Genesis 48-49
When we read the story about Jacob and Esau, there were two incidents where Jacob unrightfully took something from Esau. The first thing Jacob took from Esau was his birthright, that is, the firstborn was entitled to inherit everything from the father. The second thing Jacob stole was the blessing. Now, while the birthright was cultural/legal, the blessing seems to be specific to this family in that God has promised a spiritual blessing to them through Abraham. It could be that the thought of spiritual blessing went back even further, since Abraham could have known Noah and Noah might have known Seth or Enosh. This lineage (Adam to Noah to Abraham) is the lineage that is carrying the promise of a coming redeemer (made to Adam and Eve) into the future and to all mankind (the promise made to Abraham).
Gen. 48
Jacob "adopts" the two sons of Joseph to be number one and two in Israel. God apparently led Jacob to do this, but it wouldn't really turn out quite like he must have thought. Putting Manasseh and Ephraim into the equation here would not have made anyone mad. It would be 400 years until the exodus and when Jacob blesses his sons in the next chapter, these young men, not boys, are not mentioned. In essence, Joseph gets two tribes, though in 400 years no one will care.
What is interesting here, is that Ephraim seems to get both the birthright and the blessing. Now, while these two men will become tribes in Israel, and we'll see that the blessing to Ephraim seems to have an interesting "moment" during the 40 years in the wilderness, it is hard to say that the tribe of Ephraim has any good effect or any notable contribution in Israel's later history.
Even here, where God nudges Jacob to cross his hands so that the younger, Ephraim, receives the firstborn right and blessing over his older brother Manasseh, God makes his choice for the lineage of the blessing in another way.
As disciples, we obey the Lord, now, as He directs. We don't need to worry if God makes other choices tomorrow that seem to indicate what we did yesterday was meaningless. Too often we see a decision the Lord makes and then "write the story" of how that decision or event is going to work out for His glory. Then, our "story" or what we have told everyone was "absolutely God's plan or will" dissolves. The problem is not with the Lord, it is with us assuming that the "leading," or "event," or "healing" of today will be something other than what it obviously is, "the leading for today," not tomorrow. We are servants, workers in His harvest, but He is God, our Lord and we follow whether it makes sense to us or not. If He tells us to dig a hole today and it gets filled in tomorrow, that is His business. (Those of us who were in the military already understand this as standard operating procedure. 
Gen. 49
Now, most of these blessings are cryptic. Who knows what they all mean besides God. The tribe of Dan becomes the first tribe to fall into full blown idolatry. Is that seen in the "blessing" on Dan? Who knows? God knows.
Glean from these blessings what you can, from what is obvious. And one other thing, in Bible study methods there is a thing called "the law of proportion." That means, in making observations, look for the length of the blessings. Two blessings stand out as having a larger proportion of text, and therefore, of Jacob's attention and blessing.
Verses 8-12 are very important verses.
V. 31, call me sentimental, but I think it is "sweet" that God chose Leah to be buried in the family tomb with Sarah and Rebekah, the women "of the promise." Leah was unloved, yet was blessed by God and bore more children than any of the other women. And through Leah came the Christ.
Matthew 15:29-16:12
Matt. 15:29-39
Jesus' "attractional" ministry had the effect of gathering a crowd for Him to teach. I really believe that the healings and feeding were only, merely, (searching for other "lessening" adjectives) tools. Faith and welcoming Christ as Savior and Lord was always the main point. The effect of feeding the 5000 (read John 6) was the exposing of the crass need fulfillment of the people. The people who ate were the people who rejected Jesus. This is why disciples should never be fooled by numbers. People (and Christians are people) use churches. Good leaders and disciples who make disciples, focus people on the necessity of living faith, following Christ into the harvest, as disciples making disciples in the harvest. Church is never ever about a crowd. Crowds too often distract us from the mission.
This "feeding" had several purposes. It gave the disciples more training on what to do with a large group, and it gave them confirmation that they could depend on God. The people were mostly Gentiles, showing both the people and the disciples, that Jesus and His offer would be going to the Gentiles. And it set them up for what was about to happen with the Pharisees.
Matt. 16:1-4
Jesus had already rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees regarding seeking signs, but He added a new "picture" here. Jesus points them to their ability to look at the sky and understand the weather. So then, why couldn't they figure out what is happening with Him in Israel at that time. The miracles, healings, and feedings were hard things to ignore. Jesus is telling them that they are suppressing truth by purposely missing the obvious. The real issue was simply sin. They didn't want to believe, regardless of the evidence.
Matt. 16:5-12
So what is the "leaven" of the Pharisees? I think it is teaching that allows people to disregard the obvious truth. Since Jesus is warning His disciples, it means they could do that, too. And they almost did, except that God gave them the gift of tongues to show the Jewish Christians that God had opened the door to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles. That was the purpose of that gift and God had to do it because the believers in Jerusalem would have rationalized and warped the truth to keep the Gentiles out and to disregard the obvious leading and working of God. The disciples were very susceptible to this "leaven." Acts ch. 11 confirms all of this.
So we laugh at the disciples in the boat acting like the 12 stooges, "Hey, do you got bread? No, I don't got no bread. Nuts, I think Jesus wants bread. Holy cow, we're in trouble. Whose job was it to get bread? Hey, I have a candy bar. You can't put that on bread. Aw, shut up you two. Remember? We don't got no bread." I'm sure this was a moment when Jesus just shook His head.
But what about us? How often do we ignore the obvious in our devotional life or in our families? Especially in terms of disciples and churches doing what they are supposed to do, you get the idea that they have made a pact to distort the obvious and redefine church and success to include not working in the harvest” and “not bearing fruit.” The "leaven" of the Pharisees is still among us.
Psalm 20
I'm sure there is one verse in this psalm you can latch on to as a disciple. I found one that spoke to me, but in general, my heart resonates with the need to cry out to the Lord for help.
Proverbs 4:20-27
Forget Solomon and imagine that this is the Father speaking to you and that the "word" is not simply these proverbs, but the entire Word of God. His Word is for the heart of faith that sees through the eyes of faith that God deeply loves us and is trying to help us in this world of death. That pleading that Solomon is doing is really the Father pleading with you. The strength and joy and desire of a disciple is to follow Christ into the harvest, abiding in Him and His Word, bearing fruit to the glory of the Father.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.
The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
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