Deeper Commentary
Gen 49:1 Jacob called to his sons, and said: Gather yourselves
together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to
come- This follows right on from the blessing of Joseph, in which Jacob
had attempted to give the blessing of the firstborn to Ephraim as his son. I
commented throughout Gen. 48 that he might have better learnt from his
earlier handing back of Isaac's paternal blessing (see on Gen. 33:11). On
the acme of spiritual perception, he confessed that paternal blessings are
not worth anything compared to the blessings of God's grace. But now Jacob
is still thinking in human terms, concerned about final blessings of
children, when he should have realized that these are meaningless. And so we
find that as many of the paternal blessings uttered by his father never came
particularly true, so not everything he says here to his sons had
fulfilment.
The order of the blessings is not strictly according to birth order. But it is according to how the tribes were geographically located in Israel, from the South to the North. He has the same time in view when he speaks of Levi being scattered in Israel, and Judah being the kingly tribe. So although there are elements in these blessings which appear to be Jacob reasoning as a cranky old man, clearly the higher hand of Divine inspiration was also present working through his weakness. And that is the story of how God works with all men through His Spirit. But the structure of the blessings is poetic in form, and Joseph is clearly at the center of the poetry. Many of the sons leave their father's deathbed with no real blessing, some only with a curse. But they were all blessed, each son individually had a blessing (:28). Blessed on account of the blessing upon Joseph, which is why he and his blessings, which were their blessings, are at the center of the poetry. For the men would have departed from their father's deathbed bewildered; Joseph and Judah got the blessings, and the three first born sons were cursed not blessed, with the remaining sons getting vague and abstract blessings usually mixed with some negative predictions about them. Reuben would have naturally speaking been irrate that he was cursed for his sexual misbehaviour, whereas Judah's sexual misbehaviour was apparently overlooked and he was blessed. The whole episode appears bizarre, until we realize that Jacob was doing this intentionally- to highlight that their blessings were through the blessings to be shared with them from Joseph and to some extent Judah.
In fact, blessing within curses is the theme with which Genesis
starts in Gen. 3, especially because it led to the promise of the Saviour
and His victory in Gen. 3:15. The woman is cursed, but "she shall be saved
through the childbearing" (1 Tim. 2:15). Adam was cursed with sweat and
toil in labour, but there is some blessing within those things ("In all
labour there is profit", Prov. 14:23; "that every man should eat and
drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God... to
rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God", Ecc. 3:13; 5:19). Even
the curse of death can be seen as a blessing, as it provides rest from a
meaningless life, under the sun. And as 1 Cor. 15 explains, unless we die
we cannot rise again to new and glorious eternal life. Even the curse on
Cain has some blessing in it: "And the LORD put
a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him" (Gen. 4:15).
Or as Paul put it during the shipwreck, "You have gained this
harm and loss". Loss is gain, in the spiritual ecosystem. In
talking about his own death, Paul could say that "to live is Christ, and
to die is gain". It's win-win. We can't lose, in Christ. Death is
swallowed up in victory.
And another theme of Genesis is that the blessing of one person brings blessing upon another; hence the Gospel is all about the blessing given to Abraham's seed through whom many will be blessed. And so the 'curses' given some sons in place of blessings do not mean that those sons are without blessings; because they share in the blessings of Joseph and Judah, both looking ahead to the Lord Jesus. In this sense, all the sons were "blessed" (:28) because of the blessings upon Joseph and Judah, even though their own behaviour led to them being cursed, or at least, not having much blessing of their own. As the sons crowded around their father on his deathbed, they would have all expected blessing. How he spoke was most unusual, and only the reflective would have understood that they went away blessed- because of the blessing upon Joseph.
Gen 49:2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to
Israel, your father- He parallels his old and new names, in order to
demonstrate that he has accepted God's grace in changing his name. The
gathering of his sons may point forward to the last judgment.
Gen 49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of
my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power- The way Jacob rebukes and effectively rejects Reuben, Simeon and Levi, the sons who had flaunted their natural strength and prowess, reflects the
right perspectives which Jacob attained at the end. The language here sounds as if Jacob associated his natural strength with Reuben, and yet now he rejected it. Doubtless these men gathered round their father expecting to hear some sweet fatherly blessing mixed with a few gentle reproofs for past behaviour. The whole process of Israel's sons being "gathered" to him and receiving their blessing and judgment is typical of the final judgment, showing how Jacob was a type of Christ at this time. The surprise of the sons we are left to imagine, but it would point forward quite accurately to the surprise which will be a feature of the rejected (Mt. 25:44).
Gen 49:4 Boiling over as water, you shall not excel; because you went
up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch- The evident problem the Abraham family had with women
is emphasized in the record. One man, one woman was the declared standard of God at this time. Adam, Noah, Noah's sons, Aaron, Moses were all one man: one woman cases. The patriarchs having more than one wife at a time sticks out. Abraham's apparently casual relationship with Hagar, Judah's use of a harlot (apparently the sort of thing he often did), Esau's many carnal wives, Dinah's love affair, Reuben's incest... all this creates a certain impression of weakness in this area. Joseph's evil report regarding his brothers may well have featured news of their playboy escapades while far away from usual family life (Gen. 37:2 = 1 Sam. 2:23,24). The repeated way in which they lied about their wives also indicates that they didn't take their marital responsibilities as they should have (Gen. 12:13; 20:3,13; 26:7).
AV "unstable as water" may mean that just as water goes downhill naturally and apparently irresistibly, so Reuben had given in to sexual temptation as if it were irresistible. Whereas Jacob has said that Reuben was the beginning of his strength, his firstborn, perhaps claiking to have been sexually self controlled until be made his wife conceive his first child. The argument that sin is irresistible looms large in our minds in the moments of decision as we face temptation. Sin is not inevitible, although in reality there is none who sins not, apart from the Lord.
But we note that Reuben's sexual sin is maximized by Jacob,
whereas Judah is blessed despite having sinned concerning Tamar over a
protracted period. This would've seemed "unfair" to the men who stood
around the deathbed. But the point is, that although some are more blessed
than others in this life, the real blessing is through the work and
blessing of Joseph / Jesus. We can contrast Jacob's attitude here with how
King David would not punish Amnon for his incest
“because he loved him for he was his firstborn (2 Sam. 13:21, LXX).
