Genesis 49

When Jacob believes he is about to die, he calls in his 12 sons to give them the traditional deathbed blessing. But what he has to say to them sounds like more than a blessing. How would you describe or categorize what Jacob says to his sons?

Four of Jacob’s 12 sons get in trouble because of sex problems. Reuben sleeps with his stepmother. Simeon and Levi murder the men of a village to retaliate for the village prince raping their sister, Dinah. Judah has twins with his daughter-in-law. Why so much trouble with sex? Pick an answer that you think is valid.

• They didn’t have TV or video games.
• The sex drive has always been strong—and dangerous when not controlled.
• Men treated women as an asset—another possession, like livestock. Women didn’t have the same rights as men.
• All men are jerks some of the time. Some men are jerks most of the time. A few men are jerks all of the time.

Reuben lost his privileges as the oldest son in the family. He would not get to lead the extended family after Jacob died. Reuben’s descendants settled on what is now Jordan’s side of the Jordan River. They got assimilated among the other tribes or into Arab cultures apparently without producing a single prophet, king, or heroic judge. Do you think Reuben got what he deserved?

Jacob was particularly harsh on Simeon and Levi, brothers who orchestrated the slaughter in the village of Shechem. Yet the descendants of Levi became Israel’s worship leaders. How can we justify that?

Levi’s tribe of priests and worship assistants got no tribal territory. The Levites do get to manage 48 Levitical cities scattered throughout the country. The plan was to scatter the priests around, even though the worship center and the only approved temple would end up in Jerusalem. Why do you think they set it up that way?

Judah gets the lion’s share of Jacob’s praise. In fact, Jacob says “Judah is a young lion” (49:9). Some Bible experts say they see several references to Jesus in what Jacob says to Judah. Jesus was born into the tribe of Judah. What do you see in Jacob’s blessing to Judah that you think might lead some Bible experts to see Jesus there?

New Testament writers say Jesus descended from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:3). How can we defend the fact that the father of the tribe from which Jesus descended had twins with his daughter-in-law? We can save for a later discussion the fact that Jesus also had a hooker in the family tree: Rahab, along with an adulteress: Bathsheba (Matthew 1:5, 6).

Some of Jacob’s blessings sound like prophecies. Yet some students of the Bible say they wonder if an editor, centuries later, knew a little about the history of each of the tribes and inserted some of that history into the story. What would you have to say about that?

Of all the dozen blessings Jacob gave to his sons, which one do you find especially interesting or curious?

The Genesis writer said that when Jacob finally died, he “went to be with his ancestors who died before him” (49:33). Does this sound to you like the Genesis writer had any idea that Jacob might be alive in the afterlife?

LIFE APPLICATION. Some of the things Jacob said to his sons from his deathbed are things some would say he should have said to them privately many years earlier. Why do you think we sometimes keep painful feelings inside of us, festering, growing, and hurting all the more, before we eventually unleash those hard feelings at a most inopportune and unhelpful time? Such as at a family gathering on a holiday, or while testifying in court, or on a Sunday school class retreat?

LIFE APPLICATION. Some people have thought about what they want to say to their loved ones before they die. Some have written letters that they keep in a safe place. Some have even recorded videos. If you had to call in your family and say goodbye, what is something you think you might say to one of them? And if someone called you to say goodbye to you, what would you want to hear them say?