Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective here is Gideon Levitan.

Gideon Levytam: The study of

Guest (Male): Hebrews chapter 11.

Gideon Levytam: Look what happened to your forefather Isaac. He had his own plan but eventually by faith he blessed Jacob and he blessed Esau in the proper order concerning things to come. Remember, let me just read you what he said about the things to come that we read here in the book of Genesis chapter 27. Look what we read. When Isaac after he blessed Jacob, look what he says in verse 18. He came to his father, this Jacob came to his father and he said my father, he said here am I. And he said who are you my son?

And he said I'm Isaac thy firstborn. I have done concerning what you have told me to do. And then we're moving forward and we read in verse 26 and Isaac said unto him come near unto me and kiss me my son. And he came near and he kissed him and he smelled the smell of his raiment and he blessed him. And he said see the smell of my son is the smell of the field which the Lord had blessed. Therefore, God give thee the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine.

And look what he says in verse 29. Let people serve thee, nations bow down to thee, be lord over thy brethren and let thy mother's sons bow down before thee. Cursed be everyone that curses thee and blessed be he that blesses thee. Look at the blessing that he gave. Initially, he intended to give it to Esau but God allow the intervening of Rebecca and Jacob and brought about what God have really intended for Jacob and not for Esau. But we find out beloved brothers and sisters in Hebrews 11, we don't read it so much in Genesis chapter 27 but in Hebrew 11 we find out that somehow out of this mess that have occurred in Genesis chapter 27 we find out that Isaac by faith have blessed Jacob and blessed Esau concerning things to come.

And at the last days of his life he realized that God must have his way in the life of the people of God and that God eventually will have his ways for his own people. He will have it in the life of Isaac, he will have it in the life of Jacob but he will also have it in your life and in mine. Even though we sometimes sadly so have our own agendas and plans and desires, yet eventually everything will work according to his purpose. And so ask the Lord and we need all of us to ask the Lord to help us that as we live here our lives here that we will already at the younger age will say Lord have thine own way in my life and don't allow me to have mine own way because we are always going to mess it up and we only going to go in the wrong direction if we will not have the Lord have his way with us.

So the first man beloved brothers and sisters here in chapter 11 and verse 20 is Isaac. When he became old by faith he blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Now here's the second man and look at the next man. Now we are talking about Jacob and look what we read here. It says here in verse 21 by faith Jacob when he was a dying, notice again we are talking about the man that at his last days of his life when he was a dying he blessed both the sons of Joseph and he worshipped leaning on the top of his staff.

Now here is another interesting individual by the name of Jacob. We have a few Jacobs here in our midst but Jacob was an interesting person and Jacob is actually a picture of me, a picture of us. Jacob of the Tanakh of the Old Testament is a picture of everyone of us in this room whether we have the name Jacob or whether we don't have the name Jacob. He had his own plans. He had his own agenda. We know it very well. You remember that. We read about Jacob. He was a man that all his life he made his own plans like you and I, like us.

He was trying to work things out in his own way. You remember he started, we read already, by buying their birthright from Esau. You remember when Esau was very hungry and Jacob exchanged with him a little bowl of soup for the birthright. What a deal. He's exchanged. He said you take soup or something to eat and I'm going to get the right, the blessings of the birthright. What a deal. I mean it's not even an even deal. He was thinking, he was planning, he had a plan here, a program like you and I. You remember later on we find out that was we just read in Genesis chapter 27.

He came before his father and his father asked him who are you? And he says I'm your son Isaac. He's standing before his father and he is telling his father that he is the other son. His father was blind. And then later on you remember what happened. He have ended up and he have fled away and he lost. He never seen his mother anymore. And when he got to another country to another land, you remember to the land where we read about it in the book of Genesis a little bit later on in chapter 28 and so on, he have gotten to his uncle by the name of Laban who was far more trickier than him.

And you remember what Laban did to him. He says you work and you're going to get this daughter of mine Rachel. So he works very hard Jacob to get Rachel and guess what happened at the night where he was supposed to receive his wife. He has somebody that trick him far more than what he did to his father and to his brother. He came at night and instead of finding Rachel he found Leah. And he tricked him his uncle and later on his uncle made him work another seven years. And then he finally got Rachel and then he worked another seven years.

He had his plan of his own. And now we find out he had to leave his family because of his mischiefs and so on. He tried to bargain with God on the way. You remember when he went on the way in Bethel and he said if you will bless me then I'm going to give you 10%. And then we move on in the life of Jacob and we see that Jacob had been living a life not necessarily a life that was pleasing to God in every form and shape. But when he got to his the last days of his life look what we learned about him.

