Thru the Bible

Steve: Last time on Through the Bible, we stood at the bedside of Jacob as he blessed Joseph's sons as though they were his own. Now Jacob's other sons gather close, leaning in to hear the final words of their father. What he says next will reach far beyond that moment, because many of these blessings are also prophecies about the future of the tribes of Israel.

I'm Steve Schwetz, your host, welcoming you aboard the Bible bus. And while you're settling in, let's hear from our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, about his unique method of teaching through the whole Bible. So, if you're new to the Bible bus, this will be especially helpful. Let's listen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We want to make a statement now that's very important because we are finishing the first book on our Through the Bible program. And we'll be going to the Gospel of Matthew. We commute back and forth, as we'll indicate next time, from Old Testament to New Testament, and then New Testament back to Old Testament, we go forward on two fronts.

And we have found that that has been not only a very practical and satisfactory one, but it actually increases the learning process of a great many of God's children who have had difficulty of articulating the Old Testament into their Christian faith. And so this method has been very satisfactory and we therefore want to urge you, if you are not receiving notes and outlines, that you do so.

Steve: Well, Dr. McGee's method of hopping back and forth between the two Testaments might be a little unexpected, but it has a lot of benefits, wouldn't you agree, Greg?

Greg: Well, I would. Obviously, in my own life being on the Bible bus for a long time, I know you have been as well. But perhaps more impactfully, we've just heard thousands of stories of how this approach works. And that's what we want to do today. If you're new or maybe if you've been on the Bible bus a long time, we just want to reinforce the holistic nature of the way Dr. McGee teaches the Bible. Because people often ask us, what's the secret, you know?

Steve: I think this is one of those secrets. I mean, there are so many different aspects to it, but definitely Old Testament, New Testament, for one thing, if we just stayed in the Old Testament and went Genesis through Revelation, we would be in the Old Testament for a very long time. And some of those passages get kind of tedious. So I like it. And that's why I do my annual Bible reading plan is I always mix it up with whatever plan I picked that there is both New Testament and Old Testament reading there, and I think there's a benefit to that as evidence with Through the Bible.

Greg: Well, and I'm going to borrow a phrase I've stolen from you, which is the pages of our Bibles tend to be stuck together. Dr. McGee makes sure that at least they're unstuck once every five years. And I do think, I know recently, like I was touched very deeply by the study in Haggai or Haggai. And I actually went to Africa and shared some of the things I felt I had learned studying it with Dr. McGee. And I have to admit, you know, I went to Seminary and all these other trainings, I had never really studied the book of Haggai.

Steve: So. Definitely a benefit. Well, let's get to some letters where people are talking about the same thing. First, there's a listener in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who says this: "Dear Bible bus family, before this study, I used to think of Leviticus as a difficult book, full of laws, rituals and regulations. But as we traveled through it together, I began to see its true message. At its heart, Leviticus is about holiness, obedience and the nearness of God. When I read, 'Be holy for I the Lord your God am holy' in Leviticus 19:2, I realized that holiness is not just about religious rituals, it's about daily life. It's about justice, mercy, integrity and love for others.

The study has changed me. I used to think that holiness meant simply avoiding sin. Now I see it means actively honoring God in everything, how I treat people, how I work, even my personal habits. Leviticus has also deepened my understanding of Christ's sacrifice. When I saw how detailed and costly the Old Testament sacrifices were, I began to appreciate Jesus' sacrifice in a new way. Grace is free to me, but it was costly for him.

Finally, I've learned that true holiness is not only personal, it affects how we live with others, caring for the needy, being honest in business, and treating every person with dignity. Thank you for helping me see the beauty of this book."

Greg: And Steve, we've talked about this before, but this particular testimony about the power of Leviticus and the teaching of Dr. McGee, I have never been around another ministry where I've heard people talk about Leviticus more than Through the Bible.

Steve: And reference how they came to Christ through the book of Leviticus.

