[00:00:09] Welcome to Gracious Words.
[00:00:11] Gracious Words is taken from the Weekly Women's Bible Study taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
[00:00:36] In all that Jacob has been through, we see that his life has been full of hoping.
[00:00:41] It is this legacy that he wants to pass on to his children.
[00:00:44] He wants them to look forward in expectation, waiting for God's good promises to be fulfilled.
[00:00:51] Now here is Part 3 of Cheryl's message titled, What's a Blessing?
[00:01:19] He says, you're a ravenous wolf. You're dangerous.
[00:01:23] You go hunting in the morning and night, you share your food with others.
[00:01:28] And you could look at these and say, these are blessings.
[00:01:31] Obviously, what is said to Judah and Joseph, those joint patriarchs, we can say, now that's a blessing.
[00:01:39] But these are blessings. It says, these were the blessings that were appropriate to each son.
[00:01:43] These were the blessings that they needed to hear in order to protect them from their own nature, from their own propensities, to safeguard the promises of God to them and to their children.
[00:01:57] I think it's interesting that the ravenous wolf and the biting snake, these weren't removed from the covenant.
[00:02:08] They were still under the covenant.
[00:02:11] But they would not experience the blessings or the privilege of being in the covenant if they did not give those natures to God.
[00:02:23] These blessings spoke of their future.
[00:02:26] They were prophetic.
[00:02:27] It is what would happen.
[00:02:30] Jacob ended the blessings by charging his sons to bury him in the cave at Machpelah, the cave where Isaac and Rebecca and Abraham and Sarah were buried.
[00:02:42] And interestingly enough, it's the place where Leah is buried.
[00:02:48] Not Rachel, but Leah is buried because Leah becomes the covenant wife.
[00:02:54] Why?
[00:02:54] Because Judah, because the lion of the tribe of Judah, because the seed of Abraham, this blessed lineage of Jesus, the Messiah would come through Leah.
[00:03:09] So she is in the cave of promise.
[00:03:13] This also, this burial of Jacob in Israel at this cave would remind the brothers of the surety of the blessings that they received from their father.
[00:03:27] And that their future was in Canaan, in the promises of God, not in the kingdoms of this world.
[00:03:36] Jacob had reserved his remaining strength in order to speak these blessings, these words over his sons.
[00:03:46] And then he died.
[00:03:47] It was with everything that he had.
[00:03:50] He gave these blessings to each one, not leaving one out.
[00:03:57] Before we go into chapter 50, I would like to ask, which tribe's blessing would you want?
[00:04:05] Isn't it the blessing of Judah or Joseph?
[00:04:08] Yet, whatever the word that was given, it's important to remember it was their word.
[00:04:14] It was the right word.
[00:04:16] It was the treasured word.
[00:04:18] It was the expedient word.
[00:04:21] And it was the word that they were to pass down to their children.
[00:04:26] You know, we're all a bunch of ravenous wolves.
[00:04:28] We better watch out for that.
[00:04:30] You know, sometimes we have things in our nature that are just propensities.
[00:04:36] They are just something that you can say, oh, my mother was like that.
[00:04:39] It's almost in our DNA.
[00:04:42] But even those things need to be submitted to the Lord.
[00:04:46] And the Lord can take those things if they're submitted and take that curse and turn it into a blessing.
[00:04:53] If we give it to the authority and put it under the authority of Jesus Christ.
[00:04:59] Now, Jacob had reserved his greatest blessings for Joseph.
[00:05:05] And Joseph then became a dispensary of blessing.
[00:05:09] He did not keep the blessings for himself, but sought to bless his brothers.
[00:05:15] This reminds me of my daughter, Kristen.
[00:05:18] Whenever we would give her money for a field trip, she would come back with something for all of us.
[00:05:23] She always would just buy.
[00:05:25] And she still, she has this one closet that is just filled with gifts for people.
[00:05:29] Because she was like, oh, they'd like that.
[00:05:31] I'm going to get this.
[00:05:32] And so she's impoverished because she's always buying for other people constantly.
[00:05:40] And I never know when I'm going to get something for Kristen or what I'm going to get from her.
[00:05:46] But I know I'm going to get something because she just does that.
[00:05:49] She's always giving these unexpected gifts.
[00:05:51] My mother-in-law is a lot like that.
[00:05:53] And I think my daughter got that from her.
[00:05:55] I do have two sons.
[00:05:58] And it's interesting because they didn't get so much that nature.
[00:06:02] I remember one Christmas, my mother gave my son Char $40 to buy presents for the whole family.
