Oracles from Israel

Jacob’s Final Oracle and the Meaning of Israel

We are going to read only a portion of the chapter. I know we have for a while in our study of Genesis been going Through long sections chapter by chapter, but as we get close here to the end. I'm going to have to Restrain trying to get through the whole chapter because there are certain portions that are going to require an entire sermon.

So today we're going to be breaking up the text a bit reading Versus 1 to 7 then we're going to skip Versus 8 to 12. We're going to go to 13 through 28 and hopefully it'll make sense when we get into the study.

Why that is? The title of today's message is oracles from Israel and When people hear the word Israel today, they often think of a place on the map a small section of Middle Eastern land, which has been a point of controversy for centuries.

Others hear the word Israel and they think of the people the Jewish people. Often in the New Testament when the word Israel is mentioned It's speaking of the people such as when it says all Israel will be saved or not.

All Israel is true Israel. We hear that and we know it's talking about the people of Israel. Still others when they hear the word Israel they think of the twelve tribes of Israel those people groups which came up out of Egypt during the exodus and conquered the promised land but it's important that we remember when we Say the word Israel when we think of the word Israel first and foremost Israel was a man.

He was the third of the great patriarchs. Abraham his grandfather was called out of Mesopotamia to go to Canaan and That that land would be a promise to him as well as many descendants. He had a son his name was Isaac and Isaac dwelt in the land of Canaan.

He was buried there with his father Abraham. And Isaac had a son. His name was Jacob. Jacob began his life in Canaan. He spent a long time there, but then he was rushed away because of his Injury to his brother who he had stolen his birthright and So he was ushered away to his uncle's property his uncle Laban.

He lived there for many years and during that time he had four different women give him children. The wife that he loved Rachel gave him two children. The wife that he did not love as much I would say is Leah she gave him six children and then both of those women had Handmaidens Zopa and Bilhah and they each gave him two children.

So there is the twelve descendants or the twelve sons of Jacob and Then Jacob would later wrestle with the angel of the Lord and After that, he would be ever known not just as Jacob. But as Israel which means the one who wrestles with God.

There's an interesting parallel if you think about the fact that there are twelve tribes twelve sons of Israel. Because there were also twelve apostles. Jesus chose twelve men to follow him during the three-year ministry of his life on this earth and it's interesting too if you look at the comparison between the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles there are there are Apostles that we know a lot about we know a lot about Peter.

He was kind of a a man who was known to speak. Sometimes impetuously and loudly and above the rest. I like Peter we we tend to relate. But there was also James and John the sons of thunder there was Judas Iscariot the one who betrayed Jesus but then there are those apostles that we know very little about men like Thaddeus and The others we we know them though.

We know they were there. But we we are only told their names really in the lists of the Apostles and very little else is told about them. Well, the same is true of the twelve tribes. We know a lot about Joseph.

We've read about his life. We know a lot about Judah. We've read about his life and we know a lot about Simeon and Levi and we know a lot about Reuben. But we know very little about Gad. Or Asher or Naphtali and What's interesting is we're going to come today to the point where?

Israel. Jacob is gathering his sons together to pronounce upon them a final word of blessing a Final word. It's actually an oracle of prophecy. That's why I entitled the sermon the oracles of Israel. It's an oracle of prophecy over his sons.

And when he gathers them all together some of them get long oracles. Some of them are blessings like in the case of Judah and Joseph. Some of them are what we're going to call anti blessings. Which are also known as curses on Reuben and Simeon and Levi and some of them just get one sentence.

So we see that in this there's some will get a lot of attention some will get less of attention. But I hope to show you by the end of today. Why the one who is most prominent is not the one that we would think.

You see we would think that Joseph is the one who is most prominent. But actually within the narrative it is actually Judah who is the most prominent. Joseph we will see his story has basically come to an end.

And what? Israel says about Joseph are the things that have passed. God has watched over you. God has taken care of you. Archers shot their arrows at you and yet They were not able to hurt you. You know, this is his past but when he talks of Judah, he talks of his future.

There will come from you one. That will be the leader of all and all praise will be to him the lion of the tribe of Judah. Now that's the next message. I can't do that today and do justice to the other brothers.