Greg: Exactly, yeah. Many people who come out of religious high church backgrounds that may not understand personal salvation, often are just, they see the gospel everywhere in Leviticus. And so we want to encourage you, why don't you share with us what teaching of Dr. McGee specifically has helped you, like I shared about how Haggai helped me. I think it would be great for us to be able to share and encourage each other that we're learning from different specific things that Dr. McGee's teaching us.

Steve: Absolutely. Greg, let's go ahead and pray as we begin our study in Genesis 49. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the way you put your scriptures together, the Bible, and how we have it so readily accessible that we can study it together, that we can go between the Old and New Testaments and see Jesus as Dr. McGee says on every page of scripture. Help us as we study in the book of Genesis now. In Jesus name, Amen.

Steve: Turn your Bibles to Genesis 49 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, we've come to the 49th chapter of the book of Genesis. You have your Bible there, follow along with us. And in many respects, this chapter is one of the more remarkable chapters of the Bible. It certainly is a dramatic chapter. It's the death bed scene of old Jacob. In fact, we saw him on that death bed last time.

You'll recall that when he saw his son Joseph coming in, that he strengthened himself and he sat upon the bed. He just rejoiced to see his own son. Then after their interview, the rest of the sons came in, and he has around him now, all twelve of his sons. And this is his farewell message. Now, a farewell message is very important. And he begins with his eldest son and just goes right down the list, and you couldn't have anything really more important than this. It is dramatic. Anything that a man says on his death bed is important because you feel like at that time, he's telling the truth. How many times have you heard of a deathbed confession? A man waits until he gets really on his death bed.

I was reading some time ago of a man up in his 80s. He was taken into a mission, almost delirious. He was dying, and he made a confession of a murder that had been committed over 50 years ago in Mississippi. Another man had been hanged for that murder. They thought he was just delirious. They began the investigation, they found out he's guilty, that he was the one who was guilty. A man generally will tell the truth when he gets on his deathbed. That is, if he hasn't told it before.

Now we see Jacob on his deathbed, and let me begin reading here at 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.'" Now we come to an important expression. There've been some folk that think I use certain expressions too much, and by the way, I agree with them. But you're going to find out there are certain expressions in the Bible that occur and reoccur again and again and again. Now one is right here in the last days.

Now the last days of the nation Israel will be different than the last days of the church. And here again where you have a sharp dispensational distinction that needs to be made. The last days now of Israel. That's what he's talking about. What's going to happen to his sons in the last days? I was in seminary with a young man. He was a Lutheran boy, a very brilliant young fellow. In fact, the matter is, he became a theology professor and a Hebrew professor, and either one of them requires quite a few brains.

And this young man certainly had them. I always enjoyed talking with him because he always had something new to offer, because he did a great deal of study. He told me one day that he was writing on the prophecies concerning the 12 sons of Jacob. And we'll see a little later on, we get to the book of Deuteronomy, they have become tribes then, and each tribe with thousands in them. And in those tribes, Moses has something to say, and he took those prophecies, one in this chapter, and the one that Moses gave and followed the tribes through.

A great many people today talk about the fact that there are certain prophecies concerning the nation Israel. Many of them have been fulfilled, some are yet to be fulfilled. Now, that's all true. But you can narrow it down even less than that. You can divide Israel into 12 parts. And God has had something to say concerning each one of these tribes of Israel. And not only has the prophecy concerning the nation been fulfilled, but the prophecy concerning each tribe has been fulfilled. And friends, that makes it remarkable indeed.

So, this is what's going to befall them in the last days. Now, some of the prophecy has been fulfilled, but most of it waits to be fulfilled. Actually, more of what Moses had to say to the tribes has been fulfilled than what we have here. But it's quite remarkable and all of it looks to the last days.

Now, I read verse two of Genesis 49. "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father." Now, you must grant that this is quite a dramatic scene we have before us. Here's the old man, and he's sitting up in bed. I've seen pictures of him stretched out in bed, and it looked like he wasn't be able to raise his head. But that's not true. He was leaning on his staff. The last verse tells that that he was leaning on his staff. Old Jacob, frankly, friends, he'd been on the go all of his life. And he wanted to keep going. Death is really an embarrassment. It comes at a most inconvenient time. When we want to keep going down here. And if you've made an appointment, you have to break that appointment.

