And I have to say, so far, I'm happy with it.
This is the LifeSpring One Year Bible Rewind,
and coming to you from Riverside, California,
podcasting since 2004, I'm Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster.
This is the podcast that comes to you every day,
and we're reading the entire Bible together in a year.
I'm so glad you're here. Welcome.
The website is lifespringmedia.com.
Check it out. There are over 4,000 podcast episodes there.
Today is National Kiss a Ginger Day.
Participation is optional.
Wisdom is strongly advised.
And personally, there are no redheads in my life, so it isn't even an option for me.
Today is also the Law Monday.
We'll complete the book of Genesis with the reading of chapters 48 through 50.
We'll also have a verse of the day.
See if you can guess which verse it'll be as we read the chapters.
And of course, there will be an On This Date in Church History.
Let's begin.
Our Heavenly Father, Lord, as we read your word, we pray, God, that you would touch our hearts and that you would teach us.
Give us something, Lord, that we can hang on to and remember and make a part of our lives.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Genesis chapter 48.
Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Indeed, your father is sick.
And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
And Jacob was told, Look, your son Joseph is coming to you.
And Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.
Then Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people,
and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.
And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine.
As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
Your offspring, whom you beget after them, shall be yours.
They will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
But as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way,
when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath.
And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
Then Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?
And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.
And he said, Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.
Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see.
Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face, but in fact God has also shown me your offspring.
So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth.
And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand,
and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him.
Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger,
and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads, let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him.
So he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn.
Put your right hand on his head.
But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know.
He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great.
But truly this younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.
So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.
And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.
Moreover, I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.
Genesis chapter 49
Then Jacob sent for his sons. He said, Gather around me so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.
Sons of Jacob, come together and listen.
Listen to your father Israel.
Reuben, you are my oldest son.
You were my first child.
You were the first sign of my strength.
You were first in honor.
You were first in power.
But you are as unsteady as water, so you won't be first anymore.
You had sex with your father's concubine in his bed.
You lay on his couch and made it unclean.
Simeon and Levi are brothers.
Their swords have killed a lot of people. I won't share in their plans. I won't have anything to do
with them. They became angry and killed people. They cut the legs of oxen just for the fun of it.
May the Lord put a curse on them because of their terrible anger. I will scatter them in Jacob's
land. I will spread them around in Israel. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your enemies will
be brought under your control. Your father's sons will bow down to you. Judah, you are like a lion's
cub. You return from hunting, my son. Like a lion, you lie down and sleep. You are like a mother lion.
Who dares to wake you up? The right to rule will not leave Judah. The ruler's rod will not be taken
from between his feet. It will be his until the king it belongs to comes. It will be his until the
nations obey him. He will tie his donkey to a vine. He will tie his colt to the very best branch.
He will wash his clothes in wine. He will wash his robes in the red juice of grapes.
His eyes will be darker than wine. His teeth will be whiter than milk.
Zebulun will live by the seashore. He will become a safe harbor for ships.
His border will go out towards Sidon. Issachar is like a donkey lying down between two
saddlebags. He sees how good his resting place is. He sees that his land is pleasant, so he'll carry
a heavy load on his back. He will obey when he's forced to work. Dan will do what is fair for his
people. He will do it as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent by the side of the
road. He will be a poisonous snake along the path. It bites the horse's heels so that the rider falls
off backward. Lord, I look to you to save me. Gad will be attacked by a group of robbers,
but he'll attack them as they run away. Asher's food will be rich and sweet. He will provide food
that even a king would enjoy. Naphtali is a female deer that is set free and gives birth to beautiful
fawns. Joseph is a vine that grows a lot of fruit. It grows close by a spring. Its branches climb
over a wall. Mean people shot arrows at him. They shot at him because they were angry. But his bow
remained steady. His strong arms moved freely. The hand of the Mighty One of Jacob was with him.
The shepherd, the Rock of Israel, stood by him. Your Father's God helps you. The Mighty One blesses
you. He gives you blessings from the highest heavens. He gives you blessings from the deepest
oceans. He blesses you with children and with a mother's milk. Your father's blessings are great.