So today we're going to look at all of the brothers except Judah and. Then the next time we come together to this text we will look at Judah so with that in mind, let us stand together and let us read.

We're going to read again verses 1 to 7 then we're going to skip to verses 13 to 28. Then Jacob called his sons and said gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

Assemble and listen old sons of Jacob listen to Israel your father Reuben you are my firstborn my might and the first fruits of my strength preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water.

You shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Samuel and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul not come into their counsel or my glory be not joined to their company for in their anger.

They killed men and in their willfulness. They hamstrung oxen Cursed to be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I Will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And now verse 13 Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea.

He shall become a haven for ships and his border shall be at Sidon. Issachar is a strong donkey crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant. So he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor.

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that the rider falls backwards. I Wait for your salvation.

Oh Lord. Raider shall raid gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naphtali is a dough let loose that bears beautiful fonds. Joseph is a fruitful bow a Fruitful bow by a spring his branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him shot at him and harassed him severely yet. His bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd the stone of Israel.

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 crouches beneath blessings of the breasts of the womb and of the womb the blessings of your father are Mighty beyond the blessings of my parents up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.

May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him. Who was set apart from his brothers? Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in The morning devouring prey and at the evening dividing the spoil. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel.

This is what their father said to them as he blessed them blessing each With the blessing suitable to him our father and our God. I come to you in Jesus name. I pray Oh God that you would keep me from error as I preach.

And I pray Oh God that you would open the hearts of your people to hear the truth that your Holy Spirit would be the teacher that I would simply be the mouthpiece and that I would increase in Christ or that I would decrease in Christ would increase in this place and Lord that you would be All in all and that we would see within this text Lord the importance of understanding what it is to Live our lives in light of the glory of God we pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.

Amen. Israel is on his deathbed. He knows that the end is near. So he gathers his sons around him to pronounce an oracle of prophecy upon each of the twelve sons. Now I want to make note right away, this is unlike his father Isaac.

You remember his father Isaac had two sons Jacob and Esau and his father Isaac had preferred Esau to Jacob and He was going to bless him in a very similar way. But he was going to do it in the privacy of his tent where no one else could see he was going to do it Out of the out of the sight of the community.

But now his son Jacob The one who did receive the blessing albeit he received it by a nefarious route Dressing up like his brother and fooling his aged and blind father yet He did receive the blessing and now he sits among his sons not hiding the blessing not not Concealing it but he calls them all together so that all may hear of the blessing and the anti blessing.

That he is going to pronounce upon them. As I said, this is more than just My sons be blessed be filled behold. No, this is oracles of prophecy. This is God speaking his word through his patriarch and Each one is going to receive an individual prophetic utterance and That this utterance will apply not only to them but to their children to their offsprings in Fact in fact, this is interesting if you want to make note of this.

This is the first time we read the phrase the twelve tribes of Israel. So the focus of this prophecy is not just these men it is the descendants of these men. It's not just those who are under the sound of his voice.

But is those who are who are now in their loins as the biblical languages their progeny is still in their loins. But yet they are going to come and they are going to become Nations they're going to become tribes and in these tribes there will be blessings and there will be Anti-blessings now.

Part of me wanted to just do an 11-point sermon. Here's this one. This is what it means. This is this and we're gonna sort of do that, but I felt like an 11-point sermon would be a lot. So what I did instead was I gave you an outline and I'll put it on the on the TV.

This is the outline of The oracles of Israel now. Numbers five and six are supposed to be yellow, too. That's not a mistake the the the the the way that it is is what we actually see in this section is we see the call to gather and.

Then there are the oracles to the sons of Leah. There are the oracles to the sons of Bilhah and in the midst there is a prayer of deliverance. That's verse 18, which sort of comes out of nowhere. It's this one singular moment where he sort of stops and prays for deliverance and what's interesting.

We're gonna find out it's right after he talks about the tribe of Dan and so we're gonna see how that might sort of affect why he's stopping to pray at that moment and then he's going to talk About the the oracles of Zilpah and then finally the oracles to the sons of Rachel so this is the outline of of what we're going to look at and.

