THROUGH THE BIBLE IN THREE YEARS
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Fishers of men. In the children's sermon I had the children share how to catch fish. Then I asked what we would need to do to catch people.
One boy answered: "First, ya gotta throw them in."
*********************************************************************************************
Gen 48:21-22
21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
KJV
*********************************************************************************************
Jacob never returned to the land of Canaan to live. But when he died, Joseph carried him there to be buried.
Joseph himself never returned to the land of Canaan to live. But when the Israelites were given freedom and went back to Canaan 400 years later, they carried the "bones" of Joseph into the land and buried him there.
Christians, we may die in this world of slavery; but God is going to deliver us to the land of FREEDOM and PROMISE!
Now listen to this little tidbit of extra information about this chapter. Jacob actually "bought" some land for burial plots from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father (Gen. 33:19, Josh. 24:32). But the sons of Hamor were destroyed (in trickery) by Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi.
And according to what Jacob says here in Gen. 48:22, he had to physically WAR in order to take this land back and preserve it as a burial place. In other words, Jacob had FOUGHT in order to present this land to his children.
Christians, the MOST we can leave our children in this world is a place in which to be BURIED!
But the BEST we can leave our children in this world is an inheritance of FREEDOM through CHRIST!
Love ya,
Bruce