In the zenith of his life, Jacob prophesied with blessing over each of his sons; his prophecies can and should be applied not only to the twelve tribes of Israel but to the church and to our Christian experience today.
Whether negative or positive, whether warnings or blessings, Jacob’s prophesying with blessing concerning his sons is a blessing to us if we apply it in spirit according to God’s economy.
We have already seen Jacob’s prophesying with blessing concerning Reuben (indulgence in lusts of flesh), Simeon and Levi (problems with their disposition), Judah (Christ in the Gospels), Zebulun (the preaching of the Gospel – the Acts), and Issachar (the church life – the Epistles with Revelation), and this week we will dive into the last six sons of Jacob.
It is a blessing for us to be under the ministry of the age and be under the Lord’s up-to-date speaking in His recovery concerning the deeper truths in the Bible.
Allowing the Lord to Deal with our Disposition so that we may be Useful to Him
In loving the Lord, enjoying Him, advancing in our Christian life, and living and serving in the church life, our disposition can be a great frustration and hindrance. We have seen this warning with Simeon and Levi who had a very angry and fierce disposition when aroused.
Our disposition can spoil our usefulness in the hands of the Lord. Many brothers and sisters in the Lord have stopped growing in the divine life and cannot progress in the Lord anymore because of a particular peculiar aspect of their disposition.
Our disposition can be a great frustration to our growth, transformation, and maturity in life. We may give up the world, sacrifice many things for the Lord, and love the Lord with all our heart, but if a peculiar aspect in our disposition remains in our being, it becomes a stronghold and hinders our usefulness in the Lord’s hands.
Many young saints are so promising before the Lord, but due to their disposition, their usefulness is stopped.
The peculiarities in our disposition are like a grain or a knot in the fiber of a tree; the usefulness of a tree for building something is limited when there’s a knot, a burl.
In serving the Lord and in living the Christian life in the church life we need to always reject and deny what we are, and exercise our spirit to stand with the Lord and live Christ.
Those who have no peculiarities grow the most, and those with no peculiar traits are the most useful ones. Ambition is the primary element of every fallen person’s disposition, and the source of rebellion is in the disposition of the persons involved.
We need to reject what we are in our natural being and cooperate with the Lord by allowing Him to deal with our disposition so that we may be useful in the Lord’s hands for His purpose.
How can we deal with our disposition? The Lord helps us to deal with our disposition by using our environment and situations around us; He uses sufferings, trials, and failures to empty us out of what preoccupies our inner being so that we may have an increased capacity to contain God. On the positive side, we need to exercise our spirit to deny what we are and reject what we are.
However, it would be a tragedy to go through trials and sufferings and failures and yet remain the same!
Also, we need to be dispositionally sanctified by being cleansed in the washing of the water of the word of God (Eph. 5:26). Furthermore, we need to blend with other saints, other churches, and other countries, so that we may be tempered, adjusted, and harmonized.
We need to be desperate before the Lord that we may allow Him to deal with our disposition so that we may grow in life and be brought on to maturity in life and have the overflow of life unto others!
Lord Jesus, save us from what we are in our natural disposition. Sanctify us by the washing of the water in Your living word taken into us by means of all prayers and petition. Lord, we reject and deny what we are, and we exercise our spirit to be emptied of any preoccupation or natural thing so that we may have an increased capacity to be filled with God. Lord, save us from remaining the same. Renew us every day. Bring us through the process of maturity to be those who overflow with life as blessing to others!
Jacob’s Prophecy concerning Dan: Warning concerning Apostasy and Setting up a Divisive Center of Worship
In prophesying concerning Dan, Jacob said, Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent in the way, a viper on the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. I have waited for Your salvation, O Jehovah. (Gen. 49:16-18)
The prophecy concerning the apostasy with Dan indicates Jacob’s concern about the setting up of a divisive center of worship (which actually happened later).
Dan fought as a young lion to gain more land (he fought to gain more Christ!), but after being successful and victorious, he became proud, individualistic, and independent (like a serpent).
In his pride, the tribe of Dan acted to set up an idol and a divisive center of worship, and they ordained a hired priest in the city of Dan – even though the house of God with the ark of the covenant was in Shiloh (see Deut. 33:22; Josh. 19:47; Judg. 18:27-31; cf. Deut. 12:5).
In His sovereignty God does not allow His people to set up a center of worshiping God anywhere else except the place of HIS choice.
Apostasy is to abandon the organic principles of God’s eternal economy and do something for the self under the cloak of worshiping God. In Christendom there are many apostatic practices, many centres of worship set up by man, and many “hired priests” who are not ordained by God.
