The Patriarchal Prophecy

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 49:1-28

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Well, this morning we look to start chapter 49. We'll next week take the rest of chapter 49 into chapter 50, which will be the very last chapter of Genesis.
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And we'll within two weeks' time conclude our over two years' long time spent in this beginning of the
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Scriptures. As we begin chapter 49, we're reminded of where we were last week.
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Jacob is dying. Jacob is dying, and his chief desire, arguably the desire of the past two decades, especially the 17 years after he was reunited with Joseph, his long -lost son, has been to testify to the covenantal promises that belonged to him.
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The very promises that belonged to his father, Isaac, and the promises that belonged to their grandfather.
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And so, of course, as we begin seeing Jacob's desire, seeing his wish, we were reminded last week of Hebrews 11, that his central passion, his yearning, is to gather his children and to testify to them of his faith in the
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Lord and all that the Lord had promised, all that the Lord had done on his behalf, all that the
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Lord had undertaken to do for them. We saw Jacob blessing
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Joseph. And the way that he blessed Joseph was to adopt Ephraim and Manasseh and pronounce a blessing upon them and bring them into an inheritance in the promised land.
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But now he has his remaining sons to pass on the blessing. And as we've seen with Jacob himself, the father's blessing takes on a prophetic character.
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That was true when blind Isaac had gathered Esau and Jacob before him.
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Of course, there was some trickery involved, but nonetheless, there was a prophetic character to the blessing of Isaac.
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And so with Jacob, there's a prophetic character to the blessing that he pronounces in chapter 49.
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Notice, beginning in verse one and two, Jacob called his sons and said, gather together, that I might tell you what shall befall you in the last days.
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Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel, your father.
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This is very formal language, enigmatic language. You have the emphasis of repetition.
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Gather together, gather together, even as the sons gather together at the deathbed of Jacob, so they will be gathered together out of the exodus into the promised land.
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Gather, listen to Israel, your father. They're given a unity of the name of Israel, their father.
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And of course, we have this phrase, in the last days. The language of last days, it could be translated in future times.
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It's almost a formula when Scripture begins to turn toward predictive prophecy.
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And so we have this here, and arguably throughout the prophets, and we'll even see it again in Numbers 24.
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It's the next time Moses uses the phrase, the last days. And that's very significant, as we'll see later on.
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So this little phrase, this little token statement, I will tell you what shall befall you in the last days is keying these sons in that they're going to receive a blessing in the form of prophecy.
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This is more than poetry. This is more than compliments. This is more than some subjective sense of what they're like, what their attitude and disposition may be, and how that may play out into the future of their tribe.
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No, no, this is a prophecy of God that has immediate fulfillment, not only in them and in their tribes, but ultimately beyond them, as we'll see.
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What we have in verses 1 -28 is the launchpad for all that will unfold in the rest of the
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Old Testament. The launchpad, the runway, not only for the history of Israel as it will begin to unfold through the exodus and the conquest and the reception of the land, the building of the kingdom and the loss of that kingdom, but through all of those things, the takeoff in the
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Christ event, in the coming of the Messiah. All of that is here contained in verses 1 -28.
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So we have in seed form the history of Israel in the Old Testament and the prophecy concerning Israel's hope and consolation, the
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Lord Jesus. We're reminded, as we begin chapter 49, that Scripture is primarily concerned not with biographical detail, not with simply recounting events as they happened chronologically, but Scripture is primarily concerned with the promise, the accomplishment, and the entailment of God's redemption in and through Christ by His Spirit.
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That is the goal of Scripture. The great revelation of God's redemption in and through Christ by His Spirit.
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And all that that entails we see in seed form even here in chapter 49, 1 -28.
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How do you read a novel, those of you that read novels? Well, generally, the very beginning is uniquely important.
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It's the crisis of every author, right? How do they begin the first page? How do they actually launch into the story?
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And then, of course, the next most important thing after you get past the plot dynamics would be how you land, how you finish the story.
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Well, be reminded, here we are at the very end of Genesis. This is very important.
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This is the last major treatment that we have of the theology of Genesis before recounting
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Joseph's words in chapter 50. So this is very significant, not only for Scripture, but even just for the theology of Genesis.
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And we'll draw that out more perhaps next week. And so as we consider the words of Jacob in chapter 49, let's begin with his words to Reuben.
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You'll see how it's organized. He speaks primarily to his sons in order of the wives, first to the sons of Leah, then to Bilhah and Zilpah, and then finally to the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin.
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So beginning with the sons of Leah, with Reuben, Genesis 49, three and four.
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Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the beginning of my strength, the excellence of dignity, and the excellency of power.
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Those are words I might use for Callum next month. We'll see. What a beautiful statement, isn't it?
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My firstborn son, my might, my dignity, my strength. The firstborn is addressed here.
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And all of the expectation of a firstborn in terms of Hebrew culture is also expressed here with glowing praise.
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This is everything that the firstborn son was meant to be. He uniquely carries on the identity and the lineage and the hope of the father.
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Might, strength, dignity, power, all of this was laden with potential in Reuben's life.
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All of that was the propensity that Reuben had as the sparkle in Jacob's eye.
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And yet as he grew older, as he went through those awkward teenage years, even as he became a young man, that began to fade, that began to turn upside down.
