JOSEPH #71 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT #53 | LAST WORDS OF JACOB #42
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3667
JOSEPH #71
JOSEPH IN EGYPT #53
LAST WORDS OF JACOB #42
12. BENJAMIN #5
BENJAMIN: CATALYST FOR RECONCILIATION #2
Benjamin was the “son of my [Jacob’s] right hand.” He was Jacob’s youngest and most beloved son (after Joseph’s departure). Judah was willing to lay down his life for his youngest brother. Because of the love, Judah had for Benjamin, the descendants of both tribes never separated, and the tribe of Benjamin stayed permanently identified with the tribe of Judah.
Even Paul, the Jew and an apostle to the Gentiles, was from the tribe of Benjamin.
Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh were united by the tie of common descent from Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel.
According to Numbers 2:17 , these tribes encamped to the West of the Tabernacle of Moses, and marched immediately behind it (Numbers 2:24).
Thus Benjamin was the unifier between Judah in the south and Ephraim and Manasseh in the north.
I mentioned Paul who was a Benjamite in the role of a great unifier. For his epistles that account for two-thirds of the New Testament unite Old And New Testaments as well.
What about the Gentiles whose cause he espoused as potential believers in Christ? He united them as well into the commonwealth of Israel.
Ephesians 2:11-17
"Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near."
Our spiritual lesson today is to understand the Benjamite Spirit. Paul had it in him to unite the irreconcilables with the gospel of Christ - Gentiles and Jews - to become the one New Man in Christ.
The downside is the divisive spirit of King Saul another Benjamite who failed to keep his kingdom together by going against his successor David from the tribe of Judah.
The choice is ours. The supreme irony is Paul is named after his alter ego King Saul. Do you want to operate as a man of the flesh like Saul or Paul a man of the spirit? Do you want to wear an earthly crown or the crown of righteousness? Do you prefer to rule in life like a king or to be a servant like Jesus?
Matthew 20:28
" ...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
