Jacob Blesses His Sons

At the end of Genesis 47, God's promise is plain to see: “So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly” (47:27). God's promise to make Abraham's family a great nation is coming true. Seventeen years. Jacob lives in Egypt seventeen more years, and his whole life is one hundred and forty-seven years (47:28). He had once thought he would die mourning for Joseph. Instead he lived near him. Jacob's last request. When his time draws near, Jacob calls Joseph and asks for an oath: “Please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers” (47:29-30). Putting a hand under the thigh was a very serious way of making a promise; Abraham's servant did it too (24:2, 9). Why it mattered. Egypt was comfortable, and Joseph was powerful there. But Canaan was the land God had promised. By asking to be buried there, Jacob showed he trusted God's promise more than Egypt. Worship at the end. “Swear to me.” Joseph swears, “and Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed” (47:31). Hebrews remembers this moment as faith: “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21). Jacob's life had plenty of failures, but he finished worshiping the God who had kept him.

In 47:27-31 the nation keeps growing, and Jacob prepares to die. Fruitfulness (47:27). “Grew and multiplied exceedingly” (vayyifru vayyirbu, say: vai-yif-ROO vai-yir-BOO) uses the same words as God's blessing in Genesis 1:28 and His promises to Abraham and Jacob (35:11). Exodus 1:7 opens with the same words. The blessing God spoke at creation was coming true in Goshen. The oath (47:29). The hand-under-the-thigh oath is found only here and at 24:2. Jacob asked Joseph to act with chesed ve'emet (say: KHEH-sed veh-eh-MET), “kindly and truly,” which joins loyal love and faithfulness, the words of covenant. Jacob asked to be buried in Machpelah (49:29-32). The only land the family owned in Canaan was a grave, and Jacob wanted his body to wait there for God's promise. Bed or staff (47:31)? The Hebrew letters mth can be read mittah (say: mit-TAH), bed, as our Hebrew Bibles have it, or matteh (say: mat-TEH), staff, as the old Greek translation read it. Hebrews 11:21 follows the Greek: “worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.” Either way, a dying man is worshiping God, and the New Testament calls it faith. Jacob's faith at the end. Hebrews 11 remembers Jacob for how he finished. For much of his life he grabbed at blessings for himself. At the end he was blessing others and worshiping God. His last request showed he trusted a promise he would not live to see come true. God had been patient with Jacob his whole life, and Jacob finished well.

Jacob's family lives in Goshen for many years. They have lots of children. God is making them a great nation, just as He promised. Jacob lives to be one hundred forty-seven. When he knows he is about to die, he calls Joseph. “Please do not bury me in Egypt.” “Bury me with my family in Canaan.” Why does Jacob care so much? Canaan is the land God promised to his family. Jacob believes God will keep that promise. So he wants to be buried there. Joseph promises to do it. Then old Jacob bows his head and worships God. Even at the end, Jacob trusted God's promise.

Jacob was very old. He asked Joseph, “Bury me in Canaan.” Joseph made a promise, and Jacob worshiped God.

Joseph brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to their grandfather (48:8-9). Jacob's eyes are “dim with age, so that he could not see” (48:10). A grandfather's joy. Jacob kisses and hugs the boys and says, “I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!” (48:11). Offspring means children. The man who thought he had lost his son is now holding his grandsons. The crossed hands. Joseph carefully places Manasseh, the firstborn, near Jacob's right hand, the hand of the greater blessing. But Jacob crosses his arms and lays his right hand on Ephraim, the younger, “guiding his hands knowingly” (48:14). He is blind, but he knows exactly what he is doing. “I know, my son, I know.” Joseph is displeased and tries to move his father's hand (48:17-18). Jacob refuses: “He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he” (48:19). A pattern in Genesis. Again and again God chooses the younger: Isaac rather than Ishmael, Jacob rather than Esau, Joseph rather than his older brothers, and now Ephraim before Manasseh. God told Rebekah, “The older shall serve the younger” (Romans 9:12). That does not mean the older ones were unloved; Manasseh is blessed too. It means God's blessing is His free gift, not something we earn by being first.

