Episode 10: The Legacy We Leave

Katie Laitkep: Here’s Erin Davis.

Erin Davis: We serve the one true God, the only God, and we trust that God is working. He’s always working in our families, and His plan is good, even when we cannot see it.

Katie: Welcome back to The Deep Wellwith Erin Davis. I’m Katie Laitkep. “Bless you!” In our culture, that’s something people say after a sneeze. But in the days of Jacob and his sons, a blessing was a really big deal. Erin will explain why, continuing in this series “Dysfunction.”

Erin: I met a woman once who had inherited two Bibles, from each of her grandmothers. And she told me that one of the Bibles was falling apart, the binding was broken, there were notes all over it. She’d written on every page, it seemed. . She’d stuck church bulletins in it for years.

The other Bible was pristine. It could have been in a museum. It looked like it had never ever been opened. I asked her, “Did the state of your grandmothers’ Bibles reflect the state of their lives?” And she said, “Oh, yes! The old adage is true: a Bible that is falling apart probably belongs to a woman who isn’t.

That’s part of why I leave my little farm. As I’m doing this recording, I have the cutest little baby chicks under the heat lamp. I had to leave them for a few days. It’s why I record new seasons of The Deep Well podcast. I want to build a legacy of standing firm on God’s Word!

I want my family to be built on that legacy. I want to help you. I want to help you build a legacy of standing on God’s Word in your family. “Legacy” is an interesting concept. It’s one most of us don’t think about in our teen years or our twenties or even in our thirties.

But as the decades start to add up, it gets harder and harder to deny that our time on earth is short. We will leave a mark—for better or for worse—on our families when we’re gone. 

We’ve been exploring the life of Joseph, chapter by chapter. I’ve spent several episodes building a case that Joseph’s family (you’ll remember he was the great-grandson of Father Abraham) are not famous to us people of faith because they were flawless, but because God was so faithful!

Remember in the last episode, Joseph and his brothers were reunited after years of estrangement! But there’s another reunion, and we’re about to watch it unfold. I’m in Genesis 46. Let me read to us verses 1–4. “So Israel”—remember, that’s Jacob. Israel and Jacob are one and the same.

“So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.”

You should hear the echoes here of another promise, the one that God had made to Abraham all those years ago. Bible scholar, take note, it was God’s will that Jacob leave the Promised Land to go to Egypt. Remember that the next time you read about the Exodus.

We don’t know all the whys, but I do know that all the best scribes in the world were in Egypt—a skill that would come in handy when Moses wrote the Pentateuch. God’s plans so rarely align with our human plans. We think in a line. God, it seems, thinks in three dimensions.

So Jacob obeyed the Lord. We see that in verses 5 through 27. We also see the details of just how big this family had grown! Verses 26 and 27 give us a summary: 

All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy. 

When was the last time you took a sixty-person road trip?! The next time you’re on a big family vacation, just be glad you’re not doing it on camels!

Did you ever watch those YouTube videos when the dad comes home from a military deployment to surprise his kids? My heart can’t handle it! Well, that’s a pretty good picture: that massive family road trip followed by those tear-filled reunions of what happened next in Joseph’s story.

Genesis chapter 46, verses 28 through 29: 

He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. 

A father and his boy. I tell my sons all the time, “It doesn’t matter how old you get, it doesn’t matter how big you get (they’re all going to be taller than me), you’ll always be Momma’s boy! And so this dad, who we know was old, and this son, who we know wasn’t a boy anymore, Scripture records them just holding each other and crying.

Jacob didn’t know to dream of this day—remember, he thought his son Joseph was dead—but Joseph did. How often had he longed to see his dad’s face again? How many times had he pictured a moment just like this?

In Genesis 47, we see that Joseph helped his family resettle in a prime piece of real estate that Pharoah granted him, because of Joseph’s importance. The famine that Joseph had interpreted those dreams to mean, it was all going on. And in fact, once Jacob’s family moved, it intensified.

