66 JACOB BLESSES JOSEPH AND DIES

Jacob closes with the blessings of his best beloved sons, Joseph and Benjamin and with these he will breathe his last.

The blessing of Jacob on Joseph, is very large and full. He is compared to a fruitful bough, or young tree; “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall” (22). God had made Joseph fruitful in the land of his affliction as Joseph himself had acknowledged when he named his second son Ephraim. “The second son he named Ephraim and said, ‘It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering’” (Genesis 41:52). Joseph’s two sons were as branches of a vine, or other spreading plant, running over the wall. God can make those fruitful, great comforts to themselves and others, who have been looked on as dry and withered. More is recorded in the history of Joseph than of any other of Jacob’s sons. This fact alone tells us to learn from Joseph. What Jacob says of him is historical as well as prophetical.

The involvements of God in the daily life of Joseph are summed up in two verses: “With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel” (23 & 24) These factors in Joseph’s success are mentioned to the glory of God, and for the encouragement of Jacob’s faith and hope, that God had blessings in store for his seed, but equally for those of us who read of it from the Bible. Thousands more read these stories than the relatively few who hears Jacob say them to Joseph in Jacob’s tent. We too learn of Joseph’s straits and troubles which would include his brothers’ envy of his beautiful coat and favored position with their father and then later anyone jealous of his success in Potiphar’s house, Potiphar’s wife herself, anyone envious of Jacob’s good reputation in prison and then, finally, those in Pharaoh’s court who are bypassed and therefore jealous when prisoner Joseph is catapulted from imprisonment to becoming the Prime Minister of all of Egypt just in one short day. We read of these successes in the narrative, but because we understand the human propensity to seek the best for ourselves, can easily see that there were many in Joseph’s story that undoubtedly were jealous of him. Though he now lived at ease and in honor, Jacob reminds Joseph and his brothers of the difficulties through which he had formerly waded. He had had many enemies, here called archers, being skillful to do mischief, masters of their art of persecution. They hated him and Joseph’s persecution came from that hatred. They shot their poisonous darts at him, and in this way sorely grieved him. His brothers, in his father’s house, had been very spiteful towards him, mocked him, stripped him, threatened him, sold him and thought they had been the death of him. His mistress, in the house of Potiphar, sorely grieved him, and shot at him, when she brazenly assaulted his chastity with temptations like fiery darts, thorns in the flesh, sorely grievous to gracious souls, and when she could not prevail in this, she hated him, and shot at him by her false accusations, arrows against which there is little protection or defense. Doubtless he had enemies in the court of Pharaoh, that envied his preferment, and sought to undermine him. Yet Joseph had strength and support under all these troubles; “his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.” His faith did not fail, but he kept his ground, and finished the contest as a conqueror. All his personal graces did their part, that is his wisdom, courage, and patience, which are better than weapons of war. In short, he maintained both his integrity and his peace through all these trials. He bore all his burdens with an invincible resolution and did not sink under them.

Neither did he do anything that would make him look bad. The spring and fountain of this strength were by the hands of the mighty God, who was able to strengthen him, and the God of Jacob, a God in covenant with him, and therefore engaged to help him. All our strength for resisting temptations and the bearing of afflictions comes from God. His grace is sufficient and His strength is perfected in our weakness. Jacob also mentions the state of honor and usefulness to which Joseph was subsequently advanced. He became the shepherd and rock, the feeder and supporter, of God’s Israel, Jacob and his family. In this Joseph was a type, an illustration, of Jesus who also was shot at and hated, but bore up under His sufferings and then taught us that the disciple cannot be greater than the Teacher. Only afterwards was Jesus advanced to be the Shepherd and Rock of the church in general and in particular to each believer. Hell shoots its arrows against us saints, but Heaven protects and strengthens us, and will crown us.

Jacob also includes promises of God to Joseph. See how these are connected with God, His wisdom and His power as recorded in verse 25, “because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.” Our experiences of God’s power and goodness in strengthening us until now are our encouragements still to hope for continued help from Him. He who has helped, helps and will help. Notice what Joseph may expect from the Almighty, even the God of his father. He will help you in difficulties and dangers which may yet come your way. He will be before you and your offspring in their wars. Whom might this include? Joshua, for one, came from him, who served as commander in chief in the wars of Canaan. He will bless you. No one can bless as He can. Jacob prays for a blessing on Joseph, but the God of Jacob commands the blessing.

We have several specific blessings to expect for Joseph. Observe these various and abundant blessings: Blessings of heaven above which would entail rain in its season and fair weather in its season. Add to this blessings of the deep that are under this earth, which, compared with the upper world, is but a great deep, with subterraneous mines with minerals and springs with needed water. Spiritual blessings are blessings of heaven above, which we ought to desire and seek for in the first place, and to which we must give the preference. It is okay to enjoy temporal blessings, but they should never be the more important ones in our thinking. And when Joseph’s offspring have babies? Jacob prays for Blessings of the womb and the breasts so that children are safely born and comfortably nursed. In the Word of God, by which we are born again, and nourished up, according to 1 Peter 2.:2, “ Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” These are, to the new man, spiritual blessings both of the womb and the breasts.

