Genesis 49:16-33 NKJV
16 “Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!
19 “Gad, a troop shall tramp upon him,
But he shall triumph at last.
20 “Bread from Asher shall be rich,
And he shall yield royal dainties.
21 “Naphtali is a deer let loose;
He uses beautiful words.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
23 The archers have bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
24 But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
25 By the God of your father who will help you,
And by the Almighty who will bless 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 excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
And at night he shall divide the spoil.”
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
29 Then he charged 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, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.” 33 And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Jacob pronounced a prophetic blessing on six of his sons in the first part of Genesis 49. In today’s reading we hear his blessing on the other six: Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin. Of these, the blessing given to Joseph is the most notable.
Jacob has a special blessing for Joseph, similar to the one he gave to Judah. While Judah has received the blessing of the Messianic line, Joseph receives the double blessing as Jacob’s firstborn son by Rachel. As Jacob recounts the Lord’s past and future providence for Joseph and his descendants, it’s clear that, for all that Joseph has suffered, he will receive even more abundant blessings from the Lord.
Having blessed his twelve sons, Jacob knows he is about to die, so he charges his sons with carrying his body back to Canaan, to the cave in the field of Machpelah where his parents, grandparents, and Leah are buried. Then, although Jacob’s body still lay there in the bed, we are told that he was “gathered to his people,” clearly referring to his soul being taken to the place where the souls of his believing ancestors had gone before him, which we may simply call “heaven.” This special saying is only used concerning a handful of people in the Old Testament, including Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, and Aaron, in addition to Jacob. Still, it remains a powerful testimony to the Israelites’ understanding that those who died trusting in the LORD God did not truly die, but rested in peace with God until the great day of the resurrection, as Jesus once corrected the Sadducees, “But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:31-32).
Let us pray: O Lord, we give You thanks today for the twelve sons of Jacob and for building Your Old Testament Church through their descendants. Teach us to number our days on earth, that when they come to an end, we may be found trusting in You and thus be gathered peacefully to our people, as Jacob was. Amen.