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Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Jeremiah 31. 30 and 31, speaking about the future blessings of Israel as a nation. Verse 8, chapter 31 of Jeremiah: The remnant of Israel, behold, I will bring them from the north country, gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them, the blind and the lame, the woman with child, the one who labors with child together, a great throng shall return there.
They shall come with weeping and with supplications. I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters. In a straight way in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Go, now wait a minute.
And ask them this: wait a minute. How can you have two firstborns? There's only one kid who was born first. They weren't twins. Manasseh was clearly Born first chronologically.
Why does God call him my firstborn? to Ephraim. Simple. Law of preeminence. What he's saying is I'm elevating him to be the heir.
The idea of a firstborn means the heir. He's going to be the heir, he's going to inherit. I'm going to give him the double portion. I'm going to give him the blessing. Ephraim is my firstborn.
I'm going to bless Ephraim. More so than Manasseh even. Ephraim is my firstborn in terms of position.
So Jesus Christ Back in Colossians chapter one, he is the firstborn over all creation. Prototicos in Greek, he is the highest in order. He is of the highest rank. He is the heir of all creation because he created everything. He is therefore the firstborn, the highest in rank, highest in order, and deserves the preeminence.
If you just keep reading down. That's how you solve it. And then just Just have fun. They won't know what to do with it.
Okay, back to Chapter 48. Let's finish the chapter. Call it a night. And he blessed Joseph, and he said, Now he's got his hands crossed. Right hand on the Youngest?
Left hand on the oldest. He did a crossover.
Okay. God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel, capital A. Reference the angel of the Lord. Who has redeemed me from all evil? Bless the lads.
Let my name be named among them. And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, let them grow into a multitude. in the midst of the earth.
Now when Joseph saw that his father Had laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him.
So he took. Hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father. For this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
Dad, you're all mixed up, man. You're backward. You're an old guy. Let me help you out a little bit. But his father refused, and he said.
I know. My son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. But truly, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become as a multitude. Mm-hmm.
of nations. Do you suppose that Jacob, this old 147-year-old? Codger. Was thinking back in his mind to when he was a child. And the promise that God gave to his mother and father.
For when he was in the womb with Esau, The other twin. And his mom was having a tough time in pregnancy and They took it before the Lord. The Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb. But the older will serve the younger. It was God's promise to Jacob that Jacob would have, not Esau.
The law of preeminence. And he's probably thinking back to that. I don't know why God does this. He is sovereign to do it. He not only did it with all the people I mentioned, But Think of David.
He was going to be the king of Israel. Remember, Samuel was going to go find a king in Jesse's house. And so here's Samuel the prophet goes to Jesse's house in Bethlehem, and all the boys are lined up, and the first boy. born named Eliab, the Bible says was good looking. Tall.
Handsome. He looked like a king. He was a movie star. And Samuel said in his heart, Surely this is the Lord's anointed. Immediately, God spoke to him and said, Don't look at the height of his stature or his outward appearance, for I have rejected him.
For God does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance. But God looks upon the heart. And all of the boys went through the list until finally he said Is this all the kids you got?
Well, we got one more little shepherd boy. Hanging out outside, but he's not. Don't worry about him. Go fetch him. Go bring him in here.
We won't. Be done till he comes. He was the one that God had chosen. happens all the way through scripture.
Okay. He says, I know. And then he says he will become a multitude. of nations. History bears this out, real briefly.
History will bear this out. Ephraim will become more notable and have more land and more people. The Manasseh. They become a bigger tribe. Um A more populous tribe, right in the center of the nation.
Verse twenty.
So he blessed them that day, saying, By you, Israel will bless, saying, May God bless you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Now he seems to say that that's going to be a thing a lot of people are going to say in the future, a blessing that many people in Israel will say to other people. And that is by Uh may God Make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. interesting to this very day Jewish fathers will say this to their kids on Friday evenings. The eve of Shabbat, the eve of the Sabbath. It's a beautiful celebration in Jewish homes.
It has begun as the two candles are lit by the Imah, the mother, as she welcomes in the Sabbath with her prayers. The hard working day is over, the week is over, it's a time to rest as a family. She brings in the Sabbath. Then the father reads Proverbs 31 to his wife. Blessing her in the name of the Lord as the virtuous woman.
And then he says to his children, May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. Beautiful celebration. Family celebration. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am dying. But God will be with you.
and bring you back to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the land of the Amorite with my sword and my bow. There seems to be a play on words. You see the words one portion? In Hebrew, portion is Shechem.
Shechem. Shechem Echad, one portion. Shechem or Shechem. becomes a city in Israel. You remember the Shechemites from our previous studies in Genesis.
