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GENESIS 49 TO 50

In this remarkable prophetic utterance we get a comprehensive view of what has come out, and what will yet come out, in the history of the sons of Jacob. And their history is really that of man, whether looked at as he is naturally, or as regards the different features that come out in him after the intervention of God in Christ. For we get that intervention prophetically in this chapter, particularly in connection with Judah and Joseph, and in Benjamin we see a type of the power in which Christ will finally deal with all His enemies. Moses’s blessing in Deuteronomy 32 is more on the line of purpose; but here it is lessons learned experimentally in the history of the people. It is more on the moral line in connection with God’s ways.

It might be helpful at the outset to see that the chapter is divided into four parts, and that there are three tribes in each part. In Reuben, Simeon and Levi we get the natural condition of man; it came out in the sons of Jacob, but it is really the natural condition of man. In Zebulun, Issachar and Dan we see the influences that lead to departure even after God has brought in blessing. Then in Gad, Asher and Naphtali we see the power and effect of God’s salvation as waited for and known by faith when man’s state is truly discerned, and also when it is seen how man falls under perverting influences even after Christ is brought in. The remaining three tribes — that is, Judah, Joseph, and Benjamin — speak of Christ in different ways. The chapter is thus divided very distinctly into four parts, and it contains a great deal of important instruction.

^[p. 247] We get first the natural state of man; corruption in Reuben, and violence in Simeon and Levi. ‘Unstable’ is really ‘impetuous’; man is carried away by the power of his desires and lusts; he is unrestrained by the will of God. And when anything crosses his will or pride he becomes violent. In the case of Simeon and Levi there was ground for indignation; but they acted in the pride and violence of nature, and not at all in God’s fear. Such a course brings judgment on nations as well as individuals, as we may see in Amos 1 and 2. This utterance is called a ‘blessing’ in chapter 49: 28, and to have man’s true state exposed, and the influences which divert him from God, is in the nature of blessing, because it prepares the way for blessing. Repentance is a blessing, though it may be said to be a negative one. The fact is that divine light was shed by Jacob’s utterances on their whole history if they would only have taken heed to it.

Judah comes in as God’s intervention in victorious power on man’s behalf. He is introduced as the subject of praise; a marked contrast to the three previous tribes; they had to be denounced, but Judah comes in as the subject of praise. What marks him is victorious power over all His enemies, and the place of praise and pre-eminence with his brethren. We cannot but see in this the One who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah — victorious, spoiling principalities and authorities, and found in unchallenged supremacy. David is the type of Christ in this character, securing praise and pre-eminence by His victories; having slain His ten thousands. Every power that would have challenged God’s right to bless His people has been met by the true David and overthrown. Now His hand ^[p. 248] is on the neck of His enemies, and kingly power is vested in Him that can bring in the fulness of millennial blessing. Every power adverse to man’s blessing has been dealt with by the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Now the sceptre is in His hand; He is made Lord and Christ; He is crowned with glory and honour. Shiloh is the Prince of peace — the true Solomon — and He becomes the gathering centre of obedient peoples.

The law-giver is brought in because it is most important to come under obedience. Speaking of Shiloh the New Translation reads, “To him will be the obedience of peoples”. Every one must own His authority; we see lordship in Judah founded on the fact that He has obtained complete victory. God has intervened in power so that blessing may be available for men. The Lord gets His place with us when we see how wonderfully and mightily He has acted on our behalf.

Verses 11 and 12 look on to the introduction of millennial blessing. There will be abundance of wine then; it is a contrast to John 2, where the wine was deficient. Here there is no deficiency; there is great abundance; it suggests fulness of divine joy. Judah is Christ in victory, and in kingly power to dispense blessing and to bring in fulness of joy. Though the millennium has not yet come, fulness of blessing and joy is available. In the Psalms that anticipate the millennium there are many expressions of joy and praise. But the joy of the kingdom is open to us now in a spiritual way; fulness of joy has been brought in. John says, “These things write we to you that your joy may be full”. The thought of this raises an exercise as to why all the people of God are ^[p. 249] not in it. If God has intervened in such a marvellous way by the true Judah for the blessing of men, and for the introduction of divine joy, why are not all those who own Judah in it? The next three tribes supply the answer. It is because we let what is of the world come in.

