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Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. My mind today went back To an episode when I was in college, I hadn't seen my parents for several months. And I don't know if you remember this or not. When you were that age and you hadn't seen your parents for months or a year or so. when you see them again, and I remember when I saw them, During this little hiatus, this break that I had in college.
A thought as I looked at them came across my mind. I thought Boy. Are they looking old? And they were. They were old.
I mean, they were like in their mid-50s. Maybe early sixties. But from my perspective at that time in my life, They were old. Imagine what it was like for Joseph, not having seen his father Jacob for seven days. As he glanced upon his father, he must have thought, Boy, he's old.
And he was. The Bible tells us he was old. He was 147 years old. It's an old guy. And in chapter 48, we find that he's sick.
He's going to die. He'll go on his deathbed in chapter 48 and 49. Forms the deathbed scene of Jacob at age 147.
Someone once said that there are seven ages or decades of man. They all have one word to sum them up, and they all rhyme. The first. is spills. That's when you're a baby and you grab something and you spill it: juice, water, cereal, soup.
Spills. The second Age or decade of man. Our drills It's when you go to school and you're tested. One test, one drill after another. As you get prepared in knowledge to live your life.
The third stage is thrills. You are growing up, you're becoming a teenager, you're going off to college, you're becoming independent, life is thrilling, and you just want to have fun. Then you reach stage four. That's the stage of bills. You have to pay for it.
And so life takes on a whole different meaning as you now are responsible for the choices you make economically. The fifth stage Is ills. You reach a point where the body doesn't respond like it used to, doesn't. Come back like it used to, isn't it as resilient as it once was. It slows down, the aches and the pains and the diseases become more prevalent, more noticeable.
The sixth age is the age of Pills. To manage and to maintain and to just move forward takes help, medication. Finally, the seventh decade is the age of wills. You make your last will. And last testament.
Jacob is in his final stage. His last will and testament will be given in chapter 49 as his family is gathered around. They're in Egypt. A hundred and forty-seven years old.
Now, last week we saw that when he met Pharaoh, he said, You know, I'm really not that old. Few and hard have been the days of my pilgrimage. I'm only 147.
Well, his dad. Isaac lived to be 180. His grandpa Abraham lived to be age 175. His great-grandpa Tara lived to be 205.
So I guess in comparison to great-grandpa, He was only a hundred and forty seven. Young.
Now, we're faced with something that you have noticed since the beginning of Genesis, and that is there's a shift in longevity. If you think of the relative age of this era, 147, then a little bit older, 205, et cetera. But if you compare that. With the age before the flood, what we call antediluvian. population before the flood.
Okay. They live to be a lot older than that, right? Adam, 930 years of age, Methuselah, the oldest, 969 years of age.
So, reaching back to the antediluvian before the flood, they lived much longer.
Now we're still at an age that. We don't see today 205, 147. By the time we get to Moses onward, it sort of averages out to be like what it is today. What we know is the average lifespan.
So much so that by the time of David, David will say, Look, God has given us about 70 years.
So, right now, at this stage of Genesis, post-flood, post-diluvian. We're at that shoulder where it's still a long time, but not as long as those who lived before the flood. What is happening? What happened at and after the flood to cause this shift? I just thought it'd be appropriate to maybe think about that.
It is believed one of the many theories That After the flood, There were many factors that were now introduced on earth that were different from the time before the flood. The radioactivity On the earth was much greater now than it was at the time of the flood. The great deep had been broken up. Cataclysmic changes took place on the surface of the earth. The radioactivity was higher.
Number two, the ultraviolet radiation was much more since the canopy that once surrounded the earth, giving it a lush kind of an environment, was taken away. That can wreak havoc on cellular structure. The water sources became polluted for a number of reasons.
So many animals upon the earth. Pollution from being downstream from mining upstream in the mountain regions. Also, There's been a major shift in climactic conditions with the hydrological cycle. All of those factors, this theory goes, and many believe this. had an effect on the genetic structure of man.
In your chromosomes, you have what's called telomeres. That's the little end piece of the chromosome. It is believed that The flood after the flood, all of those factors damaged. The telomeres, they became shortened than they once were.
Now the telomeres are that part of the chromosomes that Um will prevent Cellular degeneration. Allowing the cells, when they regenerate, the cells to live longer themselves. At the time of the flood, you only had eight people that were saved after the flood, so you sort of had a genetic bottlenecking. And then as people began to populate the earth, The population that came from those eight were not genetically predisposed to longer telomeres, but shorter ones.
So we're now at that shoulder between the super longevity of almost a thousand years, 900 some-on years. to a shorter lifespan, more like what we know. But He's 147. He's still talking.
So that's pretty good.
Now, so far in Genesis, and we're at the end, so I'm sort of doing a few summations before we end it in a couple weeks. Uh We have seen that Genesis deals with two. Two things primarily. Four great people. And four great events.
The four great events come first. The formation of the universe. That's the creation of heaven and earth, the fall of man. The flood The great judgment that took place upon the earth. It was universal, by the way, as we discussed.
