Sunday Night, June 7, 2020 PM

All right, good evening. Well, I invite you to open your Bibles to Genesis 49, and we'll be reading verses 16 through 21 in a moment. Genesis chapter 49, verses 16 through 21. Let's start with a word of prayer.

Father, I thank you for gathering us here tonight. Pray that as we look at your word, as we consider these last words of Jacob concerning his sons, that we would take lesson, that we would think about your desires and your blessings and your words concerning your son, Jesus Christ, and your words over us as your children.

Pray that we would take into account your assessment of our lives and how we ought to live. Well, we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ. I pray that you would make that even more clear tonight, and pray these things for Christ's sake, amen.

Amen.

Jacob’s Final Blessings and the Setting of Genesis 49

All right, so Genesis chapter 49, we're gonna be reading verses 16 through 21. Helpful to remember what is going on in this passage. Jacob has come to the end of his life. His name is intentionally being called Israel, as his new name, but Israel has come to the end of his life, and he is blessing the children of Israel, and he is talking about each one of his sons and giving them a special blessing.

Now, many of these are prophecies, and some of them seem to be difficult to tell, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that he's saying, and sometimes it's very clear that he's still upset with his sons about some of the things that they have done, and speaks about things that don't really sound like blessings, but the reason why we would call them blessings is that we have that in the text.

It says in verse 28, all these are the 12 tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed them, everyone, with the blessing appropriate to him. Now, it's pretty clear that we're to think of these as blessings, but obviously, what he's doing is he is pronouncing in view of their character, in view of their personality, in view of his relationship with them as his sons, speaking about what is yet to come for them.

Also, incidentally, verse 28 is the first time we have the phrase, the 12 tribes of Israel, and here's really where their future is being declared and proclaimed as a nation, and so it's appropriate that's where we have that phrase the very first time.

So Genesis chapter 49, I'm gonna read verses 16 through 21. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward.

For your salvation I wait, O Lord. As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels. As for Asher, his food shall be rich, and he will yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a doe let loose.

He gives beautiful words. We've already seen Israel or Jacob blessing his sons. We see he starts with Reuben and Simeon and Levi. These sons are all disgraced for their lack of control, a lack of control in terms of their passions, both in terms of immorality and in anger, and so since they are disgraced, he recalls what they have done that is wrong, and he also has some things to say about their future, which doesn't sound too appealing, and indeed what he prophesies of them comes true.

Reuben was not preeminent. He faded, and he was not a major tribe in the history of Israel, and Simeon and Levi were indeed scattered throughout Israel and did not retain their definition, and we then, after the disgraced tribes, we thought of the dominant tribe and read the words of Jacob concerning Judah, the dominant tribe, whose blessing is full of allusions to Christ, prophecies concerning the Messiah who would come from the line of Judah, and indeed we have a name for Christ spoken in this prophecy, Shiloh, the one to whom it all belongs, and this prophecy of Christ and the dominance of Judah would resonate through the rest of Israel's history, and now, for the lack of a better term, verses 13 to 21, we're looking at the diverse tribes, the tribes that are just all a little bit different, don't have a lot of information about them, and yet it's still of interest.

We talked last week about Zebulun and Issachar. Zebulun, the sea dweller, even though his land didn't touch any body of water, he was industrious with what was afforded him, and so he ended up being a sea trader and expanded his borders greatly, took what God gave him as a tribe, and they were just industrious, versus Issachar, who was a strong donkey, a lot of potential, but he chose to lay down between the sheepfolds, which is a polite way of saying lying down between the heaps of dung, hoping nobody will come ask you to work, and so that is where we're at, so now we're talking about Dan.

Dan’s Deceptive Strength and the Hope for True Salvation

Dan is the next son to be spoken of. Dan is described as a dangerous snake, so again, we'll read verses 16 through 18. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward.

For your salvation, I await, O Lord. Dan, does anybody remember anything about Dan? Any story about Dan just stand out to you? Any trivial facts? Dan indeed was the rear guard of the tribes any time the pillar of smoke and fire, the fire and smoke of Christ, when he would move through the wilderness, Judah would lead the way, and Dan would bring up the rear.

Fun fact, in the 144 ,000 in Revelation, Dan's not there, so there we are, so early Dan and late Dan, fun facts. Now, can anyone name a judge from the tribe of Dan? He was the real respectable one. Samson, that's right.

Samson kind of fits with the description of the tribe. He wasn't the most stalwart of men, but Samson was from the tribe of Dan. It's interesting the way in which the father speaks of his son. Dan will judge his people.

