The Fulfilling of Passover, Pt. 9

Ronald Weinland

May 21, 2022

This has been a fairly long series that we’ve been covering, with this being Part 9 of The Fulfilling of Passover.

I wanted to mention again that we kind of did this in a bit of a reverse order in the sense of going into things about the fulfilling of Passover to understand what God has given to us, that when we talk about Passover being fulfilled oftentimes, we think about Christ and what he did and did he fulfill Passover.

But there’s another part of that. The story continues on that works in our lives, what works in all people’s lives of those who have been called in the Church and will be in the future because it’s a matter then of Passover itself working in us. Then we went back to look at and to understand things that should put us in awe of God Almighty and how He has brought all these things to pass for this purpose. Because it’s through Passover, it’s about Passover that we’re able to enter into a transformation process in order to be prepared for His Family.

There are so many lessons then in the story that is physical about a family that He took into Egypt. To me it’s been awesome just focusing on some of those things, thinking about the fact that God was sending people there to go into captivity, a family. To build a nation that would be there, go there, stay there for a long time, be in captivity, and then for God to intervene and bring them out.

There are a lot of things that happen in people’s lives, and I think of how God works with us. There are some things that are very, very difficult and there are some things that are not as difficult. We go through different phases, the Church has gone through different phases in different eras and had to experience different things all because of what God is building, and all of it there to teach us things that we need to learn and understand. We learn more about God and how God functions and works. But to me, some of the most incredible things are to understand that it’s all planned out, all planned out in advance before mankind was ever created. Everything to do with His Family was planned out.

That should put us in awe because our lives are planned out in the sense of what God has offered us. Not specifically us individually, as some of them were worked with, called to fulfill. Because that’s what happened, they were called to fulfill certain things. Then even the size of some families and how God worked with them, all of those things by design. Within that then people had choices to make; once they had life, they had choices to make. God’s purpose was to work with some to prepare and work on that plan that’s a part of salvation. Others he just left to the world. For 6,000 years mankind has basically just been left to their own ways. A part of God’s plan. Awesome!

Then to realize within that process He’s drawn out a few, worked with them in different ways. We’re incredibly blessed then to be a part of that process toward the end of 6,000 years.

So, we ended in Part 8 with where the brothers had returned to their father to tell him that Joseph was still alive, and that he had sent word that they should move down into Egypt. Then, finally, Jacob consented and said he would go. So, it took him a little bit there to get on board with the idea because he was shocked in the beginning, and then began to see all that he had sent and realized how incredibly blessed that he had been in order to be a part (from God) to help save them.

So, let’s pick up the story in Genesis 46:1—So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and he came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob! Jacob! And he replied, I am here. So He said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.

Incredible! So obvious God’s purpose in sending them there, that while they were there, they’re going to become a great people and become a great nation, and to be told that when your family is a certain size, you can’t comprehend that kind of a thing. He couldn’t comprehend that, but he believed God. That’s a process whereby he was accounted righteous, and God worked with him in his life, and on and on it goes.

Verse 4—I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again. So, not explaining what all that meant, and he didn’t know what it meant, but He did, He brought him back up again, made sure that he was brought back out of Egypt. He was dead but He brought him back out of Egypt.

Then to understand that it was about that family line, that they would eventually be brought out of Egypt. So, it all has greater meaning as you go on, whether it be matters of things that happened to him physically, his family as a nation physically, and then later on things that candidly have happened in the Church.

And I will bring you up again. And Joseph’s will put his hand on your eyes. Then Jacob arose from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their littles ones, and their wives in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

Verse 6—So they took their livestock and their possessions which they had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to Egypt. Jacob and all his descendants went with him, his sons and his son’s sons, his daughters and his son’s daughters, and all the descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Now, these were the families of the children of Israel (Jacob and his sons) who went to Egypt: Reuben, with Jacob’s firstborn … All the people who went with Jacob to Egypt who came from his body, besides Jacob’s son’s wives were sixty-six people in all. It’s kind of crazy, sometimes people get into arguments about that this count wasn’t right. They couldn’t understand, they haven’t been able to understand. It’s so simple, so plain, but anyway, why some things are put that way. But other things are in the Bible that way for a purpose and that’s a whole other subject.

Verse 27—And the sons of Joseph were born to him in Egypt were two people. All the people of the house of Jacob who went into Egypt were seventy. So, that’s including his son, those who were already down there.

So he, Jacob, sent Judah ahead of him unto Joseph to direct before him to Goshen. Then they came into the land of Goshen, so Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen and presented himself to him. And he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.

Then Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die after seeing your face, because you are yet alive. In other words, now, it doesn’t mean he’s wanting to die right then, it’s an expression meaning basically that “Now that I see you my life is fulfilled,” in that respect, “full again, and I’ll be able to die with that, with my whole family.” In other words, “It’s been brought back to me, and this strengthens me. Now I can die in peace,” basically.

So, Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s house, I will go up and declare to Pharaoh and say to him, My brothers and my father’s house, which were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. These men are grazers of livestock and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have.

Then it shall come to pass when Pharaoh shall call you and shall say, What is your occupation? That you shall say, Your servants are men of livestock, even from our youth until now, both we and also our fathers …so that you may dwell in the land of Goshen. For every grazer of livestock is an abomination to the Egyptians.

So not understanding fully what this is all about, because it doesn’t go into detail explaining it, but they looked down upon that kind of thing for whatever purpose, whatever reason. In some respects, this is telling Pharaoh that they’re not a threat. It’s a large family but they’re not a threat, they come here in peace. They’re going to be in the most fertile of land here and they need that because of what they do.

Genesis 47:1—Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brothers, their flock, their herds, and everything they have have come out of the land of Canaan. Now they are in the land of Goshen. And he took a few of his brethren, five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, What kind of work are you doing? And they said unto Pharaoh, Your servants are grazers of livestock. Now, sometimes in some translations this is kind of awkward because there are certain words they don’t seem to grasp, the word for “livestock,” because they had cattle, they had goats, they had sheep, they had all these things, and so sometimes if you put flocks, obviously cattle don’t fit into that description, but yet it’s very clear in some of what it said here that it includes all that. So, when you couple them all together it’s about livestock.