And what I want to Point to you two before we even break down the text is. There is a there is there is mention of sins in this. He's going to mention the sin of Reuben who went up and took his father's concubine.

He's going to mention the viciousness of Simeon and Levi who not only killed men. But they were vicious and how they killed them using the very covenant sign of God as a way to weaken the men to bring.

About their deaths and the deaths of all the men in Shechem. He's going to mention these things. But one thing he's not going to mention and this really to me is surprising is he's not going to mention as a judgment On the eleven sons not counting Joseph.

He's not going to mention their treatment of Joseph. Now he does in his in his Oracle to Joseph. He does mention archers firing arrows and and Joseph standing against that. I think that could have a reference to the brothers.

But at no time does he bring a judgment against his sons for what they did to his favorite son. And I and I thought about that. I said why why is Jacob not standing up and saying it all eleven of you are wretched vile liars.

You brought me a Jacket covered in blood that you knew belonged to your brother. You fooled me into thinking he was dead for 22 years. But he doesn't do that. And I had to think about why I sort of in my mind why.

Well first answer is God is the one speaking. This is an oracle. So I'm not going to question my lord as to why something is or something is not there but there is also something else to consider and That is Joseph has forgiven his brothers for their sins.

We see this forgiveness expressed in chapter 50. When we get there his brothers will actually I think make up a story. We're gonna talk about this when they get there because they go and they say dad said after he dies.

You're not allowed to you're not allowed to hurt us. I don't think dad ever said that. I think that's me. I think that I think they're trying to cover their bets. Trying to cover their their lives and Joseph says don't you understand you're already forgiven.

Don't you understand? I'm not holding it. I brought you here to protect you not to punish you. Right, so they've already been forgiven of that. Other commentators have said well, maybe Jacob just didn't know what they had done to Joseph.

I I don't know. I don't know if I can accept that and my reasoning is twofold one I do believe he makes reference to it when he speaks of Joseph's life and the archers and the arrows and talk about that in a minute, but also There seems to be an understanding.

That Joseph didn't get here by accident. He got here through the providence of God. God has taken Joseph from being and the house of Israel to the house of Pharaoh by the means of his brothers. And while what they did for evil God intended for good.

And I don't think Joseph or rather Israel is unaware of that. Maybe he doesn't know all the sordid details maybe he doesn't know how much Jacob or Joseph screamed when his brothers were putting him in the in the Caravan of traitors we read about that in other places where Joseph cried out for Them not to be so evil to him.

Maybe he doesn't know about all that. But he certainly knows enough so. Another thing I want to mention before we get to the text is that and I mentioned this earlier the the These oracles are not evenly distributed the vast amount of space is given to to Judah and Joseph and In those two we have the looking back at the providence of God.

That's Joseph and we have the looking forward to the providence of God in the life of Judah and as we said next time we'll talk about the fact that David comes from Judah and then the greater David Jesus Christ comes from Judah.

But they get the lion's share. The rest of the men only get a few sentences and the structure is interesting. There is a chiastic structure, which I'm not going to get into but the Chiasm is when it's very common in Hebrew literature.

And there's a way that things are outlined where the thing that happens in the center is sort of the thing that's building to and that builds out from that thing and what we See is sort of a chiastic structure because he doesn't put the boys in birth order.

He puts them in order of the mothers. But even in the order of the mothers. He he he inverts two of the brothers and he doesn't put them all in order. So there seems to be a structure here of purpose as to why he's doing it the way that he's doing it.

None of this is by mistake. None of this is by accident. This is not a haphazard Smattering of blessing. This is a thought-out oracle that has been given by Almighty God. And in the very center of it, there's that blessing of deliverance that prayer of deliverance.

That I think is the centerpiece that's why I have it in red on the screen. There's that point in the middle where it all sort of comes together. All right. So let's begin in verse 3 looking at the oracles of the sons of Leah.

Verse 3 to 4 talk about Reuben. He says Reuben you are my firstborn my might the first fruits of my strength preeminent in dignity and Preeminent in power. Now, you got to think at this point Reuben's feeling pretty good.

I mean at this point All right guys. Here it comes the double portion. Remember the firstborn would receive the double portion of the blessing and he's just heard you are my strength. You are my might which is actually a very common thing a very common colloquial phrase that is used in the Near East to respond to refer to the Firstborn son of a man because it is the firstborn son is the picture of his virility.

