Hebrews 11:20-22 Faith That Blesses

What if the most powerful thing you do this week is speak a blessing? We walk through Hebrews 11:20–22 and scan the last stretch of Genesis to watch faith at work in quiet, decisive moments: Isaac blessing his sons, Jacob blessing his grandsons, and Joseph asking that his bones move when God moves His people. These scenes are more than family history; they reveal how trust can travel through imperfect people and still land right where God intends.

We start with Isaac, a man whose life quietly echoes Christ, and yet Hebrews spotlights a single act: he blessed Jacob and Esau about things to come. The twist—he thought he was blessing Esau—shows that God’s promises don’t hang on our flawless execution. From there we follow Jacob, marked by a lifetime of wrestling, who ends as a worshiper leaning on his staff, crossing his hands to place the greater blessing on Ephraim instead of Manasseh. That choice underlines a theme that runs through Scripture: God’s grace does not follow birth order or human advantage.

Finally, Joseph widens our horizon. After betrayal, slavery, and prison, he becomes Egypt’s second-in-command and forgives the brothers who sold him. Yet Hebrews highlights his final request about his bones—a quiet, stubborn insistence that Egypt is temporary and God’s promise to Abraham still stands. It’s a blueprint for long-haul faith. Along the way we get practical: how to speak simple, purposeful blessing over kids, teens, adult children, grandkids, and spiritual family; how to pray when you fear “getting it wrong”; and how everyday words can align lives with God’s future.

Press play for a clear, hopeful reminder: keep blessing, keep trusting, and let God handle the outcomes. If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people find it.

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Transcript

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Hebrews chapter eleven, verse twenty is where we'll start. Hebrews chapter eleven, verse twenty. All right. Well, we are taking a little bit of time here until we get into a new book going through Hebrews chapter 11. It's known by many as the Hall of Faith. So far, what we have been considering can be found in the book of Genesis. We have considered Abel, a man who lived by faith. Enoch, a guy that walked by faith, walked with the Lord. Noah definitely lived by faith. And as of late, Abraham, we took a few weeks to consider Abraham, the father of those who believe, Romans tells us. And so far, we've pretty much skinned through the first 22 chapters of the book of Genesis. So if you were reading the book of Genesis, you would get all the details. Here in Hebrews chapter 11, we're just giving snapshots. And today, even more so here in verse 20. It is a big picture kind of day. It's like flying over the terrain rather than a road trip. Get an opportunity recently to fly with my son Braden, who's uh becoming a pilot. And uh, you know, seeing the world from up there is just a whole different, whole different thing. One one night we went flying and it was uh it was a great time, but we we scouted out a football game. It was a Friday night, many football games going on, and we flew over a football game there, a high school football game, and we saw it from above. We saw a lot of things. We saw uh somebody getting pulled over by the police. Uh we saw, yes, there you go. Good job, guys. Represent. Um we um we saw a lot of stuff, but it was a big picture, right? We saw a few little details here and there, but we know we didn't see everything. And that really is kind of the vibe of what we have, especially today. Uh, we are covering essentially Genesis 23 through 50, all in three verses. So we're finishing up the book of Genesis. Um, so I will have to do my best to refrain from talking about everything, but try to stick to mostly what the author to the Hebrews here is telling us. We're gonna see the faith of Isaac, the faith of Jacob, and the faith of Joseph. Let's see how the author here puts it in verse 20. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. So Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. We're gonna see their faith here for just a few minutes today. Now, Isaac is the first one on the list here by faith. Isaac, um, blessed Jacob and Esau. Uh, takes us back there to the life of Isaac. Uh, his account is in Genesis 21 through 28. And really, I highly recommend if you've got some time driving or cleaning or doing something this week, put on the audio Bible and listen uh to these chapters, Genesis uh 21, really to the end of Genesis, and you'll get all the details. But here's Isaac. And we see Isaac is kind of a quiet man as far as things go. Um, he doesn't say a lot, but his life still speaks. Now, last week we considered chapter 22, which was really the high point of faith in the life of Abraham. Uh, we saw Isaac's life, though, as an obvious picture of Jesus. You'll remember Abraham, the father, offering his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. And so much is pictured in that as Isaac really represents Jesus. Well, Isaac's life continues to mimic Jesus from chapter 23 to 24, there in the book of Genesis. We'll want to point it out. Um, he becomes silent there for a good chapter and a half. And you'll remember Abraham says, Well, I need to find my son Isaac, a wife. So he sends his servant to go off to uh his homeland there, his relatives, and and find a wife for my son. Now, listen, the servant goes and he's there at the well. You'll remember the story there in uh chapter 24 of Genesis. And as he's there, he prays. The servant prays, God, help the one