In this sermon, Chuck Missler discusses Genesis chapter 49, focusing on the characters of Levi and Simeon. He mentions how Levi and Simeon brought vengeance for the rape of their sister Dinah and the men of Shechem. Jacob refers to their brutal reaction in his final words to his sons. Missler also highlights the scattering of the Levites and the division of Simeon, explaining that the Levites were given cities instead of territories. He references Deuteronomy 29 to emphasize the Lord's view on idolatry entering the land.

Welcome to the 26th study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler the subject of this tape Genesis chapter 49 And let's open with a word prayer Heavenly Father we just praise you and Thank you for this evening the opportunity to gather in the name of Jesus Christ Seeking the anointing of your Holy Spirit to just open our hearts and minds To those insides that you have for us father. We would ask for an increased appetite tonight for these Secret treasures that you've hidden in secret places for our learning Father we rejoice that whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning that we through the patience And the comfort of the scriptures might have hope We would ask you this night father to behold Jesus Christ in whose name we pray amen By way of background we obviously are concluding a study in the book of Genesis We've been at it some several evenings We've gone from Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God Elohim All the way through the end of chapter 50 which closes in a coffin in Egypt But we've separated one chapter just to take it apart tonight chapter 49 Which we skipped before and we're going to focus on tonight because it's an unusual chapter We've been interested in the book of Genesis specifically as a book of prophecy and I think we have Touched upon many many ways that the book of Genesis is prophetic Prophetic in the sense that it has in view God's entire plan for man from the creation in the early chapters all the way To the climax that we normally associate with the book of Revelation Book of Genesis is full of prophecy the overview of God's plan for man And we've seen that manifested many many ways We've seen that manifested in what we sometimes call typology or modeling where a story or an episode overshadows a future broader construct of the What God is doing? We've also seen that very specifically where God has given Specific prophecies or promises to his His own tonight. We're going to see a rather unusual chapter That is prophecy in the more conventional sense somewhat cryptic little messages Concatenated in the mouth of Jacob or Israel It's got changed his name in a specific context and we're going to use this as a springboard to look at Some similar passages on the subject let's jump in with Genesis chapter 49 and We're going to where our central focus tonight is chapter 49 in its entirety Genesis chapter 49 verse 1 and Jacob called unto his sons How many sons were there? 13 very good. Well, you could really say 14 because there's Joseph and his two grands his two sons Jacob's grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim Which he adopted So actually there's 14 people Around Jacob's deathbed He's taken charge and he called him to his sons. That is his 12 plus the two sons of Joseph and Said gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which may befall you when? In the last days that's an interesting phrase very very fascinating phrase The word For last days is used also in Isaiah chapter 2 verse 2 and Ezekiel 38 verse 16 To give you just a couple of many references which caused that phrase the last days to be treated Relatively specifically by students of prophecy meaning the end times Candidly the term last days embraces the first coming of the Messiah in some passages certainly is almost always used of a second coming and So the scope of what Jacob is talking about here is far more Than simply an Old Testament perspective of the twelve tribes It's more than that In Fact let me remind you before we jump in what we learned last time in Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 that passage that is a chronicle of the major Milestones of faith sometimes called the hall of faith makes reference to Jacob in verse 21 and It's illuminating I think to look back from the vantage point of the writer to Hebrews back on the Old Testament and of all the things that the writer might pick of Jacob he picks really one thing there's one episode of Jacob's life that the writer highlights in this incredible chronicle of The faithful verse 21 it says by faith Jacob when he was dying Blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on the top of his staff He recounts the Blessing of the sons of Joseph we read we talked about that last time Ephraim and Manasseh But he also worshipped leaning on the top of his staff What is he referring to in terms of worshipping and I submit to you as Genesis 49, and we're going to get a an insight Maybe a little one maybe a deep one depending on just what kind of worship where we have in view here Genesis 49 Jacob calling all his sons together Around his deathbed There's a implied contradiction because on the one hand we view this being in his dying deathbed and yet he was leaning on his staff so you can Consider that a problem if you like or you can visualize what he might have been doing in any case That I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days gather yourselves together and hear ye sons of who Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father Now we've been tuned by now to be sensitive to which name he uses It's the only person in the Old Testament where the new name is alternated In all the other cases as we pointed out When a new name was given Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah and so forth That it's always the new name that supersedes the old you never hear the old one again But Jacob's an exception or most of the time. It's Jacob Here on his deathbed. He is using the name Israel by the Holy Spirit So we I think can take at least some comfort in the sense that he's walking. He's talking speaking of in the spirit The word Jacob means what implies what spiritually here? Son of Adam and In the sense of the two natures the flesh and the spirit Okay, or the first Adam and last Adam if you want to look at it that way That's probably a an odd phrase to use of Genesis, but nevertheless Where were his sons spiritually In the flesh ye sons of Jacob listen to Israel your father That one phrase starts to position what's happening Now he goes up into a series of verses That are Rather cryptic Verse 3 he starts with Reuben. Why would he start with Reuben firstborn you bet? I'm tempted to read through the chapter and then come back to Reuben But we might run out of you know, then take them one at a time We might I think I'll proceed on the presumption. You've done your homework and read chapter 49 So you have a an overview if not, you'll certainly get it as we go through it. I item by item Let's take Reuben and and see what he said about Reuben Verse 3 Reuben thou art my firstborn my might and the beginning of my strength The X's excellency of dignity and the excellency of power Unstable as water thou shalt not excel Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed then defilest thou it He went up to my couch And he goes on then to talk about Simeon Levi now you look at that and some of that you can sort of recognize And some of it you can First of all, why would he be how why would he focus on on Reuben the beginning of my strength? The firstborn Okay, Reuben had Originally the claim to the natural birthright. What is the birthright? Double portion rulership over the house when the father's gone he's the priest of the high priest of the family and So forth we covered that before and talk about the birthright but by way of recollection However, we discover that Reuben forfeited the birthright through his conduct in Defiling his father's bed We might turn to 1st Chronicles chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 We're in 1st Chronicles chapter 5 first two verses It reads now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel parenthesis for he was the firstborn but for as much as he defiled his father's bed his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph By the way, I might caution you don't confuse Joseph and Judah in terms of their legacy if you will the firstborn the right to the firstborn fell upon Joseph The son of Israel and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright For Judah prevailed above his brethren and of him came The Prince The Naguide by the way, it's the same word that occurs in Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 You know 69 weeks from shall go from the commandment to return to build Jerusalem unto the Naguide the Mashiach Naguide But the birthright was Joseph's So don't don't misunderstand the royal line Devolves through Judah and we'll talk about Judah shortly The birthright was