I make all my appointments today on the condition that I'm alive. I've got appointments made two years ahead. I don't know whether I'll fulfill them or not. I always say, "Provided I'm alive." Well, Jacob found that he couldn't keep going. He was leaning on his staff. He wanted to keep going, but he couldn't keep going. What a remarkable man he was in many ways. We'll see that when we come to it. Now, notice what he has to say.

He begins with Reuben, verse three. "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power." The thing that he recognized, and all of these patriarchs recognized, is the great subject of heredity that has been made so much of today. Like father, like son. It's transferred on to the son. And Jacob is recognizing that. And he recognized in this boy a great deal that was like himself. "Unstable as water." That had been this man at the beginning, you see, even Jacob. But it was true of his eldest son, "Thou shalt not excel." He never did win a blue ribbon. He won a couple red ribbons and some white ribbons. He never was in first place. "Thou shalt not excel." There are a lot of folk like that today, and they're satisfied with it.

I have a preacher friend. He's a wonderful man. But he could have gone so much farther than he did go. He didn't want to go. He had no desire than to just do and be what he wanted to do. He could have been a wonderful writer. He didn't want to be. I think he wrote two little pamphlets. And he could have been a great Bible teacher. He didn't want to be. He was satisfied with winning a red ribbon. That's second place. And he never won a blue ribbon. "Thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defilest thou it." "He went up to my couch." Now, that is Reuben, and his was a sorted story, you remember. I didn't dwell on it. Those of you that have been with us through Genesis, I didn't dwell on it at all. But it was there, and I'm sure many of you read it. It was a sorted story. I see no reason to dwell on that today. Contemporary literature and plays and movies and television, well they're making you sick of it. And I noticed that even a great many liberals today who just decried censorship and everybody ought to be able to do his thing. And speak what he wanted to speak and freedom of speech. I noticed quite a few of them are writing now and saying they're tired of the dirt and filth that's coming out today.

Well, may I say there's no reason to dwell on it. And certainly a Christian is told if there is anything pure, then think on those things. Now notice the next two boys are put together. Simeon and Levi are brethren. They were full brothers. They were the sons, you will recall, of Leah. "Instruments of cruelty are in their habitation." You remember how they went in among their neighbors, and of course, their own sister had been raped, and they didn't appreciate that, and they killed the entire habitation. Only one man is guilty, but they took it out on the whole town. They shouldn't have done that. And believe me, Jacob reminds them. "Simeon and Levi are brethren." And verse six, "Oh my soul, come not thou into their secret, under their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united." "For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they dig 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."

Now, Simeon was the southernmost tribe. You would think that it would be identified with Judah and Benjamin. But it's not. You never hear of them. They had territory, but they seemed to have just sort of faded away in the other tribes. And Levi, and here you see the marvelous grace of God. And I want to tell you, friends, this is the marvelous grace of God that you see exhibited in Levi. It was the grace of God that could take a cruel person like Levi and make him head of the priestly tribe. It's the grace of God that has made us sinners into a kingdom of priests also, friends. All believers are priests today, and how did you become that? Well, among those there've been converted drunkards, converted harlots, converted murderers. I've had all of them in my churches that I've served. May I say to you, it's the marvelous grace of God.

He says, "For as much as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." And then he goes on in First Peter, and that's First Peter 1:18 and 19, but in the second chapter, verse five, he says, "Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house." "And holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Well, who's he talking about? Those that have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

Now will you notice, that's these two boys. And by the way, Reuben lost first place, Simeon and Levi really lost first place. The king will not come from them. But there's another boy, and he was a sinner. But notice what the grace of God did for him. Verse eight, "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." This is the one, not now before Joseph's line, but from now on it'll be Judah. Because who came out of the tribe of Judah? Well, the Lord Jesus. Verse nine, "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?"

