of the connexion: "Get thee riches in Ephratah, and proclaim thy name in Bethlehem." There also was David born, and there arose the greater than David, on whom the prophetic eye of Jacob doubtless rested (if not intelligently, the Spirit in him pointed thereto), when he said the same is Bethlehem;" the tomb of his earthly hopes was the birthplace of his heavenly ones-Ephrath and Bethlehem were one and the same place. Death and resurrection go together in the counsels of God and the experience of his people. As surely as Ephrath does the work of death for us, so surely will it become a Bethlehem to us. This episode is a precious link in the chain of Jacob's utterances. Standing in remembrance on Bethlehem Ephratah-the scene of death and resurrection, the earth receding before him- he takes the place of a heavenly man, and, from this elevated position, declares "things to come." He can now turn again to the earthly expectants, as above them, but still identifying himself with them, as one who has done with self best can: "And he said, Bring them near, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them." "And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed." And Joseph brought them out from between his knees." It is well to observe the attitude here described. Israel, having arisen at the approach of Joseph, was sitting on the bed while all that has been recounted took place, and, when he desired his grandsons to be brought near, they must have been placed "between his knees while he embraced them. But, from this endearing position, Joseph now removes them, for Israel is about to worship. He is going to perform that act which the Spirit of God takes special note of in Heb. xi.; and every touch of this scene being in harmony, Joseph, it seems instinctively, draws the children aside, and he (ie. Israel), bows himself, with his face to the earth. Israel had often bowed himself before. In the close of the previous chapter we read, he bowed himself upon the bed'shead;" but that this special instance was an act of faith is plain, by the Holy Ghost's comment on it. "By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, leaning upon the top of his staff." Moreover, he bowed himself with his face to the earth. May we not say that it was at this moment that the counsel of God was imparted to him; at least, that full disclosure of it which his subsequent utterances declare. In the attitude of subjection to God's mind and will, having reviewed his own life, scanned the tomb of his hopes, and discerned in the spring-light the green blade that was to arise from thence -he now worships, leaning on his staff; the emblem of his pilgrimage, in which he had learnt that God whose counsel he was about to declare. His action is emblematic of his mind, will, heart and affections, being in abeyance to God, and he is, therefore, a fit vessel for God's counsels, which the Spirit now reveals to him. Now he knows well how to place Ephraim and Manasseh, though "his eyes were dim that he could not see." Joseph is far behind him in intelligence; he may place them in the order of nature, but Israel, in the power of the Spirit, will thwart his arrangement, and God's order must be preserved: Ephraim, the younger, must be first. Israel continues: "Behold I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again into the land of your fathers." "Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow." What portion was this? Was it not that parcel of ground in Shechem, which he bought from Hamor? Chap. xxxiii. 19. This seems probable from Josh. xxiv. 32, where we find that this purchase "became the inheritance of the children of Joseph; and again, in John iv., we read of Sychar or Sychem, "that parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph." But why does he say, "which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow?" This may be explained, by remembering the quarrel between Jacob's sons and the Shechemites, in Gen. xxxiv., which may have occasioned the forfeiture of the possession. And if so, he must have regained it by force; i.e., by "sword and by bow." This bequest closes the private part of the scene, viz., that which took place between Israel, Joseph, and Joseph's sons. But now it enlarges into one of wider range, and Jacob, ceasing to address Joseph exclusively, but still retaining the same attitude, summons all his sons to hear the purposes of God committed to him concerning themselves. They were the nucleus of the nation; consequently, we have in his utterance a full epitome of the history of the Jewish nation from its call to its future restoration. His words are more a prophecy than a blessing; he is going to tell "that which should befall them in the last days." "Gather yourselves together, and hear ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father." Mark! the double appellation he gives himself, indicative of the double communication about to be made. They were, indeed, the sons of Jacob; the failing crooked Jacob; the supplanter, and the history of their own evil and corruption, well attested their origin; but it was from Israel-the one who had "prevailed with God"-that they were to receive God's counsel, which was to drop from his lips; and in the light of that counsel, they might descry the bright end and consummation of their blessing, though the intervening parts were to be so dimned and clouded by sin. "Reuben my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength," etc. etc. Here we have the nation as Son of Israel.