Joseph's the birthright involved the double portion the double portion Being very convenient because in the adoption of Joseph's two sons by Jacob Ephraim and Manasseh, there's a portion for each Okay So that really gives you 13 tribes 13 tribes the tribe of Joseph you can think of is split into two Ephraim and Manasseh and since Joseph was entitled to the double portion by being the successor to the birthright You have really 13 portions divided into 13 tribes And as I've mentioned before unless you someone points that out to you You can spend a lot of time trying to figure out how you can always get a list of 12 tribes Independently whether or not you're counting Levi or Dan or what-have-you. It seems very convenient You can always leave out one tribe and still get 12 and you don't Reconcile it until you realize fundamentally there are not 12 tribes. There are 13 in effect Okay, first chronicles 5 1 & 2 is a good summary of the relationship of Reuben and Okay Reuben was the firstborn son by nature. We can infer that it was through pride that he he blew it by Aspiring to and taking if you will literally his father's place and in so doing fell Now Jacob really points out three things the fact that he had he was heir to the natural birthright But secondly that he forfeited that birthright and we've seen that in first Chronicles 5 2, but he makes a Oh, he meant he mentions here that thou shalt not excel and I think it's significant to point out in contrast to all the other tribes Reuben is the source of no judge in the book of Judges He is the source of no king in Israel, and he is the source of no prophet in Israel So he did not excel He did not excel in some other ways When they came through the wilderness and were entering Canaan the promised land in Numbers 32 approximately and also recorded in Josh in in in Judges 5 and numbers 32. I Think I should be Joshua 5. I may have jotted it down wrong in any case with Gad Reuben and Gad settled on the wilderness side of the Jordan so they didn't enter the promised land they settled on the Wilderness side of the of the Jordan Reuben taking the southernmost portion on the east side And that you know leads them to be easily exposed to attack and a source of all kinds of future problems now a Third comment that Jacob implies here He says that you are as unstable as water and you and I might draw to a jump to a lot of Conclusions as to what is really meant by that phrase in fact all the way through here Scholars are divided as to what the real root translation implied because they're pastoral Examples and what it means to them and what means as a different the unstable as water Seems to imply it's unstable as water in the sense of the drying up of a summer stream If you're used to living on the land as a shepherd or a nomadic tribe There are frequently streams that were there in the spring from the runoff, but they dry in the summer So some water some sources of water are unstable they're there they're not there when you need them and the phrase that the Hebrew phase that pointing to the unstable water implies that they're evaporating or they're they're they're they're weakening or that they're Not not there when you need them Or one other thing I'd like to do here There's another occasion of a similar passage here We have Genesis 49 where we have a prophecy by Jacob about his twelve sons Describing what their tribes are going to be like and what will befall them in the last days There's another passage in the scripture very similar to this the occasion is Moses Sometimes called the song of Moses the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy 33 if you think of Genesis 49 You should think as a student of the scripture about Deuteronomy 33 Let's turn to Deuteronomy 33 and we'll play Sort of ping-pong or and we'll go antiphonally between these two chapters to get an insight into the twelve tribes as we go and Deuteronomy 33 and I suggest as we go back We might keep a marker or a finger in this portion because we'll try to remember to pop in here for each tribe But Deuteronomy 33 verse 1 starts and this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel Before his death here again just as Jacob was giving the prophecy or blessings over his twelve sons Moses likewise just before his death Commented on each of the twelve tribes in this case. He said and they're in a different order here, I believe But let's just skim through it here, and it says And he said the Lord came from Sinai and rose up from seer to them And he shined forth from Mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of his saints and from his right hand went a fiery law For them. Yeah, he loved the people all his saints are in my hand and they sat down at thy feet Everyone shall receive of thy words Moses commanded us a law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob and he was king in Jeshurun When the heads of the people and the tribes the Israel gathered together first six Let Reuben live and not die Okay, and Let not his men be few now that not is added there's a grammatical question there is whether let his men be few or let his men not be few and Then he goes on with Jude and something let's leave the others for later So both here in Deuteronomy 33 in Genesis 49. We have comments about Reuben and in in In particularly in Jacob's case. He points out that he won't excel and he implies that he will Be unstable as water that is a you know disappear and One of the translations of the Deuteronomy 33 passage it implies it is let his men be few now What's interesting is if we if we were to take the trouble to look at the two senses There was two numberings of the people one in numbers one Book of Numbers 1 verse 21. We discover that Reuben was 46,500 not one of the largest but more importantly in numbers 26 verse 7 is numbering he reduced to 43,730 So we see Reuben on the decrease We see Reuben not excel in some other ways in Deuteronomy 27 when they some of the tribes went on Mount Ebal to curse and others went on Mount Gerizim to bless guess where Reuben was Yes, you're right Now Because of his Reuben's position east of the Jordan you'll discover if you'd go through 1st Chronicles 26 and 2nd Kings 10 That when there was a tax on the land by enemies one of the first places to get hit Or where God would thus bring judgment would be guess where? Reuben and In the notes there are plenty other verses. I'll let you run with that in terms of going further Let's move on to the next one the next up tribe in Genesis 49. We're down at verse 5 and Verse 5 6 & 7 Jacob in his case speaks of two tribes together. He lumps in his discussion Simeon and Levi Simeon and Levi he's taking them incidentally in their natural order Simeon and Levi that is so far. He's taking them in their natural order Simeon and Levi are brethren verse 5 instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Why would he say that? Who were the two characters that? brought vengeance for the rape of their sister Dinah and The men of Shechem remember that so Jacob apparently has in his mind here this brutal cruel reaction that both Levi and Simeon Brought upon the men of Shechem that was in Genesis 34 if you recall your note You can go back on your own to dig into that and refresh your memory of that now It says oh my soul come not thou into their secret Unto their assembly mine honor be not thou United for in their anger they slew a man and in their self-will the hamstrung oxen Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Now all its qualitative Summary, right? Here's the prophecy. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Okay, I Might comment on a couple of things the cruelty thing. I think it's pretty clear by coming at something else This is relatively a derogatory passage, right if I like it what's interesting about this is the the book was of Genesis was written by whom and Of what tribe was he? Levi right on it was written by Moses of Levi and it's a subtle evidence of inspiration that this adverse Passage is about the tribe. He's from Nothing good said all adverse kind of interesting Might also mention just his background the belief at least that Simeon was the ringleader Concerning the mischief About Joseph now when Joseph and his the the brethren assembled and threw him in the pit. We don't know from that text Who was the ringleader? The fact that Simeon was is a possibility He was a in effect second heir the Reuben was yeah, you know, you remember that well the point is it when Joseph later Plays his little game if you will with them in chapter 42 verse 24, which of the 12 does he bind? Simeon and so to the extent you visualize a modeling by Joseph of the history of his being Sold in the slavery. You could draw the conclusion that Simeon was the ringleader. That's inferential and Something you can accept to reject as you feel comfortable with Clearly Simeon was pretty tough guy Judah calls on Simeon in Judges chapter 1 verse 3 when Judah is looking for assistance in Securing his position in Canaan. He calls upon Simeon