Hebrews 11:20-22
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph’s last moments teach us:
- There’s realism we must face.
- There’s revelation we must believe.
- There’s reliance we must keep.
- There’s rejoicing we must anticipate.
If you brought a copy of scripture with you this morning, you can find Hebrews chapter 11 as we continue in this series on God’s Hall of Faith. And I really was really caught up in the last service. And again, on this one, the beautiful tension between those two songs we just sang; I Depend on You, and then Great is Your Faithfulness To Me. I mean, what beautiful juxtaposition! We depend on God. God is faithful to us. And that’s a great lead in to this message, which is both sobering and, I hope, enlightening and very hopeful to all of us here today. And so with that, let’s talk to God, shall we?
Our Father, we do depend on you. And thank You for that song that is so, it’s so simple. I depend on You. And then thank you Lord, for the followup song of praise that You are great in Your faithfulness. And that’s not just a song. That’s biblical truth! And we rest in that, that we can depend on You and You will be faithful to everything You have ever said. And now, Lord, we ask that You would help us, help us, today. All across this room and those watching online are people who have hardships they’re dealing with, struggles they’re enduring, kids out of whack, health that is jeopardized. But we have You, and You are the anchor of our souls and we bless You for that and ask Your blessing now on this hour, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hebrews chapter 11. Last week, we began this… this is actually part two and it’s really titled Far-sighted Faith, part two. But as I started preaching it in the last hour, I changed the title. So now I’m calling it Near-sighted Faith. And you’ll understand because last week at, I kid you not, I mean I explained far-sighted to be… able to see things in the distance. You don’t see things up close. There aren’t too many people like that. And then there are, most of us are near-sighted. You see things close. You don’t see things far. And right [after the first sermon] two women, separate from one another, came up and said, “I’m far-sighted here in this eye and I’m nearsighted in this eye.” And I said, first I said, “That’s really weird!” And then I said, “That’s perfect! That’s perfect!” I don’t mean the vision part, but spiritually speaking, right? — Because far-sighted faith isn’t just looking to future heaven, but it’s loving on present earth and specifically to the next generation.
And if you were with us last week, we looked at verses 13 through 16, which sort of gobbles up all the characters in Hebrews chapter 11, these heroes of faith, and tells us all of them were looking to heaven, all of them looking to the new heaven. And that was the driving thing and the mechanism in their life. And it should be in ours as well. But in verses 20 through 22, that’s where we’re at, we’re going to be introduced to Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph. Now, remember, Hebrews was written to Hebrews to tell the Hebrews to quit acting like Hebrews. But these Hebrews, they knew these stories. So these are just little snippets, but they’re fascinating snippets! And these three guys are no exception, and they will remind us that we have a stop off before we get to heaven. All right? And so with that, Hebrews 11 verses 20 through 22:
Hebrews 11:20-22,
20 “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”
All right? Now these are verses… let’s be honest. When you’re just reading through the Bible, you just go right over them, right? I mean, now some of you are going to come back and say, ‘No. I did deep dives on every one.’ I don’t think so! These patriarchs were clearly looking beyond their own lives, but they were to a stop off before we get to heaven, the generations of their descendants.
In fact, just, just the other day I ran into Lynn Ober, one of our members here for many, many years. She married Dick. Dick’s mother was Ellen Ober and Ellen Ober was a great saint. She was a, she was a matriarch in this church. She was a godly, godly woman, and I remember when she died, Lynn said… we were talking about this. Lynn said to me, “I’m really going to miss her prayers.” And my response to her was “No you won’t, because her prayers on earth back then are just as effective today from heaven.” I don’t mean she’s praying from heaven. I’m saying that these, these individuals who gave their lives to Christ and prayed fervently for the next generation, those prayers are still in effect.
