Genesis 47

Genesis 47:28-49

Section 5. (Genesis 47:28-31; Genesis 48:1-22; Genesis 49:1-27.)The moral conclusion: the end as the way. The fifth section, well-nigh the close of the whole book, is Deuteronomic in character, giving moral results. Here, Jacob again, rather than Joseph, is the central figure, his day brightening at the end to a serene sunset. He dies at a hundred and forty-seven years old,—a number not without meaning, we may believe, in its 7 X 7 X 3, the number of complete accomplishment intensified, with that of divine manifestation. With him, the single, simple, patriarchal life is ended, the first division of this primitive divine history is over. In the first place, here we have the vow which Jacob exacts from Joseph—that he shall be buried in Canaan, in the sepulchre of his fathers. He thus links himself with them as waiting, even in death, for the promise to be fulfilled. Thus the promise is a promise of life which death cannot vanquish or undo. Next, we have the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, in whom Joseph receives the double portion of the birthright, Reuben having lost it. (1 Chronicles 5:1-2.) It shows how Joseph fulfills his name, which is, “adding,” or “increase.” This is, indeed, the beautiful lesson of his life. The law of spiritual increase we find in him, as indicated by the name of his son, “Ephraim.” -“fruitfulness.” But the way to fruitfulness is by “Manasseh” -“forgetfulness,” as with the apostle, “Forgetting that which is behind, I press on.” (Philippians 3:13-14.) Manasseh is the first-born, in fact; but as the end is greater than the means, so Ephraim is, in the mind of God, greater than Manasseh. Nature would often with us, as in Joseph here, resist so simple a conclusion. Manasseh before Ephraim is in truth the very principle of asceticism in all times. In the third place, we have the blessing of the tribes as a whole, in which, from their characters as already shown, or their names as indicating character, their future is predicted. Thus the government of God shows itself throughout it. In the enumeration, we have, first, the sons of Leah, then those of the bond-maids intermingled with one another, and then Rachel’s children. These are plainly three divisions. Of Leah’s, the first-born is Reuben; but just as the might of nature which is fallen, he is necessarily deposed from his primacy: we have seen Joseph getting what Reuben loses here; the two are opposites. Reuben represents, not the flesh, -for God does not bless the flesh; but the dignity of nature, -of man as natural, now indeed fallen, but not necessarily fallen. And man’s nobility lies essentially in that intelligent will, which alone is “will,” and without which he would be the mere machine worked by other hands, or the boat adrift without oar or rudder. Reuben -“see a son” -is thus man in that which makes him the “offspring of God,” His image, -not merely a cause, but a causer. Sin has come in, alas! and his will has become self-will -an independent energy with “vanity” stamped on it; a “bubbling over,” as the word “unstable,” said here of Reuben, really means, which scruples not to shame and defile the man himself, the source of it. Thus the will in man has lost its dignity, and become his degradation; and that which is his glory as man lowers him beneath the beast. For indeed his pre-eminence is necessarily connected with this power for self-debasement, which the beast has not. But one may ask, Where is the blessing of Reuben in all this? for it is said of all, “Every one he blessed according to his own blessing,” -that is, according to what would be blessing in each case. For Reuben, it must be found, then, in this very deprivation of his. When the will accepts its humiliation, -when we say, but from a different cause from that which made the Lord say it, “Not my will, but Thine”! then is it blessed, and its glory returns to it. Dispensationally for Israel, Reuben represents the time of its energetic youth, when upon the ground of the first covenant, -that is, of its own responsibility, when its corruption deposed it from the primacy among the nations with which God had endowed it, and the birthright passed to Him who alone is able to support it; here the blessing could only be attained in their humiliation. Violence necessarily follows corruption, as Simeon and Levi follow Reuben. They are united together, as brethren well agreed in character, and actually united upon that terrible occasion of which Jacob here so energetically speaks. Notice how the thought of agreement -confederacy -runs through what is said, and how the doom upon them, which, as in Reuben’s case, works for blessing, is to be disunited, “divided,” “scattered.” To be brought into loneliness, individuality, weakness, would be the reproof and the remedy for that “strength” which comes of “union,” and which so constantly manifests itself in deeds of violence. Conscience is individual, and brings in God. The weakness of individuality makes Him our necessary resource. But thus all the highest character of manhood is developed by it.

Confederacy annuls the individual conscience, begins in craft, and develops into tyranny as power is acquired. The doom is here the remedy, and is to bring Simeon and Levi back to the true meaning of their names: Simeon -“hearing,” to find the answer which God gives to human prayer; and Levi -“joined,” to own the ties only which have divine origin and sanction. Here, then, relationship to others is the question, as in Reuben, what man is in himself. In the divine life both must be met; and one’s associations come only next in importance to the fundamental one, Who is my Master? Indeed, the first question truly answered answers all; but because we answer it so little truly, God would search us out with one upon another, till He has shown us all. Dispensationally, we find here, as it would seem, the history of Israel during the times of the Judges, and until David. Coalitions and divisions, strife and violence, fill up this period: there is no king, and no real turning to God. The blessing of Judah comes in the third place. “Judah,” as we know, means “praise,” Leah saying, when she bore him, “Now will I praise the Lord.” It is striking to see in the history of the people of which these blessings give us the general outline, how, when Judah came to power with David, the worship of Jehovah revived. The ark in the days of Saul the Benjamite had never been inquired at. (1 Chronicles 13:3.) David brought it to Jerusalem with rejoicing, and Solomon built the house in which it was enshrined. When the great schism came, and the ten tribes went after the golden calves, Judah remained thus far faithful. David was himself Israel’s sweet psalmist, and has given to the saints of every generation since songs of praise that never grow old. Thus Judah’s name has vindicated its prophetic character, and the rise of the tribe to power is connected with a real revival of spiritual power, which in Israel ever was the basis of political revival. Judah, therefore, was not to lose the sceptre until Shiloh came (the “Man of peace”) -Christ springing out of Judah, and to Him would the obedience of the people be.