That's reasonable because Simeon apparently was pretty fierce and cruel tough bunch. It also was he was relatively co-located co-co Allocated as far as the territory is concerned same thing occurs in 1st Chronicles 4 Judah seek looks to Simeon for help That's a very interesting thing. We could turn to Deuteronomy 33 except we discover that Simeon's omitted Simeon is omitted from Deuteronomy 20 to 33 Simeon is also the weakest of all the tribes in the numbering of numbers the second census the numbering of number 26 and There's very little heard of Simeon later Yeah from the time of King Asa on you don't see him mentioned now how was Simeon scattered in Israel Very directly when the land was allocated Simeon simply got a portion of Judah's allocation. He didn't have a clear distinct That's why when the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom have their civil war They speak of the southern kingdom as Judah it embraced Simeon, but he was sort of a also ran if you will Simeon was scattered and divided in that sense now what makes this And for the authority on that we could take the time But let's not if you were Simeon's does not really get a separate territory But gets a portion of the Alec territory allocated Judah You'll find that in Joshua chapter 19 first eight verses and you can also find if you're interested in the allocation of tribes get the Joshua tapes or the Joshua your notes and so forth and You can track through in in the conquest of Canaan under Joshua. How the land is divided Let's before we move on recognize. We've really got two tribes here Simeon in effect carries this curse There's another tribe Levi. That's lumped in here with him Levi's history is a little different than Simeon's first of all in Exodus chapter 32 Moses calls for a show of you know assistance and which tribe Rallies with Moses make a guess Levi Exodus 32 verses 27 28 your reference there There's another occasion That we might well turn to numbers 25 Again where the tribe of Levi it credits itself with an act that turns out to be very important in terms of its future history numbers 25 Let's pick it up about verse 6 Behold one of the children of Israel came and brought into his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses and the sight of all the congregation of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and When Phineas the son of Eliezer the son of Aaron the priest Who is Phineas what tribe is he in? Levi right Saw it he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her abdomen so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel and Those that died the plague were 24,000 and Lord spoke unto Moses saying Phineas the son of Eliezer the son of Aaron the priest hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel While he was zealous for my sake among them That I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy Wherefore say behold I give unto him my covenant of peace and He shall have it and his seed after him even a covenant of an everlasting priesthood Because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel Then it goes on okay kind of an interesting passage and So it's interesting we find in the passage in Genesis 49 that Levi is is coupled or yoked With Simeon by virtue of the previous cruelty he appears to be spared by the Lord by grace through the actions of one Phineas, so Now as far as being divided and scattered We know I mentioned Simeon of course was divided in the sense They didn't you get a sub portion of Judas the Levites were scattered in what sense who can remember the Joshua study? They got cities not territories as in Jeff You'll find cute little maps in the back to your Bibles of the territories of twelve tribes I should caution you that the the traditional territories are there's some debate of exactly where the boundaries are so those are estimates really but clearly 11 of the 12 tribes got Geographic territories contiguous territories that belong to them, but there's one tribe that did not their inheritance was not the land it was what? No What was the inheritance of the Levites? the Lord You remember that passage is the Lord says I am your inheritance But they did get in lieu of traditional inheritance 48 cities 48 cities Scattered throughout the entire land in other words they were scattered among the twelve tribes in terms of the cities But there's a sort of a distinction between the titled in the city and just having a city allocated to them They didn't inherit the land they inherited the Lord and their primary Thing was the custodianship of the tabernacle and the the the priesthood and You can find that whole thing of the 48 cities and numbers 35 a Joshua 14 for and Joshua 21 Book of Joshua makes a big thing of that and Talks about the whole concept of the cities for the Levites and also the cities of refuge Which is a whole nother subject that? Okay now now we get to perhaps One of the most important clearly one of the most important tribes We've gone through Ruben Simeon and Levi now we get to the fourth in succession up till now. We're in the natural order Leia's sons right sons by Leia The first four natural sons and the next one in line is Judah the first thing we'll notice about Judah is that we get a great deal about Judah not just a little cryptic verse or two and And Well, let's just take a good look at it Judah thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise was the name Judah mean Praise so there's sort of a pun or a word player Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies Thy father's children shall bow down before thee Now that's a very strange mystery because he was not the firstborn nor did the right of the firstborn Devolved to Judah it devolved to Joseph. So why should his father's children bow down to Judah? We don't really understand that Conceptually at least we don't understand till we see David King of Israel, okay But it goes far beyond David as well shortly since My father's children shall bow down before thee verse 9 Judah is a lion's well From the prey my son thou art gone up. He stooped down He crouched as a lion and as an old lion and who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet Until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be Binding his foal unto the vine and his asses colt unto the choice vine He washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk Now I should mention That to really study this passage all these passages properly we should spend more time and really get into the original language and see some of the alternate renderings in the English and That takes a lot of time. It gets very dry and dull and and so I'll try to Avoid that because it gets as I say pretty dull on the other hand You should just recognize that the actual structure of the language is a best case from many alternate alternate runnings from it from the roots that are involved so You just be sensitive to that now Let's turn to first we just looked at first Chronicles 5 Let's take a passage again. That's what mentions of Judah They mentioned that was the passage we looked at with respect to the sons of Reuben and Joseph and so forth right First Chronicles 5 1 and 2 we just read but verse 2 again for Judah prevailed above his brethren and of him came the Naguid Naguid the prince the chief ruler in Daniel chapter 9 and in the 70 week prophecy of the Daniel the angel Gabriel in response to Daniel's prayer comes to him and gives Him a prophecy which predicts the coming of the Messiah to the nation Israel he says 77 are Determined upon thy people upon thy holy city to do those six things And from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah Naguid the Messiah the prince Will be 69 weeks and so forth and that same word is used here Okay There's another passage That describes the fact there are many passages described that the Messiah will come out of Judah But one of them is perhaps not obvious, but you all know very well, that's Micah 5 2 what does Micah 5 2 say But effluent Bethlehem Ephrata though thou be littlest among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me That is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting if he comes out of Bethlehem What tribe would he be in? Judah it's more specifically. What house would he be in house of David absolutely And we could go on and this just opens the door to go to a whole bunch of the messianic prophecies But I think that's a task. I'll leave up to you Certainly Judah has dominion he has specific dominion in the sense of the house of David the King David's throne and all the prophecies that focus on that throne enduring forever and And that's a strange contradiction because we're going to find out that the Messiah that the rulership of Judah Will not end until the Messiah appears once the Messiah appears the rulership of David evaporates the ability to trace yourself to the house of David is not possible today Which means if you're going to re-establish the throne of David you got a little genealogical problem There's also some scholars make a