Welcome to Connect with Skiff Heitzig. We're glad you've tuned in for today's program. Connect with Skiff-Heitzig wants to connect you to God's never-changing truth through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. And that's why we make messages like this one today available to you and so many others on air and online.
Now before we get started with today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email designed to inspire you with God's Word each week.
So sign up today at connectwithskip.com. That's connectwithskip.com.
Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
So there were a group of fathers expecting fathers in the waiting room of a hospital. There were three of them. and they're waiting for their wives who are in the delivery room to have their children. And a nurse walks into the waiting room and says, To one of the men, are you Mr.
So and so? Yes, I am. Your wife. Just had twins. And he said, that's wonderful.
And. It's very coincidental. For you see, I'm a third baseman for the Minnesota Twins. He just thought that was great. Twenty minutes went by and another nurse came into that room and said, Where is mister So and so?
He said, That's me. He said, Congratulations Your wife just had triplets. You have three babies. And he went, oh my goodness, that's a huge announcement, but it's wonderful. And by the way, What's really amazing is that I happen to work for the 3M company.
Cool.
Well, as soon as all that happened, the third man fell out of his chair. Laid completely flat on the ground and just started moaning and moaning. And the nurse said, Are you okay? He said, Yeah, but Yeah. I want you to know I work for the 7-Up company.
What do you think Jacob felt like? After twelve boys and one daughter. 13 children. I had one son. We tried to have more, wanted to have more.
The Lord gave us one son. He's a wonderful boy. We wanted to have more. It doesn't matter if you have one or 13. All parents have a responsibility.
to the children that God has given. The Psalms Speak about children. like olive branches around a table. And then the psalmist says, Blessed. Oh how happy is the man whose quiver Is full of them.
Jacob had a full quiver of children. Of course, if you have 13 children, you might just quiver. Like the rest of your life. But now they're gathered around him. That quiver of children, those olive branchers, are gathered around him on his deathbed.
And he pronounces on them a blessing. And a warning. And an admonition, as we'll see as we finish chapter 49. But again, if you have one child, if you have 13 kids. My mom was one of eleven.
Parents have the responsibility. to as Paul said Ephesians chapter 6 Parents. Bring up your children. In the training. Number one.
And the admonition, number two. of the Lord. The word admonition is a powerful word. Nuthasia, it means to place something before the mind. And it's the idea Yeah.
If need be, confronting, warning. That's the idea of admonishing. Urging It seems that Jacob Never did the first part of that verse in Ephesians, Ephesians 6:4, never trained his children. But now on his deathbed he's deciding to warn them. It's a little It's a l too little too late.
But it's more than a warning, it's more than just.
Well, I didn't do it while I was younger, so now I'm going to say something before I die. we discover that though he says something before he dies, It is actually a prophetic testimony that he brings to his children. What he does, and he goes child by child from the oldest down to the youngest, he remembers he's 147 years old. But he remembers all of his children's name and their birth order and He remembers their character. And it's like as if he isolates a single trait of each child.
And he says something about that child. as if to appraise the life. and then predicts the future.
So that is why, if you have noticed so far in Genesis, it's written in a narrative style.
Now, when we get to chapter 49, it's a poetic style. Do you just look at your Bible and look at the difference? Look back a chapter and see how the words are laid out on the page in chapter forty eight, for the most part. And then in chapter 49, see how they're sort of staggered? Because that's Hebrew parallelism or Hebrew poetry.
So he's giving this beautiful poetic Oracle. to his children one by one. Yeah. To outline our study tonight, And where again, in the last two chapters of the Bible, we've covered half already of chapter 49. We have blessings.
In chapter 49, and we have burial in chapter 50.
So, chapter 49. Are the blessings proclaimed In Egypt. He's on his deathbed in Egypt. He's going to die in Egypt, but he's going to be buried in Canaan.
So Blessings pronounced in Egypt. Chapter 50. Burial performed in Canaan. And that's the bulk of where we're going tonight.
Now, chapter 47. Beginning in verse 28, All through chapter 48, all through chapter 49, verse 32, maybe even 33, is the final scene. It's the deathbed scene. It's one scene in and of itself.