They said moreover unto Pharaoh, We have come to visit in your land, for your servants have no pasture for their livestock because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. So again, I think there are some other words used in a lot of translations there and I don’t remember exactly what they are, but this is basically the thrust of everything they were saying. They’re not a threat. They’re coming down here because of the famine. They’ve been invited in and to visit, not to stay for a long, long time, though they do.

Now, therefore, we ask of you to let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. So Pharoah spoke to Joseph saying, Your father and your brothers have come to you; the land of Egypt is before you. What an incredible thing. He had received such favor from Pharaoh, all the things he had done, that God had done this already, put this mindset in him to be favorable toward him, and because of all these events and everything that had happened, that’s what happened. And so, he wanted the very best to be given to his family because he admired him.

Make your father and your brothers to live in the best of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen. So, this is repeated before, as we went through some of it, and again. Even as he talked about it, as Joseph talked about some of these things in the very beginning, it doesn’t say but it’s almost as though God just gave that in his mind to say to his family, “This is where you’re going,” almost as it were, prophetically. Then later on when he came to talk to Pharaoh, Pharaoh had this mindset that that’s where he wanted them to go. Because God’s doing this and there is a specific area they’re to dwell in.

There’s a specific area they’re to be in when it comes time to leave Egypt. There was a specific route that God was going to take them, and these weren’t last minute decisions. When God determined and planned all these things in advance, and the way He took them over into the area of Arabia, which even the world can’t grasp some of those things sometimes, and where they were going to cross over. All these things were planned ahead of time. The region they were going to be in, everything, awesome, awesome, awesome. That’s all you can say. Be in awe of it.

Let them live in the land of Goshen, and if you know men—so he even goes beyond this—and if you know men of strong ability among them then make them rule over my cattle.

So, he’d given everything that he had, in that respect, in taking them through the drought season and even the time of plenty to Joseph to handle, to administer, and now he’s looking to his family, if there are others among you, basically is what he’s saying, who have this ability, strong ability to work with others and a large amount of cattle and so forth, then put them over, put them in charge.

Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old are you? Jacob answered Pharaoh, The days of the years of my living are a hundred and thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and hard, and I have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in their days of their living.

So again, it doesn’t say, perhaps their lifespan was much larger, longer than so many others around and this is probably a thing of awe here, the reason the question is asked in the first place by Pharoah, because of hearing of these things. Because things travel, word travels and so forth, and so here we are and again, him telling this story, saying that “But my days are basically

nothing compared to my forefathers.”

So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from him before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his father and his brothers by giving them a position in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land in the land of Rameses... So again, familiar name, because the name comes up again at the end after they went through Passover.

…as Pharaoh had commanded. Joseph nourished his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with bread (with food), according to their families.

Verse 13—There was no bread in all the land because the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. Now, Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the corn which they brought, or the grain, and Joseph brought the money unto Pharaoh’s house.

So, it didn’t just stop there with the fact that here all this was administered by him, and he’s saved up to a point where they ceased even trying to keep track of it all and count it all, and then when it came time to begin getting rid of it, it wasn’t just a matter of dispersing it, it was a matter of selling it.

And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. When money was gone in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, because they didn’t have any more to pay because everything went into survival, all of the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food. For why should we die in your presence? For the money is gone.  So, Joseph said, Give your cattle and I will give you for your cattle if the money is gone. So, here now starting with livestock and so forth.

Then they brought their cattle to Joseph, so Joseph gave them bread for horses, for the flocks, for the cattle of the herds, for the donkeys, and he fed them with bread for all their cattle of that year.

When that year had ended, they came to him a second year and said, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent. So, same thing again. They have no money to buy. My Lord also has our herds of cattle (our livestock). There is nothing left in the sight of the lord but our bodies and our lands. “We have nothing but our land.” Therefore, shall we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land. So, they came up with this. They knew that’s all they had so they said, “Buy us as servants,” slaves, basically is what they’re saying, “whatever it takes,” and our land for bread, for we and our land will be servants unto Pharoah. And give us seed that we may live and not die, so that the land does not become desolate.

So, they had been told. They knew that there would be seven years of plenty. These things went out, the knowledge of these things, and seven years of the famine. There is also seed here then, not just food. Not just the grain but now which they desire to have when it comes time to plant, because they have nothing.

Verse 20—Then Joseph purchased all the land—Mind-boggling what took place here! —of Egypt, all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For every man of the Egyptians sold their field because the famine prevailed over them.

So the land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end of it.  Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a portion given them from Pharaoh, yet they did eat their portion which Pharaoh had given them. Thereby, they did not sell their land.

So again, what an incredible thing here, that all of the land of Egypt, everything that people had they sold it all and were able to be given what they needed to continue on.

Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have purchased you this day, and your land for Pharaoh. Look here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. So, now he’s telling them, now here is also seed you need to go ahead and plant. So, living by faith, believing what God said, knowing that they’re at the end of seven years that they’re going to be able to plant it and they’ll have crops again, they’ll have the rains and whatever they need in order to grow them.

Then it shall come to pass… So, he’s being judged through this process of what he is living. It’s a process by which God worked with him. He knew that early on; he became more convicted as time went on. Because as you see these things coming to pass this just gets more and more embedded in your mind – and a faith and a trust, a belief of God working in his life. This is another one in that respect, and just continued on and on and on.

Again, counted as righteousness. So, at different stages of time that’s how people were judged. We’re judged in the same manner, but it depends on what you’re given. And of course, we grasp and understand now toward the end of an age that we’ve been given more than any as far as knowledge of understanding and knowledge of God’s plan and purpose in ways that they were never given but were all judged in the same respect.

It’s by what you have been given you believe it and you live by it. It regulates your life because you believe what God says. Incredible. It’s a trust and a reliance on God, on the word of God, and because of that and because you do it unwaveringly God attributes that to you for righteousness because we’re not righteous.

Then it shall come to pass in the increase, so when it comes to pass, you plant this seed, and you have increase. It didn’t stop with the famine, here it goes on in what Joseph is doing. …that you shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, and for parts shall be your own for the seed of the field and for your food, and for those of your households and for food for your little ones.