Reuben's incest, twice lamented, meant that he was stripped of the title of firstborn (1 Chron. 5:1,2). I suggested on Gen. 35:22 that the incest may not have been due to simple lust, but rather anger. So the statement that he had boiled over like water would refer to his anger problem rather than sexual lust. He 'went up' to his father's bed and bedroom, perhaps suggesting that he wanted to become the head of the family in place of Jacob. He had 'excelled in dignity' (:4), but now he did not 'excel'. The two words are related in Hebrew as they are in English. And yet despite all this, Reuben is presented as having more genuine concern for Joseph and Jacob than most of the other brothers. But clearly even on his deathbed, Jacob couldn't forgive Reuben for what he had done. He offers no blessing, only a statement that he remembers Reuben's sin and abiding shame.
Gen 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of
violence- The reference is to their massacre of the Shechemites.
Jacob seems to speak as if this is not forgiven, for he says that their
swords are, not "were", weapons used to do violence to others.
Jacob again offers them no blessing, but just wants them to know he
remembers what they did and retains his sense of separation from them. In
Christian terms, of forgiveness and grace, Jacob seems remarkably lacking,
despite all the grace shown to him. He died not quite 'getting it'; and
yet will be saved. And we noted on Gen. 48:22 that it seems Jacob
himself joined in the violence against Shechem. The sword is of course a
"weapon of violence" so perhaps they used their circumcision knives as
weapons of slaughter- the classic case of religious abuse. Jacob leaves no
possibility for future blessing for Levi for doing this; and yet God used
Levi's seed, as the priestly tribe, to do countless circumcisions. The
words of curse are in fact later described as a blessing. God is kinder
than man, and has a far greater future Hope for people than we tend to. We
tend like Jacob to judge people for what they did in the past and refuse
to move on from that.
Gen 49:6 My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be
united to their multitude; for in their anger they killed men. In their
self-will they hamstrung cattle- Although Jacob’s seed had become a "multitude" as promised, he says that he refuses to unite himself with the
"multitude" of Simeon and Levi, as if he now saw this physical fulfilment of the promises in his lifetime as worth little. His appreciation of the promises absolutely fills his thinking at the end. The promised Kingdom was "the pride of Jacob" (Ps. 47:4 NIV; Am. 6:8; Nah. 2:2), his chiefest joy. There are aspects of Jacob's blessings of his sons which evidently have not been fulfilled. Presumably they will be fulfilled in the Kingdom, which shows how Jacob's mind was not dwelling on his children receiving physical blessings from God in the short term (cp. how Isaac blessed his sons), but rather the promised eternal blessings of the Kingdom. It is quite likely that the sons, in their humanity, expected blessings of a more immediate sort, such as a dying father of those times would have shared out between his sons. But instead, Jacob's talk is not of the things of this brief life, but of the Kingdom.
And yet Jacob does come over as bitter, refusing to associate his honour
["glory"] with their extended families, their "council" [group] or
"multitude" or AV "assembly", their community. It is really a deathbed
disassociation from his own sons, when he himself had many sins which had
been dealt with by grace alone.
Jacob's reflection on Joseph's sufferings gave him a clearer picture of those of the future Messiah. His complaint that they "hamstrung cattle" can be understood as prophetic of the murder of God's son. It can be translated in the singular, as if referring to one individual, namely Joseph: "houghing the ox" (RV), or bullock (Concordant Version), i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ (Dt. 33:17 RV), the bullock of the sin offering (Heb. 13:11-13). Gen. 49:6 can also be rendered 'murdering the prince' (Adam Clarke's Translation), referring initially to the murder of Shechem but looking ahead to that of the Lord Jesus. The Roman historian Hippolytus says that "From Simeon came the Scribes, and from Levi the priests"; it was these groups who murdered the Lord, and Jacob seems to have foreseen this, through his reflection on their hatred of Joseph. He may mean that they took counsel against Joseph, as the scribes and priests would do against Christ (Ps. 2:2).
The conspiracy or counsel was in their counselling the men of Shechem to also be circumcised- so that they could attack and slay them whilst they were incapacitated after the circumcision procedure. "May my soul not enter their conspiracy" is surely hypocritical when Jacob had earlier boasted in Gen. 48:22 of taking Shechem with his own sword and bow. "Hamstrung cattle" can be "and at their pleasure they destroyed leading citizens".
Gen 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath,
for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel-
Several times at the very end of his life (Gen. 49:2,7,24) Jacob mentions his old and new names ('Jacob' and 'Israel') together, as if to show that now he finally accepted and believed the wondrous change that God had wrought in him. First of all, he doesn't seem to have accepted his name change, and needed God to remind him of it again (Gen. 32:28; 35:10). To accept, really accept, the Name we called upon ourselves at baptism (Acts 2:21; 9:14; 22:16; Rom. 10:12-14) is difficult. To believe that God really does see us as His people, bearing His Name, with all the moral glory this implies... it took Jacob no less than 50 years to realize the implications of Jacob's name change (Jacob's name was changed when he was 97, and he only uses it freely of himself just before his death at 147). It's unusual for a man to repeatedly mention his own name when talking to others; and yet this is exactly what Jacob did in
Gen. 48:20; 49:2,7,24; it was as if he was playing with a new toy, reflecting his grasp of that basic, wondrous truth he had been taught 50 years ago; that in
God's eyes, his name had changed. In God's eyes, he was not the Jacob, the liar, the supplanter, the deceiver; but Israel, the prince with God.
But it took 50 years for the wonder of it all to come home to him.
And yet the immediate meaning of his words here are to call his sons for the expected deathbed blessing, and then curse them. When Jacob himself closed his eyes covered by grace for many failures in his life; his repeated recollection of their massacre of the Shechemites decades previously is perhaps because it did him shame, and he could never quite live it down.
Jacob's desire to "divide" them uses a word which can mean to divide out a portion with others; it is thus used in :27, and frequently about the dividing up of spoil or the promised land. The idea could be that their part of the inheritance Jacob wished to be taken by others, or divided up between the other sons. His idea of 'scattering' them in Israel can too easily be applied to the scattering of the Levites throughout Israel; but this is uttered as a curse, and it was intended to affect both Simeon and Levi. Scattering throughout the eretz is the language of judgment upon the Babel builders (Gen. 11:9 s.w.) and Israel's scattering among the nations is associated with God disinheriting them of their land (Dt. 28:64; Jer. 9:16; 18:17 s.w.). It may be that this is what Jacob intended; that they would be scattered amongst the other tribes and their share of the inheritance was to be divided amongst them. There is no record of this happening; and God turned the curse into a blessing in that the scattering of the Levites around Israel was to be a blessing for all. And in a strange way, the curse upon Simeon had at least some fulfilment. Simeon became the smallest of the twelve tribes (Num. 26:14); it is given no blessing by Moses in Dt. 33; and is given no independent territory in Canaan, just a few cities within the borders of Judah (Josh. 19:1-9); and eventually Simeon was absorbed into Judah.