His ability to spawn children is shown in the firstborn son. That's why he says you are my strength. You are my first fruits my might you showed forth my ability to have children and in that sense your preeminent in dignity and in power.

Because you showed forth my strength in the ability to have children but. Now the text doesn't say but. But there is a sense in which the but should be included because right after he gives this wonderful expression of how great it is to have a firstborn son and how the firstborn son shows forth his strength and shows forth his the first fruits of his ability to bear children and he's preeminent in dignity and power but.

And nobody wants to hear a but after that it's like somebody you're dating saying I really like you but He's like just stop. Whatever is coming next. I don't want to hear it. Verse 4. But you are as unstable as water.

Now I can't do this for every one of these but I was thinking about this on my way in I Listened to the text of Scripture a lot when I'm driving, especially on Sunday morning. I listened to the text that I'm gonna be preaching on and I sort of let it mull in my mind and I heard this Phrase unstable as water and I began to think about how how much this would have been understood to be unstable.

We we know that a solid ground provides us purchase and it provides us balance. And that's where we have our our ability to feel confident and where we stand. But if if you've ever stood on a surfboard or if you've ever stood on a dock that was a floating dock.

Then you understand the idea that he's saying here. You're you're you're unbalanced. You're you're not a man who has the capacity to be the leader. We know this. Because Ruben showed himself All throughout the narrative as one who lacked the capacity to lead.

He didn't want his brothers to hurt Joseph. He tried to get them to stop. Did they listen to him? No. Was he able to save Joseph from being sold into slavery? No he lacked the Capacity to lead. His word did not fall upon the ears of his brother with any authority.

Later when he tried to bring Benjamin back to his father. His father would not listen to him even when he offered up his own sons as a Sacrifice his father would not accept it because this man does not have the capacity to lead.

This man's not the leader and proof is found in what he says next. He says you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed. Now this is back in chapter 35. Ruben took his father's concubine and he slept with her.

Why did he sleep with her? Some people attribute it to an expression of his lustful desires as a man and Maybe there was some lust involved. The woman was old enough to be his mother. But she may have still been attractive.

So the idea that there was no lust involved is probably not true. But it wasn't all about lust. What it was was in the ancient Near East when a man took his father's concubine. That was a man usurping his father's position and taking his father's authority.

We actually see this later in the life of David. Where one of his sons is encouraged to take his concubine because in doing so you'll usurp his authority. So Ruben is seeking his father's authority in a misplaced attempt to try to be the man in charge and Instead he brings upon himself The judgment of his father.

If you go back to chapter 35, you'll notice Jacob doesn't say anything. All it says is that Ruben slept with his father's concubine. But now years decades later When his father's about to draw his final breath He looks upon his son and said you defiled my bed.

The ESV translates it that he changes his attention from Ruben to the rest that he says this. He says you defiled that he went up to my couch. If to look at the whole audience and say look what he did.

So the sins of Ruben Are remembered and just from a historical perspective keep this in mind. There will never be a prophet or a priest or even a judge. Who will come from the line of Ruben? And all of the history of Israel verse 5 we get to Simeon and Levi.

These are brothers now, that's an interesting phrase because they're all brothers but these guys are. These guys are peas in a pod if you would when he says Simeon and Levi and by the way, he connects their anti blessing together.

Simeon and Levi are brothers two peas in a pod. Weapons of violence are their swords. Now Let me say this real quick. I don't have time to break this out. I am going to talk about this the next time. I preach in Proverbs though if I if I get a chance to preach Chapter 13 things are kind of up in the air right now with my surgery.

So I don't know if that's going to happen. But if I do there is a thing there is such a thing as benevolent violence. Men who who who do? Violence on behalf of saving other people loving other people there there is such a thing as benevolent violence and the Bible talks about that and I've talked about before.

I hope that one day maybe even write a book about it because I think it's an important thing to Understand there is benevolent violence, but these men are not Benevolently violent in the sense that they're saving people or redeeming people.