And beloveds and sisters, let's not look at Jacob, let's look at ourselves and see Jacob there. How many time we have our own agenda and plans and so on and God says listen, I have a plan for you. I have a direction for your life and we have our own agenda and our own plans and God eventually is going to get his own way with his own people and we find out in verse 21 that by faith Jacob when he was dying, listen at the last days of his life what does he do? He blessed both the sons of Joseph and he worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff.

You notice what happened. You remember what happened when he was blessing the two sons of Joseph. You remember Joseph brought the two sons when he was getting old and Joseph assuming you know his father Jacob does not see clearly and we find that the Jacob reverses his hands and he blessed the younger and gave him the blessing of the first born Ephraim and Manasseh because at the end of his life he submitted to the authority of the Lord. At the end of his life eventually he really recognized God's plan and not his own. Beloved brothers and sisters, this is so real in our own life.

We know it very well that we have our own plans and our agenda in our own life and God have his plan for each and every one of us individually and collectively and he must get his way. And all the time that we spend wandering around looking for places and looking for peace and looking for direction in our life, we find out that unless we let God let go and let God we eventually going in circles and God will have his purposes done with the people which belong unto him. And you remember when he got old he said to Pharaoh, you remember that statement we read in Genesis chapter 48 and on he says to Pharaoh that his life was not like the life of his forefathers.

He admitted before Pharaoh when Pharaoh asked him how old are you Jacob? And you remember what he answered Pharaoh. He says the life that I live did not attain to the life of my forefathers. There were few and evil were my life, he said. And he was referring to his forefathers who walked with the Lord and so on and Jacob himself had to learn this lesson, the necessity to recognize God's plan in the life of Jacob and his descendants. And so by faith at the end of his life when he was a dying he blessed both the sons of Joseph and he worshipped.

And he worshipped leaning on the top of his staff. It tells us that he was at the end of his life when he gave way to God. And he says God, whatever going to happen going to happen. You are the one that have a plan for our lives, for our children. Like you have had a plan for our forefathers, you have a plan for our children. And so he blessed Joseph's sons, his grandchildren and he gave the blessing for the first born to Ephraim, the eldest one, and Manasseh. He had given him the blessing as the second born.

And we see in these verses they are so amazing, you know, so profound. How would we find out what's so important here that he blessed them when he was old? Why is it so important? The important here beloved brothers and sisters is that they have learned it when they were old and they finally gave way to God. Not my will but thine be done. They have really said in these last days of their life. And is it not the same with Joseph? Now go down to the next verse. We are here in the next verse in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 28 and look what we read here.

It says by faith Joseph when he died, again you notice when he died, when they died, when they were old, it's the last moments of their lives. When he died he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel. And he gave commandment concerning his bones. See Joseph was different than Isaac and Jacob in many ways. Joseph had a right prospective of life and right prospective of death and resurrection. Joseph throughout his life we can see him that he really was a man that have lived for God and depended upon God throughout his life.

Though we know he was a sinner like every other people but we don't read of any lapse in his life, in the life of Joseph. He trusted God at his youth in his own home. You remember that? When his father made him the coat of many stripes because his father loved him and the other brethren, you remember his brethren were very jealous of him. But Joseph obeyed his father. He lived in a way that was pleasing to God and pleasing to his father. We read it in Genesis chapter 37. He also trusted God when he was sold.

Do you remember when his brethren were so upset with him and envious over him, they sold him to the Ishmaelites, to the Midianites and they went and they took him down to Egypt. What a sad experience of life when your own brothers, your own flesh and blood put you in a pit and take you out of the pit and selling you to Egypt, to the Egyptians and lying to their father and saying that an animal have killed him, taking his garment and showing this to his own father. Joseph trusted God in a difficult situation such as this in his life.

And you know when I think about this I'm thinking about the Lord Yeshua the Messiah who was also sold my familiar friend, he says with whom I've walked into the house of the Lord have betrayed me. You remember Judah, Yehuda, who sold the Messiah for 30 pieces of silver. And then went and he hung himself when he realized the mistake that he have made. And he sold him with a kiss. And you remember the garden of Gethsemane, we read that Jesus saying to Judah do you betray me with a kiss Judah? He kissed him and he marked him for the leaders to come and to take him into arrest him, taking to the high priest to Caiaphas and eventually to Pilate and eventually to be crucified.

If there's anybody can understand the selling of one, the betrayal of one is the Lord Jesus the Messiah can understand that. Joseph was sold by his brethren yet he trusted God in this experience. Beloved, sometime you and I might feel betrayed by believers, disappointed by believers. And yet we are exhorted to trust the Lord in every experience, in every situation. And look what we read about also about him. He also trusted God when he was a slave in Egypt. Do you remember that when Potiphar bought him and purchased him from the Ishmaelites, from the Midianites and he became a slave in the home of Potiphar.