Gen 49:8 Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you- see on Gen. 37:10. Joseph's dreams had clearly stated that all the brothers would bow to him. And Jacob had come to see that and accept it, despite his initial dislike of the idea. But now his very last words seem an attempt to make those dreams apply to Judah and not Joseph. "Judah" was so named in order that others would "Praise Yah"; but Jacob turns this around to Judah himself being praised. It seems to indicate that Jacob died somewhat bitter and without having grasped that the grace shown to him ought to have been reflected by him to others. And yet he shall be saved, as with so many believers who end their days likewise.
The three older brothers of Judah have just been as it were trashed by Jacob in his preceding discussion of Reuben, Simeon and Levi. He overlooks Judah's disgraceful behaviour with Tamar, but focuses upon that of Reuben. We get the impression that he has made his mind up to present positively those whom he once wished to be his firstborn. Judah was blessed that his brothers would bow down to him. But they were all acutely aware that God had blessed Joseph with this blessing. The idea may therefore be that Judah would be blessed only in that some of Joseph's blessing would come to him. Which is the basis upon which all the brothers were to be blessed (:28).
"May your father's sons bow down to you" is the same phrase as
used in the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob (Gen. 27:29), which blessing
Jacob had stolen from Esau. Likewise the blessings of Gen. 27:28 are now
given by Jacob to Joseph [“May God give you of
heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness—an abundance of grain and new wine”].
In Gen. 32, Jacob had resigned all interest in that blessing; but in this
final deathbed moment, he has returned to an obsession with such blessings
of the father. Like us, he died imperfect, returning to weaknesses he had
once momentarily overcome. The art of spiritual growth is to retain the
level we reach at some intense moment of need, rather than slouch back
into our previous ways.
Gen 49:9 Judah is a lion’s cub- Jacob saw himself as the lion,
and Judah as his cub. But likening himself to a lion hardly seems
appropriate humility in a man who had been forgiven so much and who was
now facing his grave planks. But still he will be saved, by grace.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up- This could be a reference to some unrecorded military conflict Judah had been involved in; there may be another reference to such a conflict in Gen. 48:22. But "the prey" is literally 'the tearing', and is the same word used by Jacob when he thought that Jacob was without doubt torn in pieces. "Gone up" is also translated 'depart'. And quite legitimately we could translate this: 'From the torn in pieces son of mine [Joseph], you departed'. This would then reference Judah's refusal to be associated with the plan to kill Joseph, urged the brothers to save his life, and later was the clear leader in the plans to save Benjamin's life. Judah was like the young lion who refused to close in on the kill of the torn prey, allowed it to live, and then grew up to become a truly mighty lion. Jacob is here recognizing Judah's growth in responsibility from the days of his sin to Tamar to his lengthy and persuasive speech before Joseph.
He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up?- Jacob may be using the prophetic perfect here, talking about future things as if they have happened, and having in mind a great Messianic descendant of Judah, the Lord Jesus. Jacob twice describes this Messianic descendant as devouring the prey in the morning of the second coming (49:9, 27); he foresaw an aggressive tension between Messiah and other beasts, i.e. the nations of the surrounding world, which would end in the glorious victory of Christ's coming in glory. This image of devouring the prey after the battle against the world in this life is the basis of other latter day prophecies (Ez. 39:18-20; Rev. 19:17-20). The faithful will eat the carcass of the beast at Christ's coming (Mt. 24:28 cp. Rev. 19:17-20), sharing in the victory of the lion of Judah who has slain his prey and now devours it. This was all foreseen by Jacob, although he would have seen the beasts which the Messiah / lion devoured as the nations surrounding his people (Jer. 15:3; Jer. 28:14; Ez. 5:17 and many others).
Gen 49:10 The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be- This could be a reference to Judah's great Messianic descendant, the one to whom the Kingdom belongs, and that is how these words are alluded to in Ez. 21:25-27. The alternative reading, "until Shiloh comes", would then name Messiah as "Shiloh", 'the sent one (cp. Is. 8:6; Jn. 9:7). The nations would be obedient to this figure, as Egypt and the neighbouring peoples had been to Joseph. The preaching of the Gospel is a gathering together of God's people to Christ (Gen. 49:10; Mt. 12:30). We are now being gathered together, and yet the final gathering together will be at the day of judgment; therefore our response to the calling together of the Gospel now, is a foretaste of the gathering unto the day of judgment (Mt. 3:12 cp. 13:30).
But Jacob envisaged Judah as having an unbroken line of descendants ["from between his feet", an idiom for childbirth] who would be the kingly rulers [with sceptre and staff] until the Messiah figure came. But this didn't come true. And Ez. 21:25-27 clearly alludes to this passage and adjusts it, saying that the kingly dynasty of Judah had been overthrown and would remain so "until he comes whose right it is". It could be that Jacob was uttering a conditional prophecy, what could have been true, but Judah's later failure precluded it. Or maybe whilst the inspired record of these last words is accurate, the fact that Jacob's predictions didn't come true (as Ez. 21:25-27 seems to emphasize) is in demonstration of the fact that he had failed to learn the lesson that paternal blessings and cursings were not that important. Rather should the emphasis be upon God's blessing and cursing, which is all anyway about grace (see on Gen. 33:11).
The alternative rendering "Until Shiloh come", or "Until he come to Shiloh" could connect with the Divine intention that Israel leave Egypt and return to Canaan, to establish His Kingdom. I have explained this idea on Gen. 45:7. In this case we would have here a prophecy of what could potentially have happened; Judah was to be the kingly ruler, until he led Israel out of Egypt to Canaan and they arrived at Shiloh, where the tabernacle was later established. There a king in the line of Judah would be established, and the Gentiles would be obedient to him.
Gen 49:11 Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine- Literally, "the vine of Sorek", a valley in Canaan (Jud. 6:4). Jacob's thoughts were back in Canaan, envisaging an ideal situation of peace being enjoyed in the land once Judah had led Israel back there from Goshen.
