Themes From Genesis with R. C. Sproul, “Jacob’s Blessing”, 12

Jacob’s Deathbed Blessing and the Transmission of the Covenant

We come now, in our study of the book of Genesis, to the concluding portions of the book at a moment that's, I think, very dramatic in the history of Israel when Jacob is on his deathbed, and as we had read before in the case of Abraham and Isaac, and even earlier with the case of Noah, that these men whom God had called out of the world and entered into a covenant with them, when they came to the point of death, they gathered their sons around them, and they pronounced a blessing upon their sons, and the promise of the covenant that God had made with His people was then transmitted from father to son and to grandson, and down through the generations that were fulfilled in the coming of Christ.

And so, so much of redemptive history is found in this drama that takes place in the book of Genesis. And now Jacob has twelve sons, and he is gathering these boys together to determine what the future allotment of the degree of blessing that each would receive.

And as we will see when we look at the text, not all of them participate in an equal way in a share of the promises of God's future blessings, and that Jacob takes into account the lives that his sons have lived.

And we would expect at the beginning that the transmission of the promise of the covenant would go to what son? What son usually gets it? The elder son, the eldest son in this case, and we would expect that Reuben would receive.

The birthright.

Reuben Loses the Birthright

But let's look and see what happens in chapter 49. It begins, Then Jacob called for his sons, and he said, Gather around, so I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come. Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to your father Israel.

Now the first one he speaks to is Reuben, who's the eldest. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the very first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Listen to these words that Jacob uses to describe his firstborn son.

I mean you can almost see the old man start to glow as his memories came back to him of the pride that he felt at the news that his son had been born and that he had an heir of the house of Jacob. You are my firstborn.

You are my strength. You are excelling in power and in strength. All of that is very positive, and we would expect that the next verse would be what? Because you're my strength, because you're my firstborn, you're my pride, I leave you the lion's share of my inheritance.

But in the middle of this description of the character of Reuben, he says after excelling in honor, excelling in power, he says, turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch, and you defiled it.

Now, it is interesting that there is a link here, a play on words, that Reuben is the one who is called excellent. You have excelled. You are excelling in strength and excelling in power, but you're turbulent as water, and you will not excel over your brothers.

And so, Jacob pronounces more a curse than a blessing upon Reuben and tells him that he will not receive what he normally would have received because of an unspeakable act of sin that Reuben had committed during his life.

If you recall back in chapter 35 of Genesis that when Jacob was away from home, he left his concubines at home, and his son, his eldest son, slept with his concubine, and that was a scandalous thing, a disgrace upon Jacob's dignity and upon his honor.

And so, Jacob said, that act of treachery has cost you the birthright. You will not receive the principal inheritance. He described Reuben as turbulent as the waters, and when we look at that phrase carefully, we see that what he's saying is that just like waters can be easily stirred up, your insolence, your arrogance, your presumptuousness is easily quickened.

And think of how presumptuous it would have been, how arrogant it was for him to have committed this act with Jacob's concubine. Then we read, I'm going to read in verse 5 and 7, that the next two sons are addressed jointly.

Simeon and Levi Scattered in Israel

Similarly, Simeon and Levi are brothers. Isn't that a strange thing to say, since they're all brothers? But they're not all fool brothers, and Simeon and Levi are fool brothers, and maybe that's what Jacob has in mind here, or maybe he is using the term brother in a figurative sense, which we find frequently in the Bible, that they are of the same stripe, the same kind of character.

One person I think in Job is called the brother of a jackal, because his character is like that of a jackal, and it could be that what Jacob is saying, you two are two of a kind. He said, your swords are weapons of violence.

Let me not enter into their council. Let me not join their assembly. I don't want to go into any private meetings when these two fellows are involved, because I won't even trust my own life to them, is what Jacob is saying to his sons, Simeon and Levi.

Why?

For they have killed men in their anger, and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger. It's so fierce, and their fury, which is so cruel. I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.

Now let's look at this for a second. What event do you suppose Jacob has in mind when he is characterizing Levi and Simeon as being cruel and violent, killing men, hamstringing oxen? What event does he have in mind?

The brothers didn't do it to Jacob. They didn't do it to their older sister, to their own brother. Oh, you mean to Joseph? No, it's not the Joseph incident that's in view here. We recall in the thirty-fourth chapter of Genesis how the daughter of Jacob, Dinah, who was a full sister both to Simeon and Levi, was attracted to one of the princes of the local inhabitants, and the prince seduced Dinah, not in an act of violent rape, but he did in a certain sense force himself upon her in her innocence because he was so madly.

In love with her.

And Jacob was out in the field, and he heard the story of this shaming of his daughter, and he was very upset. But he saw the prince and his father coming to him to discuss the matter. And so Jacob held his peace, and Jacob handled this thing.

He said, wait, I'm going to wait and hear their story before I act in any kind of rash.

