Genesis 49: 1-12

Joseph Blesses His Sons - Unequal Inheritances

(1 of 2)

The situation was this, the whole family assembled in the lawyer’s office to hear the reading of the will of their father. Some were thrilled when they heard what was read, and some were upset. This was because as they were to learn that day not everybody in the family got the same amount. In fact, not even all the children would receive an equal share of the estate.

Now, that’s not always the case. Some parents deal with their children equally, but there are cases where that is not the way it is done. As a matter of fact, that’s probably not the best way to do it, in some cases, because of the history or the behavior of some of the children. The idea of equal inheritance is presented as always, the best possible solution but that is a position that can’t be argued for in scripture. In most families I am sure it is the best thing, but it isn’t a rule of even precept in the Bible. The Bible speaks of an inheritance, but apparently not everybody always gets the same inheritance. So, what’s the difference and how different are those differences, and how are they arrived at. The answer to that question is illustrated for us at this point we have arrived at today which is Genesis chapter 49. 

What to do is go through this chapter, and then I’m going to explain how this is an illustration of what is talked about here and in the New Testament, when it talks about inheritance. Before we read the opening verses, I would like us to recall a couple of points. You will remember at this point if you have been journeying along with us that Jacob, a couple of chapters back (chapter 47), “blessed Pharaoh”. The in chapter 48 he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh and he followed that by blessing Joseph. Now next he’s going to bless all of his sons, and that’s what is going to happen in Chapter 49…. Verse 1

Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.

(Genesis 49: 1-2)

At this point he’s just saying, come, let’s all get together and listen for what I have to tell you. What follows down through to verse 28 is Jacob addressing each of his sons. In verse three, he speaks to Ruben, verse 5 to Simeon and Levi, verse 8 to Judah, verse 13 to Zebulun. Verse 14 Issachar, verse 16 Dan, verse 19, Gad, verse 20 Asher, verse 21, Naphtali, verse 22 to 26 to, Joseph, and finally verse 27, to Benjamin. Now if you try to organize these names just by age, you’re going to scratch your head. Apparently, what he does is he divides the brothers according to their mothers. This is because he had two wives, and he had children by each of those wives, and then he had children by the maids of each of those wives.  He had four wives, so to speak, in total, and two of them where actually concubines, and from these four women he had these children. 

Apparently, this passage is arranged by the mothers who had the children, but to complicate they’re not listed in the order in which they were born. The best we can do is say that the chapter is divided, or at least down through verse 28 anyway into the children these four wives had.  So, let’s look beginning at verse three at Rubin. Reuben was the son of Leah. That was his first wife. So first he says.

Reuben, you are my first-born,my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honour, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.

(Genesis 49: 3-4)

Verse three is saying you are the first sign of strength. That sounds like an interesting phrase. Clearly this is the first son he had his first born. What does he mean when he says you are my strength and the beginning of my strength? Well, he apparently is saying something like you where the first to demonstrate my ability to procreate an important thing in those days and remember the trouble they had in the beginning when trying to  give birth to their first child.

Then he gets down to talking about Ruben himself, and what he says is not great.  He says you are like choppy waters the idea being that he was reckless. He lived a life of unbridled license. Bible experts point out that when you put these two phrases together you come up with the idea that as the first born, he should have had preeminence among all of his brothers. He should have been a moral leader of the family and as first born a double portion should have been his inheritance as a birthright. Just being the first born normally meant you got a major part of the inheritance, better than others got, so to speak. The text goes on to explain that he will not benefit in this way because he went into his father’s bed. 

Now if you remember, as we went through the Book of Genesis, we saw that Ruben committed incest with his father’s, concubine. He probably did that to demonstrate that he was the first born and the head of all the other brothers and it was in a sense an attempt to usurp his father’s position as head of the family. However, the fact that he did this according to this passage means he will not benefit, it did not work ,as a matter of fact, all those blessings that he should have got simply because he was the first one are now forfeited. He forfeited these blessings by giving free reign to his lust. The leadership of the tribes therefore went to Judah, the priesthood went to Levi, and eventually the double portion that he should have gotten will go to Joseph. So essentially, Ruben destroyed his right to inherit. Because of the sins of sexual immorality, he lost his right to an inheritance.

Some people ask why the Bible appears to place such a premium on correct sexual morality. On one had we know there are no such things as big and small sins before God. All have sinned and fallen sort of the Glory of God. But what the Bible does teach is that some sins have a greater consequence upon the wider society and those around them than other do. Which means some sins will have more catastrophic consequence for the perpetrator, and the society. However, remember all sin are equally forgivable before God. But here it’s very important to notice he will not benefit because of what he did. He does not get the normal birthright of the first-born child. 

In verse five we pick up Sidney and Levi, who are brothers, and he goes on to say this.

Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.

(Genesis 49: 5-7)

I this case, the first thing it says is there brothers, but wait, aren’t all of them brothers, but like I said at the start some of these 12 are half-brothers, but they were brothers. So why does he bother to point this out? The answer is probably that he is not only saying that they were full sibling brothers, but he is also using the term to point out that they were like minded. If you remember their story that we covered in the Book of Genesis, they had a they had made an agreement with the Shechemites, but that agreement was violated by Simeon and Levi. Simeon and Levi took revenge and went to the city and destroyed everyone. Remember that story, that’s what he’s referring to here. He says they were instruments of cruelty. They killed people and they destroyed property simply because they were angry and self willed. So, he says curse be the because of their anger, wrath and cruelty. Here’s what they inherit, I will divide them and scatter them. 