He has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes- He saw Judah's great Messianic descendant as being associated with the ass, the Hebrew for which essentially means 'patience'; he foresaw the Lord's patient endurance in the struggle, and even foresaw his garments as dipped in blood (cp. Rev. 14:18), eyes bloodshot with the struggle, and yet with teeth white as milk from a true assimilation of God's teaching (49:12 cp. Is. 55:1); through his personal experience and extensive reflection on the basic need of man and the promised blessing of forgiveness, Jacob really went deeply and accurately into a personal knowledge of the future Christ. Blind as he was (Gen. 48:10), Jacob meditated upon the Lord Jesus. His mind was filled with him. He perhaps contrasted his own dim eyes with the burning, bloodshot eyes of his zealous Lord, visualizing the suffering which he knew He would endure for his sake. The blessings of Gen. 49 are in well planned poetic form; it may be that Jacob composed these poems about the Lord Jesus as the crystallization of his extended reflection on the Lord. Would that we would rise up to the Messianic perception of the blind poet Jacob. Likewise David foresaw the Lord Jesus always before his face, and therefore his heart was never ruffled. Jacob evidently saw in Joseph's experience a type of Christ's future sufferings and resurrection (49:11,23).
The Lord’s death is described as His washing “his garments in wine, and
his vesture in the blood of grapes" (Gen. 49:11 RV). Treading out the
grapes is a Hebraism for judgment, and yet it is used here and in Is.
63:1-3 regarding the Lord’s treading of the winepress alone in His death.
Indeed, the Isaiah passage is clearly applicable to both the crucifixion
and the final judgment of the Lord Jesus. The reason being, that in His
death was the judgment of this world.
Gen 49:12 His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk- See on :11. Whilst this blessing can be understood as prophetic of Messiah, the Lord Jesus, we must remember that it was also in its first instance the blessing of the man Judah who stood in front of Jacob at this time. Isaac had blessed his firstborn, as he thought, with "plenty of corn and wine" (Gen. 27:28), as well as dominance over his brother. Jacob messed up his life by desperately trying to win this paternal blessing; when he got it, it never really came true for him, and he handed it back to Esau because he then considered that the blessing of God's grace was all sufficient (see on Gen. 33:11). But now Jacob seems to have taken a step backwards, and is expressing this blessing in the same kind of terms, to Judah- who was not the firstborn, but the favourite of a moment, it seems. He has just tried to declare Ephraim as his firstborn, the son of his right hand, in Gen. 48. "Eyes... red with wine" seems a crude way of wishing Judah much wine, for this is the language of drunkenness (GNB "His eyes are bloodshot from drinking wine"); the whole feeling of these last words of Jacob is that he was not at his spiritual best, and much of what he said never really came true.
The idea seems to be that good wine makes eyes go red, and milk gives you white teeth. Milk doesn't make teeth white; but as with the language of demons in the New Testament, we have here an example of where wrong ideas are recorded as true, with no footnote pointing this out; because the Bible is written for people at their time, and some issues God doesn't see necessary to correct at the time.
Gen 49:13 Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. He will be for a
haven of ships. His border will be on Sidon- If we insist that
Jacob's words all were to come true, then this appears an unreconciled expositional problem.
Zebulun was to dwell along the sea coast (LXX), where ships unload [a
"haven"], "beside the sea" (GNB), until Sidon. But this wasn't the case. The canton of Zebulun
even in Ezekiel's prophecy of the restored Kingdom was to be nowhere near
Sidon, and Zebulun never had a border unto Sidon. According to Josephus (Ant. 19:10,16), Zebulun was never even bounded by the sea, being cut off by Asher. Could it be that at times Jacob's enthusiasm carried him away, and what he said was more his own wishing than the direct revelation of God? Until a satisfactory explanation can be come up with, it seems this is what we must accept. In this case, we see that even in this flurry of faith in the future Kingdom and Messiah, Jacob's interest in the physical aspect of the promises still remained with him, and carried him away in a way which God refused to work with.
Perhaps this is why his old name "Jacob" and his new name "Israel" are
used together so much at the time of his death, because he was still not
totally transformed; and yet shall be saved, by grace. David's spiritual enthusiasm for Solomon needs to be read in a similar light; he makes statements concerning him which reflect a Messianic zeal, but also a desire to see his physical son more blessed than he was worthy of.
Gen 49:14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the
saddlebags- "Issachar has desired that which is good; (i.e.) resting between the inheritance. And having seen the resting place that it was good... he subjected his shoulder to labour" (49:14 LXX). The Apostle alludes to this Greek text in Heb. 4:1: "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest". Jacob imputed righteousness to his son Issachar at the end. Imputing righteousness to others, seeing the good and the potential in them, was something Jacob only reached at the end; he saw Issachar as seeing the future Kingdom, and devoting himself to labour now to attain that future rest. And the writer to the Hebrews bids us follow that man's example. Jacob's judgment of his Issachar was with regard to how keenly he perceived the future rest of the Kingdom, and laboured now to attain it. For this reason, Jacob commended him; he judged Issachar according to how keenly he desired the Kingdom.
Jacob's achievement of a true humility is evident in his last words. The way he blessed his sons in Gen. 49 indicates this; note how he saw
Issachar's greatness in the fact he was a humble servant (49:14). He learnt the lesson of that night of wrestling; his natural strength was not to be gloried in, neither was this to be his true greatness.
And yet in Jacob's words to some of his other sons at this time, and in
Gen. 48:22, he is back to his old pride and trust in human strength. This
is why the old name "Jacob" is juxtaposed with "Israel" at this time. And
yet he died in faith and hope of salvation.
And again, we can read these words to Issachar more negatively; because to compare someone to a donkey was an insult and not seen as a compliment. Hence GNB: "Issachar is no better than a donkey". And it was a lazy donkey, who collapsed under its load. This fits with the generally terse and negative attitude which Jacob has to several of his sons. It's so sad that a man who had been shown such grace, and realized it, could not show it to others by the end of his life.
Gen 49:15 He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it
was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant
doing forced labour- Jacob may have particularly remembered
Issachar's donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, coming in to the
pleasant land of Goshen. But Jacob was prophetically aware that Issachar,
along with all Israel, would end up "doing forced labour" in that pleasant
land, which is what happened after new Pharaohs arose. We may
enquire what was the "blessing" in this (:28). It is as ever a case of a
curse having a silver lining; for one of the great themes of the Bible is
that we must humble ourselves to be exalted. And perhaps that is the
implication here; that the good land would be his resting place, exactly
because he became a servant. And this happened on a national level- the
Hebrews did "forced labour" in Egypt to prepare them to inherit the "rest"
of Canaan, the good and pleasant land.
