to life. This is “follow precisely what God said, yet leave the results to Him.” He will often surprise you! 
Don’t assume anything for your children. Just because they are the firstborn doesn’t mean much to their direction in life. Just because they have started out life poorly doesn’t mean it must always be that way. God chooses who He is going to work with and how. That doesn’t erase your responsibility to raise them and correct them, but it does ease the reality that you are not in control in any final sense. Give your parenting mistakes to God, and grant your successes to the Same.
At the same time, invest in your children with your prayers and teachings depending on your season. Your children have a mission that goes beyond themselves. They will have an impact and they will shape the future, just as you do. 

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Last week, we saw that there is a certain restlessness amongst the people of God. The family of Abraham has been wandering the entire book of Genesis, knowing that they will eventually settle in the land that God has promised them. We also, in our own way, are wandering through a strange land waiting for our final, promised inheritance as well. But what do we do in the meantime? Are we just sitting around for 80 to 100 years just waiting to for our lives to really begin? How does God settle His people when they are waiting? 
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God Faithfully Settles His separate people in a Strange Land 

Genesis 46:31-47:6Tearful reunion now settled, it was time to figure out next steps. What is life going to look like after happily every after? The strategy begins! But what is that strategy? Is it pretending to be something they aren’t like Jacob did to Isaac? No. 
Joseph isn’t telling them to do anything but tell the truth. We aren’t trying to trick Pharaoh into anything but simply identify what they need: a place with lots of pastureland for their animals to graze. Goshen is just such the place. 
Goshen was the most fertile pasture land in all of Egypt, which is how it gets its name. The word comes from the idea of “heart” (A Biblical and Theological Dictionary) or precious. This area is separate from the rest of the mainland of Egypt, so it will be the perfect spot for the flock. 
It will also be the perfect spot for the people as well. We can see from verse 34 that shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. The word for “abomination” is the same word we find for God’s view of homosexuality in Leviticus. We aren’t entirely sure why. When the Greeks come along, one writer notes that the Egyptians worshiped the cow, so eating it for its beef was very offensive (Matthews). That’s possible. But whatever the exact reason, their ending up in Goshen is going to be the best for everyone. The Jews won’t assimilate the Egyptian practices, because they will be living in their own, separate culture over in Goshen (Belcher). This is going to continue to be the case until they leave Egypt in the Exodus. 
Joseph is also making sure that Pharaoh knows that they are shepherds and want to continue to be such. These are not kings in the making (Matthews). This isn’t Esau’s family. These are humble shepherds who need a little space to practice their craft far away from the rest of the nations so offense isn’t created. 
In God’s faithfulness, it works! Pharaoh commands that they take up residence in Goshen, and he even offers them a job looking after the royal livestock! What a kindness of God. Really, not the kindness of Pharaoh, although he is kind here. This is the move of God. What king who has the world at his mercy doles out the best of his land to a wandering band of shepherds? Yes, it is Joseph’s family, but ancient kings aren’t known for their whimsical kindness to foreigners, particularly those who are culturally offensive. So all credit here goes to God. He has taken care of His people to lead them to here to literal green pastures. We note that Joseph doesn’t have to sell this to Pharaoh. They lead with the fact that they are different, even offensive, to the rest of the population, yet God moves in it. No scheming required. 
Now I mentioned that part of the advantage of their moving to Goshen was so that they wouldn’t assimilate into Egyptian ways of thinking. The Messiah is supposed to come from the family of Abraham, and it was important that they not get absorbed by another people and disappear. 
But how does this work today? Are we as New Testament Christians called to live physically separate lives from those in the world? Do we need to build our own communities in far-flung reaches of the country? Bring back the monasteries? Select the Benedict Option? 
I don’t think so. Jesus didn’t tell us to leave the world but to go out into it. Jesus Himself went to eat with sinners and tax collectors. However, in both of those approaches it wasn’t to become just like the world James 4:4 is very clear: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” As is 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” But the point is to disciple the world. Jesus ate with sinners to call them to repentance. We go out into the world not to learn from it but so that it learns God’s Word. 
That begins by being honest with what we believe. God’s people don’t have to apologize for being different. The things that we believe, that we proclaim out of God’s Word are very offensive to our world. The idea that there is only one way to heaven, the idea that God is in control of absolutely everything, the idea that men and women are different and even have unique roles to play in society and in the church. And that’s just the garden variety stuff of Biblical Christianity. We haven’t even gotten to the Sabbath or even the Trinity yet. We’re an odd bunch, but we don’t have to hide that. We shouldn’t. We do no favors when we try to hide who we are as a people united to Christ. But we shouldn’t be surprised by resistance to it. Jesus Himself embodied this perfectly and was killed for it. 
It is harder not to be worldly than we think. Even in the ways that present the truth we can fall into the patterns of the world. 
There is being offensive for the sake of the truth and being offensive for offensive sake. It is getting increasingly hard to tell the difference these days because of how much the way we talk has changed. Such a change has taken place through the Internet. The Internet rewards saying outlandish things in outlandish ways, but we are here to please the Almighty not the algorithm. Jesus was not in love with the world, and if we are going to follow Him in that, we are going to need to be more careful than ever. 
It is very hard not to be discipled by the Internet. Here in our passage, the Egyptians found the shepherds offensive, and the religious practices of the Egyptians were offensive right back to the Jews. However, once they were out of each other’s presences, the influence stops. Not so today. Today the world follows us home. If you check your phone within the first ten minutes of waking up (like apparently 80% of the US population), the world is the first thing to speak to you. Throughout the day, we apparently look at our phone 205 times. (https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/). 
We have a great opportunity to be a blessing to the world. But we can’t be that if we don’t even truly know why we are a blessing. We are a blessing by bringing Christ to the world, as we will see more next week, but if we are consumed by the world, it is impossible to accurately, and dare I say winsomely, present the gospel to world. 
We can’t be drawn in by the world but neither can we be fully withdrawn from it, so what do we do? We abide in Christ. Recognize the world that you live in and seek out God in prayer and in His Word. It is so easy to assume that because we once knew something that it means we are still living it. I’ve been to seminary and I catch myself living opposite to the what I know. And when I see that, when you see that, run back to God. Remember, God has followed you into this world. Just like placing the people in Goshen, He has placed you here in this time and this place. While it is harder to avoid worldliness, it isn’t impossible. James said not to be a friend of the world well before the iPhone came out. The danger isn’t fully avoided by canceling your connections with the Internet. But you will find the closer you get to Jesus, the worldliness of the world doesn’t have the same shine. Being close to Jesus means you can look at the piece of technology in your hand and praise God that He made a world where you can assemble sand and silicone and make a device that allows you to see the other side of the world live. And then you can put it down because the Giver is more impressive than the gift. 
So what is our takeaway here? We are called to be a unique people in our world, as we always have been. Yet we are called to spread that uniqueness by proclaiming the gospel of Christ: full forgiveness of sin by repenting and turning to Christ, union with Him. 
So kids: That means for the most part we don’t act like the kids you see on the TV. Almost never are you going to see perfect examples in the movies and TV we see today. We take how we are supposed to act from mom and dad. 
Adults: be thoughtful about why you think the way you do. Not just what you think but how you think. Is this conversation, this way of moral reasoning, is this from the Bible or X? Can we minister on these platforms? Yes! Can we find good stuff on the Internet? Of course. Just make sure that this is the majority of your time. Our lives are going fast. The world is changing even faster. Yet the gospel of Christ is always needed. It doesn’t change. The good news is still good news, so don’t let it go to the back of your mind.