So, an incredible administration, in that respect, of things he did in building up the wealth of Pharaoh and his power in Egypt. Now, the ones who followed began to misuse that in powerful ways, obviously.

Genesis 47:25—Then they said, You have saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. Now, it’s crazy just to think about this, what happened. In time while they were going through it there was an appreciation, a thankfulness that he had been put in charge to do what he did. They had respect of that, and they had a humble spirit as a people because of what they’d gone through, but it didn’t take long for that to begin to change. That began to change through time, and feelings toward the Israelites living in the land of Goshen began to change.

So, understanding human nature, that shouldn’t be hard to see. Here is a people living in the wealthiest part of the land, the land of Goshen, the best part of Egypt, and all the others living in other regions, other areas, other cities and so forth, and those things, just knowing human nature, over time began to grow and with different rulers to hear the people and you know that these things were going to the rulers eventually up the ladder here, and they were hearing these rumblings about the Egyptians. And it didn’t take long, and they were put into slavery, captivity. Incredible.

Verse 26—Then Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt—unto this day—that Pharaoh should have a fifth part. Now, this is saying at the time of writing of this when it was being transcribed later on, which is a long time later on, that this was still happening in the land of Egypt. This carries you up to the time of Moses. This period here then as some of these things are being recorded, this is what’s being said, it’s still that way to this day by the Pharaohs in the land of Egypt, that this is what portion they get.

So again, It was a law of the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except for the land of the priest only which did not become Pharaoh’s. So, Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the land of Goshen, and they had possessions therein and grew and multiplied exceedingly. So, Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the whole age of Jacob was a hundred and forty-seven years. So even after he came down there, seventeen more years of life. Awesome!

Then the time drew near for Israel to die, and he called his son Joseph and said to him, If now I have found grace in your sight, I ask you to put your hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me. So, that had some process here, as we read before, of when an oath takes place or blessing has taken place, and so forth here. So, this is a part of what’s being spoken of.

I am asking you not to bury me in Egypt, but I will lie with my fathers, and you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. In other words, of his fathers. So he said, I will do as you have asked. So he said, Take an oath unto me, and he took oath before him, and Israel bowed himself upon the head of the bed.

And continuing on in the next chapter here. Genesis 48:1—Then it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Behold, your father is sick. So, he took him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. Then Jacob was told, Behold, your son Joseph is coming to you. And Israel was strengthened in himself and sat up on his bed. So, sickly as he was this was something that gave him an encouragement and a strength to where he’s able to sit up, as it says here.

Then Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me and said unto me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will

make you a multitude of people.

Now again, very physical in thinking, and it was physical because that’s what God was promising in large part, though there were things that we understand that are spiritual in nature and what God built upon that as time went along. But to think about that, to believe God, we live by similar things in the sense of believing what God has placed before us. We believe that we’re at a point in time where God’s Kingdom is about to be established. We believe that we’re in a process of being able to be transformed so we can be a part of God’s Family, Elohim, and that that is a far greater fulfillment of matters of inheritance than a physical blessing because it’s spiritual and lasts forever.

Again, it’s just something that is progressive through time that God has given to mankind and built upon. It’s a slow process, has been for 6,000 years in the way we think. To God, it’s pretty fast. We can’t think that way. It’s hard for us to think so far out and plan so far ahead because that’s Him, that’s what He’s done forever. Going through time here everything has been planned out so far. Before anything was ever created things were planned out minutely so. That’s hard for us as human beings to grasp that kind of power and that kind of mind, that kind of God that has the power to not only plan but to bring it all to pass. These things should help us to grow in greater awe of Almighty God.

So the promise was, “I will make you fruitful and multiply you.” I think of us, how we’ve been multiplied, how we’ve been blessed, richly blessed. Ours are of the spiritual plane, of insight and understanding of things that God has poured out upon us. It’s not a small thing! Because if you look at the amount that has been given of what we’ve lived through from the Apostasy…?

Because so much of prophecy, it’s always been about the end-time. It’s about the time that we are in. It’s about what we would experience as far as God’s Church and things that would take place and what would happen that were spoken to Daniel, things that were spoken in other prophecies throughout the Bible, things that were spoken in Ezekiel that were specifically about us and what we would go through. And on and on it goes.

Then through the New Testament, especially when you get to Thessalonians and Revelation, so much! Sometimes it’s just so difficult for us to grasp how awesome it is what we’re living. We don’t see ourselves in that light, that we walk in a path that is absolutely awesome in God’s plan at this time.

I will make you a multitude of people, and I will give this land to your seed after you, an everlasting possession. Now, your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto you in the land of Egypt… Now, think about that. We know who Ephraim and Manasseh are. Awesome to understand. It’s one of the main things about the migrations of Israel that we know, because of what was going to be fulfilled at the end in a great commonwealth of nations and then following that the greatest nation the world has ever known. Promises that were given here that wouldn’t happen until the very end of the age, in other words, the end of 6,000 years.

And so, here God has planned and purposed this again. This wasn’t just because he had two sons. He had two sons because of what God was planning, exactly what he was supposed to have in the land of Egypt, exactly by the wife he was supposed to have, Egyptian at that.

All those things were a part of it because God is the one that brought them together for a purpose of a lineage that would follow that would be unique in them. All of them were to be different. All of the sons were to be different. There were to be different characteristics in all of them. Incredible to understand such things, that God is the one who knows.

You know, we went through the story, and it talked about different things that Jacob did with the animals, the cattle, the livestock if you will, the goats and the lambs especially, things that he was either given, inspired to know or understand, or that he learned that God showed to him while he was herding as long as he did.

We understand today by the human make up, by all the things that have to do with the chromosomes and everything else, and the DNA and all the things that make us as human beings that we are, to understand that God made these things and God knows what He wants at any particular time to work with, to fulfill, to accomplish.

Because we’re not all called for the same purpose, and there are to be different things in our minds that because of the way we’re made we think and we’re able to be developed and worked with. We have choices in all this but it’s God that molds and fashions us in life to prepare us for things in the future. It’s awesome because it’s about His Family!

My fear sometimes is when someone knows some of this or hears some of this without grasping it can begin to think, “Well, God’s not fair. He gives one person ‘this’ and another person ‘that,’ and that’s kind of like what I’d like to have,” and they don’t understand that you will have opportunity to be molded and given something, to be prepared for God’s Family in an area that will make you the most fulfilled beyond anything you can begin to grasp right now if God were to show you. We can’t even contain it if He were to show us.

