Jacob Blesses His Twelve Sons

JACOB BLESSES HIS TWELVE SONS

An Exposition of Genesis 49:1-28

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: September 8, 2024

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

OPENING COMMENTS

I invite you to turn to Genesis 49. We're kind of in the home stretch here with the Book of Genesis. The passage that I shared earlier (in the worship service) is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verses 20-49. It is sometimes referred to as the Sermon on the Plain, similar to the Sermon on the Mount, but distinct in itself. And so you've heard one perfect sermon today. It's the only perfect sermon you're going to hear today. But I do hope that the Lord takes my unpolished thoughts on Genesis, chapter 49, verses 1-28 to bring some benefit and encouragement to you.

I'd like to go ahead and read that passage, Genesis 49, verses 1-28. Jacob is on his deathbed, gathering his twelve sons to his side and speaking very important words to them. So let's read.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

¹ Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

² “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
    listen to Israel your father.

³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
    preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
⁴ Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
    because you went up to your father's bed;
    then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!

⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
    weapons of violence are their swords.
⁶ Let my soul come not into their council;
    O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
    and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
    and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
    and scatter them in Israel.

⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father's sons shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion's cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
¹¹ Binding his foal to the vine
    and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
    and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³ “Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;
    he shall become a haven for ships,
    and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴ “Issachar is a strong donkey,
    crouching between the sheepfolds.
¹⁵ He saw that a resting place was good,
    and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
    and became a servant at forced labor.

¹⁶ “Dan shall judge his people
    as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
    a viper by the path,
that bites the horse's heels
    so that his rider falls backward.
¹⁸ I wait for your salvation, O LORD.

¹⁹ “Raiders shall raid Gad,
    but he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰ “Asher's food shall be rich,
    and he shall yield royal delicacies.

²¹ “Naphtali is a doe let loose
    that bears beautiful fawns.

²² “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
    a fruitful bough by a spring;
    his branches run over the wall.
²³ The archers bitterly attacked him,
    shot at him, and harassed him severely,
²⁴ yet his bow remained unmoved;
    his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
    (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
²⁵ by the God of your father who will help you,
    by the Almighty who will bless you
    with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
    blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father
    are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
    up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.
May they be on the head of Joseph,
    and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
    in the morning devouring the prey
    and at evening dividing the spoil.”

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. (Genesis 49:1-28)

This is the word of the Lord, and it is for our good. Let's pray:

Father, we do thank you for your reliable and trustworthy words which give us a firm foundation upon which to build. I pray that the Holy Spirit would take these words, impress them upon our hearts, change our outlook, change our perspective, fill us with hope and strength. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

INTRODUCTION

So over the past few weeks my family had the opportunity to visit the coast a few times in a few different places. And one of the places that we went was Odiorne Point State park in New Hampshire. And as we were walking around that state park and walking along one of the trails, we found a monument that had been, I think, placed there at the end of the 19th century. But the words on the monument called attention to what took place in the spring of 1623. Perhaps some of you have seen this monument, but what it says is this:

“Here landed in the spring of 1623, the first band of Englishmen, pioneers in the planting of New Hampshire, consecrating this soil to the service of God and liberty.”

And I was thinking, in relationship to this sermon today, I was thinking, what would it be like to kind of be on the front end of a people group or a settlement? And you're relatively small in number at that beginning point, even as Jacob was relatively small in number at this point, having 12 sons, and of course, by now many children and grandchildren, but still a relatively small clan, as it were. But what would it be like to get a peek into the future and to see what would become of this, what would become of this settlement, what would become of this nation?

And Jacob has that opportunity, and his sons have that opportunity, and now we have that opportunity as we look at the text this morning and learn what was going to become of this nation from the vantage point of Genesis 49.

If you remember from Genesis, chapter 48, Jacob was near the end of his life, and he had spent a little bit of time with Joseph and with Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and he had blessed Ephraim and Manasseh. And that took us through the end of chapter 48. And now as we turn to the beginning of chapter 49, Jacob wants to gather all 12 of his sons around him in order to speak words of blessing to them before he is gathered with his people, before he goes the way of all the earth. And he's going to, die at the end of chapter 49.

But here he invites his sons to gather around, to assemble, to listen to the words that he's going to share with them. Notice the order in which he blesses these 12 sons. He doesn't speak to them in their birth order, although it's close, but it's not exactly in their birth order. He. He first speaks to the six sons of Leah, in verses 3-15. And then he speaks to the four sons of his two concubines in verses 16-21. First he speaks to Bilhah's son Dan, and then to Zilpah's two sons, Gad and Asher, and then to Bilhah's other son, Naphtali. And then finally he speaks to the two sons of Rachel at the end of the section.