In 48:8-20 Jacob adopts and blesses Joseph's sons, and he puts the younger one first. Blind but knowing (48:10, 14). Jacob's dim eyes remind us of Isaac's in 27:1, when Jacob himself tricked his father to get the firstborn's blessing. This time there was no trick. Jacob “guided his hands knowingly” (sikkel et-yadav, say: sik-KEL et-yah-DAV), crossing them on purpose. The blessing (48:15-16). Jacob gave three titles for God in three lines: the God before whom Abraham and Isaac walked; “the God who has fed me all my life long” (haro'eh oti, say: hah-roh-EH oh-TEE, who shepherded me); and “the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil” (hammal'ach haggo'el, say: ham-mal-AKH hag-goh-EL). A go'el is the kinsman-redeemer who rescues a family member. The shepherd picture points ahead to Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and to Jesus' words, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). Joseph's objection (48:17-18). Even Joseph, the favored younger son of 37:3, tried to protect the firstborn's place. Jacob answered, “I know, my son, I know” (48:19). He meant to do it. The pattern. Again and again in Genesis, God passed over the oldest son: Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Perez (38:29) and Ephraim. Romans 9:11-12 quotes God's word in 25:23 to show that God's choice is “not of works but of Him who calls.” 1 Corinthians 1:27 says the same thing more broadly: “God has chosen the weak things of the world.” The blessing words (48:20). “May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!” became Israel's blessing for its sons. Both boys were born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, yet God counted them fully among the tribes.

Joseph brings his two sons to old Jacob. Manasseh is the older one. Ephraim is the younger one. Usually the oldest son got the biggest blessing. So Joseph puts Manasseh by Jacob's right hand. The right hand meant the bigger blessing. But Jacob crosses his arms! He puts his right hand on Ephraim. Joseph thinks it is a mistake. “I know, my son, I know,” Jacob says. He is doing it on purpose. God often chose the younger one in Genesis. He chose Jacob over Esau too. God's blessings are gifts, not prizes we earn.

Jacob blessed Joseph's two boys. He crossed his hands on purpose. God chose the younger boy for the bigger blessing.

Before he dies, Jacob calls his sons: “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days” (49:1). Befall means happen to. Some of his words are hard; Reuben, Simeon and Levi hear about wrongs they did (49:3-7). But his words to Judah are full of hope. “Your brothers shall praise you.” “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise” (49:8). It is a play on his name. When Leah named him, she said, “Now I will praise the Lord” (29:35). The brother who once proposed selling Joseph, and later offered himself for Benjamin, is given the leading place. The lion and the scepter. “Judah is a lion's whelp” — a young lion (49:9). Then: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people” (49:10). A scepter is the rod a king holds. Kings would come from Judah's family. Fulfilled. King David came from Judah. And the angel told Mary about her Son: “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Luke 1:32-33). Revelation calls the risen Jesus “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5). Jacob's death. Jacob asks to be buried in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah and Leah (49:29-32). Then “he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people” (49:33).

Chapter 49 is poetry, Jacob's last words to the twelve tribes. Here we look at the opening and closing (49:1-2, 28-33) and at the words to Judah (49:8-12). “The last days” (49:1). Be'acharit hayyamim (say: beh-akh-ah-REET hai-yah-MEEM), “in the latter days,” looks past the sons' own lives to the future of their tribes. Later prophets use the same phrase for the age to come. Praise (49:8). Yehudah, attah yoducha achecha (say: yeh-hoo-DAH, at-TAH yoh-DOO-khah ah-KHEH-khah), “Judah, your brothers shall praise you,” is a play on the name Leah gave him in 29:35. The older brothers were passed over (49:3-7), and Judah, the man God had changed in chapters 37–44, received the royal blessing. The scepter (49:10). Shevet (say: SHEH-vet), scepter or tribal staff, and mechoqeq (say: meh-khoh-KEK), ruler's staff or lawgiver, are signs of a king. “Until Shiloh comes” is hard to translate. It may be a name, a place, or a phrase meaning until he comes to whom it belongs. What is clear is that a ruler would come from Judah, and the last line, “to Him shall be the obedience of the people,” shows that His rule would reach the nations. The New Testament. Hebrews 7:14 says, “our Lord arose from Judah.” Matthew's family line of Jesus includes “Jacob begot Judah and his brothers” (Matthew 1:2). Revelation 5:5 calls the risen Christ “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” Jesus is the King this promise was waiting for. Plenty (49:11-12). Wine so plentiful that it washes clothes is a picture of a rich and fruitful reign. Death (49:33). “He breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.” The same words were used for Abraham (25:8) and Isaac (35:29), and they speak of joining those who went before.

