Genesis 47

Genesis 47:27-31

XXXII THE LAST DAYS OF JACOB AND JOSEPH Genesis 47:27-31 We may thus compare Jacob and Solomon: The sun of Solomon’s life rose in a blaze of light and glory, and set in the darkest clouds. The sun of Jacob’s life rose in clouds, which lingered long, but set in joy and glory. Joseph and Daniel may thus be compared: These are the two basal personal lives of history, and the most important in beneficent political administration known to the annals of time. We may search in vain among the records of men to find two other prime ministers of nations that may rank with them.

How very few old men, after a hale and strong career, are permitted to enjoy the last seventeen years of declining age in peace, nourished by a favorite son, with tranquility in the family and prosperity in business. But age lives much in the past, exercising memory more than hope. Jacob now remembers, as death approaches, the cave of Machpelah in the Promised Land, where side by side repose the bodies of his ancestors, and exacts a solemn promise from Joseph that he be buried there. And in his farewell request to his sons he repeats this dying charge (read chapter Genesis 49:29-33), as follows: “And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 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 for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah – the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth. And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.”

The remaining incidents of the book of Genesis come under these heads:

1. Jacob blesses Joseph’s children.

2. Prophecy concerning his children.

3. The burial of Jacob.

4. The fear of Joseph’s brethren that he would punish them for their sins after their father’s death.

5. The death of Joseph.

Taking them up in order, we have:

THE OF THE SONS OF JOSEPH (Genesis 48:1-20)Hearing of his father’s extreme illness, Joseph visits him and takes his two children with him. The old man is so feeble that he has to sit up in bed supported on his staff, and he is so nearly blind that the children must be brought close to him that he may see their faces and kiss them. Joseph purposes in his heart that Manasseh, his firstborn, should receive the greater blessing, and so places him before Jacob in such a way that Jacob’s right hand might rest on Manasseh’s head. But Jacob crosses his hands, and puts his right hand upon Ephraim’s head, and the left one on Manasseh. He commences his benediction on Joseph himself, and announces that his name must be the name of the two boys; in other words, that both of these sons must be counted as if they were the sons of Jacob, that is, that each one of them should become the head of a tribe of Israel; and this is what is meant by the explanation of Jacob to Joseph: “I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren,” and immediately he designates the location of Ephraim in the Promised Land. That is the portion that came to him, and is described as that which came through the destruction of the Shechemites.

Here an explanation is needed of Heb 11:21 : “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff.” We do not find this last clause in the Hebrew, but the Septuagint uses these words, only it puts them in Genesis 47:31, as a substitute for the words of the Hebrew: “And Israel bore himself upon the bed’s head.” It will be observed that the author of the letter to the Hebrews corrects the Septuagint’s misapplication of these words. The Septuagint confines them to the occasion when Jacob exacts the oath from Joseph to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, as related in Genesis 47, but the author of the letter to the Hebrews applies them to the occasion when Jacob blesses the children of Joseph, as related in Genesis 48. We can well see how the words, “and he worshipped, leaning upon the head of his staff,” fit the occasion of Jacob’s blessing the children of Joseph. The old man was too feeble to sit up in bed, unless he was supported by his staff; and with his feet resting on the floor, the children of Joseph were put between his knees, that he might see their faces and kiss them, while he steadied himself resting on his staff. When this was over we have these words: “and he bowed his face to the earth”; that is, it was at this juncture that Jacob worshiped, leaning upon the head of his staff. This New Testament usage of a Septuagint passage shows that the writers of the New Testament always quoted intelligently from that version, and whenever necessary, they corrected it.

JACOB’S ON HIS SONS (Genesis 49)In commenting on the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, which contains the blessings pronounced by Jacob on his twelve sons, four distinct things need to be borne in mind. First, what was in the mother’s mind when the boy was named; second, what the boys turned out to be, as set forth in this chapter; third, what the tribe descending from them turned out to be, as set forth in Deuteronomy 34; fourth, the final reference to the tribes in Revelation 7. These four scriptures should be studied together. For example, I will take up what it says about Reuben first: “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.” Reuben, the eldest, under usual conditions, would have had all the rights of primogeniture, the head of the family and the tribe and the priest, the one in whom the promised Messiah should come. “Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; the pre-eminence of dignity and the pre-eminence of power. Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence.” That means that Reuben should not have the primogeniture. “Boiling over as water” refers to a pot on a fire, which, when it gets hot, runs over the pot and into the fire. That is the picture of one whose passions and appetites are not restrained, but when excited boil over.