It's about choices. We have life, and within that life we have choices. Sometimes the purpose of certain life has not been pleasant for people because it’s been allowed to live as they want to live. Nations that are there, who don’t have the blessings of God, who have reaped what they have because they’ve been on their own as human beings, and human beings are selfish, and human beings do evil things, and human beings as a whole have very evil leaders. Have had for the beginning because it’s about power and wealth and money. Because that’s the evil of the mind of man, the government of man. God wants us to have our stomach full of that.

But in the midst of all that has been some areas where God has been working and has blessed for another purpose. And so, they’ve had life but with God’s help of blessings. This nation is here because of the help of blessings, not because of anything that anyone had ability to do, George Washington or anybody else, okay? So, like a god. It’s like, no, he was there for his time and God blessed him in what he did, God gave him favor in what he did. It was God who brought it to pass. God gave him the strength and the mind to do what he did, but he had choices in those things, and he was led to and worked with in those areas but fulfilled something incredible. A part of something that’s great above and beyond so many other nations.

I think of what it’s been like for some to live under rulers of the past, how horrible some have been, how evil some have been.

So, now it’s Ephraim and Manasseh, your two sons which were born unto you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine. In other words, because it’s family, and you are mine and they are mine. It’s a part of the family line, in that respect. …are mine, as Rueben and Simeon. Think of the first born here, the beginning of the family. You’re one of the children; your children’s children and all of them, they’re mine because they’re from me.

So he says here, They are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Then your offspring which are begotten of you after them shall be yours and shall be called… And it’s not a word that means “after” in the sense if you don’t understand what the rest of the word is, but the word means above or over the name of their brothers in their inheritance.

They’re going to be given more above, over what the rest will be given, because this is a part of God’s plan. Why? Because of the end-time. Even if you look on the map and see what was given physically in Manasseh, in that northern section there, they had a huge territory. But later on what was to be fulfilled would be even greater, far, far greater. So, incredible these things as you read them with knowledge looking back and seeing what God did and what was told to them then.

So as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was yet but a little farther to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there in the way of Ephrath (which is the area of Bethlehem). Then Israel looked unto Joseph’s sons and said, Who are these? And Joseph said to his father, These are my sons whom God has given me in this place. He said, Bring them, I ask of you, unto me, and I will bless them.

Verse 10—Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. So he brought them near unto him, and he kissed them and embraced them. Then Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face, and look, God has shown me also your offspring. So, this was very moving for him because he thought he was dead, he’d lived seventeen years there now and had been with him throughout this period of time, though in another region so he didn’t see him all the time like he might have the rest of his sons. But he was there, and he had that peace. Then talking about the sons here and so forth. So, he has a mindset to know, again here, basically, “I thought you were dead. God has preserved you, preserved us, and now I see your offspring also, I’ve been so blessed.”

So Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. Then Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand and brought them near to him. So, in other words, so that he would bless accordingly, the right hand upon the oldest in inheritance who would receive more, and so forth, the greatest. This is how he’s positioning them because his father’s eyesight isn’t good.

So Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand, crossed his hands to do the blessing, incredible, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, as guiding his hands knowingly. How was he able to do that? God. God gave that to him. Incredible to understand some things that we don’t sometimes understand and comprehend that when God puts something into your mind like that and you know it, and you know it, and he knew it.

So again here, not all translate this as well as it should be, but this is what it’s talking about because it says, his left hand upon Manasseh’s head as guiding his hands knowingly. He knew what he was doing. It was for a purpose. …for Manasseh was the firstborn.

Then he blessed Joseph and said, God before whom my father’s Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who has fed me all my lifelong unto this day, the messenger… “Angel.” Sometimes the word “angel” is used that it’s not an angelic being. Sometimes it’s what God does, sometimes through an angelic being with a message. So, it seems to be he’s recognizing here because it’s about God Almighty directly. …the messenger who redeemed me from all evil. In other words, who communicated to him and delivered him from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name (Israel is that name) be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

So, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim’s it… Again here, it’s not “displeased,” but it startled him, it shook him. He felt that his father had made a mistake in this because that’s not the way it was done because of the oldest was to have the right and the greater. Again here, this troubled him. This is basically all that it’s talking about here. It grieved him, it startled him, all these words that have to do with the meaning of this. …and he held up his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head on to Manasseh’s head.

Then Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn; put your right hand upon his head. So, feeling that his father had made a mistake and wanting to help him and not wanting a mistake to be made in this matter this is what he did. Now, his father refused and said, I know it, my son. Isn’t that amazing? I know it, my son, I know. He shall also become a people, and he also will be great. But truly, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.

So again here, one was to become the greatest nation ever, but one was to have, as we’ll get to later here, vast areas around the world as a commonwealth of nations, as a group of nations, candidly, around the world. That’s why they used to speak of “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” because there were these gates, these places of where they governed all around the world. Incredible!

Verse 20—So he blessed them that day saying, In you shall Israel be blessed. So, and candidly for the future, has been. Even toward the end of the age. Because these things, as we’ll find out as time goes along here, is about the end of the age. That’s where all these promises are heading that are given and the purpose of those nations and what was to be accomplished before God’s Kingdom is established, and that He’s given to the Church to understand what that means on a spiritual plane for His Kingdom as well and the names that are going to be used.

So again here, incredible progressive revelation that God has continued to give. They’re going to be blessed. All of Israel is going to be blessed by them just by the fact of what happened on a physical plane at the end of this age. WWI, WWII, what happened, and on and on it goes, things that have helped to ensure a type of peace in the world to a point in time, until it’s God’s time and we’re getting close to that. But the rest of the world, especially the nations of Israel, there’s been a kinship.

What an incredible thing to understand a unique kinship in, as it were, family, even though one rebelled from one and had a war at one time and have had different wars at different times. Still, there is this close-knit relationship that they don’t fully understand more than other nations around the world. To me, it’s an incredible thing as people come to understand those things and come to understand why God did the things He did.