Zebulun gets into touch with the world in connection with commerce, for Sidon is a figure of the world of commerce. Most of us have to do with commerce in some way, but let us beware lest our hearts become a haven for ships. Getting unduly occupied with matters connected with business and money-making has often proved to be a step towards spiritual decline; it has often resulted in saints getting into moral contact with the world. I suppose many are thus hindered; what people call ‘getting on’ very often really means ‘going back’. One has heard of people giving up spiritual privileges for the sake of a little money. It is a serious exercise for every one of us. Are we just here to be in the path of God’s will, or are we seeking some advantage of a worldly nature for ourselves? Is there a touching Sidon somewhere?

The question is, what is the heart set for? The true exercise of every saint is to be here for the will of God; not to do well, as men speak, in this world. If one is here for the will of God one would allow one’s path to be shaped by that will. It is said of David that “he ministered to the will of God in his generation”. That is the true business and dignity of a saint. If it is the will of God that one should increase in this world’s goods it is all right; God is pleased to so order it that some of His saints should have the means to minister to their needy brethren. The ^[p. 250] question is, Do we harbour the world in our hearts because of the gain we can get out of it? If a saint gets on to that line he is practically on the same line as the world, so his border goes down to Sidon very quickly. But when God’s salvation comes in it sets His people free from all that.

Then the next downward step is seen in Issachar. “Issachar is a bony ass, crouching down between two hurdles. And he saw the rest that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and was a tributary servant”. Issachar is an ass in a very different position from the ass in verse 11. Instead of being in blessing and joy and well nourished, he is bony and in bondage. And what has brought him into that condition? The desire to have an easy time, and to get along comfortably with the world. But in order to do so he has to sacrifice his liberty as a servant of God, and he comes into bondage to the world. If you try to please God and man you only get into bondage; you will find yourself between two hurdles. You cannot secure selfish ease and retain spiritual liberty; many a believer is penned in by the desire to get on comfortably with people, and falls under complete bondage as a servant; he is afraid to speak to people about Christ. “If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ”, says Paul.

When God’s salvation comes in for us we have liberty. “Naphtali is a hind let loose”. If you find yourself in bondage, and get to God about it, you will break through in the power of His salvation and be free. I suppose we all know how easy it is to fall under bondage; but we ought to seek to keep ourselves free to speak of Christ. The longer we go on ^[p. 251] with people on their line the more difficult it is to open our mouths for Christ.

One downward step leads to another. There is first in Zebulun the desire for worldly gain; then, in Issachar, the desire to have a restful and comfortable time here; and then Dan becomes a serpent on the way. That he “will judge his people” is, I suppose, the place he ought to have; and he will eventually get a place in the land. He is the first to get his allotted portion in Ezekiel 48, but that is after Jehovah’s salvation has come in for him. Before that he has a sad history; Dan was the first tribe to definitely set up idolatry. They stole Micah’s graven image, and all the paraphernalia connected with idolatry, and took Moses’s grandson and made him their priest. They took, as a tribe, the lead in apostasy. The course of decline, if pursued, leads to one becoming adverse to what is of God. It leads in the direction of apostasy. It is very solemn to start on a line of departure, for we do not know where we may get to. Many who were once breaking bread are now in the world, and seem to have thrown off every divine restraint, and one trembles to think what the end may be. It is well to take warning at the first symptoms of decline, and turn to God for His salvation; thank God, that salvation is available for every one of us! May we ever have consciences sensitive to the first indications of decline and departure, and souls quick to turn to God for His salvation!

When Dan is seen as an adversary and an apostate Jacob says, “I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah”. He realises the hopelessness of everything on the line of what man is in himself, and that if there is to be a result for God it must be by the coming in of God’s ^[p. 252] salvation. Verse 18 is the turning point of the chapter. Down to that point there is nothing seen on man’s side but failure, whether it be the state of the natural man, or the various features of departure which mark the people of God when they fall under the influence of the world. If anything is preserved or restored it must be in the power of God’s salvation. The result of Jehovah’s salvation being waited for is that there is power to overcome, and satisfaction, and liberty, as seen in Gad, Asher, and Naphtali.

