FBT Daily Devotional: Genesis 48

FBT Daily Devotional: Proverbs 13

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

All right, let's get it going. So, you know, today we're doing Genesis 48. When God crosses his hands and overrides the expected. Okay, quick review. This is a big book. Genesis 42 through 47. Joseph's brothers went to Egypt during the famine, not realizing the one with power is the brother they betrayed. Through testing and truth, their hearts are exposed. Repentance begins. Joseph finally reveals himself, and reconciliation takes place. Now Jacob, who is Israel, his name was changed by God to Israel, is brought into Egypt, and God preserves the entire family through Joseph's position. What was betrayal back in Genesis 37? Honey, has now become provision by Genesis 47. So Jacob and his entire household are preserved in Egypt. God has turned pain and betrayal into his divine provision. Now, that is strategy, y'all. Okay, so in this chapter 48, it begins with Joseph's remembrance. Verses three through four, it starts by saying, God Almighty appeared unto me and blessed me, and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful. Okay, this chapter is quiet, but it's powerful. No big miracles today, no large battles, no dramatic family fights or cheating confrontations. Okay, yet what happens here will shape generations. Jacob is nearing the end of his life. Okay, Joseph brings his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, for a blessing. So the family has already come to Egypt, and Joseph takes them where the family, his father Jacob, is living. But this is not just a blessing, this is prophetic alignment. So before God moves forward, he reminds you where he met you. Where did you come to know him first? So in verse 3, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz and blessed me. Now Luz was the original Canaanite name for the place Jacob later named Bethel. So the name was changed after his dream of a ladder going up to heaven, which means house of God. Bethel means house of God. So it was a significant location in Canaan where he previously experienced divine visions. It's where God promised to make Jacob fruitful and multiply his descendants and give him the land as an everlasting possession. Notice Jacob doesn't start his conversation with the boys. He starts with God. Okay. Jacob anchors this moment with his grandson's in encounter, not personal emotions of what he's been through after losing Joseph, in his encounter with God. He doesn't say, I feel led. He says, God appeared. So real authority comes from real encounters. Kind of like when a seasoned believer who doesn't just speak opinions but speaks from what they've walked through with God. In Psalms 34, 8, it says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. That's from experience, to get experience. The fact is that you can't pass down what you haven't actually learned or experienced. You just can't, what you what you're doing. So God will include who others might have overlooked, right? If you look back in Genesis 48, verse 5, Ephraim and Manasseh are mine, Jacob said. He adopts Joseph's sons. Don't miss this. Those boys were not born in Egypt, they were raised outside of the usual covenant environment. Yet Jacob says they belong. Amen. So it's a legal and spiritual elevation. Joseph receives a double portion through them. Wow. Did you see that? Double after all he went through in his youth. And then to be elevated in Pharaoh's palace, and now a double blessing for his sons by Jacob. But it does get deeper than that because God's honoring covenant over the boys' background. Let's go to a person where they're born and where they're raised, a person who didn't grow up in church, didn't have the so-called right upbringing. But God still calls, He still anoints and includes them fully. Just like in Ephesians 2.19, it says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers, but fellow citizens. So you may not have started up in it, but you can still be established in it. So God breaks the order all the time. Jacob asked Joseph to bring the boys near so he could bless them in verse 13. Guiding his hands wittingly, which means intentionally, Joseph sets it up properly. He put Smonasseh, the older one, to the right hand of Jacob. Okay, and Ephraim, the younger one, he puts to the left hand of Jacob. He set it up. Verse 14 note, and Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly, though. For Manasseh was the firstborn. But Jacob crossed his hands. Did you see that? He crossed his hands and changed the order. This was not confusion. This wasn't because he couldn't have seen. It was correction. Jacob, who once received a blessing as the younger one of Esau, now moves prophetically, not manipulatively. This time it's not trickery, it's divine direction. So God had forgiven him and still placed him in a great position. So in verse 18, Joseph says, Not so, Father. Joseph is resisting and thought Jacob was wrong, but heaven wasn't confused. This is when the overlooked person gets chosen. The quiet one rises to leadership. The expected choice gets passed over. And people say that doesn't make sense. That's not right. It shouldn't be them, it should be me. But exactly, exactly. It's done right. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Amen. So listen then, Lando. Listen, God doesn't follow resumes. You can take that out. You can take that out for this. Okay. God sees greater than what you see. Spiritual vision can be stronger than natural sight. Genesis 48, verse 10. Now the eyes of Israel were dim. Jacob's natural eyesight was dim, but his spiritual discernment was very clear. Spiritually, he was still sharp. Okay. In verse 19, his younger brother shall be greater. Jacob's body was weakening, but his discernment was increasing. So weakness is one area, does not cancel strength in another. This is the seasoned believers. Maybe older, maybe slower physically, but still carrying deep spiritual authority and discernment. Still may discern what others miss. Experience still can teach you young and something. Thank you. So the main points I want you to consider is that God's sovereignty overrides your expectation. And here's a powerful truth: God does not follow human systems, he fulfills his divine purpose. No birth order, he elevates the younger over the older sometimes. Not tradition, he includes those born outside their expected system, the new covenant. We're under the new covenant. Okay. Not expectation. He releases blessing based on purpose, not position, birth, or career. It's not favoritism. God chooses based on purpose. So encounters with God give authority to bless others. God includes beyond cultural and generational limits. God is not obligated to follow human order. Spiritual discernment matters more than natural perception, your natural clarity. God choices may confuse people, but they fulfill his purpose, his plan, his intention. So as we prepare to go to breakout rooms, I'll say this: stop trying to organize what God has already ordained. If God crosses his hands, let him. If he chooses differently, trust him and walk in it. If he elevates someone unexpectedly, celebrate it. Life is a blessing. It's not all roses every single day, but you have the strength and the power. You do. He gave it to you. It is a blessing to be here. Don't shortchange yourself and what you're to do in his power and purpose for someone else later. Amen. Because when God breaks order, he is establishing his purpose. Amen. We can go to breakout room.