And then the fallout. From the sin of man over the earth. Those are the four great or notable events. But then we have beginning in chapter 11. The bulk of Genesis, the greater part of it, Are the four great people?
Abraham Isaac Jacob And now, Joseph, who is given a full one-quarter of the entire book of Genesis. One quarter of this. Literary real estate is devoted to Joseph. We're dealing with the patriarchs. Those are the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the twelve tribes.
After that, there will be no more patriarchs. This is the patriarchal age.
Now, if you go down to verse 28 of the previous chapter. It says, Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. And so the length of Jacob's life was 147. As we noted last week, Joseph was 17 years of age, a teenager, almost an adult by contemporary terms, an adult in that day and age, 17 years old when he was kidnapped. by his brothers and sold as a slave to the Midianites, and then he went down to Egypt.
So Joseph grew up nurtured by his father for 17 years.
Now Joseph gets to reciprocate that and take care of his dad. for 17 years. It is a blessing. Though it's difficult. To take care of parents in their latter years, I do thank God for the time I was able to spend, especially with my mom.
Before she passed away. And to be able to reciprocate just a little bit the kind of care. that she lavished upon us as kids.
Well now, chapter 48, after a lengthy introduction.
Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Indeed, your father is sick. And he took with him his two sons. Manasseh, he's mentioned first 'cause he's firstborn. And Ephraim. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig.
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Now let's get back to today's teaching with Pastor Skip. And Jacob was told, Look, Your son Joseph is coming to you. And Israel strengthened himself. And sat up on the bed.
Now, notice in that one verse, he's given both of his names. Jacob That's his birth name, Yaakov, one who grabs the heel, the heel catcher, the deceiver, the manipulator. But then the second name, the one God gave him. Israel, the one who fights victoriously and valiantly with God. Yeah.
Joseph is told dad is sick. He thinks I got to go see him. When he's coming to see him, Jacob is told, your son is here. That gives him enough strength. to prop himself up.
Lean on his staff, the Bible will tell us in another place, and address his son Joseph. It really is encouraging. When you visit someone who's hospitalized, or you visit someone who's in an old folks' home, just a short visit. It can encourage them and strengthen them. How thankful I am for the hundreds or over a thousand of you that decide to go out on our turn us loose weekend projects where you go out into the community and you bless people.
What an enormous encouragement and testimony that is. as it was here. When Jacob was able to see Joseph on his deathbed. Then Jacob said to Joseph, verse 3, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz.
Now what is Luz? Do you remember? Bethel Remember, he changed it to Bethel. It was called Luz, but because he saw that vision. Or that vision of God in his dream of the angels on the ladder descending and ascending.
He woke up the next day and went, Man, God is in this place, and I didn't know it, but now I do. I'm calling it the house of God, Bethel. That's the place, that's what he's referring to, God Almighty. appeared to me at Luz. in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
Okay. Finally. Jacob is focusing on the blessings of God, not the bummers of life. For so long we've listened to his moaning and complaining. To Laban and to his sons, etc., right?
We saw that.
Now finally God's in his life. God's in the picture. And the blessing in his life is attributed to God.
So He finally learns the lesson after 147 years. There's hope for us. There's hope. Only God can teach an old dog new tricks. And God can teach an old dog new tricks.
After all that has been Cemented into the character of Jacob with his negativism and manipulation. Here he is attributing the blessings. to God.
So he strengthened himself and sat up on his bed.
Now, the bed he's on will prove to be his deathbed. Verse four. And he said to me, He said, 'Look, God appeared to me.' This is what God told me. He's saying this to Joseph. Behold, I will make you fruitful.
and multiply you. And I will make of you a multitude of people. And give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. He's saying, Joe. God appeared to me.
Joe knew the story, but he's recounting it again. He's trying to get that into his system. Uh And he gave me a promise.
Now you'll notice there's three parts to this promise. Number one, The promise of a people that is his own family. And boy, did he have a large family. He went from Just himself to getting married, having a few wives, and then having Twelve sons, some daughters. And eventually, seventy people will migrate.
From the land of Beersheba down to Egypt, seventy. His family has grown. That's part of the promise. I'm going to bless you, buddy, your family.
Now 70 are in his family. The second part of the promise isn't just a people, but it's a population. It's an entire nation. I'll bless your descendants and make you a great nation, like he told Abraham. And that promise came to pass.
70 people will eventually become 2,100,000 by conservative estimates by the time of the Exodus. In Exodus. Chapter 1, etc. They'll grow immensely in the land of Goshen. The third part of the promise Is for a place.
So a people, a population, and a place, the land. Notice it says. And I will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. There is a huge debate that has been going on. for several thousand years.
And Because it is not only historic but prophetic, it is being asked right now, tonight, even in Washington, D.C., as well as in the Middle East. The question goes like this. Whose land Is that the land of Israel? or Palestine. Who really should occupy it.
Who does it belong to?