So we've already gone through some of the kids, including Judah. We left off at Naphtali, verse 13, or I'm sorry, Zebulun. One of his children, his boy is named Zebulun. Zebulen says Jacob. shall dwell by the haven of the sea.
He shall become a haven for ships. and his border shall adjoin Sidon. If that were me, that would be an exciting prophecy. I love the ocean. Grew up around it.
Always loved it. Here's the problem. It's the problem with Zebulun. When he comes into the land and occupies his portion of the land, he doesn't get any beachfront. He's landlocked.
He has neighbors who have beachfront property. But he has nothing. He's in a beautiful little valley. By Mount Carmel. But he's landlocked.
So what's up with this prediction? Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea? Yeah. Commentators have tried to figure this out. One suggests That Zebulun as a tribe merged with Issachar as another tribe.
Issachar was by the Sea of Galilee, not the ocean, but the lake, the Sea of Galilee.
So, because they merged, he's guessing. He doesn't know. Perhaps. That they had access to the Sea of Galilee as a tribe and were involved. In working for the Phoenicians in their maritime pursuits.
That's a suggestion. I don't buy it. It's a puzzlement. He's landlocked, but you have this prediction.
Furthermore, Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 33 is going to make another prediction. He makes predictions of the tribes. Moses in Deuteronomy 33. says that the will take possession of the abundance of the seas, or enjoy the abundance of the seas, plural. And whenever you see it in the plural, it usually speaks of the oceans.
He's going to enjoy or partake of the abundance of the seas.
So you have Jacob saying it, you have Moses saying, seize and partake of the abundance. But there's no record in history of ever having any access to the ocean or the Sea of Galilee. You can suppose anything you want. Here's my take on it. If you just keep reading.
In the Bible. You'll come to the book of Ezekiel. In the book of Ezekiel, which is the kingdom age, it's the millennial age, the thousand-year reign on earth with Jesus Christ, it gives the borders of the 12 tribes of Israel. And in the millennium, the border for this tribe of Zebulun includes a huge stretch of beachfront property all the way up to Sidon. That's when it's going to be fulfilled, has never yet been fulfilled in the kingdom age in the millennium.
That's when they get there. Ocean. They'll enjoy it because in the new heaven and the new earth there'll be no sea. Bummer. Verse 14, Issachar is a strong donkey.
How would you like to be Issachar? Listen to that.
Son, you're a donkey. Lying down between two burdens, he saw that rest and was good. that he saw that rest was good. And that the land was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden and became a band of slaves.
That's not an insult, it's a compliment. Donkey was the pickup truck. He's saying, son, Your tribe is going to be the tribe of hard workers. You're going to be known for being hard workers. They didn't have a huge tribe, they didn't have a huge population, but they were the backbone of the workforce of Israel.
The blue collar. tribe of Israel. a group of hard workers like a donkey between two burdens.
Now the valley itself is beautiful. It's agrarian. They were outside. They planted, like so many other tribes, they planted lots of beautiful produce. Here's what's interesting: if you drive through the area of Zebulun.
To the tribe area of Zebulun, and I just did it a few months ago in Israel. Yeah. As you drive from north to south on the main road which was part of the ancient way even back then. You notice two hills on either side. On the border.
One is Mount Gilboa, and the other is the Hill of Moray. And my tour guide, a friend of mine, said, Now notice what you see as you're coming through this big valley, and you see these two huge heaps or burdens. And he says that's the meaning of the prophecy. You're going to be the valley, that beautiful valley, sandwiched in between these two burdens of earth or hills, Mount Gilboa and Mount Tabor. One on the left, one on the right.
He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden and became a band of slaves. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, what would your life look like if God's fingerprints were all over it? In God Print, The Life of Abraham, Pastor Skip takes you through seven powerful messages on the faith journey of one man who learned to trust God through crisis, fear, and uncertainty. Abraham's life was shaped by God, and so can yours be.
The God Print Seven Message Series is our thank you for your gift of $50 or more today to support the worldwide ministry of Connect with Skip Heidzig. Your support helps reach more people with verse-by-verse teaching of the Bible so they can connect with God's timeless truth.
So request your CD package or digital download of God Print, The Life of Abraham, when you give at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888.
