Grace for the Disqualified Text: Deuteronomy 33:6
Introduction: The Ghost of Past Failures
We live in a world that is haunted by its past. Our secular culture, for all its bravado about progress and moving on, is utterly obsessed with grievances, with historical injustices, and with the sins of the fathers. At the same time, it is a culture that offers no real mechanism for atonement, no possibility of grace, and no hope of a future unburdened by the past. It offers only condemnation, cancellation, and the perpetual reopening of old wounds. It remembers every sin and forgives none of them.
But this is not just a problem for the culture at large; it is a deeply personal and spiritual battle for every believer. We all have a history. We all have a Reuben in our family tree, and more often than not, we have played the part of Reuben ourselves. We have moments of folly, moments of shameful compromise, and moments of such instability that we wonder how God could possibly build anything straight with a crooked stick like us. We hear the echoes of past failures, the whispers of old accusations, and we are tempted to believe that our future is defined and limited by them. We hear the curse of Jacob and assume it is the final word.
Into this very human predicament, the Word of God speaks a surprising and potent grace. As Moses, the man of God, comes to the end of his life, he pronounces a final blessing over the tribes of Israel. And when he comes to the firstborn, to the tribe that ought to have been preeminent but had long since been disqualified, he does not repeat the curse. He speaks a blessing that seems to fly in the face of all precedent. He speaks life over a legacy of death. This is not Moses being sentimental in his old age. This is a revelation of the very heart of God's covenant faithfulness. God's grace is not for the qualified. It is for the disqualified. And in the blessing of Reuben, we see a profound picture of the gospel, a picture of how God in Christ deals with our unstable and treacherous hearts.
The Text
"May Reuben live and not die,
Nor his men be few."
(Deuteronomy 33:6 LSB)
The Curse Remembered
To understand the sheer, unadulterated grace in this verse, we must first go back several centuries to the deathbed of Jacob. As the patriarch is blessing his sons, which is to say, as he is prophesying their future destinies, he comes to Reuben, his firstborn.
"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable 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!" (Genesis 49:3-4 LSB)
This is a devastating pronouncement. Reuben had all the rights of the firstborn. He had the right to the double portion, the right to the priesthood of the family, and the right to rule. He was, by birth, set to be the leader. But his character, or lack thereof, betrayed his calling. His sin with Bilhah, his father's concubine (Gen. 35:22), was not simply a sordid act of lust. In the ancient world, to take the king's concubine was a direct play for the throne. It was an act of profound disrespect and rebellion, an attempt to usurp his father's authority. It was treason.
And so Jacob, speaking by the Spirit, declares the consequence. Reuben is "unstable as water." The Hebrew word here speaks of recklessness, of frothing, boiling passion without self-control. And because of this instability, he would not excel. He would not have the preeminence. The birthright was forfeited. The leadership would pass to another, to Judah, from whom the kings would come. The double portion would go to Joseph. Reuben was set aside, disqualified by his own foolish rebellion.
And the subsequent history of the tribe of Reuben bears this out. No judge, no prophet, no king of any note ever came from Reuben. When it came time to settle in the promised land, the tribe of Reuben, along with Gad, saw the good pastureland on the east side of the Jordan and decided that was good enough for them (Numbers 32). They settled for a blessing on the fringe, outside the heartland of God's promise. They were characterized by a certain mediocrity, a lack of spiritual ambition. They were present, but not preeminent. The curse of Jacob was working itself out in their history. They were unstable, and they did not excel.
The Blessing Pronounced (v. 6)
Now, with that history firmly in mind, listen again to the words of Moses. The lawgiver, the man who has spent forty years leading this stiff-necked people, is about to die. He knows their history. He knows Reuben's failure. And yet, this is what he says:
"May Reuben live and not die, Nor his men be few." (Deuteronomy 33:6 LSB)
This is not a blessing of preeminence. Moses does not reverse Jacob's prophecy. He does not say, "Reuben will be king." The consequences of sin are real and they have historical traction. But what Moses speaks is a blessing of preservation. It is a blessing of life in the face of a sentence of dwindling and death. "May Reuben live and not die."
This is a prayer, a prophetic declaration, that despite Reuben's legacy of failure, God will not allow the tribe to be extinguished. In the face of their disqualification, God's covenant mercy will persist. The name of Reuben will not be blotted out from Israel. This is grace, pure and simple. Reuben did nothing to deserve this. The tribe had done nothing to earn a reversal. This is a raw, sovereign act of divine favor. God is not finished with Reuben.
And the second clause reinforces the first: "Nor his men be few." This is a direct counter-blessing to the natural consequences of their instability and their choice to live on the dangerous eastern frontier, exposed to enemies. A dwindling population would have been the expected outcome. But Moses prays for, and prophesies, their continuation. They will not be a great nation, but they will be a nation. They will survive. God, in His mercy, will sustain them.
What we are seeing here is the difference between the word of a man, even a great patriarch like Jacob, and the covenant word of God. Jacob spoke the truth about the consequences of Reuben's sin. But Moses speaks the truth about the tenacity of God's grace. Sin has consequences, yes. But for the people of God, sin is never the last word. Grace is the last word.
The Gospel for the Unstable
This blessing on Reuben is a signpost pointing straight to the Lord Jesus Christ. For who are we, but Reuben? We are the firstborn of creation, Adam's race, given dominion and made to be preeminent. And like Reuben, we committed a treasonous act in the garden. We sought to usurp the authority of our Father. We defiled His creation. And the result was a curse: "you shall surely die." We were judged to be unstable, untrustworthy, and we were disqualified from our birthright.
Our history, like Reuben's, is one of consistent failure. Left to ourselves, we do not excel. We settle for the pasturelands of this world instead of pressing into the heart of God's promises. We are spiritually mediocre, prone to wander, and deserving of nothing but to be diminished and ultimately cut off.
But then another Moses, a greater prophet, stands up to speak a final blessing. Jesus Christ, at the end of His earthly ministry, does not pronounce upon us the curse we deserve. He takes that curse upon Himself. He goes to the cross and fully absorbs the sentence of death that was upon us. He dies the death that Reuben deserved, that Adam deserved, that you and I deserve.
And having exhausted the curse, He now speaks a blessing of pure, unmerited grace over His people. He says to us, "Live, and do not die." He says, "Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19). He blesses us not with extinction, but with existence. And more than that, He says our "men will not be few." He is gathering a people for Himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation, a great multitude that no one can number (Rev. 7:9). He is building His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
Conclusion: Live, and Do Not Die
The blessing on Reuben is therefore a profound comfort to every Christian who is haunted by past failures. Your sin may have cost you your preeminence in certain areas. There are real-world consequences to our foolishness, and grace does not magically erase them all. You may have forfeited a particular birthright through your instability. You might feel like you are living on the east side of the Jordan, on the fringes, when you could have been in the heartland.
All of that may be true. But the gospel declares a greater truth over you. Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the fundamental blessing of Moses rests upon you. "Live, and do not die." God is not finished with you. Your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, and it will not be blotted out. He has promised to preserve you, to keep you, to sustain you all the way to the end.
Your past does not have the final say. Your instability does not have the final say. Your sin does not have the final say. The cross and the empty tomb have the final say. And the word from the throne of grace to you today is this: "May Reuben live." In Christ, you are no longer defined by your disqualification, but by His qualification. You are no longer under the curse of Jacob, but under the blessing of God. Therefore, take up this blessing. Believe it. Live in the strength of it. Live, and do not die, for Christ has purchased your life.