By the way, this sermon is kind of a bird's eye view of the passage this morning. There's a lot of detail that you could actually go into. And you could also trace out how all of this stuff gets worked out through the Old Testament and even into the New Testament. I read some of a book called Jacob's Dozen by William Varner. And if you wanted to dig a little deeper, I would recommend that book to you. It's published by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. In this book Jacob's Dozen, William Varner really goes into the history of these tribes, beginning with Jacob's blessings over his sons in Genesis, chapter 49.

Be a good steward of your own blessing

Now I want you to notice in verse 28 that it says that each son received a “blessing suitable to him”. And so I want you to notice that there is a blessing suitable to each person or to each group or to each tribe. Remember, these sons don't just represent themselves or their own immediate family, but each son represents a tribe that was stemming from that son. Those 12 tribes were the building blocks of the nation of Israel. But each son, each tribe had a blessing that was suitable to itself. And you just think about the significance of individuality or the uniqueness that exists among groups of human beings, whether by personality or temperament or history and background or gifts and skills, or where you're located or what opportunities are presented to you. Now all of that is ultimately under God's sovereign will, right? He's ultimately the One who is preparing these people and these tribes to do just what he intends for them to do. But nevertheless, it's important to see it's not just a blanket, one size fits all blessing. And if a blessing is given suitable to each one, then each one, each man, each tribe has a responsibility to receive the particular word given to it, the particular prophetic insight, the particular gifting and calling that is specific to it, and to be a good steward of it. We're not to envy someone else's blessings. We're rather to take seriously the one that is given to us, to humbly receive it and learn to be a good steward of it. So that's the first point I wanted to make.

Disobedience leads to the loss of blessing

Here's the second point I want to make. And this is really found at the beginning of the passage which just jumps off the pages as a warning to us, okay? And here's the warning:serious disobedience leads to the loss of glory or the loss of blessing. Blessings can be squandered. Blessings can be compromised or forfeited. And it's really strange, you know, where verse 28 tells us that Jacob blessed all of his sons. And yet, and yet the first three, Reuben, Simeon and Levi, receive a very sobering word. Their blessing is demotion. There's a lesson in that for us. Blessings can be squandered.

OVERVIEW OF THE BLESSINGS

Reuben (v. 3-4)

Let's look at Reuben there in verses 3-4. Reuben was the actual firstborn, Jacob's firstborn. And these words are used: “Reuben you are my firstborn, my might, the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.” By natural right as the firstborn, Reuben was set up well to have both the double portion of blessing and also the position of leadership in the family. Those blessings – the double portion of blessing and the position of leadership – might have been his, but he forfeited both of those blessings due to his own disobedience, which Jacob refers to in terms of Reuben being as “[unstable] as water”. And instead of remaining within the proper bounds – the proper boundaries and moral boundaries that were set before him – Reuben engaged in sexual immorality, committing adultery with one of Jacob's concubines. And as a result, as a result of that moral defilement, Reuben was demoted. And those two blessings that might have been his were transferred, one to Judah and the other to Joseph.

Simeon and Levi (v. 5-7)

Simeon and Levi are also demoted. Perhaps the secondborn and thirdborn, perhaps either one might have been in position to have Reuben's blessings transferred to them, but it was not to be. Simeon and Levi are referred to here as brothers. Some of the commentaries I read very helpfully point out that more must be in view here than the mere fact that they're brothers, because all twelve of these sons are brothers – so the likely idea is that they were like really strong, knit together brothers, partners in a particular task that got them in a whole lot of trouble.

You may remember the passage from Genesis, chapter 34, where Shechem sinned against Simeon and Levi's sister Dinah. And instead of having a measured and just response to that sin, Simeon and Levi had uncontrolled rage and anger. And through deceit, they massacred the Shechemites and killed all the males of that town. And as a result, instead of having a position of privilege and strength, they too were demoted. It says at the end of verse seven: “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.”

Simeon didn't receive its own allotment of land, but instead it received cities within the tribe of Judah. And eventually Simeon faded into obscurity. Reuben also faded more or less into obscurity.

And if you're familiar with the Levites, they didn't receive an allotment of land either, but they were scattered in many different Levitical cities throughout the land of Israel. And I think it's very strange that in this prophetic blessing passage (remember v. 28) we see the word cursed, right? It kind of jumps out at you like, whoa, these are blessings. But Jacob says of Simeon and Levi, “Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel!”