Because of that characteristic Reuben loses the birthright. In the common version it says, “unstable as water.” The same idea is involved; that water may seem to be perfectly level, but when you put fire to it, it bubbles over. Now compare that with what Moses said in Deuteronomy 33, and you will see that for Reuben as a tribe the prospect brightens. Moses said, “Let Reuben live, and not die; nor let his men be few.” You would have inferred from what Jacob said that the tribe would pass away on account of the sin and instability of the father. We go to the next case:

Simeon and Levi he puts together, because they were united in that great piece of cruelty and deception practiced upon the Shechemites, and the barbarous massacre of the men and the enslavement of the women and children and the robbing of the flocks. Jacob says:

Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords. Here is a proverb which I have preached from: O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an ox. 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.

One of your examination questions will be: When was that fulfilled? Ans.: When Joshua made the allotments. Simeon and Levi received no allotments. Simeon was scattered about in Judah and other territory. So, as a matter of fact, these two tribes were scattered. Now, let us see when we come to Moses what change has taken place (Deuteronomy 33:8) :

And of Levi he said,

Thy Thummirn and thy Urim are with thy godly one,

Whom thou didst prove at Massah,

With whom thou didst strive at the water of Meribah;

Who said of his father, and of his mother, I have not seen him;

Neither did he acknowledge his brethren,

Nor knew he his own children:

For they have observed thy word,

And keep thy covenant.

They shall teach Jacob thine ordinances,

And Israel thy law:

They shall put incense before thee,

And whole burnt-offering upon thine altar.

Bless, Jehovah, his substance,

And accept the work of his hands:

Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him,

And of them that hate him, that they rise not again.

So far as Levi is concerned, then, the prospects are very wonderfully brightened when you come to Moses. There you begin to get an idea of the answer to another one of the general questions: How were the elements of the rights of primogeniture, which Reuben lost, distributed among the others? You see Levi gets a part, and becomes the priest of the family and the tribe, and as the priest he is the religious instructor. Moses tells us by what act Levi obtained that revision of the original sentence against him. The instance is when Israel worshiped the golden calf; Levi stood by Moses when he said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, let him come and stand over here,” and the whole tribe of Levi came and stood by him. And in smiting the idolaters, they had no regard of men. In the final division of the rights of primogeniture, Levi received the priesthood, Joseph became the head of the tribe and Judah became the one through whom the promised Messiah should come.

We find that Moses does not mention Simeon at all, but he reappears in the Revelation list, and that Dan disappears from that list. Jacob says about Judah:

Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise:

Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies;

Thy father’s son shall bow down before thee.

Judah is a lion’s whelp;

From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:

He stooped down, he couched as a lion,

And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

Until Shiloh come;

And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

Binding his foal unto the vine,

And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine;

He hath washed his garments in wine,

And his vesture in the blood of grapes:

His eyes shall be red with wine,

And his teeth white with milk.

The first line of the above prophecy was a reference to the Messiah who shall come from him. In Genesis 49:10 is a remarkable messianic prophecy: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” Shiloh is the Saviour. And so we find that the kingdom remain-ed (that Judah remained a kingdom) until it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Then, subordinated to Persia, civil government was restored under Zerubbabel of the line of David, and a hierarchy under Joshua, the high priest. The restoration was accomplished by Ezra and Nehemiah, aided by the prophets Haggai and Malachi. Under Greek rule Antiochus Epiphanes sought to destroy the whole Jewish polity and religion, but was defeated by the Maccabees, who became kings.

Under Roman rule, Herod the Great, who married the last of the Maccabees) became king. Then just before Herod died Shiloh, the Messiah, came. As Herod was an ldumean, “the sceptre had departed from Judah.” While Herod’s descendants, at the will of Rome, ruled under some subordinate title over parts of the Holy Land, yet all semblance of autonomous government perished at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70, since which time the Jews, though existing as a dispersed race, have had no settled home, nor nationality, nor temple, nor altar, nor sacrifice, nor priesthood. If therefore Shiloh has not come, He can never come.