Now, here's one of the most remarkable prophecies in scripture. Verse 10, I'm reading it. "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come." That's the ruler. "And unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Now, frankly, this is one of the more remarkable prophecies that's in the word of God. Already, we have been told that it'll be the seed of the woman. Back in Genesis 3:15, where God says, "I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, thy seed and her seed." And the seed of the woman is the one to do the bruising of the serpent's head. He'll be the one to get the victory. That's the first prophecy. Then that seed was confirmed to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Now it's confirmed to Judah. That out of Judah's line he's coming. Not only that, but he's called Shiloh. That means rest, tranquility. He's the one that will bring rest. And the people who heard him in that day when they rejected him. You remember, he turned to the populace, to the multitudes, and he said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll rest you." That's Shiloh. Shiloh had come, not only the seed, and not only Shiloh, but the scepter. He's the one that'll hold the scepter. And friends, the scepter of this universe is in nail-pierced hands today.

Not only that, but we are told a little later on, in verse 24, it says, "From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." He's called a shepherd. He's also called in that same passage, a stone. And over numbers, the 24th chapter, the prophet Balaam, 17 a star. So with the coming of Christ, he is the seed. He's Shiloh who brings rest. He's the one that holds the scepter. He is the shepherd that gave his life, and he's the chief shepherd who's coming someday. He is the stone that the builders disallowed, but is now become the headstone of the corner, and he's the star, the bright and morning star for his church today.

This is the line from Adam. And Abel was murdered, and God raised up another seed, Seth. Seth to Noah, and Noah through Shem, and Shem to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Judah. May I say to you, you can be blind and still see that God is moving according to a pattern and according to a program here. This is very important to see and don't miss it. Now, I've been dealing with this prophecy, which I consider all important here, and we'll just have to hit some high points from here on.

Now we come at verse 11 here, it's still has to do with Judah. It says here, "binding his foal unto the vine, his ass's colt unto the choice vine. He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk." What are we talking about here? Here's the one that came riding into Jerusalem, riding a little donkey, offering himself as the Messiah, the king, the savior, and he washed his garments in wine. What kind of wine? Well that blood, his own blood. But he's coming next time, and Isaiah said, "He has dyed garments." And it's not his own blood this time, but the blood of his enemies. And his eyes shall be red with wine. That's when he comes the second time. My friends, this is one of the most remarkable prophecies we have in scripture, and there are a great many remarkable prophecies.

Now we have here in Zebulun. Verse 13, he's another one of the boys. And I don't care to dwell with these too much. Other than they're remarkable prophecies, "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea, he shall be for a haven of ships, and his border shall be unto Sidon." And he was the northernmost tribe on the coast. Actually, Dan went further north up to Mount Hermon, but along the coast, Zebulun went up further north.

Then we have Issachar next, verse 14. "Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two burdens." "And he saw that rest was good and the land that was pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto tribute." Now, this tribe and these tribes in this area to the north, and that's where they were finally located by the way, they were the ones that did a great deal of the work that constituted the backbone of the nation. That is the whole thought and intent here. They were the workers.

We've heard a great deal about the silent majority today. And actually, the average person, the one like you and I are today. We don't get on television. I don't think we want on it. Who do they put on TV? They feature the weirdos, the so-called great, the peculiar crowd, the unusual. That's the ones today. But the crowd that they try to make you believe are the important ones today. They're not the backbone of this nation or any nation. The ones that are the backbone of this country, and actually, these tribes that you and I pass over here. They were really the backbone of the nation Israel when they got in the land. But we're going to have to pick up right there next time and move on. We will finish the book of Genesis at our next session together. May the Lord richly bless you. My beloved.

Steve: As Dr. McGee said, we'll finish the prophecies and the book of Genesis in our next study, and then we're going to jump right into the important study in the Gospel of Matthew. Now our notes and outlines for Matthew, as well as all of our studies, are available in our app or at TTB.org. And you can download our digital book Briefing the Bible for free. You'll have those notes and outlines for you for Matthew, ready to go. Or you can call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can send an abbreviated copy by mail. I'm Steve Schwetz, and as always, I'll meet you back here next time as together we go through the Bible.

We're grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Through the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.