The Book of First Chronicles begins with an overview of all of human history, so you can't accuse the chronicler of being modest. He starts his description of where Israel got how Israel got into the Promised Land, going back to creation. He really begins with Adam, but then he brings you through creation and through world history all the way. The idea is he's going present day all the way to Israel in the Promised Land. When the chronicler was writing this, this is after exile. He's explaining to the people reading it where they came from. And there's a sense in which this is our history, too. We are not. Perhaps most of us are not Jewish, so this is not our own ethnic history, but this is the history of God's people. This is a history of how God called his people out of through Abraham, out of ur, the land of the Chaldeans, how he led them into Egypt for four hundred years, and how he led them out of Egypt and back into the Promised Land. And of course, the crux of that story is found in Genesis with the twelve tribes. The twelve tribes were the twelve children, of course, of of Jacob. And they had a convoluted family tree, didn't they? Jacob, if you remember, was in love with Rachel. Rachel was the pretty one. He was the one he wanted to marry. And lo, when he lifted up the the wedding veil, there was Leah, who is not the pretty one. I don't know what the opposite of pretty is. I can't think of it, nor would I ever call a woman that. But there's some opposite of it. And so then he finds himself with two wives, and of course, the one that was beautiful that he loved did not get pregnant. Instead, it was the I can't remember the word, but that other one Gets pregnant and has six sons, for goodness sake. And so eventually Rachel puts her own servant forward and tells Jacob, sleep with my servant. Jacob does and has two sons, Dan and Naphtali, that way. And so Leah puts forth her servant tit for tat here. And Jacob goes to her and has two sons that way, Gad and Asher. And then after all of that, finally Rachel falls pregnant and has child eleven and twelve, the two that Jacob loved the most. Of course, Joseph and Benjamin. Now, Joseph was first before Benjamin and the other brothers all conspired and tried to kill him. That was their attitude towards the barren mother finally falling pregnant. Like they could tell that this was dad's favorite and now dad has a child through her. And so the other ten seemed like the reasonable thing to do to murder him. And that's the story of Israel. That's where Israel comes from. Those are their people. And we've been going through the twelve tribes. Remember, all twelve of those descendants go on to have the twelve tribes named after each of them, blessed by Jacob at the end of his life. And we'll look at the final two tonight. But I do think it's helpful to zoom out. We haven't been here in a week. It's the weather's been wonderful and all of that, but it's here to zoom out a few weeks because of Christmas and Easter. So it's good to zoom out again and remember where we've been going. And just look at the list of the twelve tribes on the screen so that we can draw from them. You'll notice that there's really only nine names on the screen because I skip eight, which is Benjamin will save Benjamin for, um, the story of Saul and where he comes from next week. He's the one that's not kind of kind of in order. So we skip Benjamin. We'll deal with Benjamin next week, Lord willing. Uh, and then eleven and twelve is who we're dealing with today, Asher and Manasseh. So before then you have the other ten tribes and nine tribes, and we had a lesson from each of them. If you remember, Judah was the lesson of the king that God promised to bring a king. And largely the other tribes all revolve around Judah. The promise of the Savior was going to be through Judah, and he recognized going through this list and the description in the book of Chronicles, same in Genesis, that the other tribes have their significance inasmuch as they relate to the messianic promise. The promise was given to Abraham that he would have a descendant who would be the Savior of the world. That was a promise given to Adam. That was a promise given to Noah. That's the promise given to Abraham. But now Abraham starts with the twelve tribes, and the promise doesn't go to all of the tribes. It goes to the fourth son, Judah. The scepter will be in his hands. So that's where the chronicler begins. That's the most important tribe. The others revolve geographically. They revolve in a sense, literally and in a promissory sense around Judah. Simeon clings to Judah, and so Simeon is protected. And the lesson we got from Simeon is that you can be sheltered in the shadow of the Savior. You can shield yourself from God's wrath by clinging to the Savior. It's