They are greater than all the blessings from the age-old mountains. They are greater than the
gifts from the ancient hills. Let all of those blessings rest on the head of Joseph. Let them
rest on the head of the one who is prince among his brothers. Benjamin is a hungry wolf. In the
morning he eats what he has killed. In the evening he shares what he has stolen. All of those are the
twelve tribes of Israel. That's what their father said to them when he blessed them.
He gave each one the blessing that was just right for him.
Then Jacob gave directions to his sons. He said, I'm about to join the members of my family who
have already died. Bury me with them in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
The cave is in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, in Canaan. Abraham had bought it as a place where
he could bury his wife's body. He had bought the cave from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.
The bodies of Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there. So were the bodies of Isaac and
his wife Rebekah. I also buried Leah's body there. Abraham bought the field and the cave from the
Hittites. When Jacob had finished telling his sons what to do, he pulled his feet up into his bed.
Then he took his last breath and joined the members of his family who had already died.
Genesis chapter 50
Joseph threw himself on his father's body.
He sobbed over him and kissed him.
Then Joseph talked to the doctors who served him.
He told him to prepare the body of his father Israel to be buried.
So the doctors prepared it.
They took forty days to do it.
They needed that much time to prepare a body in the right way.
The Egyptians sobbed over Jacob for seventy days.
After the days of sorrow had passed, Joseph went to Pharaoh's officials.
He said to them, If you are pleased with me, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, My father made me take an oath and make a promise to him. He said, I am about to die. Bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. So let me go up and bury my father. Then I will come back.
Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father. Do what he made you promise to do.
So Joseph went up to bury his father. All of Pharaoh's officials went with him. They were
the important people of his court and all the leaders of Egypt. All of Joseph's family also
went. His brothers and all the rest of his father's family went too. Only their children
and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen also went up with him.
It was a very large group. They came to the threshing floor of Atad. It was near the Jordan
River. There they sobbed loudly and bitterly. Joseph set apart seven days of sadness to honor
his father's memory. The people of Canaan who were living there saw how sad all of them were
at the threshing floor of Atad. They said, The Egyptians are having a very special service for
the dead. That's why that place near the Jordan River is called Abel of the Egyptians. So Jacob's
sons did exactly as he had commanded them. They carried his body to the land of Canaan. They
buried it in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre. Abraham had bought the cave as a
place where he could bury his wife's body. He had bought it from Ephraim the Hittite along with the
field. After Joseph buried his father, he went back to Egypt. His brothers and all of the others who
had gone up to help him bury his father went back with him. Now that their father was dead,
Joseph's brothers were worried. They said, Remember all of the bad things we did to Joseph?
What if he decides to hold those things against us? What if he pays us back for them?
So they sent a message to Joseph. They said, Your father gave us directions before he died.
He said, Here's what you must say to Joseph. Tell him, I'm asking you to forgive your brothers.
Forgive the terrible things they did to you. Forgive them for treating you so badly.
Now then, please forgive our sins.
We serve the God of your father.
When the message came to Joseph, he sobbed.
Then his brothers came and threw themselves down in front of him.
We are your slaves, they said.
But Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid.
Do you think I'm God?
You planned to harm me, but God planned it for good.
He planned to do what is now being done.
He wanted to save many lives.
So then, don't be afraid.
I'll provide for you and your children. He set them free from their fears, and he spoke in a
kind way to them. Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father's family. He lived a hundred
and ten years. He lived long enough to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. When the children of
Makir were born, they were placed on Joseph's knees and counted as his own children. Makir was
the son of Manasseh. Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but I'm sure that God will come
to help you. He'll take you up out of this land. He'll bring you to the land he promised with an
oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and make a
promise to him. He said, I'm sure that God will come to help you. Then you must carry my bones up
from this place. So Joseph died at the age of 110. They prepared his body to be buried.
Then he was placed in a casket in Egypt. In chapters 48 and 49, we saw the last days of Jacob.
And the first half of chapter 50 deals with the days between Jacob's death and burial. And then
the first part of the last half of the chapter tells us that Joseph's brothers were afraid that
now that Jacob was dead, Joseph would punish them for how they treated him when he was younger.
