Genesis 49:1-281And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. 2Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. 3Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. 5Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 6O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. 7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. 8Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. 9Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: 12His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. 13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. 14Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: 15And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. 16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. 18I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. 19Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. 20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. 21Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. 22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: 23The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) 25Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: 26The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. 27Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. 28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. (Genesis 49:1‑28)
“And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days... Hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.” It was as Jacob, “the supplanter,” that his sons had principally observed his walk, burdened with many trials and making many a sad mistake. But now that he was to speak to them as the oracles of God they were to “hearken unto Israel,” “the prince who prevailed.”
Each, from Reuben the eldest, to Benjamin the youngest, then heard his father tell of his future individually. Some expressions were in very plain language: “Reuben — unstable as water, thou shalt not excel”; “Son and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations... I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” Other expressions were framed in poetic symbols: “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise... Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes”; “Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens”; “Dan shall be a serpent by the way”; “Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. (Benjamin thus prefigured Christ who will in a future day come in power, destroying the enemies of his people.)
But whatever the mode of language employed by the patriarch, each son was compelled to accept the prophecies and their amazing disclosures, for they knew them to be accurate — spoken with God-given insight. There is One who “searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts,” and to whom all things must be accounted for. “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword... a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight.” Hebrews 4:12,1312For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12‑13). How shall we stand before such a One as this? Only by having our sins blotted out in the precious blood of Christ, accepting by faith His finished work and the assurance that such faith will, in the sight of God, “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This prophetic sketch begins with Israel in the flesh, anything but the Israel of God, and rises to a fitting climax in Joseph. Reuben, Simeon and Levi tell of ruin through corruption, and violence: the two characters of human evil from the beginning to the end of man’s sad story. In Judah we see God’s purpose in Christ, born of the tribe but as King, to whom shall be the gathering of peoples. Next we see Zebulun going out in commerce of sea and ships among the Gentiles; in Issachar bowing down and compromising for selfish quietness as the world’s slave; in Dan, falling under Satan’s power worse than idolatry; yet a remnant looking for the salvation of the Lord. In Gad the oppressed rises against the oppressor; while Asher points out Israel’s enjoyment of their proper blessings; in Naphtali, freedom in a gracious witness for God. The whole rises in a fitting climax in Joseph, in abundant blessing centering in Christ. And with Joseph goes Benjamin, when Israel will put down every rival and share the spoil of their enemies.
ML 01/28/1968