Monthly Archives: March 2020

The Prophecy of Israel

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And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. Genesis 50:1

The final chapter begins with the burial of Jacob. As Jacob had requested he wanted to be buried in his homeland of Canaan and not in Egypt. So Joseph honoring his fathers wishes, made all the arrangements to have his fathers body embalmed and then transported to Canaan for burial

It was a very large funeral for 7 days, the mourning and and attendance was so visible , that even the neighboring communities such as the Canaanites took notice to the large funeral.

And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. Genesis 50:15

After the funeral , Josephs brothers became afraid of him again, believing now that their father was gone, Joseph would seek revenge on them. His brothers even sent a message to Joseph reminding him of the promise he made to their father to forgive them of their wrongdoings.

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Genesis 50:19-20

When Josephs brother came to see him, they all bowed down to worship him. Joseph corrected them as saying “I am not God, why are you worshiping me” Joseph showed great wisdom and understanding when he told them he understood God used their evil against him to bring good for many people.

Again we can see many foreshadows or parallels to Christ, as the evil done to Christ by killing him actually saved us!

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob Genesis 50:24

Joseph was now at the end of his life, however he reminded them about the promise or covenant God made with their fathers. They would be taken out of Egypt and given the Promise Land. Obviously we know this prophecy is fulfilled with the Exodus

The book of Genesis ends with Joseph passing away and being buried in Egypt

Lion of Judah

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And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. Genesis 49:1-2

As the time is nearing the end of Jacobs life, he wanted to gather his sons around them and give them a final blessing. Not only would these be blessings upon his children, but Jacob was going to reveal some Messianic prophecy here.

As we have been seeing in the previous chapters, there were many foreshadows of Christ through Joseph and the other brothers. Many as Christians will ask what is the purpose of Israel? What was the purpose of The Law? These are not only foreshadows of Christ , but also revelations of his nature and how we can understand him more deeply.

 

Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Genesis 49:9-10

Often we hear Jesus referred to as the “Lion of Judah”, well this is one of the prophecies where this title is derived from. Previously I’ve written several posts on so I’m not going to go into full detail about this however the Sceptre, which is symbolic for royalty will not depart from the line of Judah. Meaning the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah, which raised David as their King, which came the line of the Christ Jesus

The interesting word here is Shiloh, this is a Messianic title. Basically its saying until the Christ has come! This is the importance of studying the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, to get a better understanding of who Jesus is and the whole redemption story of The Bible

And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Genesis 49:33

After Jacob gave the blessings to all his sons, he passed away. Now the sons would scatter and establish their regions to begin the nation of Israel

The New Covenant

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And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Genesis 48:1

Joseph brought his two sons to be blessed by Jacob before he passed away. Remember this was a practice back when Abraham blessed Isaac and Isaac blessed Jacob. Now its time for Jacob to put his blessing on the family and continue the fulfilment of Gods covenant to them

What is about to happen will be reminiscent of what happened between Jacob and Esau, as the younger son will receive the higher blessing.

And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. Genesis 48:3-4

Jacob is referring to when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and blessed him. (Genesis 32) And the promise , the covenant , that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is revealing to Joseph. That their family is going to be a great nation (Israel)

And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. Genesis 48:14

Now tradition would be that the oldest son would receive the double portion, the greater blessing. However as we have seen in the past with Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau, God blesses who he wants to bless

Here we see again where Jacob is giving the “right hand” blessing to the younger son Ephraim instead of Manasseh

And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. Genesis 48:17

Joseph was not happy about this and tried to change the blessing, however Jacob continued giving the greater blessing to Ephraim. Now the question is “Why did Jacob cross his arms during the blessing”? We can speculate but the bottom line is “God will have mercy on whoever he wants and compassion on whoever He wants (Romans 9:15)

This is like a foreshadow of the New Covenant, God doesn’t show favor because of our birth right. He shows favor based on whoever he wants! The Gentiles and the Jews are both now Gods children based on the works of Jesus Christ! Amen!

Did Jehovah Create Jesus?

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Did Jehovah Create Jesus?