Jacob calls all twelve sons together. He tells each one about the future. Some of his words are hard to hear. But his words to Judah are full of hope. “Your brothers will praise you.” Do you remember what Judah's name means? It sounds like the word for praise! “You are like a young lion,” Jacob says. “Kings will come from your family.” Many years later, King David came from Judah's family. And later still, Jesus was born in that family. The Bible calls Jesus “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Then Jacob finishes speaking and dies. His family will bury him in Canaan.

Jacob said Judah was like a lion. Kings would come from his family. Jesus, the King of kings, came from Judah's family!

Jacob is buried in Canaan, and the brothers come back to Egypt (50:1-14). Then an old fear comes back. “Perhaps Joseph will hate us.” “When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him’” (50:15). Seventeen years after Joseph forgave them, they still wonder whether it was real. A message and an offer. They send word, in their father's name, asking Joseph to forgive “the trespass of your brothers and their sin” (50:17). Then they fall down before him: “Behold, we are your servants” (50:18). Trespass means wrongdoing. They are trying to make their forgiveness secure. Joseph weeps. “And Joseph wept when they spoke to him” (50:17). “Am I in the place of God?” “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (50:19-20). Joseph will not take God's place as judge. And he sees God's hand over the whole story. Kindness. “I will provide for you and your little ones.” He “comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (50:21). Joseph's last words. At one hundred and ten, Joseph is dying. “God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land” (50:24). He makes them promise to carry his bones to Canaan (50:25). Genesis ends with a coffin in Egypt — and a promise that God is not finished.

50:15-26 closes Genesis with comfort and hope. Fear returns (50:15). The brothers' “Perhaps” (lu, say: LOO) shows that seventeen years of kindness had not fully quieted their guilty consciences. They thought Joseph had been kind only because their father was alive. The message (50:16-17). The brothers sent a message in Jacob's name, asking Joseph to forgive them. They called themselves “the servants of the God of your father,” reminding Joseph that they shared the same faith. Joseph's tears answered the fear behind their message. “Am I in the place of God?” (50:19). Hatachat Elohim ani (say: ha-TAKH-at eh-loh-HEEM ah-NEE). Tachat, in place of, is the same word as in Judah's offer, “instead of the lad” (44:33). Judah offered to stand in place of his brother; Joseph refused to stand in the place of God. Vengeance belongs to God (Romans 12:19), and Joseph would not grab it. Two plans (50:20). Attem chashavtem alai ra'ah, Elohim chashavah letovah (say: at-TEM kha-shav-TEM ah-LAI rah-AH, eh-loh-HEEM kha-shah-VAH leh-toh-VAH). The same verb, to plan, is used for the brothers and for God, and God's plan comes with its purpose: “to save many people alive.” Spoke to their hearts (50:21). “Spoke kindly to them” literally means “spoke to their hearts” (vaydabber al-libbam, say: vai-dab-BER al-lib-BAHM). Joseph gently reassured them. The visit (50:24-25). Pakod yifkod (say: pah-KOHD yif-KOHD), “God will surely visit you,” doubles the verb to make it certain. In Exodus 3:16 God says, “I have surely visited you.” Moses carried Joseph's bones out of Egypt (Exodus 13:19), and they were buried at Shechem (Joshua 24:32). Hebrews 11:22 calls Joseph's request faith. Genesis ends with “a coffin in Egypt” (50:26), but God's visit was on its way.

After Jacob dies, the brothers get scared. “Maybe Joseph was only kind because of Father.” “Maybe now he will pay us back.” So they send Joseph a message. “Please forgive us.” Then they bow down and say, “We are your slaves.” Joseph cries. He had already forgiven them long ago! “Do not be afraid,” he says. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” He promises to take care of them. Many years later, Joseph is about to die. “God will surely visit you,” he says. “Take my bones with you to Canaan.”

After Jacob died, the brothers were scared. Joseph said, “God meant it for good.” He was kind to them and took care of them.