Parting Words

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Parting words are particularly poignant and meaningful, aren't they?

• The last words you say to loved ones when you hang up the phone.
• The last words spoken to one you know you will never see again.   Etc.

Wills are more or less "parting words", aren't they?  Friends of mine, an entire family of 9, are going on a trip today, and they revised their wills this week.  Parting words matter.

Today, we are looking at the parting words Jacob spoke to his 12 sons, shortly before he died.
This was a common practice in that day, a combination of blessings and prophecies.  Let's take a look at each son and see what Jacob had to say to each - - - see if those blessings/pronouncements came true.  If you have a Bible, turn to the back to the maps section.  See if you can find a map of where the 12 tribes of Israel settled in the Promised Land.  That will help.

1.  Reuben was Jacob's firstborn.  As such, he should have received a double portion of Jacob's inheritance (2/12 or 1/6).  However, you may have noticed that, thus far in the Bible, firstborn sons have not been faring so well.  They have mostly made bone-headed decisions that messed things up for them.  Reuben was no exception.  See if you can find the land allocated to Reuben on your map.
I'll wait.
Didn't find it, did you?  Here's why.

While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

Genesis 35:22 (ESV)

When you see this verse in the original Hebrew, though, there is a gap in the text, in the middle of the verse, where the letter "peh" resides.  This break is a Hebrew punctuation, a "loud silence" before the words "And Israel heard."  You betcha he did.
Strangely, the Torah, the Old Testament, tells us little more about the consequences of Reuben's great transgression until we get to Jacob's deathbed and the parting words.  Then, he unloads.

“Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4Unstable 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!

Genesis 49:3-4 ESV 

This is the Old Testament equivalent of going to the will-reading and discovering there that you have been cut out.  Reuben is described as being as "unstable as water", not exactly a ringing endorsement.  (We learn, for example, in Genesis 37, that he failed to lead his brothers rightly in dealing with their brother, Joseph.) Jacob goes on to say he is taking Reuben's birthright as firstborn, his double-portion of the inheritance, and is giving it to Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.  (You will see those on your map!)

2.  Levi and Simeon are described by their father as being very angry, cruel, murderous men.  He pronounces that their land would be divided (49:3-4).  This proved out to be true.  The Levites were eventually named the priestly class, and they got no land allotment.  Instead, they were scattered throughout the land.  Simeon's tribe was given only a few cities in the Promised Land.

3.  Judah was praised as "a young lion" and a ruler.  In Revelation 5:5 Jesus is called "Lion of the Tribe of Judah", because his lineage (both biological - Mary and adoptive - Joseph) is from this tribe.  One descended from Nathan and one from Solomon (both sons of David and Bathsheba).

4.  Zebulun (49:13) was prophesied to live by the seashore, and this came true.  His tribe was allotted the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee.  The prophet Ezekiel also predicted that, in Jesus' millennial kingdom Zebulun will have that same land allotment.  (Ezekiel 48:1-8, 23-27).

5.  Issachar's pronouncement was a little backhanded (49:14-15).  First, his daddy calls him a donkey and then decrees his descendants would be "forced laborers", or you might say agricultural workers.  True to the prophecy, Issachar inherited the fertile land, the rich farmland of Jezreel, in The Galilee.

6.  Jacob called Dan "a snake in the road", (49:16-18) but decreed his descendants would become the judges of Israel.  And, Samson was from the tribe of Dan.  Unfortunately, many of Dan's descendants veered off into idolatry.

7.  Gad's prophecy (49:19) was sort of nebulous, other than to say his people would often be involved in strife but that they would be competent in military campaigns.  And, when we read of David's troops in 1 Chronicles 12, a great number of them came from the tribe of Gad.

8.  Asher (49:20) was decreed to produce food for the rest of the nation, and what do you know?  His tribe inherited the very fertile land of Carmel, along the Mediterranean.

9.  Naphtali (49:21) received a very nebulous prophecy/blessing, although it seemed like a "good word".  It essentially said that this tribe would be prolific, having many offspring, and that the other tribes would admire them for that.

10-11.  Verses 49:22-26 indicate, as previously mentioned, that Joseph's offspring, his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, would each receive 1/12 of Jacob's inheritance.  Joseph received the privileges of the firstborn, which Reuben disparaged and lost.  Also, and this is very odd - - when Jacob held a private session to bless Joseph's sons, he gave the younger (Ephraim) the blessing of the firstborn.  (Genesis 48).

12.  Benjamin was described as a mighty warrior in 49:27.  This tribe produced many of Israel's military leaders, including Ehud, Saul and Jonathan.  (See Judges 5:14, Judges 20:16 and 1 Chronicles 8:40.)

Isn't that a mixed bag?  Wow.
This has been sort of a "connective tissue" type of post, and more than a little bible-nerdy.  But, this type of connective information is important in the Bible.  In particular, Genesis 48-49 show how clearly God works in the lives of His people, how His good providence  prevails, despite the worst of human treachery.

Shortly after this "will reading" by Jacob, he died.  Jacob had him embalmed in the Egyptian tradition, and the entire clan, hundreds of people by this time, made a trip back to Mamre, and buried Jacob in the cave where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah were interred.  This Cave of the Patriarchs, as it is now called, is in the area we now call the West Bank.

As a footnote: when Joseph died, his bones were buried in Egypt, but when the Hebrew people were set free from slavery there, they exhumed Joseph's bones and took them with them to the Promised Land.  Before he died, he had made them swear to do so.  (Genesis 50:24)

And, now, I think I'm done with blogging through Genesis.  What a trip!  It has been over a year in the making, although it would have been finished much sooner if I had not gotten the wagon wheels bogged down and had to abandon the project for a few months.  God's timing just was not right, I guess.  I was just unable to go on at that time.  Oh well.  As the Scriptures tell us, His timing and His ways are perfect (Psalm 18:30).

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jacobs-prophecies.html

https://thetorah.com/article/did-reuben-lie-with-bilhah-yes-no-we-dont-talk-about-it