S42

I can project if it's not on the good. All right.

I'm exhausted this morning as you can probably tell I don't have a problem getting my steps in and just thank you so much for the encouraging words. A lot of you came up and encouraged by this morning. And we appreciate it being a parent is very rewarding obviously, but it's also very tiring to so this is an interesting stator for me because this is probably one of the very first things I studied when I walked away from some of the theologies or things that I've been taught as a kid and I again, I don't know where some of you came from or what your story is, but a lot of you probably grew up a certain way you lived a certain way you study to certain way and then whatever happened cause you to maybe have a shift in your in your thinking or or your understanding. And I happen to be about 8 years ago and I won't get into it either but I had a friend of mine come up and ask me a question that caused me to change the way that I viewed the Bible in and just really evaluate my worldview. And of course when that happens you you want to find teachers to our teaching in the same type of wave that you are Desiring to learn you want sound teaching you want Biblical teaching and I don't know how many of you in this congregation or familiar with it, but there's a resource online. That's really good. If you don't know I called 119 Ministries. And I really highly encourage you to look at that. If you are not familiar with that they do really in-depth. I mean really in-depth teachings on specific topics that are very similar to what we talk about here and they have a teaching called the lost sheep. And so we're going to talk about that today. And if you have any questions about that or want to study that much deeper than I have time to get into today go 119 ministries.com look up the lost sheep and and there will be plenty of information for the free to look up. The Genesis chapter 48 is where we're going to be. Hey, hun. We're going to go through this whole chapter. We're not going to get much in the second Kings. We're not going to get much into Psalms, but we are going to tie Genesis 48 to John chapter 10. Yeah, really before we get started to this morning. There's a question that needs to be asked that maybe you don't even realize needs to be asked and there is an answer to it and we're going to get into this morning in the question is did Jesus have to die in order to redeem the world to himself? In other words did Death have to be the method in order to redeem the world. Because there's this train of thought that if God is all-powerful which we know that he is if he's in control of all things then couldn't he have just redeemed the world. However, he chose just as he spoke creation into existence. Couldn't he just by the words of his mouth said I redeemed you when you would have been redeemed other guy, maybe you're familiar with him. Maybe you're not he knew of white prior. His name is Rob Bell, and he was a pastor at a Christian Church called Mars Hill and he preached chapter by chapter verse by verse line by line to the Book of Leviticus, which is a pretty heavy feet to do especially for a Christian Pastor in this church group, and now he's kind of on his own his own path now and I pray for him and I hope God kind of brings him back. He's really kind of falling into the New Age movement, but I was listening to a podcast by him a couple years ago, and he brought up this exact question that I just brought up this morning. In his opinion. He said, you know really it was his opinion that if God is in control of all things. He could have redeemed the world. However, he chose. And so did Jesus have to die. The answer to that I believe is yes. And what is interesting is that Genesis 48 is the starting point to answering that question in the answer to that question lies in who Ephraim is and who Manasseh is and more specifically who their descendants become and how that ties into this Redemption story that were so familiar with So we'll get into that in a second. So we're not going to talk a whole lot about we're not going to follow this link word. That means to be ill the word that we're going to follow that's going to link these passages together is father.

All right, let's get started Genesis 48 starting verse one after this Joseph was told behold your father is ill. This is the first time in Scripture that illness is mentioned from Genesis to this point in the beginning of Genesis to this point. This is the first time the illness is mentioned. After this Joseph was told behold your father is ill so we took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim and it was told to Jacob your son. Joseph has come to you then is real summon his strength inside up in bed. And Jacob such a chance of God Almighty appear to me at Lowe's in the land of Canaan and blessed me and he said to me behold I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your Offspring after you for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt or mine Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon art. Any children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance as for me when I came from a dawn to my sorrow people died in the land of Canaan on the way and when there was still some distance to go see Frost and I buried her there on the way to defrost. Is Bethlehem. This is kind of strange, isn't it? So kind of a strange interaction that Jacob has with his grandsons and you know Joseph it's not out of the ordinary for Joseph to wants to desire for his children that were born in Egypt to meet with their grandpa. Of course, that's natural wants to introduce his children and it would not be out of the realm of possibility wouldn't be out of the ordinary for Jacob to wants to in turn bless his grandchildren. What is really is it that he essentially adopts them? And if you think about it, this is not like a metaphorical adoption. This is not kind of like a godparent type thing. I mean he goes as far as to tell Joseph this children are mine just as Ruben and sitting in her mind and in fact, there's so much mine that any kids you have after this you can keep but these ones they belong to me.

