THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #16 | THE FAITH OF JACOB ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF HEBREWS #3
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3697
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #16
THE FAITH OF JACOB ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF HEBREWS #3
( HEBREWS 11:21 )
When Jacob was a young man, he wanted very much to receive the benefit of God’s promises given to the firstborn son.
But he did not know how to do it. So he tried to buy it at first (Genesis 25:31). After that, he lied, cheated and deceived Isaac and Esau to obtain the right of the firstborn (Genesis 27:19).
He used every effort – but the human effort is not the correct way to gain the benefit of God’s promises.
Jacob had to learn the correct way. We receive the benefit of God’s promises when we accept them by faith (active belief and trust in God).
As Jacob became older, he also became wiser. Hebrews 11:21 describes him near to the end of his life. He holds his staff (stick), which shows his authority as head of his family. He is a holy man, who gives honour to God. And he is living by faith.
Jacob did not need to appoint Joseph as leader of the family, because Joseph was already their leader. But Jacob did bless both his own sons and Joseph’s sons. And like his father Isaac, he spoke words from God about their families’ future as he blessed them.
As a young man, Jacob did not understand that Isaac was speaking those words by faith. So Jacob thought that he had to cheat in order to get better promises for himself.
But as an older man, Jacob understood that he must act by faith to bless his family.
So, as he blessed Joseph’s two sons, Jacob placed his right hand on the head of Joseph’s younger son. He did it to show that God’s promises to that son were greater.
When Joseph saw it, he tried to move his father’s hand. Joseph wanted the older boy to receive greater promises.
But Jacob insisted that he had not made a mistake.
Unlike his father Isaac, Jacob knew who he was a blessing. By faith, he trusted God to give him the right promises for each son.
Jacob declared that he was adopting those two sons. In other words, the family should consider them as if they were Jacob’s own sons.
The families of both sons would become very great in Israel.
The large families that came from Jacob’s sons are called ‘the tribes of Israel’. And among the tribes of Israel are the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph’s sons.
Because Joseph is actually the unacknowledged "firstborn", his two sons had a greater portion of the Promised Land.
The territory of Ephraim contained the early centers of Israelite religion - Shechem and Shiloh. These factors contributed to making Ephraim the most dominant of the tribes in the Kingdom of Israel and led to Ephraim becoming a synonym for the entire kingdom.
Joshua 16:1-4 outlines the borders of the lands allocated to the "children of Joseph", i.e. Ephraim and Manasseh combined, and Joshua 16:5-8 defines the borders of the land allocated to the tribe of Ephraim in more detail.
At its height, the territory Manasseh occupied spanned the Jordan River, forming two "half-tribes", one on each side of the Jordan Valley.
Jacob's faith rubbed off on Joseph: both elected to have the burial of their bodies in the Promised Land.
Their faith in inheriting the land promised to Abraham by God extended beyond their deaths even when Promised Land was still largely unconquered by their descendants.
Jacob's faith was the catalyst that inspired Joseph in his time and the children of Israel in the Exodus under Moses.
