17.Dez. Gen 49, 1-10

In this passage, we hear the words of patriarch Jacob, who, before his death, calls together his dearest ones—his twelve sons—and prophesies their future to them and their descendants. This passage, given below, is supplemented by those sons skipped in the epistle (verses 3-7)

Then Jacob called his sons and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the coming days. Come and listen, you sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength, the beginning of my fruitfulness, overflowing with pride and power. You are fierce like water, but you cannot overflow your banks. You entered my father’s tent; you defiled my bed. Simeon and Levi, two brothers, their knives are instruments of violence. My soul will not enter thei; myunsel, my glory will not be united with their assembly! They killed men in anger, they wantonly mutilated oxen. Cursed be the fierceness of their anger and the cruelty of their hatred. I will divide them in Jacob, I will scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brothers will bless you: your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; you have risen from the prey, my son. He couched, he couched as a lion’s whelp, he is like a young lion, who will dare to rouse him? “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the government from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; to him the obedience of the peoples will belong. (Gen 49:1-10) He

Then, he prophesies the future for the other eight sons. Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin. With these last words, he blessed them. He blessed each one with a special blessing. This is how the Old Testament patriarch said goodbye to his sons before he was laid to rest with his ancestors. This prophecy was written in the time of Isaiah, i.e. the 8th-7th century BC. The prophecy for Judah points to the importance of his lineage, from which the Lord’s Anointed One would come. He would bring salvation to all humanity. The beginning of the Bible states: The Lord brought man into paradise, where he was to live forever. But after the grave sin of the first people – “you will be like God” – the Lord expelled man from paradise. The first hint of the Redeemer is in the words: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” (Genesis 3:15).

In today’s passage, there is another hint of the Redeemer: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and unto him shall the obedience of the nations be.” The righteous of the Old Testament bore with great sorrow the thought that they must die and wait for the Redeemer. Jacob did not want to die, for he was to be gathered with the others in the so-called Sheol. But how the righteous rejoiced when the Savior Jesus Christ Himself visited them in Sheol after His most grievous suffering, terrible death, and glorious resurrection, and announced to them His victory over sin and death, and communicated the deliverance to the souls of the righteous, that they were delivered from Sheol and paradise was open to them. They had waited for the heavenly paradise to open to them for four thousand years, and they would be free.

What about us? Do we appreciate that God calls us to live in this time, that we do not have to wait for a Redeemer? After a good, virtuous life, can we come to heavenly glory after death? Let us be grateful to the Lord God for our life, for helping us at work and in the household, for giving us children to care for, that we can raise them, that we can set them up for life, that we can help our neighbors and that we do not have to endure the suffering that our predecessors experienced during the protectorate and under totalitarian regimes. With great respect, hope, and love, let us rejoice and accept the Son of God. Let us take him into our hearts so that he may always be present in us and so that we can bring him into our workplaces, families, and nation.