Genesis 49:1-27
1 And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:
2 “Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob,
And listen to Israel your father.
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you went up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it—
He went up to my couch.
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.
6 Let not my soul enter their council;
Let not my honor be united to their assembly;
For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;
And their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
And scatter them in Israel.
8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
11 Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
And his teeth whiter than milk.
13 “Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall adjoin Sidon.
14 “Issachar is a strong donkey,
Lying down between two burdens;
15 He saw that rest was good,
And that the land was pleasant;
He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden,
And became a band of slaves.
16 “Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD!
19 “Gad, a troop shall tramp upon him,
But he shall triumph at last.
20 “Bread from Asher shall be rich,
And he shall yield royal dainties.
21 “Naphtali is a deer let loose;
He uses beautiful words.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
23 The archers have bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
24 But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
25 By the God of your father who will help you,
And by the Almighty who will bless you
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26 The blessings of your father
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
And at night he shall divide the spoil.”
As Israel lay on his deathbed, he prophesied the fate of each son representing each of the twelve tribes of the nation to be named after him as its progenitor by the LORD. These are true and somewhat harsh in their assessment as Jacob went through them one by one and turned their attention to listen and take heed to what he was about to say to them. Reuben the eldest was powerful but unstable and answering to his sexual (Genesis 35:22, Deuteronomy 27:20) sins and the (1 Chronicles 5:1-2) birthright was passed to Joseph’s sons. The rule actually passed to Judah instead of the sons of Joseph, however, whose lineage brought the Messiah Jesus into flesh as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5) according to God’s plan. Next up were Simeon and Levi, cruel and angry young men without honor (Genesis 34:26-29) and destined to be separated from Judah and scattered throughout Israel. Then came Judah as a powerful lion to rule and earn praise from them all, through whom the Messiah would come out of Shiloh of whom it belongs and brings tranquility (peace with God, Romans 5:1) to take the scepter and rule (Matthew 2:6) as Lord of all. Judah would rule until He came. Then Zebulun is briefly mentioned as being a great seafaring port before moving on to Issachar (reward) as a strong beast of burden carrying quite a burden and according to some meaning the reaping the benefits in some ways a picture of the Law preparing God’s people for the work of the Messiah and resting in His work for us. Dan would be a ruling tribe as well, judging his people and striking to bring down his enemies. In verse 18 the phrase, “I have waited for your salvation, O LORD!” stands out as a reminder to wait for God’s gospel to work out through these sons of Israel as a channel of God’s salvation to the nations as promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob in this seemingly out of place verse admitted the vulnerability of his descendants by spontaneously appealing to the Lord as his true and trusted source of salvation in the midst of prophetic revelations of their struggles and failures. He then moved on to the next tribe from his loins, Gad, who would triumph in the end. Then Asher followed with their bountiful and savory food, followed by elegant and free running Naphtali using beautiful words. Then we see Joseph brought to light, indicating his fruitfulness in the midst of opposition and finding strength in ‘the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.’ However, it would be Judah, not Joseph, who would bring forth the Shepherd of God’s people as a Stone to build on, alluding to Christ as our cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16, Acts 4:11-12, Ephesians 2:20, 1 Peter 2:6-7, 9-10) to align God’s building of His Kingdom upon and the Shepherd (1 Peter 2:25) of our souls. Therefore, the ending of verse 24 points us to this fact while extolling Joseph for being used to deliver his people when separated from his brothers by his bondage in Egypt that led to God’s working for good (Genesis 45:5-7, Romans 8:28) and blessing through the famine. Finally the youngest, Benjamin, is revealed to be a ravenous wolf (Judges 20:21, 25) in warfare. These all were shown in weakness and strength as descendants chosen and choosing different paths as God’s people and the whole of Israel in all their lives as individuals and tribes. We see our own faults and victories in light of God’s grace and choosing as we choose to learn from the good and bad examples of each of these. We are reminded that God gives us these Prophetic Words to Israel’s Sons as examples for us all who are God’s people in Christ that we might live as we are called and strive to walk in light, love, and wisdom (Ephesians chapter 5) to do the works prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10).
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