Now let's get back to today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Verse 16, Dan is the next boy. Dan. Shall judge his people.
Now that's a play on words. Because the word Dan means judge.
So if we were translating it fully into English, judge? You're going to judge your people. Makes sense. He'll live up to his name. Dan shall judge his people.
As one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels.
so that its rider falls backwards. You say that doesn't sound like a great prophecy.
Well It could be viewed positively or negatively. I believe, first of all, it's a positive thing, it's a prophecy. Because there's a book in your Bible. called the book of Judges The Book of Dans. The book of Judges, and it lists those deliverers or those local judges that God used during that very dismal period of Israel's history.
One of the prominent, most prominent Judges was a guy named Samson. He was a Danite. He came from the tribe of Dan, and he single-handedly. Gave Stomach problems and nightmares to the Philistines. This guy was able single-handedly for a period of time to keep the Philistines from an incursion and an invasion and taking more land.
For example, very creative terrorism. That he resorted to. He took up 300 foxes and tied their tails together.
So he'd take a bunch of foxes, like a few of them, tie their tails, a few more tie their tails, and he'd all these bunches of foxes with their tails tied together, and he lit the tails of the foxes on fire and had them scatter through the fields of the Philistines. At harvest time when it was dry.
So it's just like in five minutes, the entire set of fields went up in flames. and he just sat back laughing all the way home. Very inventive. Yeah. Then he took a jawbone of a donkey.
And it walked around with it and just started popping people on the head with it and killed. Tons of people with it and just an amazing judge. It could be that he's referring to during that period of judges, he'll judge. Or This can be viewed negatively. For you see Yeah.
Later on in Israel's history, There's the kingdom. They're Saul. There's King David. They're Solomon. And then he has a son named Rhea Bohem.
But there's this other guy named Jeroboam, unrelated. They're not like Jerry and Reboam. They're not like brothers, two different guys. Jeroboam Rebels against the kingdom of David and Solomon and Reoboam. And he Takes two golden calves.
And he puts one at Bethel, right in the middle of the country, and one way up north at Dan. The tribe of Dan.
So the tribe of Dan is what introduces idolatry into northern Israel while Bethel introduced it down south. A viper, by the way, a stumbling block, and he stumbles the entire nation. If you ever do come with us to Israel, I'll take you to a place called Teldan. or the hill of Dan. They've done excavations there.
And they have uncovered the very altar or the base of the altar itself. Were that Statue stood. Thousands of years ago, we sat on it, had our picture taken on this. idolatrous altar. where the golden calf stood at Dan.
It could be that that is what the prediction refers to. And then, verse 18 is just this utterance of worship. I have waited for your salvation. Oh Lord, I think he knows soon he's going to die, and he will. Verse thirty-three.
Okay. Verse 19, the next boy, Gad, Gad Zeux. Gad, a troop. But he shall triumph at last.
Now that's a play on words. It's a play on words because the word gad means troop. Remember when Dad was born, and she said, or he said, Look, a troop is coming, and there's so many kids coming.
So he called him troop.
So here it says, A troop shall tramp upon him. But he shall triumph at last.
Okay. The plan words, the best rendition would be this: a troop. Was attacked by a troop of attackers. But he attacked them.
So it's basically saying this guy's going to be a warrior, he's going to be a fighter, he's going to hold his own. Um why does it say it of him? Look on the map and look at where Gad is. You see those three tribes on the east of the Jordan River? Gad was isolated from the rest of Israel.
Being on the eastern side and The border that's not adjoining the rest of the nations of Israel, you see, all of them had two borders: the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, very natural borders. But those on the eastern side didn't have the natural borders the other guys had.
So many raids, border raids they were called, by the people who lived around them. These incursions into their territory were very numerous for the Gadites.
So Jacob says not to worry. Your kids are going to hold their own in that land across the Jordan River. A prophecy fulfilled. Verse 20, Asher. Bread from Asher will be rich.
and he shall yield royal dainties. Yeah. Asher is, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of the land of Israel. As you can see, it's on the northwest coast of Israel, and it's way up north by Lebanon. And I Took a car and drove there.
