At the end of his life, Jacob blessed everyone and he prophesied with blessing for each one of his sons. By faith Jacob, while he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped God while leaning on the top of his staff (Heb. 11:21).
After he finished prophesying with blessing concerning each one of his sons, Jacob expired and was added to his fathers (Gen. 49:33). He was a mature person who overflowed with blessing to all those around him, and he had such a glorious ending.
Jacob’s leaning on the top of his staff while blessing others signifies his confessing that he was a sojourner and a traveler on this earth, and that God shepherded him all the days of his life until then.
We need to be those like Jacob whose path is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day (Prov. 4:18). May our life with the Lord and our path be brighter and brighter until the day we meet the Lord.
We need to be daily fresh with the Lord, having intimate and personal contact with Him every morning and living in our spirit every day so that our path would be brighter and brighter until the full day of the Lord’s coming.
A Christian doesn’t need to regress and decline in his old age. We should never settle for regressing or declining as we go on with the Lord, but we should aspire to be brighter and brighter in our Christian walk in the church life until our whole being is filled with the divine light.
Jacob, Paul, Peter, and John did not regress or decline in their old age. Rather, Paul testified: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course; therefore there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day; and not only me, but also all those who love His appearing (see 2 Tim. 4:7-8).
We need to love the Lord’s appearing moment by moment, live in the index of His eyes in an intimate fellowship with Him, and desire to have the Lord’s presence as He returns.
We shouldn’t be like Solomon who, even though he had such a glorious time in building the marvelous temple of God, regressed at the end of his life due to his indulgence in lust. He worshipped idols because his heart was led by the foreign wives he took for himself (1 Kings 1:1-8).
May our end be glorious and bright, and may the last stage of our life be more glorious and bright than the first stage. The quality and outcome of a man’s life are determined primarily by the last stage of his life, and in our Christian life, we run a race (1 Cor. 9:24) where the last stage is very important.
Lord Jesus, may our Christian path and our walk with You be brighter and brighter until the full day of Your return. Lord, we treasure Your presence and we seek to have Your smiling face. Keep us in the index of Your eyes, in the most intimate and personal contact with You, until You return! Lord Jesus, we love You and we love Your appearing! We refuse to give in to any fleshly lust or indulgence in our personal desires! We choose You, we love You, and give ourselves to You to go on with You until we meet You face to face!
Jacob’s Prophesying with Blessing Concerning his Sons should also be Applied to the Church as the Israel of God
What Jacob spoke at the end of his life in a prophetic way with blessing concerning each of his sons should also be applied to the church as the real Israel of God. The twelve sons of Jacob became the twelve tribes of Israel as a type of the church, the real Israel of God.
In the Old Testament, there’s the house of Israel as the earthly people of God, and in the New Testament we have the church as the house of God, the spiritual and heavenly people of God (1 Tim. 3:15).
Jacob’s maturity in life issued in the overflow of life: he prophesied with blessing for the building up of God’s house (Prov. 4:18; Gen. 47:7, 10; 48:14-16; 49:1-28; 47:31; Heb. 11:21). At the peak and culmination of his life, Jacob prophesied with blessing concerning each and every one of his sons, and all these blessings apply to the church as the real Israel of God today.
We need to be those who prophesy in the church for the building up of the church. The greatest prophetic prediction in the Bible is Matt. 16:18, “I will build My church”, and the way Christ builds up the church as His Body is through us as His believers prophesying (1 Cor. 14:4, 31).
We all can prophesy so that all may learn and be encouraged; first, we learn something of Christ and we are encouraged with Christ, and then we speak Christ forth and speak Christ into others for them to learn and be encouraged.
Whatever was spoken prophetically by Jacob concerning his sons is a type and a picture of the church, and it should be applied to the church and to the spiritual experience of the believers (as well as to the sons of Israel).
The experiences and prophetic blessings of the sons of Israel are like a photograph of our situation; if we want to see a picture of what and who we are, we need to read Genesis 49.
In a very real sense, the prophecies in Gen. 49 concern the church more than the children of Israel, since we can now experience these blessings in the church life! The prophecies with blessing uttered by Jacob can be applied to our spiritual experience today for the building of God, the church.
Reuben: Being Warned concerning the Defilement of the Fleshly Lust
Jacob had twelve sons, and this week we are entering into the prophesying with blessing for the first six sons. Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, had the preeminence in birthright, but because of his defilement, he lost the birthright and became in danger of dying or of being greatly decreased (see Gen. 49:3-4; Deut. 33:6).