And just last week we received a surprise visit from the former pastor of Saylorville Baptist Church 30 plus years ago. Gary and Carrie Butler showed up. We brought him up to the platform during the third service and we, we just thanked the Lord for them. They were here from 1988 to 1993, had an outstanding ministry during that time, and he was the one whose legacy it is… this church was swimming in debt at the time, and he orchestrated, led the church out of debt. That’s a great legacy! And we were so grateful for that. And, but as he walked around the church, as he examined what God was doing here, as he looked at the Engage Network, he, they were just overwhelmed with joy to look at the church 30 years later and to see what God has done!
We’re going to look briefly at these three men, these three patriarchs here, and we’re going to, we’re going to point out some of the things that they have in common. Now, one of the things that we can tell you right out of the chute, they were all worshiping in this moment. And that’s a big deal when you realize what was going on in some of their lives. First we have Isaac. Okay. So Isaac, mentioned there in verse 20, he’s the miracle son of Abraham and Sarah. Remember they were a hundred years old. She was 90, you know, way past having, you know, being able to have kids and he’s born (Isaac) to them. Other than that, we don’t know a whole lot about Isaac. Not much… not much good, anyway. After getting a wife, Rebecca, which was a cool story in and of itself, they have twins. And we do remember their twins, right? Jacob and Esau, the fraternal twins. And, you know, Esau was the rugged, rough, tough, and buff guy, the guy you’d probably smell before you saw. And then there was Jacob, the mommy’s boy. And, but Jacob was the son of promise. And so there’s all that. And actually you’ve got you, so you have Isaac, back to Isaac. Isaac is, we’re told in Genesis 26, he’s, he’s, there’s a famine in the land. He’s getting pushed from one unfriendly after another unfriendly, trying to just dig a well for himself and his family. He finally gets there and gets it done, and God appears to him and reiterates the promise that he’d given his father, Abraham. Here it is right here. It says,
Genesis 26:24, “And the LORD appeared to him (Isaac) the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
Now the scene that’s depicted in verse 20 here in Hebrews 11 is, is actually out of the next chapter, Genesis 27. You don’t need to go there. It’s a famous chapter. This is the chapter where, where Isaac is dying. In fact, all three of these dudes that are mentioned here are dying at the time. That’s a big deal! But Isaac in Genesis 27 is dying. He’s all but lost his eyesight and his wife, Rebecca and son Jacob, you know, orchestrate a ruse to make him think that he’s about to bless his son Esau. That was his favorite son. He was the rough, tough guy. He’s out hunting. ‘Go out and kill some game, make it for me. Then I’m going to die.’ Well, he goes out and hunts, and Rebecca and Jacob put together a ruse. They make, she dolls up Jacob to feel and smell like his brother. And Isaac is fooled, which is really silly because God had already promised that Jacob was the son of promise. God would have blessed him. And sometimes this is, I mean, we too often take matters into our own hands rather than just trust God to do what He has promised. He’s going to do it either way. That’s what happens. And, and so as a result, you know, he’s, you know, he’s blessed, just the same. In fact, the word “invoked” in verse 20,
Hebrews 11:20, “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.”
…it’s where we get our English word “eulogy.” When you, when you hear of a eulogy at a funeral, the word eulogy means “to speak well of,” you know, you don’t, you don’t, you rarely see a preacher say, ‘Boy, this guy was a nasty dude! Let me tell you about him!’ You know, I mean, how many of you have … walked away from a funeral and thought, ‘I didn’t even know that guy!’ But that’s the word here, “to eulogize.” And the reason I bring it up, because it’s hard to find anything for this hero of the faith, Isaac. It’s hard to find anything praiseworthy about him to speak well of him, much less the twins that came from him. But that’s the point! That’s the encouraging point! God chose Isaac in spite of himself. And last I checked, that’s the same thing with you and me! I’m grateful that God chose me despite myself.
