Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: The reality of it is we're living in a world today that is unstable as unstable can get. We're living in a world today that does not have the power to change society, that does not have the power to change the minds and the hearts of people, and we live in a world today that is getting darker by the moment.

And as we stop to reflect upon the Christmas season, understand the fact that God gave us that special gift, the gift of the Messiah to save us. Yes, the Messiah was a promise to Israel, but that promise to Israel meant that we would receive salvation. That promise to Israel meant that we would get to experience the benefits of what the Jewish people took on for us.

Guest (Male): Throughout the Bible, we're given many promises of God, and some of them may seem impossible to the hearer, like the one we'll take a look at today on Light on the Hill. But when God makes a promise, He always keeps it.

The promise you'll hear about changed the world. Turn with us to Genesis chapter 49 as we continue our series, "The Promise of Christmas Rarely Told." Here's Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: The Proverbs talks about something really important. It talks about wisdom. Did you know that the Proverbs more times than not refers to wisdom as a female? It literally engenders the word wisdom and creates it to show you and understand that it should be treated as a woman.

Why? Because women are beautiful. Women are exquisite. Women are the type of individuals that when you recognize them the way God made them to be, they are valuable to the society in which they are in. Why do you think the devil is working so hard to attack women in our society today?

Because what would you rather have? Honestly, think about it. Would you rather have a godly woman who's making a difference in the world or would you rather have Rosie O'Donnell? I'm serious. I'm not trying to be funny. Every single time I see her face, every single time I see her talk, I don't get mad at her. I'm not upset with her. My heart breaks.

Because she's actually an intelligent woman. She can be articulate if she wants to be, but she's allowed the devil to completely destroy her to the point where she literally—it's sad. She is what it looks like when the devil ravages somebody and takes complete advantage when she could have been so much more than the person that she is in the current moment.

So when the Proverbs adds the effeminate characteristic within the context of gender to wisdom, it teaches you something. Value it. Treat it specially. Protect it at all costs. Be the covering of it. Understand the fact that it will be the very thing that will drive the core of your very family.

If you want a healthy family, you want a healthy wife. If you want children to be raised up in the right way, you better have a wife that loves God and loves God more than she loves you or her children. And when you can look at wisdom with that level of valued understanding, it begins to change everything.

So this type of poetic use is really interesting. Now why am I emphasizing this here? Because let's read the first two verses and you'll recognize why I am. Genesis chapter 49, verse one: "And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days."

And then he says it again: "Gather yourselves together,"—this is a halfway contrasting, halfway parallelism here. Look what he says: "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father." It's really beautiful.

He says, "Ye sons of Jacob," but "hearken unto Israel your father." He's not interchanging the names on accident. Poetically, he's interchanging the names because what he wants to communicate is: You are my natural-born children.

You are looking at me, Jacob, as your father, your biological father. But as a man who is on his deathbed, who only has a few hours to live, Israel, the one who is transformed from Ya`aqob to Israel, is now bringing you the last words of my life.

I'm coming to you as a man, yes, a patriarchal man, and I'm going to give you the vision that God has given me for you. By the way, every father, you better get this. I don't care if your children are 50 years old. Remember, when this guy is on his deathbed and he's speaking, he's over 140 years old.

And his children are easily 50, 60, 70 years old. Doesn't matter how old your children are, doesn't matter how old you are, you better be able to receive vision from the Lord for your children's future. You better be able to start prophesying that to them right now. My mom did that to me and my dad did that to me from the time I was a little baby.

They would tell me what God had for me very, very early on because God gave them vision. God gave them an awareness of who I would be one day. And if you are a parent worth a dime, you will be seeking the Lord for understanding and awareness and vision for your children.

Don't tell yourself they're already in their careers or they're messing their lives up. Ask God to give you prophetic utterance for your children. That you will go to them and you will say, "This is what God has shown me for you. This is what I have for you because I believe God has directed me in this place."