Learning from Reuben, Simeon, and Levi

And I just want us to take to heart that the blessings that might be yours, the privileges and opportunities and influences and impact that might be yours, could be squandered through sexual immorality (as in the case of Reuben) or through violent rage (as in the case of Simeon and Levi).

How many men, how many families, how many churches, how many nations have squandered the blessings and privileges that might have been theirs through such sins as those? We're called to be pure in heart. We're called to be merciful. We're called to be peacemakers. We're called to seek first the kingdom of God. And Jacob's attitude – which we all should adopt as our own – Jacob gives his own attitude in verse 6. It reminds me of Proverbs 1 when the young man is warned not to throw in his lot with the wicked and the violent, right? And Jacob says in verse 6, “Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company.” Jacob knows he must be separate, holy and pure in his devotion, and not be dragged down.

So that's the warning.

Each tribe has an important contribution to make (v. 8-27)

Now moving on to the rest of the passage, I want you to consider this general point: everyone, every man, really every individual, but this is also talking about every tribe, every group, has an important contribution to make. And that comes out really clearly here. And once again, we should humbly accept our role, humbly accept the roles that God assigns to others and seek to be good stewards of whatever God entrusts to us, to our family, to our congregation. So under this general point that each one has an important contribution to make, I have several sub-points that I want to call your attention to.

First of all, grace. I want you to see grace in this passage. It actually begins by fast forwarding the story of Levi. Levi is demoted, but later, by God's grace, he will be reinstated and given the tremendous privilege of carrying the responsibility of the priesthood, the temple service, the stewardship of the law, and that cursing of being scattered will actually be turned into a blessing where the Levitical priests have a presence all throughout the land of Israel to teach the people.

Likewise with Judah. Remember, it's not like I would say about Reuben, that his own moral defilement resulted in the loss of blessing. But the opposite is not true: it’s not the case that Judah's moral excellence won him the blessing. No, no, no, no, no, no. Judah, you know his story. He was a rascal himself. He was involved in selling Joseph into slavery and he himself committed sexual immorality. He himself displayed unbelief and impatience. He didn't have the moral high ground. But God by sovereign grace decided that he would bestow a tremendous privilege upon Judah, upon the tribe of Judah. And we'll return to that. But I just want you to see right off the bat, with fast forwarding Levi's story and also this tremendous privilege that is given to Judah, we have a God of grace. The blessing that has been squandered might be restored. Just ask the prodigal son, who was reinstated by his father.

Okay, so let's think about the contributions that these tribes would make. Levi had the priesthood. Judah (v. 8-12) had the kingship. Zebulun (v. 13) would have a role in trade and commerce. Issachar (v. 14-15) would make a contribution in the area of service, bearing burdens, backbreaking labor, helping people. Dan (v. 16-17) would function both as a judge and as a shrewd warrior. Gad (v. 19) would also be warriors. Asher (v. 20) would have a role in agriculture, the food industry, and fine dining. We want Asher to do the Last Saturday Supper!

“Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns.” (v. 21) This is interesting. There seems to be an idea of swiftness, like a doe, but also this phrase “that bears beautiful fawns” literally means “that gives beautiful or goodly words”. That's literally what it says in the Hebrew. So you get this idea of Naphtali being swift and being a communicator. And perhaps those ideas are even supposed to come together in terms of being a swift communicator, a swift bearer of good news.

What is Joseph’s role? Joseph, there in verses 22 to 26, is just superabundantly blessed. That's his role: recipient of abundant blessings. And then finally, Benjamin (v. 27) is also a fierce warrior.

A couple of these points are debatable, but I'm inclined to think that given the overall tenor of Jacob's blessings here, that the reference to Dan as a serpent and the reference to Benjamin as a ravenous wolf should actually not be taken negatively in this context, but they should be understood as them being warriors.

The importance of warriors

And I want you to notice that of all the different giftings and responsibilities that are envisioned here, think about how prominent the role of the warrior is. I mean, even Judah the king, there is a warrior element to Judah, right? Jacob says to Judah, “your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies” (v. 8). He is like a lion. And then, Dan, Gad, and Benjamin all have warrior qualities and warrior callings. And it just highlights the fact that, hey, we're in a battle. I mean, Israel in its own context had to deal with the physical reality of safety there in the Ancient Near East. And of course, if we transfer this concept over to the body of Christ, the Church of the living God in this present dark world, we have to be very actively engaged in spiritual warfare because there's battle on all sides and we need not a few warriors to rise up and bring strength to the people.