that I ask for a drink to not only say yes, I'll give you a drink, but here, I'll water your camels also. The servant sets up this fleece, we could say, uh, to the Lord. That would be the one that I should bring back for my master son. And so he goes and he prays. And what do you know? Rebecca comes to the well. And he says, Will you give me a drink? And she says, Well, sure, I'll give you a drink. In fact, I'll give a drink to your camels. Now, this is a big deal. Camels are not easy things to water, I wouldn't imagine. And yet she does it. And as a servant sitting there, he's just in awe how God is working it out. He negotiates that she comes back with him to be a wife to his master's son. And as she's coming home, as they're coming back, we read this in Genesis 24. You can always turn if you would like, but Genesis 24, verse 63. And Isaac went out, it's Genesis 24, 63, and Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and there the camels were coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes. And when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from her camel. For she had said to the servant, Who is this man walking in the field to meet us? The servant said, It is my master. So she took a veil and covered herself, and the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her. Well, Isaac isn't doing much. He's off the scene for a time, and the servant gets a bride. It's exactly the picture of what uh the Holy Spirit, represented by the servant, does for Jesus. He gets Jesus a bride. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25 says that we're the bride of Christ. And so the Holy Spirit draws us into this relationship with God. And unknowingly, Isaac becomes a wonderful picture of Jesus. The bride is brought to the husband, the husband comes out to meet the bride, and we all live happily ever after. That's the story of how things are going to go down when Jesus comes to take us home. Um, and so Isaac becomes a great picture of Jesus. Um, but that's not what's going on here, as Isaac is um a man of faith. Uh, you can turn now to Genesis 25. Genesis 25 verse 20. A little backstory for our blessing here that Isaac is gonna give to his sons. Genesis 25, verse 20. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Pedanaram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her twins. And she said, If all is well, why am I like this? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, Imagine this: two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. So Isaac pleads for his wife to have a baby, and she gets two twins, the blessing. Uh, they're wrestling though in the roof womb. Um, now most, yeah, right, Daniel. Most women, by a certain point, are wondering what's going on inside of them for sure. But in this case, they are literally battling it out, a battle royale inside of Rebecca. Um, and they're told here, prophetically, two nations are inside of you. Oh, that's what it was. And the older will serve the younger. Um prophetically, this is what's going to happen. The younger of the two twins is going to receive the greater blessing. We know the story. Verse 24, though, in Genesis 25. So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over. So they called his name Harry. That's what Esau means, essentially, Harry. Afterward, his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel. So his name was called heel catching or Jacob, right? Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. So the boys grew, and Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a mild man dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. So the boys grew, and we have two totally different individuals. That sounds about right. Um, neither of them is exceptionally godly. Uh, Esau is a man who's led by the flesh. A little later we we read there in chapter 25 that he sells his birthright for a bowl of beans. Read about that in Genesis 25. Um, and the boys grew. And Isaac is getting old. Turn to chapter 27 there, Genesis 27. Isaac's getting older. At least that's how he feels. And kids can do that too as well. Uh, but chapter 27, verse 1. Now it came to pass when Isaac was old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, My son, and he answered and said, Here I am. And he said, Behold, now I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now, therefore, please take your weapons and your quiver and your bow and go out into the field and hunt game for me, and make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die. So Isaac here is getting old. We're told that. He says that about himself. He's got aches and pains, his eyes are going bad. Um, and he thinks I've got to deal with my last will and testament. Now, now, something to note here, Isaac lives about 43 years past this. So next time you say, Ah, aches and pains, and I can't see as well, just realize it's probably not the end, right? Another 40 years past this, but he tells Esau, his oldest, bring me some game that I can eat and then I can bless you. Well, we read in verse five there that Rebecca hears what's going down, and her favor is Jacob, and she wants him to receive the blessing. Now, that's exactly what God foretold would happen, but she's gonna work it out. And she works with Jacob to fool her husband Isaac. And you can read about it there. It's a great scheme, right? She says, Go kill a couple goats for me. I'll make the meat for your dad. He'll love it, he won't know the difference. And Jacob isn't so sure about this. Well, well, what if he finds out that I'm a deceiver? He'll think that I'm deceiving him if he finds out that I'm not really Esau. Of course, that's exactly