You must continue to speak like that to your children. And you must tell them what they will become and you must tell them what they will be and you must prepare them for those things. I am going out of my way to tell my children the things that I know that God has already made them and that they will turn into as they grow older.

Why? Because I don't want the first donkey that comes into their life that pretends to be somebody valuable to them to lie and cheat and steal. It's very, very important. And while Jacob is on his deathbed, he speaks to his children with the authority of a man who was changed to the name of Israel, governed by God.

And he says it. Now look what he says. Let's talk to the first person here. And I wouldn't envy Reuben. Let me tell you this right here: "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power."

So far so good, right? Reuben, you were excellent in everything. You were the chosen one. Sound familiar? You Star Wars fans will understand that one. Verse four: "Unstable as water." Holy smokes, that's a heavy phrase. Unstable as water. That's pretty unstable. Water falls apart if it's not being molded or held back.

"Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Wait, hold on. He's the guy that had excellency of everything. But "unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it." Look at the next line: "He went up to my couch."

So let me tell you what's going on if you're missing the language cue here. He's saying, "You're not going to be anything. You're not going to excel in anything because you went up and slept with one of my concubines." And then he stops for a second and he pauses and he now he's speaking to himself. "This guy came up to my couch!"

Can you imagine the emotion and what he's doing here? He's very emotional. By the way, understand this for the people that don't like how loud I am. Look, this is Middle East culture. You would have seen Abraham talking exactly this way, you would have seen Jacob talking this way, you would have seen Isaac talking this way.

I'm telling you this right now, this is the world of the Middle East. I went on a mission trip once. I've been on every Middle Eastern country, North Africa. One of the first times I went out to a North African country—this was western North Africa, was when we went to Morocco.

And I had this know-it-all mission secretary that came along. No offense to anybody who's white who has white hair or white skin, blue eyes. I have a son that has white skin, blue eyes. My grandfather, white skin, blue eyes, pure-blooded Egyptian. But this girl didn't know a lick about Middle Eastern culture, although she claimed to be the expert.

"Well, I know everything about this stuff, and James, when you go over there, you better do this and you better do this." And I'm like, "Wait, hold on. I was raised in this culture. I speak the language, cuckoo." You know what I mean? That's what I'm thinking.

And of course, I'm a young kid that doesn't have a lot of tact or anything like that. At this point, I'm 16 years old. The reason why they take me on this trip is because of my language-speaking ability so I can navigate through some of the difficult things that are going on.

And it's really funny because she's there telling me—we're at a restaurant, the very first restaurant we get to, and I'm being loud. I'm talking to the mission team and I'm being loud. And she's like, "You better stop this because we've got Bibles in our suitcases and when you get loud, they're going to pay attention to you. You're drawing attention to yourself and that's really selfish, James."

I said, "Oh, really?" I was that loud. And nobody in that room even flinched. They didn't look around, they didn't think anything of it. You want to know why? Because that is our culture. Get it? That's our culture. That's the way it is. That's how we talk. That's the way we were raised. You've got to understand that.

So you can imagine Jacob is being pretty spirited at this point. He could be as old as could be, but he's spirited. I can guarantee you that's what's going on. Verse five: "Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations." Imagine that declaration being made by your father to you.

"O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."

That's exactly what happened. Look at what happened to the Levites. The Levites didn't even inherit their own land because they became the priests of the crowd. And it's very interesting how God's prophetic word given to Jacob was all completely accurate as he said all of those things.

By the way, going back to Reuben, nobody did anything great that came from the tribe of Reuben. Nobody. You go back to Jewish history, there was nobody that did anything great. So all these words, all these prophetic utterances are completely correct.

Now we get into verse eight and we speak about Judah. Now this is interesting. "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?"

It's very interesting. The kingly lines were the line of Judah. You know what's really interesting to note, this prophecy is really powerful. And we'll get into verse 10 in just a second, but when you start looking at the tribe of Judah, a lot begins to make sense.