He trusted God through this experience. Everything he touched was a blessing. Everything he handled was a blessing to the home of Potiphar and the whole family, the whole people there. Joseph was with God and God was with Joseph. God led him and encourage him and sustain him. You remember what happened to the life of Joseph after when Potiphar's wife sought to sleep with Joseph and Joseph says I'm not going to do that and you remember what happened to him when his wife told Potiphar that this man sought to do this to me and Potiphar took him and put him in prison.

And you remember how he was in prison. He was still a man of God, trusted God and waited on him and trusted him and he brought blessing to all the prison there and eventually he was the one that revealed dreams. And eventually he have lifted up one and the other had been his head had been lifted up, the baker and the butler that we read about in the book of Genesis in the life of Joseph. What a man he was. He trusted God as a slave. He trusted God as a prisoner and he trusted God as a ruler of Egypt.

He was still a man of God. But the book of Hebrews doesn't tell us anything about that. Not one word about all this great history of Joseph. Look what it says in verse 22. By faith Joseph when he died just like his father Jacob, when he died just like his grandfather Isaac, when he was a dying, when he died he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and he gave commandment concerning his bones. Interesting. You would ask yourself the question immediately when you read such a verse it says what in the world the writer of Hebrews is telling us here?

What does he try to communicate to his Hebrew brethren in first century? Well beloved, look what he's trying to say. He's trying to say to us simply this that Joseph had a right prospective of life, death and resurrection. Joseph looked at everything from God's viewpoint. If God allow me to be sold by my brethren, I will trust him. If God allow me to be purchased by another nation and to be slave them, there I will trust him. I will believe and I will trust him. If God allow me to be in prison I will trust him.

And if God put me at the pinnacle of this nation and make me second to Pharaoh I will also trust him and live for him. And now when I'm dying I know that there is a future. I know that one day there is the resurrection. I know that one day God is going to establish the Messianic kingdom and we restore the nation of Israel, we restore his Hebrew people to himself. When he was dying he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel out of Egypt. You remember he told in Genesis chapter 50 he told his own brethren.

He says one day will come and you will leave this land and you are going to come to the promised land. Let me read you these verses in Genesis chapter 50 verse 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren I die but God will surely visit you. And he will bring you out of this land unto the land which he swore unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel and he says God will surely visit you and you shall carry my bones from this place. So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put into a coffin in the land of Egypt.

Look at the wonderful statements at the end of the life of Joseph. You will be taken away, you will be brought into the promised land and you will carry my bones because there is a resurrection and I will be resurrected in the promised land, the land of Canaan, the land that God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his people. What a lesson beloved brothers and sisters that we learn here. He trusted God's promises for the future of his people Israel. He had proper prospective concerning life, death and resurrection. And that's why we read this in Hebrews chapter 11 about Joseph.

By faith Joseph when he died he mentioned the departing of the children of Israel and he gave commandments concerning his own bones. Now I'm going to stop with this. I'm not going to move to the next one but I want to just wrap this up with this statement or two. Everyone of us here today who is a believer in the Lord Jesus the Messiah we are on a journey like the Hebrews and like the man of faith that we read in Hebrews chapter 11. You and I also make decisions in life. You and I also going through exercises in life, maybe sickness, maybe problem with family, maybe problem with jobs, maybe problem with other areas of our lives, financial problems.

Everyone of us make decisions in our life here and now. And every time we are exhorted by the Lord to make decisions for him the question is are we doing so? The question is are we submitting to the Lord authority in our own life? Do we trust it? Do we believe what he says? The time I have to admit and you have to admit we don't because the flesh hey its weakness is rising up. And yet we are exhorted by the Lord to trust him. I think of a verse that I have just read this morning in book of Proverbs that we often don't practice.

Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thine ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. It was Solomon already said it to Israel many years ago, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean unto your own understanding. In all thine ways acknowledge God and he's going to direct your path. What we learn from these three men that we are just the same like them. There's a time in our life that we are living for the Lord and trusting the Lord.

But there are time in our life that we don't and we have our own agenda and our own plan. But the ultimate answer here is that eventually God's purposes and plans will come to pass. He will bring about everything that he had planned in mind for you and for me and it is far better for us to submit to him today to be more like Joseph, to submit to him in our life today so our life will be in tune with the purposes of God in our own life. All these three men the mentioning about them in Hebrews chapter 11 was at the last days of their lives where they had eventually to let go and let God.

And we learned that eventually by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future. By faith Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph concerning things to come. By faith Joseph mentioned what's going to happen to Israel because things in the future will come to pass and the purposes of God will ultimately be the ones that will come to pass. May the Lord also help us to desire the plan of God to be his plan to be established in our lives and not our own plan because our own plans are doomed to fall. Eventually we will not succeed when we don't let God have control of our own life.

May the Lord help us and bless us and lead us, teach us and cause us to be subject to his own will. Can you say amen to that? Amen.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levitan. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel box 1411 Niagara on the Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0 or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com.

God bless you. Shalom. Shalom.