Gen 49:16 Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel-
The idea may be that Dan would be independent of the other tribes, and
would judge / lead his own tribe. Or the idea could be that Dan would be
the judge of all Israel- but this never happened.
We note that the sons of Jacob's slave women [whom we now read of] are blessed on the same level as the sons by his wives. He recognized on one hand the equality of all his children; and yet on the other, he still retains his obsession with blessing the second born in the way he treats Joseph's sons.
Gen 49:17 Dan will be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, That
bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward-
Again we have the theme of blessing out of curse. Dan was called a
serpent- but he would thereby come to victory. This is to be connected with Zech. 10:5, which speaks of how in the last days, the invaders of Israel will be toppled from their horses by the men of Israel / Jacob. Again, Jacob's mind was on the far distant glory of his sons in the day of the Kingdom. There is also reference here to Gen. 3:15, but with an unexpected twist; Dan as the snake (not the woman) would bite his enemies, and thereby subdue them. Is there a hint here that Jacob had so meditated on the Lord Jesus, the future Messiah, that he realized that he must have our sinful, snake-like, Jacob-like nature, and yet through that very fact the final victory against sin would be won? 'Jacob' meaning 'heel-catcher' associates him with the seed of the snake, who would bruise the seed of the woman in the heel. He saw how he would somehow be rescued from his own ‘Jacob-ness’, saved from himself, by the Saviour to come. It turned out that Jacob, who in some ways was the seed of the snake, became the seed of the woman. And yet his Messianic blessing of Dan indicates that he saw these two aspects in his Saviour Lord; he was the one who had the appearance of the seed of the snake (cp. how the bronze snake symbolized him), and yet was in fact the seed of the woman. I really believe that Jacob had so deeply reflected on his own life and sinfulness, on the promise in Eden, and on the promises of Abraham's saviour-seed, that he came to as fine an appreciation of the representative nature of Christ's sacrifice as any believer has today. Thus a lifetime of reflection on the promises (rather than thinking 'Yes, we know all about them') and sustained self-examination will lead to a deep grasp of the fact that Christ really represented you,
he had exactly your nature, and thereby he is your very own saviour.
Gen 49:18 I have waited for Your salvation, Yahweh- Jacob's hope of Messiah was the hope of his life; "I have waited for
Your salvation", 'Your Jesus', he commented, perhaps in desperation at
the way his sons generally did not perceive this. This is commented upon by the Jerusalem Targum with the suggestion that Jacob was expressing a very definite Messianic expectation: "My soul waiteth not for the deliverance of Gideon, the son of Joash, for it was only temporal; nor for that of Samson, for it was but transient; but for the redemption by the Messiah, the Son of David, which in thy word thou hast promised to send to thy people, the children of Israel; for this, thy salvation, my soul waiteth"
Yahweh is a saviour God, not just a provider of children, cattle and land for the present; and now, at long last, Jacob associates Yahweh with himself; Yahweh has become his God, as he promised 70 years before. Ex. 6:3 says that Jacob knew the Yahweh Name from the time God appeared to him; but it took him a lifetime to make Yahweh his very own God.
Gen 49:19 A troop will press on Gad, but he will press on their heel-
This continues the idea that apparent curses are in fact blessings
(:28), once the silver lining is perceived and believed. The principle of
Gen. 3:15 is recalled through the reference to "their heel"- blessing out
of curse.
Or as AV, Gad "shall overcome at the last", which reflects how Jacob's mind was focused on the final victory of his people, "at the last" . Again the idea is of temporary defeat or curse, leading to long term blessing. At the end of his life, Jacob had come to terms with his earlier idolatry. 'Gad' was the name of a Babylonish deity which presided over chance; Israel were condemned for believing in him in Is. 65:11 AVmg. Leah using this name reflected the sentiment of 'Good fortune at the hand of the god Gad'. The way she effectively accuses Jacob’s God of treating her like a prostitute who gave her “hire” because she let her maid sleep with her husband… doesn’t indicate that she was a great believer in Yahweh. Yet when Jacob blessed Gad, he seems to change this: "Gad, a troop (Heb. gedud, not gad) shall overcome (guwd, related to gad) him: but he shall overcome". These word plays would suggest that the god Gad would be overcome, would be 'Gad-ed', by the troop of warriors that would come from the tribe of Gad.
Gen 49:20 Asher’s food will be rich. He will yield royal dainties- Asher "shall yield royal dainties", or 'dainties fit for a king' suggests Jacob imagining how in the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus would eat food grown in Asher?
In the restored Kingdom, the tribes of Israel would each bring their royal dainties to the
Messiah (Ez. 45:16). But in the shorter term, it seems Jacob
envisioned Israel as being led by a king who came from Judah; and Asher
would be supportive of that king. Yet it was not God's will that His
people should have a human king. So again we see how Jacob even at his end
was not completely in step with the Father; and yet shall be saved.
Gen 49:21 Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns-
Or as AV "a hind let loose: he giveth goodly (lit. 'gracious') words";
this is another Messianic hint. Ps. 22 (title) likens the Lord to a hind at the time of his death; and again, Jacob's appreciation of the quality of grace as it would be manifested in Christ comes out. The LXX says that Naphtali is "a tree trunk let loose". With all the other Messianic insights in Jacob's words, this cannot be accidental. Jacob even
foresaw something of the physical manner of the Lord's death. The idea of being let loose has day of atonement connections (Lev. 16:21). Did Jacob see that far ahead? One Chaldee text reads for this verse: “Naphtali is a swift messenger like a hind that runneth on the tops of the mountains bringing glad tidings”.
GNB gives "Naphtali is a deer that runs free, who bears lovely fawns". This would imply Naphtali was to be captured, but would break free afterwards. Which fits the theme of cursings having a silver lining of blessing in the end, rather like :19 "Gad will be attacked by a band of robbers, but he will turn and pursue them" (GNB).
Gen 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His
branches run over the wall- This speaks of the descendant of Joseph as a fruitful vine, with branches. The Lord Jesus seems to have quarried his description of himself as a vine with branches from this very passage (Jn. 15:5).
Joseph is only recorded as having two sons, so he was not so fruitful in
his lifetime; but Jacob spoke by faith, anticipating how Ephraim would
become very fruitful and the largest tribe in the ten tribe kingdom.
