Morning, brothers and sisters.
Let’s turn again this morning to the book of Genesis. I’d like to look at Genesis 49.
In Genesis 49, Jacob knows that his days upon this earth are ending, and he gives a prophecy, a blessing, a prayer for each of the twelve children. We’ve been looking at Joseph’s life recently, and we’d like to look at Jacob’s prayer, blessing, and prophecy related to Joseph. This comes about in Genesis 49, starting in verse 22.
Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a spring;
Its branches run over a wall.
The archers bitterly attacked him,
And shot at him and harassed him;
But his bow remained firm,
And his arms were agile
From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel,
From the God of your father who helps you,
And by the Almighty who blesses you,
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
The blessings of your father
Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors
Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;
May they be upon the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.
Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do rejoice in the simplicity of that little phrase: the Lord is good. We thank You, Lord. You are so good.
And Lord, we thank You that in Your goodness, You have drawn us unto Yourself. That unfailing love, as we have considered Thy love from the beginning and throughout our time today, Lord, Your unfailing love continues to draw us back, even when we’re prone to wander, prone to leave the One we love.
Lord, You never leave us or forsake us. We bless You this morning for that. We bless You for Your presence now. We come dependent upon You, Lord, that through the enabling and anointing of Your Holy Spirit, the eyes of our heart would be opened to behold You in a fresh way.
Lord, we give this time; we give ourselves unto You, that You could speak what is upon Your heart. In Your precious name, amen.
As we look at this blessing upon Joseph from dear Jacob, Jacob at this point is about 147 years old—almost as old as Jerry. But see, I’m not going to see Jerry for a couple weeks, so I’ve got to get a dig in or so here.
But Jacob, at this point, is looking back in life. He’s seen his sons and all they’ve been through, and he knows he’s getting ready to go home and be with his precious Lord. When you’re at that point in your life, you’re not a waster of words. He has something very specific for each of his children.
We don’t have time to look at all of them this morning. We’re just focusing upon Joseph, how Joseph comes in as he is there with his father, and the blessing that he has upon him.
It’s interesting how Jacob starts out. He makes this wonderful declaration: “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.”
As you see this wonderful picture of a fruitful bough running over a wall, think about this in relation to Joseph’s life. How Joseph came forth—there was such fruit produced within his life, because we see at the end of his life how his family, the nation, and all were drawn back.
But why was that? Why was Joseph able to be that fruitful bough? It started, first of all, with that wonderful testimony: God was with him. It started by his position.
Those boughs, the grapevines—whatever term we want to use within this—first, he was fruitful by the position that he had in the Lord. And brothers and sisters, our whole Christian life starts, and the fruit that comes out of this life starts first and foremost, by the position that we have in Christ.
He was planted. He was rooted. He was firmly positioned in the Lord. If you take a vine, you take a tree—whatever is being pictured here—and you see it, it’s planted in a wonderful place. It is planted by the springs of water.
There’s a water of life that is just filling it. It’s causing the roots to go so deep. It’s being nourished. And we see within Joseph’s life, as we’ve considered it, how in spite of whatever circumstance he found himself in, he was still able to drink of that water of life, whether he was in the prison or whether he was in the palace.
He had the same source of life. And that’s what the testimony of Joseph is: how his God was with him. Joseph received all of the goodness that the Lord had for him.
Joseph not only knew the Lord as his foundation in life, but if we look upon it even from a New Testament point of view, Joseph held fast the Head. Joseph knew of the headship of Christ within his life.
Whatever would try to pull him and tug at him in any direction, Joseph held fast the Head. In the battles and in the goodness, there was a holding fast to all that the Lord had.
As we talked earlier about Joseph, he had that hidden life of fellowship and communion with the Lord. He knew, in that, the all-sufficiency of the Lord’s life. There’s a preciousness there.
The fruitfulness that came forth from Joseph’s life was not a self-generated fruitfulness. It was a fruitfulness of recognizing his place in the Lord and responding to the grace of God that was made available to him. Then, from that, Joseph was able to bring forth much fruit.
As we looked upon Joseph’s life, one of the greatest fruits that we could see was the restoration of his brothers: the fruit of forgiveness being manifest, the fruit of the Lord’s love being made manifest.
We have heard even this morning how the love of Christ is demonstrated. The love of Christ is lived out. My brother testified, both at the beginning and during the time at the table, that they knew they were believers by their love.
