Let us pray. Father God, here we are before your word and we just ask that through your spirit you strike us with an ability to see clearly the wisdom and of this word, even understand some of its prophecy and what it foretells. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, I have to give a disclaimer right at the beginning. When it comes to this passage, it is, I think, one of the most difficult texts to do well that I've encountered in my now over four years here at Old Goshenham. It's a text that's hard to do well because there are a lot of names, as Rob pointed out. But also, this is actually the first time in the Old Testament that the passage or the phrase, the last days, it's at the end of verse one. I forget how the ESV translates. It doesn't say the last days. The King James gets it right, though, and I always like to mention that when Jesse's here, that the King James gets it better. It's the last days. But basically, Jacob is telling prophecy in this passage. He's foretelling of things that will happen and come to pass. And the irony is he's also telling these sons of his they will become tribes of Israel, but they really will not experience any of the prophecy, any of the promises in their lifetime. They will live and they will die, not really knowing. There's actually going to be this kind of period of prophetic silence of roughly 400 years, which parallels another time in biblical history. But there will be this period of prophetic silence. And yet, in what Jacob shares, There is prophecy that will be fulfilled 500 years later, 1,000 years later, 2,000 years later in the Messiah, and some would even debate that still some of the prophecy is to be fulfilled in a day going forward. And so that's what makes this passage difficult. So I'm gonna tell you right off the bat, I am going to take two weeks in this passage. The first this week, we're going to deal mainly with the wisdom of the passage, and we're going to look at 10 of the brothers. We're going to look at 10 of the 12. We're going to skip over Judah. We're going to skip over Joseph because most of the prophecy is within. Blessings, but we're going to focus on the other 10 brothers, but actually in what Jacob shares those 10 brothers. This passage becomes this great source of wisdom. We have to remember, we forget this a lot, but when it comes to the story of Israel, we have to remember this is the family we've been adopted into through Christ Jesus. And so sometimes we go, Dan, Gad, I don't need to know who these people are. But actually, we've been adopted into this family. And so this family's story, being engrafted in, is actually now our story. It's a little bit like the stories of my wife's family or the stories of my family are kind of shared between us through that marital relationship. There is a reality here that we need to appreciate that. But also, and this almost makes this passage a little bit like how the book of Revelation opens. The book of Revelation, we covered that a year ago, opens with the seven churches and each of the seven churches is struggling or successfully enduring certain trials. But those seven churches, not only was there a truth that was true in John's day, but there's a truth of wisdom that can be ascertained or appreciated by the church of all ages. And so in looking at these blessings and understanding the family stories, the stories of these sons and how these stories would develop, we actually begin to learn how to understand what our faith walk looks like, but also better comprehend what the whole Old Testament will look like. I love how commentator Matthew Henry puts this passage. He says, and I'm lightly paraphrasing him, only lightly, the following. In this collective of Israel's sons is to be found a great variety of dispositions and personalities. that in many ways are contrary to one another, and yet all of them together. Contribute to the beauty and strength of what would make up the body of Israel So basically all of these personalities all of these dynamics Contribute to what the Lord's family will look like and so that's really as we begin to get into Genesis chapter 49 verses 1 through 28 we want to we want to have that impressed upon us and And so we begin in verse two, as Jacob begins this address to his sons. And Jacob calls himself both Jacob, but he also references himself as Israel. Jacob as a name, as some of you might remember, is a name that means deceiver. He was a deceiver. And he has this great moment where he's wrestling with God, he's wrestling with the Lord. And in one sense, he almost confessionally cries out his name, that he is a deceiver, that he's lived a life of, in one sense, deceit and relying on cunning. And in that moment, God gives him a new name. God gives him the name Israel. And yet, I don't know if you've noticed this, all throughout Jacob's story, this isn't like when, for instance, Abram got a new name. When Abram got a new name, every other reference after that in the Bible calls him