big thing out of the lion that there's a well it's in three phases There's a lot there's a welt that is a young lion a regular lion and an old lion and some Try to structure that into a history of you know from Joshua to Saul and David and Solomon onward and so forth but that I think I can't see a lot of Validity of that idea I throw it out for what it's worth Certainly the most fascinating of the passages here is verse 10 many people who study nothing of Genesis 49 love to quote verse 10 and We could spend all evening trying to tear apart its grammatical subtleties But anyway the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and the word Shiloh is I Got a lot of study, and there's a lot of controversy among the scholars But the net of it is is that the word is has been deemed messianic by some of the most ancient rabbinical sources It really means he who's right it is And the word itself is is generally regarded by most scholars to be clearly messianic and unto him shall the gathering of the people be now There is a an aspect of this that's Rather interesting and we find this recorded primarily in Josephus But if you recall after the captivities There was the the Maccabean princes rule Judah They were of course From the tribe of Levi, but they were Jewish kings. They were the last of the Jewish kings After them came Herod was Herod Jewish Where was he? Idiom man from the tribe of it from the the background of the Edomites Idiom man is just another way of saying an Edomite if you will It turns out that there was a series of events one is that led to the deposition of Archelaus and the high priest I think was Copernicus at which time incidentally the capital the right to capital punishment was relieved from the Jewish or you know structure and What they actually did Approximately, we're not sure the exact date but approximately 7 ad is the high priests went through this the city of Jerusalem wearing sackcloth and ashes and What they did is they said according to the Babylonian Talmud? Woe unto us for the scepter has been taken from Judah and Shiloh has not come now Judah here being the geography Jerusalem isn't in the area of Judah the scepter has been taken from Judah and Shiloh has not come The implication of that lament is there is testimony to their conviction that the word of the Lord had been broken because of Genesis 49 10 But the scepter had departed from Judah and Shiloh that is the Messiah had not come What they did not know apparently is that a carpenter's son was probably about the age of 12 in Nazareth some people link that event with perhaps the occasion that the young boy was taken to the temple and Disappeared from his parents and of course they went back and found him and he rebuked them saying that they should have expected him to be there That may be very valid it may be just you know one of those things I'll leave it up to you, but it's an interesting interesting insight that approximately at that time according to the both the Babylonian Talmud and Josephus was about the time that this whole issue occurred about the scepter departing from Judah and obviously with the 2020 hindsight We recognize that Shiloh had come He hadn't made his public appearance yet except to the extent that it that That appearance of the temple might be right that he didn't really open his ministry until some years later We'll come back to that you'll notice in John 18 31 the real proposition of the Jews Just to give more substance to this idea. You'll notice in John chapter 18 is where they're Politicking to have the Lord put to death and Of course the Romans are no one's fool. They're trying to get out from under this whole scene and They really would like to be free of this Pilot says to them take ye him and verse 31 and judge him according to your law Pilots perfectly pleased to get rid of this particular administrative chore The Jews therefore said of him is not lawful for us to put any man to death That's the reference in effect that's supported if you want to dig back into the whole Background of where they lost their right to capital punishment and so forth anyway, it's interesting that that justice 4910 predicts that Shiloh would come before the capital before the the scepter would depart from Judah and That was even recognized by the high priest of that day But they did not recognize of course the fact that the Shiloh had in fact made his appearance Moving on this is binding his foal unto the vine Now tying the vine to Judah you can do two different ways first of all the wine growing district in the land is in the southern portion in the land of Judah and If you want to track that down for you know Geoeconomic reasons you can second Chronicles 26 9 verses 9 and 10 Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 14 speaks of then Getty as a wine growing district Joshua chapter 25 62 points out that in Getty is one of the towns and it was allocated to Judah so if you want to you can make a biblical case that Vines and wine can be tied to Judah if you like It's more broadly identified with Isaiah 63 in Revelation 14 Which will come to in a minute says it and buying and his ass is called into the choice vine Who is the choice fine? Who is the choice vine I am the vine and ye are what? year the branches right take a vine and and and Build it with six branches you end up with a menorah You study the tabernacle. It was hewn out of a single piece of gold Comply that intimacy of Union. I am the vine year the branches year what men? What's the number of men? Six but grafted in the vine. What is the number? Seven so you make a whole thing that and what is the purpose of that vine and branches? To bear the light. It's the only light in the tabernacle So from this if you haven't been through that you should study the tabernacle however, every element every detail that God gave Moses points to Jesus Christ and What what is the symbol of the vine here in Judah the ass is Colt what does Zechariah 9 9 say To Jerusalem rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion shout o daughter of Jerusalem behold who comes thy king The only occasion that Jesus Christ permitted himself to be worshiped as a king was one particular day And what was the token symbol of that day riding into Jerusalem on what? on a colt the fall of an ass interesting And he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes When did Jesus Christ wash his clothes in the blood of grapes Turn to Isaiah 63 You can tell I think those of you got to know me how I must have been Abused as a child with in terms of of having been limited Or browbeaten or whatever into a view of what I sometimes call the Sunday school Jesus this real nice son Dan Carpenter who walked along the Sea of Galilee patting the little kids on the head and said be nice to everybody and That that that first grade view of Jesus Christ is unfortunately many something many of us as we get into an adulthood some of us spiritually never get to adulthood but those of us that do need to outgrow and to recognize that this same Jesus is the one before whom every knee shall bow and Chapter 63 of Isaiah puts this pretty Fact it really is to get almost start a few verses earlier Chapter 62 verses 11 and 12 behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth Say unto the daughter of Zion behold his salvation cometh behold his reward is with them in his work before him They shall call them The holy people the redeemed of the Lord now shall be called sought out a city not forsaken and who is this? That cometh from Edom the word Edom means what? It's a literal place. Yes the location of Basra Petra if you will, but it also means red Who's this coming from Edom foot with dyed garments from Basra? This that is glorious in his apparel traveling in the greatness of his strength I who speak in righteousness mighty to save Who is speaking here? I? Who speak in righteousness mighty to save who is mighty to save is there anyone else is there anyone else it could be speaking here Why aren't thou in red apparel and my garments like him who treadeth what? the wine fat that is the grapes I Have trodden the winepress alone in the people's there was none with me I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I shall Stain all my raiment for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come And so on in Revelation 19 we see a man on white horseback and Clothed with the vesture dipped in blood Whose blood? The blood of Jesus Christ he shed that of the cross at Calvary what blood is he on his thigh a name is written King of Kings and Lord of Lords who's riding the horse the white horse in Revelation 19 not the white horse in Revelation 6 1 Revelation 19 who is riding that horse? Jesus Christ What color are his garments? They're white but yet Covered with blood and the question is whose blood according to Isaiah 63 we have an insight Going all the way back to Jacob's prophecy thousands of years before Jacob in his deathbed looking at Judah says The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until shadow