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And fateful actions still cling to Reuben. And so the prophecy continues.
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Unstable as water. You shall not excel because you went up to your father's bed and you defiled it.
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He went up to my couch. So what began with this tremendous hope is shattered in terms of the prophecy.
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The one who had might, strength, dignity, and power is unstable like water, will not excel, will not advance because of the fateful actions he made as a young man.
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That word unstable, it could be just as easily translated destructive, destructive like water.
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Isn't it amazing? You think of the potential of water, that which literally supports life, cannot live without water, and yet when you have water in the wrong place or in the wrong quantity, there's nothing more destructive.
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Destructive like water. Unstable. It describes Reuben being turbulent, boiling over.
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Well, if Father's not gonna do anything, then I'll take matters into my own hands. And so the Septuagint translates this.
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He runs wildly. There's a Targum, so a sort of rabbinic commentary on the passage.
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They translate this phrase as just running after his own will. And that's what we saw with Reuben. When he climbed up onto his father's bed, a euphemism for when he went into Bilhah, it was an attempted coup d 'etat.
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It was a way of saying, I'm actually going to lead the family now. That I'm going to take the place of my father who's passive and off to the side.
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If he's not willing to lead, I am. So he runs after his own will, boiling, turbulent.
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All that had been promissory, might, dignity, strength turns into corruption.
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And of course, we remember from Genesis 35, that coup d 'etat. And perhaps that accounts for the way verse four unfolds.
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Notice everything is in the second person. You, right? You are like this.
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You will not excel. You are destructive like water because you went up to your father's bed. But then it changes to the third person.
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He went up to my couch. How do we account for that shift in language? It's almost as if he's reporting it.
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Perhaps that was something that the other brothers had not known as plainly, or maybe they didn't realize that Jacob knew of it.
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And so it almost comes across as a report. This is what he did. Jacob is still strongly reacting to something from decades and decades and decades earlier.
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What a mixed bag we have with Reuben. Glory on the one hand, and disgrace on the other.
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Dignity as the firstborn, and yet reckless instability, even immorality.
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And all of that together caused him to lose his firstborn right. What a warning
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Reuben is for children growing up in a Christian home. All of the promise surrounded by blessing and testimony.
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There seems to be so much going for them. But because of recklessness, self -will, immorality, they lose all that privilege.
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He is forgiven, no doubt. Forgiven by Joseph, reconciled to Joseph. Forgiven by Jacob, reconciled to Jacob.
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Surely we could say forgiven by God. He is blessed here. He does receive an allotment in the land.
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There is a tribe of Reuben. But even though he's forgiven, the consequences of his actions are he loses his firstborn privilege.
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Spurgeon says, a man may have many great opportunities and yet lose them all. Uncontrolled passion may make a man very little who otherwise would have been very great.
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Simeon and Levi. Simeon and Levi are interestingly paired together in verses 5 -7.
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And of course, as Jacob will prophesy, they'll be divided in among themselves, scattered among their inheritance.
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And so the way that Joseph had been doubled through Ephraim and Manasseh taking a share of the inheritance, here
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Simeon and Levi are merged together. They're inter -dispersed. And so that accounts for how we retain the 12 tribes of Israel prophetically.
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Simeon and Levi, verse 5. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.
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Let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger they slew a man.
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In their self -will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, it is fierce. Cursed be their wrath, for it is cruel.
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I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. They've been instruments of cruelty according to the words of Jacob.
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The term here, it's really interesting. When you get into prophecy or poetry,
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Hebrew language has a capability that's perhaps unique to Semitic languages compared to other languages, including
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English or any of the Romance languages. Hebrew is a continental language. And so we only know how to pronounce it because scribes later on in history, known as the
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Masoretes, they took time to actually reproduce vowel pointings so that the right word could be identified and the right pronunciation could be followed.
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And that's based on a number of things, including context and so forth. But they preserved the location of those consonants.
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So they put dots in the middle or underneath as a way of what we call pointing the Hebrew. Now, when you get into poetry, often you'll find words that are used very rarely.
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And that may be because it's trying to produce a certain image. It may be because it's trying to fit a certain meter.
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We experienced this a little bit with what we sang earlier this morning, a well -tuned heart.
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And some of us got thrown off with that line. Well, there was a hyphen, a well -tuned heart. Tuned is not part of our
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English, no, but it's fitting the meter. And that's how poetry can often work. And so here we have prophecy, poetic use of words, very evocative, figurative, and often rare words will be used that can have a number of connotations.
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Translators will make a decision. And we have a translation here, instruments of cruelty.
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But this word is so rich, instruments. Elsewhere it's used to speak of counsel.
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It can be translated as a noun, a noun pointed in a certain way to speak of knives or even swords.
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And then interestingly enough, the same word is a compound of wedding feasts. So the idea of a wedding feast or a wedding gathering.
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So notice this same word that's being used and translated as instruments of cruelty has the connotation or the possibility of counsel, knife, sword, wedding feast.
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Do you see what Jacob is doing? All of this is woven together in the details of what
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Simeon and Levi had done back in Genesis 34, when they had slaughtered the
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Shechemites. You remember, they took counsel with Shechem because of what Shechem did to Dinah.
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And of course, Shechem sought a wedding and the feast that would result from a wedding. And so he submitted to the knives of circumcision, but was killed by the sword.