The love of Christ is something that is seen. Yes, we talk about it, but far more, it is something that is lived out and seen. That’s what was seen in Joseph’s life. We saw the love of God being manifest.
When we think of Joseph and this love being manifest, and think of the relationship being described here of being fruitful, one of the requirements for fruit to come forth is that there is no hindrance between the source of life for that fruit and the fruit itself.
Joseph stayed clear, and there was that channel of life able to flow from the roots, through the branches, and to produce that fruit. There was a free flow of unhindered life that brought forth nourishment and allowed even the circumstances and difficulties of life to make that fruit even more precious.
As we’ve been talking recently and fellowshipping together this month, one of the things in the supply of life within Joseph was that he did not allow unforgiveness to hinder the flow of life.
There are many things in our lives that can hinder the flow. We’re just talking on this one matter of forgiveness and unforgiveness. An unforgiving heart can block the flow of life, and we don’t see this fruit manifest—or we see stunted fruit, fruit that hasn’t really come forth. Something has happened to it.
But within Joseph, we see a fullness of the fruit coming forth. He didn’t allow unforgiveness. He didn’t allow bitterness, or anything, to block that flow of life.
This is something that we constantly have to ask ourselves. When it comes to this matter of offense, when it comes to the matter of forgiveness, there are always two parties involved.
It’s tragic, and we all have experienced this, how just within our own families—whether it’s among siblings, spouses, cousins, or uncles—so many relationships are blocked. There’s a hindrance there because of this matter of unforgiveness.
It happens in work situations, within our neighborhoods, and within the body of Christ. Honestly, within our own assembly, if we think back a few years ago, there were a lot more brothers and sisters sitting in these chairs when we gathered, and many have gone.
We need to be before the Lord, whether it’s in work or in our assembly life, that we would be vessels the Lord can use to bring about the restoration that He desires. How do we handle it? Do we just dig our heels in and wait for the other person to forgive?
I thank the Lord that He didn’t do that. Because most times, whenever there is offense, since we have two parties involved, both parties are guilty in varying degrees. The only time that is not true is with the Lord.
He wasn’t guilty, but He took that initiative. That’s one of the precious things we see when we think about forgiveness and the love of God. Who took the initiative to restore the relationship between us and the Lord?
We were the ones who offended Him. We were the ones that He died for. Yet we didn’t take any initiative to resolve that broken relationship. He took the initiative. He came upon this earth.
He manifested the very love of Christ as He came upon the earth to seek and save those that were lost. Love takes the initiative in a broken relationship.
We talk about love being demonstrated and love being seen—that they’re known as Christians by their love. Love takes that initiative to restore broken relationships.
We see how Joseph, in his wonderful way, made himself available to the Lord. He had forgiven his brothers, and he made himself available so the Lord could work in a marvelous way to restore that relationship that He had desired.
The Lord had created them as one family, and because of jealousy and strife, that had broken apart. But praise God, they were brought back together. We see the Lord working in a wonderful way.
That’s the fruitfulness in Joseph’s life. And that’s what the Lord is desiring in our life: that the fruitfulness of the Lord’s life within us would be made manifest. Would we be willing to do that and allow His life to come forth?
It’s precious how it talks about Joseph and his fruitfulness. He’s like one whose branches run over the wall.
As I was picturing that, as these boughs or branches are going over the wall, to me it was speaking of such an unselfishness. If you just picture a garden and one plants a little vine there to enjoy everything, it’s very comfortable just to stay within there and be totally disconnected from the rest of the world.
That wall, in one sense, serves as a barrier. It protects us within our little comfort zones. But there was a life that went beyond the walls.
We see it demonstrated in our Lord Jesus, how He went over the walls in John 4 and reached out to the Samaritans. There was a wall between the Jew and the Samaritans, but that love—that branch of love—went over that wall and embraced the Samaritans.
Our Lord Jesus’ life continued going over walls, and it embraced the Gentiles. It embraced all. He had such a desire.
These branches are going over the wall. The wall, in one sense, would be an obstacle, a barrier to fruitfulness going forth. But Joseph turned that barrier into something the Lord could use even for Himself.
I love, around Richmond, how you have a lot of ivy-covered walls. You go out in California and see all this bougainvillea, and it just goes all over the walls.
The beautiful thing about it is, when you look at it—whether it’s an ivy-covered wall or bougainvillea or any of this—what do you see? Do you see the wall? Do you see the obstacle? No. You see the beauty of the fruitfulness of that vine or that flower.