coming unto him shall the gathering of the people be Binding his foal unto the vine and his asses cold into the choice wine He washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes his eyes shall be red with wine his teeth white with Interesting passage interesting passage we we could say much more, but obviously all of you are anxious to get to Dan, so we should keep moving Okay, Zebulun is the next one verse 13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea and he shall be for a haven of the ships and his border shall be Unto Sidon then he goes on to Issachar one verse on Zebulun Now there's one very strange thing That should hit you right away, and I want to wonder who can guess what is strange about this reference to Zebulun aside from the cryptic language What order we've just we've gone from Reuben? Simeon Levi Judah the first four sons of Jacob Suddenly we switched to Zebulun why he was the tenth right? What's the order? now there are some scholars some commentators that believe that what he was probably doing is going around his bed and That happened to be the next guy in the row and that might be true. I have obviously no idea I think that's an awfully thin excuse to you know those of you that know the kind of Theme that I am suggesting is the one that this is a engineered message system That has been placed in our hands from outside our time domain by a master craftsman and The scripture says that all things are written before time for our learning and I take that all the way And that says the very order may prove to be important that doesn't mean I can explain the order or why it's in this order but I think we are on sound ground to be sensitive to the order and look behind it if there's anything that can be the Suggested here, okay Now the fact that Zebulun was the tenth son is interesting to me. What's ten the number of? Witness fine the tenth generation may your house like be like Perez and all of that those of you that remember the root study can Chase that one if that's significant Jesus Christ was born in Judah right Bethlehem of Judah, Judea Where was he raised? Naphtali or Zebulun there's there's some both are true and The fact that he was Ray lived in Zebulun some 30 years Could possibly be in the mind of the Holy Spirit here and that may be one justification for having Gone from Judah to Zebulun. Don't know it's a thought now You might find it interesting to turn to Deuteronomy 33. I keep meaning to do that for each one of these Deuteronomy 33, let's see what it says about Zebulun. It should be about verses 18 and 19. I think verse 18 of Deuteronomy Moses says and of Zebulun he said rejoice Zebulun in thy going out and Issachar in thy tents Zebulun Issachar and Naphtali you're going to discover are difficult to separate. We're not we don't have good crisp boundaries, but Notice the emphasis on by in the in the fact that it's going out. Okay, and Let's see if we can find some things out about Zebulun getting back to Genesis 49 we noticed that Zebulun was celebrated in the song of Deborah in Judges 5 verse 18 and He was also Very loyal to David in first Chronicles 12 verses 33 and 40 as examples We can go into some of that history, but it's not a big monument, but he is celebrated and by both Deborah and In effect by the Chronicles relative to David One interesting thing if we are studying that the the tribes here were the Judah beforehand We said we spoke of a lion and his prey Issachar we're going to discover is perhaps lazy Zebulun seems to be commercially effective Shall dwell at the haven of the sea and shall be for a haven of ships and his border shall be unto Sidon There's some confusion as to who goes to sigh all the way to Sidon because Tyre and Sidon were in the actually in the land of Asher although Zebulun was close at hand Zebulun seems to be with Naphtali Inherited that area which is known as the Galilee of the Gentiles Matthew chapter 4 verse 15 is one example of that and what's interesting about Zebulun is the fact that the word is going out from Zebulun and When we find the Lord in his ministry we discover that 11 of the 12 were Galileans there was one who wasn't God by name of Judas Now there is some controversy about this haven of ships Because it's not clear that Zebulun actually made it all the way to Phoenicia or to Tyre or Sidon Exactly where his borders are is is is in some you find different authors have different views on that We do know though that he was a haven because Jesus himself when they were seeking to kill him where did he travel in Galilee he did not travel in Jewry because they sought to kill him there was a time It wasn't safe, and that's where he took refuge Zebulun was also perhaps a haven in the sense of the Joseph and Mary finding a haven there after Egypt and so forth you can Make a case of that if you like it's enough to come back to that because we'll touch upon the whole the whole confusion as to what's Zebulun and what's Naphtali is a is part of the Problem making this really crisp the next one that Jacob talks about is Issachar Now he says he is a strong ass Crouching down or couching down between two burdens and he saw that rest was good and the land that it was pleasant and Bowed his shoulder to bear and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto forced labor We don't have a lot of insight on on this one point you should understand though an ass was not a figure of reproach It was a beast of service in those days because horses were forbidden You can find an ass being Extolled if you will in Judges 10 and 12 and other places Horses were forbidden by Deuteronomy 17 16 even though Solomon subsequently violated that Law later But Issachar is a strong ass Crouching down between two burdens, and he saw that the rest was good and the land was pleasant In other words he coasts takes it easy He is a strong ass and we note that in Numbers 26 only Dan and Judah were larger in Fact in Numbers 26 verse 25. He's numbered at sixty four thousand three hundred But we get to first Chronicles 7 5 we discover is eighty seven thousand so he's he's a strong tribe Don't know much about him beyond that I'll leave it to you to do some digging if you can find out more about Issachar great We now get into this interesting Strange one verses 16 and 17 and 18 and This has been much studied by many people here because of our interest in the book of Revelation the tribe of Dan is Conspicuous for several reasons not the least of which in their numbering in the sealing of the hundred forty four thousand twelve thousand are sealed from each of the twelve tribes But as every student that study that carefully notices that the tribe of Dan is missing And that's one of those strange places How can you number twelve thousand each of twelve tribes and drop a tribe very simple because the tribe of Levi is included sometimes in other numberings Tribe of Levi is not counted. In fact, I might talk a little bit about numberings in your notes You'll discover on the first page. I hope there are some 20 actually lists of the tribes in the scripture They're numbered in Genesis 29 through 35 when they're born They're entering Egypt in both Genesis 46 and later on in Exodus 1 Mentioned and of course Jacob's prophetic blessing is in Genesis 49 The first census is numbers 1 and the second census is in numbers 26 but in the book of Numbers We also have the order of the camp Where they're camped and there are order of the offerings the order of March when they're marching to war and in numbers 10 the order of the spies and numbers 13 and On and of course the blessing of Moses Deuteronomy 33 and their genealogies and first Chronicles 2 and 8 12 and 27 and so forth There's the division of the land in the Millennium in Ezekiel 48 and the sealing of the hundred forty-four thousand Revelation 7 Just to mention a few places where the twelve tribes are enumerated Now in some of those cases you don't number the tribe of Levi because they're not to go to war They're just take care of the tabernacle, but there were twelve tribes. I went to war so you dropped Levi But you took Joseph and split me from Manasseh Revelation 7 they do it the other way around you have the twelve tribes and includes Levi but you're the tribe of Dan and This plus a rabbinical tradition that the Antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan is a is caused this whole passage of the tribe of Dan to be very very interesting to us and it warrants some specific study, and I thought we'd try to zero in on this a little bit Students of prophecy it'll be and I what I'm going to tell you isn't I'm going to tell you more than I necessarily Subscribe to just for your own interest some of this may be exaggerated some of this may be inappropriate. It's just Background to do your own study before we get into Dan a little bit Let's also couple with what Moses said about Dan and Deuteronomy 33 when Moses was on his deathbed or about to die He he made a prophecy about the tribe of Dan a Little more cryptic really doesn't help us a lot gender