Have you ever had one of those moments where you stopped, looked at your life, and asked, “How did I get here?” This usually occurs when life doesn’t turn out as we expected. Divorce, bankruptcy, job loss, mid-life crisis, broken relationships, failure to obtain a goal or dream, health problems, legal troubles, etc., cause us to scratch our heads, blink our eyes, and ask “What just happened here?” Sometimes such a self examination leads to depression. Other times it spurs us to refocus and blaze a trail in a new direction. In our culture there are many who inevitably blame others for the path their life has taken.
This morning I want to put all the pieces together for you. If you want to know how you got here and how you can get to where you want to be, there are four factors that influence everyone’s life. Some are within your control others are not. You can’t determine exactly where your life is going to end up, but you can always have the blessed life that God intends. I’m not saying you’re going to be rich or famous or good looking or disease-free by following these guidelines. But there is a way to stay under God’s hand of blessing now and for the future. To be blessed means to enjoy a supernatural happiness and contentment from the Lord. It means a fruitful and fulfilling life, the very thing that God created you for. The blessed life becomes the life you’ve always wanted because it’s what you were designed for.
Please understand that what I’m going to tell you this morning is not self-help. It’s about the proper response to the overtures of a loving heavenly Father. His desire is that you live the blessed life now and in the future. It may turn our differently than you imagined but it is God’s optimal plan for you.
Let’s turn our attention, once again, to Genesis. As chapter 48 and 49 were being read you may have been puzzled by the meaning and purpose of it all. These chapters are filled with antiquated customs and archaic language. In fact, chapter 49 contains some of the most ancient Hebrew in the Old Testament. I’m positive it didn’t impress you though. More likely, the blessings of Jacob confused and then bored you. The problem is with our perspective.
As I’ve told you before, the original audience for Genesis was the generation of Israelites Moses led after their 40 year detour in the wilderness. These words were written as encouragement to the people who were about to cross over the Jordan River and retake Canaan, otherwise known as the Promised Land. We have to read chapters 48 and 49 from their perspective. Imagine those individual Israelites, after 430 years in Egypt. They looked around at the twelve tribes and noticed that some were thriving while others were hanging on by a thread. Some of the tribes loved God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, while others were, at best, indifferent to spiritual things. Some of the tribes would be given huge regions of land in Canaan while others would receive nothing. Imagine them sitting around their camp fires, scratching their heads, blinking their eyes, and saying, “How did we get here?”
Chapters 48 and 49 would have explained just what happened and why. They also would have provided some tangible ways that this new generation, with potentially a great future ahead of them, could live under God’s blessings. There are examples here to be emulated and behaviors to avoid. We can learn from them too.
Aims for the Life You’ve Always Wanted
1. Assess your past and present patterns
Human behavior matters when it comes to having the blessed life. Some of God’s blessings (but not all) are contingent on our actions. There are responsibilities and privileges from the Lord that are accessed or forfeited by the choices we make.
Let’s contrast Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn son, and Joseph, his eleventh. Normally, the firstborn son was granted family leadership and a double portion of the inheritance. Not so for Reuben. He was disinherited and removed from family leadership. Why? His pattern of bad behavior. Think back about Reuben. He appears to have done some good things. He prevented the brothers from outright murdering Joseph. Reuben intended to rescue him from the pit, but the brothers sold Joseph into slavery before he could do it. Later on Reuben offered to sacrifice his two sons for the safe return of Benjamin on the brothers’ second trip to Egypt. At times Reuben seemed to be a good guy, but Jacob’s prophetic blessing (or anti-blessing) revealed the truth about this man.
“Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.” Genesis 49:4
Reuben’s overall pattern of life was unfaithfulness. He’s compared to a wadi, a steam bed which sometimes has water and other times is bone dry. Reuben was unreliable. He was also a usurper. At one point in his life he tried to seize family leadership by sleeping with one of Jacob’s wives. Reuben’s past and present actions disqualified him from leadership. God would not bless the man with the thing he desired most because of his behavior.
On the other hand there was Joseph. Time and again he showed himself to be faithful. He demonstrated upstanding character and competence to lead. It was the pattern of his life. Therefore, God blessed Jacob’s eleventh son with immediate family leadership and a double portion of the inheritance.
“May the blessings of your father surpass the blessings of the ancient mountains, reaching to the heights of the eternal hills. May these blessings rest on the head of Joseph, who is a prince among his brothers.” Genesis 49:26 (NLT)
If life isn’t working out as you imagine take some time and prayerfully consider whether you’re part of the problem. What are the patterns of your life? Are you faithful like Joseph or unreliable like Reuben? Do you stay true to your commitments (be they personal or to others) or do you compromise them? Are your patterns of behavior leading you to the life you’ve always wanted or away from it?