When we look at Joseph’s life, what do you see? If one knew Joseph, I can be almost certain that when one saw Joseph as he was living there in Egypt and reunited with his brothers, one might have asked, “How did you guys ever get separated?”
Joseph had never sent a hint of it. You just saw the beauty of Joseph’s life. If one asked, “How did you guys get separated?” Joseph would say, “Well, God did it. God arranged everything.” That was his testimony.
Maybe the brothers were saying, “Well, you know, we really messed up. We betrayed our brother.” The brothers disclosed what the wall was, but Joseph didn’t.
Have you ever met brothers and sisters—have you ever met saints? One of the things I love about gathering together at conferences and other gatherings is when you get to meet new brothers and sisters. You get to meet some of these dear older ones.
You’ll be sitting down talking with them, and they’ll seem so meek and mild and just so pleasant. You’re just drinking in the goodness of the Lord, of how sweet they are. It’s like, “Man, I’d love to have a life like them.”
Then you meet someone else, and you say, “Yeah, I met Sister So-and-so.” They say, “Wow, isn’t she a treasure?” You say, “Yeah.” Then they ask, “Did you know what she went through?”
“Do you know how she went through these years of losing ones in her family? Do you know how she suffered through this sickness? Do you know how she suffered this tragedy? How she was maybe on the mission field, suffering in work?”
You say, “I never knew any of that. I didn’t sense any of that. All I sensed was that sweet fragrance of Christ.”
When one touches us, do they touch the barrier? Do they touch the obstacles, the scars of life? Or do they touch the fragrance of Christ within us, that spikenard that’s bursting forth to fill the room with His wonderful fragrance?
When you were around Joseph, if he was this fruitful bough that went over the wall, you were smelling that fragrance. You never noticed the wall. The wall was actually used to display the beauty of the Lord.
We could say, if we’re talking about Daniel’s times with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, within Joseph there was no smell of smoke from the furnace of life that he had been through. So often, we can smell of smoke.
This precious testimony of Joseph’s forgiveness with his brothers brought forth the whole matter of restoration. It brought forth the sweet fragrance of Christ.
One of the things, brothers and sisters, as we look at Joseph’s life, that I so desire within my life is this: in the end, brothers and sisters, we are without excuse. We are without excuse for not bearing fruit.
Every provision has been made for us in Christ Jesus. There is no reason we can’t bear fruit. We can say, “But, Mac, you don’t understand my husband or wife. You don’t understand my parents. You don’t understand this situation. You don’t understand this relationship. It’s broken because of this reason.”
That makes sense, but we’re without excuse. That’s the testimony of this table that we take of every week.
It’s so precious. We see within Joseph there was absolutely no blame on others. Who did Joseph blame, if we want to even say it that way? Did Joseph blame God? He said, “God sent me to Egypt. God did all this. You meant it for evil, but He used it for good.”
Do we see the Lord’s hand in our life? How precious it is, because it is a hand of love, forming us and allowing the beauty of His life to come forth from us.
That was Joseph. As Jacob prayed for Joseph, would we have this prayer for our own selves: that we would be a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by the well, whose branches run over the wall?
We want our branches to be running over the wall. We don’t want to be stymied. We don’t want to be stunted. We want the full expression of His life coming forth: bringing forth not only fruit, but more fruit, much fruit, and fruit that abides until His return.
May the Lord work within our hearts in such a wonderful way.
We continue on in this prayer and blessing for Joseph. It talks about the tough times that he went through. If you look at Genesis 49:23-24, it talks about how the archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him. But his bow remained firm, and his arms were agile from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.
All of the archers, all of the enemy, was coming in upon Joseph. He suffered the pain. He suffered the agony. He suffered the jealousy. He suffered the attacks from his brothers.
But he was never revengeful. He suffered there in silence. He wasn’t defending himself against all of the envy, all of that jealousy, all of the strife. He suffered for being faithful to his father. He suffered for being righteous with his master.
Yet, in spite of all that, I love how one person has phrased it: Joseph turned disappointments into his appointments.
There are many disappointments in life, and we can allow these disappointments to overwhelm us. But Joseph turned the disappointments, and he saw them as his appointment—his appointment to teach Joseph more of Himself during those times.
