Or, Jacob’s Prophetic Blessings on His Twelve Tribes
Scripture: Genesis 49:1-33
Date: May 28, 2017
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Out of all the things that people in our day and age are interested in listening to, genealogies have to be near the bottom of the list. Right above genealogies might be a last will and testament, unless, of course, you think that you will be named as a beneficiary. Genesis 49 is Jacob’s final words, words of blessings to and prophecy about his sons. Some of it is obscure, some of it has already been fulfilled, some of it we are right in the middle of.
Jacob and family had moved to Egypt seventeen years previous to this scene. After his arrival, Joseph brought his father in before Pharaoh and Jacob blessed Pharaoh (Genesis 47:7-10). Because of how chapter 47 is framed with Joseph buying up all the livestock and land in Egypt for Pharaoh, with Jacob’s prayer of blessing on Pharaoh before and Jacob’s instructions about burial after, we’re to understand Pharaoh’s increase was due to Jacob’s blessing. Chapter 48 is also about Jacob’s blessing on Joseph by adopting Joseph’s two sons. By claiming Ephraim and Manasseh as his own, Jacob elevated them to equal status with his other sons, and then blessed Ephraim with the firstborn privileges. Both boys were blessed, so much so that their blessing would become a byword in future generations. “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you has Ephraim and Manasseh’” (Genesis 48:20).
In chapter 49 Jacob calls the rest of his sons to gather around him as he pronounces blessing on each one. He speaks not just about the twelve sons, but the descendants of the sons, “the twelve tribes of Israel” (verse 28). The blessings dominate the chapter, verses 1-28, then in the final section Jacob gives burial instructions to all his sons, verses 29-33.
No one interrupts, no one else speaks but Jacob. He describes the development of his descendants according to the different character displayed in each son.
Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.” This is more than just an announcement of Jacob’s will, more than informing his sons what inheritance would be theirs. This is a “blessing,” as verse 28 summarizes, and it is also a revelation of what will be true for the descendants of each son more than just the future for the son himself. Here are the destinies of “the twelve tribes of Israel” (verse 28); nomen est omen, the “name is an omen.” Each benediction begins with and is based on something about the son, but it extends to his people. The days to come covers “the whole period from the departure out of Egypt to the reign of Christ” (Calvin). It is no small prophetic blessing.
The order of Jacob’s prophecies is by birth order except in one place where Zebulun is addressed before Issachar.
Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn of Leah, and Jacob saw him as my might, and the firstfruits of my strength. A son showed Jacob’s virility and, in the firstborn position, Reuben was preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. He had a place of privilege.
We know, as the readers, that Jacob already elevated Ephraim into the firstborn rights. Reuben doesn’t know it as yet, and the way Jacob begins makes it sound like he’s setting up something good. Instead, Jacob was setting up a contrast. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch! It was recorded in just one verse back in chapter 35. The family was moving back to Canaan when Rachel died. Reuben’s lust was unstable and he took the opportunity to make a play for family power. Jacob “heard of it” (Genesis 35:22), but Moses doesn’t record any response. Jacob hasn’t forgotten, and Reuben is removed from firstborn rights. This is not a glorious start to blessings, and is more of a denouncing anti-blessing. “No prophet, judge, priest, or king comes from this tribe” (Waltke), and the Reubenites are eventually assimilated into the Gadites.
The next two brothers are considered together, the only combination “blessing” in Jacob’s testament. Simeon and Levi are called brothers, but, of course, all the sons are brothers. Connecting them and calling them brothers here categorizes them as sharing something more specific, weapons of violence are their swords. They are “two of a pair” (Kidner). Simeon and Levi were next in line after Reuben but, like Reuben, their previous unrighteous conduct removes them from privilege.
Jacob wants no part in what they did, let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. It was because in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. This refers to their massacre of the men of Shechem. Though chapter 34 recorded that they plundered the livestock, they must have also cut the tendons of some of the oxen in senseless and vindictive cruelty.
So Jacob says, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. When it was time to apportion lots of land to the tribes, Simeon’s tribe was swallowed up into Judah. The tribe of Levi was also dispersed, spread over 48 cities throughout Israel where they were to minister. This was a scattering with gracious purpose, but a scattering nonetheless.
Though the “blessings” were not unmixed, at least Simeon and Levi “were not excluded from the fellowship and call of Israel” (Keil & Delitzsch).
The next son in line also behaved sinfully, and his own sons so much so that the LORD killed them (see Er and Onan in Genesis 38:6-10). But Judah appears to have repented of his sin against (and with) Tamar as well as of his sins against Joseph. He showed his willingness to sacrifice himself in the episode with bringing Benjamin to Joseph as well as offering to take Benjamin’s place before Joseph. Along with Joseph, Judah’s blessing is much longer than the other brothers.
It begins with play on his name. Leah named him “praise” because she praised the LORD for giving her another son, now your brothers shall praise you. He and his tribe will be esteemed by the other tribes. He will be victorious, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies and he will be exalted, your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is compared to a lion, powerful and majestic and not safe. From his tribe the scepter shall not depart…nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. This is king and kingdom talk. And we know now that from Judah came David and Solomon, and then ultimately Jesus.