And that's just it's just really interesting that that he would adopt them like that and end when we look at commentaries. A lot of commentators don't know what to do with this because if if Ephraim and Manasseh are his like Simon and Ruben are his then does that mean that there are more than Twelve Tribes of Israel? What what what do we do with that? And so in my opinion what I believe is going on here is if not that there are now 14 tribes. I don't think that Ephraim and Manasseh are represented that way because at the end of the day no matter what Jacob does no matter how he feels about these children biologically. They still are his grandkids. They still did come after his 12 sons. And so he Freeman Manasseh don't represent any more tribes, but what they represent is who these tribes are going to become They represent what these tribes are going to do. I will get more in stock in a second. When is real Saint Joseph's Sons he said who are these? Augustus said it was father. They are my son's whom God has given to me here and he said bring them to me, please that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were thin with age so that he could not see so Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embrace them. And Israel said to Joseph. I never expected to see your face and behold Scott is let me see your Offspring also. Saint Joseph removed them from his knees and found himself with his face to the Earth. Address of took them both Ephraim and his right hand towards Israel's left hand and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand and brought them near him. Mistral stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim. Who is the younger and his left hand on the head of the monastic Ross in his hands from Manassa was the first born blessed Joseph and said the god before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. The angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the boys and then them let my name be carried on in the name of my father's Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the Earth. When Joseph saw that his father's laid his hands on that head of Ephraim it displeased him and he took his father's hand to move it for me frames head to Manassas head. And Joseph said to his father not this way. My father since this is the first born put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said I know my son. I know he also shall become a people and he also shall be great. Nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of Nations. Play Boston. Day saying behold by you is Rule will pronounce blessing saying God make you a seat for him and Manasseh. Does he put the freon before menasseh Ben Israel said to just to behold I'm about to die. But God will be with you and and you will bring and will God will be with you and will bring you against the land of your fathers moreover. I have given to you rather than to your brother's one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the amorites with my sword and with my bow.

This follows an interesting pattern. This is not the first time that this has happened the younger one being blessed over the older and if you think about it, if it starts really with Abraham Abraham had Isaac, but he also had Ishmael, right and who was the older Ishmael was the older and Isaac was blessed Isaac had a song by Jacob who was the older chests. And so now I'm standing in front of his two grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim Manasseh the older one and who does he blasts He blesses Ephraim and he says over and over again to Ephraim that you are going to become a multitude of Nations. And so what I want to do now is I want to go on it a journey here and look through scripture and see what does ephraim's descendants. Who do you bring them to send to become and who do Manassas? and it's because it's really crazy to me that here in just a few short chapters we go from Joseph and his family being royalty to being enslaved by those very people and of course obviously we'll get in touch in a few weeks and we know that Moses then liberate these people and the God is going to take them back to the land that he promised to Abraham and of course, we know they want to see the deserts and they have a time of testing and they keep making these mistakes and it finally comes time for them to enter this land that God has promised to them and God gives them a very specific morning and this warning is not just for those that were there waiting to cross over the Jordan This warning is for It's really an internal warning for forever. And this is what he says. When your father when you father children and children's children and you have grown old in the land if you acted corruptly by making a car payment in the form of anything and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over to the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And Lord will scatter you among the peoples and you will be left. You would number among the Nations where the Lord will drive you. So how did history play out there about to enter the promised land got his said don't make graven images. They're familiar with that from the desert. He's said do not worship false Idols. They've they've been there they've done that and so now he's finally going to give them a reward do they listen to say obey Unfortunately they don't And these different kingdoms rise up and as the nation of Israel goes on just like happens a lot in history eventually a civil war breaks out and Israel is divided into two kingdoms the northern kingdom in the southern Kingdom and I want to introduce you to an interesting character who becomes the king of the northern kingdom. His name is jeroboam. Jeroboam the son of nebat and ephraimite notice how they described him how the Bible describes him of 0. A servant of Solomon his mother's name was the ruler a widow also lifted up his hand against the king. This is a prophet speaking to Jarred Bohn and he said to jeroboam take for yourself 10 pieces for just us the Lord the god of Israel behold. I'm about to tear the Kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes, but he still have one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem the city that I have chosen out of all of the tribes of Israel because they have forsaken me and worship astrof the goddess of the sidonians K most the god of Moab and milcom the god of the ammonites and have not walked in my ways doing what is right in my side and keeping my statutes and my rules as David his father dead. God is literally giving jeroboam this northern kingdom because of the way that Solomon has acted he is saying I am giving you these tribes because they worship Pastor off. They worship Kimo's they did all of these things and they did not walk in my ways. Unfortunately. There's this pattern God continually song over and over again. Obey my ways. Obey me. Obey me obey me somewhere to being a parent.

I understand this on a spiritual level.

So notice so you would think again again again God keep saying over and over again. Obey me. Obey me. Obey me. Obey me. And you keep sending prophets to get them to turn away. And what's a reed for versus for you about Ephraim specifically in again? This is talking about this Northern tribe of Israel. These are some pretty dark words for they have gone up to Asteria a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers. Ephraim's Glory shall fly away like a bird. No birth. No pregnancy. No conception.

Ephraim feeds on the Wind what nutrition is there in the wind and pursues the East Winds all day long, they multiply falsehood and violence. They make a covenant with Syria and oil is carried to be famous like a does silly in without sense calling to Egypt going to Assyria.

