Year One, March 2

I Wait for Your Salvation, O LORD1

We will now read the rest of the blessings given by Jacob to his sons.

  

Genesis 49:16-33

16 “Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.”

Dan means judge. Dan was the first child born to Jacob by a concubine (a woman with lower status than his wives Leah and Rachel). This blessing indicated that all of these sons who might be considered to be of a lower rank would also be self-governing.

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.”

Jacob pauses in verse eighteen. His words express his inability to save himself or his family. He is not annoyed by this or complaining about it. He is expressing a hope that grew out of the Lord’s faithfulness to him over many years. He was old and knew he was about to die. He was confident that he would soon enjoy the fullness of salvation in the very presence of the Lord.

19 “Raiders shall raid Gad,

but he shall raid at their heels.”

This is often proven in the believer’s life. Many trials push them down, but they rise again.

20 “Asher’s food shall be rich,

and he shall yield royal delicacies.

21 “Naphtali is a doe let loose

he gives beautiful words.”2

A lively spirit and the ability to speak and be easily understood; this is a good combination for a minister of the gospel.

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.

Jacob’s heart swelled when he got to Joseph. Evidently, he thought he could not pour out a blessing that was generous enough. Jesus is the greater Joseph. When we truly turn our thoughts to Jesus, no words can lift him up enough. Watts has said it nicely:

“Blessings more than we can give,

    Be, Lord, for ever thine.”3

27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,

in the morning devouring the prey

and at evening dividing the spoil.”

Benjamin would become a quarrelsome tribe. Even though Benjamin was greatly loved by his father, he did not dare use that as a reason to invent a blessing for him. He speaks only the words the Lord gave him—nothing less, nothing more. To be fighting from morning to night is a shameful business, unless it is against sin.

28All 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. 29Then he commanded 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, 30in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah-- 32the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Jacob was not left among the Egyptians even after death, but slept in the family tomb of his fathers, to awake with them at the resurrection. In all things he kept going as one who was on a journey with God to a city that would only be reached at death.

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¹ Genesis 49:18

² This is the ESV alternate reading. The text reads, “that bears beautiful fawns.”

³ Composer Isaac Watts (1674-1748)