I have noted above that most of the sons are not much blessed and
some are cursed, yet they are all blessed (:28). I suggest this was
because the huge blessings upon Joseph, the blessings promised to Abraham
in the covenant (:26), would be shared by Joseph. And this is intimated by
this statement that his branches run over the wall, i.e. his fruitful vine
branches bring fruit and blessing to people outside his own house. This is
confirmed by :26 LXX; the huge blessings of the covenant, the blessings
given to the fathers, "shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the head
of the brothers of whom he took the lead". This means that the blessings
upon Joseph would be mediated to the brothers. It was because of his
exaltation over them, which they had so resisted when his dreams first
described it, that they would also be blessed.
But the Hebrew is difficult here. The GNB offers: "Joseph is like a wild donkey by a spring, A wild colt on a hillside". The image then would be of Joseph's loneliness, separate from his brothers, silhouetted alone on a hillside. "A fruitful bough" (AV) is literally 'son of a fruit tree', thereby again elevating Jacob's own importance; he was the tree, and Joseph a branch only. When Jacob was to bow to Joseph, according to the dreams. It's rather like Jacob praising Judah as a cub- suggesting Jacob was the great lion.
Gen 49:23 The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecuted him- The figure of archery seems slightly inappropriate compared to what the brothers did to Joseph. Perhaps the brothers never reached the ideal level of repentance in telling Jacob what really happened; and Joseph didn't tell Jacob because he had forgiven the brothers. The brothers' abuse of Joseph "severely grieved him", he took it very much to heart. There were likely serious incidents against Joseph before he was finally put in the pit, and Jacob may be alluding to them. However, Genesis 49 is poetry, and perhaps we are to interpret their arrows as their words, which is common enough symbology in the Bible (Jer. 9:7). Joseph was deeply hurt by their words, but (:24), God placed His hands upon those of Joseph so that the arrows he shot back, the words he spoke in response, were of grace. Jacob was marvelling at this, as we also do.
The ecclesia in the time of Amos "chant to the sound of the viol,
and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; That drink
wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they
are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (Am. 6:5,6). They drunk
wine and anointed their faces with oil- rejoicing in Gods blessings. They
looked back to the heritage of their spiritual ancestors (David), and on a
surface level appeared to follow them. They chanted the temple songs, and
yet there was no grief within them for the affliction of Gods people. The
archers were to surely grieve Joseph, but they chose to
ignore the terrible import of those prophecies of Messiahs suffering.
There was the appearance of religion and worship, but no grief nor passion
for the tragedy of Messiahs forthcoming death, no grieving for the tragedy
of Gods people, who were about to be afflicted for their sins. And in this
we must take our warning.
Gen 49:24 But his bow remained strong- As in :23, Jacob is using
the imagery of archery. But he is also handing out blessings which sound
very similar to those given to him by Isaac. Those blessings were supposed
to have been received because the firstborn had taken his bow and arrows
and caught wild game (Gen. 27:3 s.w.). All this allusion to human
strength, and Jacob himself boasts of how he used his bow to take Shechem
(Gen. 48:22), is quite inappropriate for a man made to limp so as not to
trust in his own strength. And he had earlier resigned the blessing of the
firstborn which he had received, awed instead by the blessing of God's
grace (see on Gen. 33:11). But now he returns to the scene of Isaac his
father blessing him and Esau, and he starts to make conscious and
unconscious allusion to it. Hence this imagery of bows and arrows.
The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty
One of Jacob- The archery allusion continues. The idea is that Joseph
placed his hands on a bow, and God placed His hands on Joseph's hands, so
that he was able to pull the string back further and take perfect aim.
David uses this analogy about himself in 2 Sam. 22:35, and it is precisely
acted out in 2 Kings 13:15-17. The idea is that God would be behind
whatever Joseph did. But bows and arrows also speak of children, and the
thought may be that God would make Ephraim and Manasseh go far, perhaps
leading up to a Messiah figure, "the shepherd". So we could
translate: "The masters of archery hated him.
But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were agile by
the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob".
Jacob coins a new name for God: the abiyr, translated here "the mighty [God]". This word occurs only in five other places, and each time it is in the phrase "the mighty one (abiyr) of Jacob" (Ps. 132:2,5; Is. 1:24; 49:26; 60:16). Likewise, the Lord used new titles of God in his time of ultimate spiritual maturity as he faced death (Jn. 17:11,25). Many of the Messianic Psalms refer to God as " my God" , and it was one of the phrases in the Lord's mind in His final, glorious maturity (Mt. 27:46). Moses in his final speech of Deuteronomy often encouraged Israel that God was thy (singular, personal) God. Jacob knew God's mightiness for himself in a very special way; he knew His gentle forgiveness of all his pride and self-will, that mighty forgiveness, that mighty patience with him, that Almighty salvation of him which had been made possible. In the same way we will each be given the name of God, and yet this Name will be known only to us (Rev. 2:17; 3:12; 14:1); it will be God's Name, but in a form entirely personal to us. In dim foreshadowing of that glorious relationship with God, Jacob reached something of this even in his mortal life.
From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel- This describes "the mighty one of Jacob" as the shepherd and rock of Israel. Again Jacob is finally acceptant of the name change. Jacob recognizes that God through His Angel had shepherded him all along (Gen. 48:15), and He would do likewise to Joseph's seed. The references in Deuteronomy to God being the rock that Israel forsook therefore refer to the Angel (Dt. 32:15,18). It is worth noting that the shepherd and rock ("stone" of Gen. 49:24) are both clear titles of Christ- implying that this Angel specifically represented Jesus? Hence "that rock (Angel) was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4).
Jacob describes the future Messianic seed as "the stone of Jacob / Israel". Jacob's physical stone had been overturned, rested upon, set up and anointed (Gen. 28:13-15); perhaps now at the end, Jacob thought back to that incident and saw in that stone a prophecy of the death and resurrection of the Lord. Perhaps he even saw that the anointing, the 'Christ-ing' of the Stone would be after its raising up; he foresaw that the Lord Jesus would be made the Christ, the anointed, in the fullest sense by the resurrection (Acts 2:36). "The hope of Israel", or (see modern versions), "he for whom Israel / Jacob hopes" is another title of Christ (Acts 28:20 cp. Jer. 14:8; 17:13; Joel 3:16); he was the one for whom Jacob / Israel hoped. And his hope is the hallmark of all the Israel of God.
