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Completion

Words of Faith Final

Completion
Words of Faith 8-18-2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2022
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Genesis 48
Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is ill." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. [2] When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
[3] Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me [4] and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.'
[5] "Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. [6] Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. [7] As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).
[8] When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, "Who are these?"
[9] "They are the sons God has given me here," Joseph said to his father.
Then Israel said, "Bring them to me so I may bless them."
[10] Now Israel's eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
[11] Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too."

Jacob was frail and near the end of earthly life, but he rallied strength enough to sit up in bed and bless his sons. His first order of business was to bless two of his grandsons as though they were his own sons. This was more than just a special honor. By elevating the sons of Joseph to be counted as his sons, Jacob did several things that pointed toward the future.
Elevating the sons of Joseph gave a double portion of the inheritance to the family of Joseph. Joseph had always held a special place in the heart of his father. He was the firstborn of Jacob's beloved wife, Rachel. He also saved the entire family from starvation. Jacob now gave him a double blessing. But this was not about financial inheritance. Joseph was already extremely wealthy. Making Joseph's sons full brothers in the tribe would affect the settling of the land generations later in the time of Joshua. It also did something else.
Jacob's blessing also made the number of his sons twelve. There would now be twelve tribes of Israel rather than eleven. Twelve is an important Bible number. Twelve is considered to be a perfect or complete number. The number twelve appears in creation and in music. There are twelve tones in a chromatic scale before reaching the octave. There are twelve hours in the day and twelve in the night. Twelve was thought to signify the perfection of government, just as the sun governs the day and the moon governs the night (Genesis 1:17-18).
While seven is composed of three added to four, twelve is three multiplied by four. The Bible records too many incidences of twelve and its multiples to recount here fully. Twelve generations were recorded from Seth to Noah and twelve from Shem to Jacob. Twelve was also the predominant number in measuring Jerusalem and the building of the Temple. Of course, Jesus would choose the Twelve disciples, and that number was preserved in the early church even after the betrayal by Judas.
With the blessing of twelve sons, there is a powerful sense that Jacob's life and destiny were now "complete." He was prepared to pass on the enormous legacy that had started with his father's father, Abraham.
The wonderful thing is that we are heirs of that same legacy. The work of redemption that God began in Abraham was completed much later in this very family, through the person of Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate miracle of completion. He is the tone that resolves an ascending scale to a perfect octave. He is the ultimate rule of God in our lives. He is the one who completes our broken lives and clothes us with His righteousness. This is the miracle of Jesus.

Lord God, I thank You for completion. I give thanks for Your Son Jesus, who makes me into the New Creation. I give thanks for the wholeness I find only in Him. Resolve the ascending scale in my life with Jesus. In Jesus' name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2022 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.