These men are violent for violence sake. He says let not my soul come into their counsel. Oh my glory be not joined to their company for in their anger. They killed men notice. It wasn't injustice. It was an anger that they killed men in their willfulness.

They hamstrung oxen now. Hamstringing oxen is a reference to cutting the oxen's leg tendon for the purpose of being Unnecessarily brutal so not only did they enact violence against men? They were also harmers of animals for no reason and he says in verse 7 cursed be.

Their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and I will scatter them in Israel. Now I want to make mention of that last phrase because Simeon's descendants and Levi's descendants do end up in a sense being scattered and this is why I see these is not just prophecies about these men.

But about their descendants what we see with Simeon is that his descendants are Scattered throughout the territory of Judah and that's in Joshua chapter 19 and Levi's descendants are appointed 48 towns and pasture lands among the 12 tribes Including Ephraim and Manasseh, so they're not they're they're scattered abroad and this is a picture of the curse the judgment.

That is part now you might say but wait a minute Levi becomes the priesthood. There's redemption to God is not leaving them unredeemed. He's not going to hold back all blessings but the point is there's a there's a there is a result or a consequence for what they have done as They struck men in their death.

God will strike and scatter their descendants and that's the picture here. Because of their and there and it was vicious. You guys remember when I preached That they told the men of Shechem if you circumcise yourself, we will allow you to marry our women and What on the third day when they were reeling from the pain of circumcision?

Amen. They they went through the town with sword and bow and destroyed every man leaving children orphaned women widowed. And they took for the spoils all that was left. Vicious action. Even if it was done in recompense for a just sin in the sense that it's it's just to bring recompense on sin and Their sister had been sinned against but their actions were unnecessarily vicious.

And God is bringing that to account now as I said. We're not going to talk about Judah, but he would be next and here's the point. None of the rest of the brothers are going to receive such a heavy. I don't want to condemnation.

But I will say a heavy curse or heavy anti blessing as the first three and you say why is that? Why is why did the first three? Receive these curses and then you have Judah who received this tremendous blessing and by the way Judah was not a great man either.

He did some pretty rotten stuff in chapter 38. But God redeemed him brought him to the end of himself and had him offer himself up as a substitute. So there is a blessing and redemption in Judah's life, which we'll see the next time we come together.

But the point is After Judah is mentioned. He's going to begin going through the brothers relatively quickly and and things will seem to change. He's no longer going to be speaking in terms of anti blessing and curse, but now he's going to Run through the brothers and begin to describe them each not all but almost all of them with a quality of a certain animal.

He's going to talk about Issachar being like a donkey and Dan being like a serpent naphtali being like a doe Benjamin being like a wolf, but keep in mind that begins with Judah. Judah is the first one to receive the animal quality and he receives the animal quality of the lion.

You say well why. Very quickly. Here's why Jacob Israel is showing why Reuben and Levi and Simeon are not the ones who will have preeminence and So he begins with their anti blessing or their curse to show you are not the one and you are not the one and You are not the one.

Here's the one. Judah is the lion. The one from whom Kings shall come the one from whom Shiloh will come we'll talk about that and The one who will not lose preeminence. He is the lion. And then after him We get the others now I'm gonna do my best to Try to help you understand what some of this means but I want to.

I want to be very honest and say some of this is really obscure and I have read many commentaries and Commentaries are are great, but they often disagree with one another. Some people see it one way. Some people see it the other way.

Let me give you a quick breakdown of the major differences to how these are. How these are interpreted the first Interpretation is to interpret these all. Related to the men who are standing before Jacob and it's about them and their lives and in that case We don't know how this prophecy was played out because we don't really read much about their lives after this.

We see the death of Jacob and the death of Joseph and then we have a 400 year silent Years, and then we're we're at the end right where we're at the beginning of Exodus. So if it's about them directly, we don't know much.

I Don't I don't tend to think that's the one. Mine is more the second one. The second one is that it's about their tribes and I do think that this is in related to their tribes and I'll talk about That but there is a third way to interpret this that I think is possible.

But I just don't. I don't have enough evidence. But I like to help you understand how my mind works and how to understand these texts because I think this is important. The third way is that all of these prophecies represent?