Manner.

Well, the men come to Jacob, and what's their attitude?

Do you remember?

They're embarrassed.

They humble themselves, and they beg Jacob for two things, for forgiveness and for the hand of Dinah in marriage. And so Jacob says, well, you know, I appreciate this action on your part, but I cannot allow my daughter to be married to uncircumcised pagans.

So what do the pagans do? They go out and get themselves circumcised and all of their people. It's like whatever you say, Jacob, we will do to redress this act of violence that we have committed, and they are being totally acting with integrity after the seduction.

Of Dinah.

And so Simeon and Levi play along with Jacob like they accept the whole situation, and they pretend that they're friends with him, but then as soon as Jacob turns his back, they come like madmen rushing in and kill these people, slaughter them.

And their cattle, their oxen and everything in an act of bloodthirsty revenge, overkill, overreaction, so violent that now Jacob is shamed again. First he's shamed because his daughter has been violated, but then Jacob accepts the terms of settlement and makes a promise of marriage to these people.

And his sons come in and break the promise of the father and not only disrupt the marriage, but they kill the groom and his father and the people. And so again, Jacob's word is shamed, and he says, that'll cost you, that'll cost you in your inheritance.

In fact, he says, I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. Well, what happened in the future of the tribe of Levi, do you remember? What portion of the land did they get ultimately? The Levites, when the promised land was divided up between the tribes, did not get a specific portion of their own.

They were the tribe that was set apart to work as servants to the priests, and they were given places to live within the various regions that were assigned to the other tribes. But they had no defined parcel of land, a tribal parcel of land for their own tribe.

They didn't have that kind of tribal land identity that the rest were granted. Well, what about Simeon? Well, the Bible doesn't give us a full description of what happens to Simeon except this. We know that in the exodus and in the wilderness wanderings, two censuses were taken, and in the first census, while the people of Israel were in the wilderness and they hadn't yet conquered the promised land and the land hadn't yet been distributed, while they were in their wilderness wanderings, in the first census, the strongest tribe in terms of fighting them was the tribe of Simeon, and they were one of the three largest tribes in numbers in the first census that was taken.

And it was only a few years later that the second census was taken, and the second census shows that the smallest tribe in Israel is now the tribe of Simeon. And they had, in between the two censuses, lost over 10 ,000 fighting men.

But the Bible doesn't tell us how or why or what happened. All we see is this dramatic decline in the numbers of the tribe of Simeon. And then, of course, when the promised land is conquered, okay, who we see then that of all of the tribes of Israel, only one of the tribes is omitted when Moses oh, not with I'm sorry, not with the dispersing of the land later, but in Deuteronomy 33, when Moses gives his blessing and curse to the tribes, okay, the only tribe that is omitted.

Is Simeon.

Simeon is given no portion. And then, of course, later Joshua assigned cities to the tribe of Simeon in Canaan, but they did not get their own portion of land. And so the promise of Jacob was fulfilled, both for Simeon and for Levi, that they would be scattered throughout the land.

Again, as a judgment, not a judgment simply of Jacob, but Jacob is merely the spokesman for God here. This is God's judgment on those tribes for these acts of violence. Then we get to the fourth son, and his name is Judah.

Judah and the Promise of the Messiah

Listen to what Jacob says to Judah. Judah, your brothers will praise you. The Hebrew word for praise is yachra, which is the same basic root for the name Judah. There's a play on words here. Judah's name comes from the root word to praise, and he said, okay, Judah, the one who is praiseworthy, your brothers will, in fact, praise you.

Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down to you. That is, that you will be given the position of superiority and power over the rest of the tribes. Now we're seeing that the lion's share, literally, of the patriarchal blessing will be given to Judah.

But before that blessing is given, Jacob has more things to say about him. He says in verse 49, I'm sorry, in verse 9, you are a lion's cub, O Judah. You return from the prey, my son. Like a lion, he crouches and lies down.

Like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? You are a lion's cub, now if we see the rest of the statements here in this dispensing of blessings, that frequently Jacob likens the character of his sons to different animals.

And the animal that is selected to characterize Judah is the lion. It's throughout biblical literature, throughout biblical poetry, the lion is the figure of triumph. The lion is the figure of strength.

The lion is the figure of supremacy. It becomes the symbol of royalty, of monarchy. We still speak of the lion, how? What is his place in the animal kingdom? He is the king of the jungle, all right? And so here we have the kingly imagery used to be describing Judah.

And notice what he says, you are like a lion's cub. You return from the prey, my son. What does that mean? He's not a casualty. He survives. And then he is compared to the full-grown lion or to the lioness, who after they devour their meal, they retire from their dinner, and they come up on the hill.

Now, when is the full-grown lion vulnerable? When he's resting at the top of the hill. He's filled his belly with the prey, and just like you feel at 1 o 'clock in the afternoon after a heavy lunch, you want to stretch out and take a nap.