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All of that is contained in this little phrase, instruments of cruelty, so fascinating.
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Jacob says they're violent men, fierce men. Their anger exploded in such a way that they didn't just slay a man, notice this language, in their self -will, they hamstrung an ox.
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And I don't think that's describing, not only did they kill the men, but they also killed all the cattle, likely that's not a detail recorded in Genesis 34.
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That's probably not how they would have thought of it. That would have been plunder to them, valuable plunder. I think
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Jacob's point is, in their anger and in their rage, in their aggression and needless violence, they destroy things just for the joy of destruction.
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They look at an ox that is simply minding its own business and they go and they cut open the hamstring so that it suffers and faces an excruciating death.
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That's what their anger is like, reckless, destructive. It triumphs in the misery of others, they're violent men.
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And so he says, let not my soul enter their council. Let not my glory be united to their assembly.
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And he pronounces a curse upon their anger. Cursed be their anger. Notice how strongly
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Jacob is reacting against his sons, Simeon and Levi. It's a reminder of how believers are meant to react against anger.
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How seriously do we take anger? What does Ephesians 4 .32 say about anger? Put it all away.
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Put all malice and wrath and anger away from you.
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It's destructive, recklessly destructive. And Jacob says as a result of this, they'll be divided, scattered among the land.
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It's a prediction that will shortly come true in Israel. We remember, of course, that according to Numbers 26, the tribe of Simeon was very weak.
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They came out as one of the largest tribes during the Exodus, but by the time we get to Numbers 26, they're one of the smallest.
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Their numbers were so far dwindled that Joshua would not give them an allotment of land.
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Rather, they were scattered and interdispersed within Judah. So Simeon was scattered in the midst of the southern region of the land.
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Levi himself, as a tribe, was scattered throughout the land as well. But here, there's actually a note of encouragement, of even hope, because their scattering comes off the heels of their faithfulness.
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It was the sons of Levi who would not worship the golden calf of Exodus 32.
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And so Joshua appointed them to be in the cities, 48 cities throughout the land, because the
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Lord was their inheritance. Rather than the inheritance of the land, the Lord would be their inheritance.
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Now taking a step back, so far we've looked at three sons. Notice that all of these sons have been forgiven.
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All of these sons have been reconciled to Joseph. All of these sons have been reconciled to Jacob. Truly, they are blessed.
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Truly, they at least, in one shape or another, receive some place in the land.
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And I wonder if we're reminded of Psalm 99 from our days at Manadnock. You were to them
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God who forgives, though you took vengeance on their deeds. There's a consequence to their actions.
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Now Judah is coming up next. Judah's just heard the prophecy on Reuben, on Simeon, and on Levi.
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You can imagine he's thinking, oh, I'm really in for it now. If all their sins of all their failures are in plain view and their consequences are in plain view, what am
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I in store for? We remember Genesis 38 and how he treated Tamar. We remember his implication in the plot to kill
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Joseph. So Judah must have been bracing for impact. Maybe it'll start out well, just like Reuben's prophecy, and then dad's really going to let me have it, and who knows if I'm going to have anything in the land at all.
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Verse eight, Judah. You are he whom your brothers shall praise.
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Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you.
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Judah is a lion's whelp, another word for cub. From the prey, my son, you've gone up.
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He bows down, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him?
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The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people, binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine.
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He washed his garments in wine, his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.
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That's the prophecy given to Judah. Judah was bracing for the impact of a curse that never comes.
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Rather than being disturbed by the blessing, Judah is truly blessed. Rather than having his sinful actions put on display,
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Jacob bestows the greatest honor imaginable to Judah.
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The lineage of the promised seed. It's not for nothing that in verse 10, there's a capital
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H for the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him.
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That's a capital H. We'll get into that. The lineage of the promised seed.
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The blessing begins with a wordplay on Judah's name. Judah's name, pointed as a verb, means to praise.
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And Jacob says, your brothers will praise you. Judah is praiseworthy, of course.
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We saw the transformation in his life after chapter 38. Tamar's ruse had shown
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Judah just what kind of man he was. She is righteous, not I. And ever since then, we saw this repentance in his life that was marked by self -sacrifice.
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Father, let anything that happens be upon my head, my hope, my inheritance, my lineage.
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Let me be cut off from before your sight if anything's happening to Benjamin. And how he threw himself down in the place of Benjamin.
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Of how he sought reconciliation with Joseph in such a way that Joseph himself was startled at what kind of man
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Judah had become. And in light of that, he receives this great honor. He will be praised, just as Joseph was prophesied to be praised.
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Your brothers will bow down to you, it is said to Judah. Well, that was the dream that had been given to Joseph.
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Your brothers will bow down to you. So Joseph, as the type of Jesus, is here also, as it were, brought into this lineage of Judah.
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How is it that the brothers will bow down to Judah? Because of the one that comes from the tribe of Judah.
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All of this speaks toward the coming of the Messiah. Judah is compared to a lion's cub.
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A striking image that in due time, this cub will grow to maturity into the power of a fierce and mighty lion.
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This is royal imagery. More importantly, it's messianic imagery. I'm, one of the things
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I love about, where Elsie is at right now in homeschooling is her fascination of animals and creation in general.
