From Dust To Life: Creating A Lasting Legacy Series

We are coming into the final chapters of our Dust to Life series in the book of Genesis. We can see that there has been a central theme throughout the entire book. Since the fall of humankind, the world has been marred by evil and the things that flow from it—sin, sickness, death, and the brokenness we still experience today. Yet despite this reality and people’s choices, Genesis reveals God’s gracious plan to restore the things that were lost.

From the very beginning of Genesis, God has promised a way back. In Genesis 3:15, He declared that a Deliverer—the seed of the woman—would come to crush the serpent’s head and ultimately defeat the devil’s plans to destroy the human race. We see how God preserved this promised seed through a specific family line: from Adam to Noah, then through Noah’s son Shem (9:26), then Abraham (12:3), Isaac (21:12), Jacob (25:23), and now through Jacob’s son Judah (49:10).

Now in Genesis 49, Jacob is nearing his death. In chapter 48, he had already blessed Pharaoh and Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and here he is pronouncing his final words—blessings and prophetic declarations. Let’s read Genesis 49:1-12,22-28

1 Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves, so that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come. 2 “Gather together and listen, sons of Jacob; Yes, listen to Israel your father. 3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.4 “Uncontrollable as water, you shall not have preeminence, Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch. 5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers; Their swords are implements of violence. 6 “May my soul not enter into their council; May my glory not be united with their assembly; For in their anger they killed men, And in their self-will they lamed oxen. 7 “Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; And their wrath, for it is cruel.I will scatter them in Jacob, And disperse them among Israel. 8 “As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. 9“ Judah is a lion’s cub; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares to stir him up?10 “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 11 “He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 “His eyes are dull from wine, and his teeth white from milk. 22“Joseph is a fruitful branch, a fruitful branch by a spring; Its branches hang over a wall. 23 “The archers provoked him, and shot at him and were hostile toward him; 24 But his bow remained firm, and his arms were agile, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), 25 From the God of your father who helps you, And by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26 “The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors up to the furthest boundary of the everlasting hills; May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers. 27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoils.”

These are the final words of a dying patriarch—words that carry both blessing and prophetic insight into the future of his sons and the tribes that will come from them. What can we learn from the lives of this next generation? Ruben’s story makes me think about…

1. Wasted Potential (Gen 49:3–4)

Reuben, Jacob’s eldest son, should have held the place of greatest honor. The firstborn traditionally received special privileges - leadership and a double portion of the inheritance. Reuben had the position, strength, and possessed enormous potential to become the most prominent of Jacob’s sons.

Jacob was acknowledging this in his address:

You are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

As his first son, Reuben brought him great joy and he had such high hopes for him yet he was as “unstable as water.” The image is of someone unreliable and unpredictable—somewhat impulsive in his decisionmaking and lacking self-control. Reuben had abused his position when he slept with his father’s concubine, in an attempt to usurp Jacob’s authority (Gen. 35:22). He wanted something so badly he was willing to dishonor God, dishonor his father and debase himself to get it. In the process he lost everything.