Also: all of this has not yet been fulfilled, and we will participate in it. We are the peoples. We will give King Jesus our obedience and tribute, our gifts of praise, as part of His eternal dominion.
Verses 11 and 12 talk about how lavish the fruitfulness of the land will be in the days of this King. You wouldn’t tie an “ass” or a donkey’s colt to the choice vine, because the donkey would eat the vine, unless vines were so plentiful and fruitful that it didn’t matter how much the donkey ate; it would be “like lighting a cigarette with a dollar bill” (Hamilton). Similarly, one wouldn’t wash his garments in wine unless there was so much wine that it was like laundry water. That his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk means he is full and satisfied. The imagery is of riches, prosperity, and opulence. We pray for the fulfillment of Jacob’s blessing on Judah every time we pray, “Your kingdom come.”
Zebulun was born as Leah’s sixth son after Issachar, but is listed before Issachar here and in the blessing of Moses later in Deuteronomy. When the land was divided by Joshua, Zebulun did not actually border the water but had an inland territory. Yet his tribe was close and connected to the shore of the sea by trade routes coming in from the coast, so they benefited from the ships and seagoing business.
Issachar is a case of loving this present world so much that he sold himself to it. As a tribe they saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant. The comforts, the amenities, the treats were worth going into debt for, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor. He gave up his liberty from the Canaanites for sake of luxury, which really isn’t much luxury at all. His people would rather do the work of a lazy than the work of a free.
The name Dan means judge. Rachel named him Dan when her servant Bilhah bore Dan as a claim that God was judging her situation and vindicating her. Now the tribe of Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
He will also be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward. He won’t attack the enemy head on, but from stealth he will strike quickly, like the horned viper. Samson was of Dan, and more than one Philistine fell off his figurative horse.
Verse 18 is a prayer of Jacob, now a little more than halfway through the sons. As God gave Jacob a vision of the future, perhaps Israel saw much of the trouble that would come to the nation. So he prays for salvation.
The name Gad sounds similar to the word Hebrew word for “raid,” and four times in a six word verse some form of gd is used. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Gad had a border territory with the Ammonites to the north, the Moabites to the south, and were regularly under attack, but they learned to defend themselves well.
Asher, whose name means “happy,” lived in a fertile place, and he shall yield royal delicacies. This may have some fulfillment in his monthly assignment for King Solomon’s palatial food preparations.
As a doe let loose, Naphtali was swift in battle and also fruitful, a doe that bears beautiful fawns.
Joseph’s blessing is also five verses long, just as Judah’s was. Judah and Joseph have been the focus since chapter 37. Joseph was the firstborn of Rachel, and Jacob chose Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to take Reuben’s place.
There are translation questions in verse 22: is Joseph a fruitful bough (ESV) or is he a “wild donkey”? I’m good to go with the tree illustration, though there are numerous animal images in the previous verses.
He had been bitterly attacked, perhaps a reference to what had already happened by his brothers, perhaps a reference to what would come later to his people. But though harassed…severely, his bow remained unmoved. He was protected by the Mighty One of Jacob, followed by three more names for God: the Shepherd (as Jacob had called him in chapter 48), the Stone of Israel, solid and dependable, and the God of your father…the Almighty. He is the sovereign, He is the promise maker, He is the blessing giver. He will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. There will be offspring a’plenty. The blessings of Joseph will be beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.
Six times in verses 25-26 Jacob talks of blessing, “like the finale of a fireworks display, the root occurs six times (verb 1x, noun 5x) making a brilliant climax to the last words of Jacob” (Wenham).
The imagery for Benjamin is that of a ravenous wolf, all day long, morning and evening, a predator attacking and winning his prey. Ehud was from Benjamin (the assassin of fat King Eglon), as was the first king of Israel, Saul.
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.
Jacob already made Joseph swear that he would bury Jacob in Canaan. Now Jacob commanded all of his sons about what to do when he was dead.
”I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to posses as a burning place. We read about the Abraham’s land purchase in chapter 23 and Abraham’s burial in that land in chapter 25. It was the first piece from within the promised land that Abraham owned. Jacob did not prioritize being buried with his favorite wife (Rachel), he desired to be planted in the place of promise with his fathers. This would be an ongoing reminder to his sons of where their father and their future lay.
In full control of his faculties, Jacob finished commanding his sons and then he drew up his feet into the bed, the same word as “gather around” at the start of the chapter, and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. He said everything he wanted to say, passing on revelation that the LORD gave him about the future of his sons, then passing on himself. He was 147 (Genesis 47:28).
Without Jacob’s testament there would be no Aslan, no Chronicles of Narnia. Generations of stories come out of these final words, and there are still more chapters to be written with specifics of tribute and obedience coming to Judah’s Lion in His Kingdom.
Jacob was fully aware that his sons would become something great, some of them individually and all of them nationally, because he believed the promise given to him by the LORD. He saw things by faith that he couldn’t have known apart from God’s Word. the prophetic blessings gave direction to his sons, gave encouragement to their descendants as those blessings were fulfilled, and give hope to us that whatever prophetic blessings the LORD gives to us will likewise come true.
I can’t help but think of our future as the church as Paul wrote about in Ephesians 3:6-21. We have God’s revelation about our future, too. God’s Word is building the church until the earth is filled with His glory.