Joseph saw that God had a grasp and a call upon his life. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and wallowing in all the disappointments and pain, he said, “Ah, this was another opportunity to learn of the Lord.”
This is not something that comes naturally. It is something that, as we behold the beauty and glory of the Lord, we see His interests for us are good. His interests for us are so much higher than our own interests for ourselves. The Lord wants to draw us unto Him.
In the midst of the crisis, we see his character was revealed. Often we say that crisis builds character, but actually, crisis doesn’t build character. In the midst of the crisis, your character is revealed.
We can learn from the crisis. That’s Joseph: we see his character revealed. The precious thing about the brothers is that as they were brought into a place of crisis, we saw their character.
But we thank the Lord, as He orchestrated things, that we see the change of character within those brothers, who were willing to die, willing to protect their family, and stand with one another. We see a beautiful transformation, the changing of character within ones.
We all know how we desire for His character to be formed within us. Within the preciousness of Joseph, he didn’t allow the circumstances of life to hinder him from going on.
Even though all those bitter arrows were coming at him, the circumstances weren’t impacting him. We don’t see him crying out for a change of circumstance either.
We often—I often—think at times, “Oh, if my circumstances were a little better.” We’ve touched on this before: “Wouldn’t it be great to have lived in the New Testament?”
The young people right now in our classes around this building are studying the book of Acts. Wouldn’t it have been great to live during that time? A lot better circumstances. I could be such a better Christian during that time.
Well, there was Ananias and Sapphira at that time. That circumstance didn’t work either.
You say, “Well, but Mac, if I lived during the Gospels, if I walked with the Lord—just think of those disciples, all that they learned from the Lord.” Well, what’s the track record of the disciples? One betrayed Him, one denied Him, and ten abandoned Him.
You say, “Well, hey, how about if I was back in the Garden of Eden? Look at Adam and Eve. Everything was provided right there. What a blessing. There wouldn’t have been any problems.” We know the tragedy of that story.
If we even go back before time, one who we could say had the greatest of circumstances—who was leading the whole universe in worship before the Lord, that anointed cherub who was there—got his eyes off of the Lord and unto himself, and was cast out. He became Satan. He became Lucifer.
It’s not the circumstance that we’re in. The best circumstance that we’re in is the circumstance that we’re in today, because this is where God has us, and this is where He wants to work within us.
Joseph saw that. He saw the opportunity within that pit to learn of the Lord. He saw the opportunity in the prison to learn of God. He saw the opportunity with his brothers to learn of Him. He saw the opportunity in the palace and in restored time with his father.
Those were the circumstances, because God’s interests were best for him. It is so precious how it testifies that even though all of these arrows and archers were coming against Joseph, his bow remained firm.
His bow did not bend. It says in Genesis 49:24, “His bow remained firm.” We have to ask the question: who was Joseph’s bow? Who defended Joseph? How did his bow remain firm?
As Joseph testified, the Lord is my defender. The Lord is my Rock. The Lord was his bow that remained firm.
We see a beautiful picture here. Different translations in verse 24 read it a little differently: “His bow remained firm, and his arms were agile,” or, “His arms were made strong by the Mighty One of Jacob.”
What you have within this picture is a father putting his arms around a son who is trying to shoot the bow. The young son can’t pull that string back far enough, and his hand is wobbly.
But that father, in his loving arms, reaches around the son, grabs his arms, holds that bow steady, and helps him pull back that string just a little bit further. It is the arms of the Lord upon the arms of Joseph.
That’s how his bow was strong, and his arms were made steady and agile. It wasn’t in his own strength, because we know the real power is not in your hands; the power is in your arms.
The Lord was there holding Joseph’s arms, pulling him back in a way. Through every circumstance, the Lord was his strength. The Lord was his salvation. The Lord was the One who came in.
Brothers and sisters, when we find ourselves in the circumstances of life, how often have we tried to just pull that bow a little more? It’s interesting, if you’ve ever shot a bow: if you’re pulling back the string and it’s not steady, the harder you pull, the more it will wobble.
But once there is a place of rest, there is a steadiness there. The arms of the Lord were upon Joseph, and his bow was steady.
Joseph wasn’t shooting. It’s interesting that he uses the bow here as a picture. Who was Joseph shooting at? He wasn’t shooting back at his brothers. The Lord is drawing us a picture here of how Joseph remained steady in the midst of the battle, and the Lord defended him.