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It's wonderful when kids are just so amazed at what they can learn about the vibrancy and complexity of God's work.
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And one of the things that she's particularly drawn to is lions, and so we had an opportunity several weeks ago to watch a documentary following a pride in the plains of the
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Serengeti. And we were both, I think Elsie and I together, were kind of floored at the power of a full -grown male lion.
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It's one thing to see the cubs, you know, ducking in between the legs of the lionesses, but when the male lion comes around, they seem somewhat lazy, but when they're in action, it's a sight to behold.
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And of course, they don't do the majority of the hunting, they're more interested in territory, which, speaking of the kingly imagery of a lion is very significant.
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But there was this documentary, and of course there was this invasion of the territory.
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And this male lion had crossed over this crocodile -infested river and made it into this other territory, and the male lion began to do his roar, his low, guttural groan.
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And he was an older lion, he had held his pride for some time, but here comes this new lion in the height of his strength and his energy, completely undisturbed by the power of that grout coming at him.
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Rather than turning back, he hears it and he rushes toward it. And the videography was amazing, as it showed these powerful claws moving closer and closer to this fight.
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And even when that older male lion saw this powerful mane rushing through the tall grasses, it knew it was time to get out of dodge.
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The power of a lion. Right now, in Judah's tribe, it's just a cub. It's just a cub.
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But in the last days, this cub will become the lion of the tribe of Judah.
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Unmitigated power. Unmitigated strength. The ferocity of his judgment.
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This is the royal imagery of the lion. And with verse 10, we're taken to the very height of the
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Messianic promise. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people.
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I cannot emphasize to you enough how important Genesis 49, verse 10 is to all that follows in the history of Scripture.
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In verse 10, we see the fullness of the promise of the coming
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Messiah. The scepter will not depart from the tribe of Judah.
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A few years ago, some of us went to a trip in England, and we went to the Tower of London.
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We made our ways through the Tower of London and through these massive, you know, two -foot -thick walled vaults.
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And one of them, the monarch of the day, was Elizabeth II, and there was the scepter that she held at her monarchical inauguration.
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The symbol of power. The symbol of royal dominion over the realm of Great Britain.
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The scepter, this symbol of imperial power, the symbol of kingship, will not depart from Judah, nor will a lawgiver depart from between his feet.
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The idea, likely a euphemism, from between his feet is a euphemistic way of saying from his seed, from his descendants.
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So the leading position as the tribe, the promised kingly tribe, they will have that status until Shiloh comes.
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So this kingly promise will be attached to Judah until Shiloh comes.
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There's a promissory status to the tribe of Judah. Now this word Shiloh, it's the bane of many an interpreter's existence because there's about eight different ways to understand it.
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And likely most of those ways are intentional. As we said, language is meant to be evocative in prophecy or poetry.
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It's meant to have many connotations to it. And so this could be pointed in reference to Shalah, that was the son of Jacob that Tamar was to marry, but he kept withholding.
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And so the idea is until Shalah comes, and the idea there is it will never happen.
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You remember, Jacob was withholding his son. Oh, just keep waiting, just wait until he's older, just wait, and it was never gonna happen. And so it's almost a roundabout way of saying the scepter will never depart, never depart.
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Until Shalah comes, it will never depart. Another way to look at it is simply look at the word Shiloh itself. It could be translated as the one who makes peace, or the one who gives rest, rest maker, peace giver.
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And then of course, it could also be translated if we point it as a verb, the one, making it into a relative clause, the one to whom it belongs.
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And so we would translate it this way. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until the one to whom it belongs comes.
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All of these are valid options. All of these are debated. Now whether we understand
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Shiloh as the rest giver, the peacemaker, or the one to whom the scepter belongs, we recognize that this is a messianic prophecy, and the significant thing is, it was held to be a messianic prophecy from the very beginning.
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And so the earliest translations we have translate this as a messianic promise. We have it recorded in a particular targum called
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Ankelos, and this is the translation until Messiah comes, who the kingdom belongs to, and all of the nations will obey.
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So they're connecting this to the kingly Messiah. We know, for instance, that the higher critical scholars of the day would say this is just Christian history being glazed over Jewish interpretations of the past.
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They like to claim the Jews saw the Messiah in chapter 49, but these are all medieval sources, likely influenced by Christianity.
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And then, in 1947, they discovered the
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Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of Qumran. Access now to the first century, and maybe 100 to 150 years before the first century.
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One particular scroll, they categorize them by caves. The first cave at Qumran, one cue of pressure and interpretation of blessing has
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Genesis 49 .10 as a messianic promise. And so we know that from the very beginning,
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Jews were looking to this passage to say the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah.
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We're looking for the one to whom the scepter belongs. We're looking for Shiloh, the peace giver, the rest maker.
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Franz Delitzsch, a very important commentator, says the entire Jewish people and all of the
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Christian church are in perfect agreement that Jacob here was prophesying about the coming of the
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Messiah. To him shall be the obedience of the people. Another evocative term, obedience, can and sometimes is translated as the gathering of the people.
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To him shall be the gathering of the people. To him shall be the obedience of the people. When the messianic mystery is unfolded,
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Jesus says, when I am raised, I will draw all men. And they come to Him in what?
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The obedience of faith. In that day, the prophecy of Isaiah 11 promised, there shall be a root from Jesse who stands as a banner to the people.
