r.
Genesis
49:20 – Out of Asher his
bread [shall be] fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
§
Asher à happy
§
Jacob prophecies:
o
Bread shall be
fat à Plentiful food
·
Deuteronomy
33:24 - And of Asher he said,
[Let] Asher [be] blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren,
and let him dip his foot in oil.
i. Moses affirms this blessing and extends it to include
Ashers children being blessed
ii. Oil here refers to olive oil, not petroleum oil as
some have suggested
o
Yield royal
dainties
·
Will produce
foods fit for kings
·
Does not mention if
the kings are Israelite kings or other nations’ kings
s.
Genesis
49:21 – Naphtali [is] a hind
let loose: he giveth goodly words.
§
Naphtali à wrestling
§
Jacob prophecies:
o
Hind let loose
o
Giveth goodly
words
·
Mathew
4:12-15 - Now when Jesus had
heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving
Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the
borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, [by] the way of the sea, beyond
Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great
light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung
up. From that time Jesus began to
preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
t.
Genesis
49:22 – Joseph [is] a
fruitful bough, [even] a fruitful bough by a well; [whose] branches run over
the wall:
§
Jacob closes with
the blessing of his favored 2 sons, Joseph and Benjamin, from his beloved wife
Rachel.
§
There is more
written of Joseph than any of the other sons of Jacob
§
Deuteronomy
33:13-17 - And of Joseph he
said, Blessed of the LORD [be] his land, for the precious things of heaven, for
the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, And for the precious fruits
[brought forth] by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,
And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things
of the lasting hills, And for the precious things of the earth and fulness
thereof, and [for] the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let [the
blessing] come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him
[that was] separated from his brethren. His glory [is like] the firstling of
his bullock, and his horns [are like] the horns of unicorns: with them he shall
push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they [are] the ten thousands of Ephraim, and
they [are] the thousands of Manasseh.
§
Ephraim - אפרים 'Ephrayim,
"double ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful"
§
Such a
healthy, thriving, fullgrown, well-supported, fruit-bearing vine well portrays
the fruitful sturdy tribe of Joseph or Ephraim and Manasseh. Perhaps a play on
words is here intended. For the root parah appears in Ephraim —the fruitful one. Leupold
u. Genesis 49:23 – The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at
him], and hated him:
§
Joseph endured
many “arrows” from his brothers to Potiphar’s wife they attacked him because of
his righteousness.
v.
Genesis
49:24 – But his bow abode in
strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty
[God] of Jacob; (from thence [is] the shepherd, the stone of Israel
§
Joseph was armed
with more than mere arrows, he was armed with the strength of his faith and his
integrity, uprightness, faithfulness to God and most obvious his wisdom.
o
Ecclesiastes
9:18 - Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war: but one
sinner destroyeth much good.
§
The brunt
of hostile opposition to Israel Judah
w.
Genesis
49:25 – [Even] by the God of
thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with
blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of
the breasts, and of the womb:
§
God the Father will
help thee
§
Blessings from
heaven above
o
Rain
o
Sun
o
Wind
§
Blessings of the
deep
o
תהום tĕhowm - deep, depths, deep places,
abyss, the deep, sea, of subterranean waters
§
Blessings of the
breasts and of the womb
o
Abundance of family offspring
o
Abundance in
livestock offspring
x.
Genesis
49:26 – The blessings of thy
father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost
bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the
crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
§
Jacob
acknowledges in humility that God has blessed him even more than He had blessed
Abraham and Isaac
o
Progenitors - הרה harah,
to conceive, become pregnant, bear, be with child, be conceived, progenitor
NOT mountains
§
Isaac had but one
blessing to give Jacob thus leaving Esau with a blessing considered inadequate
for the firstborn, Jacob; however, had blessings for each of his son (though
Judah and Joseph seemed to gain the lion’s share)
§
Jacob heaps
blessing upon blessing on Joseph, if any of the sons deserved such honor,
surely it was Joseph.
§
“Him that was
separate” - נזיר naziyr, consecrated or devoted one, root of
Nazarite
o
The one standing
apart
o
The choice
o
The prince
§
The blessings and
prosperity of the birthright remained with the tribes of Joseph, what nation(s)
can clearly be seen as representatives of those tribes today?
o
What nations are
the most prosperous over the past few hundred years?
y.
Genesis
49:27 – Benjamin shall ravin
[as] a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall
divide the spoil.
§
Benjamin à Son of my right hand
§
Jacob prophecies:
o Ravin as a wolf
·
No criticism
involved in the use of this comparison; it is complimentary
·
Benjamin was
favored by Jacob yet this blessing does not appear to share a father’s
tenderness for a favored son. We can
conclude that these blessings did not originate with Jacob, but were of the Spirit speaking through Jacob to the
twelve tribes of Israel
o
In the morning
shall devour prey
o
Night divide the
spoil
·
Ehud (Judges 3:15 )
·
Saul (1 Samuel
9:1)
·
Jonathan (1
Samuel 13:3)
·
Esther and
Mordecai (Esther 2:5-7)
·
Paul (Romans 11:1)
z.
Genesis
49:28 – All these [are] the twelve
tribes of Israel
§
Before receiving
blessing à sons of Jacob
§
After receiving
blessings à tribes of Israel
§
Though Reuben,
Levi & Simeon seemed to get more correction than blessing they are
considered blessed with the other brothers here.
§
Whether we are
rebuked or blessed by God’s Word as long as we remain His, we should count it
all as blessing.
II.
Jacob Repeats Instructions for His Burial and His
Death
a.
Genesis
49:29 – 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,
§
Though death
separates us from those we love in this world, we are reunited with those who
have passed on before us
§
Jacob is not
necessarily concerned with the physical aspects of being buried next to his
fathers and their wives as much as it is the promise of God, that Canaan should
be a possession to his children so he wishes to be buried in the “promised
land”.
b.
Genesis
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 of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a
burying place.
c. Genesis 49:31 – There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there
they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
§
Note 1:The five individuals listed below were
buried in this cave, followed by Israel
§
Note2: Hebrew is read from right to left
§
ישראל Yisra'el
ישראל
שרה Sarah – Sarah
רבקה Ribqah - Rebekah
אברהם 'Abraham – Abraham
לאה Le'ah – Leah
d.
Genesis
49:32 – The purchase of the
field and of the cave that [is] therein [was] from the children of Heth.
§
Even so near
death Jacob is very cognizant of the intricate details of the location and the
details of the purchase by Abraham.
e. Genesis 49:33 – And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,
he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was
gathered unto his people.
§
Jacob completed
both the blessing and the charge to his sons and willingly yielded his spirit
back to the Father
§
“Gathered unto
his people” - Apparently, the
expression is then equivalent to the one used Ge 15:15 , "to go to one’s fathers." Those
who have gone on before in death are regarded as a people still existing. This
is a clear testimony to the belief in a life after death on the part of the
earliest patriarch. Though no specific revelation on the subject seems to have
been given to these patriarchs, faith in the Almighty God drew its own proper
conclusions as to whether God would ultimately let his children perish, and its
conclusion was correct: He cannot. This passage confirms that conclusion. If
Scripture is to be explained by Scripture, then Heb 11:13-16 offers the fullest
confirmation of our interpretation. Therefore the prevalent expositions which
aim to deny the possibility of faith in a life after death on the part of the
patriarchs will all have to be discarded. Leupold