[00:06:09] And you know what Char did?
[00:06:11] He spent $35 at Toys R Us on himself.
[00:06:14] He was left with $5.
[00:06:16] But that's all right.
[00:06:17] Because he found a ramble cell, a rumble cell, which is like a used cell at a church where people were selling used items.
[00:06:26] And he was able for $5 to get each of us a gift.
[00:06:30] For me, he got me some plastic pearls that I think once hung on curtains.
[00:06:36] It's interesting the gifts that we got that Christmas.
[00:06:39] Needless to say, everyone was just a little bit upset with him.
[00:06:43] But blessings are entrusted to those who will give them out and not hoard them.
[00:06:50] There are people who want all the blessings of God for themselves.
[00:06:54] They want all of God's forgiveness.
[00:06:56] They want all of God's goodness.
[00:06:58] They want all of God's acceptance.
[00:07:00] All of God's kindness.
[00:07:01] All of God's grace.
[00:07:03] Just for me.
[00:07:05] But don't forgive that person.
[00:07:07] Hold that sin against that person.
[00:07:09] Don't forgive them.
[00:07:10] Don't be good to them.
[00:07:11] Don't accept them.
[00:07:12] Don't be kind to them.
[00:07:13] They might let a woman preach.
[00:07:15] There are the silliest infractions that we want God to hold against others.
[00:07:23] And yet we want him to forgive us of everything.
[00:07:28] But hold trifling things against others.
[00:07:32] Things that aren't even biblically supported.
[00:07:35] Isn't that how we are?
[00:07:38] We want God to be harsh and unforgiving and vengeful to others.
[00:07:43] But Peter reminds us that is not what we're called to.
[00:07:47] We are not called to give evil for evil or reviling for reviling.
[00:07:54] And Peter says this, but on the contrary, in exact opposition to that, we are to give blessings.
[00:08:07] We are called to this.
[00:08:09] What are we called to?
[00:08:10] We are called to bless.
[00:08:12] We are called to be a blessing.
[00:08:14] And Peter says that you may inherit the blessing.
[00:08:18] In other words, if you want God to bless you, you better start blessing others.
[00:08:25] That's the way to the blessing of God.
[00:08:27] In Matthew 7, 12, Jesus said what you want others to do for you, do for them.
[00:08:34] You model it and then you'll get it back.
[00:08:36] Do you want to be blessed?
[00:08:37] Then bless others.
[00:08:38] Do you want people to say a blessing word?
[00:08:40] Not the snake word, not the ravenous wolf word.
[00:08:43] But wouldn't you like someone to come up to you and say, you know, you're like Naftali.
[00:08:48] You have all these good words.
[00:08:50] You're a natural poet.
[00:08:52] I love the way you write.
[00:08:53] I love the way you pray.
[00:08:54] I love the way you speak.
[00:08:56] Don't, shouldn't we be affirming and confirming?
[00:09:00] Shouldn't we be seeking?
[00:09:02] How can I bless others?
[00:09:04] When I first married Brian, before we would go to church, he'd be like, wait, wait, wait.
[00:09:09] We got to pray.
[00:09:10] We got to pray that God shows us who he can bless tonight.
[00:09:14] You know, I grew up in church, 20 years in church, and I had never thought to pray about
[00:09:20] who I could bless at church.
[00:09:22] I'm just like, I'm here.
[00:09:23] Aren't you blessed?
[00:09:24] No, not really.
[00:09:25] But the idea of like going there intentionally to bless.
[00:09:31] I remember years ago, the Lord spoke to me about writing down my favorite scripture as
[00:09:35] I was reading through my devotions that morning, writing down like my favorite scripture and
[00:09:42] then praying over it because there was somebody that I was to give it to that day.
[00:09:47] And I never knew who it was going to be.
[00:09:49] Was it going to be the guy who was selling paints at the paint store?
[00:09:53] Or in fact, when I gave it to him, my son put his hands on his hips and says, she's married,
[00:09:58] you know.
[00:09:59] It's like, thank you so much.
[00:10:00] It's not a love note.
[00:10:01] It's a blessing from the Lord.
[00:10:03] But we need to be intentional about how to bless and being a blessing and praying that
[00:10:10] we might be a blessing because this is a call on our life by God.
[00:10:14] We are not called to criticize.
[00:10:15] We are not called to condemn.
[00:10:17] Even Jesus said, I did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved.
[00:10:25] Our call on our life is to bless, to be a blessing and to bring others into the blessing
[00:10:33] and to a place that they can be blessed.