Well, we could go to recent history and say, well, you know, in 1948, there was a United Nations ruling that created the modern state of Israel. Allowing Jews to reoccupy it and move from all over the world into that land, the land of Israel. And thus it was called Israel. Not Palestine, as Goldemair firmly put down as one of the first prime ministers. It's the land of Israel.
But Go back a little further. Who was in charge of it before Israel got it?
Well, the Palestinians will say the Palestinians, but Keep going back. Mm-hmm. Before the modern Palestinians occupied it, the Ottoman Empire occupied it, the Turks.
So we'd say it belongs to the Turks. Give it to Turkey.
Now, but keep going back. Before the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks. from Egypt controlled it. And the sell jerks. And before the Mamluks and the Seljuks, the Crusaders occupied that territory.
But keep going back before the Crusaders. There were different Arab tribes, warring tribes, and before those tribes Were the Romans and before the Romans were the Greeks and before the Greeks, the Jews again and before the Jews. The Babylonians and before the Babylonians, the Jews again, and before the Jews again, the Assyrians. And you keep going all the way back, and we have to say, actually. It belongs to the Canaanites.
But now we have a bigger problem because there are no more Canaanites. In existence.
So In trying to solve the dilemma whose land it is, Do we say well? Whoever fought for it. And wins the fight, it's their land, or whoever has the most money, or most firepower, or most need, or most population. How do we solve the difficulty? We solve the difficulty biblically.
Let me give you a few facts. Fact number one. The land belongs to God. It's God's land. We rightly call it the Holy Land because in Leviticus 25, The Lord said, and I quote Leviticus 25 around verse 23.
The land shall not be sold permanently. Or it is mine. Saith the Lord, you are just sojourners, you are just travelers.
So that's the first fact. It belongs to God. Fact number two. It was promised to Abraham. and to his descendants, as we have seen in chapter twelve, I will bless you and make you a great nation.
To you and your descendants will I give this land. Fact number three. The land was a gift. An unconditional gift. in perpetuity.
For in chapter 17, The Lord said, I am giving this land, Abraham, to you and your descendants as, get this, as an everlasting possession. Forever, it belongs to you. Abraham and your descendants. But Abraham had more than one descendant. He just didn't have Isaac, he had Ishmael.
So that brings up the next fact. God promised the land. To Isaac and his descendants, not Ishmael and his descendants.
Now, if you just remember back a few chapters, chapter 17, I know that was a long time ago.
Okay. When the Lord was suggesting that God was going to bless Abraham with another son besides Ishmael once Ishmael was born. God says, you're going to have another boy. And I'm going to bless him, and I'm going to give him the land. And Abraham.
Didn't like the suggestion. He said, Oh, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. Just fulfill your promise through Ishmael. I know it was with Hagar and it was this weird mistake thing with this Egyptian handmade, but just. Do it with it.
L let let it happen with Ishmael. God said no. But your wife Sarah will have a son, and you will call his name Isaac. And to him I will give the land as an everlasting possession.
So God narrows it. He says, It's mine. I'm giving it to Abraham and his descendants.
Now I'm giving it not to Ishmael, but to Isaac and his descendants.
Next fact. The land was given not just to Isaac and his descendants. but it was given to Jacob and his descendants, not Esau. Esau wasn't given this land. God said, I'll bless him with other lands.
But look at verse 4 once again. This is what God told me, he said. And give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting. Possessions.
Now, not everyone agrees with the biblical mandate. It's not the British mandate, it's not the United Nations mandate, the biblical mandate for Israel to occupy that land. And some of the nations around Israel have been trying to get Israel out ever since she got in. She got in in 1948. The very next day, a war was declared, and Israel was attacked by neighboring nations.
They didn't even have an army. They weren't even a nation. They were just a bunch of farmers that got into land, they were attacked. And ever since Israel has been in that land, the Muslim nation's 300 million neighbors have wanted her out. Because they think a Jewish state in a Muslim part of the world is.
Is an anathema. It's a curse. It shouldn't be. We have to expunge the Middle East of any Jewish presence. And so the problem persists.
And nations like Iraq were trying desperately to kick Israel out of the land, Saddam Hussein said. He said, well, he's not an issue anymore.
Well, he has a neighbor called Iran that has threatened to annihilate. Israel Because it's God's will to annihilate the little Satan, that's Israel, and then also the great Satan, that's. You and I. America And so now there's this whole worldwide wonderment and bewilderment. Is Iran building up nuclear weapons to destroy Israel?
Oh no! This has been going on now for thousands of years. And at this point, especially for us who believe the Bible and know the track record of God and his power. We much rather believe the promise of God than we do the nuclear capabilities of a neighbor of Israel. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heidzik.
Before you go, don't forget to request this month's resource, GodPrint, The Life of Abraham. This powerful seven-message study from Skip-Heitzig shows how God's presence shaped one man's life and how He can shape yours. It's our thanks for your generous gift of fifty dollars or more to support this ministry. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888.
Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional email to grow deeper in your walk with Christ. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection now. Yeah.
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