the lesson of Simeon. Reuben was the firstborn and should have been first. But natural privilege can be forfeited. That was the lesson from Reuben. Because of his violence, because of the thing with with circumcision and how he deceived and used that as a battle ploy because of his violence. Really, he forfeited his natural privilege. And remember, the cool thing, if I'm just speaking to you right here that I've learned about these twelve tribes going through this study, I've learned that their attitude, like the lesson from the twelve tribes, is very much connected to the people, the actual individuals themselves. Did you notice that the tribes took on kind of the flavor of their founder? They all took on the ethos of that. And the second thing I've learned is that the geography of the tribes all also reflect that lesson. You know, Judah had the largest land. Simeon is small, but I dug into to Judah. And so as we go through this list, I mean, I'm not going to repeat all nine of these sermons, self-control winning out, but do remember that the lesson from those, those individuals and from the geography they get is reflected in there. The lesson from the tribes that leads to Gad strengthen dependence on Yahweh. Remember, Gad positioned themselves to be the gateway into Israel. To get to Judah, you'd have to go through him. He's kind of the older brother that will fight you. And he became known as a warrior. Strength and dependence on Yahweh. Manasseh shows you that the covenant can be abandoned. Manasseh was the favored son. Remember Joseph, uh, split with his children. Manasseh was supposed to be the favorite. Joseph had two children. So there's not a Joseph tribe. Remember his two children split. And the hilarious thing was, Jacob was supposed to bless the older and bless the younger, because that's how Jacob rolls. And it was funny. Remember, Joseph was like, you're blessing the wrong child. And Jacob's like, I'm old. I'm going to die. Take your hand off of mine. I'll bless you. I want to bless so. Manasseh should have been favored, but instead abandoned the covenant. Levi showed the. Judgment could be redeemed. Levi wasn't supposed to have land. They didn't get land because of their violence. And yet God turned that into redemption. Levi would become the priest. Issachar shows you that blessing comes with submission to God's law. Discernment is seen in God's law. Issachar was the discerning tribe because they devoted their time to the study of God's Word. Benjamin will look at that next week. Right hand, wrong man Naphtali. We looked at him in our last sermon. The judgment starts on the edges. They put themselves outside of Israel and God whittled them away. Manasseh again, partial obedience is long term weakness. And that leads to our two tribes. Tonight Ephraim and Asher will jump into them. Go to school with the two tribes here. We'll jump into them. The lesson from Ephraim is one of tragedy. That prominence without faithfulness equals tragedy. Ephraim is certainly a tragic tribe. Ephraim is one of Jacob's of Joseph's two sons. Remember, he had Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim is prominent without faithfulness. He was blessed. He was dominant, but ultimately divided and judged. Ephraim was the second of Joseph's sons. Do you remember Manasseh was older than Ephraim. Manasseh should have received the blessing. As Joseph was getting older, Jacob was about to die. Joseph knew that he got a double blessing. Remember, Joseph saved the other tribes. He saved Israel through starvation, through the famine. He's the one. Even though they tried to murder him, he forgave his brothers and fed them and multiplied Israel. Because of Joseph's kindness. You get millions of Israelites instead of zero visualarts. That's the way it should have played out. But Joseph was used to rescue them. And so because of Levi's loss of land. Joseph was to divide his two children, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they were to be blessed. Ephraim was the one that was blessed over Manasseh. He was the Manasa's younger brother. And Joseph went to have him blessed. And Jacob aimed for Manasseh, and settled on Ephraim, and wouldn't take no for an answer. And so Ephraim had this like really ridiculous blessing. They shouldn't have been as blessed as they are. But that's the way God's election works. That's the way Jacob was chosen. Remember, Esau was older than Jacob. That didn't slow God down. Didn't slow Jacob down, aggravated Esau until the day he died. He fought God over it. And later on, his life, when he wanted to repent, he couldn't. Even though he begged God with with tears. And so Ephraim becomes a very similar story to Jacob. They settle in the land and they become a dominant tribe. They were so blessed by