[00:10:38] Joseph fell on his father's face and he wept and he used his position in Egypt again to
[00:10:44] be a blessing to Jacob, to fulfill this dying request.
[00:10:49] Jacob's embalmed to preserve his body from decay.
[00:10:52] He's mourned with a ceremony befitting a dignitary.
[00:10:55] He's buried by his sons and grandsons at the cave at Machpelah.
[00:10:59] And Joseph's brothers again at this point become conscious of the evil that they did to Joseph.
[00:11:08] They expect reprisals.
[00:11:11] They are afraid of Joseph and their fear is based on their perception.
[00:11:17] In other words, it's based on what they have done and what they deserve rather than on the
[00:11:25] goodness of Joseph or what Joseph has done for them in the past and what they have from Joseph.
[00:11:35] It's all based on what they feel that they deserve.
[00:11:40] They just, it's all what they did in the past to Joseph was reprehensible.
[00:11:46] And it's hard for them to receive the forgiveness of Joseph.
[00:11:51] They go to Joseph and they say, dad really wanted us to come to you and tell you that we're really sorry.
[00:11:57] We sinned, but God, but dad also wanted you to forgive us.
[00:12:02] And so they're saying, you know, if we just use, if we bring Jacob in the picture, because Joseph
[00:12:08] loved our father so much.
[00:12:11] And then they say, we're servants of God too.
[00:12:13] Remember, we're servants of the God of Jacob, just like you are.
[00:12:17] You have to be nice to us.
[00:12:19] And at this point, Joseph weeps.
[00:12:22] He weeps like, have I been with you so long and yet you do not know me?
[00:12:28] It reminds me of how Jesus spoke to Philip when Philip on the night that Jesus would be
[00:12:35] betrayed said to Jesus, show us the father and it will suffice us.
[00:12:39] Jesus looked at Philip and says, Philip, have I been so long with you this last three years?
[00:12:44] And yet you don't recognize me?
[00:12:47] That he who has seen me has seen the father?
[00:12:51] So how are you saying to me, show us the father and then we'll be satisfied.
[00:12:55] How can you talk like that?
[00:12:59] Joseph weeps because his brothers don't see the providence of God.
[00:13:03] And you know, let me say this.
[00:13:06] When we are looking too much at ourselves, we will not see the providence of God or the
[00:13:12] goodness of God.
[00:13:14] And we will predicate God's goodness on our goodness, on our performance, rather than on
[00:13:20] who he is and all he has done and all of his goodness.
[00:13:26] If you are in doubt about the goodness of God, let me say this, get your eyes off yourself.
[00:13:31] Boom.
[00:13:32] Boom.
[00:13:33] That's it.
[00:13:33] Get your eyes off yourself and put them on the Lord and his goodness and all that he
[00:13:38] has done.
[00:13:40] I think about this story in Mark chapter seven.
[00:13:43] In Mark chapter seven, the disciples are getting on the boat with Jesus and Jesus looks at him
[00:13:50] and says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees.
[00:13:53] The Pharisees had just been challenging Jesus and said, oh, if you just give us the sign
[00:13:58] that we're asking for, we'll believe in you.
[00:14:00] It was a lie.
[00:14:00] It was their hypocrisy.
[00:14:02] They weren't going to believe Jesus no matter what.
[00:14:05] So Jesus turns to the disciples and he's really saying to them, beware hypocrisy.
[00:14:10] Beware pretending to be authentic and truthful when you're not.
[00:14:14] And the disciples look at each other and they're like, oh, this is about the fact that we forgot
[00:14:19] the bread.
[00:14:20] In other words, they're looking at their own deficiencies.
[00:14:23] We should have been more responsible.
[00:14:25] We should have remembered to bring bread.
[00:14:27] This is a secret message to us saying, you failed.
[00:14:31] You're failing.
[00:14:32] You need to be more responsible.
[00:14:33] You need to get your act together.
[00:14:36] I'm Jesus after all.
[00:14:37] What are you going to feed me?
[00:14:39] And Jesus looks at him and says, why are you reasoning among yourselves?
[00:14:43] I think they were even saying, Peter, where's the bread?
[00:14:45] You forgot it.
[00:14:45] It was your responsibility.
[00:14:47] And he said, well, I thought Andrew would get it from some kid.
[00:14:49] And he forgot.
[00:14:50] They're putting these, no doubt, these stipulations on each other.
[00:14:56] And Jesus looks at him and says, what are you doing?
[00:15:00] This isn't about forgotten bread.
