This is Connect with Skip Heidzig. Thanks for joining us for today's program. At Connect with Skip Heitzig, we're all about connecting you to the timeless truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we encourage you to check out connectwithskip.com, where you'll find resources like full message series, weekly devotionals, and more.
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Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. 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 twenty 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. Naphtale 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.
Okay. 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. Because 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, 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. You know what this reminds me of? Psalm 1.
Blessed is the man. Who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the waters, that brings forth its fruit in its season. Jesus put it this way. Abide in me.
and you will bring forth much fruit. Abide in me. Stay close to me. One of the things I love about this fellowship, one of the things I love about you. is that you bring friends to church.
And that's why, when we have altar calls like we did last Wednesday night, you get 50 people sometimes that come in. Hundreds and hundreds of people this last year have given their lives to Christ. I love that.
However, Though I love seeing the quantity of converts. My concern is for the quality. Of those converts. Are they really applying God's truth?
Well, you can see once they get into a jam Once they get into a mess, Are they applying it? Take personal inventory tonight of your life. How close to God are you rooted? Where are your roots? Are you roots far from Him?
Are you so close to Him that there's that continual abiding and feast and joy?
So that fruit is just natural. You don't have to work for it, it's just natural. It just grows.
So he's a fruitful branch, and he's a fruitful bough by a well. Notice the next part of that poetic phrase, his branches run over the wall.
So here's the third characteristic. Joseph was bountiful While he was affluent, He was bountiful while he was affluent. Um He got rich. He became Prime Minister of Egypt. He had it made in the shade.
And he could have consumed all of it upon himself. Didn't do that. Number one, He thought, how can I use the abundance of Egypt to bless others? in the world. And then, when his brothers and family came, how can I use my position to get them a good gig?
And they gave the best of the land, the land of Goshen.
So that's what Happens when you have a plant, a tree. Planted by that kind of a water source, so close to God, it grows and grows and grows so large that the branches go over the wall. It speaks of a fast A prolific growth pattern. Yeah. When I lived in Huntington Beach, California, many moons ago when I was young and single.
I live four blocks from the ocean. And my neighbor had Well, he grew he had a lemon tree, big lemon, a couple of them in his backyard. I had a little patch of artichokes I was growing. I didn't have much of a garden, but I loved artichokes, so I'd grow them. He had a lemon tree.
His lemon tree got so big because he watered it so much, The branches went over my side of the fence, and Branches went over the wall. According to state law, anything that grows on your side of the fence belongs to you.
So you gotta know I had like lemonade all the time. Just all, every time it produces, pull out a few lemons. Thanks. Make lemonade. Your life, my life.
is mature. When we live close to God and we're bearing the kind of fruit that doesn't just bless ourselves, but blesses other people. Our life becomes a blessing to people.
Now I believe that's the meaning of what Jesus said in John chapter 7. He said, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. For as the scripture says, out of his heart. will flow torrents of living water. Out of his heart.
he will not be satisfied himself merely. They'll become a vessel to bless other people. I love this. His branches go over the wall. I did a series on the life of Joseph, and I was particularly struck by that verse.
So fruitful while he was away, faithful while he was alone, bountiful while he was Affluent. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to the message, consider this. Abraham's life was full of ups and downs, but God was in every moment. In God print, The Life of Abraham, Pastor Skip unpacks seven engaging messages from the book of Genesis to show how God shapes the hearts of those who trust Him.
Through trials and triumphs, Abraham learned what real faith looks like. And this powerful seven message series will encourage you that you can too. This resource is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to help reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip Heidzig.
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Now, let's rejoin today's teaching. Whatever you have in your life, It's been given to you by the Lord. Do you ever see yourself as a vessel to give it to others? The ancient rabbis Used to say Your life is either like The sea up north, or the sea down south. The only two bodies of water inland in Israel are the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
And they would say, Your life is either like the Sea of Galilee, Canarit, Or the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is verdant, lush. Crops grow all around it. The Dead Sea. Nothing grows around it, nothing grows in it.
There's a reason for that. The Sea of Galilee has an inlet and an outlet. Water comes in, water comes out. The Dead Sea has no outlet, only an inlet. It just takes, takes, takes, takes, takes, never gives anything.
And because of that, it's dead. That's what the rabbis meant. If you're only taking in and you're never blessing people. With your growth, your spirituality, what you learned, your principles, your finances, your money. You're dead.
Joseph was very much alive. And then notice verse, that's just verse 22, verse 23. Boy, I I got a scoot. I gotta scoop quickly. 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.
Here's the fourth characteristic. Joseph was steady. While he was attacked. He had a lot of arrows shot at him, mostly by his brothers. When he said, Hey brothers, I had a cool dream.
You know the story. They shot arrows of jealousy. I hate that kid. I hate that coat he's wearing. When he came to visit them when they were in the wilderness, tending their sheep.
And he was out there to check out on him. They shot arrows. of treachery. And said, let's sell this kid to somebody else. Let's get rid of him.
When he's down in Egypt, Potiphar's wife shot arrows of temptation at him. and arrows of accusation. And while he was in prison, The chief butler shot arrows of forgetfulness as he rotted in jail for two more years. And yet He was steady while he was attacked. And the secret is that last part of the verse, I love this: the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God.
Mm-hmm. You dads, if you've ever taught one of your children to shoot a bow and arrow, you know what this is like. They grab the bow, they grab the arrow, and they go like this. They put tension on it, it's sort of. It's all over the place.
So, you as a parent, having the greater strength, take your arms around. And you grab the wrists or the hands of the child and you steady them. And you help them. You don't do it for them. Give me that bow.