God. Remember, Manasseh is so bugged by this. The tribe of Manasseh doesn't even cross the river. They live on the fringes. kind of whatever it is real. And they fall into captivity. But, Ephraim, they're riding high. They should be the most blessed of the tribes. Judah gets the king, but Ephraim should be the most blessed. And they settle right in the middle of Israel. You look at a map of Israel. Ephraim is like the bullseye. They get the best line. That's where the airport is now. The the Tel Aviv airport, right there, right outside of Jerusalem, the fertile hills, the green rolling hills. That's where Ephraim got. They got the best land, really, but they forfeited it so fast because of that faithfulness. Their privilege became pride. Their privilege became division. Remember in the book of judges, Ephraim is the one that's provoking fights with the other tribes. They're provoking their brothers to to anger and wrath. And eventually civil war breaks out because of Ephraim. Even though they're close to Jerusalem. They went on to become the North. They joined the north after Solomon died and Rehoboam and, uh, split the kingdom. Rehoboam and Jeroboam split Rehoboam in the South and Jerusalem, and Jeroboam in the north took the north ten tribes away. Ephraim went with those tribes. Bounced on their brothers. Left the covenant behind. Left Jerusalem behind. Left the tribe of Judah. And the promise of the kingdom behind. To start in and fold in with the North. And they begin to dominate the North too. They're the older brother that picks on everybody. They begin to dominate the north, so much so that by the end of the Old Testament, the word Ephraim just stands in for the North tribes. At first they were called Israel, but the messianic promise settles in with Judah, and so Judah becomes true Israel. And Ephraim is just what the North is called. They're taking an exile. Of course they're taking an exile. Theirs is a story of tragedy. And we join that tragedy in First Chronicles chapter seven. Look at verse twenty, the sons of Ephraim Shatila and buried his son, and his son, and Elisha his son and his son. Zabad was his son, his son, and Ezer and Elliot, whom the men of Gath were born, and whom the men of Gath, who were born in the land killed because they came down to raid their livestock. So there's a little narrative twist in this so far. In First Chronicles, she's just been getting names, names, names, names, names. Oh, and here's two names. They were both murdered, so it's worth pausing when the chronicler throws in a little narrative flourish like that and asking why that story of all the crazy things in Israel's history, why do we get the story of Ephraim's great great grandsons murdered in the land? Well, notice who killed them. The men of Gath who were born in the land. They should have been driven out. But Ephraim did not take care of their business and left enemies in the land. And so they're the descendants of Ephraim, the man. His great great great grandsons were ever murdered in the lands. Couldn't protect their own livestock. They were killed. Ephraim, their father, mourned many days, and his brother came to comfort him. Everybody's gathering around and weeping over the murder of these two kids. It's tragic. Ephraim went into his wife then, and she conceived and bore a son. And he called his name Beriah because disaster had befallen his house. Beriah is a word that means disaster. So that's lame. What's your name? Disaster. Okay. How many times do you say that's your name? What's the person obviously going to ask? Whoever you meet your whole life? What's the disaster like? It might even mean it as a pun, you know? Like, what's the disaster? Not knowing. Oh, well, the kids that my dad loved, they were all murdered. And so my parents reluctantly had me. That's a disaster. You know, it stands out because so much of Chronicles is just names, names, names, names, names. You have this little narrative and then the Prayer of Jabez. That's why the Prayer of Jabez is so famous. Somebody should write a book called The Prayer of Beriah or something. I mean, you're just reading a list of names and suddenly you're at a funeral. The lesson from this, of course, is that covenant members are not exempt from grief. God's people buried their children, too. Anyway, disaster falls on his house. His daughter was shahrayar in verse twenty four who built both lower and upper Bethoron and Uzun Qara. So she's out there building cities. She's basically abandoned by her family. They're all mourning her relatives. And with a brother that nobody wants what everybody else is weeping. The next generation is building and that is I don't want to read too much in this little flourish, but it is put in here for us to study for a second and think about. It is very