Genesis 49: 16-28
When Jacob was very elderly and he knew he was near death, he fulfilled his duty as the third patriarch to bless his sons by pronouncing God's prophecies over each of them by name.
Yesterday we noted the first six sons, today we will look at the the younger six.
(16) "Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. (17) Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward.
This probably refers to the idol, the golden calf, that King Jeroboam set up in Bethel and in Dan, and the main one was in Dan.
When Solomon, in his elder years, let his foreign wives lead his heart astray to worship with them in their pagan temples, God told him that He would take away the kingdom from him, but after his death, because of his father David (I Kings 11: 11-13). Then God sent the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, to tell him that he will be the king over ten of the tribes of Israel, and that He would "build you an enduring house as I built for David" if he would be true to the Lord like David did (I Kings 11: 38).
But he didn't put very much faith in the Lord, for when he received the Northern Kingdom, "Jeroboam said in his heart, 'Now the kingdom will return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.'"
This lost for Jeroboam a great dynasty like David's, and gave Dan a trap that would, through all the years of Israel's living in the land, catch the people, as being thrown backward off of a horse. Read about it in I Kings 12: 26-31.
(18) "For Your salvation I wait, O Lord.
And Israel prays for Dan here, to ultimately return to the Lord. But there never was a "good" king in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the kings all are accused of falling into the "sin of Jeroboam," and were eventually conquered and scattered into every other nation of the world. There is no Dan among the final twelve tribes of Israel in Revelation 7: 4-8.
(19) "As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels.
As I look at the maps of Gad in the Holman Bible Atlas, I am struck by several battle routes crossing over Gad's territory to and from the territories of other tribes and peoples around it, in the time of the Judges. During Gideon's battles with the Amalekites (Judges 6-8) and Jephthah's with the Ammonites (Judges 10:6-12:7), it looks to me like it was likely that these Ammonites and Amalekites may have started a few skirmishes with the Gadites as they traversed their land; if so, then the Gadites most likely defended their families, sending these warriors on their way. This may be what is referred to here.
(20) "As for Asher, his food shall be rich, and he will yield royal dainties.
This makes me wonder if the royal pastry chefs were Asherites!
(21) "Naphtali is a doe let loose, he gives beautiful words.
This is also very brief; it denotes a time of great prosperity and abundance.
(22) "Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; its branches run over a wall. (23) The archers bitterly attacked him, and shot at him and harassed him; (24) but his bow remained firm, and his arms were agile, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), (25) from the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. (26) The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; may they be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.
Jacob's blessing on Joseph is loaded with blessings, which continues the blessings he had given to his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who will become so numerous that the rest of Israel will bless one another by saying, "May the Lord make you be like Ephraim and Manasseh!"
(27) "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoil."
Benjamin, like Judah, is pictured in terms expressing a victorious conquest over the enemy. Both are like vicious predators, a lion and a wolf.
(28) All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed them, every one with the blessing appropriate to him.
Jacob knows his boys; like every good parent, he has watched them since their birth. Childhood personalities persist to adulthood, but characters develop at different rates. And Israel has given each of his sons the prophecy that applies to each one. As the Lord God led him.
O my Father, Just as Jacob knew his boys, and I know my own children, so You know each of us, even in more exquisite detail. I know that Jacob loved each one of his sons, and I love each of my children, even when they don't love me back. But Your Love for each of us is so much more than even a mother's love, so much deeper and richer and eternal!
O Father please send out all Your children to tell the world how much You love us, and want to bless all of us with the tremendous blessings Jacob blessed his sons with. Most of these blessings will probably come to reality in what is still future even today. Probably when Your Son returns to set up His Kingdom here for the thousand years! Oh won't that be magnificent! Let every living person know what is ahead of us on this Earth, so they can also participate as full citizens, as Your children.
For every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is our Sovereign King, the Lord God Almighty, our Redeemer and Messiah; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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