But God continued to use Joseph to help the Egyptians, and now the Israelites (this is the beginning of the Israelites, you realize) God used Joseph to help them survive. As seasons came and went, Jacob edged ever closer to the end of his life. 

Let’s read Genesis 47:29–30: 

And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” [Joseph] answered, “I will do as you have said.” 

Chapters 48 and 49 outline Jacob ending his life with blessing his family. As Genesis chapter 48 begins, Jacob communicates his desire to bless his grandsons, Joseph’s sons. I love how Scripture shows the tender, human parts of family. And after Jacob blessed those boys, he turned to Joseph.

Let me read us verses 21–22: 

Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

What did Jacob give this most beloved son? He gave him an inheritance—yes of land, a mountain, and that’s always nice, but more importantly, he gave his son an inheritance of faith. 

Chapter 49 tells us that Jacob gathered all of his sons together. Can you picture it? These boys who have become men, who at one point couldn’t even bear to speak to each other, who had sinned against each other, not just in the ways we’ve talked about here in Scripture, but I’m sure they had sinned against each other many, many, many times over the course of their lives.

And now those men were standing shoulder to shoulder around the deathbed of their dad. They must have been so eager for a blessing . . . and each brother got it. Jacob took the time to bless each son individually. He spoke words of life and faith over every single one of them.

There is something so special and so profound about the words we speak over our family. When my redheaded granny was dying—she knew she was dying, we knew she was dying—she called us in, and she spoke over blessings over those of us who were there.

I was with her, and then I had gone. She turned to my aunt and she told my aunt that she “wanted Erin to have one of her kitchen gadgets.” And then she died. And for a couple of years afterwards I thought, What in the world? My inheritance is this kitchen gadget! 

But I love to cook, and I learned to cook from my granny and from my momma. And part of my inheritance was that she was thinking about me, and she wanted to put something in my hands, in my everyday life, that everytime I used it I’d be thinking about her. It was a good inheritance.

And that’s what Jacob gave his sons. And then it was time for the boys who had become men to say, “Goodbye.” And it was time for them to live like their dad had taught them. I pick it up in verse 28: 

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am [about] to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan [he’s talking about the Promised Land] which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah—the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” (vv. 28–31)

And we are still telling this story—Jacob’s story, Joseph’s story, which is really God’s story—so many years later. We can leave that kind of legacy. I mean, we can’t on our own, it’s something that God has to do in our families. But if we’re looking at Joseph’s story as an example that we can follow, it isn’t as hard as we might think. 

We serve the one true God, the only God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We trust that God is working. He’s always working in our families, and that His plan is good, even when we cannot see it. 

No matter who you are, no matter what age you are, no matter what you think of when I say the word “family,” like it or not, conscious of it or not, you are building a legacy! So we pray for our families.

When things are good, we pray. When things are bad, we pray. We repent, we forgive. And when we look at the faces of those gathered around our deathbed, or even now, when we look at the faces that we hope will be gathered around our deathbed, we proclaim, like Jacob, a prayer.

I have loved as I have studied this family, Genesis 48:15–16. I’ll end with this. It’s Jacob’s prayer. It could be our prayer, too. 

“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day . . . the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” 

Katie: Erin, thanks for helping all of us see the value of offering a blessing to those around us!

Erin: I’m afraid I can’t take the credit; it’s all over our Bibles. We see it in the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament. This idea that God’s people are supposed to bless other people, and it requires us to be intentional!

Katie: I love that when we get to study the Word under your teaching, you take us to a different culture. In this case we got to study the world of Jacob and his sons living in Egypt. I think you help us understand the biblical texts better and help us to apply them to what we’re living in, in this century.

Erin: Thank you, Katie. That’s definitely the goal!