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All of the Gentiles shall seek Him and His resting place, His Shiloh place, shall be glorious.
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Now the last part of this prophecy takes us to this imagery of agricultural abundance.
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Immediately speaking to Judah's prominent position in the land. Binding his donkey to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine.
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Think through the imagery here. I don't know much about raising a donkey, but if you were living on a subsistence level of agriculture, hoping to grow enough to make it through the season, you wouldn't tie your donkey to a vine because what's the donkey going to do when he's tied to the vine?
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He's going to eat it in about an hour and you'll never have fruit from that vine again.
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But the abundance is so rich, the blessing is so pronounced that go ahead and tie your donkeys to the vines.
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Let them eat the vines. You don't even need water for your clothes. Just wash them in wine. We've got wine, we've got vines on demand everywhere.
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We don't know what to do with it. We've got it coming out of every corner of our dwelling place. So they're washing their clothes in the blood of grapes, washing their garments in wine, and the milk is flowing, enigmatic of the promise of the land, the land flowing with milk, meaning cattle in abundance.
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His eyes are darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk, dark crimson, bright white.
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You can see where early Christian interpreters took this. With view to the Messianic prophecy, first of all, they saw the significance of the donkey's cult.
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It was Zechariah 9 where the donkey's cult had something to do with the arrival of the
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Messiah. And Matthew 21 picks up just on that. Riding on a donkey's cult while they cried out,
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Hosanna, Hosanna to the Son of David. And then of course, we saw this imagery of the donkey throughout the prophets as an image of the
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Gentile nations, wild like a donkey, unwilling to come to the yoke of the
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Lord. And so the idea here is the Gentiles being tied to the true vine.
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The donkey's cult being tethered to the vine who is the Lord. And then of course, this imagery of red and white, of white garments, of crimson red.
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I love what John Gill, he gives us a few different ways to understand this. He says, first of all, we see the great quantity of spiritual blessings that flow from the love of God and come to us by Christ.
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And these are comparable to wine and milk, to a feast of all of the fat things.
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This can be applied to Christ. It can be applied to the garment of His human nature, which through His suffering and death was like a garment dipped in blood.
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It became red, His apparel. Or to His church and people, which cleave to Him as a garment, whose garments are washed and made white in the blood of the
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Lamb. Again, this is all prophecy. Well, let's put a bookmark on Judah.
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We'll come back to him and keep moving through the remaining sons. Zebulun, verse 13.
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Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships. His border shall adjoin
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Sidon. So Zebulun's prophecy is about where they will dwell in the allocation of the land.
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It seems like they're dwelling right on the seashore, but what we know as we start reading through Joshua 19 is they're on a place that's not quite at the shore.
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They don't have any ports. Yet they're close enough to the coast that they're made rich by all of the sea commerce of the
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Mediterranean. Then of course, we move on to Issachar in verses 14 and 15. Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between two burdens.
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He saw that rest was good and the land was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden and became a band of slaves.
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So Issachar is likened to this animal and you'll notice this animal imagery in many of the blessings.
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We'll see this again and again. We've already seen it with the lion we have here, the donkey, we'll see it further.
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The blessing of Issachar shows them to be strong like a donkey, very capable like a donkey, but also stubborn and indifferent like a donkey.
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Their main aim, according to this prophecy, seems to find a land that was pleasant, much like Lot sought the well -watered plains of the
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Dead Sea. Lying down between two burdens, he saw that rest was good and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear a burden.
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He's willing to take on the burden for the sake of what seems to be comfortable or luxurious for the moment, but that comes with a high price.
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It came with a high price for Lot. It comes with a high price for the tribe of Issachar. Issachar, as a tribe, ends up being enslaved by the
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Canaanites. They wanted a land of plenty, they wanted rest, and they had to wear a burden in order to receive it.
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The same imagery that's used of the Israelites being slaves in Egypt is used of the Issacharites.
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And so, in contrast to Judah, who subdues his enemy like a lion, Issachar is enslaved.
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That which we do not master becomes our master. That would perhaps be a spiritual response.
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Think through your sanctification. That which you have not mastered by God's grace in your walk likely is a master over you.
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Dan. Genesis 49, 16 through 18. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
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Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heel so that its rider will fall backward.
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I have waited for your salvation, O Lord. Wordplay here,
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Dan means to judge as a Hebrew verb, and Dan is going to judge his people. In what way does
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Dan judge his people? Well, perhaps the most famous hero of the tribe of Dan was the judge,
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Samson. And Samson judged the people. And Samson in many ways was the viper along the path.
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Though Dan was a very, very small tribe, their power was legendary.
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They were the bane of the Philistines because of this judge, Samson. So most likely
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Judges 18 is in view in the immediate terms of this prophecy. But this tribe that bites the horse's heels and causes the rider to fall can also be seen in somewhat negative terms.
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In Judges 18, we have this image of the Danites retrieving an idol that the false prophet
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Micah had fashioned, and they carry that legacy into Israel. So they're marked early on in the history of Israel with idolatry.
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And perhaps that is why Jacob breaks out in this spontaneous prayer.
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He's saying, this is what Dan is and what Dan will be, and then he breaks out into prayer. I have waited for your salvation,
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O Lord. That's probably not the best translation. Because what happens when you're dealing with predictive prophecy is we have a shift in the syntax.