It’s interesting, too—I always love how in the Scriptures, when something is mentioned for the first time. I understand now how Keen got the confusion between David and Joseph, because it’s very clear within this verse. How’s this for a transition? You thought he already knew my heart.
If you look at verse 24, here is Jacob, as he is praying for Joseph. He testifies of the mighty God of Jacob: He is the Shepherd of Israel.
Now, if any of us were asked the question, “Who knew God as the Shepherd of Israel?” David knew that, because David was known as that shepherd of Israel. David was the one who had that heart.
But who was the first one who spoke of God being the Shepherd of Israel? It was Jacob, as he prayed for Joseph.
We see Jacob as he reflects back upon the way the Lord had met him. When one uses terms like this, they are not theoretical, poetical terms; they are things that have been made real to him.
Jacob knew the Lord as his Shepherd, because all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Jacob had gone astray. The Lord, as the Shepherd, came. He sought him out. He drew him back.
He could see how the mighty Shepherd of Israel watched over the flock. The flock, at times, was fragmented. Jacob even thought he had lost one of his sons. But the Shepherd watched over it all.
The Shepherd provided. The Shepherd defended. The Shepherd brought that flock back together. Jacob, in a very real way, knew the Lord as the Shepherd of Israel.
Jacob, we could say, was the first one to sing Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
All that he went through, the Lord became the reality of the Shepherd to Jacob. He had seen that reality transferred to his son Joseph.
Joseph, too, knew the reality of the Lord as his Shepherd through all that he had gone through. The Lord provided, He nourished, He protected, He healed, and He cared in a very precious way.
Do you ever stop and think, the Lord is our Shepherd? Not in some pictorial way, but in the reality of it every day. Joseph knew that. I want to know that. May the Lord teach all of us.
Jacob continued on as he prayed for Joseph and blessed Joseph. He also called the Lord the Stone of Israel—the Stone of Israel.
I was looking back and asking, “How did Jacob come to know the Lord as the Stone—or, depending upon the translation, the Rock—of Israel?” The One who was that foundation, that stability, that provider, that Rock of Israel, that Stone of Israel.
That’s the wonderful thing about computers. Now you can just key in this particular Hebrew word and say, “Okay, show me where this occurs in Hebrew,” and the computer pops it right up there.
It shows up about twenty-some times in Genesis, and almost, except for two occasions, it’s all related to Jacob. Do you ever think about the stones in Jacob’s life?
He fled after stealing his birthright and the blessing from his father. He fled out into the desert. He put a stone under his head to go to sleep, and it served as a pillar.
God appeared to him and showed him the house of God. The name of the place was called Bethel, the house of God. So stone and the house of God started to have a connection within Jacob’s mind. He didn’t understand it all then, but all of a sudden, something was going on. He anointed it with oil.
He goes on, and he flees, and he gets into the country of Laban. All of a sudden, he sees one named Rachel.
How does Jacob win his wife Rachel? He moves the stone off the well. He impresses her. He comes in, and he wins his wife.
Again, if we look back at it in a pictorial way, we can see Jacob and Rachel coming together: that beautiful bride and groom, the beautiful picture of the church.
We see a testimony there. The Lord is working within Jacob to show him His heart. He is using a little stone.
The stone, as he flees, finally gets out from Laban, and goes back again—he is there at Bethel. That stone is used again as a testimony. The God of Bethel is there.
We know that now our Lord Jesus—He is our Rock. He is our fortress. He is our mighty Defender. It is speaking so much of the testimony in the heart of God, of all that He desires to express.
Jacob had seen Him as a Stone. He had seen Him as the Rock. We see it even as the Lord saw Peter. He said, “Oh, Peter, you’re just a little stone. You’re going to be that rock.” Upon this Rock—not Peter, but upon this Rock, our Lord Jesus—“I will build My house, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
How precious it is, the revelation that the Lord had given to Jacob about the house of God. He gave this on to Joseph, because we know that Joseph had been gripped by the call of God and the purpose of God.
That’s why, as we talked on last week, Joseph didn’t leave his bones in Egypt. He said, “Take my bones back when you go. That’s where my house is. That’s where the habitation of God is.”
Through the dealings that the Lord did with Jacob, and as he shared them with Joseph, there was this tremendous strengthening and encouragement. It is precious how Joseph was able to apprehend what Jacob was imparting to him.
