In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the final words and blessings of Jacob to his sons in Genesis 49. Jacob, who is 147 years old and nearing death, gathers his sons together to prophesy over them and reveal what will happen to their tribes in the future. He begins by calling them to listen and gather together, using Hebrew poetry to convey his message. Pastor Chuck emphasizes the contrast between the world falling apart and the Lord building His church, highlighting the adventure and enthusiasm of being a missionary. He also mentions a missions conference focused on Jesus building His church, featuring various speakers sharing their ministry experiences. The sermon concludes with a prayer for the listeners to experience the strength, blessings, and guidance of the Lord in their lives.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be listening in as Jacob calls his sons together for their final word and blessing So let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis 49, verse 1 As Pastor Chuck Smith provides us with the details Jacob called his sons and said, Gather together, that I may tell you What shall befall you in the last days Jacob is now 147 years old He realizes that he is dying And as what is so often a customary practice He summons the family together That they might be by his bedside When death overtakes him And so the twelve sons of Jacob Gather to their father That he might prophesy over them As he looks down the future of the various tribes And of those things that will transpire In the various tribes that will come from these twelve sons In verse 2 he begins a sort of poem As far as the Hebrew literature is concerned It's called poetry But in the Hebrew, the poetry is not in the rhyme As it is in English But is in the thought forms And the repetitions Is where you find the poetry in Hebrew Gather together and hear you sons of Jacob And listen to your father Israel So the poetry there would be The gathering together ye sons And hear, the hear and the listen Comprise Hebrew poetry So in the first phrase, gather together ye sons of Jacob And then saying it in another way He says listen to Israel your father So Israel your father is the poetry to the sons of Jacob Now I really don't get that kind of poetry myself But that comprises poetry in the minds of the ancient Hebrews Now his sons are gathered together around the bed Jacob of course is almost blind at this point He musters all of the strength that he has In order that he might sit up on the side of the bed And looking around the room at these twelve sons He first of all fastens his gaze upon Reuben The eldest, the firstborn of Leah And he said to him Reuben you are my firstborn My might and the beginning of my strength A common phrase for the firstborn son The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power Unstable as water you shall not excel The potential was there, the firstborn Usually the birthright would fall to him But his problem is his instability James talks to us in the New Testament Concerning the double minded man who is unstable in all of his ways Let not that man think that he's going to receive anything from God The lack of the excelling because of the instability Unstable as water, quite a phrase Now when Reuben sinned in going to Bilhah The concubine of Jacob Jacob did not say anything to him or against him at that time However this action has stuck in the mind of Jacob And now he calls attention to it and now he deals with it Because you went up to your father's bed Then you defiled it He went up to my couch It's as though he first of all addresses Reuben And then as though he's just talking to himself I can't believe he went up to my couch And so he tells him the reason why he does not get the birthright The defiling of his father's bed Next he turns to Simeon and Levi who are brothers together in treachery Instruments of cruelty Incidentally Reuben never did excel There was not a single leader who came from the tribe of Reuben Just a nothing tribe And so the tribe of Reuben never excelled Simeon and Levi are brothers They are instruments of cruelty Let not my soul enter their council I don't want to be associated with them Let not my honor be united in their assembly For in their anger they killed a man And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox Or they cut the tendons and deliberately lamed an ox Cursed be their anger for it is fierce And their wrath for it is cruel I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel So when they came into the land There was no inheritance for the tribe of Levi But they were given cities throughout the entire land And so Levi was scattered in the land Simeon settled in the area to the south of Judah The area which today is in the area of Beersheba And down in that southern area But never did the tribe of Simeon again Never really produced anything as far as leadership The tribe of Levi did Moses, of course, was of the tribe of Levi And because of Moses and Aaron and the descendants The Levites were then chosen of God for the priesthood Certainly a demonstration of the grace of God Because it wasn't because of the righteousness of the fathers That this