Let’s move on to Jacob. Jacob is the twin, the fraternal twin of Esau. His name means “deceiver.” Remember, remember, some of you might remember many years ago, I was in a lather preaching on Jacob, whose name means “deceiver.” And I said, “I don’t know why anybody would name their kid Jacob!” And we must have had four or five in the church at that time! One of the dumber things that ever come out of my mouth. A lot of apologizing there. Right, Bears? But he did really live down to his name… until God changed it. But he was a deceiver, and he deceived, and he was a conniver. He was a manipulator, and he often paid for his sins. And yet like his dad, God chose him and famously showed up when he was on the run from his brother. Remember? He’s on the run. He puts his head on a rock. God gives him a dream. There’s a ladder, angels going up and down that ladder to say, ‘I’m with you… I’m with you… I’m with you, Jacob!’ And he reiterates his promise to Jacob. And here it is. He said,
Genesis 28:13, “And behold, the LORD stood above it (that is, above the ladder) and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your (what?) offspring (your descendants.)“
And again, when you look at Jacob’s life, it’s like, ‘Wow! I am Jacob!’ And so are many of you! And be thankful that God chose you anyway, right?
Now, the scene in Hebrews 11 and verse 21, because that’s where Jacob is mentioned….
[Hebrews 11:21, “By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.”]
The scene is right out of, right out of Genesis 49, which almost the entire chapter is Jacob.
He’s dying and he’s dying and he lays hands… He basically prophesies over all 12 sons. So Jacob, if you recall, has 12 sons. They are the 12 tribes of Israel. They would be. And here’s how it all starts in Genesis 49.
Genesis 49:1-2, “Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel (His name’s been changed now) your father.“
Now, wouldn’t you like dads to be able to take all your sons and daughters and predict their future? Go like this. [Shaking his head ‘no.’] That’d be freaky, wouldn’t it? And that’s exactly what he did. And as he did it, we, as he prophesies over all of his sons, he most famously prophesies over Judah, not the firstborn! But what is Judah blessed with right here? Here’s the word.
Genesis 49:10, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
Judah is, he is the messianic line where Jesus would come from, would come from Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Amen? What a blessing! And he pronounced wonderful futures over other sons that he had like Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali and Joseph. But they weren’t all coming up rainbows and unicorns, okay? In fact, Reuben was his firstborn who should have got the ultimate blessing, but instead he says to Reuben,
Genesis 49:3-4
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!“
‘Reuben, you are as unstable water!‘ Now Reuben was an immoral guy, remember? And we’re told later on, the tribe of Reuben, well, when, during the judges, remember Deborah, the judge? See, they muster all the tribes to fight against their enemy. And the Bible tells us that Reuben’s tribe… thought about it. They were indecisive. The Hebrew carries the idea they just, they just couldn’t make up their mind and they didn’t fight. And years earlier, his dad said, you’re going to be like “unstable water.”
And what about Simeon and Levi? I’ll tell you what about Simeon and Levi. Simeon and Levi are weapons of violence. “Cursed be their anger.”
[Genesis 49:5-7
“5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.
6 Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
7 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.”]
I mean, not all the sons were good guys!
I’m reminded of a story I read years ago of a family, very prestigious family. They could actually trace their lineage back to the Mayflower, their ancestors. And they had some of their, some of their family became US senators. Some became Wall Street wizards and just a, just a, just an amazing family! They put, they were going to put together a book of the history of their family, (before ancestry.com, obviously) And, and so they hired this biographer and they said they just had one little blight. They just wanted to kind of figure out how to get around it about Uncle George, because Uncle George was a murderer, was put in prison, and was executed in the electric chair. The biographer was slick. He said, “No problem!” This is how he wrote. “Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties. And his death came as a real shock.” Wouldn’t we just love to cover up all the blemishes in our families? And all jokes aside, there are some sobering lessons here. But I have to move on to Joseph.