Deuteronomy to a 33 22 and of Dan He said Dan is a lion's whelp. He shall leap from Bashan well That doesn't help us at all really let's take a look and get some feeling for the tribe of Dan and see what happens to the tribe of Dan from the beginning Dan first shows up in Genesis 37 to That's we looked at that before when we were studying Genesis 37, let's look back at it again Okay, that's not when he first showed up he's born before then but I just Okay But when we started talking about Joseph Genesis 37 verse 2 there are that these are the generations of Jacob Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brethren and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah his father's wives and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report Okay Whose evil report the sons of the concubines Bilhah and Zilpah and Who was the first son of the concubine it looks like it was Dan Dan was about 20 years old at this time Some scholars jumped to the conclusion may not be valid But I'll throw out for you is that Dan may have been the ringleader of the evil that Joseph first brought back to Jacob Because there was what's the undertone here is that the sons involved in this particular report were the not the sons of Leah or Rachel in that sense Because there was just Joseph and Benjamin came later, but the sons of the concubines these guys were probably somewhat second citizens, right? The first four sons and Alaya were the were you had to had to clean claim to the title and firstborn and all that stuff These other get this other game from both Bilhah and Zilpah Subsequent one subsequent to the other were sons of the concubine you can imagine among this rowdy bunch that they were probably second citizens So it's some people draw the inference that Dan may have had an unruly start to begin with being probably the ringleader of that bunch But more important as we noted when we got to Genesis 46 We began to see something in The scripture that I wanted to dwell on a little bit we in Genesis 46 we had genealogies a register of all the sons and their sons and When we got down to verse 23 If we were noted careful, we noticed that and the sons of Dan who shim which is a tribal collective Doesn't enumerate the sons of Dan which if you notice from all the rest that is a slight If you were a descendant of Dan and we're reading this you'd be upset How come all these other guys have their genealogies? We don't have ours good question Good question turn to numbers 26 In numbers 26 we have the same thing. We have a long detailed list of sons of various tribes Okay, 38 the sons of Benjamin and so on and so on so forth and on it goes you get down to verse 42 And these are the sons of Dan and after their families of shoeham the family of the shoe mites These are the families of Dan after their families Well, really terrific Then goes on after children ash of their families and lumped it up and get enumerates them all and so forth either Dan was not very prolific or he somehow had offended the scorekeeper and That's exactly what some scholars feel is that we begin to see not in Revelation 7 but a book of Genesis the blotting out of the name of Dan Settle away very soft, but it's physical You can go through the first Chronicles chapter 2 through 10 and and in those genealogies Dan is omitted Revelation 7 is the climax to this scenario namely the tribe of Dan is not sealed Specifically not sealed. Although y'all that other 12 tribes are listed 12,000 in this tribe 12,000 on and on and on and There's there there we find that kind of interesting You understand the ceiling that comes from Ezekiel 9 I believe it is right where they're sealed in their foreheads in the book of Ezekiel and then we see them sealed in Revelation 7 get the revelation tapes if you're interested in following through that When we get to numbers chapter 10 and we have the order of March guess who's mark who marches last Numbers 1025 who what marks rearward of all the others in the King James tribe of Dan Okay in Joshua chapter 19 Who do you think's the last to inherit some of the land? They're going to Canaan. They're dividing up the land right you get this you get that we drew lots, right? Guess who's last? That's right, Dan You can visit Dan today. By the way, if you go to Israel tell Don is worth seeing it's museum there and excavation It's a lot of fun and It's a nature preserve and so forth Anyway, you can go to Don. It's it's still a place and where is it? It's up north northern most part They were the last to receive the inheritance in first Chronicles 27, they're the last to be mentioned there Now the question is clearly as you go through if we took the trouble tonight to go through each of these passages You can't help but get hit right between the eyes with the fact that somebody has had it in for Dan for a long time okay, and You do get the impression scholars get the impression that the Holy Spirit has got an An editorial license or prejudice against Dan because he's clearly by omission given slight treatment Now the question is why okay if we turn to Judges 18 Judges chapter 18 We have an event that is the beginning of a whole theme of degeneration in the nation Israel Judges 18 We have the Advent of idolatry This is the first entry of idolatry into the nation Israel Okay Verse 29 by the way says they called the name of the city Dan after the name of Dan you can go there today Their father who was born into Israel how be it the name of the city was lyish lyish at first and the children of Dan Set up guess what the carved image Jonathan son of Gershom the son of Manasseh he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of captivity of the land and they set them up and They set them up Micah's carved image Which he had made and all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh, which is in this case a place name That's not the same Shiloh that we saw in Genesis 4 9 10 So this is where Dan is The means by which idolatry enters the land By the way for those of you that want to study it diligently you might find interesting discover that there were 600 families involved Which I thought's an interesting number Now to give you a feeling of how the Lord feels About the means by which idolatry enters the land you might find interesting to just review Deuteronomy 29 Starting about verse 16 Deuteronomy 29 16 says for you know how we have dwelt the land of Egypt and how we came through the nations which he passed by And ye have seen their abominations and their idols wooden stone silver and gold which were among them lest there should be among you man or woman or family or tribe Notice that man or woman or family or what tribe? Whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and Wormwood rebel at students of Revelation take note Now I come to pass when he here at the words of this curse That he blessed himself in his heart saying I shall have peace and I will walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him But then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this book Shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven heavy, huh now the specific ones You know aren't mentioned here. They're blotted out, but the tribe of Dan has a stigma a black eye a cloud hanging over Incidentally if we went to first Kings 12 You discover discover that Jeroboam's two calves the golden calves that he set up this much later now. This is after David This is under the rebellion in the northern kingdom Jeroboam, right? He sets up two golden calves. Where do you think one of them was? In Dan the other one was in Ephraim in Ephraim Dan gets the bigger credit, but Ephraim doesn't look too good either and when you get to Revelation 7 It's it's in the twelve tribes. It speaks of Joseph and Manasseh Now if Manasseh is half of Joseph and named specifically what's left Ephraim so Ephraim is in the list, but by inference not by name Just a subtlety Ephraim gets Gets a backhand to if you will although although it is Ephraim is sealed in there All the way from Jeroboam all the way to Jehu King Jehu when he has his His attack on these things in second Kings 10 verse 29. The golden calf is still at Dan Dan has become even to this day in Israel a traditional site for idolatry If you visit tell done the interest there Archaeologically is in the idols and the idolatry the idol worship that prevailed during such a key part of Israel's history So the tribe of Dan is the tribe through which? Idolatry under the land in fact in Amos chapter 8 verse 4 You'll find the phrase the God of Dan meaning not the one you and I worship Okay so it's The future of Dan is tied to that whole thing now Does that mean other many you may you may stumble across some commentators that feel it Dan because of this horrible terrible sin is Thus wiped out from the kingdom wrong wrong Because in Ezekiel 48 in the Millennium when the land is divided among the twelve tribes who is the first to inherit tribe of Dan First because he's most important. No, he's have to have to be going from north to south