tribe was chosen for priesthood But just God's sovereign grace in choosing the Levites For the priesthood Now coming to Judah It seems that he is passing on to Judah the blessing You are he whom your brothers shall praise The word Judah means praise So you are the ones your brothers will praise Or he is saying literally praise You are the one whom your brothers shall praise Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies Your father's children shall bow down before you Judah is a lion's whelp From the prey, my son, you have gone up He bows down, he lies down as a lion And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah Nor a lawgiver from between his feet Until Shiloh comes And to him shall be the obedience of the people Binding his donkey to the vine And his donkey's colt to the choice vine He washed his garments in wine And his clothes in the blood of grapes And his eyes are darker than wine And his teeth whiter than milk Now the beautiful prophecy concerning Judah This is the tribe that the brothers shall praise This did not happen for several hundred years Until David finally ascended the throne But when David ascended the throne Then Judah became a dominant tribe And remained the dominant tribe Especially of course in the southern kingdom Later the northern kingdom broke off Ephraim became the dominant tribe of the northern kingdom But the prophecy is that Shiloh Which is related to the Hebrew word shalom Peace That from Judah the Messiah was to come And the prophecy is that the scepter Shall not pass from Judah Until Shiloh comes The prediction that there would be from the tribe of Judah The ruling body until the Messiah would come The lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes Now it is interesting that In about the year 4 or 6 AD The Roman government took from The nation of Israel The right of capital punishment You remember when they brought Jesus to Pilate Pilate said you have your law go ahead and judge him By your laws And they said it is not lawful for us to put a man to death Signifying that is the sentence they were wanting for Jesus They were wanting death They could not condemn a man to death That power had been stripped by the Roman government About 6 AD The interesting thing Is that when that power was stripped from them Many of the rabbis Covered themselves with ashes They put on sackcloth And they went mourning through the streets Because they said God's word has failed We no longer have the authority of law And the Messiah has not come Little did they know that in Nazareth the Messiah was growing up But he was just a young boy at that time But they were mourning in sackcloth and ashes Feeling that the promises of God and the word of God had failed The interesting thing is that in 70 AD The scepter was taken and there was no longer a law giver Which means that the Messiah had to come sometime before 70 AD Or the word of God did indeed fail So if Jesus is not the promised Messiah of Israel There is none There is to be none Because here God's word plainly declares that The scepter will not depart from Judah Nor a law giver from between his feet Until the Messiah, the Shiloh, the peace has come And to him shall be the gathering of the people That of course is a prophecy that was repeated by Isaiah In the 7th chapter when he talks about The government will be upon his shoulders And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace Of the increase of his government and peace There shall be no end upon the throne of David and all To order and to establish And unto him will be the gathering of the people So a phrase that is picked up by Isaiah That comes out of the prophecy of Jacob here In reference to Jesus Who is our peace And of course one of his names Prince of Peace, the Shiloh, the peace has come There would seem to be in the latter portion of this prophecy That prophecy of Also picked up in Isaiah Who is this? It comes from Edom with his vesture dipped in blood And here he has clothes in the blood of grapes Has washed his garments in the wine He has tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God And would speak of that second coming of Jesus After the great tribulation period Next he turns to Zebulun He shall dwell by the haven of the sea Not actually on the sea coast But by the haven of the sea Zebulun settled up in the northern part of the land Which today is called the Galilee region They did not stretch as far as the coast But he will dwell by the haven of the sea He shall become a haven for ships His border shall adjoin Sidon So up in that northern area Ishkar Or Issachar Is a strong donkey lying down between two burdens He saw that the rest was good He's going to be a lazy fellow He's a lazy old But his land is pleasant And so he bowed his shoulder to bear a burden And he became a band of slaves Ishkar inherited the area That is known as The Valley of Megiddo And that is probably some of the most fertile area In the land And they didn't have to do much work Just throw out your seed and everything grew up in that area So he became lazy and he became prosperous Sort of it's called the breadbasket of Israel That area produces even to the present day Just abundantly