A Father’s Blessings and Curses; Blog Through the Bible Project | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Genesis 49

Close to death, Jacob pronounces on each of his sons a blessing that, reflecting something of their past actions tells how their descenants will prosper in the future.

Jacob Blesses His Sons

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.

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

³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
   my might, the first sign of my strength,
   excelling in honor, excelling in power.
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.

Though Jacob said nothing at the time, the moral consequences of Reuben’s sin–sleeping with his father’s concubine– was that moral authority and leadership slowly shifted away from him.

⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers—

   their swords^[a] are weapons of violence.
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.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
   and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob
   and disperse them in Israel.

God’s judgement, voiced by Jacob on his deathbed is slow, but sure. These two tribes are scattered among the other tribes to prevent either tribe from dominating the rest, and bringing destruction on Israel.

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.

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?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
   nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[c]
until he to whom it belongs shall come
   and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

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.

¹² His eyes will be darker than wine,

his teeth whiter than milk.

Judah was the fourth son, but Reuben, Simeon and Levi had forfeited the right to leadership because of their moral failings. So leadership is given to Judah, and the double portion of the first born given to Joseph.

For God’s inscrutable reasons, the tribe of Judah was chosen to be the one to whom the Messiah was born. See lion imagery associated with the tribe from the first book of the Bible to the last, when Jesus is referred to as “the lion from the tribe of Judah.”

ESV In these words, Jacob predicts the great empire of David, and the greater Kingdom of Christ, the second David. Messianic expectation in the OT: the way that Abraham’s blessing will come to the Gentiles will be by the ultimate heir of David, reigning and incorporating the Gentiles into his benevolent empire.

The royal line of Judah culminates with Jesus Christ.

]

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

¹⁴ “Issachar is a rawboned^[f] donkey
   lying down among the sheep pens.^[g]
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.

¹⁶ “Dan^[h] will provide justice for his people
   as one of the tribes of Israel.
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.
¹⁸ “I look for your deliverance, LORD.
Jacob interrupts his pronouncements here by a brief prayer that highlights his concern for his descendants. Without divine deliverance, they will not survive.

¹⁹ “Gad^[i] will be attacked by a band of raiders,
but he will attack them at their heels.

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

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

²² “Joseph is a fruitful vine,

a fruitful vine near a spring,

whose branches climb over a wall.^]

²³ With bitterness archers attacked him;

they shot at him with hostility.

²⁴ But his bow remained steady,

his strong arms stayed^[l] limber,

because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,

because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

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.

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.

In spite of his brothers’ hostility towards him, Joseph has survived, sustained by the Mighty One of Jacob. Jacob prays that Joseph’s descendants will experience blessing upon blessing, blessings which will exceed those shown to Abraham and Isaac.

The hand of the mighty one of Israel enabled the bow to stay steady in Joseph’s hand.

²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;

in the morning he devours the prey,

in the evening he divides the plunder.”

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.

The Death of Jacob

²⁹ 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, ³⁰ 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. ³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. ³² The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.^[p]”

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.

Jacob does not forget that it was Canaan which was his God-appointed homeland.