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And so things that would normally be translated as perfect verbs, things like I have waited, become future tense.
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They have future significance. I will wait. A better translation would be I will wait for your salvation,
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O Lord. And that's the plea that Jacob gives. So at first glance, it seems like, where is this coming from?
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Is this just some invocation? Why here? Why now? Why does Jacob break out into this prayer?
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Most likely it's because he sees the kind of trouble that Dan will have, interfering with idolatry even after the great deliverance of Samson, their great hero.
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And so they go from the triumph right down into the muck of idolatry, and perhaps seeing that from afar,
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Jacob prays, I will wait for your salvation, Lord. I know You will be the one to deliver
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Israel. It won't be the mighty heroes like Samson. Neither will it be the idolatry of the people.
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It will be Your grace, Your mercy, Your salvation. I will wait for Your salvation, Lord. Gad, Genesis 49, 19.
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Gad, a troop shall tramp upon him, but he shall triumph at the last. Gad here could be translated raided or a marauding band.
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And so you have this military imagery. A troop shall trample upon him. He shall triumph.
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This language, this imagery. And of course, Gad was positioned in the land with almost constant danger to the south and to the east.
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Gad as a name also, it was given to mean good fortune. But of course, they experience a lot of misfortune and they retaliate at the end.
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They triumph at the last. And Moses says as much in the parallel to Genesis 49, which is
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Deuteronomy 33. He says, they're like a lioness, bowed in the moment, but triumphant at the last.
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Asher, verse 20. Bread from Asher shall be rich and he shall yield royal dainties.
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Again, imagery of abundance in the land. And Asher had abundance in the land. Like Naphtali, like Issachar, they had a lot of abundance from the sea trade.
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And they did supply delicacies to the court of Solomon in the days of the monarchy. In going back to Deuteronomy 33,
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Moses says Asher dips his foot in oil. So the Mediterranean Sea is seen like expensive oil and he's just bathing in it.
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That's the tribe of Asher. Naphtali, verse 21. Naphtali is a deer let loose.
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He uses beautiful words. So animal imagery again. Here perhaps freedom is being emphasized.
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Naphtali is free. Not under a Canaanite yoke, but they're free.
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And perhaps agile and swift as a tribe. Others argue that the imagery continues.
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Rather than he uses beautiful words, it should be he produces beautiful fawns because you can point that noun in that way.
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So the imagery is never lost. Naphtali is a deer let loose. He produces beautiful or he makes beautiful fawns, beautiful children, generations that flow from him.
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But the translators I think are wise here. The first instant, it would be a rare case to make that it should be fawns.
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It should be perhaps words. And the idea here is Naphtali in his freedom is able to objectively give the message.
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In their freedom, in their free -spiritedness, they're able to testify. And good news comes from them as a result of that.
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We think of Matthew four in the ministry of Jesus in the region of Naphtali, which Matthew emphasizes twice in chapter four.
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And he says, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region in shadow of death, light has dawned.
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So that's in Naphtali. And Naphtali then are the ones that begin to share about the message and ministry of Jesus.
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That's where the light began to dawn in this region of Galilee. And so perhaps here we're being pointed toward the ministry of Jesus, the beautiful words that he is able to give.
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And then Joseph, pronounced the largest of all of the patriarchal blessings.
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Joseph is a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a well. His branches run over the wall.
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Here, branches is translated daughters, the daughters of the vine, the branches of the vine.
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And the idea is his fruitfulness has already been exemplified by Ephraim and Manasseh being in the land as tribes.
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So he's doubly fruitful. He's fruitful and indeed his domain, his boundaries, he's crawling over.
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His sons weren't supposed to be part of this. They're the next generation, but the vines have crawled over. He's so fruitful.
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Archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him, hated him, but his bow remained in strength.
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And the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. The archers there, at least initially being his brothers.
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When they cast him into the pit, when they sold him into slavery in Egypt, they were shooting him with arrows.
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He was being pierced through and through in his suffering, but God upheld him. And therefore he was able to save the household of Israel.
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And all of this is enigmatic of the messianic coming as well. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
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What beautiful imagery we have here. Of course, we've already seen Jacob's testimony in chapter 48, the
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God who has shepherded me my whole life long to this day, the stone of Israel. Remember how when he was going back and forth in Bethel on his way to Mesopotamia and back again, how he would raise a stone.
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He would build an altar and a pillar to God. And so he's seeing the Lord's faithfulness and presence, and he's promising this as a blessing upon Joseph.
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By the God of your Father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lie beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of your
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Father have excelled, the blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who is separate from his brothers.
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So here we have the imagery of God replete throughout this promise. The mighty
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God of Jacob, the God of your Father, the shepherd, the stone of Israel, El Shaddai, God Almighty.
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All of this is recapturing the story of Jacob and transferring it onto the history of Joseph.
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Joseph, of course, is essentially just Israel at large, though Ephraim, by way of Joseph, Ephraim is how
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Israel's referred to much later on. The God who empowered Joseph was the shepherd, the stone, the
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Almighty One, the rock of Israel. It's the covenantal imagery of El Shaddai that secures the generations and indeed will secure the type that Joseph had become.
