CHAPTER 49

(1689 B.C.)

THE PROPHECY

¹And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. (This Chapter forms one of the great dispensational prophecies of the Word of God. It concerns the latter days, and the last days. This is the first occurrence of this expression: the last days.

The Prophecy may be thus divided: Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the moral history of Israel up to the First Advent; Judah, the apparition of the Messiah and His rejection; Zebulun and Issachar, the dispersion and subjugation of the Jews among the Gentiles; Dan, the appearing and kingdom of the Antichrist. Gad, Asher, and Naphtali present the cry of anguish of the elect sons of Israel for the Second Coming of Christ. Joseph and Benjamin together predict the Second Coming, in glory, of Israels Messiah Williams.)

²Gather yourselves together and hear, you sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. (In Verses 1 and 2, the Holy Spirit impresses the use of both names, Jacob and Israel. As the twelve sons gather in his presence, he is referred to as Jacob; however, when it refers to the prophecies that will be given, he is referred to by his princely name, Israel.)

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power (this is what Reuben should have been):

⁴Unstable as water, you shall not excel (no Prophet, Ruler, or great man sprang out of Reuben); because you went up to your fathers bed; then you defiled it: he went up to my couch (35:22).

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers (guilty of the same sin); instruments of cruelty are in their habitations (34:25-29).

⁶O my soul, do not come into their secret (secret plottings to murder the Shechemites); unto their assembly (preparation for the slaughter), my honor, with them do not be united (Jacob had no part in the slaughter of the Shechemites): for in their anger they killed a man, and in their selfwill they dug down a wall (in their taking matters into their own hands, instead of following the Lord, they greatly hindered the protective wall of the Lord around Jacob).

⁷Cursed 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. (The Tribe of Simeon, when coming into the Land of Israel several centuries into the future, would have no inheritance, but, in fact, would have their part in the inheritance of Judah. As well, Levi would have no inheritance at all, but would have their curse turned into a blessing as they became the Priestly Tribe of Israel, but yet scattered over the nation, fulfilling the prophecy.)

⁸Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise (the name Judah means praise, and it is from this Tribe that the Messiah would come): Your hand shall be in the neck of Your enemies (speaks of the great victory that Christ would win over Satan and all the powers of darkness at the Cross [Col. 2:14-15]); your fathers children shall bow down before You (Israel will do this at the Second Coming).

⁹Judah is a lions whelp (refers to a young lion, in the power of its youth, absolutely invincible; this represented Christ in the flower of His manhood, full of the Holy Spirit, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, and doing great and mighty things, with every demon spirit trembling at His Feet): from the prey (the lion is always seeking the prey, never the prey seeking the lion), My Son (Jesus is the Son of God), You are gone up (meaning that Christ is always on the offensive): He stooped down, He couched as a lion (a rampant lion, standing on his hind feet, ready to pounce, which, in fact, was the emblem of the Tribe of Judah), and as an old lion (referring to one ripening into its full strength and ferocity); who shall rouse Him up? (Who would be so foolish as to contest the absolute invincibility of Christ?)

¹⁰The sceptre shall not depart from Judah (the Sceptre is defined as a staff of office and authority, which pertains to Christ), nor a Lawgiver from between His Feet (refers to the fact that Judah was meant to be a guardian of the Law, which they were; the Temple was in Jerusalem, which was a part of the Tribe of Judah, and which had to do with the Law), until Shiloh come (when Jesus came, typified by the name Shiloh, Who, in fact, was, and is, the True Lawgiver, He fulfilled the Law in totality by His Life and His Death, thereby satisfying all of its just demands); and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be (the only way to God the Father is through Christ the Son; the only way to Christ the Son is through the Cross; the only way to the Cross is through an abnegation of self [Lk. 9:23-24]).

¹¹Binding his foal unto the vine (the Vine speaks of fruit, and, in fact, the blood of grapes, which speaks of what He did on the Cross in the shedding of His Lifes Blood, in order to bring forth this fruit [Jn. 15:1]), and his animals colt unto the choice vine; He washed His Garments in wine, and His clothes in the blood of grapes (all of this speaks of the Cross, and Him washing His Garments in wine, i.e., in blood):

¹²His Eyes shall be red with wine (His eyes ever toward the Cross), and His Teeth white with milk (speaks of the Righteousness of Christ; it is Righteousness which He has always had, but now is made possible to us, due to what He did in His Sufferings, i.e., the blood of grapes).

¹³Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships (this portrayal of Zebulun is not so much geographical as it is occupational; the closest that this Tribe came to the Mediterranean was about 10 miles; however, the great trade routes from north to south, etc., went through Zebulun, with them being very active in commerce); and his border shall be unto Zidon (should have been translated, And his borders shall be towards Zidon).

