Story 72 Jacob’s Blessings as Curses
Once Jacob had put these wide and powerful blessings on the sons of Joseph, he called all of his sons together. He said, “‘Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.’” Then Jacob began to tell each son, starting with the oldest, about what lay ahead for them in the sight of God. For you see, what Jacob was about to give were not only blessings. They were also prophecies of the future from the Lord who knows all things.
Many of these blessings are curious because they almost seem like curses. They tell a son of Jacob their doom in the future. Yet these are actually great protections. For example, read the first blessing, given to Reuben;
“‘Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength,
excelling in honor, excelling in power.
Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,
for you went onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it’”
Genesis 49:2-4
The nation of Israel was to be God’s holy people. Reuben was the firstborn son, but he had committed a terrible sin against his father and his family. Reuben had been with Jacob’s concubine in a way that only a husband should be with his wife. It was an evil that polluted the family and defiled Reuben. He was not the right son to lead the family of God.
The words Jacob spoke here would influence the nation of Israel for her entire history. They would study these words and use them as a guide. It was vitally important for the nation to understand how important moral purity was to Jacob, their great patriarch. Jacob took the power of being the firstborn son away from Reuben because he did something wicked. It was a hard lesson, but an important one!
The Bible will continue to list Reuben as the first son of Jacob. But in history, his tribe will never hold a position of power. They will not be the kings of the nation or its priests. None of Israel’s prophets or judges will rise out of the tribe of Reuben.
Jacob went on to speak to his second and third sons, Simeon and Levi. He said,
“‘Simeon and Levi are brothers-their swords are weapons of violence,
Let me not enter their council,
for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.’”
Genesis 49:5-7
Just as with Reuben, Simeon and Levi were not fit to lead the people of God. Though they were next in line as heirs, they had committed horrible wickedness.Their sin came in the form of violence. Simeon and Levi were the sons who went into Shechem and killed every man in the city. They were avenging their sister, Dinah, because she had been violated. Yet it was a great injustice to kill every man in the city because of the sin of one person. On that terrible day, they showed the poverty of their judgment. They were not the right men to go to for wise council!
When we remember the story of Caan, it is easy to see why it was important for Jacob to speak blessings against Simeon and Levi. Caan committed a terrible murder and was proud of it. He taught his sons to be proud of violence and malicious victory as well. The descendants of Caan ended up being just like him. Lamech, a son who came seven generations after Caan, was still bragging about Caan’s murder. He used it as a model for his own life. In the family of Caan, murder was something to be proud of.
In these verses, Jacob totally shamed Simeon and Levi’s behavior. For all generations of the nation of Israel to come, he made it clear that this was not the way of the people of God. The blessings they might have received if they had honored the LORD were removed and all God was able to give their descendants was a severe warning by rebuking their forefathers.
It would have been a wonderful tale to say that the twelve sons of Jacob had lived perfectly righteous lives. Only it would not have been true, and the Bible is the Word of Truth. In these verses, God spoke to all generations of Israel and told what really happened. He used his own people as examples of both righteousness and wickedness. It was their own choices that decided if they would be those God could bless or those his hand came against. It was their own actions that decided whether God could hold them up as models of righteousness by faith or as bad examples.
I wonder. Over the centuries, how many women in Israel were protected from prowling men because of the Jacob’s rebuke of Reuben’s disgusting sin? Jacob’s total condemnation of Simeon and Levi’s fury would protect many generations from taking on holy wars that had nothing to do with the will of God. These rebukes from the great patriarch and hero of the Jewish faith would help shape the culture of Israel for thousands of years. And so, even though these Reuben and Simeon and Levi were receiving harsh words, in the end, they would be a blessing to the generations that followed. God works everything for his good!
Even as God’s hand came in punishment against Reuben and Simeon and Levi for their sin, they were still part of his covenant family. In his magnificent grace and breathtaking mercy, God still chose these undeserving men to be a part of his chosen nation. They still shared in his covenant promises. The Lord would stand faithful to his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even when their sons were unfaithful.
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserved to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who had treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is I mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, ‘The Lord will judged his people.’ It is a dreadful think to fall into the hands of the living God.”
What does this show you about the Lord? What does it teach you about his love for holiness? The Bible says that Jesus became sin who knew no sin so that we can become his righteousness (II Cor. 5:21). That is a high and amazing wonder! We must treat it with sacred honor!