Jacob continues on in Genesis 49:25 with this wonderful blessing:
From the God of your father who helps you,
And by the Almighty who blesses you,
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
The God of your father who helps you. Who was the God of Joseph’s father? He is actually described two ways. He is called the God of Jacob and the God of Israel.
Do you ever stop and think about that? He is called the God of Jacob and the God of Israel. What does that speak to you? To me, what it speaks is the vastness of God’s love.
The God of Jacob shows us the depths of His love. It shows how, no matter how down and out, cantankerous, and treacherous we are, the God of Jacob reaches down and reaches down to us.
The psalmist said:
Though I make my bed in hell,
Thou art there.
God reaches down. The God of Jacob is the One who comes down and meets us where we are.
What is the God of Israel? The God of Israel shows us the heights of His love, because He takes us from there and lifts us up to this heavenly place.
We see the heights of the love of God, who takes a Jacob and makes him into an Israel, and displays him, and even puts his name and calls His people and His country after this one. That is the height of the love of God.
That same love has touched our lives. It has reached down and picked us up, and it has lifted us up into a place. We don’t know the vastness—we don’t know the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of the love of God—but praise God, we can learn of it every day.
Jacob and Joseph were learning of this love day in and day out, and they so yearned that others would too. This is what the Lord is wanting.
One of the things our brother opened the meeting with today was this matter of the love of Christ. We could open every meeting from now to eternity on one subject—the love of Christ—and we would never exhaust it.
There’s a wonderful tale of how, when D. L. Moody first went to England, he preached in his first meeting on John 3:16. Then he went to preach that evening at another meeting, and he preached on John 3:16.
For four months, he preached almost every day on John 3:16. Someone asked him, “How long are you going to do this? Are you getting tired of John 3:16?” Moody said, “Well, if I ever exhaust it, I’ll move on to something else.”
Brothers and sisters, do we ever exhaust the love of God? It seems like at times in our life we do, but that’s only from our perspective.
Praise God, we can come back to Him, and we can be refreshed and strengthened and come to know the vastness and the riches that we have in Him.
We see this richness in how Jacob describes Him in verse 25 as El Shaddai. That is “the Almighty” in Hebrew: El Shaddai.
Of the Almighty One, how He blesses—blesses things in heaven, blesses things in the deep, blesses all the offspring and the children. There is a full and complete blessing. Surely, in the Old Testament it was physical, but there is a full and complete blessing as we see within our Lord.
Jacob sums up his prayer in Genesis 49:26:
The blessings of your father
Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors
Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;
May they be on the head of Joseph,
On the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.
The blessing of your father has surpassed the blessing of my ancestors. Every generation is supposed to go beyond. Every generation is supposed to experience the Lord, but then the next generation goes beyond.
The young generation comes in, and they experience the bounty. Then, as they grow into the older generation, they become those fruitful boughs and pass it on to the next generation. There is this ever-growing, ever-going-beyond.
We can become, at times, stagnant. There is not this going on. But as long as we are upon this earth, there is always this going on: that one generation would go beyond and see just a little more of all the riches that there are in Christ.
It’s a beautiful story when some of our forefathers from England were coming over here. Most of us have heard the story of the Mayflower. Well, there was another ship that started out with the Mayflower. It was called the Speedwell.
Two ships started out. The Speedwell developed a leak and had to go back. Everybody on the Speedwell got on the Mayflower, and they all came over together.
But there was this one brother who was praying over those getting on the Speedwell. His name was John Robinson. He had been their pastor for many years there in England, and he was committing them to the grace of God.
He had a precious prayer and exhortation to them, and I would like to read that to you. This is in 1620. John Robinson said:
I charge you before God that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God reveals anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as you have received any truth from me. For I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His holy Word.
On my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the current churches, which are some which are come to a period in religion and will go at present no further than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw. Whatever part of His will our God has revealed to Calvin, they would rather die than embrace it. And the Calvinists, for their part, stick fast to what was left by that great man.
This is a misery much to be lamented. For though they were burning and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. But were they now living, they would be as willing to embrace further light as that which they first received.
This dear one was encouraging ones to continue pressing on. There is much more ground to be possessed.
Brothers and sisters, in the days that we’re living in, there is yet much ground to be possessed. There is much of Christ to learn. Would we be those?
Why do we pray? Why do we care about the next generation? That they would go on, that they would press on, and see more and more of the unfathomable riches that we have in our Lord.