One thing you should notice, by the way, about the term Judah, the term Judah became more prominent when you actually started getting into the divisions between the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. As a matter of fact, what's really, really interesting when you stop for one moment to reflect upon what had happened, when you stop for a second to learn the story of how the kingdom split.

Israel was unified and it was unified by none other than God Himself. The very first king of Israel as a unified nation was God. God was the first king. Don't let anybody tell you that Saul was the first king. Saul was the first human king. He was not the first king.

So the first human king was King Saul. After King Saul, that didn't work out so well. After King Saul, you got David. Then after David, you got Solomon. And the last king to actually rule Israel as a unified country was Rehoboam. That was Solomon's son.

Now the thing that you should know about Rehoboam was that Rehoboam was approached by a man who represented the ten tribes that were in the northern part of the country, a guy by the name of Jeroboam. And he goes to Rehoboam and he says, "Hey, listen."

He didn't ask him for a lot. He says, "Look, your daddy has been super hard on us. We just ask that you just loosen the belt a little bit. Give us a little bit of love. It was really hard with the taxation and all the work and all the things that we had to do."

So Rehoboam does a wise thing and Rehoboam says, "I'm going to go talk to some advisors." So he talks to two sets of advisors. The first set of advisors that he talks to are a couple of young kids that had no clue, no idea, no understanding of foreign policy, no idea how to relate to people who were leaders, anything.

And he goes to them and he asks them for advice. But before I get into what their advice is, he also had another group of people available to him. He had people who had advised the wisest king in the world. By the way, let me just give you a little side note on something.

If you ever want to learn how to be powerfully successful in business, you want to learn how to make a lot of money in business, study the life of Solomon. Every wonderful, smart, brilliant thing I've ever learned about business and making money in business I learned from King Solomon. Honestly, there's a lot of things that you could learn there.

First of all, this is really interesting. King Solomon never thought about money. King Solomon was all about the mission. He was missional. If anybody here in this room is in sales, you need to understand that. Because being a good salesman has nothing to do with getting people to buy your product.

Being a good salesman means learning how to understand what people's needs are and then seeking to make yourself available to serve them by fulfilling those needs. When you start to make what you do missional, you begin to make a whole lot of money.

But Solomon does something really interesting. You see, Solomon is a man who's so wise—and by the way, it's really interesting. When I used to say stuff like this in Bible studies ten years ago, 15 years ago, people called me nuts. Now in the mainstream, people are beginning to wake up to this.

There's guys that are out there talking about this now that are beginning to wake up because they're beginning to see it for what it is. I'd like to think I had somewhat of an influence in this. But Solomon was so wise that kings from all over the world came to him for wisdom.

And you know what? They paid him a ton of money. They paid him a ton of money. He literally made what the equivalent is today, in today's terms, trillions of dollars every year consulting for kings. Solving their big problems.

By the way, this is a really interesting little quick note. The difference between the billionaires, the big guys, the guys that make trillions of dollars and the guys that make hundreds of thousands of dollars is one thing. It has nothing to do with hard work. It has nothing to do with a good team.

It has nothing to do with what you have available. It doesn't have anything to do with how much money you have at your disposal to be able to buy things. The direct difference between somebody whose company is making a million dollars versus a billion dollars versus a trillion dollars has everything to do with the size of the problem that they're seeking to solve.

Apple early on solved the problem of communication with the whole world. They are now a multi-trillion dollar company. Elon Musk solved space communication problems, solved some of the biggest problems that existed in the world and is now about to be the world's first trillionaire.

Why? Because he solved bigger problems. King Solomon solved the biggest problems of the day. That's why he made so much money and why he did so well. And God promised him that would be the case. And guess what? I don't know about you, but if I were Rehoboam, I would seek out the smartest guys that were available to me to advise me.