[00:15:02] Do you not remember when there were 5,000 hungry men and I fed them and how many baskets
[00:15:09] were left over?
[00:15:10] And they said 12.
[00:15:11] He said, right.
[00:15:12] And when I fed the 4,000 hungry men and the women and the children, how many baskets
[00:15:17] then were left over?
[00:15:19] Seven.
[00:15:20] And Jesus said, this is not about forgotten bread.
[00:15:23] This is not about your responsibility.
[00:15:25] This is about listening and understanding what I am saying to you.
[00:15:33] You see, if our eyes are too much on ourselves and on our performance, are we doing this right
[00:15:38] and that right and this right and that right?
[00:15:40] Are we measuring up to these standards?
[00:15:44] We will misunderstand Jesus.
[00:15:47] We will misunderstand the purposes of Jesus.
[00:15:50] And we will misunderstand the word of Jesus.
[00:15:54] This is exactly what was happening with Joseph's brothers.
[00:15:59] They were predicating Joseph's goodness on their performance.
[00:16:04] We've been good so far.
[00:16:05] We haven't shown our nature.
[00:16:10] We're trying to be so good in Goshen.
[00:16:13] And Joseph cries.
[00:16:15] He weeps.
[00:16:16] They still did not understand their brother.
[00:16:21] They had been living for 17 years under the blessing of Joseph.
[00:16:27] And yet they still distrusted him.
[00:16:30] 17 years.
[00:16:31] And yet they still expected evil from him.
[00:16:35] 17 years.
[00:16:40] 17 years.
[00:16:42] 17 years.
[00:16:45] Again, because they predicated his goodness on what they had done rather than on who he,
[00:16:53] Joseph, was.
[00:16:54] They knew they deserved the worst.
[00:16:57] So they thought that he would retaliate.
[00:17:00] And the same measure at some unexpected time, it would all come back.
[00:17:06] But Joseph was a blessing.
[00:17:09] His nature was to bless.
[00:17:12] He realized that he had been called to bless.
[00:17:17] That everything, every circumstance in his life was part of God's call to bless his brothers.
[00:17:27] To bless the sons of Jacob.
[00:17:32] To preserve them.
[00:17:34] Joseph wants them to turn to God.
[00:17:38] Do not be afraid for am I in the place of God?
[00:17:43] Get your eyes off of me.
[00:17:45] Get them on God.
[00:17:46] God, I will not be God in your lives.
[00:17:49] I think that's a word for some of you.
[00:17:51] No offense.
[00:17:52] Ravenous wolf.
[00:17:53] Poisonous snake.
[00:17:53] Could be worse.
[00:17:54] I'm saying to you, you are not called to be God in other people's lives.
[00:17:59] You are not called to bring vengeance or to say you did that wrong so you don't deserve this.
[00:18:05] That is not the call on your life.
[00:18:10] Your call, remember, is to bless.
[00:18:12] Your call is to be a blessing.
[00:18:15] To protect whether they deserve it or not.
[00:18:19] To bring the blessing of God into the picture.
[00:18:23] This is the call.
[00:18:25] This is the call.
[00:18:25] Maybe even to tell people, here's what God and how he wants to bless you.
[00:18:29] You'll want it.
[00:18:30] You can have it.
[00:18:31] As Jesus said, if you knew who it was who was speaking to you and the gift that he has, you would ask him for living water.
[00:18:38] And he would say, sure, have as much as you want.
[00:18:41] He would give it to you.
[00:18:43] Are we doing that?
[00:18:45] Are we saying here's living water and you can have it if you will just receive Jesus?
[00:18:51] This is the call on our lives.
[00:18:53] Do not be afraid for I am not in the place of God.
[00:18:58] He was not their judge.
[00:19:00] They have a greater judge.
[00:19:02] In fact, I feel like people sometimes that they are prone to evil because they think they stand before men and men can be deceived.
[00:19:08] But you know what?
[00:19:09] We stand before God who sees everything, even the motivation of the heart.
[00:19:15] But as for you, you meant evil against me.
[00:19:18] Yeah, you were bad.
[00:19:20] You were so bad.
[00:19:21] But God meant it for good.
[00:19:23] In order to bring it about as it is this day to save many a lot, you might have meant it for evil, but God turned it to good.
[00:19:33] God is a blessing God who can even overcome the curse of sin, even overcome the worst evil, the accumulated evil of men.
[00:19:47] God can overcome it by a cross.
[00:19:51] By the worst, most torturous implement of men, God can overcome, overwhelm all the evil of man.