Zebulun and Issachar had been overcome, and the enemy had made a strong assault upon Gad — “Troops will rush upon him” — but what marks him is that he overcomes at the last. Jehovah’s salvation makes him an overcomer. How many saints in Scripture have had this experience! Jacob, David, Peter, Mark are examples of men who exposed their own weakness under the assaults of the enemy, but who got God’s salvation, and ended as overcomers. Each of them ended well. One would like to finish as an overcomer, for such get a good portion. That comes out in Asher and Naphtali. “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he will give royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words”. The overcomer is in satisfaction and liberty, and he can minister to others. All this is in marked contrast to the leanness and bondage which characterise Issachar the ‘bony ass’. Asher is happy, and is well nourished on good food, and has good things to spare for others; he yields ‘royal dainties’. It is a mark of God’s house that those who are there “have bread enough and to spare”. Then Naphtali is in perfect liberty, there is nothing to restrain his movements, and he, too, can minister to others. This shows that the one who overcomes in the power of God’s salvation is not only benefited himself, but he becomes a source of blessing to others.

These things are of special interest if we think of them as necessary to set the heart free for an expanded view of Christ. It seems to me that the result of these things is great enlargement in the apprehension and appreciation of Christ; that is, such an apprehension of Him as we see typically in Joseph. Joseph sets forth Christ in a very enlarged and extended character of blessing. He is “a fruitful bough by a well” whose branches shoot over the wall, and illimitable blessings are on His head. Souls in the good of God’s salvation get delivered from all the elements that hinder the apprehension of Christ. It is a great thing to be so practically free from the influences of the world, and the principles that work in the flesh, that we can expand in the knowledge of Christ. A man whose border touches Sidon, or is “between two hurdles”, cannot expand.

It has been noticed that in the last four assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 the words “he that hath an ear” come after the promise to the overcomer, implying that only the overcomer would have an ear. A ministry of Christ requires a spiritual state to appreciate and receive it. We see this in the first and second epistles to the Corinthians. Paul’s heart was full of the illimitable blessings in Christ, but he had been straitened by the carnal state of the Corinthians. But in the second epistle he could say, “Our mouth is opened to you, our heart is expanded ... let your heart also expand itself”, 2 Corinthians 6: 11 - 13. Self-judgment having come in, there was room now for expansion.

^[p. 254] The blessing of Joseph shows the great expansion that has come in through Christ taking His place of Nazariteship at the right hand of God. When here He was under limitations, but now He has gone out of them all. His fruit goes far beyond the bounds of Israel. He is the Source of fruit for God amongst the Gentiles in the power of the Spirit whilst hated and rejected and separated from His brethren. Every blessing is upon His head. It is thus we know Him in heaven now, and His branches run over the wall in blessing to the Gentile.

In verses 25 and 26 we see blessing that goes beyond all limits, and surpasses all that had gone before. “The blessings of my ancestors” refers to the promises to Abraham and Isaac. They are all Yea and Amen in Christ, but blessings have come to light in Him now as the risen and ascended heavenly One which did not come into the view of those promises at all. That saints should be heavenly ones, and in sonship of a heavenly order, and have all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, did not indeed come out in Old Testament promises at all. All this is, as it were, heaped upon the head of Christ as the One separated from Israel. He has got peculiar enlargement as glorified at the right hand of God. And the assembly participates in all that He is and has in that heavenly position. It is in reference to His position there that He says, “I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth”, John 17: 19.

The blessings stretch out to “the bounds of the everlasting hills”, It suggests an unlimited expansion of blessing connected with Christ as risen and glorified — the One separated from His brethren. He has been here, and has been hated; “the archers have provoked him, and shot at, and hated him”. But the fact that He has been refused here has freed Him from every limitation; He has gone to the right hand of God, and His branches run over the wall. The expansion of blessing is so great that it requires the Gentiles to take it in. The Jews were not really enough to fill God’s house; the Gentiles must come in, or there would be empty places.

In John 4 we see the branches running over the wall to the Samaritans, and the woman and others partook of His fruit, and, we may say, became His fruit. For the ‘fruitful bough’ not only yielded fruit for men but for God. He speaks in John 4 of the Father seeking worshippers; there was to be something very precious for the Father, and outside limitations. ‘This mountain’ and ‘Jerusalem’ were limited spheres, but what the Lord spoke of was outside limitations; it was worship ‘in spirit and in truth’. ‘In spirit’ is according to what God is essentially — He is a spirit; and ‘in truth’ is according to the revelation of Himself in His Son. When we come to that we are outside limitations. We are in presence of God revealed in infinite love, and there we can only be worshippers. That ‘fruitful bough’ has brought forth fruit delightful to the Father’s heart. Man in the flesh has disappeared sacrificially in the lifting up of the Son of man, and men in the Spirit become worshippers as set in the light of God revealed in His beloved Son.

