The Force of a Story

Passages

Genesis 48:8-21

Sermon Summary

Jacob has been a bitter and cynical old man, but before he dies he begins to see his life folded into God’s Bigger Story of Grace. He has suffered many sorrows, but now By adopting Joseph’s half-Egyptian sons as his own and giving them the prophetic blessings of a firstborn son, he is finally beginning to understand God's grace. Looking in the rearview mirror, he sees how despite his scheming and doubtful heart, God has entrusted him with the covenant promises to bless him and to bless the whole world through his descendants. He trusts that God will bring his descendants to the promised land, and he sees how God has intervened, often through angels, to redeem his failures. And by blessing Joseph's younger son Ephraim above Manasseh, he shows that he is beginning to "get" the pattern of God's upside-down kingdom of grace.

Discussion Questions (choose any—you don't have to answer them all!)

1. [Optional starter question] What stood out or stuck with you from the sermon?
2. Consider what you know about Jacob from previous chapters of Genesis. Where is his transformation most obvious to you in this passage?
3. What are some sorrows in your story?
4. What are some undeserved gifts of grace in your story?
5. How does God's past grace to you help you to trust that he has grace for your future?
6. In what areas of life do you tend to (wrongly) expect, like Joseph  here, that God will act in traditional ways that make sense to you?
7. Who is someone in your life that God has called you to channel his grace to? What do you think that grace could look like in practice?
8. What is something you long for God to do that you expect him to do—but maybe not in your lifetime?

Resources Consulted

• Africa Bible Commentary, ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo
• The Message of Genesis, Joyce Baldwin
• Genesis for Everyone, John Goldingay
• Tyndale Commentary on Genesis, Derek Kidner
• Living in Light of Inextinguishable Hope, Ian Duguid and Matthew Harmon
• Reading Genesis, Marilynne Robinson
• The Five Books of Moses, Robert Alter
• How to Read Genesis, Tremper Longman II
• NIV Application Commentary on Genesis, John Walton
• Zondervan Genesis Commentary, Bruce Waltke