what he was doing, he was trying to deceive his father. But he doesn't want that to happen. So Rebecca has a plan. Well, we'll take the goat skins, just picture this. We'll take the goat skins and put them on your arms and on your neck. We have goats. You can go out afterward and go pet those goats and realize that Rebecca was saying, Esau is so hairy that goat skins, literal goat skins, will deceive your father into thinking that it's Esau. She gives him Esau's best clothes that stink like mad. And it works. As Jacob goes to Isaac, Isaac says, Is that you, my son? Yes, it is. Well, how'd you get here so fast? Well, the Lord blessed me in the hunt there. Uh Jacob came near. Uh, it says in verse 27 there in chapter 27 of Genesis, he came near and kissed him, and he smelled of his clothing and blessed him and said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Picture that, will you? Stinky clothes, and he goes, Oh, yep, that's Esau. Smells like a field. Therefore, may God give you the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and the plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, verse 29, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you. So here's the story of how the blessing goes down. Now let's turn back to Hebrews chapter 11 quickly, and a couple things to notice here. This faith that Isaac has blesses. Um, this blessing is purposeful. Um, blessing is important to the life of the believer. Speaking blessing, we ought to speak blessing on others. Um, I'm not talking positive confession or instilling good self-esteem necessarily, but I'm saying this. We ought to be those who pray for blessing on others, pray for blessing on our children. That's really what's going on here. He's blessing his kids, praying, God, bless their life. Um, maybe those of you with young children, babies, God bless them. God lead them to yourself, God provide a husband or a wife for them, protect them, watch over him. We do that kind of stuff, but sometimes we go kind of tired in it. Sometimes we just kind of let it slip off. To pray blessing on our children as they grow and become teenagers. God preserve them, um, lead them to godly friends. Some examples of ways that we can pray blessing over our kids. But even when they're adults, we find out it's a good time to pray blessing for our children. Um those of us that have grandchildren, it's a new way to bless, right? Seeing that little one that's so cute, and we start to play pray the same things. God just bless their life. God make their life something good to bless the lives of others. Uh, don't stop in that, in that blessing. And then maybe another area of blessing is those of you who don't have children, grandchildren. You have many people in your life. Listen, I am so grateful, man. I can look at everybody here and say, thank you for praying for my kids. Thank you for spending time with my kids. Don't let me cry though. That's not what I want to do right now. But I just am so grateful for friends like you that have done this ministry of praying blessing on my kids and still do. What a crazy ministry to be a blessing, to be a daily blessing in the lives of others. And to look at people and go, God, just lead their lives, lead them to that place where they know you more. Bless them in that kind of way. Now, check it out here. Um, Isaac prayed blessing, and Jacob's life was a rough one. Uh, but God got a hold of his life. That's for sure. God definitely got a hold of his um life. And and sometimes, though, we think, well, I don't know what to pray. What if I get it wrong? What if I pray something that's wrong? And Isaac is an excellent example for us, right? Because think about the story here. He didn't even know what he was doing, right? He blessed Jacob in a right way, but he thought he was blessing Esau. And somehow it was faith, right? Somehow he just thought, this is what I need to pray for my son right now. Esau, just bless him and let him be great and all these things. And he was actually praying for Jacob. Faith is just trusting God. We don't have all the answers. We don't know everything we're supposed to do all the time, but God does. And it's crazy to see that in trusting God with this blessing, he did the exact right thing. And a lot of times, I think we overanalyze it. This Christian life, what if I get it wrong? Just do it in front of you. Do it with a heart to serve the Lord and help people and bless people, and God will work it out, right? Here, it was Isaac's main point of faith that he blessed Jacob, even when he thought he was blessing Esau. So don't grow weary in this well-doing. Find ways. This will be the punchline for the study today. Uh, find ways to pray blessing on the people around you and the people in your life. Well, let's look on to what the author here in Hebrews says in verse 021, I think. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on his staff. Man, there's a lot of in-between stuff here, isn't there? Uh, for Jacob's life. Jacob is a rough character. Um, and God gets a hold of his life, right? Uh, the one who was a little deceptive is deceived over and over again, right? By Uncle Laban, who deceives him and misuses him, uh, by his own kids who deceive him later on with Joseph and say that he got killed by a wild animal. Jacob is deceived by them. Jacob is broken down by circumstances, but also by the Lord. You know the story there. As Jacob is running away from Laban, he's running away from Esau. And that night, as he's just camped out by himself, a man comes and wrestles with him in the middle of the night. Now we know through putting all the pieces together that that man is God in the flesh. We would say it's Jesus. And he comes and wrestles all night. And then as the day is breaking, he says, You gotta let go of me, I gotta go. I'm not gonna let go of you until you bless me. And and and the man touches Jacob's hip and puts it out of socket. Very painful, right? Jacob can't run, he can't do anything, and he's crying out, God bless me. I'm not letting go of you till you bless me. And God gets a hold of Jacob's life. That's a great thing to keep in mind, too. Nobody is beyond God's reach. He has a way of chasing us down for sure. Well, Jacob is a changed man, but he's still got some growing to do there. Uh, covering verse 22 as well. And I'll come back to 21. It's a little out of order here, but by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt there. Um, Joseph, Jacob's favorite son. You remember the story. It's almost the second half of the book of Genesis, is Joseph's life. They're his brothers, not so happy about this favoritism. They throw Joseph in a pit, they sell him into slavery. You think your family life is rough, right? They sell him into slavery. And Joseph is there, a slave in Egypt. Uh, he's accused of a crime he didn't commit by Potiphar's wife and thrown into prison for a good chunk of time, like a decade. And there Joseph is until one day God brings him out. Man, there's so much more of that story. You know, it's so cheesy just just summarizing it. Go read it, listen to it. But God brings him to become second in command over all of Egypt. And you know the story as the famine goes through the land. If you don't know it, you gotta go read it. Um, as the famine goes through the land, Joseph's brothers come, and just as it was prophesied, they bow down before Joseph. And the whole thing is wonderful as Joseph forgives them in his heart. What you meant for evil, God meant for good, to bring it as it is today. And it's a wonderful thing. But in that, we see Jacob brought back to his son in Egypt. Uh, amazing, brought back to see Joseph. And there Joseph has acquired two sons over time. Two sons, and and Jacob comes to bless those sons. Now, the same thing kind of goes down with Joseph's son that went down with Jacob himself, as Ephraim, the youngest, and Manasseh the oldest, come to Jacob. He calls them in. He puts his right hand on the youngest head and and his left hand on the oldest head. Right hand was the hand to really bless with, you know. And and so, in saying that, he's saying the same thing: the younger will be greater than the the older. He'll get the bigger blessing. And that was true. Ephraim became a bigger tribe there in Israel. But he blesses them. And it's amazing to see there, here comes Jacob, a rough guy sent to bless his grandchildren. Good example for us. Well, last of all, here Joseph, as time has gone on, he ages, and the whole uh people group of Israel, all the children of Israel, uh, they're brought to Egypt. And Joseph in verse 22 is dying. Happens to all of us. He's dying. And he makes mention of the departure of the children of Israel. He gives them instruction concerning his bones. Joseph knew that Egypt was not going to be their home. God had promised to Abraham this land, the land of Canaan, the promised land, is your land and your descendants after you, the land of Israel. That's where you're supposed to be. So Joseph takes God's word, and this is a simple part of this, is he takes God's promise and he says, God, you're gonna do exactly what you said you're gonna do. Now, it didn't happen for another like 300 years. The children of Israel were in Egypt. They grew into this huge nation there, and then we get to the book of Exodus where uh a Pharaoh arises that didn't know Joseph or his family and begins to put them into bondage and slavery, and we'll see that next week. But but Joseph looks at it, he doesn't realize it's seven, 300 years down the road, but this is not where you belong. God has promised and God will do it, and I trust him. So he tells the people put this in my will. When you leave this place and you will leave this place, take my bones with you, right? And he's just simply trusting God and taking God at his word. But I think the best point of application, trust God. Trust God. He can't be unfaithful, he won't let you down, he will do exactly what he says. But pray blessing. I think that's a good homework assignment for us this week. Just to be aware, pray blessing for your kids, whether they're old or little babies. Pray blessing for your kids, your grandkids, your adopted kids, those around you. Maybe it's a young couple in our fellowship. Pray blessing in God's hand in their life, that God would lead them and guide them, that they would know him more. I mean, a whole list of things you can make to pray blessing. And you know what? That's exactly what God wants to do. I mean, that's what he wants to do. He wants to bless, and he will. So, God, um, I just pray that these things wouldn't be in theory this week, but they'd just be the simple reality of our time. God, whether we're driving or working or taking care of things around the house or watching the grandkids. God help us to take these people that we love and just pray your blessing on them. God, it's what you so much want to do. God, we do pray for our kids that they would know you more every day. God, that you'd protect and keep them. God, we pray for those people that we love, that you've given us opportunity to minister to. We pray that you would just help them to know you more. God, you'd bless their life in ways that they couldn't imagine. God, help these things to be real in our lives. We give you all these things. In Jesus' name we pray.