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FRAMEWORKS: Genesis

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FRAMEWORKS: Genesis 49: Blessing & Death

 

v.1,2 Jacob calls his Sons together to be blessed
v.3-28 His Prophetic Blessing over the Sons
v.29-33 The Death of Jacob

 

 

v.1,2 Jacob calls his Sons together to be blessed

 

v.1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.

v.2 “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.

 

[Notes: This is quite remarkable. The man, who for much of his life had been a self-centred grabber, is now a God-centred man who is concerned to bring the blessings of God to his sons before he dies. We will not comment on each one, sufficient to say that some of them are clearly based on past experiences – e.g. Reuben who had slept with Jacob's concubine and Simeon and Levi who had murdered the men of Shechem. Judah, from whom the messianic line flows has a particularly lengthy blessing. Similarly Joseph who had been the first-born of his special love, Rachel. To conclude, we should note that to call each of these a ‘blessing' may lead us astray in that we usually think a blessing is a decree from heaven for good. These words are more specific words of prophecy, a number of which you would not want spoken over you! They are insights into the brothers AND what their tribes will eventually be known for.]

 

 

v.3-28 His Prophetic Blessing over the Sons

 

v.3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.
v.4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it.

v.5 Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords are weapons of violence.
v.6 Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
v.7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.

v.8 Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you.
v.9 You are a lion's cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
v.10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
v.11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
v.12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

v.13 Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon.

v.14 Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down among the sheep pens.
v.15 When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.

v.16 Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
v.17 Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backward.

v.18 “I look for your deliverance, Lord.

v.19 Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.

v.20 Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

v.21 Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

v.22 Joseph is a fruitful vine,  a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.
v.23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.
v.24 But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
v.25 because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below,  blessings of the breast and womb.
v.26 Your father's blessings are greater  than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

v.27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”

v.28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

 

[Notes: A study of these prophecies is too extensive to receive much comment here. The reader may wish to go back through them and consider which ones, as we inferred above, would be more words of perhaps challenge/correction/chastising, which words bring praise or vision and which ones might be considered a combination of both. Verse 10 attracts special note in its reference to kingship (see in David and his family) ‘until' one comes who will rule the nations (Jesus).]

 

 

v.29-33 The Death of Jacob

 

v.29,30 Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite.

v.31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.

v.32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”

v.33 When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

 

[Notes: With his dying words, Jacob requires that he be buried in Canaan – faith in God's promises to the end.]

      

       

Continue to Chapter 50