Having a calling doesn’t guarantee faithfulness

There are a couple of other things I want to say still under this general point about everyone has an important contribution to make. The fact that you have a specific calling, such as the callings that are envisioned here for the tribes of Israel, the fact that you have a particular calling doesn't guarantee faithfulness in that calling. You might be faithful or you might not. Judah was the tribe that gave us kings. And you know, some of the kings were faithful and some of the kings were not. Or just take Benjamin. Benjamin, a ravenous wolf, fierce warriors. Well, guess what, King Saul was a fierce warrior and he actually did win many battles for Israel, but then he turned really bad and even became the enemy of his own people. But his son Jonathan was an accomplished warrior, and his son Jonathan was faithful to the very end. Or how about the apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus from the tribe of Benjamin? He was a ravenous wolf, wasn't he? He ravaged the church, but then God saved him, and then he became a passionate proclaimer of the Gospel and a diligent builder of the church of the living God. So the calling itself doesn't guarantee faithfulness. We have to be good stewards and seek to humbly follow after the Lord with whatever calling he entrusts to us.

Each person must accept responsibility to stand firm in the Lord

And furthermore, the general characteristics of the group don't absolve us of personal responsibility. Whatever the group is doing, I must stand firm in the Lord and be faithful to him.

The firstborn’s blessings transferred to Judah and Joseph

Now, you'll notice quite obviously that two of the tribes are singled out for a lot of comment, right? Those two tribes are Judah and Joseph. And there is no surprise here, especially with Joseph, because we've been following the story of Joseph and seeing his faithfulness and fruitfulness as a man of God. And then with Judah, we’ve seen Judah emerge in recent chapters as a man who is finally taking responsibility and growing up and assuming the mantle of leadership in his family. And so, we're really not surprised that these two men are singled out. And like I said before, the two blessings – the double portion of blessing and the position of leadership – that might have gone to Reuben, those two blessings are transferred. The position of leadership goes to Judah and the double portion of blessing goes to Joseph.

By the way, when Joel was preaching, which I listened to on the podcast the day after he preached, it is interesting to think about the tribal identify of the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua. Caleb was from the tribe of Judah. Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim, which of course is part of the tribe of Joseph. That stood out to me like, oh, yeah, wow, right there, two faithful men. Everyone else was unfaithful. Two faithful men from those two tribes.

Judah (v. 8-12)

But Judah, there in verses 8 to 12, is now the steward of the Messianic promise – that Messianic promise, the promised seed that would come from out of humanity in order to crush the head of the serpent. We encountered that promise in Genesis, chapter three, verse 15. And now we've been tracing the promise of that seed all the way through the book of Genesis: Noah, Shem, and Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob. And while we might have thought that it was gonna go to Joseph, no, the steward and promise of the Messiah is given to the tribe of Judah.

You can see there that Judah will be praised by his brothers and that his father's son will bow down before him (v. 8). Very interesting, because, you know, back In Genesis, chapter 37, it was Joseph – Joseph was the one who was raised up, and his brothers ended up bowing down to him. But that was just a temporary blip on the radar screen. God's plan was for Judah to possess the position of leadership and to possess the kingship. And he would. Judah would also win a great victory over his enemies (v. 8). Really over God's enemies also. You can see, there in verse 9, he's like a Lion. In verse 10, again, he has the position of authority. And remember the promise. Remember the promise to Abraham that through Abraham, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed. And here you see that the obedience of the peoples – not just Israelites, but of the peoples of the world, all the families of the earth – the obedience is going to belong to the tribe of Judah, to the king that comes from out of Judah (v. 10).

And really, you have a choice, don't you? You're either going to be one of those people who renders praise and homage and obedience to the Messianic King, or you're going to be one who stands as an enemy and is destroyed.

In verses 11 and 12 – I'm not sure how much is in Jacob's mind in verses 11 and 12 – but if you know how the storyline of Scripture unfolds, there is probably some foreshadowing there. You have, you know, a foal, a donkey's colt, a choice vine, garments washed in wine and the blood of grapes. And that imagery is picked up on later, later in Scripture. But I wonder here if perhaps it's just a way of saying, hey, the king is going to be a king of peace, a king of abundance, a king of joy, and a king of beauty.

Joseph (v. 22-26)

And then going over to Joseph in verses 22-26, Joseph actually receives the longest blessing. He just barely gets more space than Judah in terms of the word count. But Joseph is just overflowing with blessing (v. 22). And notice very importantly that it was in and through the context of suffering that this blessing really emerged (v. 23).

