Read with Me
Genesis 49:13-18 (HCSB)
Zebulun will live by the seashore and will be a harbor for ships,
and his territory will be next to Sidon.
Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags.
He saw that his resting place was good and that the land was pleasant,
so he leaned his shoulder to bear a load and became a forced laborer.
Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
He will be a snake by the road, a viper beside the path,
that bites the horses’ heels so that its rider falls backward.
I wait for Your salvation, LORD.
Listen with Me
Next, Jacob tells the future of three more of the people groups descended from his sons. It is important to understand that all these prophecies show the potential that lived within those people groups. Sadly, some of them did not live up to their potential, and never obtained all that was foretold about them.
Some have thought that God made an error when he foretold Zebulun’s territory being a haven for ships, since most maps show his territory as being landlocked. Some have employed a rescuing device by noting that the verb translated as “live” in verse 13 includes at least the possibility of a temporary residence, not necessarily a permanent one. Others bring out the fact that many of the locations use to outline the boundaries of individual territories are completely lost or only potentially identified, and so the maps can show only approximations of those boundaries. And still others remind us that borders in those days were flexible, far less fixed than national boundaries. Suffice it to say that it is entirely possible that at least for a time Zebulun’s boundaries touched the south shore of the Sea of Galilee, enabling them to engage in trade on that large inland sea.
Issachar’s future is less about place and more about attitude. Instead of overcoming the Canaanites that occupied their territory, the people of Issachar will submit to them in order to have a conflict-free life in pleasant surroundings. This foretells trouble, because those willing to compromise with pagan society cannot live under God’s blessing.
The name “Dan” means “judge”, so Jacob used that meaning as a basis of his prophecy. The territory of Dan lay just to the north of the area occupied by the Philistines. It was a difficult area for them to conquer, causing many of them to abandon that territory and to conquer an easier area to the north (Joshua 19:47). But some remain there, submitting to the Philistines, but engaging in sly activities designed to weaken them. One of the most famous of the judges, Samson, was from the tribe of Dan (Judges 13:2-5), and he truly did bite the Philistines like a viper.
Pray with Me
Father, we see very little of Jacob’s own reaction to these prophecies about his sons and their descendants except for the brief prayer recorded in verse 18, pleading for their deliverance, almost as an aside. Even in his final moments, his trust was in You, because You had proven Yourself faithful at every juncture in his life. You have been equally faithful to me, Lord. Help me to have that same deep and abiding trust in You always. Amen.