Patterns don’t guarantee that you’ll get the blessing you hope for, but they’ll at least put you in the place to receive it, if it’s God’s desire for you. Let’s take a human example here. What do Bill Gates, the Beatles, and professional athletes all have in common? Yes, they were or are rich and famous and doing what they love, but how did they get there? It takes a combination of factors including being in the right place at the right time, but the biggest thing they have in common is practice. Bill Gates spent years tinkering with computer before starting his own business. The Beatles spent years playing seven days a week in obscure clubs in Hamburg, Germany before hitting the big time. Athletes who rise to the top are the ones who’ve put in the most time and practice to perfect their game. It’s been estimated that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master any skill. Bill Gates, the Beatles, and professional athletes had put in their 10,000 hours when the right circumstances came along for them to show their stuff.
God can bless you in any way He chooses. He can put you anywhere doing anything. But I’ve noticed that He tends to bless people with godly patterns – past and present. Assess yours and see how they’re affecting your life.
The next aim is a truth that’s hard to swallow. Even if you have the right patterns, it’s no guarantee that God will bless you the way you think or hope.
2. Embrace the mystery of the Lord’s sovereign will
Jacob essentially replaced Reuben and Simeon with Joseph’s two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. He formally adopted them and gave them inheritance rights in chapter 48. Joseph brought the young men before Jacob and ceremonially placed Manasseh at Jacob’s right hand and Ephraim at his left. Tradition said that the oldest son, in this case Manasseh, receive the greater blessing signified by bestowal with the right hand. Instead, Jacob crossed his arms and placed his right hand on the younger brother’s head.
When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. Joseph said to him, "No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” Genesis 48:17-19
By the time Moses wrote this down the tribe of Manasseh was larger than Ephraim by about 20,000 people. A couple of centuries in the future, however, Ephraim grew to be the largest of all the tribes of Israel. Eventually Ephraim took the lead over the 10 northern tribes. If you read the prophets, they often interchange the names Ephraim and Israel when speaking of the northern kingdom. Manasseh was blessed, but Ephraim received many times as much blessing.
Why? Was there a flaw in Manasseh’s character? Was there something more godly about Ephraim? No. It’s a mystery. We’re given no clue why the younger was blessed to a greater degree than the older. It comes back to one of the major themes of Genesis: God is in control and you’re not. It’s the mystery of the Lord’s sovereign will. His plan for human history is constantly unfolding and His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are too wonderful for us.
You can’t chalk everyone’s circumstances up to their behavior – good or bad. We don’t begin life on a level playing field. Throughout life some people have greater opportunities than others. If God is genuinely in control of this thing, we must conclude that He sets people up for certain roles and purposes. If life isn’t taking you where you want to go, despite your best efforts, you need to pause, take a deep breath, and remember that the Lord reigns supreme. It might not be His plan to take you where you want to go. It might be His plan to take you where you want to go, but He has a different path to get you there.
To live the blessed life you’ve got to embrace the mystery of the Lord’s sovereign will for several reasons. First, it will protect you from disappointment and the resulting despair. Many Christian go completely passive when life throws them a curve. They mistakenly conclude that either God’s not being good to them or they’ve done something to anger Him and as a result their life, they conclude, is not blessed. The real problem is that we can’t see the bigger picture.
Embracing the mystery of the Lord’s sovereignty will also keep you from envy. I’m ashamed to admit that when I see pastors who are better speakers than me or whose churches are bigger than mine or whose ministries are more effective and winsome than ours, I look for reasons to criticize them. “They’re watering down the gospel and that’s why so many people are attending that church.” “They’re just entertaining the goats when they’re supposed to be feeding the sheep.” “They’re doing a lot of good things, but not really changing their community.” I’ve got a million reasons why they’re successful and I’m not. But ultimately that’s the sin of envy operating in me. I can tell you that envy will not lead to the blessed life, just the opposite.
Embrace the mystery of the Lord’s sovereign will. Keep your eyes open for what He’s really trying to accomplish in and through you. Anticipate delightful surprises. God’s goal for you is so much better than you can even imagine. The Celtic Christians used to call the Holy Spirit the “Wild Goose.” Chasing after God’s sovereign will through the Holy Spirit is like a wild goose chase. The only difference is that it’s purposeful, not a dead end.
3. Turn your effort toward God
Three of Jacob’s sons lost their inheritance: Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. We’ve discussed how Reuben dropped the ball, but what about Simeon and Levi. Remember that little incident in Shechem where Simeon and Levi massacred all the men after one man raped their sister, Dinah? At the time, they received only a rebuke from Jacob. On his death bed, the old patriarch disinherited them. God, speaking though Jacob, disinherited them from having any portion in the Promised Land.