It's a play on words. When Leah had Dan, this was her son, when she had Dan, she named him that because that means judgment, and she did this in reflection upon her sister because she was in competition with her sister, and she said, God has judged between me and my sister, and he has given me this son.

So Dan, his name means judgment. So the name Dan refers to judging or revenge, and revenge was the trademark of the only judge to come from the tribe of Dan, which was Samson. Samson did most of his work in despoiling the Philistines because he was angry about some offense that came about because he set himself up for failure time and time again with his foolishness, and he was just always seeking revenge, and this was Samson.

Now, the phrase judge his people actually, what does it mean? Well, it means that Dan will judge Dan. Dan will judge Dan and take care of Dan, and that really was the story of this tribe. They were very isolated.

They were the most independent of all the different tribes, and they didn't care to get involved too much, and it's interesting, is it not, that Dan is compared to a snake. Out of all the animals that are mentioned in this list of blessings upon the tribes, the snake is the one animal which lives alone, and the tribe of Dan did things all on their own.

Now, they did have a courage of a sort, and we have two profiles in courage here of Dan and Gad. Gad is the next one up. So we're looking at Dan, we're looking at Gad, and there's profiles of courage here, but when it comes to Dan, their courage is not a desirable legacy, so he's a snake.

The most common snake being thought of here is the horned snake. It would be small, about 14 inches long, about one inch thick. It lurks in the sand by the side of the road, and it's very poisonous and dangerous.

Now, look at this image of the snake striking out at the back legs of the horse. Now, horse riding, horse riding was something very sophisticated in this time, very even sophisticated for the time of the tribes, that anyone riding around on horses, especially in terms of battle, would be incredibly a sophisticated and powerful kind of nation, and Dan would have to come up against these foes, these opponents, who were stronger and more advanced, but the idea is that Dan is going to strike with deceptive tactics and accomplish their goal.

They're going to use guerrilla warfare and so on, but why would they do that? Why would they not band with the other tribes and together, by force of arms, together in submission to the Lord, go out and conquer the enemies as they had been instructed?

Why did they have to resort to this kind of warfare in the history of their tribe? Well, it was due to their disobedience. Sometimes you'll see a little map in the back of your Bibles or elsewhere where you have the different allotments for the tribes throughout the land, and sometimes you'll see Dan down in the south, and sometimes you'll see Dan way up north.

In fact, there's a city by the name of Dan way up north in your Bible maps of the land of Israel, and that's because Dan abandoned their original allotment in the south, and they went wandering to the north, and they conquered a city named Laish who had no walls and no friends, and they took them over and destroyed them and then renamed the city Dan.

Dan, when you think about this tribe, it's really a series of contrasts. Dan was the second most numerous tribe listed in the wilderness, and yet when we come to the Book of Judges, we discover apparently the tribe was too weak to secure its designated allotment.

We find that the Danite migration to the north, they had a resounding victory over the population in Laish, but the first thing that Dan did in Judges 18 after conquering their first city was to establish an idolatrous cult.

So it's a series of they're doing impressive things, or they have some impressive qualities, but they're using it and doing things in ways that are dishonoring to God, and we can think of Samson as their most notable person, but even as his victories over the Philistines were unprecedented and indeed amazing, we remember Samson as a self-centered, morally impotent fool who was duped by an adulterous woman and had his eyes put out.

So when you think about Dan, there's some sparks of courage, some interesting things, but also tons of failure, which I think in the prophecy that Jacob gives after he talks about the way in which Dan operates as a snake, he then says, for your salvation I wait, oh Lord.

The way of Dan is not the way of salvation. The way of Dan was not going to bring about the kind of salvation that Israel desired for his sons and their descendants. He didn't seek an underhanded, struggling, incomplete kind of victory.

A snake striking at the heel was not true victory. It was not true deliverance. Crushing the head of the enemy, that would be true victory, and so he says, for your salvation I wait, oh Lord. He's looking for something more than what would happen in the life of Dan, and I think here he may be reflecting on the promise of God.

In Genesis 3 .15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Israel desires that greatest, most honorable, and courageous victory that God promised at the seed of the woman of Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and Judah.

Dan was courageous. He had some courageous moments, but isolated, we see he was always for himself. Dan will judge Dan and take care of Dan, and that's how he rolled. In contrast, we have Gad, who was a determined survivor.

Verse 19 says, as for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels. Dan had their difficulties, and a lot of it spawned from their disobedience, and so it just kind of taints the courage.

You know, like, well, I really made it through this time. I really did well through this struggle. Well, you brought that on yourself, so, I mean, I'm glad you made it through, but you didn't have to go through that.