Now in the New Testament Jesus goes and visits A woman who's a Samaritan woman at the well of Samaria. And it says he went to this area of Shechem. To the city of Sychar, the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. That's the portion. That's the shechem.
That's the portion that he gave to Joseph. Moreover, I have given you Shechem above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite. With my sword and my bow. I'm looking at the time and I'm debating. We have a few moments, so we can go ahead and move on.
And we won't get through it all, but we can read just a few and I think leave it a strategic place tonight. This is the deathbed. This is the final words. Your first words were pretty much the same as everybody else's first words. Right?
Water wow. That's about it. It might be a variation of that, but it was just... Insensible noises. Those were your first words, but a person's final words.
Are very significant. I've been at several deathbeds of people. And when I get that opportunity, and to me it is an opportunity, it's a holy moment. I listened for the final words. I remember.
The final communications of my mother, and I hold them as sacred and hollow. These are the final words. of Jacob to his boys. It's interesting. It says, Jacob called his sons and said, Gather together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.
Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel. Your father Okay. Here's what is Rather interesting to me. He's 147 years of age. He couldn't see or recognize the two sons of Joseph, but he can remember.
The birth order of his sons perfectly.
So he's still lucid. Of course, you know, he he has known that for a long time. That's not new knowledge. It's cemented in his brain. It's a permanent fixture.
And he probably rehearsed for a long time what he might say to them on his deathbed. But he goes through them in perfect birth order.
Now it's interesting that some people, sociologists, believe that birth order is a huge and important issue sociologically that determines the outcome of a person's life. That the order of their birth Will shape their personality and so shape it for the rest of their lives. For instance, the firstborn, sociologists typically tell us. Are a little more aggressive. They become natural leaders.
They're More precise. Uh more organized, typically, um more exact. can drive people crazy as they give attention to details. Of course, Ruben, who was the firstborn, didn't know of any of those theories, and he didn't really fit any of those theories. You're listening to Connect with Skip-Heitzig.
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Now let's get back to today's teaching with Pastor Skip. It says in verse 3, Reuben, you are my firstborn. my might in the beginning of my strength. The excellence of dignity, the excellency of power. I'm sure by this time He was Sighing, thinking, yeah, maybe blushing a little bit.
Pretty, this is pretty cool. Maybe at first, when all the kids were getting together, he thought, oh no, what is dad going to say? But so far, it's going pretty good. You're my firstborn, man. You're the excellence of my strength.
Yeah. Yeah. I am. Hear that, boys? Ha ha, that's me.
It all goes downhill immediately. Unstable as water, you shall not excel. Bummer to hear that as the last words of your dad. Because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. Then he turns to the other boy and says, He went up to my couch.
What is he talking about? He's talking about an incident 40 years before this. 40 years, and his sin finds him out again. Forty years have gone by. 40 years ago, when Rachel, the wife of Jacob, died, it was Reuben the firstborn, instead of comforting his dad.
took Bilhah his wife's concubine and had sexual relations with her. You're unstable as water, you're untrustworthy. You will not excel. And he didn't excel. As his tribe goes on, it's this tribe.
The tribe of Reuben that joins Korah in a rebellion against Moses. We'll get to in several books. few years from now. Verse five: Simeon and Levi. Our brothers.
Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger they slew a man, and In their self will they hamstrung an ox, Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob.
and I will scatter them in Israel. These guys were two peas in a pod. They had a bad temper. They were the two boys Who, when the family was up in Shechem, when they first crossed over the river Jordan and came from Padanoram, and they were up in Shechem, and one of the Shechemites, Violated their sister. They reacted violently.
Huge they killed everybody. It killed all the guys in town. And dad had to say, what's up with you guys? You killed like the town. And so they're mentioned.
and their anger is cursed. They become small tribes, pretty insignificant tribes in terms of influence, except Levi bounces back. Levi bounces back, and it's important that you know Levi bounce back. After the golden calf incident, remember when Moses went up to the mountain and they worshiped the golden calf and Moses came back, and there's that rebellion going on? Moses said to the people of Israel, whoever is on the Lord's side, Come over to me.
The first to respond was Levi. The Levites came. Levi is the tribe again that hosts and houses the priesthood. throughout their generations. We'll go to Judah and then we'll finish up and we'll close for the night.
Judah You are he whom your brothers shall praise.
Now, Judah means praise. This is a play on words. If I were to literally translate it, Praise you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Judah was A creep. Judah was the guy when Joseph came to spy on his brothers and they wanted to kill him.