John 4 of course anticipates the Spirit’s day, and I have thought that we see the branches running over the wall in Colossians, and indeed in Paul’s ministry altogether, for his ministry had in view fruit for God ^[p. 256] among the Gentiles, He speaks of the mystery as “Christ in you — Gentiles — the hope of glory”; and of the blessed features of Christ coming out in Gentile saints; it is the branches running over the wall, and being fruitful there.

To be in the good of these things we have to accept His rejection. The Scripture before us leads us to see that the One who was delightful to the Father was hated by men, and has no place in man’s world. He brought forth in His own Person every kind of acceptable fruit for the Father, but “the archers ... shot at, and hated him”. But He was strengthened and succoured by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. The strength of perfect dependence was His — the hands of the mighty One laid upon Him. The figure used is of a person holding a bow, but the hands of another are put upon his to strengthen them; just as a strong man might put his hands on the hands of a little child and so strengthen them that they might do what was only possible for the man’s strength to do. When Christ was here we may say with all reverence there was a blessed Man in this world on whom God could put His hands. Isaiah 49: 8 shows us the wonderful place that Christ was in as Man here. His strength was in dependence; He cried to God, and God answered Him in a time of acceptance. He says, “In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee”. Then it is very wonderful to see in 2 Corinthians 6: 2 that the saints are put in the same place, to be heard, strengthened, and helped even as Christ was. It is their privilege also to be strengthened by the hands of the mighty One of Jacob. The saints have His place in the world; “Ye are not of the world ... therefore the world hateth you”; but they have also His place of strength in being heard and helped by God.

The “stone of Israel” is spoken of in a beautiful parenthesis to show that the mighty One of Jacob is the Source of everything. He provides the Shepherd to care for His people, who is also the “stone of Israel” on whom everything will rest in the kingdom. The thoughts of stability and ornament are connected with a stone. Stability marks the stone laid in Zion for a foundation (Isaiah 28), and Zechariah speaks of a stone with seven eyes upon it — possibly referring to the seven-fold qualification for government seen in Isaiah 11: 2. He is the Head of the corner as well as the foundation (Psalm 118: 22). But He has been first rejected by the builders.

A vast expanse of blessing is suggested here (verse 25). “With blessings of heaven from above, with blessings of the deep that lieth under. With blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, unto the bounds of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren”. Everything is seen gathered up on Joseph’s head. It is said of Christ in resurrection — the One who has “length of days for ever and ever” — “For thou hast made him to be blessings for ever; thou hast filled him with joy by thy countenance” (Psalm 21: 4 - 6). God has blessed Him for ever (Psalm 45: 2). He is enlarged in heaven; He was straitened here until the cross, having to say, “How am I straitened until it be accomplished”. But He is now beyond death, and all the fulness of blessing that was in the heart of God for man is on His head. And as the heavenly ^[p. 258] One He has a vast company of heavenly ones, participating with Him in all the blessing that rests upon Him in glory at the right hand of God.

Benjamin is spoken of as a ravening wolf (verse 27), because he is a figure of Christ as coming in power to destroy all His enemies, and the enemies of His people Israel. If He has been rejected, it is inevitable that His enemies must be dealt with. Joseph gives us a thought of the wonderful character of blessing that is connected with Him as separated from His brethren; that is, while He is at the right hand of God, and the Spirit is given to His co-sufferers and co-heirs. But Benjamin is Christ coming in to destroy his enemies. He tears in pieces, devours the prey, and divides the booty. I have connected it with Psalm 80. We find Jehovah addressed there as the “Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock”. Then in verse 8 Israel is spoken of as a vine brought out of Egypt and planted by Him. But in verse 13 the boar out of the forest wastes that vine, and the beast of the field devours it. Then there is a call in verse 14, “O God of hosts, return, we beseech thee; look down from the heavens, and behold, and visit this vine”. That is the state of things in connection with which Benjamin comes in. God’s vine, His pleasant plant — Israel — has been devoured and destroyed by the boar out of the wood and the beast of the field. Then in verse 17 we get Benjamin, “Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself”. That is Benjamin, the Son of His Father’s right hand: He will come in to destroy the boar of the forest and the beast of the field, and to restore the fruitfulness of the vine and Jehovah’s pleasure in it. Christ will destroy everything that is opposed to the blessing of God’s people, in order that He may have pleasure in His vine. God is going to clear the scene by judgment so that there may be nothing to interfere with full blessing, and Benjamin represents the power of Christ to do it.

