Medicine Hat Joe

Week 9  2 Kings 18

Nehushtan was a bronze snake. Originally he’d been cast by Moses back in the wilderness during one of the times that Israel had been complaining about their terrible life. The result was that the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. Deadly snakes. When people started dying they reversed course and pleaded with Moses to come-to-the-rescue. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole…When anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. It was another wilderness miracle: look at Nehushtan and survive.
Anyway after the snake episode Nehushtan disappeared for a long time. Where he landed is anybody’s guess. Maybe archived as a historical relic. Maybe locked away in a storage room. Whatever happened Nehushtan disappeared from the record for six or seven centuries. But he hadn’t been melted down.
And at some point Nehushtan reappeared. Polished-up & refurbished & repurposed as a kind of quasi-idol. He showed up during king Hezekiah’s reign. Unfortunately for Nehushtan it turned out to be his swan-song because Hezekiah was a reforming king and one of the first things he did was to break into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
So credit Hezekiah for his efforts. But the Nehushtan revival was one more example of Israel’s voracious appetite for alternate gods. And their creativity in finding them.

Note: quotes from Numbers 21:6 9 & 2 Kings 18:4 (NIV)

Week 6  1 Samuel 28

Chapter 28 tells the story of Saul’s last night on earth. Of course Saul didn’t know he was that close to his point-of-no-return. But he knew that tomorrow he’d be facing-off against the Philistines in battle. And he was desperate to have some kind of premonitory tip-off about how things would pan-out. So on that last night he consulted a witch.
Under normal circumstances he likely wouldn’t have tried that but Saul had burned all his legitimate information-providing bridges. When he had tried consulting him the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. All that Saul had left were the dark-arts.
I checked a couple of cross-references in the margin of my bible:
Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists
I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums and spiritists (the Lord speaking)
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
In spite of warnings like this Saul asked the medium at Endor to call up Samuel from the place of the dead. Which – eerily & frighteningly & amazingly– she was able to do. So her seance was a real success. But it spelled doom for Saul.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 28:6 Leviticus 19:31 & 20:6 Deuteronomy 18:10-11 (NIV)

 

Week 5  Joshua 18-19

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at Genesis 49 – it was the blessings / forecasts that Jacob gave to his sons. At that point I wanted to see what biographical data I could find about each of the boys and then look for logical connections from there to each boy’s unique ‘blessing’. Reuben cooperated. So did Simeon Levi and Judah.
It was a different story when it came to Zebulun Issachar Dan Gad Asher & Naphtali. Not only were their blessings pretty cryptic but I couldn’t find any biographical data on them. So the exercise fell flat. In the end I lumped them together and called them ‘the shadowy sextet’. Then I found that Benjamin was pretty inconspicuous too. So I ended up packaging him in with his other six semi-anonymous brothers.
Anyway…now I land on the land distribution chapters in Joshua and see that Benjamin Simeon Zebulun Issachar Asher Naphtali & Dan are grouped in a consecutive list. 66-verses in two chapters. Each tribe averaging about 9.5 verses. By contrast the other brothers each had pretty much a whole chapter to himself.
When reading Genesis 49 I came away with the feeling that Benjamin Zebulun Issachar Dan Gad Asher & Naphtali were second-tier sons. And in a quick read through Joshua 18-19 I have no reason to think differently.
Looks like some boys – specifically Judah Joseph (Ephraim-Manasseh) & Levi – were going to shape-up better than the others.

Note: see previous posts 12-blessings; Reuben; Simeon & Levi; Judah; the-shadowy-sextet; Benjamin and Joseph January 6-16 2026.

