Genesis 49:22–26
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We come now in Jacob's final prophecy to the blessing he pronounces on his favored son, Joseph. And we must understand what a patriarchal blessing is. This is not wishful thinking from a dying man. This is a father, acting in his capacity as a covenant head, speaking God's determined future into the lives of his sons and their descendants. What Jacob says here is not what he hopes will happen; it is what God has declared will happen. He is speaking by the Spirit, establishing the trajectory of tribes that will become a nation. The blessing on Joseph is the longest and arguably the richest of all the blessings. Joseph is the preeminent type of Christ in the book of Genesis. From that position, he saves the very brothers who betrayed him, and indeed, saves the world.