Katie: Now, as people want to continue studying how the Bible applies to different contexts, I would recommend checking out other seasons of The Deep Well. There’s one that you taught called “In a Little While,” and that helps us in seasons of waiting. You have a series called “Connected”that deals with loneliness. There’s one called “Looking to a Better Country” and that points us to our hope in eternity.

Erin: Well I’m a Jeep owner, myself, and so I like to use that image for how we study the Bible. Well, let’s just go off-road! Let’s go in four-wheel drive, and let’s go in areas of our Bible that we haven’t been to before.” Maybe we’ve just taken the scenic overlook, but we’ve never actually gone down the trail. Or maybe we’ve looked at it in one way and perhaps we can look at it in a different way. 

So, really, my hope for The Deep Well is that I will point women to know and love your whole Bible! So, we get ready to go on some bumpy trails sometimes.

Katie: Alright, so you are ready for an off-road adventure to go through your entire Bible! You can find all of Erin’s series at ReviveOurHearts.com. Okay, now it’s time for Erin Unscripted. Someone asked a really good question! 

Erin Unscripted

Someone in the audience was listening, and they wanted to know more about Jacob’s blessing. Because to us, Jacob’s blessing to Joseph sounded like he was saying something positive, but Jacob’s blessing to some of his other sons sounded very negative. So someone asked, “Was that really considered a blessing?” Let’s listen to Erin’s answer.

Erin: Well, again, our tendency (and we have to just retrain ourselves) is to read our context into their context. So when we think of parents blessing their kids, we think of warm, fuzzy feelings with very, very positive sentiments. And those are good.

But in this context, this is more prophetic. This is Jacob speaking into their lives what he sees. And good parents know we don’t just speak warm fuzzy feelings. I’m actually blessing my children when I call out those things in their lives that are going to drive them into the ditch.

I’m actually blessing my children when I see an area of correction. It might not feel good, but that’s my understanding of blessing. It is that he’s speaking words over his sons to help his sons live out their lives without him. He’s going. He won’t be able to correct them anymore in a way that’s God-honoring.

As we’ve been tracing the story, we know that the things that he said to Reuben, Reuben deserved. The things that he said specifically to Simeon and Levi, knowing all that they did, the defiling of Dinah, those things were true. 

So I would just say maybe our understanding of blessing is what’s mixed up there. He was saying what was true of his sons in the hopes that maybe some of his sons would course correct, and then God would bless their righteous lives.

Woman #1: So, when you’re reading this text, I thought, Poor Rachel! She’s not even mentioned being buried. I see back in chapter 35 that she was buried in Bethlehem, but still . . .

Erin: Yep, well that’s because of the way her death happened in the unfolding of the story. They had not yet settled here. But, yeah, Jacob gets buried with Leah—the wife whom he didn’t love as much as Rachel, the wife who always wanted his affections. They were buried side by side. So, I don’t know if it was, “Poor Rachel,” or “Yay, Leah” but it is definitely complicated!

Woman #2: I liked how you said that these heroes of the faith were not famous because they were flawless. I feel like oftentimes we look at leaders and Bible teachers such as yourself and expect you to be more godly than we are. It seems that none of us are ever going to have flawless faith. So what sort of faith should we aspire to have, since it’s not going to be flawless?

Erin: I aspire to have a needy faith. I need Jesus! It’s my flaws that bring that to my attention all the time! I hope that I am very clear that just because I’m up here with the microphone and the Bible open, it’s not because I’ve figured something out that you can’t or haven’t. I love my Bible because I need it so much; I need it every single day!

And so, the kind of faith that I hope to have is a very honest one. Jesus knows my brokenness. He knows how much I need Him. He knows how many times I fail. I try to be very honest with Him and with all of you about it. 

I would say it’s not true that we’re never going to have flawless faith because the day is coming when what we now know in faith we will know in full. We will be free of these broken natures, and we will be with Jesus forever. We won’t need faith anymore because faith will become sight, but it will be flawless.