Okay, listen, on my board I don't have idiots on my board. Forgive me for saying that, right? I don't have lazy men on my board. I don't have dum-dums on my board. The people that I have on my board not only are wiser and smarter than me in certain areas, but they're also willing to not be a yes-man and tell me the truth about what's going on.

I've got things of guys that have more experience than I've ever been alive. I've got guys on my board that are older than—they have dental work in their mouths that are older than me in some cases, right? I want guys like that. I want guys who are going to advise me and say, "Hey, James, stop! Go this route, you're making a mistake. Think about this."

They've saved me on a whole bunch of occasions. Imagine this kid Rehoboam. He had the guys that advised the smartest man in the world and guess what? He didn't listen. You know what the older guys told him? The older guys said, "Hey, look, give them what they're asking for. It's not much. Dude, you're not losing anything. Just give it to them and you know what? They are going to serve you forever."

The young guys go, "Oh, you just need to—that's a sign of weakness. You need to just tighten up." You know what I've learned about this, by the way? Really good wisdom you can learn from this. The best leaders in the world know how to talk to people that disagree with them.

The best leaders in the world know how to talk to people that hate them. The best leaders in the world will sit at the table with people that are different from them. That's a biblical principle. You guys get that, right? Like there's a super biblical principle of this. Well, he didn't want to listen.

So the kingdom was divided. You had ten tribes of the north, they were referred to as Israel, the Northern Kingdom of Israel. You had the remaining tribes to the south, they were referred to as the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And of course, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was completely destroyed by the Assyrians. Almost 200 years later, the Southern Kingdom was destroyed by the Babylonians.

But even throughout the tenure of that time, the one thing that you must understand is that you must understand that they always had regarded the fact that they had the right to have the scepter for their country. In other words, they believed that they had still sovereignty over their own nation.

And look what it says in verse 10. This is really important because this is where we're going to stop, but it's critical. Look what it says. It says: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."

So here's the prophecy. The prophecy is that the scepter, meaning the authority that Judah has to rule as a nation, will not depart from itself until Shiloh come. Who is Shiloh? Shiloh is the Messiah. Until Jesus comes.

What's really interesting is around three or four AD, we have historians tell us that there were rabbis and Pharisees that walked through the streets that basically started asking God why. "Why, God, why have you forsaken us? Why have you forsaken us?" And here's the reason why they started doing that.

Because it was at that point that Rome took away their right to capital punishment. And when Rome took away their right to capital punishment, at that moment they felt like God had forsaken them, that God's word wasn't accurate, that God's word was not true.

And here's the thing that was really interesting that they didn't realize. At the very same time that their right to capital punishment was taken away, they didn't realize that just a few short years prior, this little tiny baby was born in a city by the name of Beth-lechem. And yes, the scepter had departed from Judah, but folks, Shiloh did come.

Funny thing is, for those of you that are wanting to ask what Genesis 39:10 has to do with Christmas, it's the core of the Christmas story. You see, the reality of it is we're living in a world today that is unstable as unstable can get. We're living in a world today that does not have the power to change society, that does not have the power to change the minds and the hearts of people, and we live in a world today that is getting darker by the moment.

And as we stop to reflect upon the Christmas season, understand the fact that God gave us that special gift, the gift of the Messiah to save us. Yes, the Messiah was a promise to Israel, but that promise to Israel meant that we would receive salvation. That promise to Israel meant that we would get to experience the benefits of what the Jewish people took on for us.

The promise of the Messiah is what gives us salvation. It's the reason why we're here today. It's the reason why we're going to heaven. But look what it says at the very end of this. It says, "And unto him," referring to the Messiah, "shall the gathering of the people be." How heavy is that statement, right?

You understand that Jesus is the reason why people are coming back to God every single day? Do you understand that for the first time in ten years, sales of the Bible have rocketed? The sales of the Bible have surpassed the greatest selling books that they have right now in the top ten list by a hundred times over.

