JACOB'S DEATH #1
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3675
JACOB'S DEATH #1
It is not morbid to study the death of Jacob - the last of the Patriarchs - especially when his final acts of faith have such serious prophetic consequences.
Nearing the end of his life, we read of 3 blessing sequences in Genesis 47-49.
1. He blessed Pharaoh (Gen 47),
2. Then he blessed Joseph's sons (Gen 48) - Ephraim and Manasseh.
3. Lastly he blessed his own sons (Gen 49).
Why this sudden gesture of blessing?
Why is it so important that the book of Genesis ends with the idea of a blessing?
Following the idea of the curse on man and creation in Genesis 3, the rest of Genesis proceeds to reverse and undo this curse.
This is something significant for we all have this ministry while we are still alive- to reverse the curse of sin - as a legacy to the next generation after us.
1. By blessing Pharaoh, he is in effect mitigating the curse of the future judgment of 10 plagues that will befall Egypt in Moses' time.
These plagues could have wiped out the whole of Egypt from existence if not for Jacob's blessings and God's mercy.
2. By blessing Joseph's half-Egyptian sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he ensured their acceptance as two separate entities into the 12 tribes of Israel. This is the first time his grandsons have a founding tribe of their own.
3. By blessing his own sons by Leah and Rachel and the handmaids of the two matriarchs, he is actually reversing the curse of his own sin of duplicity when he took the firstborn status from his elder brother Esau by deception and guile.
This time he truly listened to God and obeyed Him - not the voice of his own flesh - especially in the earlier blessing of the younger Ephraim when Joseph told him he had made a mistake as Manasseh was actually the firstborn.
What is our lesson today?
Like Jacob, we should set our house in order before we die.
A sinful lifestyle is the worse kind of legacy we can leave behind as it invokes a curse on our own children.
This is Jacob at his mature prime...he finally got his act together at the end of his life at the ripe old age of 147.
