Now we’ve come to the 49th Chapter of the Book of Genesis.  You have your Bible there; follow along with us.  And in many respects this chapter is one of the more remarkable chapters of the Bible.  It certainly is a dramatic chapter.  It’s the deathbed scene of old Jacob.  In fact, we saw him on that deathbed last time.  

JACOB’S DEATHBED BLESSING/PROPHECIES FOR HIS SONS

You’ll recall that when he saw his son Joseph coming in that he strengthened himself and he sat upon the bed.  He just will rejoice to see his own son.  Then after their interview, the rest of the sons came in.  And he has around him now all 12 of his sons.  And this is his farewell message.  

Now a farewell message is very important, and he begins with his eldest son and just goes right down the list.  And you couldn’t have anything really more important than this.  It is dramatic.  Anything that a man says on his deathbed is important because you feel like at that time he’s telling the truth.  How many times have you heard of a deathbed confession?  A man waits until he gets really on his deathbed.  I was reading some time ago of a man up in his 80’s.  He was taken into a mission almost delirious; he was dying and he made a confession of a murder that had been committed over 50 years ago in Mississippi.  Another man had been hanged for that murder.  They thought he was just delirious.  They began the investigation, and they found out he was guilty; that he was the one who was guilty.  A man generally will tell the truth when he gets on his deathbed; that is, if he hasn’t told it before.

Now we see Jacob on his deathbed.  And let me begin reading here at Verse 1.

And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

Now we come to important expression.  There have been some folks that think I use certain expressions too much.  And by the way, I agree with them.  But you’re going to find out that there are certain expressions in the Bible that occur and reoccur again and again and again.  Now, one is right here:  “In the last days”.  Now the last days of the nation Israel will be different than the last days of the Church.  And here again will you have a sharp dispensational distinction that needs to be made.  

The last days now of Israel, that’s what he’s talking about; what’s going to happen to his son in the last days.  I was in seminary with a young man who was a Lutheran boy; a very brilliant young fellow.  The fact of the matter is he became a theology professor and a Hebrew professor, and either one of them requires quite a few brains, and this young man certainly had these.  I always enjoyed talking with him because he always had something new to offer because he did a great deal of study.  He told me one day that he was writing on the prophecies concerning the 12 sons of Jacob, and we’ll see a little later on, we get to the Book of Deuteronomy; they have become tribes then; each tribe with thousands in them.  And in those tribes, Moses has something to say, and he took those prophecies, one in this chapter and the one that Moses gave, and followed the tribes through.  Now a great many people today talk about the fact that there are certain prophecies concerning the nation Israel.  Many of them have been fulfilled; some are yet to be fulfilled.  Now that’s all true.  But you can narrow it down even less than that.  You can divide Israel into 12 parts, and God has had something to say concerning each one of these tribes of Israel.  And not only has the prophecy concerning the nation been fulfilled, but the prophecies concerning each tribe has been fulfilled.  And, Friends, that makes it remarkable indeed.  

So this is what’s going to befall them in “in the last days”.  Now some of the prophecy has been fulfilled, but most of it waits to be fulfilled.  Actually, more of what Moses had to say to the tribes has been fulfilled than what we have here, but it is quite remarkable, and all of it looks to the last days.

Now I read Verse 2 of Genesis 49.

Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

Now you must grant that this is quite a dramatic scene we have before us.  Here’s the old man, and he’s sitting up in bed.  I’ve seen pictures of him stretched out in bed and looked like he wouldn’t be able to raise his head.  But that’s not true.  He was leaning on his staff.  The last verse tells that; that he was leaning on his staff.  Old Jacob, frankly, Friends, he’d been on the go all of his life and he wanted to keep going.  Death is really an embarrassment; it comes at a most inconvenient time—when we want to keep going down here.  And if you made an appointment, you have to break that appointment.  How unusual this is.  I make all my appointments today on the condition that I’m alive.  I’ve got appointments made two years ahead.  I don’t know whether I’ll fulfill them or not.  And I always say, “Provided I’m alive.”  Well, Jacob found that he couldn’t keep going.  He was leaning on his staff.  He wanted to keep going, but he couldn’t keep going.  What a remarkable man he was in many ways.  We’ll see that when we come to it.  

Now notice what he has to say.  He begins with Reuben.  Verse 3:

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.  (Genesis 49:3-4)

The thing that he recognized, and all of these patriarchs recognized, is the great subject of heredity that’s been made so much of today.  “Like father, like son”—it’s transferred on to the son.  And Jacob is recognizing that.  And he recognized in this boy a great deal that was like himself.  “Unstable as water,” that had been this man at the beginning, you see; even Jacob, but it was true of his oldest son.  “Thou shalt not excel”—he never did win a blue ribbon.  He won a couple of red ribbons and some white ribbons.  He never was in first place.  “Thou shalt not excel.”  

There are a lot of folk like that today, and they’re satisfied with it.  I have a preacher friend.  He’s a wonderful man, but he could have gone so much farther than he did go.  Well, he didn’t want to go.  He had no desire than to just do and be what he wanted to.  He could have been a wonderful writer; he didn’t want to be.  I think he wrote two little pamphlets.  And he could have been a great Bible teacher; he didn’t want to be.  He was satisfied with winning a red ribbon; that’s second place.  And he never won a blue ribbon.  “Thou shalt not excel.”

“Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”  Now that is Reuben and his was a sorted story, you remember.  I didn’t dwell on it.  Those of you who have been with us through Genesis, I didn’t dwell on it at all, but it was there, and I’m sure many of you read it.  It was a sorted story.  I see no reason to dwell on that today.  