Because Reuben indulged in the lusts of his flesh and slept with one of his father’s wives, he lost his birthright and even became in danger of being greatly decreased among the tribes of Israel.
We need to be warned concerning the situation with Reuben – even this warning is a blessing to us. If we are warned of the danger of indulging in the lust of the flesh, we will be kept in the central lane of God’s eternal economy.
We need to be saved from fleshly lust and from our natural disposition. If we do not deal with the Lord concerning our disposition, our usefulness in the Lord’s hand is greatly affected. If we do not deal with the flesh and stay away from any indulgence in the flesh, we may lose the birthright.
Watchman Nee advised Witness Lee as he was joining him to work together for the Lord that it is good to make sure he never contacts a member of the opposite sex alone, but for his protection, there should always be the presence of a third party.
We are fallen human beings; we all have lust in our flesh, and the right opportunity will allow lust to manifest. We cannot say we don’t have lust, and we cannot presume that we can control our lust.
For a male and a female to be alone in the same place gives opportunity to the lust, the enemy. We don’t know how subtle and how evil our flesh is until the right situation is created. We should never trust in ourselves but learn not to be loose in contacting the members of the opposite sex.
In today’s world where “everything goes” and the separation between males and females is very much disregarded, we are being unconsciously brought into a state of mind where even we as believers may think that “it’s OK” to be loose with the opposite sex as long as “we don’t go too far”.
For the Lord’s name, for the church’s testimony, for your protection, and for the honor of your physical body, you must follow this principle of not being alone with a member of the opposite sex. If you follow this principle, you will be preserved. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis, pp. 1243-1245)
But the Bible clearly says that we should stay away from anything like this. For this you realize, knowing that every fornicator or unclean person or greedy person (who is an idolater) has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:5).
Because of indulging in the lusts of his flesh and “going up to his father’s bed”, Reuben lost the birthright; because of keeping himself away from lust and staying away from any indulgence in fleshly lusts, Joseph gained the birthright.
Reuben is not even counted as the firstborn of Jacob in Matt. 1:2, and in Deut. 33:6 Moses prays that he would not be wiped out.
Right after Paul encourages us by saying that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, he warns us not to fall in fornication, sinning against our own body (1 Cor. 6:17-20). Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; we were bought with a price, and we should glorify God in our body.
This is the will of God, abstaining from fornication, possessing our own vessel in sanctification and honor and not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles (1 Thes. 4:3-8). Paul lived this way, even buffeting his body to make it his slave so that he himself would not be disapproved (1 Cor. 9:27).
May we be those who have the earnest expectation and hope that in nothing we would be put to shame but with all boldness, even in the matter of our body, Christ would be magnified in us (Phil. 1:20).
May we present ourselves to God as alive from the dead and our members as weapons of righteousness to God, not allowing sin to lord it over us neither obeying the lusts of our body but living by the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit and presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to Christ for the church (Rom. 6:12-14; 8:2; 12:2; 16:20).
May we FLEE youthful lusts – not try to overcome them, argue with them, suppress them, or reason with the other party when the lusts are there – and fervently pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22).
Lord Jesus, we choose to flee the youthful lusts and we refuse to indulge in our fleshly lusts! We choose to pursue You together with those who call on Your name out of a pure heart. Lord, may many young and old brothers and sisters take heed to the holy warning in the Scripture regarding fleshly lust. May we not lose our birthright or be in danger of decreased (or even dying) because of the fleshly lust! We want to know You and be saved from lust. We present our body as a living sacrifice for the church! Lord, keep us joined to You as one spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (pp. 1243 – 1251), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 10 / msg 10, Jacob’s Prophesying with Blessing (1).
- Recommended further reading: Watchman Nee’s, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, chs. 11-12.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We’re renewed and revived by the Lord day by day; / He is grace upon grace and refreshing as dew. / Shining brighter and brighter, our path’s a clear way, / As morning by morning His mercies are new. (Song on Shining brighter and brighter)
# Lord, nothing but Thy smiling presence will satisfy me. / I do not want anything but the smile of Thy glorious face. / As long as I have this, / I care not whether the heaven comes down / or the earth falls apart. (Song on Having God’s Face)
# But flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, / faith, love, and peace. / Whatever you do, / do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. / And pursue with those, / Those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (Song on 2 Tim. 2:22)
