Psalm 45:10-17; Genesis 27:18-29; Luke 10:21-24
Saturday 4 July - Rev. Jerry Eve
At verse 28 of our Old Testament reading today from Genesis, although it is given to the ‘wrong’ son, we have a blessing that begins delightfully with the words, ‘May God give you dew from heaven and make your fields fertile! May he give you plenty of grain and wine!’ It’s a perfect blessing for a Harvest Communion service. And it’s one that Jacob himself would have had in mind, I’m sure, when in Genesis 49 he comes to pronounce a blessing on each of his children in turn.
Now, at the time of a bereavement something that can be of some considerable importance when family members are mentioned, is the order of their seniority. Why then, when the order of Jacob’s children’s birth (see Genesis 30) has been: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issacher, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, is the order he uses to bless them different?
Have a wee look at the blessings IN Genesis 49, though, and you’ll see that some of them are more like curses. Maybe it’s simply because he knew his children and their characters far too well. The ‘blessing’ that is closest to his own is that of Joseph (his favourite son): ‘blessings of rain from above and of deep waters from beneath the ground, blessings of many cattle and children, blessings of corn and flowers, blessings of ancient mountains, delightful things from everlasting hills.’
I do keep coming back, though to these different lists we have, and wonder whether putting them side by side might help. In doing this I’m also going to add the one from the end of Moses’ life as well – which is for the tribes rather than the individuals:
Genesis 30
Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Benjamin |
Genesis 49
Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Zebulun Issachar Dan Gad Asher Naphtali Joseph Benjamin |
Deuteronomy 33
Reuben Judah Levi Benjamin Joseph Zebulun Issachar Gad Dan Naphtali Asher |
What Jacob seems to have done is to lump all six of Leah’s sons together to begin with. Why, though, does he reverse the order for Issachar and Zebulun? And there are other discrepancies as well. By the time Jacob’s sons have become tribes at the end of the Pentateuch i.e. the five books of Moses at the start of the Bible, the order has become even more jumbled. The most glaring difference in Deuteronomy, though, is the absence of Simeon. One theory is that this is because of the danger he placed his father in when he took revenge for the rape of his sister Dinah. This might then have led to his disinheritance. But Levi was involved in that as well. Why has he not be disinherited as well?
Well, maybe it’s because Moses was a Levite. The honest answer is that we just don’t know, but that’s not to say we should ever stop asking these sorts of questions of our sacred textbook.
Let us pray (and the prayer that seems an obvious one today is that of Moses’ brother, Aaron):
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace,
Amen.