Jacob was either more imaginative or more full of creative good-will than his father, Isaac. His father  had but one blessing, and, when he had given that to Jacob, he was at a loss for a blessing to pray for Esau. But Jacob had a blessing for each of his twelve sons, and now, at the end of all those blessings, here is a large and multifaceted one for Joseph. Listen to this: “Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers” (26).  Interestingly the land allowed by Joshua to Ephraim and Manasseh on the west side of the Jordon looks like or is shaped like a crown on the top of a head. The allotment of Manasseh therefore is a fulfillment of this promise or prayer for blessings on the”Head” of Joseph. The blessings were durable and extensive blessings: Unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, including all the productions of the most fruitful hills, blessings lasting as long as the hills last. The blessings of the everlasting God include the riches of the everlasting hills, and much more. Well, of these blessings it is here said, “Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,” so it is a prayer, on the head of Joseph, to which let the blessings be as a crown to adorn it.

Next we find in verse 28 a summary of the blessing of Jacob’s son’s. “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. Though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi were chastised under the expressions of their father’s displeasure, yet Jacob is said to bless them every one according to his blessing. Even a correction, or perhaps we could say especially a correction, can be a blessing. None of them were rejected as Esau was. Whatever rebukes of God’s Word, justice or wisdom we are under at any time, yet, as long as we have an interest in God’s covenant, a place and a name among His people, and good hopes of a share in the heavenly Canaan, we must account ourselves blessed. I regularly ask God to correct me even when I don’t have any particular reason to think I need it more than at other times. Fruitfulness in kingdom work requires good faith, obedience, purity holiness and behavior, so I want to be corrected. If we could  know what each son experienced that day, it is quite possible that Reuben, Simeon and Levi benefited the most. This, of course, would depend on each of them being willing to be benefited from a correction. We are not helped as much by complements as we are by criticisms.

A great blessing given to all of Jacob’s family was increase. Consider the rapid multiplication of descendants for all of the Israelites while they were in Egypt following the blessings and death of Jacob. The blessing of increase seems to not be limited as the blessings of Abraham and Isaac were. Neither Abraham nor Isaac had such a large number of descendants as Jacob has in the generations immediately following his passing. The blessings of increase that Jacob prayed for his sons are demonstrated by what happened in the years following Jacob’s passing. Even though the descendants of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they multiplied exceedingly.

Finally we will observe the solemn charge Jacob gave his sons concerning his burial, which is a repetition of what he had before given to Joseph. See how he speaks of death, now that he is dying. Verse 29 says, “Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,” It is good to describe death to ourselves and others with desirable, and therefore true, images, so that its terror, based on mere worldly thinking, may be removed. Though death separates us from our children and our people in this world, it gathers us to our fathers and to our people in the other world. Hallelujah! Perhaps Jacob uses this expression concerning death as a reason why his sons should bury him in Canaan; for, says he, “I am to be gathered unto my people.” He was saying, “bury me with my fathers, Abraham, Isaac, their wives and my first wife.” “There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.” Jacob’s heart was very much set on his burial in Hebron in Canaan land, not so much from a natural affection to his native soil as from a principle of faith in the promise of God, that Canaan would be the inheritance of his descendants in due time. In this way he wanted his sons to remember the promised land, and not only would they have their acquaintance with it renewed by a journey there, but their desire towards it and their expectation of it hopefully would be preserved. He is very particular in describing the place both by the situation of it and by the purchase Abraham had made of it for a burying-place. He was afraid lest his sons, after seventeen years living in Egypt, might have forgotten Canaan, and even the burying-place of their ancestors there. Perhaps also he thought the Canaanites might dispute his title to it; and therefore he specifies its description and the purchase of it in some detail even when he lies a-dying. This would not only prevent a mistake, but also show how mindful he was of that country. It is, and should be, a great pleasure to dying saints to fix their thoughts on the heavenly Canaan, and the rest they hope for there after death. Even right where you are reading this chapter you can you say, “AMEN?”

The death of Jacob is recorded in verse 33, “When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.” When he had finished both his blessing and his instructions, that is to say having said everything Jacob wanted to say, he addressed himself to his dying work. And what was that? He put himself into a posture for dying. We can imagine he may have been seated on the edge of his bed as he blessed and spoke to his sons, but when that work was done, he gathered up his feet into the bed as though by that action to indicate that he was ready to go. It can be interpreted to have been a beautiful thing to watch, that he might lie down comfortably on the bed, not only as one patiently submitting to the passage, but as one cheerfully composing himself to rest, now that he was weary. I will lay me down, and sleep.

He freely resigned his spirit into the hand of God, the Father of spirits, and breathed his last breath. His soul now delivered and separated from the burden of the flesh, in joy and happiness went to the assembly of the souls of the faithful. He was gathered to his people. If God’s people are our people, death will gather us to them.