And so let me just pause for a moment and just say that everyone should take heart that going through suffering, opposition, affliction, persecution is not inconsistent with being a recipient of divine blessing. In fact, that's the pattern that you see throughout Scripture, that we're called into faith, into fellowship with Christ, we're called into fellowship with him in his sufferings. And we live out our Christian life in this present evil afflicted world. And yet in the midst of that we can experience the blessing of God.

Joseph's suffering is referenced there in verse 23: “The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely”. That's a way of referring back to his sufferings. He was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery and stripped of his dignity. And he became a slave down in Egypt. Eventually he was falsely accused and thrown into prison and had to wait patiently for the Lord.

But the Lord lifted him up. The hand of the Lord held the hand of Joseph (v. 24). God upheld Joseph and made him shine brightly for him down there in Egypt.

And so you see there, by the way, Jacob's blessing upon Joseph is clearly the most explicitly God centered blessing in the entire passage. There are actually only a few references to God in the entire chapter. One of them I skipped over when Jacob just cries out after blessing Dan: “I wait for your salvation, O LORD” (v. 18). But other than that, there's not much until you get to Joseph. And then Jacob just piles up the references to God Almighty, the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd (v. 24, 25). Remember in a previous chapter, Jacob referred to God as the One who had shepherded him all his life long (Genesis 48:15). God is the Shepherd. He is the stone or the rock of Israel (v. 24), the God of your father (v. 25) El or Elohim the Almighty – El Shaddai (v. 25). And so Jacob puts God front and center in terms of all of these blessings that are being poured out on Joseph, as if to say, Joseph didn't secure these blessings because of his own brilliance or because of his own might or because of his own power. It doesn't work that way. If you're fighting to secure and keep and hold onto blessing, you're going down the wrong path. The path of blessing is to be a recipient of God Almighty, the source of all goodness, truth and beauty, bestowing his undeserved favor upon us.

And so, the blessings of heaven, the blessings of the earth, the blessings associated with fertility and fruitfulness, the blessings that once descended upon Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all of these blessings are going to be upon the head of Joseph, and he's going to be great (v. 25-26).

And of course, Joseph received the double blessing, right? Both Ephraim and Manasseh were treated as the sons of Jacob – we saw that in chapter 48. And Ephraim would be a very prominent tribe in the Northern Kingdom.

OUR BLESSINGS ARE FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS

One final thing I want to say, and that is that our blessings are not for ourselves only. And you can think about that individually, but you can also think about that in terms of a group. If Dan or Gad or Benjamin is doing battle on their own front, pushing back the enemy, guess what? That keeps the whole nation safe. If Asher is producing an abundance of agricultural products, that overflows to the good of the whole nation. And Joseph himself taught us rightly: blessings descended upon Joseph, but they didn't terminate on Joseph. Joseph became a source of blessing to Potiphar's house, Joseph became a source of blessing to Pharaoh's house, Joseph became a source of blessing to the people of Egypt and to his own family. We're not to hold selfishly onto the blessings that the Lord puts into our lap, but we're to have open hands and share generously with those around us.

And that's especially the case with Judah. The Messiah will come from Judah. He will be a great and mighty king who will actually know a form of suffering that goes way beyond what Joseph suffered or what Judah suffered. He would lay down his life for our iniquities. He would suffer on the cross for our transgressions, and then he would rise again in victory over sin and death and judgment and hell. But that blessing that the Messianic King secures, he doesn't secure that blessing for himself only, or for the tribe of Judah only, or for Israel only, but for all the peoples.

And so, even though we are far removed from this moment when Jacob spoke these blessings over his children some 3,800 years ago, we're included. If we're among the peoples who are rendering praise, homage and obedience to Jesus, then we are included in the blessing and in the victory that God gives.

Let’s pray: 

Father, I pray that you would take these unpolished thoughts. I pray that you would give us – give us a framework for understanding your holy gracious generous work in and through your people. Father, I pray that you would help us to guard our hearts. We want to take warning from Reuben, Simeon and Levi. We don't want to squander our blessings but we also want to learn from Levi and Judah that redemption is possible. Transformation is possible. You are merciful and gracious to sinners like us and I pray that you would transform us by the power of your grace. We entrust all these things to you in Jesus’ name, amen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

William C. Varner, Jacob’s Dozen: A Prophetic Look at the Tribes of Israel. Bellmawr, NJ: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc., 1987.