This carries us plainly through the whole of the Old-Testament history, and into the New, while then, (strange as it might seem,) Judah’s sceptre, it is implied, would pass away, just when the coming of Christ would seem to make it permanent. We know well the reason, and see once more how prophecy justifies itself. Messiah comes to His own, and is rejected and cut off. In its individual application, we find the spirit of praise as that of power -necessarily, because God is exalted in it. It is what the fiftieth psalm challenges on His part from His people: “Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High; . . . . whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me.” It is this that marks the life which comes from God, that it turns back to God again; and the joy of the Lord is ever its principle of strength. A simple lesson, but, oh, that it were learnt! The “wine” so abundant in the portion of Judah is the sign of a joy in which there can be no excess; and the “milk” may show that here there is not merely stimulus, but nourishment as well, and that in a form in which the merest babe may find it. In the fourth place, we come to Zebulon; and again his name is plainly referred to. It is a “dwelling with,” in intimacy, as Leah’s use of it shows; but Jacob here uses another word, which has, in this place, evidently a bad significance. Its primary meaning is, “to lay one’s self down,” and Zebulon does this at the haven of the sea -the haven for ships, and his border is toward Zidon. While the idea of prosperity, or at least the industrious seeking of it, is plain, yet for Israel, we must remember, this commerce with the idolatrous nations was not a good sign, nor in result good, and her border reaching out toward Zidon prophesies dangerous obliteration of what divided Israel from the nations. Coming in the place in which it does also, there is a clear intimation of how the people, having turned from their God-sent Deliverer, would turn to the world. What is the blessing here for Zebulon? and what is the principle which underlies it, similar to what we have found in the former blessings? Openly, God does not come in at all, either to bless or judge, except it be in this, that his portion comes to him from Him in that which it is evident he chooses. And is not this often for us judgment and blessing in one, when God apportions us the very thing we desire, that we may taste the bitterness of our own ways, and learn, in result, the happiness of His? It is not the best way of learning; but yet it is not seldom the only way in which we can learn, and God means at any rate to teach us. What these nations would be -have been -for Israel, we shall learn in Issachar. In Issachar, we find Israel content to be the drudge of the Gentiles; one who would not endure God’s yoke tamely accepting that of men. Here, too, the name is dwelt upon: “there is reward;” ease and gain are alone what is sought. How true to the character of unbelieving Israel! And these are the governmental ways of God, who, unknown by them, yet ordains their circumstances; and this is more plainly from Him, and for good, than in the case we were last considering. This ends the tale of Leah’s sons, who give us, as it appears to me, the history of Israel according to the flesh until the present time of God’s seeming forgetfulness is ended, the Church removed to heaven, and the “end of the (Jewish) age,” God’s determined time upon them, in which He brings them back to Himself, begins. The children of the bond-maids represent this, for it is in the time of their lowest degradation that He brings in salvation for them. In the first place here we have Dan; and Dan judges his people as one of the tribes of Israel. This is the prophecy of the restoration of the people to self-government, -Dan as well as the rest, though the least of them all. The rise from Issachar’s burdened condition is very evident. Yet it is just at this time that their worst trouble and their deepest fall are found.

Hence the mingled character of the abrupt address. For it is when the Jews, restored, though in unbelief, by Gentile aid, have once more become a nation, at least partially independent, that the last antichrist, claiming to be their Messiah will appear amongst them (long since, from this very prophecy, connected with the tribe of Dan). He will be the “lawless one” of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, and the willful king of Dan 11:1-45. He will be “a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that the rider falleth backward.” Here, satanic character is apparent, and the cry bursts from Jacob -prophetically, the cry of the remnant of grace in those darkest hours before the dawn, -“I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.” Thus cast upon Him, now the road is upward. 2. Or, “Gad, a troop shall rush upon him, but he shall rush upon the heel.” Conflict, with final victory, is depicted here: the assaulting foes are routed and pursued. 3. Quiet possession of the land, and abundance, follow with Asher, the “happy one.” And — 4. Naphtali is free as the hind, the female deer, no longer a warrior, with nothing to dread; and giving goodly words: for Israel’s tongue will at last be loosed also, and she shall give forth words of joy and praise and sweetness such as she has never done. Thus God has come in, and salvation is attained; but we have yet Rachel’s children, as a third series, and we are in no doubt as to the significance of these. Joseph, the One separated from His brethren, and Benjamin, the Son of the right hand: both these we know, -the Christ they knew not, now their joy and boast, and the Christ they clung to, but whose dependence upon the rejected One they knew not. Now they are together, the double witness of a double salvation.

1. Joseph whom they despised is, however, the main figure here, whose fruit, maintained for us by the living power of the Spirit, has run over the Jewish wall; and will run over, that the Gentiles also may rejoice in Him; galled, shot at, hated by the archers, yet His bow abides in strength, and the arms of His hands are made strong by the hands of Jacob’s Mighty One, the God of grace. Resurrection has confirmed in this way His power, and as the Risen One He becomes the Shepherd of Israel, the Stone made the head of the corner. Fullness of all blessings are on the head of Him who was separated from His brethren. What a testimony for the Jew today!
2. Benjamin ravens as a wolf, but the notice is slight as compared with that of Joseph. The Messiah believed in by Israel is but little indeed beside the greater and more glorious figure. Still, Christ will fulfill both types; and judgment also be His needed though “strange work.”