Jacob's reflection on the Lord Jesus must have been deep indeed, for he reaches some quite advanced and deep conclusions concerning him. Thus he describes God as the God from whom is "the shepherd, the stone of Israel / Jacob", both evidently Messianic titles. Yet "the rock of Israel" is later understood to be a reference to the God of Jacob (2 Sam. 23:3). Therefore we may conclude that Jacob saw his God as manifest in the future Messiah, who would come out of the Father, i.e. be the Son of God. To understand God manifestation in Christ and the necessity for his Divine Sonship could have come from direct Divine revelation, but my sense is that it came instead from his deep appreciation of the promised blessing of forgiveness through Abraham's Messianic seed. Jacob's ever deepening appreciation of this and his progressive appreciation of God's grace led him to deeply meditate on the Lord's role. Jacob himself was a shepherd (Gen. 46:34; Hos. 12:12), and yet he gave
the Christ the title of "the shepherd", as if he recognized that although
the Lord Jesus would come out of God, he would also be exactly like Jacob, of his nature. He saw on a completely personal level the way in which Christ truly was his very
own representative. He therefore saw in himself
a type of Christ, indicated by the way in which he asks his sons to gather
themselves unto him, and then goes on to say that ultimately, his people
will gather themselves together unto Messiah (Gen. 49:1,2 cp. 10). See on 1 Cor. 10:4; Gen. 48:19.
Moses' hands being upheld by the hands of others can be seen as a type of the Lord Jesus being sustained by Angelic hands on the cross, connecting with this Messianic prophecy concerning the hands of Messiah being strengthened for His mediation by the hands of God. Throughout Scripture, God's hands are associated with His creative work in the natural creation (e.g. Ps. 8:6; 95:5; Heb. 1:10)- work which was and is performed through the Angels. The Lord Jesus was aware of the Angels in His final agony; He was painfully aware that they were at His command to lessen the physical torment (Mt. 26:53).
Jacob stated that from Joseph (Ephraim's father) would come the
Shepherd / Stone / Messiah (49:24); presumably, Jacob thought, through
Ephraim. Yet Jacob was wrong in this; indeed, he uses Messianic imagery
about Judah's seed as well. Thus whilst Jacob showed his
spiritual maturity by an enthusiasm for the Lord Jesus Christ, even right
at the very end of his life, he still had an old flaw: a desire to fulfill
God's promises in the way he wanted them fulfilled, a desire to
turn God's word round to fit in with his preferred way of
thinking (in this case, that Messiah would come through Joseph / Ephraim).
The way the prophets continually describe sinful Israel as "Ephraim" is
perhaps God's way of showing that Jacob's way was not His way.
Gen 49:25 Even by the God of your father, who will help you; by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of the sky above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb- Finally, at long last, Jacob got there. In this section, he says three times the same thing; God is my God, Yahweh- Messiah will be the my rock, my stone, yes, He is the God of your father Jacob, He is ALL-MIGHTY to save. That promise to make Yahweh his God, made 70 years previously in semi-belief, he had now fulfilled. He had made Yahweh his God. He was not only the God of his father and grandfather. The God who can do all things, not only physically but more importantly (as Jacob now realized) spiritually, was with his very own God. No wonder he dies repeating this three times over. And remember, he's our pattern.
The word "help" used here frequently occurs in the context of military help. Again Jacob's thoughts seem to be circling around the material and physical, when his whole life's lesson was surely that the spiritual must dominate over the material. The blessings he wishes Joseph again recall those uttered by Isaac, Jacob's father (Gen. 27:28); and God had taught Jacob that His spiritual blessings are far more important than these kinds of material blessings. In a moment of spiritual desperation and perception, Jacob had grasped this, and handed them all to Esau (see on Gen. 33:11); but as with us, over the years, that perspective had become eroded.
We note that Jacob blesses Joseph with blessings of the heaven and the deep, or, the earth. This was exactly the blessing which Isaac had given Jacob when he stole the birthright blessings from Esau. Jacob had been taught many times that these blessings were immaterial, and had at one point in Gen. 32 resigned them back to Esau. But here he considers such blessings significant- he has still not learned that these material paternal blessings are irrelevant. His behaviour with Ephraim and Manasseh likewise reflects his failure to have really learned his lessons about the irrelevancies of being the firstborn. He thus died imperfect spiritually, like all of us, and yet secure in God's salvation.
Gen 49:26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of your ancestors, above the boundaries of the ancient hills- Jacob had lamented that he had not been blessed with as long a life as his ancestors Isaac and Abraham (see on Gen. 47:9). But he finally feels he has been blessed far more than them. He certainly had more children, but materially it would seem they had more. So the "blessings" he perceives are spiritual rather than material; even though, as pointed out throughout this commentary, he still had the material and the spiritual too mixed up in his perceptions.
And he now realizes that the huge blessings of the covenant have all been placed upon Joseph, and have as it were run off from his head onto the heads of his brothers (see LXX). This implies they were kneeling before him with heads bowed, exactly what Joseph had dreamed at 17.
Jacob's progression from perceiving the promises as concerning physical blessing to seeing their essential relevance to forgiveness and future salvation is made explicit
here: "The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains, the delight, glory or loveliness of the hills of eternity" (this rendition is supported by the LXX, Gesenius, RVmg.). Remember that in the wrestling incident, Jacob realized that the blessing of God essentially refers to His forgiveness,
and he had therefore given away his material blessing because he was so
thrilled with his spiritual blessing (see on Gen. 33:11). This connection between blessing and forgiveness / salvation is widespread throughout Scripture: Dt. 33:23; Ps. 5:12 (blessing = grace) Dt. 30:19; Ps. 3:8; 24:5; 28:9; 133:3 (= salvation); Ex. 12:32; 32:29; Num. 24:1; 2 Sam. 21:3; Ps. 67:1 (cp. context); Lk. 6:28 (cp. ) Acts 3:26; Rom. 4:7,8; 1 Cor. 10:16; Gal. 3:14 (= forgiveness). Surrounded by his sons clamouring, one can imagine, for physical, immediate blessings, just as he did in the first half of his life, Jacob says that the spiritual blessings he had received, the grace, the forgiveness, the salvation, were infinitely higher than the blessings of rock-solid hills and mountains, things which seemed so permanent and tangible. His intangible blessings were, he finally realized,. much higher than his intangible ones.
Jacob no longer saw the promised blessings as solely referring to him personally having a prosperous time in the promised land; he joyfully looked forward to the future Kingdom. He says that he now realizes that his blessings (of forgiveness and the subsequent hope of the Kingdom) are greater than the blessings of the everlasting mountains (49:26 RV mg.); he saw the spiritual side of his blessings as more significant than the material aspect. Despite the fact that the promises were primarily fulfilled in the peace and prosperity he and his seed enjoyed at the end (Gen. 48:4 "multitude" s.w. 47:27; 35:11; 28:3), Jacob doesn't emphasize this fact as he could have done; instead, he looks to the future, ultimate fulfilments. He looked back on his life as a "pilgrimage", a series of temporary abodes on the way to something permanent, i.e. the future Kingdom (Gen. 47:9).