interesting while the parents are weeping, while the kid is named disaster and the whole family is focused on their. You've got the one sibling, this girl who nobody's paying any attention to, who's out building a whole civilizations. She's out doing work. Well, everybody else is grieving. It goes too far to say that grieving is wrong or anything like that. But obviously grieving dominated their family's life so much they named the new son after it. Meanwhile, the daughter is out there building a world. Anyway, the kids go on. Verse twenty five, Rafa and Reshef and Tayla and Tahan laden Ahmed. It says, Elishama his son. And then verse twenty seven noon, his son and Joshua his son. So Joshua comes from this line, this line of tragedy, this line of grief. Joshua comes from that line. Remember, Joshua is the one who marched around Jericho. The walls fell and he led the people into the Promised land. So if you're wondering, why did Ephraim get the best land. Who did the dividing? Joshua. I know it was by lot and by the Lord's will. But you know, Joshua's drawn those lots and Ephraim gets the best lands. The lesson from this is that disaster can lead, of course, to blessing. Ephraim is the tribe that had everything but couldn't escape the sorrow of loss and suffering. And yet there's this thread in this tribe that will rebuild. There's a thread thread in this tribe that will conquer cities and build cities. And it's a very Joshua like thread. It's a life of tragedy, a life of blessing by God mixed with tragedy, but ultimately deliverance at the end. The tribe that buried its sons at the beginning of his genealogy ends up securing the entire Promised Land for the rest of his brothers. That's Ephraim promise without faithfulness equals tragedy, and that is their whole tribe takes on that ethos. I know other tribes had kids die too, but none that are noted in this. I I mean, obviously all these people died. So the author, by drawing your attention to this, is letting you know, like, this is what this tribe is like. That's the lesson of Ephraim tragedy. Lesson of Asher. Asher is the opposite of Ephraim. Asher is stability. Asher is the son that nobody else remembers. I mean, who cares about Asher? Nobody remembers him. Zilpha was his mom, Leah's servant. So not the not the attractive wife, but the other wife. That servant. In other words, this is the least favored of the moms. They have Asher. So Asher is the forgotten child. But Asher goes on to have a tribe that is stability. An overlooked child who believes the promises and creates. A tribe that likewise believes the promises. Asher shows that God's goodness expressed in provision and stability and quiet participation in his plans and promises. If Judah had the promise. Think of it this way if Judah had the promise of kingship and Levi had the promise of worship, Asher has the promise of stability. It's not a big promise, right? If you got to choose for the king coming from you, or the priest coming from you, or a quiet, stable and overlooked life, which would you choose? You know, of course you'd want the king. Of course, the promise of priesthood is amazing. But I think there's some wisdom in saying, you know what? The promise to lead a stable and quiet life and then be forgotten when I die is actually pretty appealing. You know, to the young person that's like, oh, who would want that? Power and glory in the kingship. But the older person might say, you know what? The promise to just be stable and float off the pages is, is alluring. That's Asher, and that's foreshadowed in his blessing. When Jacob blesses, Asher pulls him aside, and his promise. Remember, Jacob gets the Judah gets the kingship and Levi judgment and dispersion and all the. All the kids get something, but Asher gets good fruit, good food with royal delicacies. That's Genesis forty nine twenty. That kid is promised good food with royal delicacies. What in the world kind of promise is that? That's not a promise of preeminence. That's not a promise of judgment. And it's not a promise of really rescue. It's a promise that you and your descendants will eat tasty food. All right. Never in charge, but well fed. It's like the Italians. There might be a better analogy, I don't know. By the way, Moses repeats that prayer when Moses is dying. Remember Moses on his deathbed? As much as you can call it a deathbed, his death rock or whatever, goes back to the twelve tribes and repeats the promises to them and to Asher. This is Deuteronomy thirty three. I'll read it. You can listen or you can flip there if you want, but you can also track with your ears. Deuteronomy thirty three of Asher Moses said, most blessed of sons be Asher. Just pause for a second. Most blessed of all the tribes be Asher. It's a strange thing for Moses to pray. Let him