Abraham. Jacob doesn't have that reality. Actually, when Jacob receives his new name, sometimes God will call him by different names, sometimes Moses will call him by either Jacob or Israel. And now, here he is, basically on his deathbed, about to die, and he references himself by both names. And I have to wonder, as we come to a close of Jacob's story, why this has happened. And it's a little bit of speculation, but I almost wonder, and I heard that there's a little bit of talk about this in Sunday school, if Jacob might, in one sense, first off, I have two points to kind of make. If he understands some of the already but not yet of the faithful life in the Lord, What do I mean by that? The already but not yet of the faithful life in the Lord. The already but not yet is the fact that in Christ, in Christ we have already been saved. We've already received a new name. And yet there is a reality at times where we fail to honor God as our Lord. We fail to strive to live as righteous people, live as holy people. And in that, when we fail to do that, we fail to live up to that name that we've received above all names in Christ Jesus. We, in one sense, are reverting to the old man. We're reverting to our old way, our old ways of life. I think that could be a little bit of what's why this name shift that consistently happens in Jacob's story. But also, I think there's another thing going on here. Jacob's about to bless his sons. Actually, at some points, as we're going to see in Levi and Simeon, it seems like God is directly speaking through him. and the personal pronoun. But Jacob is about to bless his sons, and he's reminding his sons, remember, sons, I was the one who was once the deceiver, but now I am Israel. I am the one in which God has poured blessing out upon me. And so I think there are elements of that. But let's then move on into the blessing. And so Jacob offers the first blessing to Abram. And some of what Jacob is gonna say to his first three sons might at first not seem like a blessing. Actually, a lot of commentators take that view. A lot of theologians take that view. I'm not gonna take that view. I think we've gotten away in our society of appreciating the fact that certain matters in life are worthy of fatherly discipline in society. The biblical standard of a terrible father is not a father who never allows his children to experience consequences for their sin. Actually, the biblical idea of a terrible father is one who will not discipline his children at times. The one who will basically let them do whatever they want to do. Now, of course, again, there are parameters of what that discipline should look like. And I'm sure I'm not the only parent here who has at times fallen on both sides of that ditch. Sometimes I've disciplined my children too harshly or I've disciplined my children in too lackluster of a fashion. But we're going to actually see in these first three sons that just because the father loves all those who are his sons, and legally you can be set free from the ultimate consequences of what their sin really deserved against the father, a good father can still make sure you have certain lasting consequences for committing such sin in the first place. With Reuben, Jacob's words begin with an outpouring of love for him. It would be fair to say that Jacob essentially says to Reuben at the start, there's been a unique privilege and joy being your father and having you as my son. In certain ways, Jacob seems to hint Reuben was the best of his sons. When it came to terms of sheer power and certain moments of dignity, he seemed to be at times the preeminent one. But then comes the second half of Jacob's words. And Jacob makes clear two flaws of Rubin. The first is, I think the ESV translates it, unstable water. What's that? Stable as water. What this is, in the Hebrew, is like a bubbling up water. You ever been to like a swampland, a marsh, and you kind of see like water that you don't know if everything's right in that water? There is an instability that is mentioned about Reuben. And we kind of see that. We kind of see that even when Joseph was thrown into the pit. Reuben clearly knew what was wrong. Reuben clearly wanted to rescue his brother, but he was too unstable. He didn't rise to the occasion. He didn't become the good water that desired to purify the situation. He didn't have the courage to do it. And that will plague the tribe of Reuben. Actually, from the tribe of Reuben, there will never come a king of Israel. From the tribe of Reuben, there will never be a judge of Israel. From the tribe of Reuben, there will never be a prophet of Israel. Because they're just too unstable. Even in the book of Judges, when we hear from the tribe of Reuben, they just don't know how to boldly come to the defense of others. They just don't have courage. And then there's the second half of Reuben's story, and the second half of Reuben's story is the gross sexual sin that he committed, I believe it was in chapter 34 of Genesis, but in chapter 