I'll get back to that in a moment. The close of chapter 50 tells us about Joseph's death at the
age of 110 years. Now back to Joseph and his frightened brothers. Of course, from a human
perspective, Joseph had every reason to want to take revenge on his brothers. They sold him into
slavery, after all. But he was able to look back over his life and how God had been with him through
every hardship and throughout his time as Pharaoh's second-in-command. And he said to his brothers,
you planned to harm me, but God planned it for good. Note that. Joseph said God planned it for
good. The Hebrew word there that we translated there as planned is chashab. Let me tell you the
literal meaning of the word. It means to weave. So Joseph said, but God weaved it for good. I often
think of our lives as a tapestry. Have you ever looked closely at a tapestry? When you get up
close, very close, close enough to see the individual threads, all you see are the threads.
From that vantage point, it doesn't look like much. It might not have any beauty at all,
as a matter of fact. You don't see the design because you're too close. But the one who wove
that tapestry had a specific design in mind, and through careful planning and execution,
The finished product is a work of art.
And when you stand far enough away from it to see the whole tapestry, it's beautiful.
On a day-to-day basis, we only see our lives from very, very close up.
We only see the threads.
We can't see the finished product like God can.
He has a specific design in mind for you and for me.
He takes the things that happen in our lives and wheezes them into a beautiful, finished tapestry.
Romans 8.28 says it a bit differently.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.
When I look at my life from a one-day perspective,
when that's all I'm looking at, depending on how the day is going,
I might think I'm on top of the world, or I might be discouraged beyond measure.
But if I look back over the years, I can easily see how God has cheshabbed me.
I don't know if that's the proper Hebrew, but you get the idea.
God has woven the days of my life into a tapestry that I hope will be beautiful when it's finished.
And I have to say, so far, I'm happy with it.
And with him as the artist, I'm confident that it will be just what he planned.
Tomorrow we'll read 1 Samuel 11-15.
Here's the verse of the day.
Our verse of the day is Genesis 50, verse 20.
You planned to harm me, but God planned it for good.
He planned to do what is now being done.
He wanted to save many lives.
Genesis 50, verse 20.
On this date in church history, in 1523, the city council of Zurich convened what became
known as the First Zurich Disputation.
At that public forum, Holdrick Zwingli defended his call for reform by appealing directly to
Scripture. What a concept! After the debate, the Council ruled that preaching in Zurich should be
guided by the Bible rather than by church tradition alone. That decision moved reform
out of private argument and into public life. Zurich officially allowed change to proceed on
biblical grounds, shaping how the Reformation unfolded in Switzerland and influencing Protestant
movements far beyond it. Scripture was no longer treated as distant authority. It was placed before
ordinary people and civic leaders alike. Alongside this, the early Reformation period also brought a
cultural and worship change that deserves notice. As Scripture was preached more clearly, worship
itself began to change. Services increasingly used the language of the people, congregational
singing expanded, and the focus moved from ritual toward teaching, prayer, and shared
participation. That combination, public scripture and accessible worship, helped reshape how
everyday believers understood faith, church, and their place within it.
Praises and prayer requests are Wednesday, which, as you know, I will record tomorrow since tomorrow is Tuesday.
If you have something to bring to the Lifespring family for prayer, send it in ASAP.
Send it to prayer.lifespringmedia.com or steve at lifespringmedia.com or the Lifespring Family Hotline.
Lifestring Family Hotline, 951-732-8511.
Lifestring Family, Family Hotline, 951-732-8511.
When you send your prayer requests in, I'll pray for you in my daily prayer time.
And I'll pray for you on the show so that we can all agree together as we take our requests to God.
If you enjoy the show, tell someone.
Beloved, when we look at Joseph's life, we see that what others intend for harm, God is already weaving for good.
We may only see today's threads, but the God who calls us according to His purpose
is faithfully working all things together for our good.
Until tomorrow, beloved, may God bless you richly.
Thank you so much for being here and including me in your day.
My name is Steve Webb.
Bye.
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The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind is a Lifespring Media production
hosted by Steve Webb, the OG Godcaster, since 2004.