So, he blessed them that day saying, In you shall Israel be blessed, saying, God made you as Ephraim and as Manasseh, and He set Ephraim before Manasseh. So Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I will die, but God shall be with you and bring you again into the land of your fathers. So, he’s going to die, and he said God’s going to take care of this. That happens too, body wise as well. Amazing.

Moreover, I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.

So, before we continue on it was brought to me, something that I had stated concerning Ephraim. I don’t know if I want to go into that right yet or not, but I think I will just at the forefront here. I’d stated a couple of sermons back, I don’t remember exactly which one, and something that was taught in Worldwide. I mentioned how Ireland and South Africa were part of Ephraim.

Now, I don’t encourage people to go back in the past and try to understand all the nations and who they specifically belong to. They’re not a hundred percent correct. I’ll just make that bold statement, okay. As a whole, they are, but there are pieces missing here and there. That’s not a big thing. They’re interesting. They’re interesting to understand the migrations of the people of Israel.

I think of Dan in particular, and how a mark was to be left as a serpent’s tail, as it talks about there. They were the type that liked their name to be wherever they went, and Dan in Hebrew, they’re just consonants so there was no “a” “D-a-n.” So, there are things that have come up as “Don,” “Din,” “Den,” “Danube River,” on and on it goes, things that have happened, “Denmark.” You know, incredible things that we’ve come to grasp and live through and see that God has given to, to be in awe of. But don’t put too much weight on it.

I think of Ireland. Again, if we understand that most of the things said about the nations we’re going to get to here in a moment, they are about the end-time. There are things that are said there that we don’t even understand yet. A lot of people have tried to interpret them. I think of, well, one evangelist that did the earliest of studies in some of these, who wrote a big, long compendium, and then came out with a giant book to correct everything that was wrong in it. Anyway. But they never gave one to correct the corrections of it. It was the one who taught a lot of bad things and things about Passover and so forth, and the one who’s guilty of teaching and training so many ministers into having this concept of a 14/15th Passover.

So, you have to be careful sometimes in wading through things that are of the past. I hope we grasp and understand that. This is one of them. Not to put too much weight because it doesn’t need any weight on it. What importance is it? Well, it’s interesting to know, it’s good to know, it has great value in the sense of understanding certain things that are happening in the end-time.

But again here, to understand that indeed South Africa, although there were others, particularly from The Netherlands that were down there in that area that helped, and even other parts of Africa that others from Belgium and other different tribes there helped to establish some of those areas down there, nevertheless, South Africa was a British Colony until 1961. It was noted to be a part of Ephraim because of the Cape of Good Hope there in the south, one of the gates. So, it’s these strategic locations, if you will, militarily of control in the earth.

I think of Gibraltar at the head of the Mediterranean there. I think of places like India and the Suez Canal region, and you go on around the world to an area around Indonesia, but it’s slipping my mind right now, Hong Kong, different things around the world that they had certain power and influence in colonies. But the ones who were firmly established who have a loyalty or have had in that respect, to the crown, have been Canada, Australia, and New Zealand above all the others.

So anyway, in the matter of Ireland I feel like they’ve kind of been given a bad rap, but anyway, because of things about Dan. I’m just going to say it. In times past it’s as though Dan did something wrong. “Why did God reject Dan?” Because if you go through and look at the names that are used at the end as far as tribes and the names, the concept in the Church, because we didn’t grasp it, was that 12,000, 12 x 12,000, 144,000 had to come out of all the physical tribes of Israel.

I’m so glad we’ve gotten rid of that. God revealed to us that isn’t what it’s about at all. If that were the case, the Church would have to become 200, 300,000 people because not all of them are going to be a part of that. I’m not going to go into all that. So, to have 144,000 they had to be very, very big. We never got that big. God showed us later on, no, it’s about all those over 6,000 years that make up that group, that first resurrection with Christ. But Dan was given a bad rap in some of this. It’s as though he did something wrong because the name wasn’t there. No, it’s just that God had certain names that He wanted to use and He’s going to use them.

So, it’s almost as though within the Church that some felt had wrong thinking toward Ireland. That, to me, that existed. I don’t know about others that were a part of Worldwide in the past, but that’s how I felt. Not that I felt badly toward them. Anyway, it’s like this doesn’t make any sense.

So again, to understand that—which is interesting—at the end-time Ireland is divided in two different group. Some talk about Denmark and some came on down into the area there of Ireland and then there was a division of people there. So, they grasped that there is a part of Dan there but not all. But nevertheless, it’s mentioned as a part of Ephraim. And candidly, in Scotland, there is a lot that happened in Great Britain that they came farther out of the area that they refer to as some of those who were the Vikings and others that came in and into that region. People not understanding some of the migrations and how God brings people at different times, just like here in Manasseh.

And while I’m at it and thinking about Manasseh, just interesting little tidbits. I think of what an awesome thing to know that there was a faction of thinking within Manasseh, and God put some on one side of the Jordan and some on the other side of Jordan. I think of how even though that was east and west we had something that developed into a faction north and south. Because there’s a different mindset of one people, but different. And coincidence? Well, don’t think so.

But anyway, I just wanted to clarify a little bit of that because sometimes if we’re not careful we can be bothered by some of that, and it shouldn’t bother us; just to understand that we don’t have everything correct as far as some of the physical parts of that in the first place.

Genesis 49:1—Then Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. That’s what this is all about. We’re getting ready to go into things that have to do with things that were to happen at the end of an age, the end of 6,000 years, and it builds up to, candidly, things that happen and lead up to the very end with these nations.

So, one of the most incredible, one of the most powerful beginnings of a prophetic thing that was given right here in Genesis at this time. Because God has it all planned out. He had it all planned out, what nations were to do what, which ones would fit into certain categories, and He made sure, He brought it to pass that certain things would work out for certain ones in a certain way. Very specific. He made sure that there was a war between Great Britain and a colony over here that didn’t like taxation because they were to become a different nation.

It had to be separated, and it took a war to accomplish it. God gave favor against all odds and made this the greatest nation the world has ever known, the wealthiest, richest nation, plenty from coast to coast. It’s mind-boggling as a nation that He gave, everything that He gave, and some that were taken. Which is what happens with nations, when you go down to Texas and some of those areas down there and you go up to the west and different things that were at the right time purchased from other countries and so forth. Incredible wealth.

