Genesis chapter 49. Jacob blesses his sons. Then Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel your Father. Ruben you are my firstborn, my might, and the first fruits of my strength. Preeminent indignity and preeminent in power. Stable as water you shall not have preeminent because you went up to your Father's bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel. O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Just be their anger. For it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your Father's sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey my son you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet. Until tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foe to the vine and his donkey's cold to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine and his vester in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. Zebulin shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships and his border shall be at side. Issaqar is a strong donkey crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant so he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor. Danchel judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Danchel be a serpent in the way of viper by the path that bites the horses' heels so that his rider falls backward. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. Raiders shall raid God but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naftali is a doe, let loose that bears beautiful fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely. But his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouch is beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil. Jacob's death and burial. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their fathers said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessings suitable to him. Then he commanded them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephraim the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Makpala to the east of Maimre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephraim the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sohra his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife and there I buried Leah. The field in the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Genesis chapter 50. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it. For that is how many are required for embalming and the Egyptians wept for him 70 days. And when the days of weeping for him were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh. Saying about my father made me swear, saying, I am about to die in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan. There shall you bury me. Now therefore let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, go up and bury your father as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks and their herds were left in the land of Goshen, and there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Ataud, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a morning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the morning on the threshing floor of Ataud, they said, this is a grievous morning by the Egyptians. Therefore the place was named Abel Mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan, thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Makpahala, to the east of Maimre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephraim the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. God's good purposes. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph. Joseph's forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, do not fear, for am I in the place of God? Because for you you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Death of Joseph. So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years and Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Meshir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old, they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 through 9, who is the greatest? At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Temptations to sin. Woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. From chapter 18 verses 7 through 15, then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry, smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth, glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew. He came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him, hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the most high uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He flashed forth lightenings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