beautiful crops Up there in the area near Mount Gilboa In the plains there Dan, whose name means judge Now he leaves the sons of Leah at this point These are the sons of Leah up till now And he leaves now A chronological order as far as their age Dan was the second born of Bilhah The maiden of Rachel So this is probably the order that they're standing in the room They're not standing in order of birth around the room And so his eyes next are fixed upon Dan Whose name means judge And Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel Dan shall be a serpent by the way A viper by the path that bites the horse's heels So that his rider shall fall backward I have waited for your salvation O Lord Now that just seems that I have waited for your salvation O Lord Seems to be just thrown in without any reference to Dan It's just something that he throws in As sort of a little afterthought But Dan judging his people Like a serpent by the way The tribe of Dan introduced idolatry To the children of Israel In the later years when there was the division of the kingdoms Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves in Dan Up in the upper Galilee region Up near the base of Mount Hermon And Dan one of the first tribes to go into idolatry And so A viper, a serpent And he sort of fits the pattern I have waited for your salvation O Lord The word salvation there in Hebrew interestingly enough is Yeshua Jacob said literally I have waited for Yeshua Or I have waited for Jesus Yeshua is the Hebrew word for Jesus Gad means troop And so next in order is Gad One of Zilpah's son A troop shall tramp upon him But he shall triumph at last Gad again chose his inheritance outside of the land And thus was most vulnerable to the invaders from the east Bread from Asher shall be rich He shall yield royal dainties So they will be the bakers And provide the land with cookies Naphtali A deer let loose He gives goodly words They will be the poets They will be the speech makers Now he comes to Joseph Rachel's firstborn The son that he loved and the son that he had in his mind Established as the heir The one to whom he gave the double portion by Claiming his two sons as his own Ephraim and Manasseh And thus by dividing the portions and giving portions to both Ephraim and Manasseh Joseph received the double portion And Joseph is a fruitful bough A fruitful bough by a well His branches run over the wall You have an equivalent kind of a phrase in Psalm 1 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water Bringing forth his fruit in their season A tree planted by a river Here is a tree that is planted by a well Its roots go down and draw from the subterranean water source And thus it's a tree that is green And a tree that produces abundantly Joseph A tree that's loaded with fruit Probably the reference to The opulent style of life that he enjoyed As second in Egypt Only under the pharaoh He had his own physicians We know that from the fact that He had his own physicians in Baalme's father He had no doubt multitudes of servants And he lived in a very opulent style And thus he is called a fruitful bough His life bears abundance of fruit But his branches run over the wall What that means is that He doesn't hoard it all to himself He's willing to share That which God has blessed him with We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through Genesis As we pick up with Jacob's final words concerning Joseph And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now, I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters Of this station with your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues His verse-by-verse study Through the book of Genesis That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today Now once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith God bless you Give you a beautiful week May the hand of the Lord Be your strength As He holds you As He strengthens you As He blesses and as He guides you In His path of righteousness May you experience a touch of God's love The power of His Spirit May you be more than a conqueror Through the power that He gives to you In His Son, Jesus Christ As we look around the world We see two things happening at the same time The world is falling apart And the Lord is building His church What an adventure for a missionary And so it is with great enthusiasm That The Word for Today would like to make Available this year's Missions Conference Based on the theme of Jesus building His church Once again, the Lord has assembled A great group of men and women Who will share the Word and their own life And personal ministry experiences Such as Jed and Renee Gurley Serving in Kyrgyzstan Steve Jones, pastoring in New Zealand Brian McDaniel, ministering in Haiti And John Dawson, President of YWAM Youth with a Mission Hosted by Pastor Brian Brodersen Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa Join us to see how you can equip And encourage those called to labor with the Lord In building His church in these last days To order your copy of this year's Missions Conference On DVD with a bonus MP3 Call The Word for Today at 800-272-9673 Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California