[00:20:02] He can turn the curse on the curse and bring a blessing of salvation and an opening of all the blessings of God to pour out on us.
[00:20:16] God turned the intended evil to a blessing.
[00:20:19] And this is the story of the Bible from end to end.
[00:20:25] God takes the worst that man has done.
[00:20:28] God takes the worst of men and God harnesses all the bad things in life and says, I didn't keep them from coming.
[00:20:38] I allowed them to run their course.
[00:20:42] But then I turned it into a blessing.
[00:20:45] Whether the curse of sin, he used the curse of sin to display his love and his grace.
[00:20:55] Whether it's the curse of Balaam, God turned it into a blessing for the children of Israel.
[00:21:02] God takes the worst, the curse of Haman and turned it into the blessing of the Jews.
[00:21:09] And thus with the Roman cross of death, he turned it into the emblem of life.
[00:21:16] He took what was the emblem of shame and he turned it into the emblem of blessing.
[00:21:26] He turned what was the emblem of cruelty and turned it into the emblem of love.
[00:21:33] Only God, only God could do this through Jesus.
[00:21:37] And that's what he's done.
[00:21:40] Joseph says, now therefore do not be afraid.
[00:21:43] I will provide for you and your little ones.
[00:21:47] And we read that Joseph continued to bless his family.
[00:21:50] He even said, take my bones after I'm embalmed.
[00:21:53] Take them back to the promised land.
[00:21:55] And for 400 years, the sarcophagus of Joseph spoke to the fact that Israel would return to the land of promise.
[00:22:07] And it would be theirs.
[00:22:08] It continued to bless.
[00:22:11] It was an emblem of faith according to Hebrews chapter 11.
[00:22:15] But I want to say this.
[00:22:17] Now therefore do not be afraid.
[00:22:20] Because of Jesus Christ, God will provide for you and your little ones.
[00:22:26] The blessing is yours through Jesus Christ.
[00:22:30] But not only have we received the blessing, but again we are called to this blessing.
[00:22:39] Everyone in life longs for a blessing.
[00:22:43] Everyone longs for a blessing.
[00:22:45] There is a longing in each of us to be blessed.
[00:22:49] To hear a blessing spoken over us.
[00:22:52] To be given a blessing.
[00:22:54] We all want a divine word of promise spoken into our lives.
[00:22:58] We all long to know where our lives are headed.
[00:23:02] But we have such a word through Jesus.
[00:23:05] Jesus is the blessing of our lives.
[00:23:08] And in Jesus we have all the promises of God.
[00:23:12] He became a curse for us.
[00:23:14] That through him we might have all the blessings of God.
[00:23:19] And if we believe and place ourselves under his authority, we will be blessed.
[00:23:26] And we have the potential, if we are under the authority of Jesus and in obedience to Jesus,
[00:23:34] to overflow with blessing.
[00:23:37] To have the blessing of the sky above and the earth below and the waters all around us.
[00:23:45] And we can bless others and speak blessing over them.
[00:23:51] Blessings are warnings, potential promises, challenges, inspiring words, and prophetic.
[00:24:00] And God desires to so fill our mouth and our heart and our lives with blessings
[00:24:06] that we will spell over with blessings to others.
[00:24:11] And we will speak the blessings of God into the life of others, over the life of others.
[00:24:19] Do you long to be blessed?
[00:24:22] Then seek to be a blessing from God to others.
[00:24:28] Concerning what his brothers did to him, Joseph said,
[00:24:31] You might have meant it for evil, but God turned it to good.
[00:24:36] And that's just the kind of God we have.
[00:24:38] God is a blessing God who seeks to make himself known to us.
[00:24:42] There is no greater blessing than to know God and receive his forgiveness.
[00:24:47] Through Jesus, he abolishes the curse of sin and brought us the blessing of salvation.
[00:24:53] Because of Jesus, we can have a relationship with God,
[00:24:57] receiving his love and living in his peace, promises, and presence.
[00:25:02] We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study.
[00:25:04] For more information about the Gracious Words radio program
[00:25:07] and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Broderson,
[00:25:10] please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:13] Coming up next time on the Gracious Words program,
[00:25:16] we'll look at Paul's heart for the church
[00:25:18] as we begin a new series,
[00:25:20] Letters to Lead, Live, and Love By.
[00:25:22] Beginning with the first epistle to Timothy with Cheryl Broderson.
[00:25:26] We do hope you make plans to join us.
[00:25:28] Again, for more information,
[00:25:30] please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:49] This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
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