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"Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law." Proverbs 29:18

Text: Genesis 49:1-33

INSIGHTS OF A WISE FATHER

With tremendous effort, Jacob roused himself to address all his sons. This is the only recorded incident where he spoke to his sons in this manner. Perhaps he had tried to advise his sons in the past, and if he did, they certainly did not show that they were in a learning mode. In Egypt, and in the presence of Joseph, whom the brothers still feared, Israel made a supreme effort to give to them important words of “revelation”. The last words of a dying man must carry even more weight, especially when those words were revelations from the Lord!

The words of Israel may be roughly divided in two categories.

1. Stern words of warning

These words were spoken bluntly to the sons who had been very wayward in the past! Had they understood the nature of their sins? They must pay close heed or run the risk of reaping disastrous consequences.

2. Comforting words of blessing

There were words of special encouragement and comfort. These must be kept close to the heart and their wisdom practised in life diligently. Only then would there be the fullness of blessing!

ADDRESSING EACH AND EVERY SON

The Lord had planned to bless all the sons of Jacob. However, their sins might stand in the way of the intended blessings! No effort was spared to warn and to guide the sons with reference to the future! (Jacob did not address his sons in the strict order of their age, though he did begin with Reuben the firstborn, and ended with Benjamin his last son. (Cf. Genesis 29-30 for the order of the birth of the sons of Jacob).

A WORD OF REPRIMAND FOR REUBEN, THE FIRSTBORN

The first words uttered were both solemn and painful to the ears of Reuben, but deep in his heart, he knew that he must heed these words of reprimand.

“Reuben, you are my firstborn.
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you went up to your father’s bed, then you defiled it –
He went up to my couch.”
GENESIS 49:3-4

The potential of Reuben was one to be marked by “excellency”. Reuben could have been blessed mightily in both dignity and power, but for his ruinous unstable character! Because he had allowed his sinful nature to get the better of him, he would not excel in life! This string word of admonition set the tone of Jacob’s formal address to his sons. This was not a sentimental deathbed scene of a doting father blessing his sons!