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Joseph receives perhaps the greatest adoration from all his brothers. The most loving praise, a fruitful vine planted beside a fountain of life.
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Psalm 1 imagery here. The wise man well watered by the rivers.
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A proven vessel who had been sustained by God's grip in a furnace of affliction, upheld by God's grace so that God could bring salvation through him.
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And for that reason, Jacob says, blessing will come on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
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Separate because he was dragged away from them at the age of 17, cast into a pit, and left outside of the land for the rest of his life until he was to be buried back in the land.
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Truly separate from his brothers. But of course, this is projecting forward because this is speaking of things in the last days.
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And we're here brought to Hebrews 7 .26. For such a high priest was fitting for us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens.
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That's a nice little one verse encapsulation of the blessing of Joseph. Lastly, Benjamin.
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Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. Another animal image. In the morning, he devours the prey and at night, he divides the spoil.
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All these are the 12 tribes of Israel and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them and he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
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So the animal metaphor here is of a ravenous wolf, a wolf that will tear and will devour.
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And we see this side of the tribe of Benjamin in Judges 19 through 21. You remember, it's the Benjaminites that basically allow this concubine of the
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Levite to be assaulted unto death. And it's such an outrage that when the
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Levite sends the divided parts of this concubine to all of the tribes, they come together as one and say, we will extinguish the tribe of Benjamin.
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But as they go up and wage a campaign against the Benjaminites, the Benjaminites are so powerful that even though they're outnumbered something like tenfold, they're able to beat back the first and the second wave and only by cunning ambush are they able at the end to be defeated.
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And so the Benjaminites are seen as a mighty warrior tribe. Indeed, they had almost been extinguished as this ravenous wolf, but the people relented.
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They said, it's not our place to extinguish one of the 12 tribes of Israel. And they wept and they mourned and sought a way, an unfortunate way, to restore that tribe.
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So that's the history of Israel according to Genesis 49. And what do we do with that?
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We ought to say something to our view of the authority of scripture that we have in prophetic form what surely comes to pass in what is still history to us.
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These are not things that we're awaiting the accomplishment of. These are things that God has brought about.
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So the first application is we ought to have a very high view of the authority of scripture.
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The second thing is I think we ought to have a very emphatic view of God's purpose in history.
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God's purpose in history has always been to bring about the kingdom of His Son.
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And through that kingdom to bring about the promised redemption of Genesis 3, verse 15.
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And so all of history of all tribes and tongues correlates to what we have here in Genesis 49 in one degree or another.
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This is still the case today on the other side of fulfillment. We're living in light of God bringing forth
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His promised redemption in history. The third application would be this ought to shape the way we walk by faith.
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How many successive generations understood these prophecies and yet could not understand their ultimate reckoning?
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We end up being essentially just like them, just like Jacob praying
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I will wait for your salvation O Lord. We understand the promises that have been given.
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We know what is to come. But here we are generation by generation with all of the pressures and vicissitudes of life.
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We will wait for your salvation O Lord. The life of Joseph as we've been tracking it in these recent chapters is essentially a shadow and a type of the life of our
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Lord Jesus. And we recognize even here the whole thrust of Genesis 49 is to point us toward Him, toward the promised seed, the promised son, the coming king, the one whom the scepter will not depart from, the one who will have everlasting reign.
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And we're brought back to this phrase, Genesis 49 verse one in the last days. I mentioned at the beginning that Moses uses this phrase here.
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It's the first time he's used it at this point in Genesis. The only place he uses it in Genesis. We will not see it again until Numbers 24.
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So in the first five books that Moses is writing, we have this little key here.
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In these last days, this is what will happen. And as we've gone through it, we've seen the promise of Joseph and the greater promise of Judah.
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And we recognize this is all pointing toward God's fulfillment of redemption. The next time we see the phrase is in Numbers 24.
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In Numbers 24, which is another prophecy from an unexpected place. It's a prophecy of Balaam.
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In Numbers 24, we have this phrase which keys us into and reminds us of Genesis 49 in more ways than one.
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Numbers 24, beginning in verse five. This is Balaam's prophecy.
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Moses is saying, do you remember this phrase? Think of Genesis 49. I'm giving you something more to hold onto here.
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How lovely are your tents, oh Jacob. Your dwellings, oh Israel, like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the
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Lord, like cedars beside the waters. Imagery of Joseph, plants by the waters being made fruitful.
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He shall pour water from his bucket and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag.
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His kingdom shall be exalted. Truly the scepter will not depart. God brings him out of Egypt.
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He has strength like a wild ox. He shall consume the nations, his enemies. He shall break their bones, pierce them with his arrows.
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The one who had been pierced by the arrows of his brethren. If you're saying, are you just putting this on?
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Verse nine, he bows down. He lies down as a lion. And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
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Oh, where have we read that before? Right out of Genesis 49. He bows down.
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Who bows down? The one who has the scepter of Judah. Shiloh.
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Shiloh bows down as a lion. And as a lion, who shall rouse him? Blessed is he who blesses you.
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Cursed is he who curses you. So now the promises of the Abrahamic covenant merge with the prophecies of Genesis 49 to this figure, to this
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Messiah, to this Shiloh, this rest giver, this peacemaker, who is a mighty lion.
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Verse 17, I behold him, but not near. He's not coming yet.
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A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of Tumult.