Israel as a nation at the end of time and God using them in the return of Christ. Now that is not the one that I hold to. But there are some who do and they base this upon verse 1 and 2 where he talks about.

No real quick go back to verse 1 and 2 he says Jacob called his sons gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the days to come. That phrase in Hebrew the days to come is sometimes used to refer to the end times the the days of the day of the Lord.

Right, and so there are some who tie these prophecies to something that may yet happen in the end time. I don't take that position. I Don't think that's correct, but I'm not writing it off as an impossibility.

I'm just saying I believe this river result this refers to the tribes of Israel During the during and after the Exodus and here's here's my argument. Here's my brother Mike and I talk about all the time.

How do you come to your conclusion? This is as I came to this conclusion because. This particular text has an audience. You see this isn't being written during the time of Joseph. This is being written during the time of Moses and it's being written to the tribes.

Now did Jacob say these things absolutely he did but who was the intended audience. I Don't know that the intended audience Focused so much on the brothers as much as it did on their children who would be the recipients of this written word.

So now we have if you think about the time of Moses. You have the fully formed tribes of Israel about to go into the promised land. They're about to receive the land that has been promised to them for over 500 years.

They're about to go in and take it. And how do these prophecies apply to them? That's that's the way I see this. Could I be wrong? Yes, I Don't think I am. I don't get up here and say my opinions for nothing.

But I but I always tell you when I when there are different ways of looking at something. I I don't see these as in times prophecies. I see these as in in time in the time of the persons who are reading it.

Make sense. All right with that being said, let's look at Zebulun says Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships and his border shall be at Sidon. Now keep this in mind.

Zebulun's the tenth son born to Jacob, but he is the seventh son the sixth son of Leah. So he's mentioned in this he's mentioned in this list in a different place than his birth order. And the reason why is because he's going by wife not by birth.

He's already talked about Levi Simeon Judah and Reuben that's the first four. What's Reuben Levi Reuben Simeon Levi and Judah and now he's going to jump to number six. Which is Zebulun and he tells us that He is going to dwell at the shore of the sea.

Now where this becomes difficult is If you look at the land that was distributed to the the the twelve tribes Zebulun wasn't on the seashore. So you might say well, wait a minute is God make a mistake here.

No because even though Zebulun is a landlocked tribe Commentators have expressed something that we wouldn't know simply by reading the Bible, but we know this by biblical and extra biblical resources and that is that the neighbors of the tribe of Zebulun use Zebulun as a trading place between two ports and Therefore they did have a a place in the ministration of those who were seafarers and Therefore, is it possible that that's what this is referencing.

Possibly? In fact, I think very likely I'll read Ellicott on this. He says it is very possible that liver it living in the neighborhood of the Phoenicians they took part in maritime pursuits and thus the general meaning of this blessing may be that Zebulun would be a tribe not of Agriculturalists which some of them would be but of traders.

They're a tribe of traders who trade among those who? are seafarers. Verse 14 we see it's a car. It's a car is a strong donkey. Crouching between the sheep holds he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant.

So he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor. Now it's interesting that he is mentioned after Zebulun because he actually was born before Zebulun. But he's mentioned after Zebulun and he's mentioned in such a way that he's called a donkey.

Now donkey can be a good thing and a donkey can be a bad thing but in this sense, it's referring to the. It actually that the simile here is the the word bony. Some of your translations say he is a bony donkey and That means a strongly built donkey.

Particularly adapted for carrying burdens. This is what Keelan Delic says. He's pointed to the fact that this tribe would would contend itself with material good devote itself to the labor and burden of agriculture.

Not strive after political power or rule. Issachar would become a robust powerful race of men and receive a pleasant inheritance which would invite a comfortable repose. However, there's also the reference here of being bowed and Becoming a servant so it could also reference the fact that they were not warriors.

Okay, so they weren't there were not warriors. We're going to see the warriors. Warriors will come from Judah. Warriors will come from Dan even. We'll see a negative sense in that and warriors will come from Benjamin.

In fact, King Saul comes from Benjamin. Two salts come from Benjamin. King Saul and Saul of Tarsus who is the Apostle Paul so we see. There are warring warring. That's let me try it again. There are tribes that have warriors and that's their focus.