So Joseph, he’s the last one. He’s in verse 22. He’s the most compelling of these three patriarchs because he eats up 13 of the last 14 chapters of Genesis. We preached a whole series on it years ago. God over all, he was the favorite son and a hated brother. He went from the pit to the pinnacle. He went from prison to the palace. And 20 years later, his brothers, thinking he’s dead and gone… If you know the story, there’s a famine. God causes a famine. The brothers go down there. Joseph reveals himself to them. He’s the second in charge of all of Egypt! And you can just imagine what those 11 brothers thought! (Or 10 minus Benjamin, his other brother, little brother) They thought ‘He’s going to kill us!’ And when their dad died, they thought for sure! When Jacob died, they thought for sure Joseph was going to do them in. But it’s there that we learn that whole business that we call it 50/20 vision, Genesis 50 verse 20 where Joseph gives us some of the most encouraging and deeply theological truths on the sovereignty of God when he says to his brothers, I’m not going to kill you. And here’s why.
[Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”]
Because ‘what you meant for evil, God intended for good.’ What a powerful statement! And what a true statement that it’s not just a cool truth. It’s something we have to embrace no matter what we’re going through in our lives. And then just before he pulls his legs up and dies and is gathered to his people, he says this.
Genesis 50:24-25,
24 “And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
So that’s what they did. When Joseph died, they took his bones with them through the Exodus. Those bones were carried with the Israelites throughout the entire 40 year wilderness travel. They had the bones of Joseph. It would be 400 years before those bones would show up in the Promised Land! — and when they did, Joshua tells us the land became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.
[Joshua 24:32, “As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.”]
Now, I want you to notice what these three patriarchs all had in common. I just mentioned one. They were all worshiping in the moment.
[Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.]
Verse 13, “They all died in faith.” That means if you’re a Christian, you will see them again. How cool is that, by the way? All three, (this was fascinating to me!) all three were in the process of dying in Hebrews 11. So you just kind of run right through there. Notice they’re all dying in the moment! The writer of Hebrews purposely wants you and me to picture them on their deathbeds.
And thirdly, all three had the earthly future in mind, not just the heavenly, but the earthly future in mind, concerning their (what?) — concerning their descendants. Descendants. Their far-sighted faith wasn’t just looking to future heaven. It was loving the next generation still present on earth.
My wife and I know something about descendants. And we pray daily for our tribe, just like you do. We pray for their salvation, for their dedication, for their love for God, their service to Him. But we don’t know, and we can’t control… their futures. We can trust the One who does, Amen?
Remember, all three of these men were in the process of dying in this chapter that you’re looking at. Now, my wife and I, we know descendants. We know something about our descendants, but we also know something about death. And so, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph were all dying, and would all die. What do their last moments teach us? That’s what I want to ask you this morning. What do their dying moments have to teach us? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here they are. One, there’s realism we must face. There is a realism that we must face. We all die. We don’t all die in faith. Every one of you are going to die! I’m going to die. Not every one of you are going to die in faith, unless you’ve placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can’t control the destinies of my children or my grandchildren any more than I can control the wind. I can control my responsibilities, and I bow before the sovereignty of God, and it’s a mystery. I don’t get it, but we’ve got to face the reality. It’s a mystery. I’ve seen godly parents raise godly kids. I’ve seen ungodly parents raise ungodly kids. I’ve seen godly parents raise ungodly kids. I’ve seen ungodly parents raise godly kids, and none of it makes sense to me! — except that God is sovereign, amen? And I am responsible, and so are you. So there’s realism we must face.
There’s revelation we must believe, and this is the revelation of God. The Word of God is the revelation of God, and we have to believe those promises. They will come true. No attempts of man or the coming beast can thwart the promises of God. They are amen, they are true, and they will happen! I love Daniel 4:35 along this line!
After Nebuchadnezzar is brought to animal-like state, he’s revived in his knowledge of God, and he recognizes the one true God, and then we’re told this:
Daniel 4:35, “…all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have You done?”
Because he is God, amen? So there’s a revelation we must believe. Believe it!