According to the Watchtower , https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/wp20130301/when-jesus-created-why-son/

at some point Jehovah created Jesus. Is this really true? Are there scriptures that back up this claim? As we read Genesis there is no mention of Jehovah creating Jesus, in fact the Bible tells us they made creation together. (Genesis 1:26)

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Genesis 1:26 (KJV)

26  Then God said: “Let us  make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every creeping animal that is moving on the earth.”a  Genesis 1:26-28 (NWT)

According to the KJV and the New World Translation they both agree that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present during the creation of everything. So when does the Bible say Jehovah created Jesus? The JWs reference a scripture taught by the Apostle Paul Colossians 1:15-16

 

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: Colossians 1:15-16 (KJV)

15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16  because by means of him all other things were created in the heavens and on the earth, the things visible and the things invisible,whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All other things have been created through him and for him Colossians 1:15-16  (NWT)

My first thought is if Jesus was created why wasn’t this mentioned anywhere in the Bible except for possibly here? If Jesus  our Lord was created , don’t you think this would be something God would want us to know! This teaching by Paul was directed specifically to a group of Christians in Colossae

Second as we compare the translations of scriptures , we see it says in KJV “For by Him (Jesus) All Things were created” However in NWT its says “For by means of Him all Other Things were created”, this is a big difference in context

The main question is probably what does the context of the scripture mean “Firstborn of all creation”? If we continue reading the entire chapter we see it says “He (Jesus) is before All Things “ (Col 1:17) “He (Jesus) Is The Beginning” (Eternal)(Col 1:18), “Firstborn from the dead” (Resurrection) (Col 1:18)  “Gods fullness dwelled in Him (Jesus) (Deity) (1:19)

So in this full chapter we see it says Jesus is Eternal, Resurrected, and is Deity. Firstborn of every creature would make sense to mean because of his atonement and resurrection, we can have eternal life, become Born Again because of Christ

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:7-8 (KJV)

7  Look! He is coming with the clouds,o and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him.p Yes, Amen. I am the Alʹpha and the O·meʹga,”*q says Jehovah* God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:7-8 (NWT)

This is very interesting, if we compare the passages here, obviously its talking about Jesus returning in the clouds , who was pierced (crucified), and Jesus says he is the beginning and the end (Eternal)

However the NWT says that Jehovah is making these statements?  Was Jehovah the one who was crucified? No then why does the NWT translate (Kyrios) (Lord) as Jehovah? This is a blatantly obvious mistake. Its clear here Jesus is declaring that He is Eternal

I think the JWs case that Jesus was created is very weak and obviously very flawed when you compare the context and the original Greek

The Great Famine

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Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. Genesis 47:1

So now Joseph moved his entire family to Egypt, including Jacob, because of the great famine going on in the land. Joseph presented them before Pharaoh and he showed great favor towards them because of Joseph. He told them “settle in the best part of the land”  All this favor because of God!

Think about that, here is a whole family of foreigners receiving the best part of the land because of Gods favor not their own. Not only that, Pharaoh put them in charge of all of his livestock.  This might not seem great by todays standard, but livestock back then was a very valuable commodity

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. Genesis 47:10

Because of Pharaohs great compassion towards Israel, Jacob blessed him. Remember a blessing is a great fulfilment. We all strive to be blessed by God through Christ, for a man of God like Jacob to bless a man like Pharaoh was significant

And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. Genesis 47:16

When Josephs family arrived in Egypt, many probably thought here comes a bunch of dumb shepherds. However since Egypt was in a great famine (recession) money became obsolete. So the next best thing was livestock. People began selling their livestock to get food for their families. This obviously made Josephs family very important because they took care of all the livestock

Notice how God can take what seems to be a dead end and bless and multiply it for our good

And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s. Genesis 47:20

Eventually the famine got so bad, they nobody had anything left but their land. So Joseph began buying everyone’s land for Pharaoh. And Joseph made a deal, all the crops that everyone grew, they would give Pharaoh 1/5th and they could keep the rest for their families.

Some may say this was a bad deal for them, however they were all grateful and said “Joseph saved their lives”! (Genesis 47:25)

And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: Genesis 47:29

So then 17 years went by and the time was coming to the end of Jacobs life. He wanted Joseph to promise him to not bury him in Egypt but bury him in his homeland.  Joseph promised Jacob and this is how the chapter ends