I’m sure if there was a nation across the way that had known that there was so much oil in that great big place, the biggest state, that they probably wouldn’t have sold it. All for incredible power. The greatest, wealthiest nation the world has ever known, to show what mankind will do with the greatest of haughtiness the world has ever known. Because when you become great you begin to judge things, control things, expect other things to go the way you know is best for everybody else.

And you know how human nature responds to that. That’s why nations have built up a hatred that is incredibly immense and deep toward this nation. It’s a natural consequence of human nature, hatred, deep hatred that “you are meddling in our affairs.” It started with a petro-dollar. It continued on with the control of a worldwide banking system to control what you can and cannot do, and if you don’t cooperate and go along with it, you’re going to get cut off from it, this SWIFT thing that we deal with. I hope you understand what SWIFT is in the banking system there [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication], and all the codes that are there and how people are able to do banking and how everybody is a part of it.

And so, when sanctions, when they come along, when nations get cut off from some of those things it really ruffles the feathers. That’s why some have prepared for a lot of this toward the end here. It’s an awesome, incredible thing to watch all this transpire now toward the end of what’s taking place and how different ones are maneuvering. Because they already have plans, especially west of here and you come to an area of a nation that is growing so powerfully that there are people—well, don’t want to get into that—that think that people need to start learning Chinese.

Because in time, if time were to go on, if these things didn’t come to pass, it’s moving so fast, it’s such a process that’s in place economically that if you want to survive and do business, you’re going to have to do it with them as time goes on. Just like the world has been forced into having to do business with us.

I hope you’re in awe of it, to see those things developing and coming to pass.

And I will tell you that which befall you In. The. Last. Days. Gather yourselves together, listen you sons of Jacob. So, when we go through some of this, it’s not just things that some things were given and happened physically, but very little, because most of it’s for right now. That’s what it’s all about.

Gather yourselves together and listen you sons of Jacob, and listen unto Israel, your father. Now, some of these translations are not too good because the reality is first and foremost they have no idea what’s being talked about or what he’s saying. A lot of it is gobbledygook. So, you try to find words and it’s just how do you put those words together.

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency in of dignity and the excellency of power. So, all about Reuben, who he was? No, it’s about the last days. It’s about a uniqueness of something that is different, that stands alone. So, he’s speaking in terms of things, too, in the beginning here that have to do with this is his feeling, his firstborn. So, there is a unique relationship there and he’s talking about some of that in the midst of this.

Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. So, putting that in there to show there is a mindset here in him that is different, that is not good, thinks in a certain way, and has been passed through the generations. It’s a reality.

And so when people are called into God’s Church, you understand certain things about your personality. I know mine. I know what mine is. Things have to be a certain way. My mind thinks in a certain way. If I’m thinking in that way people in the Church understand that when I’m focused on something, don’t bother me. Because that’s a German, Assyrian mind, if you will. It’s just what I am.

I think of growing up in Kansas as a very young person out there building whatever it was, if it was fencing for cattle or fencing for sheep, we had the straightest posts, I think, in all of Kansas. And you could probably put Colorado in there too unless there were some Germans over there. But there are. But it’s because that mindset. So, there would be a post set in a corner post, and then he’d go to another area of where he wanted to go with it and I would be in the middle and he would tell me where they needed to go, each one, and they had to be straight.

Now, I didn’t understand it at the time, I just did what I was told. But that’s the way of thinking. You can’t help yourself. It’s just a way of thinking; things have to be in a certain way.

It used to be when we would move—we moved a lot over the years until now—but especially being transferred in the ministry and the like, we’d go hang a picture. I have to have a level, and I have to have a measuring tape. That nail is going to go, if it’s in the middle of the room where that picture is going, if there are three, I will divide it up into threes and it will be exact or as close as I can get with that measuring tape. When it goes up there it’s also going to be level. The German can’t help but do that or it just causes problems. You can’t be at peace.

It’s good to know things about our background sometimes. It’s good to know certain characteristics we have, weaknesses and strengths. Some of our greatest weaknesses can be our greatest strengths. Our greatest strengths, I should say, maybe a better way to grasp it, can be our greatest weaknesses. Depends on how we use them. It depends on what we see in ourselves. So, whoever we are that God has called into the Church, whom God has called into the Church, it’s wise for us to come to understand our minds, our battles, how we think.

I’m glad that this is no mystery because I know what I’m dealing with. I have gotten to the point, thanks to my wife, I can hang a picture anywhere, pretty much any time by sight. We don’t need levels. We don’t need a measuring tape. If it looks good there, why not?

So, these are things here that are characteristics, and a person can take it in a bad way or a good way, because we all have to change, and we all have to grasp what our battles are.

Simeon and Levi are brothers—instruments of violence is their weapon. My life will not be in the council of their assembly, and in my glory you will not be united. For in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they rooted, in other words, as to violently remove oxen. Different ones have different things that this says. This has to do when they were back in the area where they were rescuing their sister. And so, certain proclivities they had to do something that brought shame to the family, because of the way they did it and how they did it, because it wasn’t in agreement with what their father had said, with what Jacob had led them in and what he was working out. They took it upon themselves, and they were very violent in it.

So, there are characteristics there in them. I think of the fact of what happened to Joseph. There are certain characteristics there in different ones of them, of how they dealt with him. They didn’t want him around anymore and yet look at how the different ones responded. Those are characteristics. And you know what? Those kinds of things are just passed down generation to generation to generation to generation because it has to do with genetics, of who we are. As they become great those things still exist.

Somewhere along the line there was someone who had to have straight fence posts and it was passed down generation to generation to generation. We all have different things in us, and that’s a beautiful thing because God can use those things, the things that are good, the things that are strengths as we work to conquer the weaknesses that we have because of some of that. Because so much of it is fueled then by pride, so if we can learn how to do those things in God’s hands, and in time in the future God speaks of those who are going to be able to do incredible thing in the future during the Millennium – just because of certain characteristics.

So he went on to say, Their anger is cursed, for it was fierce, and their fury is severe. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. So, some we understand of the tribes were scattered in that sense throughout the groups.