“Simeon and Levi are brothers …Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.” Genesis 49:5, 7
That’s exactly what happened. Simeon was eventually absorbed into the tribe of Judah. Within a few generations they effectively ceased to exist. Not so with Levi. Levi was granted 48 towns and pasturelands throughout Canaan. Certain Levites became priests of Israel. They were guardians of the things of God. How did this happen? They turned their zeal in the proper direction. God allowed them to make a U-turn.
This happened twice. The first time, it occurred after the Israelites made and worshipped the golden calf. Moses descended the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments enraged at the sin of the people. Here’s what happened next:
So [Moses] stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Exodus 32:26-28
At one point on their journey to the Promised Land, Israel was infiltrated by women from Midian. The Midianites knew they couldn’t defeat Israel in battle so they sent their women to seduce them and lead them into idolatry hoping to divide and conquer them. Many of the Israelite men succumbed to their seduction and went so far as to engage in idol worship too. A plague broke out upon the Israelites and God told the leaders to execute the Midianite women and sinning men to stop the destruction. It was during this incident that one of the descendants of Levi, a man named Phinehas, brought the tribe back into the blessed life:
Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman’s body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
The LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.” Numbers 25:7-13
The Levites inherited their forefather’s zeal. They turned their effort away from protecting their own dignity and toward God and His honor. As a result, they entered into the blessed life. God blessed their zeal and made them protectors of the tabernacle and later the temple and its worship practices.
You can have the blessed life by turning your efforts toward God. The most extreme example I’ve seen of this lately is the group known as “Hooker for Jesus.” Just like you, I was appalled by that name. I was shocked even further when I saw a photograph of a couple of members wearing make up and hair like you’d expect of a prostitute and wearing tank tops with their group’s logo, hanging out at an adult entertainment convention. Then I went to the website and my opinion completely changed. The members of “Hookers for Jesus” are former prostitutes, who have come to faith in Christ, and now reach out with the gospel to people in the adult entertainment and prostitution industry. The two at the convention were sharing their faith.
You don’t have to be that extreme, but if you find that what you’re doing with your life right now isn’t producing the blessed life, maybe you need to consecrate more of your time and energy to the Lord. Think what a difference it would make if your work, school, or leisure time had Jesus Christ as its focus. Do you think it might produce a change or two?
4. Take hold of the Spirit’s transforming power
The person blessed above all in these chapters was Judah. He was granted an inheritance in the southern part of the Promised Land. He was also granted future leadership of the nations. Pay attention to royal language used in these verses:
“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.” Genesis 49:10
I don’t know if you can read between the lines here, so I’ll clue you in to the meaning. Judah’s tribe was granted everlasting leadership. This was made explicit several hundred years later when one of Judah’s descendants, a shepherd kid named David, came to the throne and God said that his throne would be an everlasting throne. Historically, it looks like that promise was not fulfilled because the line of David ceased to rule Israel around the sixth century BC. It wasn’t until the first century AD that another of Judah’s descendants came onto the scene and established a true, everlasting kingdom. Anyone know who that was? Jesus Christ. His throne is an eternal throne. Jacob forecast the coming of the Messiah through the line of Judah nearly 2,000 years before the actual event.
It is remarkable that Judah was chosen. He was a scoundrel early on. It was his idea to sell Joseph, mainly so that he could become family leader. He lived with and as Canaanites for a while. He attempted to murder his daughter-in-law after mistakenly impregnating her. By the time we get to the blessing of Jacob, however, Judah was a changed man. God brought the man through circumstances that re-shaped him. God transformed Judah by His power. Judah’s part was to simply reach out and take hold of God’s grace. The result was a blessed life that blessed the entire world. Forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to the living God, love for neighbor, the blessed life here and for eternity came through the lineage of Judah in the person of Jesus Christ.
I was once sharing Jesus with a fellow named Donny who had just had his larynx removed due to cancer. He was in bad shape. I told him the basics of salvation: you’ve got to affirm that you’re a sinner and deserve hell; you’ve got to believe Jesus lived a perfect life, died for you on a cross and rose from the dead after three days; you’ve got to invite Him to be your forgiver and leader. Donny couldn’t speak, so I said, “Donny, salvation is a gift of God. If I wanted to give you this pen I’m holding, what would you need to do?” He couldn’t speak so he grabbed it. That’s the beginning of the blessed life. Take hold of the Spirit’s transforming power. Simply receive the grace that God is extending to you.