34, when he had intimacy with Jacob's concubine. So Reuben is an illustration of of people indifferent to sexual sin and lacking courage at the critical hour. I uniquely had to think about the American Christian Church when talking about Reuben. We have a church, and it seems like so many, even pastors of power and prestige, even especially in the Reformed world, the world I kind of identify theologically with, And I've seen a lot of pastors falling away with real simple things that we should be able to rise to the challenge of and say, this isn't right. This isn't good. In sexual purity or in things that are going on in society. And in one sense, when we shrink back from that awesome responsibility, we're committing a sin unlike unto Reuben. I mean, American Christianity has all this affluency and wealth, all this unique distinctiveness in the world. And yet, what are we selling the world right now? We're selling prosperity gospel preaching. We're selling gender confusion, marital confusion. We just haven't risen to the challenge. That's the sin of Reuben. The next brothers are Simeon and Levi. They are discussed as a pair because the pair of them made war, essentially, upon the Canaanites preemptively. And that's an important point, preemptively. See, God, in his establishing a covenant with Abraham, He had told Abraham that a day would come in which he would lead his people into this new land, and he would judge. And he would judge harshly for the wickedness, the awfulness of the sins of Kings. they were a society, when you get into the book of Joshua and such, they were a society dealing with children's sacrifice, these sorts of things. He made clear he would do that, but he said also in that promise to Abraham that there was a time for when the Amorites and when these people would essentially be allowed to store up wrath for themselves. Simeon and Levi, in desiring to defend their sister, jumped the gun. And they also jumped the gun dishonestly. They lied. They were shrewd. And they were violent. And they were harshly violent. And for that, God makes clear that he basically will never allow them to have a full inheritance. They will end up getting cities, but they never get a region of their own. Actually, when Moses will at the second to last chapter of Deuteronomy bless the tribes of Israel, he skips over Simeon for giving him any blessing, that tribe at all. But. They basically will not receive a land unto themselves for their sins. And it's kind of ironic when you know the timeline of Scripture, because Moses is preparing the people as they're about to go into the land to, in one sense, and enact the judgment of God upon these people. And yet God still at that time, hundreds and hundreds centuries later, he still will say, because Levi and because Simeon jumped the gun, they cannot inherit. Now, of course, the Levites, they will become a redemption story, but they are essentially warrior priests. They become warrior priests. They guard over the sanctuary of the Lord. When we have that episode of the golden calf and it comes time to purify the camp, God will call them the Levites to purify it by the sword. They will be a people like that. And so while they have an inheritance from their father, their inheritance is set up in such a way where the other brothers, most prominently Judah, will ultimately absorb ultimate ownership over what they receive. That unchecked, vengeful anger has essentially cursed them. And we can see that curse in actually verse seven. And of course isn't really articulated by Jacob, but it's God speaking through Jacob. So that is what we find in those brothers. Next we jump to verse 13. And the son of Zebulun, he was the youngest son of Leah. Zebulun is a tribe that is often ignored, and yet is a tribe that will be praised within the first five chapters of Judgment. They were a small tribe, but they were valiant fighters, especially for the Judge Deborah. And ultimately, they would expand their lands, touching upon the western regions of the Sea of Galilee. The principle we can see from the Zebulon tribe is that even seemingly small and insignificant groups, this is good news to us here gathered today, because this is a small church. If we have courage in the face of the foes we battle, If people over small things have courage, God can still accomplish a great many glorious things. The highlight for Zebulun in biblical history is that when Christ would come to rest in Nazareth, historically speaking, Christ was actually resting in the tribal land of Zebulun. The final son of Leah is Issachar. We're second youngest son, which should actually needs to be pointed out Zebulun is given the blessing before Ishikar He was skipped over and he's mentioned last of all of Leah's sons by Jacob He is last because this tribe of Israel Surrendered themselves to the creaturely comforts of life It's this tribes being driven by lust that makes them lost to history. They actually, in one sense, hand themselves over to Canaanite servitude