GENESIS 48
It is interesting to see a saint finish well, and one chief interest about Jacob is that he finished well. We see him in chapters 47 - 49 in a more spiritual character than ever before. We ought to expect to see progress and maturity in the saints. We see in Jacob the peaceable fruit of righteousness coming out as the result of God’s chastening and dealings. Jacob had in many ways a crooked and sad history, but he was always being disciplined. The fruit of his planning and deceit came back to him and became discipline. And so it does to every one of us; our snare inevitably becomes our scourge. I suppose there is hardly a saint who has not proved that in [p. 239] some measure; every departure and defection becomes a source of painful discipline.
If there is a bowing to God under discipline, God turns it to blessing. That is most encouraging; we see in Jacob that he really bowed. We see it in David too; a bowing to the discipline which his own behaviour had brought upon him. And David finished well, too. He finished as laying himself out for the house of God, expending himself and his accumulated treasure for it. There must be a letting go of the element that has been a snare. The Father’s object in discipline is that we might be partakers of His holiness; that is the end in view. It is wonderful to think of being as separate from the thing that has hindered us as God is. It is beautiful to see Jacob and David coming out at the end better than they ever did before. God looks for that. We ought to be exercised to come out a spiritual people at the end. We see Jacob here in the place of dignity and true greatness before men, and a worshipper before God, and in the intelligence of God’s mind about everything: he can tell all that will happen to God’s people right on to the end.
When Isaac blessed Jacob he did not know what he was doing, but Jacob was intelligent; he knew what he was about. He was in the full intelligence of God’s mind as to Ephraim and Manasseh. It is good to see this as a product of God’s work and discipline. In the New Testament it has been a special object of the Lord to show us how His chief servants finished; He allowed both Peter, Paul, and John to write letters at the very end of their course. Peter says, “The putting off of my tabernacle is speedily to take place” (2 Peter 1: 14), but he is full of power;
[p. 240] he has before him the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: the vision on the holy mount was as bright and distinct in his soul as when it took place. Paul says that he was already being poured out, and the time of his release was come (2 Timothy 4: 6). 2 Timothy is like his last will and testament, but he is full of the vigour and courage of life. John tarries until he is about one hundred years old, and then he writes his Gospel, full of “him that is from the beginning”. It is beautiful to see that they did not decline. In the three apostles there was no dimming of spiritual vision, and no weakening of spiritual power. I feel exercised because I see on the natural side a tendency to decline; but we ought to be exercised to finish well. We read in Luke 12 of servants who are found watching. How will the Lord find me? I may have run well at some former part of my history, but how will the Lord find me?
In one sense there is greater danger as we go on. If not going on in the power of the Spirit we shall be more and more identified with the flesh, and with what we are naturally; but if walking in the Spirit we shall become more spiritual. Jacob finished as a spiritual man, and I should like to. Jonathan began beautifully; he stripped himself for David; but where did he finish? In the company of Saul, not David, and he fell on Mount Gilboa! It is not a question of being anything great outwardly, but of going on inwardly with the Spirit of God, and accepting the lessons of God’s discipline. Jacob had to learn a great many lessons, and we are all like him in many ways; but he accepted the lessons, and came out in the end as a spiritual man.
In chapter 47: 7 Joseph brought Jacob his father [p. 241] and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh; and again in verse 10 Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. Think of the dignity of that! Here was the mightiest monarch on the face of the earth, and Jacob, in spite of all his history, blessed him! “Without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better”, Hebrews 7: 7. Jacob was in conscious superiority to this great monarch. It is the position of every saint indwelt by the Spirit, and the subject of God’s discipline; he may well be conscious he is greater and better than the highest person in this world. It reminds one of Paul before Agrippa; he stood in chains before the king in all his pomp, and all the splendour of the court, and he said, “I would to God that all who have heard me this day should become such as I am, except these bonds”. He was conscious of a portion in his soul of such divine wealth and blessedness, that he could not do other than take the place of divine superiority.
It is more remarkable that Jacob should bless Pharaoh at a time when he was dependent on Egypt for food. Outwardly he was a poor old man; and as to his own history he had to say, “Few and evil have been my days”; and yet he blessed Pharaoh! I do not know whether it could be said that at the end Jacob rose higher than Abraham and Isaac, but I think, as far as what is recorded, he came out in more distinct testimony at the finish. In the end of chapter 47 ‘Israel worshipped’; and we are told in Hebrews 11 that he “worshipped on the top of his staff”. All his interests were in Canaan. He wanted no burial or memorial in Egypt. His faith claimed, as it were, the promised inheritance, and he would be buried in the sepulchre of his fathers. And in the consciousness of God’s faithfulness to His purpose he worshipped. He so embraced in faith all the promises and the inheritance that there was nothing left but to worship.
