The man writes, “No work that is known to us from the Ancient Near East is remotely comparable in scope or in quality with the Book of Genesis. Certain Babylonian epics tell of creation, others tell of a flood, but when they end, Genesis has barely begun. In their epics the waters are the beginning, and the gods who overcome them are their offspring. Genesis begins with God and doesn’t end until the church of the Old Testament has been firmly rooted, and four generations of patriarchs have lived their lives.” And for the last four months we have been zeroed in on Jacob and his son, Joseph.
This week I spoke with a man whose daughter has been battling cancer for seven years. You know the cycle–diagnosis, treatment, remission, reactivation, treatment, remission. After seven years it seems never-ending. Each new hope is dashed in a matter of months. He said to me, “It’s hard to know how to pray. I’ve got my will, and God’s got His will. I know my will, but I don’t know His will. I like my will. I want my will. And if His will doesn’t conform to my will, I don’t like His will. So, how is one to pray?” What would you have told him? What’s more, what do you think Jacob would have told him?
Donald Gray Barnhouse once wrote, “Beyond question the sovereignty of God is the most important and mysterious doctrine of the Bible. It is mysterious because it is the pure wisdom of the infinite God. To understand it even vaguely requires the new birth, for we cannot think infinite thoughts with finite minds. God plans all our experiences to wean us from trusting our own strength and intellect, and to cast us upon His strength and wisdom. To believe in the absolute sovereignty of God is to reject human wisdom and accept in simple faith all that the Father plans. There is no fatalism in this, for fatalism regards blind chance as the cause of all; but we trust our loving and wise Father.” Then, he attaches this prayer to his words, “Lord, take us out of ourselves and into You.”
At the end of Genesis 48–verses 17-22–we see Jacob and Joseph grappling with the will of God in a way that breeds some confusion between them. In fact, this is the only place in the biblical record where we read of Joseph’s displeasure with his father. The issue at hand is huge, the blessing of his two sons. When Joseph sees that his father is not doing it the way he wishes, he’s ticked. He even expresses his dissatisfaction. “Not this way, my father!” But his father refuses to honor his son’s will. Instead, he does what he determines to do. But when you read the rest of the story you discover that he was following a greater will than his own. He is doing what God had determined he’d do from the beginning of time.
Now normally that would appear to be bad news. Neither man is ultimately in charge. Joseph’s will says one thing and Jacob’s another. But then you remember whose will wins out. It’s the will of the One who knows the end from the beginning. It’s the will of the One who not only determines what will happen, but every time it’s the absolute best thing that could happen. It may take us a while to see the truth of the goodness, but one thing’s for certain, it always is!
We are going to dig into all of this Sunday in a message entitled, “The Blessings of Israel.” The text is Genesis 48:8-22. In preparation for Sunday, you may wish to consider the following:
1. What is the meaning of Joseph’s name?
2. Before this incident, Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons. How many does he have after it?
3. In what way are Ephraim and Manasseh like you?
4. What qualifies them to stand before their grandfather to be blessed?
5. How does Israel confirm the truth of what he says in verse 5?
6. What does Israel’s placement of his hands on the head of these boys mean?
7. What’s the meaning of Israel’s pronouncement in verse 21?
8. What is the territory to which Israel refers as an inheritance of Joseph in verse 22?
9. Why is it significant?
10. How does I Corinthians 1:26-31 elaborate on all of this?
See you Sunday!