be the favorite of all his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil. That's kind of cool. That's how you make the olive oil as you you step on it. In other words, it's going to be abundance for him. Your bars will be iron and bronze. And as your days, so shall your strength be. There's no one like God, O Jerusalem, which is kind of a sarcastic name for Israel who rides to the heavens to your help through the skies, to His Majesty. The eternal God will be your dwelling place. And underneath are the everlasting arms. And he will thrust out the enemy before you and destroy them. That's Moses's deathbed prayer. And he says, Asher is going to be the best of the twelve tribes. All Jacob promised Asher was good food. And Moses says, man, you are. He's taking that to the extreme. You're going to be prancing in olive oil with the best home security system bars in all your gates now. Moses praised us before they enter the promised land. Before the land is assigned, he says, you'll drive out your enemies and you'll have peace. So when Asher comes in the Promised Land, they get. It's an overlooked part of Israel. Like tour groups don't go there. So I'd be surprised if any of you went there. I do think the the ICC's trip, the Immanuel Christian High School trip that went to Israel, I do think they went there, but it's not a common place to go. It's behind Mount Carmel. So Mount Carmel goes up to the ocean. South of that is is where Dan was supposed to go. Jaffa and where Jonah went out from. But the other side of that, all the way up to Lebanon, that's where Asher gets it is rolling green hills. I've never been there. I've seen pictures rolling green hills along the coast. You can have like the best of the crops and you can walk on the beach every night. That's Asher, and it's so hard to conquer. There's no highways to go through it. The highway from the Valley of Armageddon goes above it over into Lebanon, so it's nestled in there, safe and secure. I don't even think there's a highway that goes there today. You got to go out of your way to get there. But it's it's fun. I looked it up this afternoon imagining what would a tourist be doing in Israel right now other than bomb shelters? You could go here and like, they have a cable car that goes up the mountain and overlooks the green fields. It's kind of fun. Maybe one day that's Asher and they get to live in strength and stability. What's the danger with that? Like, there's a blessing to this. Of course there's a blessing, but what's the danger? The danger is that you learn to love your food and your stability rather than the Lord. And that is what happens to Asher as the generations go by. They stop sending people to Jerusalem to worship. They don't need to go through the valley of Megiddo or Armageddon. They can just stay up where they want to stay and eat there. Olive oil dipped food all day long. If the warning of Dan was that idolatry destroys. If the warning of Ephraim is that politics destroy, the warning of Ashur is that comfort can be lethal. They settled into a life where they did not seek the Lord urgently. So in a sense, there's a danger with Ashur. Like who wouldn't want stability and nice food? But the danger is delighting in the comforts rather than the God who gives him, who gives them. It is possible to be blessed by God and still be spiritually stagnant. That's Ashur, that's Ashur. And you see that in first Chronicles seven. By the way, you're just back to the names, the sons of Ashur. I'm not going to read you all the names, but you get some names in there. Verse thirty two, you get a sister thrown in there. The names multiply and multiply by the end. They're strong. Look down at verse forty. All these were the men of Ashur, heads of the fathers houses. approved mighty warriors, Chiefs of the princes. The number enrolled by genealogies for service in war was twenty six thousand men. They got a massive army to defend Israel if they wanted to. A massive army. Not every chapter is a is a tragedy. Asher's wasn't. Sometimes God works through tragedy like Ephraim, and sometimes he works through stability like Asher. And you can even put them in a comparison to each other. It's very interesting the way the chronicler ends. He's not going through the birth order of these kids. He's putting them in this order. So he ends the twelve tribes. Remember, Benjamin was safe for next week, but he ends the twelve tribes with this contrast. Some of the tribes had tragedy and some of the tribes had stability. God works through both of them. God works through both of them. Ephraim. God goes through death and grief to blessing and strength in victory. Thrasher. God goes through comfort and provision. Being well fed into a steady routine. So with this on the screen, it is worth just thinking