We need to return to the word of God and be saved from our pride, individualism, and independence. Every day of our Christian life and church life should be a dependence day – a day of depending on the Lord and depending on the other members of the Body of Christ.
Because Dan was proud of his victory and success, he became a serpent biting the horse’s heel so that its rider fell backwards (Gen. 49:17); this signifies that the apostasy brought in by Dan became a great stumbling block to the nation of Israel.
Throughout the church history, many spiritual people had light from the Lord and a certain amount of success in preaching the gospel and gaining a following, and they followed Dan’s example, thereby frustrating God’s people from going on in God’s ordained way.
If our spirituality causes us to become proud and individualistic, we can become a stumbling block for God’s people.
The source of Dan’s apostasy was in not caring for his brothers; if we don’t fellowship with our brothers and sisters – and with other churches – we will end up in apostasy and division.
Not caring for other members of the Body is the source of apostasy. When considering our practice in the local churches we need to consider what the other churches would think about it.
Being Saved from the Apostasy of Dan by Repentance, Fellowship, and Blending
From Jacob’s prophecy concerning Dan in Gen. 49:17, Moses’ speaking concerning him in Deut. 33:22, and the story in Judges 18 we need to be warned concerning the danger of apostasy. Even in our personal experience we can be distracted from the right way of following God and actually be working for our self-interest.
The Lord’s testimony on earth today is very much criticized and even put to shame because of so many spiritual brothers (and sisters) who, after having some success in their spiritual life and work for God, establish yet another “center of worship”.
There are so many denominations and such a wide variety of so-called “churches” that there’s a “Christian supermarket” where you can “pick and choose” what church to go to according to your need, taste, and preference.
But in the beginning it was not so; God ordained ONE center of worship in Jerusalem in the Old Testament, and only ONE center of worship in spirit and on the unique ground of oneness in a locality in the New Testament. One city, one church – this is God’s sovereign arrangement concerning the center of worship.
Even in the church life we may have a preference for our local church or the churches in our region, and without knowing we may be practicing division in the Body.
We need to come to the Lord under His penetrating light and be saved from any apostasy by repenting before Him, having fellowship with Him and with the other members of the Body, and being blended with other saints and churches.
What saves us from division is blending – we need to visit other churches, blend with them, open to fellowship with the saints, and exercise our spirit to enjoy the Lord, minister Christ to one another, and learn from one another.
We need to always stop and fellowship with the ones we meet and serve with; fellowship crosses us out and adjusts us, harmonizes us, tempers us, mingles us, and helps us lose our distinctions in the Body of Christ.
The best way to be safeguarded from falling into apostasy is by taking care of others to care for the entire Body of Christ and the Lord’s unique testimony in the Lord’s one work (see 1 Cor. 12:20; 15:58; 16:10; Acts 15:1-2). If Dan had consulted with the other tribes before setting up a worship centre, there would have been no apostasy leading to division.
We can be healed from our apostasy and enjoy the Lord’s boundless love by returning to the Lord, acknowledging our offense to Him to be forgiven of all our iniquity, seeking His face, and pursuing to know Him so that we may live in His presence in resurrection (see Hosea 5:13—6:3; 14:1-8).
If we return to the Lord and repent to Him, He will forgive us and receive us back, and He will bring us in resurrection to pursue Him in oneness with all the saints in and for the Body.
Lord Jesus, we return to You and to Your clear speaking in Your word. We pursue knowing You, Your heart’s desire, and Your sovereign ordination. Lord, heal us of any apostasy. Turn Your anger away from us, and cause us to bud like a lily, having a life of trusting in God and fellowship with the saints in the Body. Cause us to stand steadily in the uplifted humanity of Jesus. Lord, we give ourselves to fellowship with You, with the saints, and with the churches so that we may be saved from any apostasy leading to division! Lord, we seek to enjoy You for the Body and in the Body!
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 (msg. 102), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 11 / msg 11, Jacob’s Prophesying with Blessing (2).
- Further reading on the Dealing with our Disposition: see ch. 24 in, The Experience and Growth in Life (by Witness Lee).
- Picture credit for Genesis 49:16-18 and more spiritual quotes on this topic via, Christian Pictures Blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
# Oh, Jesus is blending us together; / He is the reason why we’re here. / We will be one in Him forever, / And we will build according to this vision clear. (Song on Blending)
# Blend us, Lord, blend us, Lord, ’til we are in one accord. / Hallelujah—the saints going on! / Blend us, Lord, blend us, Lord, open hearts we can afford. / Hallelujah—the churches go on! / As the members of / His organic Body, / We need the others to go on. / As local churches, / We do also need / One another for our going on. (Song on the Need for Blending)
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