Judah said, Don't kill him. We can make money off of him. Sell him to the Midianites. And he did for twenty pieces of silver. Later on, he redeems himself in that.
When the brothers go to Joseph, you remember to get bread. And the second time when they bring Benjamin, And They stop the brothers on their way back home, and they discover the silver goblet is in Benjamin's sack. And Joseph's orders are: whoever's sack that is in, grab that guy and. Put him in prison. Judah steps up and says, you know what?
It's going to break my dad's heart. You will not take. Benjamin, you will take me, and I will take the punishment in his place.
Now there's the prophecy. You are he whom your brothers shall praise, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you. Jesus Christ will come from the tribe of Judah. All of the world.
All of Israel Will one day bow down before their Messiah, Jesus Christ. That's a prophecy. I see it Concerning Christ. Look at the next verse. Judah is a lion's whelp.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion. And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Okay. Judah is a lion's whelp. The symbol for Judah will become, even in the wilderness wanderings, the symbol of the lion. The lion is the beast of majesty, the king of the forest, the king of the jungle. Jesus will be called the lion of the tribe of Judah.
He indeed came from this tribe.
Now here's the scene. It's in Revelation chapter 4. John, who writes, says, And behold, I saw in the right hand of him who sat upon the throne a scroll sealed with seven seals. And then it was asked, who is worthy to take the scroll and unloose the seals? And no one in heaven, earth, or under the earth was worthy to take the scroll and unloose the seals.
And so John said, And so I wept much. Or I wept convulsively, because no one was found worthy to take this scroll, the title deed, to the earth, to buy it back. And then I heard a voice. Saying, do not weep. For behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed.
to take the scroll and unloose the seals. John said, and I looked. He was looking for the lion because he said, Look, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah. John looks, he says, and I looked. And I saw A lamb.
As though it had been slain. It's a picture of Jesus Christ. The most exciting part is the next part. The scepter, verse 10, shall not depart. From Judah.
Scepter, you know what a scepter is: it's the symbol of authority for a king or somebody in royalty or for a tribe. It's the tribal scepter, the tribal identity. and the right to rule independently as a tribe. The scepter or the right to rule will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until. Shiloh comes.
Shiloh is a word that means the one to whom it belongs.
So listen to the prophecy. The right of tribal identity. And the ability to execute authority will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. until the one to whom it belongs comes. Yeah.
For hundreds of years. Up until a certain point in history. The rabbis saw this as a prophecy concerning the Messiah. Shiloh was their Messiah. They wrote about that.
If you look historically at the tribe of Judah, They always maintain the right of tribal identity and authority. And law. Even when they were in Babylonian captivity, Judah had their own judges and the right to adjudicate in their own cases. They had sovereignty. They were allowed that by the Babylonians.
However, Josephus tells us, the Jewish historian, In the first quarter of the first century, when Rome took over the world. They took from Jerusalem, from the temple, from the tribe of Judah. the right to execute capital punishment.
So in cases of blasphemy, They couldn't execute. It was the first time historically that the right to rule and have identity and authority as a tribe was taken away from them by a foreign superpower. On the day that happened, according to the Babylonian Talmud. The Sanhedrin, the seventy ruling elders of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, Put on sackcloth and ashes and marched through the streets of Jerusalem. And listen to what they said: the scepter has departed from Judah.
But Shiloh has not come. The scepter has departed from Judah. But Shiloh has not come. They were bewailing the fact, they thought. That God has broken his promise.
We're not given our authority. We're not given our identity. We can't adjudicate in these cases. We don't have the autonomy. A Messiah isn't here.
Because the prophecy said, The scepter won't depart until Shiloh comes. Hadn't come. What they didn't know is that there was a young boy. Who was a son of a carpenter? At that very time, up in Nazareth.
who is about to lay down his tools. And go toward the Jordan River where John the Baptist would say, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Shiloh had come. He was getting ready to announce himself to the nation in a three year public ministry and then eventually to the entire nation of Jerusalem at exactly the date predicted by Daniel. And we'll get to that when we get to Daniel chapter 9.
But let's finish up this thing and then we're done. Verse 11: Binding his donkey to his vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. In other words, he's going to have such abundance. That He could wash his clothes in wine.
He'll have so many grapes, the abundance of grapes in the land of Judah. It'll almost be too much. That's the idea. Super abundance. Judah is replete, always has been known as a Wine-growing, grape-growing area of southern Israel.
But we'll close with that tonight and finish chapter 49. and maybe 50 next time when we gather together. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skiff Heitzik. 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.
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Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection now. Mm-hmm. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