This is how you shoot it, kid. You don't do that. You lovingly place your hands and steady their wrists, and then you say, okay, sweetie, now let it go. That's the picture here. He realizes, Joseph did, that God was in his life and around him, and God steadied him because he'd live like that tree planted by the water.
and was fruitful. even when he was attacked. And the last part. Verse twenty five By the God of your Father who will bless you. Or help you, and by Almighty, who will bless you.
With blessings of heaven above, that's rain that comes on the crops, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, that's the streams and the wells that will be in his territories. Blessings of the breast and of the womb. That's you're going to have lots of offspring. Blessings of your father have excelled. The blessings of my ancestors.
There's a lot of blessings here, aren't there? You know why? One of the sub-themes of the book of Genesis. Is blessing. It's a key word in the entire book of Genesis, blessing.
It appears 88 times in the book of Genesis alone. And look at all the times are mentioned in that verse.
So If You look at the book of Genesis as a fireworks display of blessing, this is the grand finale. Blessing here, blessing there, blessing here, blessing there, blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing. Go have a nice blessing. The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who is separate from his brothers.
Boy he was. Yeah. Benjamin last Last one on the list, Benjamin. is a ravenous wolf. In the morning He shall devour the prey.
At night he shall divide the spoil. I believe this speaks of the aggressive nature of the Benjamites. Example: There were some warriors that came out of the tribe of Benjamin. Ahud. E-H-U-D.
Have you ever heard of that name? in the book of Judges, Ehud, the left-handed Benjamite. a skilled warrior. King Saul A warrior. From the tribe of Benjamin, his son Jonathan and Malchashua, the other sons.
All from this drive.
However, I think there's more here. No. When we get to Judges chapter 20. We find the worst Part. of the history of Benjamin.
In one chapter. Here's the story in a nutshell. A Levite is traveling through the area of Benjamin, stops at its principal city, the city of Gibeah. to spend the night. The men of Gibeah, Want To have sexual relations with the Levite, the man.
and they almost rape him. Instead, They rape his concubine. And the next day she's dead. In seeing what The Benjamites did Yeah. The Levite cut her up, she's dead, cut her up in 12 pieces and sent one piece to all the tribes of Israel and told them what happened.
The Bible says in Judges 20: All of Israel came together as one man. To destroy Benjamin, to destroy the tribe, and they mourn: today a tribe will be no more. in Israel. Five. 400,000 foot soldier army gathers down south to fight against Benjamin.
And they completely wipe out Gibea, destroy most of the Benjamites. In fact, at the end, they feel so sorry, they go, you know what? Like, there's no more left. How are we going to even have any kind of a tribe of Benjamin?
So they bring in some of the women from Jabish Gilead up north so that those gals can marry the men. They can have more Benjamites. In that tribe.
So, with that in mind, Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning, he will devour the prey. At night, he will divide the spoil. It could speak of that incident that is yet to come.
So here's the summation. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them. And he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
And then he charged them, and he said to them. I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
Okay. The sons of Jacob. We're judged. And or blast. By their father.
Whatever they had done years before, maybe covered it up for 40, 50, 60 years. It comes to light. in this deathbed scene.
Now you know one day we're going to stand before our Father. Every Christian will stand before Judgment. Not judgment for our sins, that's done. Period, passed, on the cross, over with. You and I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, Paul calls it, the Bema seat of Christ.
And we will either be rewarded for what we did, or the reward will be taken away. And our position and place in the future kingdom. Depends on what we have done with what God has given us here. Will stand before that. That's why Paul said, Don't you know that everyone, 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, all those who run in a race, they all run, but only one receives the prize.
So run, so that you may obtain the prize. Live your life in a way as if to get the prize because God's going to reward you. He's going to bless you at that judgment seat or... Refrain from the blessing. A lot of Christians don't even think about that or live that way: that there's a future judgment seat of Christ where God evaluates our work for Him on the earth or lack thereof, and we get a blessing, a reward, or lack thereof.
That's why Jesus said, now listen carefully. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Is it possible to store up treasures in heaven? Because if it is, I want to know how to do that. I want to do a lot of that.
Because I'd like to get there when it's all over and just like have a really cool place. In heaven. How do I do that? By what we're suggesting. Heaven will be the time of enjoyment.
I look forward to it. Earth is the time of employment. Let's get busy about his business. The famous C.T. studd quote.
Only one life 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ. will last. An evaluation is coming, like for these sons.
Now he charged them, and he said to them, Verse 29, I am to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron, the Hittite. In the cave, That is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham. bought with the field of Ephron, The Hittite is a possession for a burial place. We already know about that. That's up in Hebron.
Yeah. There they buried Abraham, he's saying to them. There they buried Abraham, Gramps. and Sarah his wife, And there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah.
Interesting. Bury me next to Leah. Why not Rachel? Rachel was the one he said he loved. He favoured.
He loved the two sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel was buried. Why Bethlehem? We covered that. She's buried at Machpelalea.
It's because he's tying himself into the covenant that God made with Abraham and Isaac, who's buried there, and now himself, Jacob. Bury me there. It's a statement of faith. That's the land God gave to us. The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth when Jacob had finished commanding his sons.
He drew his feet up into his bed, and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. We're so glad you joined us for Connect with Skiff Heidzig. Before we go, we want to remind you to request this month's featured resource, GodPrint, The Life of Abraham. This seven-message series from Pastor Skip traces Abraham's walk with God and invites you to discover how faith can grow even through fear, doubt, and delay. It's our gift to you when you support Connect with Skip Heitzig with a donation of $50 or more.
Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thanks for spending time with us today. And we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.
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