Now the lion goes up and lies down. And again, if somebody could come and get…. But listen to what he says. He said, like a lion he crouches and lies down like a lioness. Who dares to rouse him? When Judah takes a nap, nobody comes sneaking in and plays games because you don't fool around with Judah.

He is like a resting lion. You see a lion sleeping. If you're judicious, what do you do? You keep giving him the ground, and you move away because you don't want to fool around with that. Now comes the promise for the future that's of great significance for us.

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until now my translation reads he comes to whom it belongs, and the obedience of the nation is his. The scepter is the sign of the king.

And what Jacob is saying to Judah is, you will have the kingdom. You will be the king, and your tools of kingship will remain with you until Shiloh comes. Now the first word we have to notice here is the word until.

It suggests a historical terminal point. It's not a historically perpetual dynasty that will go forever and ever and ever. Now I know the Bible elsewhere says, you know, that there will be someone on the throne of Judah forever, and that's true, but that's not saying that there will be an eternal succession of kings.

It's a slight difference. He is saying is that the kingship will be in the tribe of Judah until Shiloh comes. Now there are different translations of that, but the basic concept is until the one to whom it belongs appears.

And who is that? Who in the New Testament is the lion of Judah who establishes the kingdom forever? Jesus. This is a messianic prophecy. This is a future prediction of the coming messianic king. And what Jacob is saying to his son Judah is, Judah, out of your loins the one who bears all of the promises that God has made from Noah onward, even back to Adam, the one who will bruise, who will crush the head of the serpent, the one who will reign as king, will come from you.

The Messiah will come from your tribe. Now listen to these descriptions about this one. 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.

His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk. These are extravagant images of great prosperity, of great wealth, and of great majesty, because remember that one of the principal crops agriculturally was the vineyard.

And what Jacob is saying is the vineyards of Judah will be so incredible, so vast that people will be able to hitch their horses to them. You know, the vines will be so thick it will be like being out in front of a saloon in the Old West where you have the hitching posts.

Our vines will be so strong and sturdy that we will use them, that Judah will use his vines for hitching posts. And the grapes will be so numerous that they'll wash the garments in the grapes. And what will his descendants look like?

Dark eyes, white teeth. Now that maybe doesn't sound like a whole lot to you, but to a nomad in antiquity the fairest features of physical beauty were those of dark eyes and white teeth. And so he is saying all the accoutrements of beauty, of majesty, and of wealth will be heaped upon this tribe and of its king who will come.

The Remaining Sons and Joseph’s Fruitful Vine

Quickly, I'll just race over the rest. Zebulun will live by the seashore, become a haven for ships. His border will extend towards Sidon. We don't know if that ever took place. We know that Zebulun was settled in the northern part of Israel, but not immediately on the seacoast.

They became a sea commerce community, and the Bible doesn't say that they never settled some of the seacoast cities, and presumably they did, but there's a lot of silence involved.

In that.

Let me quickly go to Issachar in verse 14 and 15. Issachar is a raw-boned donkey lying down between two saddlebacks. When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and give himself to forced labor.

Now, is that a blessing or a curse? A raw-boned donkey? Issachar, you are a raw-boned donkey. If somebody called you a raw-boned donkey, would you take that as a compliment or a criticism? You'd think it was your wife, an insult.

Actually, it's a very lofty compliment in the ancient world because the donkey was very valued, and a raw-boned donkey was one who was strong and could pull his load effortlessly.

And carry out the day.

Lying down between two saddlebacks, we're not sure what that means, although some commentator suggests that this is an allusion to the area where that tribe would settle in the Valley of Jezreel because in antiquity, just as in some parts of the world today, a plain between two mountains is called a saddle because it looks like a saddle, and perhaps this is a prediction as to where they would land.

Dan is noted for justice. Asher is promised delicacies fit for a king. Naphtali is compared to a dough, and then finally, Joseph is given his part in the blessing where Joseph we have some beautiful descriptions here Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over the wall.

With bitterness, archers attacked him. They shot at him with hostility, and undoubtedly referring to his brothers, but his bow remained.

Steady.

His strong arm stayed limber because of the hand of the mighty one of Jacob, because of the shepherd, because of the rock of Israel. Here, the tribute is not so much to Joseph as it is to whom? To God who sustained Joseph.

Now, it's clear with these epithets that Jacob gives to Joseph that still Joseph was the apple of his eye, but one of the remarkable things is that it's God's choice as to whom the covenant promise belongs, and I think if I can speculate for one second before I stop because my time is up, that had it been left to Jacob, Joseph would have received the inheritance, but God chose Judah, and it was from the loins of Judah that Christ….

So I invite you to study more carefully the implications of these predictions because there's a sense in which a blueprint for the whole future history of Israel is written in these words of a dying man to his sons.