Now, Gad is different. Gad is standing his ground in the allotment that was given to him by God, and Gad actually means troop. Gad means troop, like a unit of soldiers. Gad had settled in Gilead, across the Jordan.

He wasn't, Gad wasn't one of the tribes that settled on the west side of the Jordan. They were on the east side of the Jordan, and so Gad felt the brunt of many raids by the enemies in the days of the judges.

Gad had some difficult land to defend, but they stood their ground and helped all the other tribes on the interior away from the front lines.

You had to get through Gad.

If you needed to get across the Jordan and into the heart of the promised land to attack those tribes, so Gad was always on the outskirts and the front lines, and so he was known for his courage and his warrior ability.

Gad, along with Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh, they were sandwiched between the Moabites to the south, the Ammonites to the east, and the Arameans to the northeast, and they were always fighting to survive, and so they became renowned warriors.

First Chronicles 5 .18, according to that, says that Gad had many valiant men, men who bore shield and sword and shot with bow and were skillful in battle. First Chronicles 12 .8 says, "'From the Gadites there came over to David "'in the stronghold in the wilderness "'mighty men of valor, men trained for war, "'who could handle shield and spear, "'and whose faces were like the faces of lions, "'and they were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains.'".

These are true warriors, and they were a blessing to David as he was fighting his campaigns in the wilderness. So we have a comparison and contrast between Dan and Gad. They were both courageous in their own way.

They both were tribes, and there are histories that they had a lot of fighting that characterized them. They both strike at the heel in terms of, how does Gad strike? Raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels, meaning he would chase them down.

He wouldn't just fend off their attacks, but he would pursue after them to make sure that they didn't come back, you see. And so he's striking at the heels of his enemies, but it's a totally different thing than the way that Dan operated.

So comparison and contrast. It's interesting as well that their father, Jacob, was called a heel grabber. And here you have Dan and we have Gad both striking at the heel. But this, for Dan, is trying to, again, just surprise his enemies, but for Gad, he's standing his ground, protecting his land, and when the invaders run, he goes on the attack.

So you can see that Gad is perfecting his plan. And we're talking about courage. It took a lot for Samson to take on thousands of Philistines on his own, but why did he do it? Revenge, many times he was doing it in the context of disobedience to God, disobedience to his Nazarite vow.

Maybe it took a lot of courage, indeed, for Dan to just go wandering through the land hoping to find something better than what they had. But this courage, you see, was in disobedience to God. It wasn't in obedience.

And so we can see that courage, in and of itself, is not virtuous. Courage is used in opposition to God. We can recognize courage, but we're certainly not praiseworthy. This is in contrast to Gad, who had a hard place to defend, but he didn't give up on his land.

He didn't abandon his land. He fought bravely to the utmost, and he became known as a strong warriors. And so as we think about that, as we think about courage, what kind of courage are the people of God called to?

What kind of courage are the people of God called to? Joshua 1, six through nine is familiar. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

Only be very strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. There's no greater profile in courage than that of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the true Yeshua, the true Joshua, who brings his people into all the blessings that God has for them.

And in his courage, what did he always do in his courage? He always obeyed the Lord. He always obeyed God. Faced by people who wanted to stone him, kill him, people who wanted to silence him, people who wanted to discredit him, even facing his own suffering at the cross, we find him exhibiting courage and he exhibits courage and obedience to his Father in the kind in which he is bringing about salvation for his people, salvation for his people.

And that's the kind of honorable courage that ultimately that we want to have in our lives. What kind of courage do we need to follow Christ? Well, 2 Corinthians 4, 17 through 18 says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. I mean, what are we thinking about in the times when we need courage for obedience?

We need courage to obey God in these times and in these places. It takes courage to love those who are unlovely. It takes courage to obey God with our finances. It takes courage to obey God in raising our children.

It takes courage to obey God in speaking the truth to those that we care and love. But did we not see all this in our Savior Christ and did he not die on the cross and raise from the dead to give us this power to do exactly that, to live in this way?

And well, if we think about what is yet to come, if we think about the end glory that is promised us, this will help give us courage. Well, there's two profiles in courage and then we have two profiles in creativity, Asher and Naphtali.

Asher’s Rich Provision and Faithless Creativity

So Asher is a supplier of dainties. Verse 20, as for Asher, his food shall be rich and he will yield royal dainties. Not a lot to go on there, but we discover that Asher's allotment was one of the most fertile sections in the land of Canaan.

There was corn and there was oil and there was wine. They had an abundance of food. And so it makes sense that they became quite rich and their food was very rich. Moses said of Asher in Deuteronomy 33, 24 through 25, of Asher, he said, more blessed than sons is Asher.

