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 4:12,13. 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