about your own life for a second and asking what is the danger in your life? Some of you might be in an Ephraim period where you feel like you're going through tragedy or a beret period. Like forget tragedy, you're naming your tragedy. Some of you might be going through an Azure period where life is just stable, and it's easy to undervalue that, but it's easy to overlook the danger the New Testament extols. Both of these, the New Testament teaches you that God works through trials to sanctify you. James tells you that God takes you through trials, fiery testing of your faith to burn away that which isn't true and good and pure. So what's left with that endures the test of fire, gives you confidence in your salvation. There's a huge blessing in trials because when you come out the other side of a trial, you are massively sanctified and have extreme confidence in your faith. James also extols Asher. James one every good and perfect gift is from above. Paul extols Asher. First Thessalonians four eleven. Work quietly with your hands, minding your own business. I know people that get bugged by that verse. Why is the Bible telling me to work quietly with my hands? Shouldn't I have a dream to change the world for Jesus? Sure, you can have a dream to change the world for Jesus, but don't undervalue the virtue of just working quietly with your hands, staying out of trouble, minding your own business as you serve the Lord in the background. That's Asher in the New Testament, extols it as well. By the way, famous. The most famous person from Asher is probably arbitrary. I say the most famous person from Asher is Anna, the widow who is minding her business in the temple, waiting for years. Her husband died. She's forgotten. She's hanging out in the temple for years. Waiting for Jesus. Like that is the most Asher thing possible. Just stable provision. Waiting for the Savior to come. Elderly, unknown and waiting for Jesus. That's the picture of stability. And she went through a trial to get there. Of course, Philippians four twelve is the lesson for us that God's work in your life is seen in both tragedy and stability, where Paul says, whether it's abundance or need, I will serve Christ. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Whether he gives me an Asher life or an Ephraim life, blessing and stability or trials and loss, I can be content in both circumstances, Paul says. I can be content in both circumstances. Remember that God doesn't only work through tragedy, but he works through the ordinary, quiet faithfulness of Asher as well. And in the end, if you go back to these tribes, you'll recognize that all twelve of these tribes have their fulfillment in Christ. All these lessons are pointing you towards Jesus. It's not just a silly like Jesus juke at the end of the lesson, the twelve tribes. But it really is interesting how each of these tribes find their culmination or fulfillment in the person of Christ. It's so obvious, even with Asher, where Anna is waiting in the temple to hold Jesus when he's born. But you can go through this list on your own and make all those connections for yourself, for the morning and the rejoicing, for those crying in life and those cruising through stability in life. The gospel is enough for all of those people. The New Testament truly does show that the hopes and fears of all these tribes are met in Christ as he brings their story to completion. Lord, we're grateful that Jesus from the line of Judah. Represents the ones those from Asher awaiting. Jesus from the line of Judah brings Ephraim back. As Jeremiah says in Jeremiah thirty one, is not Ephraim my son? God says, should I not go get him? God asks, and of course the answer is yes. Even Ephraim was your son. Lord, we have Ephraim here tonight. Those that have wandered away from the faith. I pray that you would bring them back. Those that are going through trials, perhaps even people feel like they're named Beriah. I pray they would find their confidence and contentment in you. I know many people in this congregation are leading relatively stable lives. I pray that you would guard us from the apathy of Asher. Guard us from just loving our food. Loving our jobs. Loving our provision. Give us a sense of urgency like Anna as we eagerly await you. There's so much truth in these twelve tribes. We're thankful tonight for Ephraim and Asher. The lessons they have for us. We give you thanks for them. Seal them in our heart. We ask in Jesus name, Amen. And now for parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson. If you have any questions about what you heard today or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website. If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to TMZ dot edu. 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