Genesis 49:20
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
When we come to a passage like this, where the patriarch Jacob is blessing his twelve sons, our modern sensibilities are tempted to treat it as a collection of quaint, slightly cryptic fortune cookie sayings. We see a little bit about lions, a little about snakes, and here, a little something about good food. But we must resist this temptation with all our might. Jacob, speaking by the Holy Spirit, is laying down the blueprints for the nation of Israel, and by extension, he is providing types and shadows of the coming age of the Messiah. Each of these blessings is a covenantal trajectory, a word from God that will shape the identity and destiny of each tribe for centuries to come. They are spoken realities that will work their way out in the soil of Canaan, in the courts of kings, and ultimately, in the pews of the Church.