And he blessed Joseph and said, “May God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.”
– Genesis 48:15
I love Genesis 48:15. This is Jacob blessing Joseph. And as he does, listen to the way he speaks about God. I’ll read it again. He says, “The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac walked.” So he’s looking back on how God has been faithful to his grandfather-Abraham, to his father-Isaac, in a way that has carried on to God being faithful to him. The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac walked. And he says the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. What a picture of God’s loving leadership in Jacob’s life, that he would look back. So this is at the end of Jacob’s life. He would look back and he would say, God has shepherded my life every day.
Guided by God
God has been guiding us throughout our life caring for us and showing how much He loves us.
And you think about all that you read about in the book of Genesis that Jacob has done. Ways he has sinned, and ways God is mad at him, and how he’s wrestled with God. And just all the circumstances Jacob has walked through. And his conclusion as he looks back at it all is-God has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. I read this and I just immediately in my own life, I just start looking back at good days, at hard days. Even at times, I have sinned in horrible ways. And God has proven faithful to shepherd my soul. Ultimately to save my soul, and to lead me, and to guide me. To work in it all, even in the hardest days. To work at it all as my good shepherd. And I want to encourage you. He’s your shepherd too.
Genesis 48:15 Praises God for being the Good Shepherd
Jesus came saying, I am the good Shepherd. I lay my life down for my sheep. He loves you, and he is the Shepherd of your life. And he will shepherd your life as you trust in him for your good and for his glory as the great Shepherd. So, I encourage you to look back today at the God who has been faithful to so many who have gone before us in faith. And the God who promises to be a faithful shepherd to you.
Spend time today, maybe right after this podcast episode is over. Just to pause and to praise God for the ways he has shepherded your life. Oh God, we praise you together. For the ways, you have shepherded our lives. All our lives long to this day. God, we praise you for adopting us into your family at one point, for bringing us to trust in Jesus, as savior and Lord of our lives. For reconciling us to you, for shepherding our souls in this way. For saving us from our sin. And God, for the ways you have loved us, and led us, and guided us despite our sin, despite our weaknesses, despite our foolishness.
Genesis 48:15 Thanks God for His Promise of Guidance
At times, you have been our Shepherd all our lives long to this day. We praise you for how you have worked and you have guided and you have provided and you have led and you have done in the midst of difficult circumstances. What we needed to bring us through. God, we praise you. We praise you. We praise you for your love for us that we can trust in today. Even as we look to the future, even as we look to just today and tomorrow and next week.
And then for however many more years, you give us in this world and we praise you that you promise to be our Shepherd, that you promise to lead and guide us and nourish us and protect us and provide for us. God, we look forward to the day when we will see your face. I think about Revelation 7 when we will gather around the throne with every nation, tribe, and tongue and the lamb at the center of the throne will be our Shepherd.
When we will see you, Jesus, we will see your face. The one who has shepherded our lives every day, leading up to that day, all glory be to your name. We look forward to seeing you our Shepherd. And so we say today, we trust you the God who has been our Shepherd all our lives long to this day and will lead us as our Shepherd on this day and tomorrow and the next day, and the next day forever and ever and ever. We praise you, Oh God we praise you Lord Jesus as the Shepherd of our lives. And In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