Not this trip, but last trip, because there are some beautiful places to photograph. It's lush, it's green, the dirt is brown. It's the breadbasket. In the north, Judah is in south. It's the breadbasket up north.
When I lived years ago in Israel on a kibbutz, my kibbutz was in the ancient tribe of Asher, and I worked those fields and I saw the richness of the soil.
So I always love this verse because. I was able to hold the dirt from the tribe of Asher in my hands for months. Bread from Asher is rich. And he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a deer let loose.
He uses beautiful words. Naphtali is north of Galilee. In Judges chapter 5, we'll get to it. Yeah. The next millennium.
Yeah. It takes us a while in these Bible studies, but it'll take us when we get to the book of Judges. That was a joke. Deborah. Deborah will praise the warriors from the heights of Naphtali.
who were able to help Uh in that war.
Now we come to Joseph, verse 22. Joseph occupies the greatest area of a pronouncement of blessing and the greatest blessing. In fact, Joseph Gets the double portion. 'Cause he has two children. And you remember what grandpa said?
Those two kids are mine. And I'm going to not give you one tribe. I'm giving you two tribes in Israel named Ephraim and Manasseh, your two boys.
So he gets the double portion. And this is the important thing. Joseph. gets the blessing of the firstborn. Reuben was born first.
He doesn't get the blessing of the firstborn. None of the kids get it except Joseph. This is the blessing of the firstborn. In fact, I'll turn to a scripture. In First Chronicles chapter five, you can just jot it down unless you have.
Speedy thumbs. This is one verse, two verses. 1 Chronicles 5, 1 and 2.
Now the sons of Reuben. the firstborn of Israel, He was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph. The son of Israel.
so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright. Yet Judah prevailed over his brothers. That's the second born. And sent from him came a ruler, although the birthright. was from Joseph's.
So Judah Becomes the head of the tribes, but the birthright blessing is given to Joseph. And that's what we're about to read, verse 22.
Now here's We're going to slow down a little bit. Because what Jacob effectively does is give to us the secret of Joseph's life. How did he do it?
Well, in a beautiful metaphorical picture, he tells us how Joseph was able to handle all the bad stuff that happened to him: his brother selling him as a slave into Egypt. False accusations by Potiphar's wife, the temptations she threw at him, the being forgotten by the butler and baker for two years. How did he deal with that? How did he handle it? Verse 22.
Joseph. is a fruitful bough. A fruitful bough by a well His branches run over the wall. The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him, and hated him, but his bow remained in strength. And the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.
Look at verse 22. Here's some of the characteristics of Jacob, I'll give you, or of Joseph, I'll give you four, and this was his secret. Number one, Joseph was fruitful. While he was away, He was away from home. He was away from the land of Israel, the land promised, the land of Canaan.
He's in a foreign country. But he's fruitful. He gets married. He has two kids. One is named Ephraim, one is Manasseh.
Ephraim means fruitful. Because he says, The Lord made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. And he was fruitful for the rest of the world in coming up with that wonderful government program. to save And it was a wonderful government program. He saved money.
It's something governments don't like to do, I see these days. He did it. He saved up for seven years, tightened the reins so that in the time when it really got bad, he was able to provide. He was fruitful while he was away. Notice it also says, a fruitful branch By a well.
By a well. Here's the second mark and characteristics. He was faithful. While he was alone, You ever think about this? Who around Joseph?
could he have fellowship with? Who around Joseph believed in the same God? Of Jacob. of Isaac, of Abraham. No one.
He had no brothers around there, no one in covenant relationship. He was the only guy.
So, his solution is to move his life closer and closer and closer to God and stay there. Stay there. Get as close to God as you can, and while you're alone, be faithful to God. That was the secret. And that's part of that picture.
He's a fruitful bough or branch. By a well. Now whenever a tree or a plant is growing by a well, It has a special relationship. with its water source. You don't have to water it every day, you don't have to take a hose out there, you don't have to take a bucket out there, you don't have to sprinkle to get a sprinkling system.
It's growing by a well. It's just got a continual water source.
So here's Joseph. He moved his life so close to God. And that was the secret of his fruitfulness. 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. 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 connectwithskiff.com slash donate.
And while you're there, sign up for Skiff'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 never before. Of the crossing castle burden. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