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And Edom shall be a possession. Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession. While Israel does valiantly out of Jacob, one, in your translation, that ought to be a capital
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O, one shall have dominion and destroy the remains of the city.
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So you have this key, this next step forward in the awaiting of the
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Messiah. Balaam prophesies that there's this star from Jacob, the one who receives the scepter, the one who is not roused as a resting lion.
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This one, Balaam prophesies, is to be understood as the king who has everlasting dominion and the evil cities that rise up against him.
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This is taking us back to Genesis 1 -11. The serpentine cities he shall destroy, he shall crush.
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And why does he do that? Why would he destroy the cities of evil? Think through the conquest imagery here so that his people can dwell in the promised land in peace.
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Shiloh, the peacemaker. When we get to Revelation chapter five, think of John as an elderly, frail man, maybe looking something like Jacob in chapter 49.
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And the Lord blesses John, gives him a vision. On the Lord's day, he's caught up in the Spirit.
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And we get to chapter five, and John begins to feel implored by a crisis that he's seeing in his vision.
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Everywhere he looks, there's mourning because no one seems, no one has appeared worthy to open the scrolls.
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No one in heaven, we read in verse three, no one on earth, no one under the earth is able to open the scroll.
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Remember how Joseph had this promise that he would have untold blessing on the earth, above the earth, on the earth, and under the earth.
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And all of that blessing is bound up in the sealed scroll. And all of the promises are bound up in the sealed scroll.
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And every generation from every tribe throughout successive centuries is bound up in this scroll.
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Who's going to finally unfold God's redemption? How is all that God has promised finally going to pass?
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Year by year, Lord, we wait for your salvation. And so John mourns.
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He says, I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, to even look at it.
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And so we've marched through the history of Genesis one through 11. The serpentine influence that brought the fall of our first parents and sin and death entering the world so that he died, and he died, and he died as the never -ending chorus of the beginning of Genesis.
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We see God's promise foretold in Genesis 3 .15. The woman will bear the seed and he will crush the serpent's head.
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And that moves forward to this calling into the land of Abraham and the seed of Abraham, this everlasting land.
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Though they had been in the exile from Eden, God brings them into a land. And he says, you will be heirs of this land.
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And we saw that promised seed pass in form through Isaac as he's bound in the acada to the altar, the sacrificial son beloved of his father.
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And we see it passed in to the type of Joseph whose cast separated from his brethren, dragged into the pit of death, and yet rising out of that pit, gloriously exalted for the salvation of all of Israel.
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And all of these prophecies in Genesis 49 key us to look for that cub who throughout centuries time has become a lion.
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Balaam said, look for that star. He'll be hovering over Bethlehem. Look for that star that's coming.
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But it seems like the centuries have grown cold and silent. All we have is idolatry and failure, exile and setback.
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Who is worthy to open the scrolls? And John is weeping in his vision because no one can be found.
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But one of the elders stops him from weeping and he says, don't weep.
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And picture him gripping that weeping apostle and turning him to behold.
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He says, don't weep, look. And John looks, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah.
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The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals, it's perfectly bound and only one has been found that's worthy to open the scrolls.
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Balaam's prophecy, Jacob's prophecy, the lion of the tribe of Judah. But what happens when
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John looks? He doesn't see the lion. He doesn't see that powerful kingly beast charging down the corridors of time.
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He doesn't see what the Jews were expecting, what, as the rabbis were writing their Targumim, as the
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Dead Sea, the Qumran community were writing out their scrolls, looking for the scepter, the one that even John, the prophet said, are you he who is to come?
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Should we look for another? You don't seem like that mighty king who's charging and breaking down the enemies. Don't we remember the prophecy of Balaam?
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Aren't you to destroy the evil city? So when John looks, what does he see? The elder says, look, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah.
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John sees a slain lamb, a slain lamb. And never in Revelation 5 is
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Jesus worshiped as the lion. How did we open the service? They all surround his throne and they fall down before him, fall down by his pierced hands and his pierced feet.
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They fall down before him and they say, worthy is the lamb who was slain, worthy to receive all glory and all power and all honor and all dominion.
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Worthy is the lamb. Do we recognize, brothers and sisters, when we walk by faith, we wait for the salvation of the
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Lord. And the salvation of the Lord for this whole world does not come about by power or by might, not as the mighty conquering lion, but as the crucified lamb.
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That is our hope and consolation. We wait for your salvation, oh
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Lord. Father, we thank you for your word.
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It is so beautiful, so rich. We've been skating across the bare surface of the imagery and the intrigue and the mystery, what soundless depths there are to the promise of the coming one.
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What amazing testimony we have here in Genesis 49.
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So many thousands of years, people have been waiting for your salvation.
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We on this side of fulfillment, Lord, still await your full and final salvation, but we do it with eyes wide open with the mystery now fully revealed in and through your
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Son, our Lord Jesus. Who could have known that the lion would be the slain lamb?
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The slain lamb. Only you, Lord. We pray that if there's anyone here cold in their devotion, lazy in their walk of faith, discouraged in their fight of good faith, downcast in their walk of sanctification, that they would look to the slain lamb and understand all of his triumph and all of his glory.
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Perhaps that is the greatest application of all, Lord, and we pray that you would bless us by your Spirit in this way.