Title: House of Blessing (Genesis 49:25-27)
Content No matter how stingy a person may be, he has a desire to pass down good things to his children in abundance and without cost. is.
However, the problem is that no parent can inherit everything they want, and even if they inherit a lot, they cannot guarantee the future happiness of their children.
Jacob, a man of faith, is 147 years old, sick and dying, and yet he prays for his twelve sons each blessing, teaching godly parents what to do for their children at the end of their deathbed. .
1. Fairness of Blessing Jacob had the spiritual authority not only as a physical father but also as a priest of faith, and he prayed for his twelve sons in a fair way, not from his own thoughts but from God's side.
As the saying goes that hedgehogs also love their children, no parents ever want their children to be unhappy, so it is easy to pray for the best of luck unconditionally, despite the fact that Jacob did not do that.
(Genesis 49:5) Simeon and Levi are brothers, and their swords are tools of destruction (Genesis 49:7) Cursed for their wrath is bitter; Cursed for their wrath is fierce: I will divide them among Jacob, and among Israel. We should learn from Jacob's appearance that parents need not only love for their children, but strict justice for their mistakes. It requires fairness from parents who can admit and rebuke what their children have done wrong, and praise and acknowledge what the children of other households did well as well.
2. Subject and object of blessing There is only one God who does not need blessings in the world, and human beings, regardless of whom, are not subjects of blessing that must receive blessings.
Although Jacob is praying for his sons, he prayed for blessings from the position of delivering God's things, not the subject who gave them his own.
(Genesis 49:25) It is from the God of your father, who will help you, and from the Almighty, he will bless you: Blessings from heaven above, and blessings from the fountains below, and blessings to breastfeeding, and blessings to the womb. It is easy for humans who like to disguise God's things as their own and others' things as their own. No matter how powerful human beings are, they are only messengers of God's blessings, and cannot be the makers of blessings.
3. Quantity of Blessings Although Jacob himself is finite but God is infinite, Jacob could have blessed his sons with an infinite God, but Jacob did not do so.
Jacob (Gen 49:28) blessed each of them according to their measure, as it is said, These are the twelve tribes of Israel, and thus his father spoke to them and blessed them, and blessed them according to their own measure.
The representative son is the firstborn Reuben. Although he was the eldest son and had more inheritance rights than the other sons, he did not receive many blessings compared to other brothers because he was usually unfaithful to the responsibilities and duties of the eldest son and was rather disloyal to his parents (49:3,4). .
But even though Joseph was the eleventh son, because of his faith in God, filial piety toward his father, and the practice of supreme brotherly love (Genesis 49:22), Joseph was a lush branch, a lush branch by a spring, whose branch has crossed the wall. We have been promised abundant blessings as in the Word.
As we live in the world today, it is precious to receive many blessings from God, but it is even more important to pass on those blessings to our descendants.
Humans must die like Jacob, and at that time, as parents, we also have to have spiritual authority and become mediators of blessings that are not ours, but pass on to our descendants the blessings of God who have blessed us so far.
Life in this world serves as the basis for the blessings of our descendants and the next life. Do not abuse the opportunity like Reuben, but use the opportunity like Joseph, so that you and your descendants will inherit God's blessings spiritually and physically. it should be