- God's first-born, called and chosen. "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn." (Exodus iv. 22.) But immediately failure and defilement comes in, Reuben, son of Israel, is God's chosen and first-born. Reuben, son of Jacob, is "Unstable as water," etc. And so it proved. No sooner had the people been redeemed from Egypt, and ere the song of deliverance had died away on the banks of the Red Sea, than evil comes in; idolatry and defilement of every form succeeds, and continues during the whole period of their occupation of the land of their inheritance. Simeon and Levi (ver. 5-7). Israel (the nation) a step farther in sin, having committed a deed of murder, even that of their Messiah, of which the bloody deed of Simeon and Levi towards the Shechemites (chap. xxxiv.) was the type. The penalty uttered consequent on this is, “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." This double prediction has been literally fulfilled in the double sense in which it was uttered. As sons of Jacob; i.e, regarded as individuals, men in natural brotherhood; they were" divided;" their league, formed in sin, was not kept up by proximity or unity of inheritance. Simeon, we find by Joshua xix. 1-9, had no distinct inheritance; the portion allotted to him being within the precincts of Judah, and Levi's portion was among all the tribes. On the other hand, they were "scattered in Israel;" that is, regarding them, not as individuals but as a type of the whole nation, to which the murder of Christ bore the same relation as that of the Shechemites to Simeon and Levi personally. This deed filled up the measure of the nation's sin, and they were dispersed and scattered from that land, which was their rightful inheritance, not through their Jacob-nature, but through their Israel-calling. Judah (8-12). Here we have the nation at that stage of its history which it occupied at the Lord's first coming. Christ personifies the tribe in its royal character; therefore the blessing and prophecy opens with Him, who is the root and offspring of David. "Thou art He whom thy brethren shall praise; Thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies; Thy father's children shall bow down before Thee." He is the "lion's whelp"-the "lion of the tribe of Judah," who, after leading captivity captive, ascended and rests at God's right hand. "From the prey, my son, thou art gone up, He couched as a lion; who shall rouse Him up. Verse 10 drops the personal aspect, and takes up the history of the tribe; and intimates that the sceptre shall not depart from Judah until the Shiloh come. Shiloh is Christ in another character; not as the Lion, but the sent one-the Saviour; not as embodying the tribe, but springing out of it. Thus we learn that the tribe should preserve its tribal character until the Saviour should come; translated "sceptre," literally means "rod"; taken from Num. xvii. where all the tribes had rods, and each rod was emblematic of its respective tribe. Judah, then, should not lose his rod or tribal character until the Lord appeared; and this was what actually took place. "And to Him shall the gathering of the people be." The whole of the present age is passed over between these last two clauses, and the two comings of Christ are linked together, showing their close connection one with the other. The "gathering of the people" ought to have been to Him at His first appearing, but it was not so; He was rejected; and the prophecy, omitting the notice of this, passes on to the day of His power, when it will be so; and still farther (v. 11), to the day of millennial blessing, resulting from Christ's power and rule, of which v. 11, 12, give us a vivid picture. Thus, the prophecy of Judah is that of Israel in its royal character, Christ being the rightful heir to the throne, it opens by the tribe or nation being merged in His person. All who had rightfully occupied the throne of David were but types of Him who is to fill it throughout the millennial age, so that the real gist of the prophecy relates to Him. Zebulun returns to the historical narrative which Judah had stretched beyond, and presents Israel, mingled with the nations, trafficking among them as they are now, and have been ever since their dispersion. Issachar intensifies the picture; and shows us Israel in servile submission to the Gentile, "couching between two burdens." For the sake of ease and gain, he has "bowed his shoulder to bear and become a servant to tribute." The rest of the prophecies reach on to the end; and the remaining five severally personate those who will bear the most prominent part in the scene during the last week of Daniel-"the end of the age" which will wind up the seventy weeks of Jewish history. Thus we find typified in them the wilful king,-the offspring and antitype of Dan, Christ, the suffering Lamb -the true Joseph. And between these two, the godly remnant (Gad, Asher, and Naphtali), under the pressure and persecution of Antichrist on the one hand; VOL. XII. PARTIII. 20 |