Genesis 49 – See the way God sees, even as we will never be able to see fully what He sees

This chapter tells the story of Jacob’s last day. On his death bed he pronounced the prophecy and blessings for each of his sons, the twelve tribes of Israel. Explicitly He mentioned, for the days to come – affirming Israel to be a nation.

There was a significant change and mystery of the way Jacob blessed. He did not maintain the firstborn blessings and right anymore, as Isaac did. And if we remember in last chapter, he did the humorous thing as well to cross his hand to bless Eprhaim first instead of Mannaseh.

The blessings (and rebuke) that Jacob declared, carried some of the past mistakes the sons did, i.e. Reuben’s mistake of laying with Jacob’s concubine and the violence of Simeon and Levi.

The prophecy for Judah is a cornerstone one, for from that one, we had David from the line of Judah and so is the Messiah, Christ.

As you can see the blessings for Judah was quite long.

And of course Jacob still blessed Joseph specially, signifying the importance of Joseph too.

Reading this last message is a mix of short and long term prophecy. The one for Judah is crucial for the prophecy of Messiah. Some said, Judah had it because of his willingness to stay on behalf of Benjamin, but no mention of that in the text, I’d rather put it as God’s sovereignity.

Finally Jacob closed his eyes, in the arms of Joseph and his eyes closed by Joseph.

His last message was to ask to be buried at the burial site of Abraham, Sara, Isaac and Leah, which was the site purchased from Ephron.

Someone told me before, the importance of Leah over Rachel because Leah was buried there and not Rachel, I think thats not true, it’s just practical thing because Rachel died on the journey and last chapter Jacob still mentioned about Rachel’s death sadly, implying his love to Rachel was to the end.

In life, we learn to see the way God sees, but no matter what, we will never be able to see exactly the length of His sight, and for that, that we cannot see, there is this thing to help us to see – that thing is called faith.

The story of Jacob is actually the longest in Genesis, it spans from Ch 25-49, from birth to death.