Contemporary literature and plays and movies and television, well, they’re making you sick of it, and I notice that even a great many liberals today who just decried censorship and everybody ought to be able to do his thing and speak what he wanted to speak, and freedom of speech—I noticed quite a few of them are writing now and saying their tired of the dirt and filth that’s coming out today.  Well, may I say there’s no reason to dwell on it, and certainly a Christian is told if there is anything pure, then think on those things.

Now notice the next two boys are put together. Simeon and Levi are brethren. They were full brothers; they were the sons, you will recall, of Leah.

Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.  (Genesis 49:5)

Remember how they went in among their neighbors and, of course, their own sister had been raped, and they didn’t appreciate that.  They killed though the entire habitation; only one man was guilty, but they took it out on the whole town.  They shouldn’t have done that.  And, believe me, Jacob reminds them.  Simeon and Levi are brethren in Verse 6.

O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall.  Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.  (Genesis 49:6-7)

Now Simeon was the southern-most tribe.  You would think that it would be identified with Judah and Benjamin.  But it’s not.  You never hear of them.  They had territory, but they seemed to have just sort-of faded away in the other tribes.  

And Levi, and here you see the marvelous grace of God!  And I want to tell you, Friends, this is the marvelous grace of God that you see exhibited in Levi.  It was the grace of God that could take a cruel person like Levi and make him head of the priestly tribe!  It’s the grace of God that has made us sinners into a kingdom of priests also, Friends.  All believers are priests today.  And how did you become that?  Well, among those there have been converted drunkards, converted harlots, and converted murderers.  I’ve had all of them in my churches that I’ve served.  May I say to you it’s the marvelous grace of God!  He says, “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”  (I Peter 1:18-19)  And then he goes on in I Peter 2:5 to say, “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”  Well, who is he talking about?  Those that have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

Now will you notice, that’s these two boys.  And by the way, Reuben lost first place.  Simeon and Levi really lost first place.  The King will not come from them.  But there’s another boy, and he was a sinner—but notice what the grace of God did for him.  Verse 8:

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

This is the one—not now before Joseph’s line—but from now on, it will be Judah because who came out of the tribe of Judah?  Well, the Lord Jesus.  Verse 9:

Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

Now here’s one of the most remarkable prophecies in Scripture!  Verse 10, I’m reading it.

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come  (That’s the ruler); and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.  (Genesis 49:10)

Now, frankly, this is one of the more remarkable prophecies that’s in the Word of God.  Already we have been told that it will be the “seed of the woman” back in Genesis 3:15 where God says, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  The seed of the woman is the one to do the bruising of the serpent’s head.  He’ll be the one to get the victory!  That’s the first prophecy.  

Then that seed was confirmed to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.  Now it’s confirmed to Judah!  That out of Judah’s line he’s coming.  Not only that, but he’s called Shiloh; that means “rest/tranquility”.  He’s the One that will bring rest.  And the people who heard him in that day when they rejected him, remember he turned to the populace, to the multitudes and He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will rest you” (Matthew 11:28).  That’s Shiloh.  Shiloh had come

Not only the seed; not only Shiloh, but the scepter—Christ—he’s the one that will hold the scepter!  And, Friends, the scepter of this universe is in nail-pierced hands today.  Not only that—but we are told a little later on in Verse 24 (of Chapter 49), it says, “From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.”  He’s called a Shepherd.  He’s also called in that same passage a Stone and over in Numbers 24:17 in the prophecy of Balaam, a Star.  So with the coming of Christ, he is the Seed, he’s Shiloh who brings rest, he’s the One that holds the sceptre.  He is the Shepherd that gave his life, and he’s the Chief Shepherd who is coming some day.  He is the Stone that the builders disallowed, but is now become the head stone of the corner, and he’s the Star, the bright and morning Star for his Church today.  

This is the line from Adam.  And Able was murdered, and God raised up another seed, Seth—Seth to Noah, and Noah through Shem, and Shem to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah!  May I say to you, you can be blind and still see that God is moving according to a pattern and according to a program here.  This is very important to see!  And don’t miss it!  Now I’m dealing with this prophecy which I consider all-important here, and we’ll just have to hit some high points from here on.  

Now we come at Verse 11 here.  It still has to do with Judah.  It says here:

Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.  (Genesis 49:11-12)

What are we talking about here?  Here’s the one that came riding into Jerusalem, riding a little donkey, offering himself as the Messiah, the King, the Savior, and he washed his garments in wine.  What kind of wine?  Well, that’s blood—his own blood!  But he’s coming next time, and Isaiah said he has dyed garments, and it’s not his own blood this time, but the blood of his enemies.  And his eyes shall be red with wine—that’s when he comes a second time.  My Friends, this is one of the most remarkable prophecies we have in Scripture and there are a great many remarkable prophecies!  

Now we have here in Zebulun, Verse 13; he’s another one of the boys.  And I don’t care to dwell with these too much other than they’re remarkable prophecies.  

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.  

And he was the northern-most tribe on the coast.  Actually, Dan went farther north up to Mt. Herman, but along the coast Zebulun went up farther north.

Then we have Issachar next in Verse 14-15.

Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.

Now this tribe and these tribes in this area to the North, and that’s where they were finally located by the way, they were the ones that did a great deal of the work that constituted the backbone of the nation.  That is the whole thought and intent here.  They were the workers.  We’ve heard a great deal about the Silent Majority today, and actually the average person—the one like you and I are today—we don’t get on television.  I don’t think we want on.  Who do they put on TV?  They feature the weirdoes, the so-called greats, the peculiar crowd, the unusual; that’s the ones today.   But the crowds that they try to make you believe are the important ones today; they’re not the backbone of this nation or any nation.  The ones that are the backbone of this country,  and actually these tribes that you and I pass over here, they were really the backbone of the nation Israel when they got in the land.  

But we’re going to have to pick up right there next time and move on.  We will finish the Book of Genesis at our next session together.