Do you understand right now that the hunger for spiritual things is absolutely remarkable? You know one of the things that shocked me the most when I was walking through this place, AmFest, and I'm experiencing all this? It's mostly kids that are at this thing.

I was shocked with how many kids came up to me and said, "Pastor James, thank you, I listen to you on a regular basis." I was shocked to see how many kids were functioning at that level. And I'm realizing something. I'm realizing that these kids are beginning to feel hopelessness.

I'm realizing that these kids are getting hungrier and hungrier and they know that everything they see is a sale to them. Everything they see is some fake-produced thing. They're looking for somebody who's real and somebody who can give them real analysis that can help them understand what's really going on, and that's why they're spending more time looking for Bible.

That's why they're spending more time looking for an education in these matters. Folks, it is such a remarkable picture that's being created and we are in a world right now where the promise that was made to Israel becomes the greatest gift that we have ever received.

And when you stop to look at the story of Christmas, you need to stop to recognize the fact that the promise of the Messiah is powerful.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and part of a series entitled "The Promise of Christmas Rarely Told." Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com.

Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well. When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We would love it.

It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' hearts and lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what He's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com.

If God is leading you to support this radio outreach at year-end, there's a place to contribute at lightonthehillradio.com. Here's Pastor James once again with a special offer for you.

James Kaddis: I know many of you have been waiting for this and I am so excited to be able to tell you, my new book is out. It is called *The Last Book* and it deals with deep insight with respect to the book of Revelation. You are going to love it.

It is my commentary on this amazing book in the Bible. The Bible tells us that if you study this book, you'll be blessed and it is my prayer and my hope and my desire that you will be blessed as you use this as a tool to engage in the word of God. And it is a labor of love and I hope you guys will absolutely be blessed by it.

Guest (Male): *The Last Book* by Pastor James Kaddis is available on Amazon, at lightonthehillradio.com or jameskaddis.com. As we return to Pastor James, he recalls a powerful experience with one of his children that illustrates a great point.

James Kaddis: I'll close with this story. I was leaving for work the other day and my three-year-old runs outside. Mama gave her permission, of course. I'm walking out to the car and she runs outside into the driveway. And if you know the way we're configured, it's a closed—the driveway is closed, so there's a gate, they can't just run out into the street.

And she comes to me very emotionally and says, "Baba, don't go to work. Don't go to work. Why are you going to go to work? Don't go to work. Don't go to work." I said, "Baby, you know I have to." "But Baba, I'm going to cry for you." "Honey, I know. Mama's told me you cry for me a lot. I appreciate that, baby, but I've got to go to work."

"But Baba, what if you don't come back?" I said, "Honey, I promise you I'm going to come back. You don't have to worry about it. I promise you I'm going to come back." "But Baba, what if you don't?" Okay, honey, can I ask you a question? This is a risky question to ask any kid at any age.

I said, "Has Baba ever mistreated you?" "No." "Has Baba ever lied to you?" "No." "Does Baba always keep his promises?" "Yes." "Okay, then you have no reason to not believe me when I tell you I'm coming back." "Okay, Baba." She gives me a kiss and leaves.

Here's a question I would ask you when you think about the Christmas story. Has God ever mistreated you? You can answer that. No. Has God ever lied to you? Has God always kept His promises? Yes.

Folks, the story of Christmas is powerful because the story of Christmas represents to us not only the greatest gift ever given and the greatest story ever told, it also highlights the greatest promise rarely ever spoken of.

And that is the fact that we have a hope and a future because of a Messiah that gave everything for us. Folks, that's exciting. Let's open up our eyes and recognize that as sure as His word has been to us, it will remain sure in the future and we can put our faith and trust in Him recognizing that He's good and He's faithful. Amen?

Guest (Male): Next time on Light on the Hill, we'll be in 2nd Samuel chapter 7 and hear about a promise that completely changed the course of history. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.