because they so just like craved the trinkets of life, the small things of life, the token pleasures of life, that they would rather be in bondage to the world than remember who their father was who had given them an inheritance. And if that doesn't speak to our own day, boy, it really does speak to our own day. That if we would rather forsake the good things of God for the small trinkets, the imprisonment that the world offers. You want an example of the tribe of Issachar? I think you can honestly look at the utter abandonment of the faith in places like Europe, places like Canada that's now taking root, of if statistically it remains the same, of what will be this new American generation that is coming into adulthood. These are a people who forget who their father is because they're so consumed by the things of this world. You know why we need to be involved in things like educating the next generation and striving to invest in this oasis of this piece of land in the sea of modern foolishness? We need to do this so we don't become a tribe of Ishakar who wake up one day and say to themselves, who are we again? Who are we slaves to? They forgot who they were, and they lost their tribe. Next, we have Dan's blessings. And Dan is called a serpent. Immediately, that makes us think bad thoughts. But actually, the blessing hints that Dan's tribe will start out well. They do start out well. They are a small but crafty tribe that packs a punch. They can take on, and even the illustration, they're a little serpent that can take on a bigger horse. The Danonite that you know that illustrates who they are as a people is Samson. Samson is that Danonite of scripture. But of course, just like Samson, the Danonites had an ultimate fatal flaw. And at the end of the book of Judges, I believe it's in chapter 17 and 18, they end up being a tribe that hands themselves over to idolatry and slaughters the innocents. And so that is who the Danites were. In the next verse, verse 19, we see Gad. Gad is almost like they're the special forces. John Calvin said of Gad, that in one sense, they are a perfect illustration of the militant church, the church that is standing upon godly principles in the face of a world that hates them. See, Gad was on the border, was on the Jordanian border, and often they were the place first attacked. And yet, Gad, they were faithful warriors, they stood firm. They did not lack for courage. And so even in the face of sometimes insurmountable odds, God always came to the defense of Gat. And this is why Calvin saw that connection. Basically, all the devices of hell could not prevail against him. And that's who Gat was. And so when we have the courage to take into the field of defense the badge of the true faith, the biblical faith, We, in one sense, illustrate Gad. Next is the tribe of Asher in verse 20. Asher had settled in the highlands of Galilee. And in so doing, they had an ability to grow food unlike any other tribe. In the early monarchy, in the early days of even the judges, Asher becomes the tribe of trade. And they become the tribe that blesses the king with an abundance of variety and wealth. and yet Asher loses itself. Asher loses itself in a desire of wanting to have so much business sense and having so much prosperity that they wanted to do business with the godless and the pagan, the enemies of Israel. They sought a neutrality because being there firmly committed to being the people of God would have cost them something financially. And so we'll hear from them. We'll hear from the tribe of Asher during the time of Solomon, during the time of great wealth. And actually, there's this irony. During the time of Solomon, they are actually losing their land. They're losing their wealth. They're losing their prosperity. They're actually in food rations. And Solomon was as rich as rich could be. because they had gone the way of the world. They had gone the way of wanting to be all things in one sense, so all people. Asher is in one sense an illustration of the cowardly Christian, the cowardly believer. Yes, they can be winsome at first, and yet at some point, our faith in the Father requires us to principally stand for a few things. and Asher would not do so. Naphtali is the next son, and his tribe is blessed to also live around the Galilee, and they have the courage to help out their fellow brothers in the time of need. They were actually willing to abandon safety and security in order to help a brother in need. The most notable individual from this tribe was Barak in Judges chapter four, who ends up leading Israel in the successful fight against King of Hazor. God loves those with courage to face adversity. And the final brother of our 10 is Benjamin. Benjamin is likened to a wolf. And the tribe of Benjamin is an interesting one. They are the great fighters of Israel, and they are really a people of extremes. A great many of the most influential, important individuals in the scriptural narrative are Benjamin. When Israel has to look for