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;

And he shall be for a haven of ships;

And his border shall be upon Sidon.

We find Zebulun and Sidon located that way all through their history. Moses said (Deuteronomy 33:18):

Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out;

And, Issachar, in thy tents.

They shall call the peoples unto the mountains;

There shall they offer sacrifices of righteousness.

So that brightens for Issachar and Zebulun. When we come to Judges we find some illustrious people coming out of these tribes. We shall come to Dr. Burleson’s great text: “The sons of Issachar were wise, and had understanding of what Israel ought to do.” Therefore, he said, whenever you see a leader of the people, he is a son of Issachar, who knows how, in great conventions, to tell Israel what policy to adopt. Look at Issachar as Jacob describes him (Genesis 49:14) :

Issachar is a strong ass,

Crouching down between the sheepfolds:

And he saw a resting place that it was good,

And the land that it was pleasant;

And he bowed his shoulder to bear,

And became a servant under taskwork.

So Issachar becomes a burden-bearing beast. Just so he could get fodder to eat and a good shed in the winter, he did not mind having a master and paying a tribute to him. But, as we have seen, it brightens for Issachar in the account by Moses. Jacob says of Dan:

Dan shall judge his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

There he refers to what the name “Dan” means. I have known several boys named Dan; and their nickname in the family is always “Judge.” Doubtless there was an anticipation in this case of the time when an illustrious member of the tribe of Dan should be a judge of Israel. Our friend Samson was that man. Now comes a reference not so good (Genesis 49:17):

Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

An adder in the path,

That biteth the horse’s heels,

So that his rider falleth backward.

I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.

That meant that Dan should not be an open enemy, but would lie in ambush. He was a snake in the grass. When we come to read the history in the book of Judges, we find that Dan got very much dissatisfied with the territory assigned to him, and slips out and steals some idols and goes up into the northern part of the country, and there becomes an idolater. There was an organization in the United States history called the Danites. After Joe Smith was killed at Nauvoo the Mormons moved to Salt Lake City, and organized this secret society to combat their enemies; and these Danites perpetrated that infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, of which so much has been said. Just as Mrs.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, had much to do with stirring up the North, and Thomas Dixon’sClansman has had to do with reversing the effect of that book, so a book entitled The Danites, a dramatized story, brought such a storm of indignation that the whole United States was set on fire against the Mormons, and finally General Albert Sidney Johnston, at that time colonel, was detached there with a force to put down the Mormon Rebellion. I can just remember the indignation created in the public mind by the horrors revealed in The Danites. Dan is not mentioned in Revelation.

Gad, a troop shall press upon him;

But he shall press upon their heel.

There Jacob goes back to the name the mother had in mind. Let us see how Gad enlarges in the writings of Moses (Deuteronomy 33:20-21):

Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad:

He dwelleth as a lioness,

And feareth the arm, yea, the crown of the head.

And he provided the first part for himself,

For there was the lawgiver’s portion reserved;

And he came with the heads of the people;

He executed the righteousness of Jehovah,

And his ordinances with Israel. We come to Asher (Genesis 49:20) :

Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,

And he shall yield royal dainties. Moses says (Deuteronomy 33:24) :

Blessed be Asher with children;

Let him be acceptable unto his brethren,

And let him dip his foot in oil. This last clause means that he will have a prosperous time as to this world’s goods. Moses says of Naphtali:

O Naphtali, satisfied with favour,

And full with the blessing of Jehovah,

Possess thou the west and the south. Whenever a boy is delivering his commencement address and scrapes star dust, we call him a “son of Naphtali.” Now Jacob says (Genesis 49:21):

Naphtali is a hind let loose:

He giveth goodly words. That means that Naphtali is to furnish the orators. And we now come to the richest blessing of all, the blessing on Joseph. I read that to my little boy the other night, as the occasion of the service in the family prayer. I wanted him to see what a great thing it is when a father comes to die that he can look into the face of children sad say only good things (Genesis 49:22):

Joseph is a fruitful bough,

A fruitful bough by a fountain;

His branches run over the wall.