Remember how important sons are, okay. More blessed than sons is Asher. May he be favored by his brothers and may he dip his foot in oil. He's doing well. Your locks will be iron and bronze. And according to your days, so shall your leisurely walk be.

So they had wealth, they had leisure, they had a renowned reputation for producing food, for cooking, but one of the ironies here is that Asher's abilities to create was actually put into service for other kings.

Asher was comfortable, Asher had great wealth and great creativity, but Asher lived out their creativity and what they did, they ended up doing for the pagan kings. Some tribes drove out most of the Canaanites from their allotments.

Some forced Canaanites to be slave labor, but when it came for Asher to handle his own inheritance, here's what he did. Judges 1, 31 through 32. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Aqzib or of Helba or of Apik or of Rehob.

They didn't do a lot. They were too busy baking dainties. So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. I mean, they just lived among them.

They didn't even try to drive them out. They didn't even try to gain control of the situation. They just hang out and live among them. And that lackadaisical approach to God's command to control the land, that continued even when other opportunities to fight arose.

Deborah and Barak derided Asher. When it came time to help deliver the land, they didn't help. Judges 5, 17, Asher set at the seashore and remained by its landings. They didn't help. They didn't fight against the enemies that they were called to do.

And so they were consumed with the enemy. I don't know why, but I just think of Asher baking cakes and baking cakes for pagans and not having the courage to stand in the ways of the Lord. Naphtali, however, is described as a singing doe.

Naphtali’s Graceful Praise and Creative Obedience

Verse 21, Naphtali is a doe let loose. He gives beautiful words. Now, have you ever seen a doe at full flight?

I haven't.

All my does just drop right where they are. But if you've ever seen a doe in full flight, running away, maybe they're just running for fun, for joy, or maybe they got scared about something and they're hightailing it across a field and there may be a fence.

It just, nothing stops them. And they just bound and flow. And it's a very graceful scene. And so the idea here is that's the way Naphtali was.

With his words.

That's the way that the tribe was renowned for the way that they created poetry and songs. And we discovered that in their time, they did so, they used their creativity for the glory of God. Naphtali was let loose, indeed, from the crippling bondage of Jabin, the king of the Canaanites.

Deborah and Barak called for all Israel to rise up against these oppressors in Judges 4, but only two tribes stood up to fight these Canaanites. It was Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came together to fight under Barak and Deborah.

Naphtali was graceful in action and in words. In the song that praised those who delivered Israel from their oppressors, we hear the words of Naphtali. These are the words from this tribe. This is the words from one of their own.

Hear, O kings, and give ear, O rulers. I, to the Lord, I will sing. I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, even the clouds dripped water.

The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord, this Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. This is a sample from the creativity of Naphtali, and this is the way they used their creativity.

They did go fight. They did go honor the Lord in obedience, and then they used their creativity to give praise to God. So another two profiles, not of courage, but in creativity. One, Asher just, they were creative, and they did amazing things with the talents that God had given them, with the resources God had given them, but they ended up just doing it for the pagans around them, with whom they had totally assimilated, versus Naphtali, who did obey God, and their creativity was aimed at giving praise to their Lord.

I think we should be reminded, when it comes to creativity, why do we want to be creative anyway? It's because we're made in the image of God, God who made us, and we look around in the world that God has made, and we should be duly impressed, overall, in the way in which he has made everything, and as we think about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our creator.

Through him, everything has been made, and without him, nothing was made that has been made, and so he is our creator. He crafted everything that we see in terms of the beauty and the grandeur all around us, and what does he want of us, then, as we follow him, as he is our way, but to be creative to the glory of God?

I love the way that Jesus never healed anybody the same way twice. I mean, of the things that we read, why didn't he never heal anybody the same way? Why are his parables full of beauty and intrigue and surprise and humor, and the way that he tells his stories?

Everything about Christ we see is him employing creativity to the glory of God, and for the good of those around us, and so, as we reflect upon that, how are we using our creative capacities, whatever those things are?

They're from God. They're our allotment. They are a blessing from him. How can we use that for God's glory? I know that some of you have thought more about that than others, but God has given us all some sort of creativity, and we ought to be using it for his glory.

All right, well, we're doing this, considering courage and creativity in light of what will the final word be on these matters, when it comes time to stand before our Lord and our master, and say, what have you done with the courage?

What have you done with the creativity that I have bestowed you? We're thinking about things in the final assessment, and I pray that'll help guide us into all wisdom. Now, we're done.

Yeah.

We're gonna sing the doxology together, and then we'll be dismissed.