We can see in this God’s triumph; His end was reached at last. My impression is that God’s discipline does not reach its full fruition with any of us until the end: it is needful right on to the end. There is something yet to disappear, something yet to acquire and learn. It is very blessed when you can see a saint at the end matured as the product of God’s work and discipline. Jacob worshipped in the light of the inheritance. Everything but Jehovah and the inheritance and the way the heirs would be preserved and disciplined for it, was displaced. If everything is displaced from our affections and thoughts but that which God has given us we should be worshippers. God’s discipline with every one of us deals with the actual weakness and sources of failure in us. Each of us has the discipline that deals with us most effectually.
Now we come to chapter 48. We see the sovereignty of God very prominently in connection with Jacob; it was a special feature in his history. And in sovereignty Joseph got the birthright: he had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and in them he got a double portion. It was all in sovereignty; God disposing of things according to His own will. Reuben had forfeited the birthright, and Joseph got it. We are told that plainly afterwards; 1 Chronicles 5.
I think the death of Rachel is mentioned to show that Jacob had to part with what was naturally an object to him. Rachel was the one he had set his heart on. Losing, her was perhaps the most severe discipline [p. 243] that he had. Whatever has become an object to us naturally has to go. No doubt Rachel is a type of Israel; and all hopes and expectations connected with Israel after the flesh have to die, that all blessing may come in at Bethlehem in connection with Christ. Rachel died at Bethlehem; she had to go out, and Christ came in. All hopes and expectations have to be centred in Christ. We get instruction in that when king Saul was sent to Rachel’s sepulchre. The first point of his education in view of the kingdom was to go there; he had to see the end of all things in connection with nature; his great ancestress was buried there; he had to go to the grave of everything naturally attractive, and which one’s hopes might centre in according to the flesh. If he had gone there morally he would have been a different man. The Scripture would have been fulfilled, “Thou shalt be changed into another man”.
We all have to learn that what is of God and of true value is connected with Christ. Israel gave birth to Christ, but blessing is in her Seed, not in herself. Rachel brought forth a wonderful seed; she was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin: the mother died, but every true hope and blessing was revived and perpetuated in the seed — in Christ. I think in having Joseph and his children Jacob got compensation for the loss of Rachel: he came into view of Christ typically. The mention of Bethlehem here is a beautiful touch of the Spirit. It is at the spot where every natural object of affection fails that God brings in what will satisfy hearts for ever. Bethlehem is “The house of bread”. Every natural object of affection will fail, but at the very spot where Rachel dies Christ comes in. What a house of bread Bethlehem [p. 244] is! If we get Christ before us, and feed on Him, we shall get what satisfies and abides. He supersedes everything. There is nothing more interesting in the Gospel of John than to see how He superseded everything. John 6 brings in the living bread. That is the true Bethlehem, the house of bread.
Jacob understood the sovereignty of God in blessing; Joseph did not; he put his sons in the right order naturally: Manasseh, so that Jacob’s right hand should be on his head — the proper order naturally but not spiritually. In God’s sovereignty Ephraim was to take the lead. The great lesson in Jacob’s history is, “Not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy”. God is not bound in any way. He can put Simeon out (as in Deuteronomy 33) and take Ephraim and Manasseh in; and He will, if He pleases, give Ephraim the younger the chief blessing. He takes His own sovereign way. If the Jew had learnt that, he would not have disputed God’s right to bless the Gentile. The very fact that any of us take an interest in these things is just the fruit of God’s sovereignty. No one gets to his right place with God until he submits to God’s sovereignty.
The birthright was connected with Joseph, and royalty with Judah, according to sovereignty. Both speak of Christ, He is both Joseph and Judah; He has the birthright and He is King. 1 Chronicles 5: 1 - 3 is an important Scripture. It shows how God has been pleased to give the birthright in Israel to Joseph, but royalty to Judah. Judah is the royal tribe; we see that in Genesis 49: 10. Naturally Joseph would have been one tribe, but through God’s election he got a double portion; so he is represented [p. 245] by two tribes, and will be in the world to come (Ezekiel 48: 4, 5). He has the distinction of the birthright; he has the pre-eminent place amongst the tribes; he has a double portion in the inheritance, though he has not the royalty. The possession of the inheritance is one thing, and royalty is another; they are two different thoughts. The genealogy is not reckoned according to the birthright. In connection with the genealogy royalty is in view; “of him (Judah) is the prince”, and “The sceptre will not depart from Judah”. In the millennium there will be a prince of the house of Judah on the throne.
What God determines He carries out: it is all on the line of sovereignty. If He determines that Joseph shall have the birthright, he will have it; and if God determines that Judah shall have royalty, he will have it; and so Shiloh comes in, the Prince of Peace and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The great point here is the sovereignty of God in disposing of everything; whether in connection with the inheritance, giving a double portion to Joseph; or, in connection with royalty, giving it to Judah. Nothing can ever alter this disposition of things. Jacob was in the light of it all as a spiritual man who was before God. In the next chapter he reviews the whole history of his sons, and tells them what will befall them at the end of days. That chapter is indeed the history of man and of God’s grace towards man, and of the way man behaves in connection with it. Then it shows the ultimate bringing in of all blessing by Jehovah’s salvation in Christ, and by men being in the good of it by the Spirit.