Verse 8—Judah, you are whom your brothers shall think, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you. In other words, again, remembering that as a whole there are certain things here, characteristics, that this is what’s going to happen at the end. We understand. Something to me that’s so incredible, that here there is a tribe that has been blessed to rule within Ephraim. That’s a part of what’s being discussed here: “And you shall bow down before you, your children,” because of the rulers of kings and queens given as a people.

There was that which was going to be given to Judah because of what would come through David and what would come through the line of Judah, Perez, and anyway, some of those kinds of things that have happened in times past that God brings together and has planned for the end of the age.

Judah is a lion whelp, taken from the prey, my son; you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion and as an old lion—who shall raise him up? So again here, things that Judah has gone through in time, and if we understand some of the main thing about Judah has to do with Christ, has to do with rulership, and we recognize here as it goes on to say, The scepter shall not depart from Judah. We know what that’s about and what happens then as time goes along here and is a part of something very great in the end-time. All the way to the end God has preserved it.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a log ever from before his feet, to understand what would come through Christ, beyond ability to speak. …nor a log ever between his feet, until Shiloh comes. So again, right up to the end, right up to the beginning, if you will, of God’s kingdom ruling on this earth. Then to him shall be the obedience of the people.

I’m just going to go through different ones here quickly. Zebulun, we understand, is The

Netherlands, shall dwell in the haven of the sea, and a haven for ships; and his border shall be toward Sidon. Now, again here, there are different things that people as we go through some of these (and I’m not going to go through all of them), because there have been a lot of supposition about what some of these things mean for the end-time. God’s going to show. We’re not going to know what most of it is until it’s happened, until Christ reveals what it was all about. That’s where this is. But to understand these things are primarily leading up to and about what will happen at the end.

Issachar—this one to me is kind of unique, Finland, is as a strong donkey lying between two burdens. I think of something that has just happened that reveals that in an awesome way at the end-time, their border on that east side smack against Russia. And so, you think of that area through there and this burden that has been there because of where they’re positioned, and then the other burden. Wanting to be independent but coming to a point now where they can’t be, so they want help, and so they’ve looked to NATO.

We’ve seen this that past week. Very prophetic in nature, again, for the end-time because this is more of its fulfillment than anything else. This is what this sentence is about! It’s about that which leads to the very end. It’s a burden because of where they are and what’s going to happen yet.

Verse 16—Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be as a serpent by the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse’s heel so that it’s rider shall fall backward. Again, no one knows what all this means and yet many have tried to give interpretations of some of these things. But it wasn’t given to them. Incredible!

Dan has purpose in the end of an age, but not as one of the names that will be used in what God is constructing. He’s reserved different names for that because he divided into two, Ephraim and Manasseh. Not as a last-minute thing but as something He planned out.

Skipping Gad, which is thought to be Switzerland.

Verse 20—Bread from Asher… I’m mentioning this because that’s believed to be the area of Belgium and Luxenberg, will be plentiful, and he shall yield royal delight.

Naphtali (Sweden) is a deer let loose who uses beautiful words. I don’t know what it means. “Uses beautiful words.” But there are things happening in the end of an age that these things are going to have meaning.

That’s why I’m saying here as we’re going along that so much of this has not yet happened. Individuals cannot yet know what all these are until they come to pass. Then in looking backward there’ll be a time when God shows us this is what that was all about.

Verse 28—All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them as he blessed them. He blessed each one according to his own blessing. Then he charged them and said to them… Now, it wasn’t his blessing. What he said was given by God Almighty in his mind. He knew it as much as when he crossed his arms and did what he did with Ephraim and Manasseh. He did what he did because it was in his mind. And by this time, he understood that process of how God works, how God was working in his life.

I am to be gathered, he went on to say, he charged in this, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. There they buried Abraham and his Sarah his wife, there the buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.

And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50:1—Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So, the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. Now, that was a matter of incredible honor and respect to Joseph passed on to his father, because they had been very humbled, and they were incredibly thankful for what they had received through his guidance and direction through that time of famine. God brought it all upon the land for a purpose for all of this.

So when the days of his mourning were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharoah saying… So, he told them to go on and please present this before Pharaoh, My father made me give oath saying, Behold, I am dying. In my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me. Now, therefore, please let me go and bury my father, and I’ll come back. Then Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father, as he made you give oath.

So Joseph went up to bury his father, and the servants of Pharaoh went up with him, the elders of the house and all the elders of the land of Egypt. Can you imagine? All the rulers. …as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

There went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering. I can’t even imagine this. I mean, an incredible thing that took place.

Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father.

Then when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, this is a deep mourning of the Egyptians, because they saw more of them and saw them coming out of Egypt and saw their attire and their wealth. Therefore, its name was called Abel Mizraim, which means “the mourning of Egypt,” which is beyond the Jordan.

So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial site.

And then verse 14—So after they had buried his father Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who went up with him to bury his father. And when Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, Perhaps Joseph will hate us. Isn’t that amazing? Still in their minds, still this guilt that riddled them.

It’s amazing to me things that happen in our past that we can carry with us until the day we die. So many things that can happen in families and things that can come up as a struggle from time to time, and this was here, this feeling that was deep inside of them that they struggled with. So now it’s like, “What’s he going to do now? What is Joseph going to do?”

Perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him. So, they sent messengers to Joseph saying, Before your father died he commanded saying, kind of interesting. Not really recorded that way. …Thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please, forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you. Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Because to me it’s an amazing thing if we can just grasp in God’s Church everyone has baggage of some sort. Everyone has something that they carry. Everyone has something in life that they deal with in themselves. Kind of like what I talked about earlier, of how you think, of how you want to change and make better certain parts of our thinking. Some things, perhaps, that can haunt, or certain things that just creep up from time to time, maybe just through family, whatever it might be.

There are those things that have made us who we are. It’s who we are though with time we’ve come to deal with them and see them and understand them in the light of God’s plan and God’s purpose. That’s what we have to have. That’s what we need.

But it’s good at a time like this, going through a story like this, because we can put ourselves kind of in that spot. Not that we understand it fully, but to appreciate it, yes. And then to understand if we could just see that in one another in how we judge and how we think and have a desire to see each person be able to be removed from the baggage of rocks, to be able to let go. If we can’t fully let them go, maybe to give a hand to pull them along. If we just had that kind of thinking in us.