in the list But he is in the list and he doesn't hear it which means It's a testimony to God's grace It's a testimony to God's grace, but does mean that his surviving through the tribulation was not With the benefit of being sealed like the other like the others were so he apparently makes it the hard way Makes it the hard way now one other thing the tribe of it says that in in the Genesis 49 it says that Dan will judge his people and Samson was one of the judges and We discover that his home was in Zora and from judge from Joshua 19, we know that Zora was part of the tribe of Dan and So Samson was of the tribe of Dan. We know from well judges 13 to and tying that all together. So Samson Was probably the one major hero that I was able to come across from the tribe of Dan now Because of this background you can begin to understand why some Bible students As feel that the Antichrist has some link with the tribe of Dan and By the way, that tradition isn't just Christian. It goes back long before there's some rabbinical traditions of the same flavor As we look at Dan here It says he shall be a serpent by the way an adder in the path that bite us his horse is healed so that his rider Shall fall backward, right? In verse 18, there is a verse that's absolutely unique in the whole chronicle here by Jacob He seems to pause in his sequence of prophecies and Put out input in there a one line of praise He says I have waited for thy salvation. Oh Lord and I bring to this text the same sort of attitude or perspective that that we've talked about when we talk about the seven letters of seven churches What's fascinating what unlocks those letters to me is understanding the sequence and the pattern and noticing how that shifts in the middle You know the first three verses the last four or so forth What fascinates me here is we have the mind of the writer Be it the Holy Spirit or Jacob whichever way you want to get Dan She'll be a serpent by the way and adder in the path that bite if the horse is healed So this writer falls backwards. I have waited for thy salvation. Oh Lord. It's as if in my mind the mention of the serpent Throws the mind of the writer back to Genesis 315 I'll put the enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed whose seed the serpents seed Who's the serpent see we speak of the seed of the woman Jesus Christ terrific. Who's the seed of the serpent? In the ultimate sense of the Antichrist, okay Now by the way one of the things that also fascinates me if the tribe in Israel That through which idolatry entered becomes such an idiom of prophecy as we've noticed What about the king? Through which idolatry entered the land through what King under the dynasties did idolatry under the land? Solomon oh, isn't that interesting? What was Solomon salaries mentioned twice in the scripture 666 shekels a year. So if you're looking for an idiom of 666 checks all of them up When was this mentioned at the visit of the Gentile Queen by the name of Queen of Sheba? Both times that's mentioned. It's linked to her visit. What does that mean? Is she a type could be? How many steps to the Solomon's throne six? Not what's the number of man and so forth you can just go you get it a whole thing if you like I think typologically speaking is worthy of some study. There's the expression that he understood dark sentences occurs only two people in the scripture Solomon and one other in Daniel 8 guess who? So you can chase that if you like it's probably wrong but But it will cause you to search for the Antichrist in the scripture rather than time magazine and that's constructive Okay Okay And is it possible that indeed Dan will rule over his people But not in the sense that we think But in the sense of the false leader that will come in his own name Shortly Okay, I guess if I'm gonna finish the 12, we got to keep moving here. Let's the next one is Gad verse 19 Gad a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last The word troop by the way in the Hebrew implies a marauding or plundering Troop in second Kings 5. It's translated companies and in second Kings 24. It's translated bands, but it implies a You know an aggressive marauding bunch Wild wandering and unsettled and it's interesting by the way that wandering unsettled marauding atmosphere Might endure today. We use expression gad about don't we? You know the the root the the roots to that word may go it may have a very interesting interesting history and indeed we could Take the time to discover through 1st Chronicles 12 and elsewhere that gad indeed Apparently fielded very strong fine troops on behalf of David and so forth And if we had time you can go to Deuteronomy 33 20 and 21 and see what else is said about gad It says he'll be enlarged and so forth And indeed he gad is one of those tribes that settled on the east side of the Jordan before Canaan was divided It is the area known as Gilead Subsequently in the scripture. Okay, obviously a note and you can find that in Deuteronomy 3 and so forth He is said to be enlarged in Deuteronomy 33 and indeed In Joshua 13 when he gets the land Sharon is not mentioned but in 1st Chronicles 5 16 He's settling this so suburbs of Sharon and if you track that it clearly looks like he's acquisitive By being on the east side of Jordan is exposed to attack 1st Chronicles 5 is one example of that and he thus is the first to enter captivity Because the invaders come from that side needless to say that the Reuben and gad and half-tribe of Manasseh are Exposed and they seem to catch it The first to enter captivity you can look that up in 1st Chronicles 5 judges 11 and 1st Samuel 11 is examples of that Gad shall overcome in the end times and those of you that want to track that down can find that in Jeremiah 49 verses 1 and 2 and Zephaniah chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 that's in your notes You can track that down since we're getting short. Let's move on because there's a couple of other things to hit here Let's talk about Asher Verse 20 out of Asher his bread shall be fat and he shall yield royal dainties. You might pick up Deuteronomy 33 again and see what that has about verse 24 Just to give us another prophecy on Asher Out of Asher said let Asher be blessed with children. Let him be acceptable to his brethren. Let him dip his foot in oil We get the impression Asher Asher has a pretty well bread in the one case oil in the other He settled in the north part of Palestine along with Zebulun Naphtali and Issachar From Mount Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea and in his area includes Tyre and Sidon explicitly That's what causes some confusion Joshua 19 mentions that verses 24 through 31 Asher sort of is disparaged by Deborah in Judges 5 in the song of Deborah because he left he Left his brothers in jeopardy. He didn't join in when they asked him to The mention of royal dainties that's a linked with the name of Asher can mean several things. First of all the king of Tyre Remember his area includes Tyre and Sidon clearly the king of Tyre was the major instrumentality in David and Solomon relative to the temple he provided goods and things for David in 2nd Samuel 5 and Josh and also it's mentioned Joshua 19 29 and Also in Solomon's case first Kings 5 first 10 verses you may recall David was not allowed to build a temple But he was allowed you know, he figured that's fine I can pay the bills in advance So it was really David that pulled together a lot of the resources that Solomon subsequently able to take advantage of through his friendship with the king of Tyre and Solomon obviously leans heavily on the king of Tyre's resources in first Kings 5 onward In terms of bread and fat and those things it is interesting that Elijah in the widow of Zarephath Who incidentally was a widow we know from Luke 4 26 was a widow and it was it was in Sidon The episode occurs in first Kings 17 9, but from Joshua 19 We know that that was an area known as Asher and of course, there's that whole story in In the time of Hezekiah in 2nd Chronicles 30 Hezekiah had a call to keep the Passover and he was scorned by a whole fistful of guys in 2nd Chronicles 30 verse 10 But Asher Manasseh and Zebulun it humbled themselves and did Return to the worship and and observed Passover Passover verse 11. So Asher does pretty well for himself Asher can claim one who preached Christ because in Luke chapter 2 verses 36 through 38 Anna is a Testament gives her testimony and she's of the tribe of Asher if you look at Luke 2 and also Paul refreshed himself in Asher in Acts 27 3 so Asher doesn't come off too badly The word means happy Was what Leah named him there? Okay, next one is verse 21 naftali is a hind let loose. He giveth beautiful words The word naftali means wrestling actually from Genesis 30 verse 8 It's like a hind let loose or freed sent forth in The same word is used of Noah and the birds the raven and the doves sent forth So the image here is of a freed hind when it was wrestling and turned loose and freed This describes very graphically the episode of Barak