(Genesis) Genesis 48:4-6

Now listen to verse 4, And he said unto me, Behold, I'll make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I'll make of thee a multitude of people, and I will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. Now keep those two things in mind. They run through the entire Old Testament and into the New Testament, friends.

God promised this line, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs, and he said to them that through you two things will be accomplished. Well, actually three things, but the important thing right here for Jacob was, I'm going to make you fruitful. I'll make a nation to come from you.

And the second thing, I give you this land. Those are two things that you can nail down. They're very important as far as the Bible is concerned.

Now the third thing is important for you and me. I'll make you a blessing to all nations, to all people. And the reason that right now you and I are sitting down with our Bible and considering the Word of God is because God's made good His promise that He made way back yonder.

And God, by the way, has made two-thirds of that promise good. One-third He hadn't really. They don't have that land today.

Oh, they've got a little border there, but I tell you, it's a bone of contention. But when they get it from the hand of God, they'll live there in peace. Every man under his vine and fig tree.

They'll own their property then, pay no taxes. Believe me, friends, if that took place, it'd be the millennium, wouldn't it? Well, that's what it'll be when they get it. Now may I read on here, verse 5. And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee in Egypt, they're mine.

Well, they are, as his grandsons. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Now what is going to take place is that the two sons of Joseph become each one a tribe.

Now, I know immediately someone is going to say, well, there were 13 tribes of the nation Israel. No, my friend, there were not 13 tribes, only 12. Well, you're going to count it up on your fingers and say, well, I count 12 sons.

And then if the two sons of Joseph are made a tribe, each one of them, and they were. There was the tribe of Ephraim, tribe of Manasseh. There was no tribe of Joseph.

But one tribe becomes two tribes. Now that makes 13 in any man's mathematics. But friends, it's not 13 tribes, because the tribe of Levi that became the high priestly tribe, they were not counted.

They were not given any land. They were not given a territory. They were scattered as priests throughout the tribes and were not counted as a tribe.

So that actually there are 12 tribes. Now, you may say, well, that seems to me to be a rather devious way. Well, I didn't do it.

The Word of God does it that way, and that's the way God wanted it, and that's the way God made it. Now will you notice verse 5, And now my two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt. And they're pretty good-sized boys.

They have to be 17 years old. And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren and their inheritance. Now old Jacob picks these two boys out, each one to become a tribe.

Now notice where his mind goes again.