Hebrews 11:21- 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
As Jacob got to the end of his life and made the choice to bless two of his grandsons as he was also blessing his sons, he made the choice to worship God. He was grateful to the God who had changed his identity and heart. He hadn’t always been someone you could trust. He hadn’t always been something whose heart was even free to worship God.
Early in his life, he had done his brother dirty and had fled for fear of his life. Yes, God had chosen Jacob to receive the blessing Esau expected to get, but Jacob’s heart wasn’t right in that moment about any of it.
When he fled, he went to work for his Uncle Laban, a man who had two daughters. Jacob fell in love with one of the daughters, Rachel, and had to work for seven years to be able to receive her hand in marriage. However, when the wedding day arrived, Laban gave Jacob a taste of his own medicine and switched the brides at the last minute, marrying off his older, obviously heavily veiled daughter, Leah, instead of Jacob’s beloved Rachel. In that moment, Jacob would have had to reflect on his own deception with his father. Sometimes God allows us to learn to hate our sin by allowing us to feel how painful it is to be on the receiving end of other people’s cruelty.
Rachel finally became his wife. While Leah had several sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, it took a while for Rachel to finally conceive. When she did, she gave birth to Joseph. Did you ever wonder why Jacob favored Joseph? Why he gave him that coat of many colors that would make him a standout from his brothers? It was because he was the firstborn of his first love, Rachel.
The other brothers in the family hated Joseph because of Jacob’s favoritism. Joseph also had been given special dreams by God, dreams that told him that one day his brothers would bow down to them. I suppose he could have been more sensitive to his brothers’ feelings and kept the dreams to himself, but one day, his brothers were going to need to see the hand of God on their own lives and knowing about the dreams would not only then make sense but would point them to the God who prepares and provides for us years and decades before we have a need.
Well, the brothers weren’t fans of the dreams and resented Joseph so much that they wanted to be rid of him. They thought about killing him but decided instead to sell him as a slave. The people who purchased him took him to Egypt. The brothers faked his death by putting animal’s blood on the coat and told their father he had been killed by a wild animal.
Jacob was crushed. His mourning seemed to be unending. Genesis 37:35 tells the state of his mind and heart. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
In those moments of anguish, which turned into years of anguish, Jacob had no hope for anything different than a life of mourning, the kind of mourning that could never been soothed or comforted. Jacob didn’t know that Joseph was alive in Egypt, and even though Joseph was a victim of some tough circumstances in Egypt like being falsely accused of something bad and being sent to prison, God was working in Joseph’s life to elevate him to the person who served just under the Pharaoh.
Pharaoh had a disturbing dream he couldn’t make sense of, but with God’s help, Joseph explained what it meant. A widespread famine was coming, so they needed to store up grain during some great harvest years to prep for the time when there wouldn’t be a harvest. Joseph was put in charge of all of it.
When the famine hit, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt because there was grain there. Those boys had no idea they would come eyeball to eyeball with the brother they had sold into slavery, the one that said he had dreamed of being raised to a position of great prominence, one that would cause them to bow down to him.
They were petrified when they met up with him. I’m guessing they thought he would be seeking revenge, but in a sweet moment of grace, Joseph forgave them and asked them to go get their dad and bring him to Egypt. Well, Jacob had a hard time believing them when they told him that Joseph was still alive. His sons had to come clean about their role in the whole thing, and Jacob finally realized that he had lived a miserable existence for years because of a lie.
Look at Genesis 45:28- And Israel (Jacob) said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” Even though his precious son was alive, even though an incredible reunion was ahead of him, he had resigned himself to a short reunion. His mindset was, “I’m going to get to see Joseph, but then I am going to die.”
When the two met up, it wasn’t one of those reality TV show moments like when someone finds a long-lost parent or sibling and there are tears of joy and great celebration. Listen to the reunion story: Genesis 46:29-30- 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel (Jacob). As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father[h] and wept for a long time.30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
Joseph had fallen on him and was weeping tears of joy, but Jacob was convinced his happiness couldn’t be sustained. Jacob couldn’t even let himself experience the happiness that was right in front of him. It was as if Jacob was resigned to die.
God had other plans for Jacob. Genesis 47:28 tells us that Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for 17 years! 17 years! That’s a long time! And during that time, there was a transformation in his life.
When Jacob got to Egypt, he got to meet the Pharoah. Pharoah asked him how old he was, and this was his response: “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. Genesis 47:9-10 (KJV)
Jacob was 130 years old at that moment, but he used his brief intro to the Pharoah to talk about how evil his life had been and how his life wasn’t much compared to his father and grandfather before him. I think Jacob was processing some regret in that moment. I think he was wishing he would have done more with his life. I think he was lamenting that he had resigned himself to a life of grief when in reality he had so much to live for and so much more life to live. His answer didn’t reveal any faith, any hope, any spiritual forward look. He certainly wasn’t worshiping in that moment. He was whining.
But fast-forward 17 years, and we see a different Jacob emerge. 17 years with Joseph! He was spiritually revived in Egypt, and at the end of those 17 years, he had something different to say. Look at what he said when he blessed his grandsons in Genesis 48:15-16. This is what our Hebrews 11 passage is referring to: “15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my 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.” Genesis 48:15-16
That doesn’t sound like the same person, does it? When Jacob got to Egypt even though the longing of his heart of being with Joseph had been met, he had no life, no faith, no worship. 17 years later he was testifying to how God had taken care of him “all of his life.” He was giving honor to the God who redeemed him “from all evil.” Evil didn’t have the last word in Jacob’s life. Grief didn’t have the last word in Jacob’s life. Regret didn’t have the last word in Jacob’s life. His last words were filled with faith. His last words were filled with worship. These are the words Jacob declared as he leaned on his staff and blessed his grandsons in faith. He believed that the same God that had transformed his life would also walk with them, and he believed it by faith.
By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. Hebrews 11:21
They say that hindsight is 20/20. I think it took the totality of Jacob’s life to get him to the place where his faith was fully developed, at least as fully developed as it could be in this life. I think he reflected on all he had done and on how God had provided for him in spite of the ways he acted, in spite of the choice he made to give up on life. I think those 17 years with Joseph cemented the goodness of God in his soul and he finally trusted God for whatever would come which apparently was imminent death.
I think as he was blessing his grandsons and thinking about all that was in front of them, he was reflecting on all that was behind him and how God truly had carried him through, how God never gave up on him, how God never let him go. That awareness prompted him to worship.
Faith worships. Faith speaks over future generations and calls them into the Kingdom.
Something about the last 17 years of Jacob’s life caused his faith to accelerate and take a firm hold of his heart, his will, and his ability to see things God’s way. I just hate for him that it took so long. How much had he missed? What quality of life could he have lived during those years he chose grief over the goodness of God? What had he forfeited that he then enjoyed during the last 17 years of his life?
None of us knows how long we will live, but there isn’t a good reason to go without a deep, abiding faith…the kind that leads us to worship and to speak blessing over those who are coming behind us. Don’t delay. Activate your faith in Christ and all that He offers today.