Barak and judges chapter 4 and 5 Deborah Barak assent by Deborah From Mount Tabor he faced the hosts of Sisera and their 900 chariots of iron The word Barak by the way means lightning and it's interesting as you describe as he goes down and wipes out these this bunch It's interesting. It describes him charging down there and his men charging after him Okay, so he's read the Marine Corps manual, you know me first and you follow kind of but anyway He's he does a real good job and Deborah Extols his his performance in in judges 5 judges 4 and 5 carries that whole story. And of course he is of naftali now The it's looking at the New Testament. It's interesting that the he giveth beautiful words and here again naftali is the scene For Capernaum Bethsaida Chorazin and Matthew chapter 4 verses 13 through 16 Naftali is mentioned as the area that Constitutes a significant part of the ministry of our Lord Joseph is a beautiful bow Verse 22 even a beautiful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall By the way, when you run over the wall, I might point out what tribe do you think Joshua came from? Okay, Josh, yeah, it's actually from Ephraim, but that's Joseph The archers have harassed him and shot at him and hated him But his bow a bowed in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob From there is the shepherd the stone of Israel Even by the God of thy father who shall help thee and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above Blessings of the deep that lieth under and blessings of the breasts and of the womb Blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors even unto the uttermost bound of the everlasting hills They shall be upon the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren Now some quick things verses 22 through 26 are Joseph verses 22 23 and 24 are retrospective the grammatical tenses past tense It speaks of his youth beautiful bow by the well that he had enmity and hatred in his background, but he was divinely sustained Okay, incidentally, there is a an is From thence is the shepherd in verse 24. The word is shouldn't really belong there It makes more sense if you recognize that the shepherd doesn't come from him But is the one that sustains him and I might mention two other interesting things about that phrase It mentions the word shepherd and the word stone for the first time in the scripture Pointing to Jesus Christ word shepherd occurs earlier. The Egyptians considered the shepherds of abomination This is the first occasion where the word shepherd points to Jesus Christ Our Lord Jesus Christ also the word stone is also there As a first mention of the stone and in reference to Jesus Christ And if you've never taken the word stone and studied in reference to Christ, it's worth doing you can work from Matthew 16 18 backwards upon Petras that's Peter. I will build upon he says to Peter Petras upon Petron That is what you said not Peter himself, but what he said that was his testimony. That's what I'll build my church Matthew 16 you work backwards or you take Ephesians 2 21 Cornerstone the headstone of the corner that a stone which the builders rejected shall become the headstone of the corner and so forth You can study the word stone from here forward to where and every place you physically stone it points to Jesus Christ from the point Of it being the source of water and refreshment in the wilderness all the way forward Okay verses 25 to 26 is future perspective fruitfulness the two tribes that come out of Joseph The double portion that Joseph gets including the Millennium in Ezekiel 47 13 which speaks of the Millennium Joseph gets a double portion there, and I think I mentioned Joshua is from Joseph and so on Branch the whole idea of a fruitful bow and branch I think we did when in the Isaiah study We really got into this whole business of the branch the most fruitful branch is like Jesus Christ as they have for to his fruits to fill the whole earth and Isaiah 27 and so forth and You can build that whole the whole theme of the the branch Is well developed in our Isaiah studies and picks up from Joseph here moving on for the last tribe We have verse 27 Benjamin shall consume as a wolf in the morning. He shall devour the prey and at night. He shall divide the spoil Period and the rest of these I think it goes on to the history and so on Benjamin This must have been an interesting thing to come from Jacob's lips because Benjamin was the youngest Certainly his dearest in many respects and it's good and yet It's a pretty it's it's a pretty voracious thing here because the word wolf here really implies ferocity And if you study the history of the tribe of Benjamin and judges 19 2nd Samuel 2 1st Chronicles 8 and 12 2nd Chronicles 17 you discover that they have a deep long unparalleled history as archers and Slingers they are men of war very effective very fierce very Successful their heroes include a hoot as a judge and judges 3 includes King Saul in 1st Samuel 9 and 22 and they said there's a Fitching passage in 2nd Samuel 4 about the wolf who goes after the helpless sheep and so forth now it includes King Saul But it also included another Saul a Saul of Tarsus Romans 11 1 he spoke as I'm a tribe of Benjamin and so forth Interesting enough by the way what's most interesting about the Romans 11 1 passage were Paul as we know him Acknowledges that he's of the tribe of Benjamin it puts to silence Some of these radio people would like to tell you that ten tribes somehow got lost It's very tragic that their scholarship caused them to lose track as long as one of the tribes I was going to close I'm sorry I didn't put this in the notes because I meant to But the whole concept you'll have people tell you that there's ten tribes that are lost wrong in 2nd Chronicles chapter 11 verse 3 you'll discover that in the division of the kingdom when they had the Civil War The faithful that held to the old ways went south of all tribes and the unfaithful the Liberals went north And so when they got divvied up liberals in the sense of not following the Orthodox ways. I wasn't being cute I sometimes am flippant I appreciate that I guilty of my own flippancy here But in the sense that those that that were the you know the the idolatry the you know the swingers they went north However at Pentecost in the book of Acts the twelve tribes were present So they didn't get lost Okay, Jeremiah is not alive and well living in London England. It's not that Pentecost may be alive and well, but not Pentecost had twelve tribes Okay, the pestle of James the Lord the one that was written by the Lord's brother and also Peter were both addressed both addressed to whom? the twelve tribes and So this notion that they lost ten lost tribes is this is an oversimplification. It's unscriptural It's not a big deal except some people try to make it a big deal and in making it a big deal They get themselves in some of the strangest errors But you can save yourself a lot of grief by recognizing there are no Twelve tribes that are lost as far as the scriptures concerned in both the Old and New Testament. They are Identifiable certainly the book of Revelation they show up very very explicitly Okay, we've run a little right up to the last bit of the study This is intended to give you a quick survey of the twelve tribes with the notes You can take your own springboard and study the twelve tribes One last thing I would like to do before we break is to challenge you to do something else whenever you have the twelve tribes You notice that they the twelve tribes were given meanings to you when they were born each of the tribal names, right? Okay If you take these same twelve tribes here, you can take each one of them and have them point to Jesus Christ A Reuben means excellency and dignity according to the prophecy in Jacob Simeon and Levi speak The cross and the curse and the priesthood Judah the kingship zebulun the refuge or haven of rest is a car the service Dan the judge gad speaks of the resurrection. You have to go to run if that I believe Asher the bread of life Naftali the prophet that is the goodly words and Joseph the millennial reign and Benjamin the terrible warrior and it's an interesting sequence That's an interesting sequence every time you find the twelve tribes listed They're listed in a different order in the scripture Take the meaning of the words and put them in that order and see what it says to you It's an interesting challenge if you find that meaningful It's just another testimony to the evidence of design by an author who happened to use 40 penman to write 66 books But comes from a single source one of the interesting ways is the cryptic mystical way he uses the twelve tribes either in concept or by the names by the Meaning of their names. I was tempted to go through all that and make lists of all that But that would make you lazy and I wouldn't want to be like Issachar crouching down and so forth I really would like you to take that challenge yourself. It's been a lot of fun going through the book of Genesis Lord bless you