I haven’t seen a lot of that over the years in God’s Church in times past because of what led up to the Apostasy and what happened after the Apostasy. Instead, I’ve had to learn betrayal after betrayal after betrayal after betrayal, of being stabbed over and over. That’s my weight, candidly, and at times have to deal with some of those things. Because it affects how you think. If you’ve been stabbed so many times in the back after a time you feel like a pin cushion. There are things I’ve had to learn and come to understand, but it’s helped me in judgment and judging of things. We go through different things that help us to learn, and God will teach us

through that process, though some of those things are hard to go through.

What Joseph went through was hard, but he went through it, and he came to that point where he saw that everything that took place was because God had a purpose that he go down into Egypt. God had a purpose in his going through everything he did, the suffering he went through until finally he was the second ruler of all Egypt.

Now, that was an incredible thing to go through, but he saw God in the process. God was working with him, molding and fashioning him. He has an incredible place in the Kingdom and judged accordingly. But he believed God and had his eyes focused on God for what he had at that time. Awesome!

And so, here they are, and so this hurt him when they said this to him. Why? Because they didn’t grasp what he said earlier. They didn’t fully believe it, obviously. He saw them suffering. What an incredible thing if you can see someone suffering inside by something that comes out of them, whatever it might be, and it might be against you. But if you love them, if you want what is best for them you’re going to pray accordingly. Let’s just put it that way, you’re going to pray accordingly, and if you can, to do something, but to pray and to have a right mind toward them to want to see them come through that.

Everyone I’ve been stabbed by, I wish that they could be called, drawn back, awakened. I hope that all of them will be able to be in a resurrection, though I don’t know because that’s between them and God. So, that’s the mind we have to have, and if we don’t have that toward one another we’re missing the mark and we don’t learn what we need to learn.

So here it is, he’s hurting because he wants them to be free of this. They shouldn’t feel that way toward him anymore. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we are your servants. That isn’t what Joseph wanted. Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid. For am I in the place of God? In other words, this is in God’s hands. We’re in God’s hands. Our lives exist because of God, and He works to accomplish His will in how we yield to that process, in essence. But as for you, you meant evil against me, a reality, but God meant it for good. What an incredible ability, mindset to see God in the picture.

I’ll tell you what, I’m really more moved now because of the next series I’m giving. The other day I wanted to get ahead—I’m just going to share it with you. Oftentimes my wife and I go out and I walk through this subdivision we have and walk along the path and that’s one of my most favorite times of prayer. And basically, letting God know that there are Feast sermons coming up, which He knows, but this is something I want to share with Him because I want some help and I want to get some of these prepared well in advance again as we do year by year because the translators need it in the different languages here ahead of time.

So anyway, wanting to get those together I generally try to use some time in between some of the areas we visit and so that I can be away from the house. Because if I’m at the house it’s harder for me to focus on the Feast sermons. So, this is how I function.

And so, I asked for help for the next sermon, but if it could be a series I’d be really happy. Because if you have a series, you have a direction you’re going, and there is much that can be added in there depending on what God’s going to give. I basically shared, “I don’t have the foggiest idea what should come next.” This is the way it should always be anyway because it has to come from God if it has any meaning and purpose. The last thing I want is anything to come out of me. I can’t do that.

So anyway, got back, there it is, subject. Actually, before I got back there is the subject. Then this week working on some of it, what was it, three sermons so far, wham, wham, wham. Mind-boggling. I know where it’s going and where I’m going and what I am to go to to put into those sermons. It just takes time to put it all in there and then use the scriptures that are necessary.

So anyway, what an incredible thing when we see God in the picture. And right now, going through this and thinking about what was just said about how we need to think towards others, then I see that sermon series that’s coming, and candidly, it’s kind of emotional for me, very moving for me. Because God’s in it; incredible, of things that He does in our life.

But he says, God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now, therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. What an incredible thing to leave things in God’s hands in our lives. We have to go through battles, we have to go through hardships, we have trials; things are not always easy. But always having in your mind whatever it is you’re going through, that God is there and that your life is in God’s hands, and He’s called us with a purpose that’s beyond what we can grasp.

He loves us with a love that’s beyond what we can grasp, because we tend to think on physical terms as human beings. God has a place that He’s molding everyone who yields to Him. He called you for a purpose, He’s given you His holy spirit for a purpose, to mold and fashion you, and all you have to do is just to continue to move forward and to seek God’s help in your life, to go through the process of repentance and looking to our Passover to fulfill the meaning of Passover in our lives. Then to one day to attain it, to finally be through this physical part. Because this isn’t easy and the older you get the harder it gets, just in a physical plane. But it helps you learn other things as well.

We go through much and we have pressure at times. I’m getting into personal territory here. Anyway, more later on.

So he confronted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation, and the children of Makir, the son of Manasseh were also brought up on Joseph’s knees.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land which He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had no idea that they had to go into captivity, had no idea that they would become slaves, had no idea the means and the manner in which God was going to do it. Because God had something planned that was the greatest of anything to that point in time on such a massive plane, on such a massive scale that we are in awe of, and the beginning of revelation of Holy Days that were never known. Incredible!

Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you. He knew it. He believed God. What an awesome thing that our lives just revolve around that. Whatever God gives to us, whatever He’s shown us, we have been given the ability just to know it’s true, to believe it. And then if we choose to live by it, which is what he chose, which is what we have chosen, it’s all there. It’s just a matter of choice to live by faith.

Then I hurt inside when I think of the thousands of people I’ve known who have just given it all up. Horrible. Horrifying.

Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones from here. So, Joseph died being one hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Several generations later as they became an incredibly large multitude of people, what would become a great nation, they carried his bones out of Egypt. Awesome! Awesome stories that are inspiring, that are uplifting, and especially as we’ve gone through this one here.

I don’t like, personally, long series, but knew that we were to go through this entire story because it glorifies God on a scale that is incredible to me. Because we’re able to see things in a light of knowing that God planned it out, every bit of it, as He has His entire plan. But what a story to go through to see that in every person’s life and all the things that took place, He was in it molding and fashioning along the way. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

1. Chapter 1