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)