Thy Strong Word — Genesis 49. The blessings keep coming.

Rev. Greg Alms, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church & School in Catonsville, MD joins Rev. Brady Finnern to study Genesis 49.

Jacob blesses His sons as sons of the promise of Abraham from the Lord. He assembles his family and we receive a glimpse of what the Lord has done and what He will do in the future. God is always moving us forward, even though the future, let alone the past, may not be bright from our perspective, but God’s grace is always before us. Each son had a checkered story, but yet, God continued to bless His people. We pray as Jacob, “I wait for your salvation, O LORD” “Lord God, the past is covered by Your blood and the future is in Your hands. Fill us with Your promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation that we may trust in Your promises and serve with grace as You are gracious with us. Amen”

Thy Strong Word reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations.

Thy Strong Word is hosted by Rev. Brady Finnern, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Sartell, MN, and graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

Genesis 49

Jacob Blesses His Sons

49 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

²“Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.

³“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!

⁵“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
    weapons of violence are their swords.
⁶Let my soul come not into their council;
    O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
    and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
    and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
    and scatter them in Israel.

⁸“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
⁹Judah is a lion’s cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;^[a]
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
¹¹Binding his foal to the vine
    and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
    and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
¹²His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³“Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;
he shall become a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴“Issachar is a strong donkey,
    crouching between the sheepfolds.^[b]
¹⁵He saw that a resting place was good,
    and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
    and became a servant at forced labor.

¹⁶“Dan shall judge his people
    as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
    a viper by the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
    so that his rider falls backward.
¹⁸I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹“Raiders shall raid Gad,^[c]
but he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰“Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.

²¹“Naphtali is a doe let loose
that bears beautiful fawns.^[d]

²²“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
    a fruitful bough by a spring;
    his branches run over the wall.^[e]
²³The archers bitterly attacked him,
    shot at him, and harassed him severely,
²⁴yet his bow remained unmoved;
    his arms^[f] were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
    (from there is the Shepherd,^[g] the Stone of Israel),
²⁵by the God of your father who will help you,
    by the Almighty^[h] who will bless you
    with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
    blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶The blessings of your father
    are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
    up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.^[i]
May they be on the head of Joseph,
    and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

²⁷“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening dividing the spoil.”

Jacob’s Death and Burial

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. ²⁹Then he commanded 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, ³⁰in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. ³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah— ³²the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” ³³When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Footnotes

Genesis 49:10 By a slight revocalization; a slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Targum) until he comes to whom it belongs; Hebrew until Shiloh comes, or until he comes to Shiloh
Genesis 49:14 Or between its saddlebags
Genesis 49:19 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for raiders and raid
Genesis 49:21 Or he gives beautiful words, or that bears fawns of the fold
Genesis 49:22 Or Joseph is a wild donkey, a wild donkey beside a spring, his wild colts beside the wall
Genesis 49:24 Hebrew the arms of his hands
Genesis 49:24 Or by the name of the Shepherd
Genesis 49:25 Hebrew Shaddai
Genesis 49:26 A slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint) the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills

Rev. Brady Finnern

Rev. Brady Finnern, host of Thy Strong Word. is an expert in all things Minnesota, including hiking the great mountains of the 5th flattest state in the Union and making his own maple syrup. Although chow mein, fried ice cream, and Peanut Persian donuts with maple frosting are at the top of his foodie list, his prized possessions include his gas station refillable fountain soda cup (which, he says, the savings will pay for college for his 4 kids). Pastor Finnern's Divine Call is as President of the LCMS Minnesota North District, and in addition he also enjoys traveling, coaching track, and movie nights with his wife and kids that may or may not include Shawshank Redemption or any of the Thriller movies. When he's not singing his favorite hymns or listening to his favorite metal music, you might find him working out or taking naps. (Probably naps.)