They will be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers- This may not simply be a statement to the effect that Joseph was separate from his brothers. He was literally 'Nazirited', consecrated, from among his brothers; this could be a reference to how he was the family priest, wearing the coat of many colours; and how he was clearly consecrated by God as well to be the family's saviour.
LXX "shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the head of the brothers of whom he took the lead". As discussed on :22, the idea is that the brothers were each individually blessed (:28) because they partook in the blessings upon Joseph. Even though many of them were 'blessed' with curses.
Gen 49:27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour
the prey. At evening he will divide the spoil- "In the morning he shall devour the prey" (49:27) connects with the promises that Messiah's second coming would be the true morning (Is. 60:1; Mal. 4:1,2); this was the day when Benjamin would have his true blessing. Many of Jacob's blessings of his sons contain some reference to Christ's future work, e.g. "he shall divide the spoil" (49:27); "he whom thy brethren shall praise" (49:8 = Rev. 5:5). Jacob describes Judah's Messianic descendant as "my son"; he eagerly looked ahead to the Lord Jesus as fulfilment of the promised Messianic seed. He perhaps saw that the multitudinous seed he had been promised was in fact an intensive plural, referring to the one great Messianic seed.
Or perhaps Jacob was angry with Benjamin, the 'son of my right hand' who had become firstborn after Joseph disappeared. The GNB translates more bluntly: "Benjamin is like a vicious wolf. Morning and evening he kills and devours". Maybe this is some reference to an unrecorded military encounter (as in :9 and Gen. 48:22) where Benjamin, although young, had acted with great brutality. Jacob would be raising this issue as a reason for not now seeing him as the firstborn.
Gen 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what
their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according
to his blessing- GNB has it about right: "These are the twelve tribes
of Israel, and this is what their father said as he spoke a suitable word
of farewell to each son". And yet only Judah and Joseph got any real
blessing; Jacob's attitude with most of the other sons was to raise issues
from the past and curse them because of them, being quite insolent to some
of them, e.g. "Issachar is no better than a donkey". And he tells Simeon
and Levi that he is nothing to do with them. What was intended to be a
time of blessing, he turned into cursing. When God had graciously turned
his cursings into blessings for him, and Jacob himself realizes that he
has been so amazingly blessed himself. It was a sad end, and yet Jacob
still shall be saved, and God is still the God of Jacob. None of us will
attain moral perfection by the time we die, and so in essence we are like
Jacob, dying in hope of grace, in immaturity, not having got as far as we
ought to have done.
Or perhaps we are to understand that in the curses and noted consequences for disobedience, there is a silver lining. There is blessing, for those who respond and humble themselves; judgment and consequence become a magnificent defeat. Thus the scattering of Levi was fulfilled through their becoming the priestly tribe, intended to bring blessing to the rest of Israel through their scattering.
Gen 49:29 He instructed them, and said to them, I am to be gathered to
my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of
Ephron the Hittite- Although the rather rambling, bitter and bizarre
statements so far in this chapter could give us the impression that Jacob
had dementia, he speaks of his funeral and the location of the burial cave
with great accuracy. His heart was truly on the things of the Kingdom and
the promises. We note that he saw his fathers as lying in the grave; if he
had believed in an immortal soul, surely he would have spoken otherwise.
Gen 49:30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is
before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field
from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place- That this spot was bought,
when it was their eternal inheritance, is cited as an example of the faith
of the patriarchs (Acts 7:5). They had not inherited the land eternally,
yet God keeps His promises- and therefore they were forced to look ahead
in faith to the day of resurrection and eternal inheritance.
Gen 49:31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they
buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah- In his penultimate sentence, Jacob makes the perhaps strange comment that "they buried Isaac" (his father; 49:31). The "they" meant him and Esau (Gen. 35:29), but perhaps Jacob wanted to show his separation from Esau by describing the funeral in this way. Separation from the world is thus an aspect of spiritual maturity, and also a result of sustained appreciation of the covenant promises.
It seems that Jacob came to see his beloved parents in spiritual, not emotional terms, at the end. Consider the pronouns he uses: "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they (i.e. he and his brother, Gen. 35:29) buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah" (49:3 AV1). He doesn't talk in the first person about "my father" or "I" buried. He sees himself as their friend in faith, more than their son. These words were said in Jacob's last breath. It shows to me how at last he had won this battle, he had shed the crutch of his father's faith, he stood alone before his God, at the very end he wasn't leaning on his parents spiritually any more, all the scaffolding had been removed, and he stood alone, on his own deep foundation. His final words are full of conscious and unconscious reference to the fathers and the promises. See on Gen. 47:9; 48:15.
Gen 49:32 The field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased
from the children of Heth- Jacob’s final words reflect his resentment against the children of Heth; he saw that they were the world, the children of this world which now possess the land of promise, covenanted to be God's Kingdom, not theirs. He realized that the time was not yet ripe, and his very last words were a reminder of this. His mind was centred on the promises and the future ownership of the land, and on his connection with Abraham and Isaac; the fact that the land was not inherited during the patriarch's lifetimes (the land had to be bought from the children of Heth) is seen by the Spirit as an indication that the Kingdom had not yet come, but surely would do (Acts 7:5). And Jacob died with exactly the same perception. In doing so, he was reflecting the view of his dear mother, who detested the ways of the Godless children of Heth (Gen. 27:46). So in his time of dying, Jacob was not divided from the spiritual views of his parents. Their Hope was his Hope, but he had made it his own. He was not just living out their expectations of him. The way he got there in the end is just marvellous to behold.
Gen 49:33 When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up
his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his
people- At the very end, Jacob gathered himself up into his bed to die, and then God gathered him up (this comes out very clearly in the Hebrew text). That desire of God for mutuality with His servant Jacob had always been there. See on
Gen. 48:8.
The idiom of Jacob being “gathered to his people” is used, despite the fact that many Bible readers will misunderstand this as meaning that he therefore joined them in some disembodied existence. The idiom is used but not corrected. God is not so primitive as to keep on as it were tripping over Himself to defend and define what He has said and the way He has chosen to say it. He speaks to us in our language, and at various times over history has dealt with men in terms they can cope with.
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