Week 5  Judges

While I was reading the stories of the twelve judges I paid a bit more attention to which tribe each judge came from.
I was surprised to see that only four of them had a definite tribal connection:
Ehud > Benjamin
Tola > Issachar
Elon > Zebulun
Samson > Dan.
With four other judges there’s only a hint at their tribal connection:
Barak. Maybe Naphtali
Gideon. Maybe Manasseh
Ibzan. Maybe Judah
Abdon. Maybe Ephraim.
And I couldn’t find any tribal link for:
Othniel (a Kennite / Kennizite)
Shamgar (unidentified)
Jair & Jephthah (from Gilead).
Anyway the reason I started looking at the tribal connections in the first place was because of the Victory Song of Deborah in Judges 5. The song celebrated the win and in the process it praised the tribes that pitched-in to help – Ephraim Benjamin Zebulun Naphtali Issachar all got kudos. But the Reubenites were kind of iffy – they might or might not have helped out. And it looks like Dan & Asher were complete no-shows.
The point being that in Judges the web of inter-connectedness among the twelve tribes – which seemed tight – was showing signs of fraying around the edges. Fine cracks are appearing in the spirit of all-for-one and one-for-all. Maybe not Twelve Independent Tribes so far. But not One Confederated State either.

Note: see Ehud in Judges 3:15 Tola 10:1 Elon 12:11 Samson 13:2 Barak 4:6 Gideon 6:12 Ibzan 12:8 Abdon 12:13 Othniel 3:9 Shamgar 3:31 Jair 10:3 Jephthah 10:18. One paragraph in Deborah’s Song 5:14-18

Week 3  Joseph

Joseph is a fruitful vine…With bitterness archers attacked him but his bow remained steady…because of the Almighty. Let (blessings) rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
Joseph’s long and interesting story takes up more than 20% of Genesis and tells me way more about him than any of his brothers. And that really helps make sense of his complimentary blessing.
I’ll admit that personally I really like Joseph – he’s one of my favourite OT characters. But I’m not alone in spotting quality – Jacob admitted that Joseph was the prince among his brothers. Joseph’s sons – Ephraim and Manasseh – each become a tribe of Israel. I checked a map of tribal allotments in the Promised Land and Ephraim & Manasseh got the lion’s share. So in that sense Joseph really was blessed.
But having said that I also know that as things will develop it’s really Judah’s blessing that will turn out to be the real prize (even though Joseph was a better all-around guy).
Anyway looking back at my exercise of trying to dope out the meaning of the blessings of Genesis 49 based on what I know about the boys my general conclusions are that the forecasts for Reuben Simeon & Levi are on the negative side (maybe not even to be considered blessings). Judah’s & Joseph’s blessings are legitimately positive blessings. And for all the others? Well…I’m not really any farther ahead.

Note: quote from Genesis 49:22-26 (NIV edited)

Week 3  Benjamin

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.
I see now that I made a mistake in not including Benjamin with his six other “invisible” brothers – Zebulun Issachar Dan Gad Asher & Naphtali . Just like them there’s almost no biographical info about Benjamin. He was the last of Jacob’s boys. And after Joseph was reportedly killed-by-a-wild-animal Benjamin became Jacob’s fair-haired boy. None of it helps me make sense of the big bad killer-wolf image.
It occurred to me that with each of these boys the blessings might have made a certain sense to them personally. Maybe connections were made. But it’s not made clear to me. With Reuben (intra-familial sexual intercourse) and with Simeon & Levi (a murderous vendetta against the Shechemites) there’s an identifiable link between their actions and the blessing. But not with these seven.
I did a bit of digging and found that King Saul was a Benjamite. He could be viewed as a bit of an alpha-wolf. But I’m not sure he was the wolf of Jacob’s prediction.
So I’m about as far ahead with Benjamin’s blessing as with the previous six.

Note: quote from Genesis 49:27 (NIV).
I tried locating notable people from the other six brothers. Tola (Issachar) Samson (Dan) & Barak (Naphtali) were judges. Elijah was Gadite and the NT’s Anna was Asherite. Zebulun? I found no one. It was a long-shot. And for me a waste of time.

