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Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Some texts in the Bible are in our devotional “flyover country.” You know, that space between the populated East Coast and West Coast that people simply fly over to get to what’s important. That’s often how Genesis 48 is treated. We don’t understand its rituals, and don’t think any of it matters to us. Like flyover country, we fail to see that all the food we eat on the coasts is produced in the places some think unimportant! Lots of great food in Genesis 48!
Genesis 48:10 tells us that Israel’s (a.k.a. Jacob’s) eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him…” This is reminiscent of Jacob’s own blessing when he went to the bedside of Isaac, his father, who could not see, to receive the blessing. There Isaac could not see and therefore did not know what he was doing. However, though Israel does not see, the story makes clear that he is fully aware of what He is doing. We will discover this Sunday that Jacob sees into Israel’s future, not only the future of the twelve tribes, he sees the glorious future of God’s people realized fully in the Church.
That means that this story is ultimately about you and me! So, as foreign as this account might seem on the surface, it has to do with what makes the whole of the Bible relevant to you and me. It’s the food that feeds the rest of the Gospel story.