a new king, they look to Benjamin. But also, a short time earlier, The Benjamin Knights, they had led a civil, they had basically started a civil war by grossly treating and killing a Levite concubine. They were a people of dramatic extremes. Other people from this tribe that you know in scripture are Esther and Mordecai. In the book of Esther, of course, we have that irony where the individuals who left in Persia had not returned to the promised land. And so the question of that book is much the question of what does God do for those who are still not, who are far off? And the answer is God still watches over them. And so that is kind of the description of the Benjaminite. There are people who at first might come to the wrong idea that there are people of strength, and yet often they're like the wolf after devouring something that still will share. The most famous Benjaminite of all of Scripture is the Apostle Paul. You know, in Romans, I believe, chapter 11, might be verse one, but Romans chapter 11, he mentions how he is from the tribe of Benjamin. And so that's what it means to be a part of the tribe of Israel, that we can see in our families, our shared family history, that we have a mixed bag of a family tree. Not too unlike what I would guess is true of most of our biological families. But let me summarize the story of these 10 brothers, even if we might not remember the particulars of each individual and their histories. And let me do it with three points. First, remember that sin has its consequences, real world consequences, lasting consequences. Every descendant of Reuben, Levi, and Simeon's tribe in the nation of Israel could open up the pages of Genesis and read where their family line suffered a permanent penalty for ignoring God. There are generational consequences at stake in all our decisions in the faith, in this life, in our households and in our homes. And when individuals ignore pursuing righteousness, even if they still have received the grace of mercy and forgiveness, consequences do sometimes come. Next, for all the tribes that rather blatantly fell away, Almost all of them wanted the same thing. They wanted the best the world had to offer them and still retain the blessings of God. God is not a fool. If we want the best of the world, that means we love the world more than God. We could go to the Atlantic Ocean today. We could go and we could get into a sailboat and we could just by the slightest change of degree, change our heading from the continent of Europe to the continent of Africa. It wouldn't take much. And so we really need to safeguard what is our greatest love? What is our greatest direction? What is our greatest life pursuit? Is it the things of the world, the pleasures of the world, the acceptance of the world, the love of the world? If it is, then you are not being led by God. That is an illustration that we find in these brothers, the ones who fall away. But then also we can see throughout the 10 sons of Israel, for those who remain faithful, for those with the courage to remember their father and how richly God has blessed them, those that turned away from sins at the critical hour, turned away from fear and trusted the Lord and sought after righteousness, those who were bold in the face of attacks, those who left the comforts of this world, the easy protection that this world has to afford, rather to sacrifice for one another and love to those God blessed. And we know God blesses such faith most clearly, of course, in the personal work of Jesus Christ. For he left the safety and security of heaven itself in order to suffer for our sake, to become sin for us so that we might become his righteousness. And in love of his father, he showed himself to be the ultimate son of the father. And through him, yes, we can be saved from our sins, but also through him, we should have the courage to fight the good fight, to strive to live in righteousness and faithfulness and holiness. to both him and his word all of our days as we await the second coming of our Lord and that better day where through his justice he will establish in his righteousness a peace that surpasses all understanding in all the ends of the earth. Amen. Amen. Let us pray. Father God, we come to passages like these in scripture and we think, oh, it's just a list of names, Lord. And yet we can see that you do not have any idle words in scripture. I pray that we continue to grow to be able to see the wisdom of heeding your word, of understanding that which pleases you, but that which also displeases you, that which you punish in righteousness, but also that which you offer as good for us to participate in. We now take a moment, Lord, to look back upon our past week and admit to ourselves the painstaking reality that too often we are prone to wander from you. We are prone to ignore your word, the wisdom that you give us, and fall in struggle and sin. But we thank you for our Lord and Savior, the perfect Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.