And So eventually God honors their choices, they have decided that they're no longer going to follow him. He's worn them over and over and over again. And unfortunately the reality of it is it that they get to a point the northern tribes of Israel. It's hard to imagine this but they really get to a point where they don't want to have anything to do with him. They would much rather worship false gods. And so what God does is he divorces this Northern tribes of Israel? She that Israel saw that for all the adult trees of the faithless one Israel. I had sent her away with a decree of divorce get her treacherous sister did not. But she too went and played the hor.

So what we need to keep in mind here when we read that God wrote the certificate of divorced Israel. Is it that God was not doing this out of punishment. He was not doing this out of spite. He was not doing this out of hate. In fact, it's actually quite the opposite when he divorced this Northern tribe does Northern Kingdom of Israel. He was doing it out of love for them and what I mean by that is that they did not want God was not saying I don't want to have anything to do with you what he was saying is I understand now, you don't want to have anything to do with me. I've pursued you I have given you these chances. I have given you this land. I have done everything possible to get you to follow after me and you don't want to have anything to do with me. And so it's a loving relationship keeping somebody Bound by this marriage if they don't want to be in it. No he's saying because I love You don't want to be with me. So I'm just going to go ahead and I'm going to let you go.

Because I love you. Go ahead and go.

And we may not really think about this or we may not realize the significance of this until we start to study Torah. But what is the significance of God riding giving Israel a certificate of divorce? When a man takes a wife and marries her if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and send her out of his house and she departs out of his house and if she goes and becomes another man's wife and the ladder man hates her and writes her certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of this house worth. The ladder man. Dies. She who took her to be his wife then her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife.

After she has been defiled so this is an Abomination before the Lord and you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. So if God wrote them the certificate of divorce and they are carried away to Assyria and they intermingle into the nation's and they essentially go off and marry another. According to God's Own law, they cannot come back. They cannot be remarried. And so really this should be game over. It should be. We're done. We'll close up. Our book will go away will go home. But I want to read the words of Paul because he clears up for us the significance of any answers this question. Did Jesus have to die Did that did Death have to be the method in which you use to redeem the world impulse answers this year or do you not know brother's friend speaking to those who know the law and the laws binding on a person only as long as he lives for a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage accordingly. She will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, but if her husband dies she is free from that law and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise my brother's you have also. It's the loss in the body of Christ so that you may belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God for while we were living in the flash our sinful passions aroused by the law. We're working our members to bear fruit for death, but now we are released from the law having died to wish how does captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. So another words God had to die in order to redeem us to himself in order that those Nations that divorced the god divorced in and went away in order for them to come back in to be in his faults to be a part of his sheep. He had to die to release them from that. Assist Isis into John chapter 10 verses 9 through 18 in in this New Perspective that God had to die in order to annul that divorce. That gives us A New Perspective in a new way of reading John chapter 10. He says I am the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved and we'll go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy and I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus lays down his life for his sheep. See who is Hired Hand and not a Shepherd who does not come but does not own the Sheep sees the wolf coming and leads the sheep and fleas and wolf snatches them scattered then he flees because he is a Hired Hand and cares nothing for the Sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my father knows me just as the father knows me. I know the father and I lay down my life for my sheep. And this is also talking about God bringing back in this those of us who have been scattered out amongst the Nations and I have other sheep that are not of this fold and I must bring them and also and they will listen to my voice so that there will be one flock and one Shepherd for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it up again. No one takes it for me. No, one took Jesus's life for him. He made that decision. He made that decision. But I lay it down of my own accord and I have authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again this charge I received from my father.

So how humbling is it to think that? By God's Own standard by his own admission. He knew if God's laws Eternal which we know that it is that he knew from the very beginning of the world that this law was going to be set in place and that she was going to give us chance after chance after chance that we were going to walk away and then so much does it he was going to write us a certificate of divorce and he knew from the foundation of the world that he was going to have to die in order to nullify that to come that we might be brought back to himself. He is the door and I want to be living a life with him that I'm coming in and out on a pasture. Let's pray.

Father you are merciful. We don't always understand why you do things or the way you do things. And so we think you when you give us understanding into these things. We thank you so much that even though you knew that death was going to have to be the way that you were going to Regina's to yourself and you knew that and you created us anyway. Father I'm sorry that we disobeyed. and even though we disobeyed you Continue to give us a chance and over and over again because you believed in us and you still believe in US you still want us to make the right choice. You still want us to make the right decision. Father I don't have any control over the direction that this country goes or the control any control over where this world goes. I only have control over myself father. I pray that we would be a people in this room that would seek your face. And we wouldn't have to put you in a position where you have to keep saving us in redeeming us. We know we're going to continue to do that. And we know that we thank you for saving us the father. Let us be a people who strives to be obedient to you. This drives to follow your ways who strives to follow the laws that you've put in place for us. We thank you so much for your law. We thank you so much for your word way. I see things in your name and then