If I didn’t have that hope, I would be discouraged a lot more than I am. But I do have that hope. Philippians promises that God began a good work in me at salvation, He’s going to carry it on to completion. And the day of completion is the return of Christ.

So there will be a flawless day; it’s not today. So, I just am trying to be more and more like Jesus every day and hold onto His grace every day, and stay low and humble every day. I’ve often said there’s a reason why “humility” and “humiliation” are such similar words. I’m on the path of humility because I humiliate myself through my sin so often. And so, just an honest, needy, humble faith for now.

Heidi: My name is Heidi and, Erin, when you were mentioning the stories of Abraham and Jacob and Isaac that we don’t read them because they’re flawless, what caught my ears is that you said, “. . . but because God is the faithful One!”

And, just tying in with what you’ve been talking about, my mind immediately went to a verse I read early this morning: Paul’s prayers for the Thessalonian believers at the end of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5:23–24. He said, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And then he said, “And God is the faithful One and he will surely do it.” 

Erin: Amen!

Heidi: It tied in so beautifully with what I had just read and just what you’ve been talking about with the legacy. God is the faithful One, and He’s the One who will surely do it.

Erin: That speaks into how we approach our Bible on The Deep Well. We know that it's all one big story. So the things we read in the New Testament are affirmed in the Old Testament and vice versa.

We know that it’s not actually the story of the characters in the Bible. It’s actually the story of what God has done, plans to do, and is going to do in the generations of mankind that He has created. So I’m glad that you drew that out.

Erika: My name’s Erika. I just have a comment following on that. In Jacob’s blessing to Joseph in chapter 48, verses 15–16, he acknowledges that it was God who was his Shepherd all his life, and it was this angel redeeming him, and it was not him.

I just think that’s the kind of legacy I want to leave for my boys. I’m going to mess up big time. I’m already flawed every day, but I want them to see the Shepherd who is the One leading me.

Erin: Yes. I’ve had some bedside blessings from people in my family. The ones that have been the most impactful have been those who’ve said, “I’ve failed in a lot of ways. It didn’t all turn out like I’d hoped it would, but the Lord’s been with me every step.” Those are powerful, powerful legacy statements! Karen?

Karen: So I’ve always been told that there’s a difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. Sometimes I have a tendency to be the peacekeeper. I liked the idea that you had said when he was giving them blessings. You said you’re giving a blessing to your child when you’re correcting them. That’s always been hard for me to do. How can you not leave a legacy to your children if you’re not going to tell them, “You know, this is where you’re going to be if you don’t follow God,” things like that? How do you be more of a peacemaker and not a peacekeeper?

Erin: You’re asking the wrong girl! I always say I’m like those rams on National Geographic that are just like, “Boom! Boom!” I run into conflict, which is swinging the other way. The Lord tempers me in that, but it comes back to motive.

Are you a peacekeeper because the tension makes you uncomfortable because you’re nervous of how it might reflect on you, because you’ve had some bad experiences and that has made you be fearful?

A peacemaker is rooted in, “We want true peace here, not manufactured peace, not to just get through the meal without somebody throwing their mashed potatoes across the room! But we want true peace.”

As we’ve drawn out with Joseph’s brothers, they couldn’t have had peace. They kept the peace, they didn’t ’fess up to their dad what they had done. They couldn’t have had true inner peace because they were hiding it.

So, it’s those motives of true unity, truly walking out forgiveness and repentance. It takes a willingness to walk through the uncomfortable, walk through the hard, to get us to a place of really understanding each other and repenting and being united with each other. So, one’s messy, one’s manufactured. I’d take the messy every time.

Katie: Next time on The Deep Well, Erin is going to share some of the challenges that you may be facing with aging parents and dementia. You’ll be encouraged to keep serving, even when it’s hard.

The Deep Well with Erin Davis is part of the Revive Our Hearts podcast family, calling women to greater freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

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