Thirdly, there’s a reliance we must keep. ? “I depend on you” ? That’s a simple line… Not so simple to do. There’s a reliance we must keep. Verse 13 talks about that.
Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
2 Corinthians 5:6-7, “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.“
Just the other day, a friend of mine revealed that he and his family are facing circumstances that are utterly and completely unjust and even diabolically evil, and the possible outcome to this is just baffling! I mean, the reasons that God would allow this to him, this godly man and his godly wife and their kids, it is baffling to me! But as I shared with him, just because God doesn’t give you a reason for the hardship in your life doesn’t mean He doesn’t have reasons. He doesn’t always reveal them. Sometimes He does. Most of the time, He doesn’t. And the best example, and my favorite part of the story of Job is what’s not in the story of Job. It’s like an ellipsis. If you know the story of Job, he’s this great man of God, greatest, wisest, godliest man in the East, and he just loses everything! — His family, 10 kids, the only thing he had left was his wife and his life, and he wasn’t excited about either one of them. And then his friends show up, and they just make life worse for him! And he starts to complain a little, and then God comes out of a whirlwind, reveals Himself in all of His splendor, and Job repents, God restores him, gives him 10 kids back. It’s an amazing story! But you know what you don’t find in that story? You don’t find God sitting Job down and saying, ‘Hey, hey, Job, sit down. Let me tell you what was going on back there. See, Satan came one day and…’ None of that! Job never knew, he never knew in his life what happened or why it happened! He knows now. And I’m sure, like C.S. Lewis said, the first words out of his mouth that’ll be the first words out of our mouths when we get to heaven is, “Of course!” But we must, listen. This is what we do know. It does mean that God has given you, in your hardship, no matter what you’re going through, He has given you another opportunity to rely on Him. “I depend on You.” And He loves it when we depend on Him. For whatever reasons, He puts us in those things.
And fourthly and finally, there’s rejoicing that we must anticipate. I love it! I wanna put it up there again in verse 13,
[Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar…“]
…where all of these men and women of God, of faith, having seen them, the promises of God, and greeted them! That means to rejoice over them from afar. I love that! If God’s promises are certain, so is our future rejoicing… and not just ours! Not just our rejoicing. It won’t just be ours.
In 2011, I was at a conference, and I was at a really, really low state. A couple of my kids were completely off the chain. My literal pastorate was hanging on by a thread. And I was really down. And Mike Bulmore, (not a household name by any means) was preaching in Zephaniah. And as he did, he came to the 17th verse, and it says,
Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is among you, a mighty warrior in your midst…” (And as he worked through that passage, he said) “He, (that is God) “He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing.”
And then Bulmore leaned into the pulpit, and he said,
“We will rejoice when we get to heaven, but not as much as God does.” Mike Bulmore
I don’t know what you’re going through right now. I don’t know what’s eating you alive right now. I don’t know if it’s physical or if it’s financial or if it’s social or if it’s your kids. I do know this. The Lord sat enthroned at the flood. The Lord sits as King forever. Rely on it!
Our Father in heaven, as we are about to go to the Lord’s table, your Son’s table, communion, we do so humbly. We’re sobered by passages like this… men dying, prophesying over their kids. Lord, some of us have kids that are the farthest thing from Christians, and our hearts are broken over them, but we’ve been given fresh opportunities to trust You, to depend on You. I depend on You. And we do depend on You, Lord, because Your promises are true, and they’ll come about, and we do look forward to the day when we rejoice in Your presence, but not as much as You do. I do pray for those in our midst, Lord, who are not ready to rejoice. Their souls are still darkened with sin, and they’ve never exercised faith in Jesus, who died and rose again. If you’ve never done that, dear friend, let today be the day that you rejoice, and you turn from your sin, and you become born again. Now, God, as we contemplate the beauty of Jesus, His perfect life, and His sacrificial death, draw near to us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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