Oh, we thank the Lord that we have so great a cloud of witnesses that have gone before, and we sit here in all the goodness of that. But there’s that pressing on. There’s that pressing on.
Paul even knew, as we have been fellowshipping and praying around Philippians, that he hadn’t touched even a part of all that the Lord had for him. He was pressing on. Are we pressing on?
It becomes almost like our natural gravity takes over, and we’re so content to settle down and just be within that wall. But are we going to be those who press on to be that fruitful bough that goes over the wall, spreading the fruit?
Who is the fruit for? The fruit is always for others. The fruit is never for the vine. The fruit is for others. There is that unselfishness. There is the laying down of life. There is the willingness to be pruned that we could bear more fruit.
It was interesting: I was reading about a vine the other day. It was talking about how the vine produces the richest and fullest grapes when there is only one cluster on each branch.
They have to go through and clip off where other clusters are starting to grow. Maybe there would be two or three. But if those two or three were left on there, the three would not be as beautiful and sufficient as just the one cluster, because it gets the fullness.
There was that willingness to be pruned to bring forth the fullness of all that the Lord has. Joseph was willing to be pruned for his brothers. Our Lord Jesus has laid down His life for us.
May we be willing to go through the pruning process, that the ones coming after us—the next generation—could go beyond and touch more and more of the riches that there are in Christ.
Jacob concludes his blessing and prayer, prophecy related to Joseph, at the end of verse 26: “The crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.”
Distinguished among his brothers. Do you think this is saying he is better?
Within the Hebrew, the word for “distinguished” is nazir. Almost everywhere that word is used—seventeen times in the Old Testament, thanks to my computer—almost every other time, it is translated “Nazarite.”
It comes out “Nazarite,” because this word is speaking not of someone distinguished and honorable in the eyes of man. Yes, he is distinguished in the eyes of God, but it speaks of one who is willing to be set apart, one who is willing to be consecrated, to be that love slave to our Lord, to be used of Him.
That’s what distinguished him: Joseph’s willingness to be set apart, Joseph’s willingness to lay down his life, Joseph’s willingness to be consecrated unto the Lord in such a way that the fullness of the Lord’s life could be expressed.
Joseph was that fruitful bough. I was thinking of fruitfulness in relation to consecration. As we’ve said, Romans 12 is that chapter on consecration. We see many fruits mentioned there.
There is one in particular in Romans 12:18. When we’re thinking of the fruit within Joseph’s life, it says:
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
As far as it depends on you—no excuse about anybody else—be at peace with all men. That was the fruit of a consecrated life. That was the fruit we see within Joseph’s life.
We have to remember, brothers and sisters, when we’re thinking about peace in New Testament terms, we’re not talking about just the cessation of violence or cessation of war.
At the very heart of that word in the New Testament, peace means taking two things that are separated and bringing them back to the oneness they were originally intended to be.
It is setting them back in the place of oneness they were originally intended to be. Isn’t that what the Lord did with us?
If we think of Romans 5, where we have been justified by faith, we now have peace with God. We were separated. We have been brought back to the original place we were intended to be.
As we look around, as we seek to allow the Lord to convict and allow the manifestation of His life through a spirit of forgiveness, isn’t that what forgiveness is all about? Bringing back together things that have been separated—ones that have been separated—because we were originally intended to be one.
This is what Joseph was after. Through Joseph’s life, those that were separated were brought back to one and were able to serve the purpose of God.
Through Joseph, we saw not only his family, but the nation and the world, were saved.
As we conclude today, we have this same calling upon us today. Are we willing to be those separated unto our Lord, to serve His purpose and His calling?
Are we willing to be those who are fruitful, in spite of the obstacles of life that are out there? Are we willing not to allow the obstacle of unforgiveness—that’s what we’re focusing upon this month—to hinder the expression of His life in our lives?
Joseph was willing to go all the way through to the end, and we’re very thankful for that. Are we willing, in the days we’re living in, to go through the training process that the Lord has for us?
Let us pray.
Lord, we do worship You and bless You for the vastness, the unfailing nature of Your love that has drawn us.
Lord, we simply desire to explore and learn more and more of the love of Christ.
Lord, we thank You that what many intend for evil, You use for good. We look within our lives, Lord, that the goodness of Your life would be manifested in this hour and in this time.
Lord, we, as Your people, could be used to hasten Your return. In Thy precious name, amen.