The time for that has not yet come, so we pray for men — even wicked men and persecutors — to be converted and blessed. But a day is coming when ‘sudden destruction’ will come on the adversaries, and the saints will be in accord with what God does in that day, even as they are in accord with what He is doing today. They will say, “Amen, Hallelujah”, when Babylon is thrown down, for God will then be acting in destructive judgment. His arrows will be sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies. If we may use the figure, His arrows are being discharged in grace today. They carry conviction, but are tipped with healing balm. They are piercing the joints of the armour of many, bringing down self-importance and leading men to look to Him for blessing, which He never fails to grant. But by-and-by the arrows will have another character; they will be discharged on His enemies who will fall under Him in destruction. It must be so; divine power must intervene; a world of rebellion and lawlessness cannot be perpetuated. God’s claims are set at defiance, and His Name covered with blasphemies all the day long. He could not allow it to continue; there will come a time when divine power must assert itself, However great God’s patience and long-suffering, He is never indifferent to evil. He bears long, but there is always a limit. Methuselah lived very long as a witness to the long-suffering of God; but when the limit was reached God intervened ^[p. 260] in judgment by the flood. The lawlessness of man will come to a head in the beast and the Antichrist, and then the destructive power of which Benjamin is a figure will come in.

Now for a moment we may touch on the last chapter. The coming in of Christ in the Benjamin character which we have spoken of clears the way for the fulfilment of all God’s promises in reference to the land of promise; so the book closes with the faith of Jacob and Joseph in regard to Canaan. Jacob would be buried there with his fathers, and Joseph would have his bones carried there. This indicates the faith of these two men as to the fulfilment of all God’s promises in regard to the land. After Benjamin comes in, and the adversaries are all dealt with, there will be deliverance in Zion, and all the promises in relation to Israel’s possession of Canaan will be fulfilled.

Neither Jacob nor Joseph would be buried in Egypt. They both had a place and sustenance in Egypt by the ordering of God for the time being, but Egypt was not the land of Jehovah’s promise. I suppose that Joseph, at any rate, might have had a big pyramid for his sepulchre, and to commemorate his name and deeds in Egypt. But he said, in effect, Egypt has come in, and had a place in the ways of God with Israel, but it is not the goal of those ways: the promises concern Canaan, and will not be fulfilled until Israel is there, and my affections and interests are there. Neither Jacob nor Joseph saw the fulfilment of the promise; none of the patriarchs did. From a natural point of view it seems the most unlikely thing possible that Canaan would ever be theirs. But they died in faith; they were not disappointed; they did not think that God had failed them, or His people. And no ^[p. 261] doubt they had some apprehension of Christ as the One by whom everything would come to pass.

At the present moment the promises which Jacob and Joseph cherished do not live in the faith and affections of Israel, save as there is a remnant of Israel “according to the election of grace” in the assembly. But what they cherished is held in faith by saints of the assembly; not indeed as our portion, which is a heavenly one, but it is held as the sure portion of Israel. We are as certain that God will fulfil the promises in regard to Israel and Canaan as if we had seen them accomplished. Joseph left an extraordinary testimony to his faith; his bones were to be carried up; so they embalmed him, and put him in a coffin in Egypt. It was a remarkable testimony to Israel during their time of bondage in Egypt that the promises would be fulfilled.

What a sad exhibition of unbelief we get in Joseph’s brethren at the end! They had lived seventeen years on his bounty, and he had given them the best of everything, and yet when Jacob died it became manifest that they did not know his heart at all! Well might Joseph weep when they spoke thus to him! They did not really know him, nor believe in his love. How often it is like this with believers now! Living on the bounty of Christ for years, and yet not knowing the thoughts of His heart in such a way as to have perfect confidence in Him!

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