Jacob loathed their sin and he does not want his family honor to be associated with them in the future. With deep emotion, he disassociates himself from them and explains that he detested was what they did. They killed people, animals and destroyed property, so he curses them and the curse is that they would be scattered among the other tribes. We will later see they will become so fragmented that they will eventually lost their tribal identity and end up just being absorbed into the other tribes, especially the tribe of Judah. The Levite’s also received no land grants. The whole point was that as sone their inheritance was meant to be a portion of land. The Levite’s didn’t get any land at all, but they did become the priests, and they had cities I to serve in, but they did not get a portion of the land.

One commentary I read on this passage said even though these first three brothers suffered punishment for their sin, they retain a place in the chosen family and enjoyed the benefits of patriarchal promises as Jacob heirs. What he’s saying is this, they got to enter the land, but they did not inherit anything once they got there. Other tribes were given portions of land. They got nothing and it was because of the sin of sexual and the sins of murder, destruction of property, all of which were fueled by anger, and self-will. Let’s continue the story. 

Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. you are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

(Genesis 49: 8-12)

So, Judah is compared to a young fierce lion, who will pounce on his prey. As a lion, he will be and irresistible force, so that’s what this passage is describing the fact that he possesses a lion like nature. As such, he will become the leader of the other tribes. Later the Messiah will be referred to in the Book of Revelation as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Now at this point the passage gets real interesting, I want to go back to verse one, he says, and Jacob called his sons and said, come together and I will tell you what shall happen, “in the days to come”. This little phrase could also be translated, “In the last days”. That little phrase appears throughout the Old Testament and that phrase usually refers to prophecy, something that will happen in the distant future.

As we read this chapter, some of it happens right then, some of this will happen in the near future, in the emerging history of Israel, and some things will happen in the distant future. Judah is going to be a fierce force to be contended with but when you get to verse 10, it’s evident that we’re now talking about something in the distant future. 

Look again at verse 10. “The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. This is an incredible statement. Judah is going to be the ruling tribe until the Messiah comes and when he comes, the people are going to accept him as their new leader. It tells us this new leader will carry a scepter that will never depart from him. That’s probably referring to the staff which a king held when he sat on his throne. 

In Jesus’ time the Jewish rabbis said this verse was talking about the Messiah. The Jewish Rabbis in those days said “the one who will rule” Shiloh, they called him, is another name for the Messiah. This verse is saying out of the tribe of Judah shall come the Messiah and that of course we know from the New Testament who that is. Judah will continue until that ruler comes who is so competent that he will achieve perfect peace. The coming Messiah will be seen to extend Judas rule to a worldwide dominion. All the people, not just Israel, all the people which is beyond Israel will obey him. It’ll be a worldwide rule. That is what that verse is saying. Now look at verse 11 

He will tie his donkey to a vine, his colt to the strongest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

This is highly figurative language, and he is describing a period of not only power but of unparalleled prosperity. In ancient times they would never tie a donkey to a vine. Why not? Because the donkey would eat the vine. So, to say we can even tie a donkey to the vine because there is so much food to eat and wine to drink it won’t matter. Why wash garments in wine? Who would wash their garments in wine? They certainly wouldn’t have done that in ancient times, as I said this is highly figurative language, and saying we so have so much wine we could wash our clothes in it, if we wanted. It’s hyperbole. It’s a figurative description of great prosperity. It’s talking about the Messiah coming, and he is talking about great prosperity. This early description of the Messiah is slightly opaque here, but as you read the Old Testament, it becomes more and more clear. 

Later, the Old Testament scriptures will predict the Messiah’s coming in great detail, and tells us how he’s going to set up a Kingdom, and in that Kingdom, there’s going to be peace and prosperity.  It’s this fact that tripped up the Pharisees when Jesus arrived because they were expecting that kind of a Kingdom straight away. But the NT shows he came the first time to die, but he will come back a second time to set up this Kingdom. 

The Old Testament is very clear that the Messiah would come to die. Isaiah 53. You know that message. The Bible is equally clear he is going to set up a Kingdom, Daniel Chapter 2, Daniel Chapter 7, numerous passages in the Book of Isaiah, I could go on.

This confused the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, some of these ancient rabbis looked at these passages, and said, yes, the Messiah rules and reigns. But that doesn’t fit if he is going to suffer and die. How can he reign, if he is going to die? They couldn't put It together, so some of them came up with two different Messiahs. The word bin in Hebrew means son. So, they said Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah Ben David. There’s going to be the suffering side, Ben Joseph and there’s going to be the Ben. David, the son of David, who is going to rule and reign.  That's the way some of them satisfied this seeming contradiction in the Old Testament. But when Jesus came, he came the first time to suffer and die as a sacrifice for human sin, but when he comes back the second time, he's going to rule and set up a Kingdom of peace and prosperity. Using veiled language, this is talking about here but as you read the Old Testament, it becomes clearer. Judah will become the ruling tribe and out of that tribe the ruler, the future Messiah shall come.