The archers have sorely grieved him,

And shot at him, and persecuted him:

But his bow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.

THE BURIAL OF JACOBBy the consent of Pharaoh, Joseph went up to bury his father, accompanied by a great caravan, including distinguished Egyptians, and the whole family, and all the family of Jacob’s sons. It was an immense train, and when they came to the threshing floor of Atad they mourned for their father seven days. It was such an imposing funeral as to impress itself upon the minds of the inhabitants of the land. And then the body of the aged patriarch was put into the family burying place, in the cave of Machpelah.

THE FEARS OF JOSEPH’S It was quite natural that Joseph’s brethren would suspect, now that the father was out of the way, that Joseph’s conduct toward them would change, and so they sought to conciliate him; but with great magnanimity he thus addresses them (Genesis 50:19-21): “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to have much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” And the Genesis record closes with:

THE DEATH OF JOSEPHHe lives to see the children of his sons to the third generation. Being about to die he gave this charge to them (Genesis 50:24-26): “God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” He told them that they should bury his bones in the Promised Land.

A noted Scotch preacher, Melville, preached a great sermon on “The Bones of Joseph,” well making this point: “There can be no sufficient reason for the preservation of the bodies or bones of the dead, if there be no resurrection of the dead.” When we take up the later history we will find that when the Israelites did leave Egypt, they took the body of Joseph, i.e., his bones (Exodus 15:19). They put his bones, not in the cave of Machpelah, but according to the promise made to Joshua (Joshua 24:32): “And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money.”

1. Compare the beginning and end of Jacob’s life with Solomon’s.

2. Compare Joseph and Daniel.

3. What characteristic of old age was exemplified in Jacob?

4. What was his request to Joseph which was repeated in his dying charge to his sons?

5. What now are the remaining incidents of the book?

6. How did Jacob thwart the purpose of Joseph to give Manasseh the greater blessing?

7. What did Jacob mean by saying that these sons should be called by his name?

8. What is meant by Jacob in this expression: “I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren”?

9. Explain in this connection Hebrews 11:21.

10. Of what does the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis consist?

11. What 4 things should be borne in mind in the study of this chapter?

12. What wag the element of weakness in Reuben’s character which lost him the birthright?

13. What striking New Testament illustrations are employed concerning preachers who partake of Reuben’s weakness of character? (2 Peter 2:17; Jude 1:12-13.)

14. How does the dying prophecy of Moses brighten the fate of Reuben’s posterity?

15. Why did Jacob take Simeon and Levi together?

16. What was the penalty for their sin and when fulfilled?

17. How does Moses brighten the prospects of Levi?

18. How were the several elements of the birthright forfeited by Reuben distributed among his brethren?

19. How did Levi’s descendants, by a great act of merit, regain a distinction greater than Levi forfeited?

20. What important messianic prophecy is a part of the blessing of Judah?

21. What was its bearing on the claim of Jesus to be the Messiah?

22. According to Jacob’s prophecy, where was Zebulun located?

23. In Jacob’s prophecy to what is Issachar likened?

24. How in Moses’ prophecy do the prospects of Zebulun and Issachar brighten?

25. Cite the text used by Dr. Burleson.

26. What is the meaning of “Dan” and what illustrious member of the tribe exemplified the name?

27. What do we learn of Dan in later history that justifies the prophecy?

28. What deadly secret organization in American history was based on the prophecy about Dan?

29. Whose dramatized story, The Danites, stirred the popular indignation against the Mormons?

30. How does Moses enlarge Gad over Jacob’s prophecy?

31. How do Moses’ and Jacob’s blessings on Asher compare?

32. What special gift should characterize the sons of Naphtali?

33. On which son came the richest blessing?

34. Which tribe is not mentioned in the blessing of Moses?

35. Which is omitted in the sealing of Revelation?

36. Describe the funeral of Jacob.

37. What was the fear of Joseph’s brethren after the death of Jacob?

38. What prophecy did Joseph give at his death?

39. What oath did he take of the children of Israel?

40. Who preached a great sermon on “The Bones of Joseph,” and what was the main point?

41. When was the prophecy of Joseph fulfilled and where did they bury him?