 

Week 3  Genesis 49

So far I’ve looked at Jacob’s first four sons – Reuben Simeon Levi & Judah. First I read the blessing that Jacob gave each of them. Then my follow-up exercise was to track down whatever biographical info I could find to help me make sense of Jacob’s individual blessings. My main goal was to find out: how does this boy’s life and action and experience help me understand the blessing his father gave to him?
I’d have to rate my success with the first four brothers as marginal. I did -after all – find a couple of interesting background events.
But my marginal success with them was quite a bit more than what I found out about Zebulun Issachar Dan Gad Asher & Naphtali.
I started  by reading the blessings:
Zebulun will live by the seashore…
Issachar is a rawboned donkey…
Dan will provide justice for his people…
Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders…
Asher’s food will be rich…
Naphtali is a doe set free…
Then I started looking for biographical details. And here’s what I found: zero (apart from who his mother was).
One possibility is that I actually missed some key information about the six brothers. But I really don’t think so. I think there just aren’t narrative details about the shadowy six.
The other possibility – which seems likely – is that my exercise was a waste of time. Maybe not totally. But a low-value exercise.

Note: quotes from Genesis 49: 13 14 16 19 20 & 21 (NIV)

Week 3  Genesis 49

Jacob gave Judah a pretty nice blessing. Here’s part of it: Judah, your brothers will praise you…your father’s sons will bow down to you…The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
I’ve read the OT before and so I know that the Judah family-line is eventually headed for tribal stardom. But there’s not much evidence in Judah’s biography to show that he earned it. Or deserved it.
For instance there was the time the brothers want to kill Joseph. Judah’s suggestion was what will we gain if we kill our brother?…Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. The slavery alternative doesn’t make me think Judah was a hero. And the Judah-Tamar story in chapter 38 doesn’t highlight him as a character-guy either.
Later the brothers have to take Benjamin to Egypt and Judah promises Jacob: I myself will guarantee his safety…If I do not bring him back…I will bear the blame before you all my life. Then when things go sideways Judah pleads with Joseph: please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of (Benjamin).
I admit that Judah did seem to step-up. But my real question was: can I find biographical information to show why each son deserved or merited their specific blessings?
And so far I’m not finding much of that.

Note: quotes from Genesis 49:8-10 (abbreviated) 37:26-27 43:9 44:33 (NIV)

Week 2  Genesis 49

The Blessing: Simeon and Levi are brothers – their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.
Simeon & Levi (and Reuben, Judah, Issachar & Zebulun) were brothers who had the same mother – Leah. Simeon was born 2nd & Levi 3rd.
Jacob was probably thinking back to the Dinah Story when he gave Simeon & Levi their ‘blessing’. Dinah – who was Leah’s daughter and their sister – was raped by a local guy named Shechem. In revenge Simeon & Levi murdered Shechem (then went hog-wild and killed the other men in the town too). That story makes the best sense of Jacob’s description of Simeon & Levi’s anger and fury.
The only other reference I found for Simeon was when the brothers were down in Egypt and Joseph held him hostage until the others returned.
I found even less for Levi. Just an obituary notice saying he died when he was 137.
The revenge killings are about all I’ve got to go on to make some sense of Jacob’s promise that the boys would be scattered-and-dispersed. Which sounds closer to a curse than a blessing.

Note: quote from Genesis 49:5-7 (NIV). Also Genesis 34 (Dinah) 38:1-30 (Judah-Tamar) 42:24 Exodus 6:16

Week 2  Genesis 49

After reading the twelve blessings of Genesis 49 I decided to see what details I could find out about each of Jacob’s sons. I wanted to see if I could make better sense of the predictive blessings.
Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.
Reuben was Jacob’s oldest son (a  son of Leah). I found four details about him:
• he brought mandrakes to his mother
• he had sexual intercourse with Bilhah
• he stepped-in to prevent Joseph’s death
• he offered his sons as surety for Benjamin
That’s it. There’s not much to go on. Personally I think that preventing Joseph from being killed was an admirable thing to do. But I don’t know how much credit to give him for offering his two sons in trade.
Jacob gave him high praise initially – excelling in honor, excelling in power. But he went on to say that Reuben was as turbulent as the waters (other versions said he was unstable & wild & uncontrollable & reckless). Having sexual intercourse with one of his father’s wives seems to be the big mark against him. That and his innate instability.
So Reuben was deprived of his place of preeminence.

Note: quote from Genesis 49:3-4 (NIV and also ESV CEB NASB AMP). Four detail from Genesis 30:14-15 35:22 37:19-22 & 42:22 42:37.