¹⁴Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

¹⁵And he saw (Issachar saw) that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear (the Tribe of Issachar bordered the Jordan River and, as a result, favored some of the best agricultural areas in all of Israel), and became a servant unto tribute (has to do with agricultural pursuits, and not subjugation by another nation).

¹⁶Dan shall judge his people, as one of the Tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. (Dan had the ability to bear rule, yet became a treacherous serpent. It is certainly observable that the first introduction of idolatry in Israel is ascribed to the Tribe of Dan [Judg., Chpt. 18] and, in the numbering of the Tribes of Revelation, Chapter 7, the name Dan is omitted.

As well, it is believed that the Antichrist, who will be Jewish, will spring from the Tribe of Dan, once again likened to an adder in the path, a most venomous serpent.)

¹⁸I have waited for Your Salvation, O LORD (speaks of the Second Coming).

¹⁹Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last (Gad will be overcome by the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation, but shall overcome at the last, which speaks of the Second Coming).

²⁰Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. (Asher could well be the first of the Tribes to welcome Christ upon His Second Coming. The phrase, yield royal dainties, pertains to an excellent presentation for the King. That King is the Lord Jesus Christ.)

²¹Naphtali is a hind (a female deer) let loose: he gives goodly words. (Naphtali will have wonderful words for Christ upon His return. They will be words of repentance [Zech. 13:1].)

²²Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall (Joseph, as Judah, is a Type of Christ, hence the flowing and glowing superlatives. Judah is portrayed as Christ in His sufferings; while Joseph is portrayed as Christ in His Millennial Blessings):

²³The archers have sorely grieved Him, and shot at Him, and hated Him (all speaks of what Israel did to Christ):

²⁴But His Bow abode in strength, and the Arms of His Hands were made strong by the Hands of the mighty God of Jacob (Christ did, despite the opposition, what He came to do, which refers to the Cross); (from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel:) (Christ is referred to here by two names, Shepherd and Stone of Israel.)

²⁵Even by the God of Your Father, Who shall help You (it is Christ Alone Who enjoys the Blessings of the Father; and those Blessings come upon Him in every manner); and by the Almighty, Who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lie under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb (we must understand that God does not bless man, per se, but rather He blesses Christ; if one is in Christ, then one is blessed):

²⁶The Blessings of Your Father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors (ancestors) unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills (as long as the hills last, the Blessings of God will last; inasmuch as the hills are everlasting, this means that the Blessings of God, through Christ, are everlasting, as well): they shall be on the head of Joseph (the Blessings will be upon Christ, of Whom Joseph was a Type), and on the crown of the head of Him Who was separate from His Brethren (even though Christ was a man, still, He was separate from all other men, and because, as well, He was the Son of God).

²⁷Benjamin shall ravin (something seized as prey) as a wolf (the Tribe of Benjamin may very well be the leading Tribe to oppose the Antichrist; it is plain by this that Jacob was guided in what he said by the Spirit of Prophecy, and not by natural affection; else he would have spoken with more tenderness of his beloved son Benjamin): in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil (could well take place during the coming Great Tribulation, as the Tribe of Benjamin fully opposes the Antichrist).

²⁸All these are the Twelve Tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spoke unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them (even though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi were under the marks of their fathers displeasure, yet he is said to bless them, every one according to his blessing; for none of them were rejected as Esau).

²⁹And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite (the heart of the Patriarch was not set upon the wealth of his luxurious bedchamber, but was far away in Gods chosen land; we, as well, must ever remember that while we are in the world, we must not be of the world; our treasure is elsewhere),

³⁰In 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 for a possession of a buryingplace (the great Patriarch never allowed all of the splendor of Egypt and its ease to turn his Faith from its correct object; it was ever in Christ and the Cross).

³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. (His demand that he be buried where Abraham and Isaac were buried proclaimed, within itself, and made a statement, that all of these were staking a claim to the entirety of the land. God had promised it to them, and ultimately that Promise would be realized.)

³²The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.

THE DEATH OF JACOB

³³And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. (The last hours of the great Patriarch were filled with prophecies and predictions concerning the Twelve Tribes of Israel, which would ultimately bring the Redeemer into the world. He died when that Prophecy was uttered, but he did not die until it was uttered. It must be said of Jacob that he kept the Faith that was once delivered unto Abraham and his father Isaac. He had not allowed that torch to fall to the ground, or even be dimmed. At his death, it burned brightly and, in fact, brighter than ever.)